Hercules Balmoral

Picked up the new roadster today and once I got it home gave it a quick wash and took a few photos.

The plan is to do a functional restoration, strip it down clean, re-grease, polish and de rust (gently), but to leave the bike with it's patina. There's a few odd looking screws and bolts here and there, which I will replace with something more suitable, the big problem will be the brake pads for the Westwood rims and perhaps finding some suitable tyres.

While the saddle is salvageable, (it has an aluminium frame!) I'm planning to get a Brooks B67 and will look at recovering it later. The gear selector seems a bit limp, though there is no tension in the cable so I will be fiddling with that. The 3 speed hub is stamped with the Hercules Brand, though I think it's nearly identical to the Sturmey Archer ones

Interestingly, with the exception of the Headlamp and the dynamo, everything else is badged Hercules. Even the rear reflector!

I'm yet to actually finalise it's age. Unlike the comparable Raleighs, there's very little information about Hercules production runs available so I'm hoping there's someone out there who can give me some idea.

Recovering Nicely

Since last I posted I've covered about 420kms and find the foot is responding well. As is the rest of me. A couple of friends are training for Fitz's Classic, and while I won't be joining them on the day it has been good to tag along on their training rides, or parts of them. On Monday, we rode up Mt Kembla, which was a first for me. It's quite steep in sections and has a long slog along Henry Graham Dr to connect with Mt Keira.

It was a glorious morning and we saw the sunrise, plenty of wildlife and at one point went through cloudbase. After the ride I pottered around and finally got the Frank Paino ready for the road, (Well I cleaned it, tuned the drivetrain and packed some bearings and replaced the rear tyre) and took it out for a shakedown cruise yesterday. I say cruise, but it's such a fast bike! I've not owned a proper racing bike before and after riding one yesterday I can only wonder why.

During the shakedown I stopped at a set of lights with a guy on a tricked our carbon Giant with Di2 and deep rim wheels. He gave me a look and then double takes, "Wow, a Paino, great bikes. Used to hang out at the shop..." Seems a common story. 

Fast, responsive, stiff, yet supple. The thing accelerates like a rocket and I had no problems cruising along the flat at 33kph with little effort. We rode up to Sandon Point and back, stopping occasionally to adjust saddle height or derailleur and I had a maniac grin from the utter pleasure of it.

 I'm yet to replace the bar tape, and I need to find some affordable Campy lever hoods. NOS ones are pretty expensive - around $90, however, Compass Bike have generic hoods for $23 - so they may serve well. will also need  new brake pads as the existing Campy pads are pretty hard and lack grip on the rims. Otherwise, some new cables and housing, and a new cluster and chain are on the list, the existing is worn and was skipping a bit. Will look at some Look pedals as budget allows. Once it's sorted, I'd be interested to try some shorter brevets on it, while the 53, 44 chainring is huge, it climbs really well

In other bike news, I've finally found and purchased a lever brake Roadster. The subject bike is a Hercules Balmoral, complete with oil filled chain case, 3 speed hub and dynamo lights. I will collect it tomorrow but the auction photo made it look like this;

Obviously it will need a bit of work, though it is straight and complete, saddle excepted. I plan to use this bike as my town bike to get from my office to meetings in the other building, about 1km up the road. In the past I have been using the stealth road bike, but it was too large and I was getting tired of chain lube on my suits. Clearly I'll also be lining up for Tweed Rides.


So to today. I threw a long leg and headed further from home than I have been since the operation - not too far - just to Jamberoo, over Mt Terry and back along swamp road to Shellharbour thence to Wollongong. I nice, long, steady, ride of 103km, averaging a shade under 25kph. It felt good and was a lovely day for cycling. Plenty of people out too.

I'm planning to do another 100 on Sunday as part of the Audax Robbo Weekend. The route is from Robertson on the edge of the escapment to Fitzroy Falls, Berrima and back through Bowral and Kangaloon to Robbo. Should be fun.

100km

I hit the road for a longish ride yesterday, with hopes of maintaining my average of a 100km or longer ride each month for the calender year. I was running short of days in September so it was now or never. With my Surgeons warning ringing in my ears I decided it would be best to not venture too far away from home so did a few laps up and down the coast traveling as far north as Austinmer and as far south as Hill 60 at Port Kembla. This kept me at most 20kms from home and close to the train if things went bad. Happily the ride went pretty well, the foot felt fine. No pain and no numbness. I'd like to say that the rest of me felt the same way, but I was pretty tired when I finished, mostly because I hadn't fueled up properly. After climbing Hill 60 at 46kms I really wished I'd packed a banana or two, and it wasn't till about 90kms that I finally stopped at North Beach and scoffed a bacon and egg and hashbrown roll and felt much better for it. Once home and off the bike I realised that it was quite windy and the gusty SW wind was especilly awkward on my chosen route - there's nowhere to hide on the coast - so this made the ride more difficult than it would normally be. I even managed to get swooped by a Magpie (12 times - same magpie out and back), and there I was thinking I had missed all the fun. This morning I backed up for a short 18km loop, just to make sure everything was still in working order and to stretch out my tightening legs. Again, early conditions were quite gusty, however I felt good on the bike, some contact point soreness but nothing to complain about. As a plus, I'm finding that I'm climbing much better these days. In fact I managed to beat my best time up Hill 60 on Saturday, which isn't bad for someone who hadn't ridden much in 6 weeks. I plan to ride pretty steadily again from now and start the new audax season ready for some 200s and in the new year tackle a super series or two and aim for the Sydney Melbourne 1200 in October/November. Mileage in Kms = 3775

First ride back

What with this glorious spring weather, I decided I was feeling good enough to ignore the Doctor and go out on the bike. While it was terrific to be out in the sunshine and covering some kilometers the foot was telling me that he's not yet completely fixed so a slow and steady ride was the order of the day. Made about 33km which was just about right for the first ride back after a 6 week break.

Stitches Out

The stitches in my foot came out to day, but it's 4-8 weeks before I can do any serious cycling. My Doctor said it's OK to ride on a trainer though and can start that in a few days once the swelling has gone down a bit more and I can get into my cycling shoes. It's a bit disappointing, but I guess them's the breaks.

It is done!

Gentle reader, as I sit back in my hammock contemplating my heavily bandaged and Darco shoed foot, I can tell you that the offending neuroma has been excised and I am well on the road to recovery.

The stitches come out in a couple of weeks, so I'm off the bike for the duration, and off work and quite bored with it all by now. Nevertheless I'm happy with how things have gone.

Even with the foot, I've been enjoying my cycling over the winter. Feeling quite fit and managing to get some pace back into the legs and lungs, and planning my audax campaign for the next 18 months which will hopefully include a super series, a year round and a dirt series plus a 1200 if all goes well.

Today was something of a red letter day as I became the proud owner of a classic 1980s Frank Paino racing bike. It comes dripping with Campagnolo and Cinnelli though needs a bit of a tidy up and likely new wheels, but I am very pleased with it. The frame is a thing of beauty, so tight and stiff,  and just my size.





I've never owned a "proper" racing bike before, mine have always been sports models, so this thing is quite something else altogether, even if it's 30 years old. Can't wait to ride it! But wait I must.

Mileage in kilometers = 3673

Royal Ride, or how to test your foot

Joined in the fun of the annual Royal ride from Dapto, to Bundeena on the shores of port Hacking. It had been a couple of months since my last 200 and I was keen to check out how the cortisone injection would stand up.

It was a glorious day, as a meagre two (Me and Kevin) set off from Dapto Station for a loop of Lake Illawarra before heading through the Northern Suburbs, up to Bald Hill and then through the Royal National Park to Bundeena before looping back up via the excruciatingly steep Audley Rd Climb, along the Princes Hwy and Back down into the Park to retrace our route south.

As days on the bike go, this was a beauty, only a persistent headwind frustrating our endeavours. The first 100kms passed without incident in about 4 hours (not bad considering the climbing) though the second Hundred was a bit more challenging, coming back up from Bundeena and then traversing the park to the highway, was pretty hard going. It was about then thaat my foot started to give little twinges of pain. Not too bad in comparison to past issues, but there all the same.

By the time we were back down into the park via waterfall, I was beginning to feel it more and more. I dropped back, started riding more conservatively but by the time I was over Bald Hill and beelining to Dapto, it seemed pretty clear that the injection had not resolved the problem.

Luckily I'm going back to the ortho in a couple of weeks and will discuss the "chop".

Despite the foot problems, it was a glorious day for riding and a hard day out. 200kms, 2200m of climbing and my new much lighter body (I've lost 10kgs in the last 3 months) seemed to be working pretty well.

In other news, I'm about to embark on a lugged steel frame build project, which takes me back to the very early days of this blog and my reinterest in riding.

I never said I was fast.

Mileage in Km 3038