Havent We had Some Rain?

5 days of amazing rainfall.
I keep waiting for the city folk to proclaim the drought is over.
Newcastle copped it hard with the floods.

Something I wanna get off my chest about home interest rates...

It isnt interest rates going up that is to blame for people losing their homes.
If you can't afford a .5% interest rate rise YOU BORROWED TOO MUCH MONEY. Simple as that. If you are put under stress by that piddly amount rise you have a house you couldnt afford when you bought it

more sex, more drugs more rockn roll

Ive got my new hand 10 speed bike going now. I finally found an adaptor for the stupid high pressure valve the back tyre tube was equipped with. I had those on my Peugeot and hated them even then.

So I have the tyres inflated, Ive cleaned it reasonably well. It has been oiled and WD40’d until anything that was binding or tight is now spinning or moving freely.
It goes like stink. It accelerates faster than any other bike Ive ever ridden. Im not really in my fittest bicycle riding shape. It has a funny oversteery wiggle on cornering.
I think that is from the both the very narrow tyres and from big fat bloke sitting on it with his arse near the rear tyre.

It is a smaller frame size than my old Repco 10 speed. Weighs about half, has taller gearing and steers like a razor. You can feel it twitch when your muscles twitch. I cannot believe how responsive it is to steer.

I had an interesting experience with the whole gyroscopic effect thingie today.
I was oiling the axle and bearings on the rear wheel of my sisters’ old bike by the simple expedient of holding the wheel by one lug, spinning it, then squirting WD40 into the shaft. Then I started to turn the wheel somewhat. Instant gyro effect. What a weird feeling wiggling and trying to bend and turn a spinning road wheel. It made me more aware of what goes on at the wheels of both my bikes and my car. The sort of things frames and chassis tend to mask. Well, they are designed to defeat these effects.

What an interesting experience to ride my fast bloody nimble 10speed road racing bike this morning, then my KHS XC mountain bike this afternoon. They feel TOTALLY different.

sex, bikes and rockand/or roll

I bought another bike today. An ultra light framed road racing bike. It�s about 10 years old, maybe a bit more. It has alloy cranks, bars, rims and good shimano accessories. Paid $35 for it. I�ve been cleaning up an old Repco 10 speeder we have had hanging around for about � god seems like 20 years heh. I think my sister might have bought it way back or dad bought it for her or something. Dunno, but I was riding it a bit up in Bathurst n hated it roundly. I spent about a week with the ole WD40, and now it rides along rather nicely. But it is still an old dunger basically. I put new tyres n tubes in it n cleaned it pretty thoroughly. But the bike I bought today is more like what I�ve been looking for as a road bike. It weighs about half that of the old Repco. It appears to be a hand made one off racing bike. It needs some work, WD40 time again heh, some cleaning n mebbe a new rear tube. Nothing much really.

Next on the list is my sisters� old Macquarie G3 ladies� bike. It is in pretty rough condition, having been left out in the weather for years and years. We are gonna sell the Dunlop MTB, the Repco and the Macquarie. The main thing is theyre all giving me something to do.

The gurl had another seizure on Wednesday. Spent 6 hours in hospital. We were out at the optometrists� having my new glasses adjusted. Least I saw this one coming. I go in on Friday to have what seems like a million teeth extracted. The dentist thinks I will end up with a dental plate to fill in the gaps. I am not looking forward to it. I am not looking forward to continued excruciating pain from my stupid teeth. Dilemma. I supposed a once off bout is much better than this continued cycle of pain/codeine/pain/codeine. I hate the feeling I get when the codeine wears off. I don�t mean the return of the tooth pain � I mean the woolly overhung feeling. I�ve been addicted to codeine once before in my life (post golf ball to the head in 1989). It took me a long time to get off the stuff. Mind you I needed it badly at the time. I just try to avoid codeine whenever possible nowadays.

We transferred the seats from mums� old Peugeot 505GTI to my 505SLi. Mums� car had only done 300,000 klicks so the seats were barely worn. Mine has done well over 700,000 and theyre well shagged. Still pretty comfy, but they are about done in. It is laughable however � mum n dad have a brand new Mitsubishi 380. My old seats are better than the seats in their new car. As for the �new� seats I have well the 380 hasn�t a hope. It is luxury now as well as holding us in place better than before. We also changed the rear shocks from the GTI into my car. The GTI had Konis in the rear courtesy of my van towing brother in law. My car, it turns out, had KYB shocks in the rear. Now the ole KYB is a pretty good shock � we have them in the front of the Ford Falcon wagon work horse. They improved the Ford no end. In my Peugeot however, they were FAR too hard. They made the car feel unbalanced and the rear end simply disconnected. Now it feels much as M. Peugeot made it � supple and compliant while still providing all the grip and control the car had when new (they were bloody brilliant when new). The gurl couldn�t believe the difference. Mind, she WAS raised a bloody Holden lover. Not her fault � it is how she was brought up. I think the old pug is about perfect now. I shall get the AC re-gassed and everything will be sweet. I even bought a Kenwood 10 stacker to replace the Sony 10 stacker which has somehow turned into ano stacker � yep we lost the magazine somewhere for the Cds. Buggered if I know where. Anyhoo it only cost $20 so who cares if it doesn�t work rightly.

I also bought the gurls� niece a totally cool little scooter today. It has twin hand brakes, a stand, and is groovy purple. I got it for her cuz she seems to think Im ok(she doesnt seem to like her uncles much). She be my fave from the gurls� nieces n nephews. So bugger it she can have a little scooter. Noone else buys her anything.