Saturday, March 20, 2010

Yarra Boulevard

This afternoon Linc introduced me to cycling Yarra Boulevard. It's a quiet, scenic, twisty stretch of road that follows the Yarra River past such sights as:

  • The Bats; and








(bats by Elizabeth Donoghue)


  • The Kew Asylum








When you stop and consider it both are actually quite odd to see 10minutes from the middle of such a large city.
Edit: Isabelle wisely pointed out that Kew used to be quite a way out of the city. However, the fact that it is still there and not a reception centre or luxury housing estate is surprising. The bats are even better as they only moved there a few years ago. Melbourne is a flourishing hive of bats and nutters.

The crescent performed as expected for a bike that has been assembled by an absolute amateur. I managed to start the ride confident I would have access to all 10 gears. Three minutes later I was confident that I had learned my lesson and wouldn't drop the chain again. Two minutes after that I was confident that I could ride with an unsecured seat stabbing me in the thigh. During the next downhill I noticed that my left crank was loose. As I'm 90% certain I don't have the correct tool for that bolt I was left wondering just how long it had been loose. Oh, after that I pulled the front derailleur cable from its screw. In summary I was left with 4 or so gears, a fear of pedalling vigorously, a bruised thigh and a wonderfully feathered gear cable.

However, the bike actually felt terrific. When the cranks were connected it was smooth, I felt safe on the descents (the brakes have improved since last year's post) and, as Linc pointed out, the simple fact that I remembered the circumstances in which I bought it made me enjoy pedalling.


7 comments:

  1. I like it how the blogs are connected with the buzz thing, because I like reading your blogs, but I never ever remember to check them.

    Sounds like fun, both the riding and the dealing with/fixing your bike on the road. I wish I could be there to take part.

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  2. the fixing isn't as fun as it sounds. I'm starting to get frustrated as I just want to be pedalling it around.

    The Melbourne cycling community (ben, roh and I) miss your hungover skills.

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  3. Just bumped into your blog a while back. I was attracted to it because I own a Cresent bike that is a near twin to yours. Mine never needed restoration as it has been in constant use since it was born in 1966.

    I miss a follow up. Is the bike in top mechanical by this time? Have you been riding it much?

    Take care of it: it is a fine machine. I ride mine as my usual bike, on an everyday basis, commuting to work, and all year round. I had it out today for over an hour, in our winter temperature of -18C and with 45 cm of snow. Such is the Finnish winter. The Cresent is a good winter bike, tough, sturdy, and it slices through the snow and ice on roads like a knife.

    This model of Cresents are known here by the name of "Oranginen peto": "The Orange Beast". A formidable bike in it's time. The Swedish team won silver in the '68 Olympics time trails event on these bikes.

    A teen-age kid tried to steal it once. I ran after him yelling and he tried to shift it into a higher gear and made the chain jump off the gears! He had apparently never confronted a friction shifter down on the frame before. It's age saved it in that case.

    Please, let me know how things are going down there in the Southern summer. I, for the record, am an American ex-pat who has lived in Finland for 40 years.

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  4. Thanks for the comment.

    I have to admit that I am currently a very long way from the bike. I have moved to Sweden and it remains in Australia, I decided one round-the-world trip was enough for this orange beast. Now, having never ridden on snow or ice and struggling to even walk safely here I'm glad I made the decision to not bring it along. I couldn't stand to see the cranks or derailleur I spent so long polishing sliding along the asphalt due to my ineptitude.

    It didn't get ridden an awful lot after this post purely because I spent my weekends mountain biking. I knew I was moving far away from year-round mountain biking and had gathered a few committed friends for regular riding so road rides just weren't a priority. That said, I did fix the issues outlined in this post, so whenever I took it around the block for a cruise it was smooth and not too unsafe.

    I know what you mean about the kid battling to ride off with the friction shifters. However, I am ready to embrace them as my mountain bike with its 'perfect 1:1' ratio causes no end of trouble jumping from one gear to another after vigorous riding.

    I must say that I've seen a surprising few since my arrival here in late August. Perhaps I missed the prime summer time for cycling old racing bikes, or maybe as time progresses they actually do die out. I'm doubtful of that, so I shall be paying close attention as Spring rolls around.

    I was amazed to work out that the brakes were (at least close to) original on my bike after all that time. What's survived the years on yours? Do you have any photos of it?

    Whilst lately I haven't spent any time riding it, or cleaning its aluminium parts with a toothbrush, I have no doubt for many reasons it will remain my favourite bike.

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  5. Moved to Sweden???

    We are next door neighbors compared to before! I am setting just over on the other side of the Baltic in the city of Vaasa. Are you in Mjölby again, the place where you bought the Crescent? Are you studying or working or...

    As for old racing bikes on the streets: I have never seen one around here. A few people do collect them and there are Finnish web sites on the subject, but the number of people is very small and I don't think most would ride them on a regular basis, as I do my Crescent.

    I don't have a good photo of the "Kressu" (Finnish nick name fo the type). My wife is the photographer around here. I should take pictures of all my bikes. Besides the Orange Crescent I have a very big and heavy Crescent women's bike made in 1943, another heavy Crescent men's bike made in 1958 (under restoration at the moment) and a Peogeot racing/road bike (an on-gonig project) made in 1988. But he queen of the stable is the German Torpedo touring bike made in 1936. It belonged to my wife's father who got new in that year as a birthday present when he was 16. There IS a photo of that machine at

    http://ultraart.wordpress.com/

    This the site of a publisher and the first item there is the cover of a novel my wife has published this last fall. The Title "Torpeedo" is the Finnish transliteration of the name. The bike in that photo is stripped down the way I ride it in the summers in town, without the heavy fenders and baggage rack. I stripe it down because it weighs **24 kilos** fully equiped. Notice the VERY relaxed geometry and it's length: 210 cms. It has a coaster brake (high-tech then) and two gears. But no gear shifter of any kind. You have to stop, loosen up the back wheel and manually move the chain to the other gear. You can get fast at this if you do it a few times.

    All this writing and attention to the Crescent seems to have had some kind of magic effect: yesterday when I returned from a 20 km ride on it, it was setting in our hallway and suddenly the front inner tube blew, and with a bang. Scared too hell out of my wife! Only the second time in my life I have seen that happen.

    Yes: inner tubes... We may have diffent attitudes toward old bikes. I shoot for roadworthiness, not strict authenticity. My Crescent has a set of high end Shimano components on it from the late 70's. Everything works perfectly, like new. The combination is more reliable than the original set, which are stored away safely if some mis-guided museum curator someday wants it.

    Call me Leo

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  6. I just purchased a Crescent racer which I believe is from around 1970-75. I cannot find too much information on the model,it has simplex one piece crank,racer brake calipers,allvit gears with 5 on back and 2 up front. The only info I could get on it is that it looks like a pepita. The stamped # on the bottom bracket is 4504691. Is there anywhere you know of that could give more details on this bike? It is in good condition for the age and I am contemplating doing a full restore. Any help would be more than welcome. Thanks Christopher.

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  7. Hi Christopher,

    Sorry but I can't really help too much. I have no idea about the different models.

    Have you looked here: http://www.cykelhobby.com/92320ident.htm and the rest of that website? If you don't speak Swedish you can run it through Google Translate. That would be my advice.
    /David

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