Save money on train or parking tickets they said.

BAH!

Rubbish.

While some people have been complaining about the long string of hot days, I’ve been taking advantage of it, by getting in a serious amount of commuting kilometers. So many in fact, that it appears that my poor Surly has spat the dummy.

A little bit of research into this problem suggests that what I’m experiencing here is not uncommon for owners of early model SRAM road parts. Unfortunately, the groupset on my Surly is well past the warranty period, so it looks like I’m up for a new shifter.

For ultimate beardo credits, I’m thinking of changing the bike over to bar end shifters (and because it’s cheaper). While it might seem like a backward step technology-wise, it seems that all of the cool kids serious bike nerds are doing it on the basis of superior reliability.

Hmmm… choices…

It’s been a pretty tough couple of weeks, with a pretty significant ramp up in training volume and intensity for the Roller Coaster Run. Taking it easy this week though, with just a couple of relatively easy runs and the usual riding to work, just to keep the legs moving.

It’s been nice to be able to slow down and just enjoy my rides to work without that feeling of heavy legs, but I have to admit, I’m getting keen to do some harder runs in the coming weeks.

Hoping to run a really decent time on this event… at least for someone who doesn’t run much and has never actually done a half before.

I considered a number of the bigger, more popular events like Run For the Kids and Run Melbourne, but none of them really grabbed me. Sure I’m nowhere near the pointy end of the field over those distances, but pavement pounding can only hold my attention for so long.

There was however, one event which continued to catch my eye – the Roller Coast Run. Now this is an event which I was actually keen on last year, but it was scheduled for the weekend before Puffing Billy. Being a running newbie at the time, the idea of two weekends of big runs wasn’t all that appealing so I had to let it go.

(Of course it wasn’t the thought of running 21km up and down the Dandenongs that worried me… *cough* *cough*)

However, this year, it appears that the RCR has been brought forwards to March.

Hurrah!

So I’m now signed up for my first ever half marathon event. A tough one at that.

Time to crank out some serious long slows and hill repeats.

Aw, what a cute matching couple they make.

So I’ve just come back from two days of mountain biking up at Mount Buller. It’s been a few years since I’ve managed to get up there and I have to say that I was blown away by what has been done up there. Admittedly, I’ve progressed quite a lot as a rider since my first visit and I now have a bike that’s a bit more suited to the terrain, so it’s not surprising that I enjoyed my trails far more than last time.

While I’m generally one who prefers to pedal up big hills rather than smash back down them at warp speed, it really was the down trails that were the highlight of the weekend. Copperhead provided enough of a technical challenge with just enough pedalling to keep things honest. The Delatite River Trail on the other hand had hardly any technical riding, but the sheer steepness and length of the trail made this an absolute hoot.

I’m already trying to figure out if I can get back up there once more this season.

I really do enjoy riding to work at this time of year. Sure, I’d rather be out riding somewhere interesting and not doing the usual grind to the office, but the weather is mild, the roads are quiet and the changerooms at the office aren’t busy.

What’s to complain about?

Add to that, the fact that both motorists and PT users aren’t having the best experiences at the moment, I suppose it’s a bit of a no brainer to ride.

If only it could be like this all year…

So there I was, waiting at the lights on my recent ride home. As I mentioned earlier, I’d been off the bike for a little while due to illness and was only just getting my lungs back. One of the other regular commuters pulls up next to me and we exchange the usual pleasantries about the weather, then he asks me where I’ve been and if I’m okay, because he hasn’t seen me riding lately. I gave him my story about being sick, the lights changed and we moved on.

It struck me later about how strange this interaction was, especially when compared to pretty much every other form of transport. Like every other form of transport, here’s a guy who I see pretty much every day on the trip to/from work. We go about our business. We don’t know each others names. We hardly know anything about each other, aside from the fact that we ride bikes. Yet he took a moment to ask about my well being. I can’t say that I’ve ever had that happen in my years of commuting by bus, train or car.

Gives you a bit of that warm fuzzy feeling doesn’t it?

I left work early, feeling a bit unwell. This feeling of unwell progressed into what would be a solid week of feeling downright terrible, four days out of the office and a couple of weeks of annoying coughing. Of course, Korea caught this off me late in the first week and is only now getting better.

You’d think that with all of that time at home, I’d have plenty of time to catch up on non-strenuous tasks like writing posts here and getting to work on the Jecklin Float refurb.

Instead, I found myself totally wiped out and lying on the couch watching old sci-fi shows.

A thoroughly unproductive week, which I’m happy to be past.

While I shun the tag of “audiophile” (and would never pay stupid sums of money for a mystical power cable), I definitely have an understanding of what I like and don’t like in my listening. And, if there’s one sound reproduction technology that’s always intrigued me, but I’ve never been able to afford, it’s that of the electrostatic speaker.

So when a set of bargain set of Jecklin Float Model II headphones came up for sale a little while ago, I jumped at the opportunity.

Okay, they’re not the most stylish headphones out there.

But I think they only look marginally less stupid than the average set of Beats by Dre.

First thing that I should point out is that they’re not really a set of headphones. I think that these could be best described as a set of wearable personal monitors, because really, they offer absolutely no isolation. This is due to the fact that unlike your usual headphones, these actually sit on top of your head with a bit of foam on either side for “stability”. I say “stability” because in reality if you’re not sitting upright, they’re actually almost guaranteed to fall off your head.

So with all of those limitations, what’s the point? It’s all about the sound. Electrostatic speakers apparently offer excellent sound reproduction and being a headphone style device, avoids that tricky stuff about placement of the speakers.

Plus, I just can’t get over the ridiculousness of the styling.

Of course, they were a bargain for a reason, which is probably pretty apparent from that first photo. They’re in need of a bit of work. Most of the foam on the headband has either gone hard or is falling apart. Additionally, the cloth/foam on the speaker grills is all but gone. On that note, the speakers themselves have come loose. Thankfully I have tested them and they do actually work.

So I’m going to put a bit of work into getting them cleaned up.

Hopefully they still work nicely after I’m done.