pinholecam

Melbourne a rail trail and some riding around

Some more travelling and of course some updates to the bike.


IMGP3792 by pinholecam02, on Flickr


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Since I brought my daughter with me this time, it would be an easy rail trail and easy riding around the city.

The day on the Liliydale to Warburton Rail Trail was really bad with rain the whole day.
So bad that the roads into town was closed for a day and the Yarra River we rode along the way was almost spilling its banks.
Thankfully, the weather back was beautiful

Reddleman

Nice photos - I’ve been tempted to plan a short trip across the ditch to Victoria and to bring the bikes with us - any particular recommendations for rail trails etc easily reached by public transport out of Melbourne?

pinholecam

Thanks.
The Liliydale to Warburton Rail Trail was the one I did and it was a very nice one.
Easy to do (38km each way) and has places to stop for a drink or meal along the way.
I did not have a chance to explore any other rail trail but did ride a few of the city cycling routes.

The bikes can be brought up the train so no issues with transportation.

Hmm.. I just checked where you are located " Aotearoa", and I think you can just cycle in NZ which I think is nicer. (Alps to Ocean Trail - South Island )

Reddleman

The rail trails and other Great Rides here can be quite epic it’s true, but sadly getting to many of them by public transport or bike paths is difficult or impossible from here in Auckland. For example the Hauraki Rail Trail network isn’t that far from Auckland, but requires riding along some quite busy rural roads for some time to reach it from the nearest suburban railway station. Other cities have better access now to their nearby trails e.g. Wellington, Napier, Hamilton, or Christchurch, but most of those are a flight away and in which case looking overseas starts getting tempting for a longer holiday and besides I haven’t left the country for over three years now!

The big long distance rides on the South Island are definitely worth a visit, but when we lived down that way we didn’t have folding bikes or the means to transport our full sized bikes, so we didn’t get much of a chance to ride them then. Closer to home, a lot of the rides in the centre of the North Island are more aimed at the bikepackers on multi day trips or eMTB day trippers - not that it stopped us taking a Tern and a Dahon up the Old Coach Road, after all a 20” folding bike is just a BMX with gears, right?

pinholecam

More cycling and more photos.

Brought the bike along for a short trip to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
It was a family trip, but the Change Bike made it easy to fold it up and stuff it into the car.
Since it was not cycle heavy, I could have used a smaller bike, bike, but I know the mountings of this bike far better, so no mess ups that bags don't mount or chafe/rub.

It also included going from town to town and the fold made it easy to find a ride hailing transport.
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Ron Damon

Where is that? KL is inland. I am in Penang myself at the moment, btw.

pinholecam

Went KL, Port Dickson, Putrajaya.

Putrajaya is nice for bike rides, well laid out and not many cars. Even got nicely planned bike lanes for those who want to ride them.

pinholecam

Vietnam for a week (Hoi An, Da Nang )

Short 1 week trip to Vietnam where I have never been to before.
Really glad I got out of my comfort zone to do this ride which included the Hai Van Pass (more later on this )


I had originally wanted to size down the bike box as it was on the large side.
But due to my personal schedule prior to the trip, I had no time to dismantle the box (which I made a bad call to hot melt glue together which made it non collapsible )
The box being one layer corrugated plastic board was too flimsy on the wide sides, so I reinforced them as an alternate layering (which makes it much stronger) .
The box held up really nicely this time for the trip there and back.
Size wise, no issues getting up the local train here in Singapore (so I save quite a bit on the taxi fare to the airport )
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Taxi / Uber / Grab was a breeze. No issues to go into the boot if its a larger car or just go to the back seats if the car is smaller.
Again...really much less stress that the ride hail in a foreign place can't pick me up when I need it (to take that last min flight back to the airport for example )

I've refined the dismantling and assembly of the bike for travelling, so its now rather fast.
45mins to do it.
Steps :
1. Take out the wheels and deflate
2. Take out the Rear D
3. Secure the chain and rear D
4. Remove seat post and handlebar
5. Fold bike
6. Tape on some foam in strategic areas
7. But into box

All of this is done with 2 Allen Keys.

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Ron Damon

I was in Hanoi & Saigon earlier this month. Visited Hoi An in 2014 and did a bit of cycling in its local environs. The big cities are absolute chaos, perhaps the most chaotic I've experienced along with Lahore, Pakistan. Would I do a long distance tour there? Probably not. I've grown soft and would opt for Taiwan and the ROK first. What I do want to do is to ride around Siem Reap in Cambodia and visit Angkor Wat again. If you've never been, that needs to go to the top of SEAsia, if not world travel.


Tip: you want a respite from the usual, year-round heat and humidity of the Tropics, go to Hanoi in December, January. Delightful cool, dry weather.

Reddleman

+1 for Siam Reap and Angkor Wat by bike - after spending a couple of days being guided around, we borrowed a couple of three speed step through roadsters from our hotel and had a great time cycling about the archaeological site for several more days when we were there several years ago.

Jipe

Nice travel.

But that's really a big box !

And as always when traveling with a folding bike in a rigid (big) box, what to do with the box after the flight while traveling by bike, difficult to find a place to store it?

pinholecam

Yes, a bit big with too much extra allowance catered in.
I do use the empty space to pack in bulky items like helmet, clothes, tripod, and goodies (on the return trip )
Next box, I will try to make a more compact one, but I have some reservations regarding any practical advantage it will give me other than looking smaller. (which is why I am in no rush to do it)

For bike storage during the trip, what has worked so far is that I use AirBnB and ask ahead for the place I stay if I can store the box for a few days while I am away and will return to stay for a few days more before my flight home.
In fact, seems like many backpacker accommodations usually can cater for it too.

pinholecam

Cycling the Hai Van Pass.

This is a trip from Da Nang to the old capital of Hue.
Roughly its 125km going through the Hai Van Pass which is 500m in elevation, hugging the coast.
Too bad weather was not good and it rained for most of the day.

The change out from my local ride 44t chainring to a 38t one proved useful as it made easy work of going up the pass and saving the legs for the long ride to Hue which the headwinds kept blowing for the whole day. (colder Northern front from China pushing down to the warmer South )
I was also really happy with the grip the Schwalbe Big Ben 50mm tires provided in the wet.
Running them at about 40psi, also gave lots of confidence about hitting bumps and potholes on the descents.
The Change Bike handled really stable on the fast sections of the descents, which were often very long sections.
TRP Spyke cable brakes handled well too, always working reliably to slow down when I needed to.


Here's a video of the ride. (4mins)

BikeLite

Nice video. What cam do you like? What poncho (maybe 3FUL) and how do you like it for biking?

pinholecam

Thanks. Glad you liked the video.

I used an Insta360 OneX (360 camera) and Insta360 OneRS 4K module.

I used a cheap rain cape and never looked back.
Switched to a better AGU poncho which is not expensive and works really well.
https://agu.com/en/grant-rain-poncho...riant=Bordeaux

To me, the rain jackets are really for the fast types who still want to think about aero and riding fast.
The rain cape gives better ventilation, while still acting as a wind barrier to keep out the cold.
In the warm tropics where I am, the ventilation is really welcome (and imho superior to using a jacket )
If the bike has fenders, only the feet get wet and no fussing over putting on rain trousers. (and taking them off when rain gets smaller and it gets too warm )
Since I am at touring speed, I don't really find that it hinders with the riding speed.

BikeLite

Youtuber Phil Jones from UK rode the 2022 Tour Divide with an insta360 Go 2..lol..his video is not as clear as yours though.

Bobfo

First, thanks for the folding gravel bike pic in this post, and I'd love to see more of it folded. (For those looking also, it's about 2/3 down in this thread).
After all, the whole reason to build a gravel bike around a folding frame is to fold it when needed, right?

I have several questions about the folding aspect:
- How often do you find yourself folding it
- When you do so, what benefits are you getting from it?
-When folded, is the drop bar sticking out (unlike folded flat-bar Changebikes) any obstacle?

Thanks,
Bob

Bobfo

I think I replied to pinholecam's folding gravel bike post . . . at least that was the intent. I'm a bikeforums newbie...

pinholecam

A7308877 by pinholecam02, on Flickr

Upgraded the bike with a suspension stem and a new smaller cardboard box for this trip!
More real world user impressions to come!

pinholecam

Sorry, missed your post till now.

Really good questions :
- How often do you find yourself folding it
>> I like in a small apartment, so I fold it every time I store it in the apartment.
I of course will fold it for travels, then it stays unpacked unless it needs to get into transport that does not allow a full bike on board.

- When you do so, what benefits are you getting from it?
>> Size (about half the length) and accessibility (since some places/transportation don't allow a full sized bike )


-When folded, is the drop bar sticking out (unlike folded flat-bar Changebikes) any obstacle?
>> Yes, a drop bar will stick out as opposed to a flat bar. That said, pushing when folded is still possible.
Alternatively, you can look for a stem that quick releases for turning the stem. (FlatBike in the US sells one ... I find that its ugly though... )
Option2, unscrew the stem a bit to rotate.

pinholecam

I was pretty prepared to have wasted my money on a dubious Aliexpress contraption.
"If its good, more people will have reviewed and Youtubed about it right?" was my argument

Well, it turns out that cheap stuff can't pay for GCN AD-ducation videos.
This stem turn out to be quite the game changer.
It comes with 4 springs for various suspension compliance and swaps out easily with an allen key (from the top).
I choose the default spring, but then changed to the softest one for my preference.




Ride wise, it provides something like 20-30mm of travel and makes that difference when hitting bumps and holes.
All this helps to keep the bike planted on the trails or rough roads.
Together with the Suntour NCX seatpost, its really be most budget gravel upgrade that works.

biosync

Looks awesome! I plan on getting one of those eesilk for my change 700c. I just updated it as well to dropbars.

pinholecam

I did a recent trail ride with one rider using the eesilk, looks really well made and that adjustment knob is pretty sweet.

biosync

Yeah, I just wish they weren't that expensive. The RedShift shockstop is also nice but they don't have that compliance switch

prozacist

I like the design of Changebike.