Day 5: Miriam Vale "rest day"
Since it was a rest day I stayed in bed until after 7am (hot and hungry). The hammock is great but temperature regulation is not the best - it's not really big enough for me to get out from under the sleeping bag, so once the sun hits it I pretty much have to get out of bed.
Major operation for the day was flipping the bins on my bike - Robyn got me a giant bin that matches the one on the quad but is 150mm or so higher (the rim and base are the same size). So I took the small bin off and bolted the big one to the bike, then fiddled with the ocky strap mounts to get it working better. Now I have a half-ocky in the middle of each side to hold the lid on, and those are tied off on the lid side. The existing ockys stay attached to the lid and hold the solar panel in place, so I can just release the half-ockys and lift the lid off. In fine weather I only need two of those, and releasing one of them lets me hinge the lid up to get stuff out. I can't quite do that while I'm riding, but it's very fast.
Then I used about 3m of red reflective tape making the back more visible. You can also see the panel on the top, and all the stuff that I'm strapping to the outside (I was supposed to post the lock, meter and spanner back to Sydney but forgot).
The rest of the mob worked on banners and contacts, and we did a wee bike workshop in the afternoon. As usual no-one got everything they wanted to do done in the time, but I think we got most of it. There's banners and flags painted, and everyone's bikes are running.
I also fully charged the battery in my solar system and hooked up the extra multimeter so I can see voltage and current at the same time, and the meters are hardwired. The kind people at energycoop.com.au have lent me the solar panel and set up the regulator and everything for me so I could spend more time doing other stuff before the ride started. I'll post about the setup later, but it is big enough to let me run the laptop as much as I want, charge my phone, and recharge the AA batteries in the lights and stuff. Very cool!
Major operation for the day was flipping the bins on my bike - Robyn got me a giant bin that matches the one on the quad but is 150mm or so higher (the rim and base are the same size). So I took the small bin off and bolted the big one to the bike, then fiddled with the ocky strap mounts to get it working better. Now I have a half-ocky in the middle of each side to hold the lid on, and those are tied off on the lid side. The existing ockys stay attached to the lid and hold the solar panel in place, so I can just release the half-ockys and lift the lid off. In fine weather I only need two of those, and releasing one of them lets me hinge the lid up to get stuff out. I can't quite do that while I'm riding, but it's very fast.
Then I used about 3m of red reflective tape making the back more visible. You can also see the panel on the top, and all the stuff that I'm strapping to the outside (I was supposed to post the lock, meter and spanner back to Sydney but forgot).The rest of the mob worked on banners and contacts, and we did a wee bike workshop in the afternoon. As usual no-one got everything they wanted to do done in the time, but I think we got most of it. There's banners and flags painted, and everyone's bikes are running.
I also fully charged the battery in my solar system and hooked up the extra multimeter so I can see voltage and current at the same time, and the meters are hardwired. The kind people at energycoop.com.au have lent me the solar panel and set up the regulator and everything for me so I could spend more time doing other stuff before the ride started. I'll post about the setup later, but it is big enough to let me run the laptop as much as I want, charge my phone, and recharge the AA batteries in the lights and stuff. Very cool!
posted by Moz at 11:15 AM
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