Category Archives: Fashion

Every cyclists wants to be fashionable :-)

Hello Rapha, Goodbye Pocket Money

 

Dear Roulers,

I guess it had to happen…finally Rapha have an outlet, all be it short lived, in Melbourne. I have to say… about bloody time guys. Every time I go to Sydney, I visit Rapha on Crown St and bemoan the fact that this is only place in Australia were you can see the full range of gear.

The Melbourne popup shop, located in Little Lonsdale St, follows the Rapha formula, providing good service, an interesting place to visit and a decent coffee service on the ground floor. It’s really well presented and gives a gentle nod to the history and culture of cycling via old black and white photos and heritage gear. The upper floor has a mechanics shop and meeting area.  Here’s a few pics from my last visit.

Rapha-1-sml Rapha-2-sml Rapha-3-sml
The front door Upstairs workshop A list of mountains I’ll never climb 😉

As Rapha clothing is designed for people that clearly have a lower percentage of body fat than I do, trying the gear on is essential. Yes I’m living XXL, although happily its a lot less snug than it used to be. I’m dreaming of the day that I’m able to invoke a jersey swap for a smaller size. Hopefully that offer will be around for a while yet.  Hopefully the store will stick around too.

Caio until next time…

Marv

Welcome back to 2015

Dear Cyclists,

I’m afraid to say that the last 2 weeks have been, much to my chagrin, bicycle free..boo 🙂  However, the premium service provided at Freedom Machine [shameless plug…apologies :-)] has polished up my Villier and my wife’s Giant a treat. So I look forward to many happy kilometres of pedaling. So as part of my usual set of new year’s resolutions I’ve resolved to achieve two inter-related personal goals.

1) To complete 5000 km this calendar year.
2) To commute to work 4 days a week.

I’m pleased to report I’ve started both today with a liesurely 3 km ride to work this morning. My Henty Wingman was packed full of work clothing and stuff so that ride was a bit harder than the distance would indicate. I also note that the current tram track work in Spencer St is playing havoc with tram timetables on the Route 109.

So I’m pleased to report that I’ve only 4997 kilometres left to complete my goal.

On a different note, just before Christmas I became a bit OCD about retro cycling jerseys. I saw and later purchased this care of Stolen Goat.

http://stolengoat.com/product/jura-cycle-merino-wool-ls-jersey-french/

Awesome Tri-colour Jersey

Whilst the UK pound-vs-AUD conversion will always be a painful, the 20% discount I received on signing up and VAT exemption took a good portion of the sting out of purchasing experience. I have to say the jersey is of superb quality and fitted perfectly. I can’t wait for some cooler weather in April/May.

I continue to be mystified by why some enterprising company can’t make a similar jersey in Australia. After the wool is sourced from Australia or New Zealand.