This is a cool video showing the Cannondale production line and and automated wheel building.
Some of it cool machines, some repetitive labour.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffworks/4168-assembly-line-cannondale-bicycles-video.htm
Course profile
Coffs Harbour MTB Marathon 2008 95km Google Earth file
I’ve been wanting to do the Gap Creek to Nebo ride for a while now, today was my lucky day. Initially the plan was to ride out to Lake Manchester but a late start and general sensibility took over so Nebo it was.
Riding on the single speed is pleasure and pain, I am constantly amazed at how well you can go with just one gear. The pain comes from not being able to take it easy on any climbs, even the easier ones … single speed = single speed.
It is hard to get lost on the ride but there are a few turns, I took the trusty GPS along just in case - check out the loop (from Woolloongabba nebo-ride-20080906-82.6km)
The destination was Cafe Boombala for a feed and rest.
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The legs were a bit sore after sitting for a while and with a full tummy I decided to walk along the Boombala walking track through the rainforest. The walk links up with South Boundary Road after about 2.2km and offers a well made walking track with beautiful rainforest views.
Being a State Forest and all I didn’t give in to temptation and jump on the pedals.
All in all including the ride to/from home to Gap Creek I covered just under 90km in about 9 hours, time for some more carrot cake 
Carbon rigid fork as installed on my KISS 29er, ride reports to follow (one day)
Very 'exotic' indeed
I love riding my full rigid Avanti KISS 29er however after a few hours on the trails it does beat me up a bit.
Thanks to the great info available from Guitar Ted at twentynineinches.com I decided to fit a set of carbon tube rigid forks to soften up some of the sharper hits.
There are a few options to choose from, without going into the reasons too deeply I went for a set of ‘exotic’ branded ebay specials.
The non-suspension corrected geometry of the KISS 29er means you need a shorter fork than most other 29ers. The standard crown to axle height is 430mm and the offset is 40mm.
The fork I chose is 445mm crown to axle and offset is 42mm so I expect the handling will be fairly similar, if anything a tad slower which is not a problem as these bikes do have fairly quick handling (so I’m told).
Anyway the fork arrived and has been fitted, nothing to tricky there just needed to get a star nut and cut down the steerer tube. I used the original fork tube length as a guide but added an extra 15mm for added setup options.
So far I have only done about 20km trail work at Gap Creek with the new fork but the upgrade seems well worth it. The most noticable things are a general dulling of the sharp hits from trail bumps, the feedback and geometry seem pretty good, however it’s a bit too early to give a full wrap.
While researching I created a quick speadsheet of the contenders, hope you find it useful.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pHGMkOT8YA5pU3Vho4uUXAQ&output=html
