Aaaarrrg! Every day I ride to work. It’s only five kilometres and it only takes fifteen minutes. Every day I see a couple of idiots on the roads on their phones in the morning, and another couple in the evening. Every week once or twice I have to take some evasive action from the antics of one of these idiots.
The local papers state that the police had “a massive crackdown” on motorists on the Monash freeway with “round the clock staffing” for an entire month.
Another bloody motorist who can’t be bloody bothered to watch where they’re bloody going and obey the bloody give-way signs. Idiot old builder in crappy old white Ford station wagon, tears up the merge lane of North road from Huntingdale and goes straight through the give-way sign, straight past the “watch for bicycles” sign and would have hit me square on if I hadn’t swerved out of the way. Glancing blow on the knee and hand, looks round in amazement at the loud bang as the bike hits the door and slows for a moment, then roars off up the road.
I’d finally got around to taking the mountain bike in to the shop last week to see about the leaking oil seals, thinking of course that only the seals needed replacing. Got the phone call, the anodising has been all worn off the fork legs and Rockshox don’t make or don’t stock spares for 2000-2001 SIDs anymore, or if they do they’re several hundred dollars just for the legs.
I was offered a second-hand but unused pair of “seven or eight hundred dollar Springer” forks for $500 fitted, should probably have done a little more checking around first because I said yes.
******************************************************* Sat 22 July - Melbourne-Roubaiz “Hell of the Northcote" ******************************************************* 12PM - Starting from Fed. Square. Fun for all! - course will be run over melbourne's brutal pave,railway crossings, dirt tracks and finishing with a lap at the brunswick velodrome. All finishers go into a draw for major prizes. This is NOT a race! FREE but bring $10 to purchase items along the way and a panier or backpack. organiser: Simon of Darebin BUG It should take us about an hour to get to the start, so 11 o’clock and out the door — first time on the tandem for quite a few months!
Last night stage 15 of le Tour de France finished up on l’Alpe d’Huez, fantastic racing and amazing scenery as always. I did think that with the camera cutting back and forth you just couldn’t get much of an idea of how steep that mountain really is.
From the http://www.cyclingnews.com/ special page on l’Alpe d’Huez: Unofficially, the top twelve times are as follows:
Marco Pantani (1995) 36’ 50 Marco Pantani (1997) 36’ 55 Marco Pantani (1994) 37’ 15 Lance Armstrong (2004) 37’ 36 Jan Ullrich (1997) 37’ 40 Lance Armstrong (2001) 38’ 05 Miguel Indurain (1995) 38’ 10 Alex Zülle (1995) 38’ 10 Bjarne Riis (1995) 38’ 15 Richard Virenque (1997) 38’ 20 Iban Mayo (2003) 39’ 06 Giuseppe Guerini (1999) 41’ 52 … and from Friday the 13th, July 2001, the very non-competitive time:
I became curious about the costs of the rides as I was deciding to enter the 1997 NSW Big Ride and I noticed that more and more of the items in the ride are now “optional,” eg insurance, souvenir t-shirt, transport both to the start and back from the finish.
Here are the prices that I paid for the rides over the years, usually comprising entry fee, transport between the ends of the ride and the nominal city of origin, insurance and t-shirt.
A slow start, and a cold morning. After breakfast it took forever to get coordinated and underway — last night’s red wine taking its toll. The coffee shops of Yarra Junction beckoned, we’d only just started riding by the time we got there and settled inside to thaw out and apply coffee to aching heads.
Leaving Yarra Junction the local traffic was a bit too obnoxious — as the drivers along here often seem to be.
From Neerim South to Noojee the road climbs steadily up for at least ten kilometres, then climbs more steeply up for another few before swooping down through the forest in wet twisty curves. Magnificent riding, but a little unnerving with the wet leaves and the narrowness of the roads. Inflight discussions between tandem pilot and stoker resulted in the decree that the tandem would travel at a reasonable speed downwards through the forest….
Blessed are the tandem-riders, for they shall manage to ride all day and escape the rain — at least it seemed that way today! A lucky start when we woke in sunlight and with a bit of prodding managed to leap into action and pack the bags and tent before breakfast and more importantly, before the next squall and rain-front came through. Even more impressive was the one after that, not just icy rain, this one had ice in it — a few minutes of hail that caused general mayhem on the campground.
Interesting changes to the wording from the first report which appeared on the Age website credited to AAP, and the second one, printed in today’s paper.
The website version:
Webber urges drivers: watch for bicycles
April 3, 2006 - 6:24AM
Formula One star Mark Webber has urged Australian motorists to take a leaf out of the European book and pay more attention to cyclists on the road.
Webber, who admits to being a huge cycling fan, said while motorists in Victoria had improved in their attitude towards cyclists in the last five years, the rest of the country was not so patient.
Kathy Watt, star of the women's time trial The Commonwealth Games cycling time trials are on today; first the women’s in the morning, then the men’s in the early afternoon. I half thought about taking off from work at lunchtime, racing down North road to Brighton to see what I could see. Turns out that firstly I wouldn’t have been able to see anything since one event had finished and the other not yet started, and I’d probably only have about five minutes down there before having to turn around and head back to Monash!
It was lots of fun with no traffic on the roads. Jo and I took the tandem out for a ride in the afternoon and rode up Beach road from Elwood to Port Melbourne. We didn’t see any of the marathon, just millions and millions of bollards, railings and miles of flapping plastic tape. Such a huge road when there’s no other traffic on it though!
Funniest part of it all was at one set of traffic lights.
stats. Today ??km Trip total ??km A thirty kilometre loop out of Tumut to the south-east first thing this morning — designed to give us some extra distance and to get the cyclists off the road while the trucks all drove through to the next campsite. A beautiful stretch of quiet country road, almost flat along the plains of the Tumut river, and another great autumn day.
Lunch was at a tiny place called Brungle — population 60, according to the sign on the road — the primary school was hidden off somewhere in the trees and had gone to all sorts of effort over the last few weeks to get ready for the visit by the ride.
From both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age; the latest motorised moron to be caught attacking people with a car as a weapon:
A man has been charged after allegedly trying to run down a group of cyclists in a road rage incident in Sydney’s south.
An argument broke out after the 50-year-old man allegedly almost hit a group of about 20 cyclists on General Holmes Drive in Brighton-Le-Sands shortly before 6 am AEDT yesterday as he drove out of a service station, police said.
The bow of 'Ericsson' in the Volvo 70 race Laziness and beer-poisoning meant no bike riding yesterday. Enthusiasm took hold this morning, together with the knowledge that the around-the-world yachts have been in Melbourne for a few weeks now and will probably leave before I manage to get off my bum and see them!
Out on the tandem and down to Blackrock, a big sweeping roundabout to turn around at, then back up the bay to head in to Docklands.
stats. Distance 81km Last chance training before the Audax Australia Alpine Classic! An early start — early for me, 07:30 — up and out and flying off down the hill to sea-level. Tears streaming from my eyes in the cool morning air, then around the corner and start the climb up the Deans Marsh road. Far less traffic than last time a few weeks ago, but the roadside is still a solid carpet of bottles and cans.
I wouldn’t have believed it! Three days in a row all I have to do is the fairly simple task of getting up a little bit earlier than usual, then riding in to South Melbourne to a training course…. OK, so I was a little bit late leaving this morning, but now that I know the way, and know where the building is, that shouldn’t have been a problem, and a new tyre should mean that all the glass in the bike lanes is not a problem either — and they weren’t.
After yesterday’s fiasco, getting to South Melbourne today should be easy… I know where to turn into Inkerman street & I know where the building is!
Somewhere down towards St Kilda the bike didn’t feel quite right, then I realised that the front tyre was going soft — all that bloody glass I swore at yesterday. I made it through St Kilda to Middle Park, then stopped at Penny Farthing cycles to buy a new inner tube — I suspect that the spare I’m carrying has a slow leak.
Just get out of bed a little early, get on the bike, ride into South Melbourne and get to a training course. Not too hard, is it?
I intended to leave at 7:30, since I was fairly sure that the advertised 8:30 start was really “08:30 for 9:00.” Didn’t manage to leave the house until 07:40, off through Murrumbeena and along Dandenong road. Somewhere along Normany road in Caulfield there’s a tram turning left and I can’t quite see the roadsign through the windows — it must be Inkerman street so I turn too.
Two options for this morning; I can stay in bed, get up at a reasonable hour and then have a leisurely bacon and eggs, or I can get up far too early, fumble my way into my bike gear and go out to join some friends for a ride up to Kinglake and back. Sure enough, I’ve picked the riding option — about time I got my lazy self out and rode up a few hills…
Sunny day, no wind, definitely time to get out on the bike. Jo and I did our usual ride down North road to the bay, then down Beach road to Mordialloc. Interesting mix of barricades around Mentone since there was a triathlon running and the road had been closed, but only closed to motorised traffic! Apparently other cyclists are allowed to mix with the competing triathletes, which sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Every year Bicycle Victoria promotes a “Ride to Work Day” in October, and exhorts everyone to ride their bicycles to work, just this once! There’s free breakfast in the city, the odd speech, promotional material, police present to engrave your drivers’ license number in your bike if you like — to aid recovery in the event of theft…. The last couple of years I’ve decided to ride in to the city to have a look around, then back out again to go to work.
A warm spring day, a good night’s sleep and today its time to go for a ride — but which bike do we use? Jo wanted to get out on her new roadie, I joked about the spider webs on the tandem, yes, no, maybe… The tandem it was.
Beach road was amazing. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of cyclists in groups all up and down the bay. The good weather and the approach of the Around the Bay in a Day ride has driven them all out for their training.
Bikes, bikes and more bikes! A leisurely ride in to Richmond so Jo could sneak in a few hours at work, then I headed up Burnley street for a lap of the Boulevard. One lap turned into two, then very optimistically I turned back for the third. More hill climbs than I’ve ridden in months — almost more riding than I’ve ridden in months!
Ow ow ow! Another day, another motorised moron.
Rush hour traffic in Haughton road? A fifty kilometre speed limit and traffic in both directions? A road specifically narrowed by Monash City Council to stop everyone using it as a short cut through the suburb. A road narrowed so that motorists have to actually think and pull out in order to overtake cyclists safely. Not a problem for our local inhabitants. Speed up and go head-on towards oncoming cars, then swerve back in and slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the next car up ahead.
stats Distance 43.47km Average speed 23.8km/hr Spring weather again; albeit with a strong northerly wind. Off for a lazy ride around and around, exploring a few places I haven’t visited for a while. Up along the bike trail to Carnegie, lost through the back streets to Caulfield, head north up Glenferrie road, zigzag through Toorak, down to Richmond, nosiness sends me up the street where I lived for five years.
With much fanfare Jo declared it is time. Time to take her new bicycle out for a ride — one week old and it hasn’t been ridden yet! The weather doesn’t look promising and we decide we’re both getting old and lazy — its far too easy to just sit at home and wait for a perfect day… Off down Warrigal road, a brief stop in a car-park to adjust the seat, then head for the bay along North road.
Bah! One of my colleagues from work spent the night in hospital and will spend the rest of the week off work. Motorist “failed to give way” and ran into him. I’ve seen him riding — lit up like a christmas tree, lights, reflectors, shiny vest, and always on the lookout for the idiot in the tin box. It only takes one lapse in concentration and the idiot will get you…
Just about to leave this morning to ride to work when the rain started hammering down on the tin roof, definitely time to sit for a quarter of an hour and tidy the kitchen!
Oddest motorist this morning — the lady stopped at the lights on North road. She drove up, stopped, her hands and eyes dropped into her lap and she started fiddling about. “Another idiot on the phone,” I thought.
This morning I’m on my way to work when I meet, SKM-###, the garbage truck driven by idiots. First they’re stopped at the corner hanging out the window and yelling sexist abuse at a female pedestrian, then they came up behind me on North road, pulled into the bike lane as they passed, then just ahead of me kept on coming left until the truck almost met the railing, pulling back out the two passengers were leaning out the window looking back at me and laughing.
Vanity site? Technology experiment? Learning tool? Blog? Journal? Diary? Photo album? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…
I experiment. I play. I write and I take pictures. Some of the site is organised around topics, other parts are organized by date, then there’s always the cross-references between them.
Its all been here a fairly long time. Like the papers on my desk, or the books on the bedside table, the pile just grew… and it all grew without much plan or structure. I try not to break URLs, so historical oddities abound.
Long ago it started as a learning experiment with a few static HTML pages, then I added a bit of server-side includes and some very ugly PHP. A hand-built journal/blog on top of that PHP, then a few experiments in moving to various static publishing systems. I’ve never wanted a database-based blogging engine, so over the years I’ve tried PHP, nanoblogger, emacs-muse, silkpage and docbook before settling on Emacs Org mode for writing and jekyll for publishing. But the itch remained… I never really liked jekyll and the ruby underneath always seemed so much black magic. So now the latest incarnation is Org mode and hugo.
