How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

[jasonc]

far out grgic. looks like you had the pace down when you hit. did you get his details? he owes you a new helmet, a couple of wheel trues and a massive apology

edit: in other news i went to the physio tonight. looks like i'll live. had a few dry needles. need to do a few exercises but can ride.

edit: a cyclist a died in central cairns today. Ox - please report in

[Grgic]

Jeepers that was a solid hit. Did his helmet get knocked clean off?

you can't see in the snippet of the video but his helmet was attached to the strap on his backpack, ie. he wasn't wearing it

far out grgic. looks like you had the pace down when you hit. did you get his details? he owes you a new helmet, a couple of wheel trues and a massive apology

I have the persons details (plus a very credible witness), not sure whether there's much I can do though, will have to look into it.

The front wheel is a write-off, the prolite rim is cracked and bent beyond any sort of repair from the impact (not even a year old ). Haven't assessed the forks yet.

[TailWind]

Alas, no little kiosks along my route, but there are a fair number of restaurants and beer gardens big and small.
Maybe I need to review my route!

You been down to Friedrichshafen and looped the lake on the bike trails?

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to head out of Munich, hoping to spread my wings at some point

[oxonabike]

edit: a cyclist a died in central cairns today. Ox - please report in

Present and accounted for. Bit early to speculate on what happened, but have some ideas. I was on the road at the time, but not that one.

[jasonc]

Jeepers that was a solid hit. Did his helmet get knocked clean off?

you can't see in the snippet of the video but his helmet was attached to the strap on his backpack, ie. he wasn't wearing it

far out grgic. looks like you had the pace down when you hit. did you get his details? he owes you a new helmet, a couple of wheel trues and a massive apology

I have the persons details (plus a very credible witness), not sure whether there's much I can do though, will have to look into it.

The front wheel is a write-off, the prolite rim is cracked and bent beyond any sort of repair from the impact (not even a year old ). Haven't assessed the forks yet.

go the police. report it as a traffic accident. send a letter of demand.


good to hear you are accounted for ox

[ColinOldnCranky]

This year I had so far managed to ride my age twice. But one of those was unintentional.

Well, deja vu. I unintentionally did it again today.

I had done a long route running around Perth, taking in Windan Bridge and a lot of detours before getting as far as my sisters' place in Mt Lawley before heading back to Perth. Back in the CBD I went to the backpack for the phone to take a pic of the temporary ice rink in the Cultural Precinct. "Damn! Left it at my sisters place". Headed back and retrieved it. The extra distance just tipped me over the 63km mark.

I had intended to go for ride down Mandurah way tomorrrow. Not sure now if I want to subject the weary body to it. Maybe later in the week.

[TailWind]

G'day TW. 8.8 Euros for a beer? Looks nice though

you'd hope he's being paid in euros. Thanks for the photos TW

The contract pays Euros, but with all the transferring back and forth between my company account in Oz and the account here, I really get skinned with the exchange rates.
However, all told, beer is still at least 50% cheaper, so I'm managing to minimise the impact of the exchange losses
Here's the video of the route featured in the pics.

[Defy The Odds]

Looks cool

I drove across Europe in 2011... beautiful !

Enjoy the experience.

One thing I loved about Europe is that they preserve alot of their architecture... its what gives it the kind of "flavour" it has

[jasonc]

TW - a couple of comments
are you still running front brake on the left brake lever?
and I have to question your tram line attack angle at ~7min. that looked like a recipe for wet weather disaster
cheers for the vid

[TailWind]

TW - a couple of comments
are you still running front brake on the left brake lever?
and I have to question your tram line attack angle at ~7min. that looked like a recipe for wet weather disaster
cheers for the vid

Hey Jason, yep, the brakes are still set with the front brake on the left, so far no major rear wheel lock-ups or OTB events
As for the tram lines, yep, that was a pretty shallow angle, no prob with fat tyres and dry conditions, but you can be sure I use a different approach on the wet days.
Melbourne has taught me well!

[jasonc]

Melbourne has taught me well!

being a Melbourne boy, that angle made me cringe - and the roads were dry.

[FiveDaysAWeek]

Was riding the Kent Street cycle path as morning as usual when a pedestrian came striding out of a shop and across the footpath without looking right or left, apparently in a tearing hurry to keep an appointment with my front wheel. Called a warning as I braked but was all but drowned out by a male pedestrian (possibly a regimental sar'nt major out of uniform?) who barked 'STOP!' at her. She did.

[__PG__]

Properly wet this morning in Melbourne. Had to bring out the rain pants.

[frankn]

Ride to work, Belair(SA) - Adelaide via Lynton trails was a pain, bike slid out under me on the trails taking off some hip and lower leg skin. Have to change the rear tyre, it's no good in the wet and clay. Rode same trail on Saturday without problem, only difference today was moisture. Ride home, stayed on road so all okay

[Defy The Odds]

Ride to work, Belair(SA) - Adelaide via Lynton trails was a pain, bike slid out under me on the trails taking off some hip and lower leg skin. Have to change the rear tyre, it's no good in the wet and clay. Rode same trail on Saturday without problem, only difference today was moisture. Ride home, stayed on road so all okay

Ouch ! That sounds painful!

Hope you're all good buddy !

I've slid out once but came out relatively unscathed. Bruised ego if anything as it was on a main suburban road

[TonyMax]

First commute in over a month, shame I missed out on a commute during June.

Cold, fresh, lovely morning for a ride.

Ice on the beanie when I got to work, but after a shower and a coffee I'm all good.

Bring on the ride home.

[Defy The Odds]

I work from home so no need to commute but I certainly think if I had to work in CBD I'd commute around 3 days per week...

You hit it on the head with the "shower and coffee" would be a very invigorating way to start your work day !

[oxonabike]

FD (Sora) packed up this morning on a hilly extended commute. Still, it would take more than that to upset me, as the morning was one of the most perfect you could ever wish for.

Replacement FD obtained, but being a 105, it's too good for the commuter, so will be re-purposing the Tiagra FD off the roady - one defect, two bikes get upgrades!

[jasonc]

had a day with my daughter yesterday so organised to have the headset replaced on the commuter. It had done about 38000kms so was due for a replacement. much nicer now.

[cp123]

far out grgic - I would've been tempted to rip him a new one. glad you're okay. what street was that on? you're north side aren't you? what was his excuse for his idiotic behaviour?

I had a very similar situation the other morning on CW bridge. I was going northwards and some idiot coming the other way was behind a pedestrian and he decided he needed to overtake NOW. trouble is i'm not sure whether he didn't see I was oncoming, or JDGAF, but he came straight at me. I roared and pulled up right in front of him while he did a quick scoot past and I yelled 'bloody idiot'.

those 3 seconds obviously were vital. then I looked at the pedestrian and she rolled her eyes about him at me. she saw the lot.

[cancan64]

Yesterday morning I had my first proper go on the indoor trainer..nice to not worry about cars, pedestrians or dogs... finished the hour of suffering and then jumped on the commuter and headed to work, surprisingly the commute was painless and non eventful...same with the commute home but sore this morning.
The council in there wisdom are resealing the main road in, they have ripped up the old stuff and resealed the road, but not the cyclepath... such a pleasure riding in the lane in peak hour traffic and then the story bridge is closed so have to go through the underpass to the other side... next to the stairs is a channel to walk the bike up but I thought I would try and cycle it...was a silly idea, but entertaining if anyone was watching

[Summernight]

I'M BAAAACCKKK! (Oh noes!)

One month of honeymoon holiday. Totally did not want to return to work. But at least the first day was reading through ~200 emails and reviewing stuff and not actual work.

Gained about 2-4 kgs, probably all from the final week in Moorea, eating buffet breakfast (custom omelettes AND crepes with Nutella and sugar for breakfast. Yum yum) and stuffing our faces with breakfast pastries for lunch.
The reason why I don't think I gained too much weight in the first three weeks was because we were motorhoming around NZ in a 7.5m behemoth, doing all the important adventure-y stuff (well, actually I think I was dragging my poor ex-fiance, now-husband around to adrenaline-worthy activities he wasn't overly keen on doing) and I was running everyday to make up for not riding or swimming. That is, until I sprained my ankle and my exercise regime went out the window.

Rotorua, Taupo, Queenstown, and Waitomo are definitely places to visit. Loved the country feel of Wanaka and would love to have a horse farm there ala Shania Twain if I had the money to also have a helicopter and private plane.

Managed to miss all the dumping of snow in the South Island, which is good because it wasn't meant to be a ski holiday and NZ closes roads when it snows (plus wasn't relishing putting chains on the behemoth in the freezing cold). Got caught in the road flooding and closures in the North Island which resulted in us having to take a ~200km detour, including going back all the way we'd come. Who knew NZ only had two roads up the North Island with two connecting roads in 200km and both connecting roads and the main State Highway 1 closed due to flooding?

Sprained my ankle in Wellington 500 metres after starting my run due to looking where I needed to go and not looking at the footpath and the huge rock I stepped on. Fell over and was in pain but had a nice NZ tradie who witnessed my embarrassing demise do a u-turn around the roundabout and drop me back off at the caravan park we were staying at. He had a cute little white fluffy dog too. After that I wanted to get out of Wellington ASAP but the flooded roads had other ideas.

Then I sprained a stomach muscle doing a tree-top adventure course (holding myself by my hands and swinging on ropes ala Tarzan has never been my forte). This made the caving adventure in Waitomo interesting as I couldn't swim properly or lift myself up by my arms so climbing waterfalls and flying foxes 600 metres below ground was extra tough.

All in all a great adventure. Moorea (French Polynesia) was lovely but ridiculously expensive (except for the supermarket, which we couldn't get to anyway). Swam with (and fed) stingrays and sharks. Novel experience having 20-30 sharks and stingrays swimming about you and between you.

Watching how people interacted with cyclists while overseas was interesting. New Zealand seems like it is similar to Australia (saw the article about the NZ guy getting fined for 'holding up' traffic. Shook my head at the time and then walked out of the Fush and Chups shop). Moorea had a pretty terrible road, but a fair few cyclists and all the drivers of the vans/buses we were in would use the brake and only overtake the cyclists when safe. Completely different attitude to Australia.

* * * *
I didn't want to flop on my first ride in yesterday, so on the last day we were in Moorea I hopped on the hotel's spin bike and did a quick 1 km at high resistance. Maybe that helped yesterday morning, (or because I wasn't pushing a high gear) as I didn't die on the ride. I got a good introduction back into Melbourne weather with the rain.

I had a 'welcome back' toot from an impatient Subaru driver in the right hand lane on Albert Street, East Melbourne, while overtaking another cyclist in the left hand lane yesterday morning.

On the downhill in Collins Street I was passing another cyclist, then saw the lights at Swanston were changing so decided to brake early. I hear this awful squealing noise (think worse than nails on a chalkboard) and think it might be my brakes, but then realise it is the lady cyclist's bike beside me. It sounded as if there was no brake pad left and the metal was colliding with metal rim. Terrible noise that made me cringe.

Got to work yesterday and just as I was about to head into the underground garage I had that sinking feeling realising I'd left my keypass somewhere. The building manager was there with some construction workers so kindly let me into the basement car park to park my bike. I was walking to my usual bike park when I realised that not only did I leave my keypass but I also left my d-lock keys as well. Fortunately I had a spare key for one of them on my house keys so didn't have to leave the bike without adequate security. And because it was raining and my bag wasn't completely closed my work clothes got partly wet.

At least I remembered my underwear!

I had an almost 'Welcome Back' dooring on the way home last night on Collins Street just before Spring. The passenger decided to hop out in traffic. Lucky I was going at slow speed so could stop before I hit the door. I told him he must look before opening and he apologised.

The joys of the first day back.

I forgot I'd come back during school holidays where people are more numpty-ish than usual. I'm looking forward to the house purchasing process we'll embark on sometime soon to try and change locations so I don't have to ride Collins Street.

I noticed they've put in a new pedestrian crossing at the tram stop on Collins at 101 (so there are now 2 ped crossings for that tram stop instead of 1). This morning I couldn't help but laugh at all the pedestrians waiting to cross at the edge of the tram stop, completely ignoring that new pedestrian crossing only 3 metres away (which some smart cookies were actually using).

Muscles are complaining today about starting back into the exercise regime!

[herzog]

Moorea had a pretty terrible road, but a fair few cyclists and all the drivers of the vans/buses we were in would use the brake and only overtake the cyclists when safe. Completely different attitude to Australia.

Great writeup. Question on Tahiti - we're headed there in a couple of months, albeit the "main" island rather than Moorea. Did you come across any places hiring bikes? I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a treadly while we're there and doing a bit of exploring.

[jasonc]

welcome back summernight.

I had a tail wind on the way home. haven't had one of them in a while. oddly, the knee I went to physio for is feeling pretty good. the other knee is now feeling nowhere near 100%. i already had physio booked tomorrow night.

[bychosis]

'Twas cold this morning, but I rugged up and it wasn't too bad. This afternoon I got set and rode off expecting a light sprinkle of rain, but didn't bother with the spray jacket. Mistake, the headwind was soo cold I ended up stopping and putting the spray jacket on. Didn't need it for the rain in the end, but it sure made the wind more bearable. Come on spring!