Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

simply amazed at the number of commuters along St George Road... crazy cycle traffic!

Will have to invest in something warmer for the mornings!

Nice commute in. Been looking for a jacket for the autumn and spring. Bought a thin rain jacket recently but my arms get so sweaty I can't wear it for long. So, on my lunch break I went to town and found the perfect jacket: a cannondale which is a little thicker but the back and sleeves come off to leave a vest. They are held on by magnets and it works brilliantly, easy on and off.

Unfortunately the way home wasn't so good. Enjoying the new jacket but suddenly I hear something hitting the back of the bike. Wouldn't you know it, broken spoke. New bike with about 500KMs on it so I figure the tension must be wrong. The rear wheel is 32 spokes which I figure should be OK even though I weigh about 100Kg and carry a bag with another 10Kg probably. Real bummer. I'll take it to the bike shop tomorrow morning but it opens at 9 so I'll be late for work. My partner has offered a lift so I might do that given I don't want to harm the new wheel. I was having a good ride until the spoke broke

DS

Stopped off in Eaglemont and then in Heidelberg to pick up a recipe kit and some other bits for another batch of beer scheduled for brewing this weekend. This added another couple of kilos in weight for the remaining hilly 20kms, but then it's for a noble cause .
Cool this morning for the commute into the Melbourne CBD, thought I was making good time, but Endomondo told a different story.

Mornings ride was spoiled by a deflating mtb tyre. Pumped it up last night, got on this morning and it was OK until I got into the scrub and worried about damaging the rim. Stopped to get the pump out, reached around to the wrong pack - no pump. Spare tube was useless then. Took it easy, got back on the road and looked for a servo for some air to get me to work. First servo compressor out of order. Second servo no air that I could see, third one had one of those stupid auto pumps 'not suitable for bikes' fourth one no air at the hose, probably not turned on, fourth one stupid auto pump... discovered the'flat tyre only' button on the auto pump and managed to get some air into the tyre to continue to work. Soiled my morning fun.

More stans goo in tonight and then a quick spin to spread it around should fix it.

jasonc wrote:
Thats amazing, I have far to many cuts etc in my tyre, best so far is 1800km's out of my front

wrong tyre then...go the 4WD tyre - marathon plus.....it works, trust me[/quote]

+1. there is a weight penality (550g a tyre!) but it's great training for when I swap to my roadie[/quote]


I only ride my roadie, i use the durace plus put a trek tyre on the back as they didn't have any durace in stock, wont be doing that again

Ride last night was nice, we past robertson barracks for something different, managed to get a pb, faster than i normally go in the group rides which was pretty cool, and managed to finally break into the 70km/h mark on a hill towards home! very exciting ride this morning was a little saw just took it nice and easy

Short commute as always, nice weather. I am pushing hard, though I only got like 25.9 kph average speed in my 5 km commuting distance.

Comedian wrote:

gretaboy wrote: wrong tyre then...go the 4WD tyre - marathon plus.....it works, trust me

If you have a longer commute... a very heavy puncture proof tyre might add a notable amount of time to a commute. You need to weigh up whether that penalty is offset by the number of flats you get.

Personally, if it wasn't for the school pickup I'd go the race tyres...

not wanting to get into an arguement over this....but, the time "lost" on a longer commute using marathon plus tyres is nothing, nothing compared to the time spent having to fix a flat plus the cost of new tubes and so forth. My commute is a long one I guess..the peace of mind of knowing that I will get to work without a flat is worth every little bit of extra time. When I had "road tyres" every ride I was mentally fearing the crap on the road and the resulting punctures, I was seriously thinking of giving up commuting due to the number of flats I was getting.

And as Jason has pointed out, the extra effort needed for marathon plus tyres is returned ten fold when you put slick road tyres on. I feel like I am floating/gliding when I have slicks on.

But as always, each to their own...but for my commute, the marathon plus tyres win hands down against anything I have come across out there. And my commute is just that, a commute, I want to make sure I get to and from with minimal issues

Summernight wrote:
(Glad to see I can even attract the same sex in my cycling outfit)

this is worth nothing without pics.....hahahahahahaha

gretaboy wrote:My commute is a long one I guess

ah - 50km each way is a long commute.

EDIT: Cruisy riverloop commute. only angst was with a runner on the road near work who did not give way whilst I was turning right at the round about. I suggested he give way. I could hear him abusing me for the next 100m

Its the rainbows, Summer.

Travelled significantly faster than the freeway traffic I was riding alongside on the way home last night - heading toward the city, so that was kinda fun (for me at least). Then got a big smile and a thumbs up from a bus driver at a set of lights - not sure what for, but appeared to be offered in good spirit.

Pea soup fog this morning, couldn't see across the river, made for a nice cool misty ride.

gretaboy wrote:

Summernight wrote:
(Glad to see I can even attract the same sex in my cycling outfit)

this is worth nothing without pics.....hahahahahahaha

I believe I have posted a picture before in the women's forum (in the thread where someone was initially appalled but the tone went 'up' from there ). Ask Arkle where to find it.

Dan wrote:Its the rainbows, Summer."

I think it was as I was definitely wearing the rainbows that evening. No unicorns though.

Drove past a group of about 20 Fire Rescue men out for a morning run in Richmond as I was heading home from my morning swim. And the lights conspired with me so that I was going slowly and they caught up with me at the traffic light so I had like a good two-three minutes of perv factor. What a great start to the day.

Anyway, sadly moving on from that lovely picture, I thought all there would be on my ride to work would be the light drizzle that I'd experienced on my drive.

About 400m after I left home on the bike it started proper raining and got steadily worse as I went into the city. Luckily I was prepared for the drizzle (which is pretty much the same as preparing for rain) except I forgot to change over my GoPro's housing to the waterproof one. I was pleasantly surprised by it - it was wet on the front of the housing and the front of the sides, but where the housing is open, the camera (or more accurately the external battery bacpac) was completely dry. Very happy about that!

Near perfect conditions returning to Cairns, bright sunshine, next to no winds and just crisp enough to initially regret not wearing a jacket... that regret does not last long though. Had a strange one this morning where I was riding along the Cairns Esplanade which recently had its speed limit dropped to 30 kph. I was doing maybe 30.5 and a BMW SUV was trying to squeeze past in your typical MGIF routine. I eyeballed to driver and at the same time pointed to a 30kph marking that was painted on the road. To my utter astonishment, she stood on the anchors and slowed down to the posted speed limit. Never had that happen before.

Comedian wrote:

gretaboy wrote: wrong tyre then...go the 4WD tyre - marathon plus.....it works, trust me

If you have a longer commute... a very heavy puncture proof tyre might add a notable amount of time to a commute. You need to weigh up whether that penalty is offset by the number of flats you get.

Personally, if it wasn't for the school pickup I'd go the race tyres...[/quote]

There is nothing worse than changing a flat tyre in the dark on a cold rainy night. Sure, my Marathon Plus tyres weigh 740g each (700x28c), but I have on average about one puncture per 15,000km.
I don 't tend to hammer it on my commutes. My yearly avg is just over 24km/h. My best avg speed for my commute was 34km/h on my road bike

queequeg wrote:My yearly avg is just over 24km/h. My best avg speed for my commute was 34km/h on my road bike

24 kph average is excellent. 34km/h is a lot better the the early days of tour de france.

Going home today is about 26.4 kph. I am chasing one of the popular segment in Epping road, I am at 34 at the moment out of more than thousands. I knew one day I can make it as my commute is only 5km and can have all my energy burst to be at least in the top 10, lol!

rheicel wrote:

queequeg wrote:My yearly avg is just over 24km/h. My best avg speed for my commute was 34km/h on my road bike

24 kph average is excellent. 34km/h is a lot better the the early days of tour de france.

Going home today is about 26.4 kph. I am chasing one of the popular segment in Epping road, I am at 34 at the moment out of more than thousands. I knew one day I can make it as my commute is only 5km and can have all my energy burst to be at least in the top 10, lol!

I go a lot quicker without the pannier bags creating drag I rarely go for sprint ride on my commute. To shave 10min off requires such a huge energy output that it leaves me shattered, so I do the fast commutes on days when I take the road bike for a spin.

queequeg wrote:I go a lot quicker without the pannier bags creating drag I rarely go for sprint ride on my commute. To shave 10min off requires such a huge energy output that it leaves me shattered, so I do the fast commutes on days when I take the road bike for a spin.

Spot on the panniers. 22kph is my average if I have them on, no matter how hard I push. If I ride hard, I will get exhausted easily and end up having 22kph average speed. If I cruise and use the pace I can, same 22kph result, sigh!

gretaboy wrote:

Comedian wrote:

gretaboy wrote: wrong tyre then...go the 4WD tyre - marathon plus.....it works, trust me

If you have a longer commute... a very heavy puncture proof tyre might add a notable amount of time to a commute. You need to weigh up whether that penalty is offset by the number of flats you get.

Personally, if it wasn't for the school pickup I'd go the race tyres...

not wanting to get into an arguement over this....but, the time "lost" on a longer commute using marathon plus tyres is nothing, nothing compared to the time spent having to fix a flat plus the cost of new tubes and so forth. My commute is a long one I guess..the peace of mind of knowing that I will get to work without a flat is worth every little bit of extra time. When I had "road tyres" every ride I was mentally fearing the crap on the road and the resulting punctures, I was seriously thinking of giving up commuting due to the number of flats I was getting.

And as Jason has pointed out, the extra effort needed for marathon plus tyres is returned ten fold when you put slick road tyres on. I feel like I am floating/gliding when I have slicks on.

But as always, each to their own...but for my commute, the marathon plus tyres win hands down against anything I have come across out there. And my commute is just that, a commute, I want to make sure I get to and from with minimal issues

I tend to agree on the Marathon Plus, great tyre which lasts for ages and does not puncture.

However, I have been running Marathon Supremes. Probably a bit less puncture resistance but I haven't had a puncture yet. On my previous bike the tyre was slashed by something but still no puncture. A bit lighter, tread is more slick and they go faster but still seem to have decent protection from punctures. A good compromise in my experience. I only use the bike to commute so reliability is critical.

DS

Morons out in full force this morning. Shaved by a taxi then had a bloke lean on his hooter for about twenty seconds. Not sure why, he was probably checking that it was still working.

well it's 5 days riding now, normally i have a day of or an morning / arvo off (go velodrome or ride around hiddenvalley raceway) little tired, not feeling it, plus side i've nearly made my goal of 250km's for the week at 244 including ride in, Not sure if i'll do tomorrow morning group ride, Cranking has really made my knee's hurt!

DavidS wrote: I have been running Marathon Supremes. Probably a bit less puncture resistance but I haven't had a puncture yet. On my previous bike the tyre was slashed by something but still no puncture. A bit lighter, tread is more slick and they go faster but still seem to have decent protection from punctures. A good compromise in my experience. I only use the bike to commute so reliability is critical.

David - what sort of life do you get out of the supremes? - they are expensive. I was considering a supreme on the front and a plus on the rear

been a big week for me - monday - no commute (honourable excuses thread) but did a couple of coot-tha
tuesday - riverloop
wednesday - more coot-thas
thursday - riverloop then failing to chase down a workmate in the arvo on the long way home
friday - brookfield with the fast guys
think i might spin home.

Always the way...my go pro got wet on my very wet monday morning ride...it hasnt come back to life since, anyways...riding home yesterday and something happened and I thought this is going to be an interesting ride home today. Certainly turned out that way. 8 k's into the ride a blue subaru wrx comes up behind..I caught them out of the corner of my eye and the idiots veered left over the line and the passenger I believe was leaning out of the car with his arm outstreached, my thinking was they wanted to "touch/hit"....they thought it very funny. All split second stuff but I am sure of what their intentions were. I was ready to stop and go toe to toe with this bogan.

Then a couple k's down the road, a Red p plate car full of young idiots decide to get on their horn as they go past...how funny is that. From this point on I was ready for anything, luckily it wasnt too bad.

Then about 3 k from home the heavens opened up with a downpour, lasted a k or 2...how lucky was I

This mornings ride was uneventful car wise but had southerly type winds, headwind for me, around 28 k's. After a big week of riding this was the last thing my legs needed to compete against.

Ride back via Epping yesterday, seeing the underpasses under the M80 Ring Road I would usually use are still closed to to the M80 works. Hopefully one of them will be open again on Monday.
Also, part of the Darebin Creek Trail is being rebuilt with concrete instead of bitumen near the bridge over the Darebin between Northland and Heidelberg West. Lots happening.
Cold again this morning, legs felt a bit tired on the way into the Melbourne CBD - 7 minutes slower than my average over the 30km, but there was a headwind, in my defense...
Looking good for 335km this week, which pales into insignificance next to gretaboy's ~500km

Happy Friday!

TailWind wrote:Looking good for 335km this week, which pales into insignificance next to gretaboy's ~500km

will end up with just over 340kms for the week ~290 of that commuting.

TailWind wrote: Looking good for 335km this week, which pales into insignificance next to gretaboy's ~500km

I was thinking about these numbers this week whilst riding. Two weeks now with commute total > 500. Here I am struggling along doing my commute and I think what a wuss I am in struggling. Pro cyclists do these type of numbers in 2-3 days. Even people who do the Tour De Cure do bigger numbers in less days.

I would love to do a ride like the Tour De Cure, or any other ride like it...but how would I cope doing 150+ k's day in day out. One day I am going to do such a ride..it is a goal.

On its own it is a big number, a number I never thought I would be doing...but put in context is it really a big number.