Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Well the bike went into the shop yesterday for some major surgery...hopefully it will come out like a "new man" or "girl"....be just in time to clock up some serious k's in december..might give Tailwind a run for his money yet

Was going to use my old oppy as the commute bike today but tyres were down on it and I had to swap the tyres for rubber that isnt so flat prone, felt lazy so instead grabbed the partners hybrid bike (had more rubber on it than my hybrid) and rode that in today. What a difference, especially not having clip in pedals, my feet kept moving all around the place and I am sure there are muscles in my legs which will be very sore tonite from finally getting used.

Left home half an hour earlier as I thought it might take a bit longer to do my ride, but was pleasantly surprised when the ride took just ten minutes longer than normal. Very overcast again this morning and early on in the ride it startled to sprinkle, at this point I nearly gave up and seriously thought about ringing the partner to come and get me...rain plus heavy bike making me work hard had me wimping out...but I simply took a teaspoon or two of cement and hardened up and kept riding. Got to work and was glad I hadnt given up, but at same time started thinking about the ride home and somewhat dreading it. Friday it is though, and some alcohol will be awaiting me when I get home so all is good.

Last night I'd been thinking of complimenting the general excellence of driving around me for the last 2 weeks (well there were 2 exceptions but I had a handle on them and the other 99.5% of the drivers were really good).

Got up early this morning for a longer commute in via a couple of laps of cootha, roads still relatively quiet at 6:14 when I get my closest and most dangerous shave ever with me doing about 40-45kmh. 10cm clearance - if I'm lucky. Shocked the absolute crap out of me, and so does the video when I watch it. For something especially idiotic, do you push the police for a dangerous driving charge?

jasonc wrote:I go back in 2 weeks. I can ride 1 way a day.

Must be frustrating, esp. with having 10k worth of commuting for the year within sight...

InTheWoods wrote: Shocked the absolute crap out of me, and so does the video when I watch it. For something especially idiotic, do you push the police for a dangerous driving charge?

Once I get cameras front and back....any car or truck that swerves into me or makes it dangerous for me will be reported immediately. My life is worth more than their issues or road rage. Plenty of room out there for all of us to share the road. I am tolerant to a large degree and am mindful of trying to ensure I dont hold cars/trucks up but will also not put up with dangerous driving.

Cameras may not save my life, but will hopefully record what the idiot did to take me out so that they can be prosecuted accordingly.

TailWind wrote:

jasonc wrote:I go back in 2 weeks. I can ride 1 way a day.

Must be frustrating, esp. with having 10k worth of commuting for the year within sight...

TW...why not help Jason feel better by riding the same as him???? Surely you are feeling a little weary by now from all that riding, might be just the perfect time to cutback.

Jason...at least you get to turn the pedals over, if only one way, your overall bike fitness wont deteriorate too much ...come back bigger and stronger

Aushiker wrote:

TailWind wrote:My quest for a route with less lights didn't work out this morning and I took significantly longer to get to work with more reds encountered than before...will keep on trying alternatives.

Red lights = sprint training
Andrew

Especially from the top Exhibition Street heading towards the river, where the lights are poorly synchronised and turn red at every intersection. No bike lane, so I'm in a regular lane and sprinting to stay ahead of the traffic block for block - 40km/h zone now, so it's possible

My ride back yesterday afternoon was via MYT through to Heidelberg, then the Banyule Trail towards Greensborough, then across to Bundoora.
At the start of the gravel section near Burke St, a chap riding towards me yelled "Snake! There's a snake up there!", but it must have slithered into the long grass by the time I got there, or I somehow missed it

Ok ride in this morning, bit of a headwind but otherwise uneventful.

Happy Friday!

gretaboy wrote:

TailWind wrote:

jasonc wrote:I go back in 2 weeks. I can ride 1 way a day.

Must be frustrating, esp. with having 10k worth of commuting for the year within sight...

TW...why not help Jason feel better by riding the same as him???? Surely you are feeling a little weary by now from all that riding, might be just the perfect time to cutback.

Jason...at least you get to turn the pedals over, if only one way, your overall bike fitness wont deteriorate too much ...come back bigger and stronger

turning the pedals over at 21-22km/h will not keep my fitness. should have asked if I could go flat stick!
and yes, very close to 10k commuting. i just want to ride. there are a few events I'm thinking about early next year. Ultimatum coming for my physio as I need to start training for one of them NOW.
and gretaboy - if you only have 1 camera face it rearwards

gretaboy wrote:

TailWind wrote:

jasonc wrote:I go back in 2 weeks. I can ride 1 way a day.

Must be frustrating, esp. with having 10k worth of commuting for the year within sight...

TW...why not help Jason feel better by riding the same as him???? Surely you are feeling a little weary by now from all that riding, might be just the perfect time to cutback.

Jason...at least you get to turn the pedals over, if only one way, your overall bike fitness wont deteriorate too much ...come back bigger and stronger

Well gretaboy, there are just 1800kms separating us, and my December may be short due to my client's firm closing from 21 Dec - may as well make the best of the commute days remaining, right? There may be a possibility of doing some work that requires system downtime during the break, but my commuting will be spotty from then until mid-January...

TailWind wrote: Well gretaboy, there are just 1800kms separating us, and my December may be short due to my client's firm closing from 21 Dec - may as well make the best of the commute days remaining, right? There may be a possibility of doing some work that requires system downtime during the break, but my commuting will be spotty from then until mid-January...

not giving me many days to make the k's up are you and really wanting to punish me, set a challenge

I have the ability to add another 40 k to my ride on the way home, but whether I have the drive/determination to do this and whether my body allows me to do it as well will be the telling factor

if I can factor in a few 5 day commute weeks I may just have a chance...

First commute after around 4 weeks off being ‘in between jobs’ (unemployed).
Now I’m in the new workplace, it looks as though there is quite a few serious riders here. A few on Strava doing some decent kms on some relatively top end bikes, Cannondale Supersix Hi-Mod, S-Works Tarmac, Ribble Custom and another I’ve not seen yet. They do regular river loops which is good.

Joined that City2Cycle yesterday for a month, but looks as though I’ll be able to utilise the facilities here soon.
Happy days.

Perth:

The detours arising form some works are now a fact of daily commuting from the south and will be for a couple of months. The Mend St coffee houses were packed this morning, way more than on a weekend. Seriously it looked like an LA car park but all bikes instead. I would love to have shares in one of those palces!

I got a bit up myslef as I was laboriously climbing the overpass at the detour while another rider had to dismount and cross on foot. I do that climb about once or twice a weekend anyway so I was always going to ride it. But it was nice in a gloating sort of way to see that some of you guys who still have a training wheel can struggle a bit. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Big ring commuting is absolutely KILLING ME. I want my standard crankset so I don't feel bad staying in the granny ring

DoogleDave wrote:The remainder of the ride was going very well until I startled a small wild rabbit along the bike path, who decided to run across the path and straight behind my front wheel.
Thankfully he didn't run into the front wheel which would likely have ended badly for the both of us....

Gee first you terrorise international tourists and then rabbits ... no wonder cyclists get a bad name

Seriously, you need a camera for that bus driver ...

Andrew

I had good company on my commute home:

gretaboy wrote:Once I get cameras front and back....any car or truck that swerves into me or makes it dangerous for me will be reported immediately. .

Yes I report it if its deliberate. SMIDSY's I wouldn't unless they obviously don't care.

My question was just to go for TIN or dangerous driving. I'm shooting for dangerous driving.

InTheWoods wrote:

gretaboy wrote:Once I get cameras front and back....any car or truck that swerves into me or makes it dangerous for me will be reported immediately. .

Yes I report it if its deliberate. SMIDSY's I wouldn't unless they obviously don't care.

+ 1 After a while you get a feel for the ones to report and the ones to let be. The enthusiasm to report wears off quickly

Andrew

Marto wrote:I had good company on my commute home:

How was the conversation?

Comedian wrote:

Marto wrote:I had good company on my commute home:
How was the conversation?

going by marto's posts on here I'm sure it was non-stop (and really nice)

InTheWoods wrote:Fast commute home tonight even though I was meant to be taking it easy - got in some good 3-way CCR action for a change Me vs a guy on a road bike and a man-mountain on a hard tail mtb. Couldn't drop the mtb on the hills and he drafted on the flats. Guy on the roadie made a comment at the end about us all working hard, although I was trying to hide it as much as possible I think the guy on the mtb had more muscle than I have of me...

Gee its a small world! Turns out the 9 foot tall man-mountain is the dad of a girl in my son's prep class, and they're really good playmates Only realised towards the end of a conversation at an end of year function.

But now he has some advice to try marathon plus's as he keeps getting flats on gatorskins.

And apparently the only reason why I was close to dropping him is he's missing the top few gears on his cassette and was about to spin out, on the hills he was fine. Grrrrrrr

Good ride back on Friday afternoon, refreshments served at my brother's place.
Headwind into the Melb CBD this morning, with a couple of strange ones on the road, including two young women in a Yaris (I think) on Brunswick St repeatedly turning across me, presumably to turn into a side street, then a few moments later having changed their minds, overtook me again and peformed a similar maneuvre a couple of streets down. Got fed-up after the third time of being required to take evasive action and enquired loudly what they thought they were doing - didn't see them again after that.

Finally the warm weather has hit. Was a great ride in this morning, worked up a nice sweat by the end. No hair raising moments which is always great.

Got an early xmas present, a go pro, but only got an 8Gig sd card at the moment, it didnt even last 15 k's before it was full...but a new toy anyways to play with.

Bike seems a bit different with the new parts, seems a little quicker but at same time seems tighter in movements and as if need a little bit of extra effort in pushing along.

Nice easy one for me today. Lots of
People out. Kept my head in and stayed out of some potential CCR action.

jasonc wrote:

Comedian wrote:

Marto wrote:I had good company on my commute home:
How was the conversation?

going by marto's posts on here I'm sure it was non-stop (and really nice)

Ha ha - we dont:

Actually the conversation with Perfect Cyclist was one-sided as usual.

I was just settling in to my commute in this morning, when I realised I forgot my water bottle. I quickly tried to remember the location of water fountains and taps on my way, but I haven't used them since lots were removed or had their handles taken off, so I had a few side tracks to my commute. I didn't feel too bad, but I did have a large drink on arriving at work. Just as well there was pretty much full cloud cover. I guess I better head over to the "I'm an idiot" thread...

I did the no water bottle this morning. Felt terrible for a while.
Had a good mini stack, went to cut the corner of the bike path and went over some sand. Front wheel went a bit sideways and I have a good chunk out of my ankle and a few scrapes up my other shin.