Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Commute home last night was an absolute battle of wills - me vs the wind. It ranged from wild and gusty in my face, filling my eyes with dirt and grit, to serious cross winds that made me feel as though I was leaning almost 45% to one side just so that I actually remained vertical. Mostly they were headwinds and my legs certainly felt the effects of them! At least I made it home before the actual storm started, only copped a few stinging rain drops...

Strange one yesterday afternoon, had to pull over and leap off to usher shingleback skinks off the PSP near Bateman, for fear of them being mistaken for leaves/bark and getting sliced up (had to lift up some cyclone wire to let one under).

Never come across them like that before, then twice in the space of 100m. Maybe there was some kind of basking convention on or something, or perhaps more likely all the construction around there is getting them all discombobulated

Great commute yesterday riding in a steady warm rain, arrived at work completely soaked but comfortable. The rain was the perfect temperature to give a nice cooling effect under exertion, not much traffic on the road either It was the best ride I've had for a while

Bloody bag was soaked though and my iphone got pretty wet . It was playing up but has come good now touch wood, after some time under a hot air hand dryer and then stuck in a plastic bag with some tea bags for the trip home

warthog1 wrote:Bloody bag was soaked though and my iphone got pretty wet .

http://www.kathmandu.com.au/packs-and-b ... ellow.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

alternatively, buy a deuter air comfort bag with an inbuilt rain cover

jasonc wrote:
http://www.kathmandu.com.au/packs-and-b ... ellow.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

alternatively, buy a deuter air comfort bag with an inbuilt rain cover

Thanks Jason. That looks good and I reckon might be the go. The phone will be in a snap lock sandwich bag from now on but the rest of the bag was still quite wet. No mudguards on my Azzurri so a lot of spray, but it is a good quality back pack I have, so I was surprised how wet it got.

warthog1 wrote: it is a good quality back pack I have, so I was surprised how wet it got.

there is good quality, then there's deuter....
but yes, the overbag cover will help.

Pre velomobile, I commuted for 3 years via road bike in all weather. I did use a Deuter back pack but never bothered with its in-built rain cover. I went with one of these: http://www.this link is broken/respro-waterpro ... ack-cover/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Better water resistance, high vis in the day, reflective at night. It also kept my bag clean from wheel spray etc so I could remover the cover and not be left with a muddy bag to bring into the office.

Great ride this morning. Bit chilly and overcast, but the 7.5ks to work were traffic free. Nice to have the roads all to yourself.

Friday was pretty damp and humid, and the afternoon commute was made in steady drizzle.
This morning's ride into the Melbourne CBD was surprisingly busy with traffic at 4:30am, considering it's a Monday morning and we are about a week away from the holidays.

Rhubarb wrote:Pre velomobile, I commuted for 3 years via road bike in all weather. I did use a Deuter back pack but never bothered with its in-built rain cover. I went with one of these: http://www.this link is broken/respro-waterpro ... ack-cover/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Better water resistance, high vis in the day, reflective at night. It also kept my bag clean from wheel spray etc so I could remover the cover and not be left with a muddy bag to bring into the office.

Thanks, I like the high vis aspect as I am a bit paranoid about incompetent drivers overtaking me. Neighbour years ago was run over and killed by a DUI driver.
Comes from wiggle too, so I can just bung it on with the tyres and cassettes.

After a, what I'm told, spectacular crash yesterday, I decided to take it easy on the way in this morning. Unfortunately, the cage dwellers were having a bad day Incident #1 saw a taxi decide to cut me off in the bike lane, so I banged on his window and suggested, none too politely, that he get off the phone and pay attention to what was going on around him!

Incident #2 a car decided that Give Way is interpreted as an amber light (I.e. go faster) and just about took out a cyclist in front me.

Might be time to head for the hills and wait it (whatever it is) out!

goneriding wrote:Might be time to head for the hills and wait it (whatever it is) out!

it's called Christmas

jasonc wrote:

goneriding wrote:Might be time to head for the hills and wait it (whatever it is) out!

it's called Christmas

Can't wait for that either!!

Nice commute in bne today. Warm, with sparse traffic yet a few bikes to pedal with which was nice.

Could be warm on the way home tonight. Tomorrow might be one to watch. Could be a chance of a storm in the afternoon

Commuting stops for me for the year on Wednesday. I am reminded of how much I am lucky to have SWMBO - has organised our holidays, starting at Beechworth VIC, with plenty of opportunities for me to go for a ride. I love that woman

My preferred commuter had a flat tyre this morning. Options were either to repair the tyre or use the Repco. Laziness won out so I just swapped the lights over and headed out on the Repco.

No having ridden it on a commute for some time I found the Repco rather pleasant . The morning was lovely, warm but not hot and nice and calm.

Nice ride home tonight - took the long way. Came across a rather large snake on the path in Karkarook park . I wish they'd keep to the left rather than taking up the whole Path!

Perth:

The last few days have been great - mostly because the winds morning and arvo have been mild. Far better than last week.

The detours thru South Perth are now in the past with the river wall repaired and everyone able to take the old direct route.

Overall it looks like the week is gonna pan out very well indeed. I hope to see y'all out there.

Bad commute home for me tonight. Something, not sure what, went terribly wrong, either the chain slipped or it attempted to jump gears (has happened sporadically and haven't been able to solve it, but only rare occurrence). Either way, I ended up upside down on the road, managed to roll out of it with a few scraps and cuts (all bandaged up now), the bike ended up worse for wear with the brake levers and shifters bent and scratched pretty bad, the seat's all scratched up and scrapes all along the handlebars and frame.... Not sure where all the damage came from... Please see below and have a chuckle... lol!

http://youtu.be/lMG7PZ4LNvw

FuzzyDropbear wrote:Bad commute home for me tonight. Something, not sure what, went terribly wrong, either the chain slipped or it attempted to jump gears (has happened sporadically and haven't been able to solve it, but only rare occurrence). Either way, I ended up upside down on the road, managed to roll out of it with a few scraps and cuts (all bandaged up now), the bike ended up worse for wear with the brake levers and shifters bent and scratched pretty bad, the seat's all scratched up and scrapes all along the handlebars and frame.... Not sure where all the damage came from... Please see below and have a chuckle... lol!

I didn't laugh - happened a couple of times to me, including once recently - in my case the most recent cause was that the internal gear hub was out of adjustment - a minor issue to fix but a pain if you don't

The whirr of my wheels, birds calling and then I realised I could also hear the sound of grass tearing as the cows enjoyed their breakfast. I love the rural part of my commute - although I must remember to keep an eye out in case that goat (animal variety) is still out on the road tonight. http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/posti ... 41&t=16139#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

find_bruce wrote:I didn't laugh

+1 - mechanicals are unpleasant.

my last commute day for the year (yay for holidays). have commuted 186 days (was aiming for 140 days). it was HUMID. It felt like I was swimming to work. legs feel good hopefully i get the all clear from the physio tonight

Cold here again this morning, 11C. Supposed to warm up during the day. I had a slow ride in and a nice hot shower.

Commutes last two days have been standard but interesting.

Yesterday riding home nearly got taken out by a car...driver simply had no idea...a bloke who was walking towards me and witnessed it goes "he nearly hit you", to which I simply said "yeah I know". I think this guy was really amazed at what happened. I just thought it was another normal day/ride on the bike.

Went to a boxing style boot camp exercise thing last night, going along to "give support" to my partner in her exercise endeavours. Being a male I pushed myself and it hurt. I knew at the time that I was going to pay a second time for that effort this morning.

Luckily the weather is strange at the moment. It is cool, to the point of having me think it is like winter weather but at the same time there is an underlying warmness to it. So with hurting from the previous nights exercise I headed off on my ride. All up it was a good ride, not the fastest but not the slowest either. Decent headwind most of the way again too.

Not much left in the body tank at the moment.

jasonc wrote:

find_bruce wrote:I didn't laugh

+1 - mechanicals are unpleasant.

...

Yeah, it's not quite hilarious, but if I don't have a laugh at myself, I'll crack the sads and take it out on the bike. haha. More upset cause my brand new wheel that I just built got a bit banged up. I think it was the result of a worn chain and possibly worn cassette, but I'll check this further out this week and hopefully have it back on the road in a week or two.

Cheers guys.