Peak Oil Rant

After downloading my "Push-On",  from "Bicycle NSW", newsletter today I visited the primary site and found an article about Peak Oil and the impending doom - Peak Oil Write Up. Although it was informative it did neglect to state anything concerning the Negative effect of Peak Oil on the bicycle itself! As thee was no-where to comment on the site I will write a tiny comment here.

The bicycle needs the tools and materials that Oil provide. Maybe Hydro, Wind or Solar can replace any Fuels required in welding... but the ludrication and so-named rubber tyres and tubes will need some form of substitution as will ALL the petro-chemical based plastic components (even the loverly lycra).

If Peak Oil == Expensive then the cheap form of transport is still going to increase in relative terms anyway.

I ride a fairly cheap(sic) treadly and so far it is still costing me around $1.50 a day.

ie the bike $400,

some specific clothing $100 (some shorts less than annual, but what are they made of?),

helmet $60(maybe considered a 1 off but what is it made of?)

tools and cleaners etc $50,

service: 5000kms service replace chain and cluster

tyres 4-7000kms $35 each (made from??)

tubes time depends upon luck (made from??) 

service: 10000kms (maybe not in one year but very possible!)

lubricants: might be able to use the sheep for this replacement

What else bid i miss? Well you could add clips/shoes, bags, puncture repair kits, lighting, batteries, cable sheath, wiring, brake pads, etc, the list goes on and on... so many things in our daily lives depend on OIL not just transport I think transppport is such a side issue.... why do you need transport if there is no reason to go to the non-existent workplace or shop for those non-existent goods?

Yes many subsitutes can be created or re-implimented but they are not on the future list of whaat we will be doing.

The future list of things to do only includes the one idea! That is to look for a way to keep things the same as much as possible. That is not going to happen if "Peak Oil is the reality".

Some people go all futuristic and begin discussions of biofuels/natural gas/solar/hydrogen/and god forbid nuclear cars as a replacement for Crude OIL. All possibilities but with great cost -- creation of the fuel, emissions, economy and even transporting it!

The humble bicycle is not immune to the effects of "Peak Oil" nor the strangly named "Climate Change" group of effects (global warming, distruction of Ozone layer, distruction of habitats, extinction of species) and those that should be included global village disease (avian flu) and geneticallty modified monotype cropping (anyone remember the movie Soylent Green ?) 

Ok this is enough ranting for today......

Early Night

Tonight I thought I would ask Mark if he wanted a night, early evening ride, when I got thee with no warning I had to get him out of the bath! But he decided to give it a go, the first time since he was a teenager (30+y'ago).

On the way there I breezed past a 3 foot red belly near Kanes Rd, no drama except the number of bugs meant you had to keep your mouth tightly shut! Arrived at Marks and he didn't take too long to get ready with no notice.

We cruised of towards Kingscliff with plans to cross Duranbah hill via Eviron and Farrants road. We rode along the Casuarina Bike track swerving to avoid all the rabbits. Mark ran out of time so we cut across the Chindera Sewerage treatment development area and played squish the cane toads all the way to the freeway. The road required jumping two gates but they were ok. Not one complaint but I did manage to step between the rails of a cattle grid after I jumped over one.

After getting back to Mark's I left with the intention of returning back along Watti Bishop Rd. Before I got past the first Flood Indicator on Clothiers Creek Rd I spotted a bike and rider on the side of the road. I asked what he was doing? and was he OK? It turned out he was just setting up a tent on the side of the road! A busy peak hour through road at that and this area was still suffering from inundation. The water was only about 3 meters off the side of the road. As he would not have had a good nights sleep I suggested I lead him to Hastings Point to get a camp spot. He agreed so off we went. It turned out it was his very first stage on his first ever tour he had ridden until he could ride no more. About 70+km down from Southport, and was really loaded up.

Anyway I left him at the camp ground and returned home.

Wet n' loopy Tuesday

Today was my first venture out into the daylight since the end of November last year. It seemed that I would not have to worry about any skin photo-sensitivity. A day with full cloud cover and rain easing to torrential down pours. It is still raining as I write this entry.

The distance was a hard 48kms, for me anyway.  I started out and thought that today would be the day to attempt a bit of a bush bash. So off I go over Towners Road towards Clothiers Creek Road. At the end of the Road is some private property owned by a bloke I know by the name of Jim. So it was over the locked gate and an attempt at his hill/driveway. Well I only made it about 10 meters before the rear wheel  slipped losing traction and at the same time the front bumped a rock so off the bike I came. This was to be the start of the long push to the Summit of Round Mountain (the hill itself). After arriving at the top it was a little unclear as to which way to go as the whole area had been cleared. I selected a western track and finally got back into saddle. Came to a gate after some twists and turns and as it was scrub on the other-side lifted the bike and rode on onwards the North. This was to be a fairly short time in the saddle as the incline got so steep that the brakes no longe held the bike both the front and rear wheels slid over the leaf and sticks covering the running water covered clay. So it was off the saddle again. The descent was harder than the climb earlier. Just holding the bike by the brakes was difficult, it was sliding and so were both my feet for a meter at a time before I could get some purchase and take another step! This continued for about 200 meters until the track slowly started to level out a bit. So it was back in the saddle and on with the ride at last.

Leaving the forest behind I came out inside Tanglewood and decided to do a little look around as it turned out I was able to climb up to the top of Tanglewood Hill along Tanglewood Drive and through the next downpour down to Clothiers Creek Road. From here I decided to do a loop over Reserve Creek along Round Mountain Road via Watti Bishop Road etc This didn't seem long enough even with the heart pumping Maremma Race along Reserve Creek Road so I doubled back via Kanes Road and onto Bogangar along Clothiers Creek Road.

At Bogangar I went into



To ask Jeff about a 700c rear wheel as a spare  for the  Home-Grafton Trip and as a replacement for Humphery's warped one. While I was there I asked how he was getting on with his website, to cut a long story short nothing is in the works but the desire is there, so in the meantime I offered to promote his shop here (for free) and he agreed. It would be good if happy and not so happy clients were to add comments about the shop as It is good to have this shop locally and I think we need it to stay and will need to thrive to do this!

OK! back to the ride. After the rest stop I was now thinking of extending the ride by doing a standard Hastings Point, Pottsville, Cudgera Creek then Home loop and that is what i did.

But I was really starting to feel the last couple of little climbs, my legs were now spent, even though it was only just aproaching the 50k mark. I had not taken anything to replenish my depleted energy, especially after those couple of kilometers of pushing the bike which had taken a lot out of me...



All in all a thoroughly enjoyable Rainy Summer Ride!

Quick n' Quiet

Just got back from a figure eight loop through Pottsville, out to the top of
Cudgera Creek Rd, back down to Reserve creek Rd out along Kanes Rd and
back home along Round Mountain.

All the while thinking about the head-on car Accident I saw on Kyogle rd last night about 10pm.
I came upon it after most of the emergency crew were starting to
work on extracating the injured. I heard nothing about it in the news today.
Anyway it turned out that during my ride tonight I was only passed by one car though it did produced an empty tinny out
the drivers window.

Proposed 2008 - Attempt Home to Grafton

Well drove the Kyogle rd down to see my Dad again Yesterday. Still studying the riding route. Am attempting to work out day trip distances and over-night stop locations.

A couple of things worth noting is, firstly the "Signage is crap!"



So thats 71 kilometers if you add the two directions



And 65 kilometers adding the two directions



Now its 68 kilometers if you add the two directions

So 6000 meters of hills over ~70k is about a 9% error. So Quite a bit of local shire to local shire sign errors. Who is wrong? and who is right? do they (the local authorities) really give a damn?

Sorry about the Quality of the images I used the phone!