Life Slips on...

well lots has happened and continues to happen. The father-in-law, Ken, passed away a couple of weeks ago. Now at least without pain. This probably pushed me to get to see a Doctor. About my knee and my obvious high blood pressure problems. Both things I have been avoiding admitting needed any treatment. To no-ones surprise I am now a daily dose of meds man and have gone to get the manditory knee x-rays before my appointment with the orthopedic surgion at John Flynns in a cuppla weeks time.

And on the bike... well the showers and Southerlies have continued and persisted producing one of the strangest Springs ever. The tank is always full the bushfire season has been non existent it just goes on and on.... Finished the commuter challenge and have watched the changes to Sextons Hill freeway by-pass occur at a much closer perspective than the cagers as they (and me on those dr days) fume up the hill in the traffic jam.

As if that was a traffic jam. But when there are no cars effecting anybodys progress, by any mode of transport, except for this 2km it is a noticible change in conditions. More updates when I get around to It LOL

Commute to Continue

Well now that the DER is again financial. I will be looking forward to the commute to continue throughout the Spring and Summer . It may not last even now but that will be unforseen. Even though it is rather boring work, it is busy so the day day goes quickly. That all leads to the bit of time between riding seems short.

I am also looking forward to the end of these blasted South Easters and the return of the afternoon Sea Breeze to send me on my way each afternoon I'm on the bike.

Mur'bah Commute

Meeting tomorrow so I rang the DET office location and was told "no worries" about secure bicycle parking. They will let me use their undercover lockup. cool. Now I just need to secure the Netbook for the trip over Reserve Creek and it is all go. I think I will ride the Cypress rather than the Shogun as the route is hilly rather than the usual flat to undulating Tweed route.

Edit: the meeting went a bit longer than advertised and I didn't leave until after 4:30PM through the thick hot smoky air filling the Tweed Valley. Rode Reserve Creek Rd. as planned but needed to ride the last 3 kms in late twilight. Made it home with another 23 km on the commuter computer.

Joined the throng

Just a test posting to see if posting will do my tweet for me. Commuted home against the wind today. I thought it would be a nice Nor'Easter but it didn't really get that far round just an annoying crosswind. And the smoke from local fires on Watty Bishop Clotiers Creek made for a difficult to breath ride towards the end...

I must be bored

This week i decided to "register... for the 2010 Bicycle Commuter Challenge!" with Bicycle NSW, not sure why at all. Got all the crap provided including an e_logbook in the form of an excel spreadsheet, which looks to have been created by a high school student. It required inclusion of few functions to actually make it at least a little automated.  FGS the sum() fn has got to be the most basic spreadsheet function and yet the sheet required the user to actually manually sum a column. For an organisation that is funded and where employees are paid and are not volunteers  it is a little amaturish. This may seem a bit contrite and petty but hey It's just an opinion

pre election federals

Well riding to work may become a used to do exercise after this weekend. Having a job that is one of the political footballs at the moment will see my continued employment being decided by the voters of Australia. So continued commuting all depends on the election outcome.  I'm no stanger to this. I was a trainer during the 90's in the Labor LEAP program running in the local area. Labor lost that election to the Howard slashers waking up on the following Monday to no job. Now I will be facing a very similar fate if Abbott the mad monk gets in. I will see next week...

Still here, Just...

Boring update. Still riding not as often as my mind wants but my knees are very thankful. Gettimg in 3x30 kms rides a week. Mostly on the commuter riding home from work. But still getting on the simple mtb and even managed a quiet cruise to the top of Cudgera Creek Road, all without my knees more than twitching. I was surprised with the clean and smoth surface of the road, although the wheel tracks of the Rollers were still visible on the edges of the gravel road...

To tree or not to tree

Just a quick post on th's mornings commute. Last night I was chatting to Mark about his rides on the weekend with his new shoes ‘n pedals . Had a few laughs over the few slow tumbles and the one lost it going downhill along a deep cow track. Kama was out to get me this morning. I took off tired from the get go and the sunnies were annoyingly dirty but left them on, which would add to my problems later.

The ride went uneventfully through the still air of the morning, mist  lingering in the small valleys along the route. Pleasant enough!

After 7 km’s I began the noisy section along the freeway bike lane. Passing the Eviron overpass bridge nothing was out of the ordinary, mind doing it’s wandering and being brought into focus as the next B-Double flew past.

Then the tree jumped out from the edge of the verge. No but nearly. Last week I saw the tree laying low and fully extending out across the north bound bike path and mentioned it to my daughter, so I should of been expecting it. But I had begun to tilt my head low to allow me to see through the clean section of the sunnies to avoid debris, big mistake travelling at 35 km/hr as it didn’t let me see far ahead.

At the very instant of seeing the tree and the knowing there was no way to stop before hitting it, I began to hear a truck coming up fast behind  me. This cut off the only escape route. I was thinking quick enough to not want to bounce under 24 wheels of a semi travelling at 110 km/hr.

So that left the only option ” hit the tree head on”, which I did, still clipped in. So I tested the somersault skills I have been honing on my gravel road riding. Although I have never tried one at this speed it wasn’t totally successful. Both the bike and myself ended up on sprawled out on the other side of the foliage.

More bark of me than the tree. Lucky it was still green and I hit it near the top zone, still far enough away from the truck and end to be both 600 mm high and more around. I scrambled to my feet and move the various parts all moved normally. Painful back, hip and elbow. Checked the elbow nice road grind there no blood. Next checked the bike front and rear wheels still round and true. Derailleur’s still functional. Only sign of damage the right shifter moved a bit and the new bar tape grazed, so it’s still rideable!

What to do next? Make a call? No! Ride the rest of the way? Give it a go! What about the f!@$&#$g tree? Move it off the bike lane? Yes! Moving the tree got the self aggression out and calmed me down to ride “normally “ the rest of the commute.

I didn’t get the time, during the rest of the ride, to dwell on my crash. About 2 kilometres up the road a Lindsay’s Bro’s B-Double did a scare the bike rider by deliberately drifting into the bike lane by about 600mm, close after my earlier experience.  Ah another ride in paradise!

Just after the Chinderah interchange the commuter rider from last week caught me and cruised past with a gid’ay. Didn’t struggle over Sextons Hill but was a little concerned with the Machinery Drive intersection. But it was an unwarranted concern.

A bit of an uncomfortable day at work but that was all and rode the return with relative ease, except I took the bike path up the rise of Sextons just in case I lost it! Another two minor incidents stood out. Getting squezzed into the gutter by a non indicating lane changing delivery van and another Lindsay’s Bro’s B-Double moved into the bike lane again. They must employ  a lot of disillusioned dropkick ute drivers.

Not so small...

Summer winding down

I've had the shogun commuter returned via Jeff on his way home today. I've had to work back until after 1800 the last 3 nights and wanted to get at least one commute in this week. So tomorrows the day. Meant to be mild easterly in the morning and a hot tail wind for the ride home.

Each arvo this week the family including the dogs have been getting a short 4km Skateboard, ride and run to the end of the road. The only one of us to take it easy was little legged Jessie sitting in the front basket after a distance of 500 meters not bad for a 13.5 year old tubby little dog. The temps have been a pleasant 28°C and slightly cloudy to match with a weak southerly.  

The excessive heat finally starting to show signs of releasing it's grip has shown in the number of cyclists appearing on the Tweed coast cycleways. shame that most of who see fit to disregard the mandatory NSW helmet law. The police if they cared to would have a field day. I have not heard of anyone being prosecuted once, twice etc

The Wet begins...

I think it's finally here and after 2 weeks is not getting old yet. Even  with the humidity climbing into the 90's at least the rain reaches the ground now! Ridiong so far has been quite easy through the isollated heavy downpours, continuous constant rain is yet to begin but that season is not far off. We can expect the rest of the wet to continue through to the end of April (i hope). A lot of trees and smaller plants in the region have been under extreme stress for a long time. Those that just hung in there through the extended dry will make it through the comming wet (50-50 chance?), too dry--> too wet = death.

Aside: managed a cute 25.4 km/hr average over the 56km commute yesterday without any noticable change to the left knee.

Riding with knee braces is extremely hot in this weather it's like riding with leggings on but they really do seem to help me get past the 20km point without over working the knee joints and so reduce the post ride pain. It is annoying to ride with so many self-imposed restrictions, sometimes you just want to apply the power for a burst of speed and exileration at others you feel like just spinning at a high cadence but the little voice stops it cold, whispering "Remember the post ride pain will stop you getting out on the bike again for a few days or longer, it's your choice!" 

So far it works most of the time...

Salted Battery

Decided to kill two birds with the one stone today. Rode to South Tweed after fixing the "easy wheel" on the garage gate this morning. As I was going past "Battery World" I dropped in an picked up a new 12V 23AE battery for the wireless sender and a new 3V CR2032 for the computer receiver. Not to bad after 26 months of use, but still a quarter the price of a replacement cheapo HUFFY13 bicycle computer. The real reason for the trip was to get my timetable for the next two weeks of teaching, ughhhh!

The wind was a fairly constant NE-NNE about 8-10km/h. So not really any problem as a head wind nor that much assistance as a tail wind.

Only one "yobbo ute" incident on the way home so all up a pleasant 56km ride.

Well the teaching income will come in handy. I was researching DSLR cameras last night and found that I can use my Minolta AF reflex  lenses on Sony A200-A700 cameras (plus others). Which is really Great news! Now those $1000 investments will be able to stop gathering dust! If I get a DSLR body +$750.00

Ride2Work Day 2009

Ride to Work Day is on again on the 14 October 2009.  Bicycle NSW/Sydney doesn't seem interested in showing anything on their web site and yet Bicycle Victoria is promoting it with early bird prize draw registrations...

I havent looked at any of the Brisbane centric Qld sites.

Long time no knee

Iv'e been able to ride spits and spurts over the last weeks... culminating in the 30km circuit  against a decent headwind yesterday. Only problem is I can't seem to increase my cadence or peddle pressure without the left knee kicking up a stink!

It did prove to me that it is possible to ride my commuter distance, but still leaves a niggling doubt of bringing on some long term damage. Something I really want to avoid. I have another 22 days straight teaching relief work ahead of me so I will not be able to get in to see a Doctor until about the end of March. Ho hum!  But as two weeks will be only 10km round trip I hope to give the shorter commute a nudge! We will see.

Commute to Nowhere

Decided to get on the Shogun even though I didn't have anywhere to commute to. Just to see if the knee held up which it did! Rode to Hastings Headland to look at the approaching thunderstorm first...



So much for cooling the weather it passed by out to sea and the sun came back out with it's usual intensity.

 

and another one for luck../

So... that's a Tail Wind

Saw Mark on his morning ride this morning, unsure how far he finally got before turning back towards home, but the wind and temp at 7:30am was looking good for a ride, I slacked out and got a lift to work with my Shogun. But I still got some exercise, when myself and a couple of Garbos were going up Sextons Hill. In a stationary traffic jam we jumped out ran up the hill for 50 or so meters and pushed a stranded car, causing the delay, from the left lane of the North bound lanes and then ran back to the car. Quite a workout for this little going grey duck.

Today's afternoon commute was quite amazing. Bright sunny sky, and a strong NNE wind blowing. The ride through South Tweed was as usual through the afternoon traffic but the wind made it a 40km/hr spin just about matching the car/truck traffic... Then the chug up Sextons Hill was nice as it included the cooling effect of the strong tail wind. Ah!

The only bad, if you can call them that, times during the ride was the occasional tree and hill lee sections that appeared every now and then along the freeway where the tail wind was equal in direction and speed to my forward movement. These spots caused the body temperature to rise very rapidly and required a bit of water pouring to get some relief. Thankfully these interludes were gone as fast as they arrived.

Quicki

A quick Commute with a 25km/hr tail wind today got a average for the 23 km of 29km/hr.... on the Shogun. I rode the Coast Rd without incident! Just the but got numb.... I must look at getting a better saddle?

T-was-OK

Well the 27-12 was excellent for my climb over Sextons and also the grind against the 40km/hr head winds on the way home this arvo. Nice

Day's Mech

I rode the Samurai to Cabba Bike Shop this 'arvo after work to get the front derailleur fitted and also to have the cluster changed to give me a granny gear of 27-12 range. Ahhh! Sextons Hill without any knee pain is what i want! So I will most likely see tomorrow if the reality is what it's cracked up to be....
hear's hoping! The Chain was OK for length so I will have a spare 10 speed chain now.

The 105 cluster didn't come in so Jeff put a 10 speed Ultegra 27-12 on for the same price, thank-you. Some have said I should have used e-Bay but I don't completely trust main component parts that may be used or faulty rather than as described.. It was only a few extra dollars for a local guarantee.and supporting a shop that I will want to be there for long a while yet especially when I need it in a hurray! Things are fairly quiet in the shop at the moment, after the flurry of activity during the last school holidays. Is it the rain, wind or heat? It might even be the economy!

Windy Worker

Just returned from a quite windy rerturn home commute just managed to get an average of 21 kms/hour. the wind was a head wind all the way except for the last 200 meters.

 



And it was cool on the verge of raining all the way threatening to but not able to with the wind blowing it away...

Got in a Commute, at last

This morning saw a nice still and mild start to an uneventful ride, 27.4km and the expected NE sea breeze was a ENE so more a cross wind for the afternoon return which clocked 25.5kms?

 

The cheap ALDI Tronica Wireless Cycling Computer for $20.00 seems to register 99km/hr at times when you are stationary or wheeling the bike... ahhhh the price of crap