First Outing

I went for a one legged 10kms this arvo lucky no troubles or pain. Not quite one leg the op leg was used to reset the good leg pedal to the power stroke position and it was all flat... so all is right with the world.

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.

Oddball Crash

Doubled the Shogun down to Caba Cycles this arvo. Riding the MTB and holding onto the head tube to pull it along steering basically when required... until! On the bike pathe between Round Mt Rd and the skate park there is a sharp round a tree zig-zag. This is where the Shogun zagged when it should of zigged. the pedal's locked together riping the head tube out of my hand and completely losing it on the MTB.

A crash in the peleton but there was only one rider. Picked myself and both bikes up. a quick inspection showed only damagwe was a bit of bark off me and some bar tape scrapped off the the shogun... and added expense to the degrease repack and head tube bearing replacement I was taking it to the LBS to get.

Towards the end of the 5kms the left hand was getting a little worn out. The shogun was continually bucking over small , (or large), joins in the concrete paving. A few times I had to lift the Shoguns front wheel off the ground to keep some control. Then managed with luck to rebalance the Shogun and was able to put it down  again.

Anyway job done.

Fire Update 7th December 2009

I haven't been far from home for obvious reasons tonight. Though this afternoon I visited Jims  at the end of Towners Road, the fire was fairly close  but only observed the edge of the thick smoke coming off the strong North North Easterlies. He had made a lot of preparations just in case as he was alone. While we chatted a few dead ash embers drifted down. After I left later I heard from another neighbour that he was starting to get live embers falling, luckly the wind has dropped a bit. The smoke at home has been a lot more bareable than just a little further East and West where it is stinging the eyes and turning headlights into white glowing balls of light.

A brigade truck is continually patrolling slowly up and down Towners road, possibly looking for any spotting. As the fire is due North of here I will stay up until 3:00am and then let the misses take over. It even looks like I might not get to work Tomorrow.... wait and see! At this stage it looks like we might be missing the worst situations, luckily for us, but anthing could yet happen. It is so dry around here the marshes ar tinder dry and the undergrowth in those areas are dead or dormant dry, even the mosses and reeds.

I have heard a bit of hearsay that the fire is not really threatening the area around Sliprails Road. This is the area wfor us to worry about most as that would give the fire front a diect path to reach us with the current winds.

When I drove home at 5:30pm this arvo the rubber-neckers were out in force parked along the sides of Clothiers Creek Road drinking beers and watching the three helecopters waterbombing to save the houses in Tanglewood. It hasn't been confirmed but I was told that none were lost.

The 2 other close loacl fires, Eviron Road and Depot Road I know very little about, except what Marks' misses told me as she was on the way to dropping here kids off at there granparents for safety and that the Eastern smoke plume is from the Depot Road/Camp Wollumbin area.

YouCan

Today's quick test ride was up the 22% gravel driveway on the Yukon and I made it with relative ease no wheel spin or fork lifting, a bit of front wheel wobble but a better pedal action should get rid of that, next time. And also a bit of puffing and panting at the top, Jim wasn't home. So a quick 10km there and back.

Only noticeable bugs was an occasional downshifting by the rear derailleur on it's own whilst under no pressure or strain. Also the brand new brakes might need a bit of bedding in and I will also need to get used to hydraulic disc brakes as well as the levers reversed from the retired bitser MTB.

Oh yeah the title of this post the climb just impressed me so Yukon has now become my Youcan. With such a short ride my knee held up very well yeah!

Arrogance Personified

Tweed deputy mayor labels voters 'morons'

• ABC Source

The deputy mayor of the Tweed Shire in northern New South Wales says many of his constituents are morons.

Phil Youngblutt was elected to the position earlier this month when his name was drawn from a box, after voting was tied.

Councillor Youngblutt says he does not support moves to have the mayoral positions decided by a popular vote because he does not trust voters to make the right decision.

"Even when I [was] polling, there were people coming up who didn't know who they were voting for," he said.

"I mean, that's what I'm talking about, if you're polling and you're voting and you don't know who you're voting for, really why are you voting?

"Then I would say yes, they probably are morons."

The deputy mayor says he was not looking to cause offence.

"If I've offended anybody it's only the ones that probably are [morons]," he said.

"I'm not trying to offend anyone but certainly if the shoe fits, wear it."

Typical. This is what we get to LEAD US in our community.I get it! The white shoe brigade exposes it's real feelings about why they get into politics ie to represent the people (ie the morons) and not to impose their paternalistic one eyed will upon the simple folk. My opinion of this man is just not fit to print. If I am offended he feels that I am a Moron. Thus if it is alright for him to call me and others morons then lets try an adage of  "having the shoe on the other foot"

"Councillor Youngblutt, you are a moron if you don't feel the need to apologise!"

Do your Job! Represent ALL the voters or get out of local politics and leave it to someone with some level of intelligence and the required ability to represent ALL YOUR constituents.

The "I" Post

I've been following  OzCableGuy's progress for quite a while now.

I am not one to have planned exercise in any organised way at any time during my life, no training, no workouts, no sessions etc. Not that I did no exercise to the contrary I saw SURFING and WORK as exercise, move this here, carry this, dig this etc. Growing older has seen a slow down and change in work patterns, brain rather than brawn. Now sees me at a stage of life where I am neither fit nor healthy as a result! and never will be young again so it is unlikely that I will be able to change these things quickly nor practically. It took time to get to where I am now and it will take more time to get where I would like to (should?) be, not just effort.

I still, through stupidity, smoke cigarettes. Stress and weakness come to mind as feeble excuses? But I have found one way to drop a few kilos and increase my fitness over the last few years... although it might not be possible to follow this path for very much longer...

Riding too much with an "old" unfit body gave me a forced opportunity to stop, I got lumbered with an allergic reaction to the Sun ( I've never really liked the intensive itching of hives), whilst riding, cruising really, around 250-300kms per week ( Although I still think it was triggered from a massive day of using "Round-Up" a couple of Springs ago). During all that time of intense? exercise I couldn't see any weight loss just a continual bouncing up and down on the scales although I could notice physical changes. When I was then forced to get out of the sun for three months and only ride at night, and occasional very short trips during the day, It was revelled to me that after a long period of exercise  pulling around a heavy(fat) body built up big muscle, then doing no exercise and still watching what I eat saw the weight drop dramatically! I must of being eating my excess muscle! Anyway this sun trouble passed over winter and let me begin excessive riding again... To my astonishment I saw that even though I was now getting fitter, (If one can whilst still smoking cigarettes), my weight was now lower and stable.

Another forced break has seen the same transition. My knee problems saw me slow my riding to a crawl and this had seen my weight again drop. But slowly as the duration of the hiatus lengthens the old ways are coming back.... the weight is still off but I have not got to my goal weight still 8 kilograms to GOOooo....

The long and short of it for ME is "it seems that continuous intensive exercise is not a good way for me to lose weight".

An extended cyclic period of excessive exercise and then complete breaks from exercise has seen me lose the most weight. Yet, too long of a period of no exercise will leave the door open to an insidious albeit slow weight gain.

Not a good vision for my future . One where periods of intense exercise must in all inevitability become much more difficult to implement as the body wears slowly? as it gets older! How morose!

Anyway I am thinking of joining a MTB rainbow ride through Minion Falls but may only be able to finish the 20 kilometre route as there is a 22% climb for approximately one kilometre in the middle from the bottom of Minion Falls. The knees might just hate me after that climb!

Just noticed that "I" has been written 16 times in this post.

Chook Pen Reno

Not sure if there is any rally connection but this morning there was a pretty serious accident on Round Mountain Road. Four ambulances and a rescue vehicle raced past west wards. Past the freeway overpass. That's about all I know! but why today? then again why not? Anyway, I'm glad I was caught up with finishing the chook pen renovation, even though it's dad's day. Replacing the white ant/termite eaten plates and trimming the vertical lapped cladding boards to get them out of the scratched up litter. Since the heavy rains earlier this year seems to activated their climbing behaviour. Also re-wove any holes in the netting from falling limbs from last years storms. Only need to repair the acid soil corroded wall netting at ground level in a couple of places and the chooks (day old chicks which are 4 weeks old now)  might just last long enough to lay some "goggies"

Paddock Bash

Slow cruise on the old mtb with Mark today, starting at a mellow 9:00am. A paddock bash along cane roads, cattle tracks and old abandoned banana roads from Round Mountain Westwards to Reserve Creek then the same repeated through to Palm Vale. Returning via the road network. Of note was a couple of little creek crossings, climbing over an electric fence using the bike frames as ladders on either side and the discovery of another possible route into the Mooball forest! it took ~4hours to cover the ~22kms.

[caption id="attachment_353" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Paddock Bashing with Mark through private property"][/caption]

Byron - Hit 'n Run

FORENSIC investigators were hard at work yesterday along the section of disused railway line which runs under the Pacific Highway at Tyagarah.

Their grim task was to try to piece together the final moments of a woman whose body was found next to the track early yesterday.

By midday the investigators had found five or six points of interest, highlighting them with bright yellow numbered markers.

Clad in their blue Forensic Services overalls, their job was to record even the smallest detail - anything that could help lead to the prosecution of those responsible for the woman’s death.

Despite their meticulous work, the bald facts of the case were apparent almost as soon as the woman was found.

About 7am, a motorist alerted police at the Byron Bay police station, handing in to officers part of a badly damaged pushbike wheel and some clothing found on the motorway about a kilometre south of the Tyagarah Airfield.

Police were the first to locate the woman. Her body was lying next to the tracks about 20 metres below the highway, apparently thrown over the bridge railings by the impact of the vehicle which struck her.

The police immediately declared a crime scene in the area, about five kilometres north of the Byron Bay interchange.

Orange cones narrowed the flow of southbound highway traffic to one lane to allow police to do their job.

A short time later police discovered a pantech truck with ‘significant damage’ to its front end parked in Woodford Lane at Ewingsdale.

The 18-year-old driver of the truck and another male passenger were yesterday taken to Byron Bay police station for questioning by the Ballina Crash Investigation Unit.

By late yesterday afternoon the men had been released without being charged.

The police were continuing to investigate.

Police said it appeared the collision which killed the woman occurred about 6.45am.

Police are urging anyone who may have witnessed the accident to contact them or phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police will not be releasing details of the woman’s identity until all her family have been contacted.

Addendum:

Teen driver's micro sleep proves fatal for cyclist

* Georgina Robinson
* May 11, 2009 - 11:25AM

A woman flung from her bicycle after a young driver fell asleep at the wheel of a truck on the NSW North Coast yesterday "didn't have a chance", police say.

The 41-year-old woman was cycling south along a narrow road shoulder on a bridged section of the Pacific Highway just north of Byron Bay yesterday morning when the hire truck hit her from behind.

She was thrown off the bike and over the side of the bridge into thick scrub near an old railway line, dying instantly.

Police today said the 18-year-old truck driver told investigators he fell asleep for a moment, causing the truck to veer left.

"He appears to have started nodding off with fatigue and veered to the left hand side of the road into the guard rail and she was in front so he's hit her from behind," Senior Constable Mitch McMullen, from the Ballina crash investigation unit, said.

"She got ejected off the bike and over the railing."

Police have interviewed the driver and his 22-year-old passenger, who was asleep when the crash occurred.

The men told investigators they had hired the Pantech truck to make a pick up on the Gold Coast and were on their way back to Sydney about 7am, Senior Constable McMullen said.

They had been on the road for about an hour and a half and had not driven through the night.

Senior Constable McMullen said the woman, from the small town of Tyagarah about eight kilometres north of Byron Bay, was cycling on a narrow section of road shoulder - about half a metre wide - and would have died instantly from the truck's impact.

"All the evidence points to the fact that she was to the far left as possible and the truck is actually scraping along the safety rail prior to the impact, then the impact (occurred)," he said.

"She didn't have a chance."

The men stopped twice following the smash, once in a road bay about 100m south of the accident and then again, about five kilometres away, after turning off the highway onto Ewingsdale Road to wait for police, who found them "in a state of shock".

The truck's front end was badly damaged, police said.

No charges have been laid. Senior Constable McMullen said police were waiting on the results of routine blood tests.

It was not known if the woman had children or was married. Her parents had been informed, he said.

SMH

Save Hasting Point -Battle Win

The locals have had a breakthrough! The Tweed Shire Council has voted to create/implement a Development Control Plan (DCP), see the Echo Story, the developers and their council sympathisers were out voted by a slim 4-3 margin.

This may not be the end of the war on every natural and cultural environment destructive development in the area but at least it is a small battle victory.  The general idea that more of anything is better than less is something that I disagree with.

I feel a rant coming on....

The idea of sustainability was summed up in the late 70's when I was undertaking a Business Degree at Ku-ring-gai CAE and the theory of the Steady Sate Economy was presented to me! Ah the light was blinding... but the greed is good promoted to the community during the next 30+ years has lead to the economic crisis we find ourselves as a community fast required to deal with. Many of the precepts of a Growth Economy can easily switch to become that of a Shrinking Economy. The magical multipliers work geometrically just as well in both directions!

Both the Federal and State Parliaments are proving themselves incapable of consensual action, even though the economy ship is on the verge of sinking the powers to be are deciding what colour to paint the frigging lifeboats, even though there is no rescue ship close by to save those that can fit in the limited capacity lifeboats.

Remind you of a story you may have heard? Does the Sinking of the White Star Line's Titanic come to mind, not enough lifeboats, a ship said to be unsinkable, musicians playing to placate the passengers while the ship goes down, water to cold to survive in for long, passengers deciding when is the right time to jump ship, passengers thinking the crew will save them they can sit back and be told what to do, not enough life jackets for those that can't fit into the lifeboats, no practice drills in case of emergency, etc... the list of similarities between the economy and the Titanic sinking goes on, definitely neither are or were a boy scout

... ah that's better

Just Wet

I have been slowly unwinding after the express trip for lunch on Saturday with Mum in Sydney for her 90th birthday next week. Quite exhausting the drive, flight, train, bus, taxi, walk and talk repeated in reverse on Sunday.... anyway as I was feeling lazy I waded through all the past Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand comic strips but noticed there was no full view images of Yehuda on his bike in any of the past strips and thought I would muck around with Paint.NET and cut and paste one here are the results... feeble though they might be...

Me Doing a Yehuda or is that Yehuda doing a me!

[caption id="attachment_301" align="alignnone" width="160" caption="Long Ride yehuda -slowing down"][/caption]

Enjoy... I might even get on the bike this afternoon if the weather holds clear for a bit!

Looping Daydream

Rode the loop on the cypress, this arvo. The only thing that came from it was the ability to daydream, hopefully I was concentrating when required! The main focus of the thoughts was not obvious just random thoughts... Such as when I recently rode over the Cudgera Creek Interchange there was a highway patrol vehicle sitting there doing the freeway radar bit... anyway as I approached I noticed the tinted side window being wound up... Why? was it just a coincidence?or, was it a privacy issue based on policy? or, a subconscious technique by the patrol(wo)man to avoid any personal interaction?

Or something along the lines of must clean the bike  etc or when will I drop the ride in for it's first service?

Other thoughts drifted to riding technique, like cornering and trying to ride in higher gears to prepare for the drop bar rides etc

So really a blah blah ride... but a pleasant wind down to the day's endeavors

Just a Quickie Post

Feeling really bad today but was called into work and went anyway, box of tissues and "codral cold tablets" © in hand... Yes I did drive and even then was late! During the day i was very forgetful, lucky I didn't ride for sure i would of forgotten to take something of necessity maybe the bike!

Anyway, on the way home i decided to see what the skid marks looked like from Mondays Near miss. They started in the median strip lane about 100 meters from where they eventually stopped! crossing 3 lanes of traffic. The guy was really hooting along! The only reason I can see for the fuss was that he was speeding to get around those last few cars turning off and must of wanted to cut in front of them and to his surprise we were in his racing line to the exit and reacted by jamming on his brakes and just managed , lucky for us, to partially control his skid. Enough he really deserves ChrisL's Tosspot of the Week award.

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......