Musings

I have just played with the MapMyRide - Site and have found that with the 3 direct bike riding routes home from South Tweed there is a difference of about 5kms.  The two routes that cars take are the same for a bike but the Tweed Shire Bike Path Route adds about 6kms to the trip!

1. The Highway then the Freeway about 26.4kms of very flat and on a scale of 1-10 Danger: Level about a 5 Duration:1.25hrs Distance:26.5km


2. The Highway then the Coast Road mostly flat but many sections with no verge and lots of 80km/hr road rage-ers. Danger: Level 8 Duration:~1hr Distance: 21kms


3. The Tweed Coast Bike Paths as well as adding at least an extra 6kms to the trip it introduces a lot of sharp/blind corners, street crossings,  and badly maintained and or built pavement surfaces which is shared with other bike riders (very few commuters mainly cruisers and bmx/skateboard riders on the way home from school, joggers, dog walkers, site-seeing pedestrians and exercisers as well as "elderly electric goers" ie lots of slower non-concentrating traffic to avoid moving in both directions. The speed through most of a trip along this path is reduced to about 15kms/hr, except for the two wide open sections along the dune front where 25-30km/hr is attainable but with caution as kids have come out of side tracks to and from the beach without looking on many occasions. Danger: level 7 Duration: 1.75hrs Distance:27.4kms

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.

Finally Down

Well I suppose it was inevitable. More later... Being a casual relief teacher I replace Sick Teachers and today's ride home saw me travel with a partner, a road racer needing to burn off the lactic acid build-up from the races last weekend so he was keen to have someone "make him" ride slowly. We were riding along the edge of the freeway near the Chinderah Kingscliff off ramp and from behind came the dreaded sound of screeching tyres that seemed to go on and on and on.... Next thing I see out of the corner of my left eye a ute sliding sideways that finally came to rest level with us... a bit of heart pounding after that... the driver without us understanding why seemed to consider us the cause of his delema! After discussing it later we still could not come up with a completely plausable explanation.... luck might mean trying a different method to get through that intersection with safety next time!

After trying to tail him along the rest of the freeway to Clothiers Creek exit I asked him if he wanted to get a few small quiet hills in as well on the ride he said OK and I took him along Watti Bishop and Kanes Road loop into Potty and then into the headwind along the coast road...

Here is where I will continue with the first statement. During the ride along the coast road I seemed to begin to lose all my energy and could not even tail my partner at 20km/hr. Knees started to hurt as well as my back and shoulders... The sniffles I had been having all day were about to change into a fully fledged cold! fever aches & pains, coughing and a runny nose ah! the pleasure of working in a sick environment!

I can only hope it's over in 24hours and the ride burnt it out not increased it's presence!

Simple Commute

At work today I had to put up with the usual put-downs from the "resident roady", about what I was going to be wearing for the journey (What no lycra?), low topspeed (What you need...), My helmet cost me, $XXX and look at that airflow! ie my helmets cost, age and style, blah blah... Surprisingly none of it stopped me getting home from work without the need to call a tow-truck or ride in the peloton!

The ride was uneventful, sun shining light breeze from the East consistently neither a head nor tail wind. The lightness was noticeable to the point of "feeling" the blowby from trucks rolling past on the other side of the road travelling in the opposite direction!

Anyway the wind is expected to reach greater strengths tomorrow and be blowing out of the North West quadrant so the journey home should be at unusually high speeds!! You never know might even average in the 30s. Just need to take the sail to work with me in the morning and it will be a cert!

At the moment it seems to be "just perfect" riding weather.

Caba Cycles

Looks like Cabarita Cycles has found it's niche in the local area, sponsoring along wth many of the areas other cycle shops, the roadriders of Murwillumbah Cycle Club. Jeff has also informed me that he will have a dedicated site available online soon. Good luck with the enterprise, glad I could help you get yourself started with a web presence.

Sick and Missed it!

Called by Marks place on the return of today's Duranbah Hill Loop and he's still laying around in his PJ's. After the trip to Hell Holes was sadly called off at the last minute with Mark coming down with a major Ear Infection, I made him feel better by telling him I broke my rear derailleur cable the previous evening and had No Spares! *( a situation now rectified). This ear infection has laid him in bed for the last 5days, Sat-Wed. He hasn't even been able to see any of his clients, and they are backing-up quickly. He will need to pull some overtime to make up for this episode. Jeeez I'm now glad we didn't go on the ride and either Chris or myself catching it as well!.

Nice day for a ride over the crown of Duranbah. Little traffic or wind. I took it easy and quietly. Marvelling at the scenery as though it was for the first time. The climbs were easy, or maybe they just seemed easier without the stress, with me being quite surprised, on a few occasions, at the size of the gear I was negotiating the climb in when I was roused from my daydreaming.

Tomorrow I'll try another commute to Tweed and back.... until then....

At last a-bit-o Luck

Most of My riding for the last month has been very short trips. My right hip has been just too sore! Why ? I don't know and have not been to the doctor.
The situation culminated in one morning about 10 days ago. That morning I moved my leg to get out of bed as usual. My scream woke the rest of the house! Since then the pain has definitely changed. It no longer happens every single time I rotate my hip to the side (I don't know what its called), but when it does come, it happens with a vengeance! Thus my reluctence to stress the joint.
I decided yesterday to give it a test. I rode back from work at Tweed Heads, having been given a lift with the bike to work in the morning.
The trip home was against the strongest wind we have had in ages.

 and as I was unsure about my ability rode the bike path up Sextons Hill rather than use the roadway as I usually do. All good so far, except when I had returned my front wheel I had slackly fitted it with the computer magnet on the wrong side, doohh!

Rode across the bridge in the roadworks debris and continued through to after the "tweed valley way" exit there I pulled over to refit the front wheel! Very gingerly dismounted. No pain cool! I did notice quite a bit of numbness in the nether regions so determined I needed to risk the climb out of the saddle a bit during the rest of the ride, commute.
A couple of rises out of the saddle and all felt normal, although I did get some twinges in my hip. I also noticed I was putting more stress on my right knee. I will need to rectify this if I want to be able to go on longer rides again.

No problems except with the rear derailleur throughout the rest of the journey up-to the Clothiers Creek turn off along Watty Bishop onto Round Mountain and home! Parked the bike and back to the house, It seemed just as I was stepping onto the verandah the wind stopped and the rain arrived, It has rained or showered on and off all night and now the tank is full again! In July? Good news and a bit of luck.

Maybe the bike is just too big for me!