North Rd / Nepean Hwy ride

[Olga]

on the way to morning swim squad have been consistently noticing a swarm
of red blinking lights gathering about North Rd/Nepean Hwy intersection.
through searching on internet for further details, found out it's called
brumbie ride and it kicks off every morning 6am (which i already knew) +
mon/wed/fri easy and tue/thur hard.

a few other questions remain in my unknowledgeable head:
a) can i just rock up, smile in greeting and try to keep up or is there
a different etiquette applicable?
b) how far / hard is it really? i'm pretty much still a newbie, but
with high ambitions. but the location and time is really convenient
for me wed+thu

i'll be very grateful for any kind of information in this regard. :)



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[PiledHigher]

Olga wrote:
> on the way to morning swim squad have been consistently noticing a swarm
> of red blinking lights gathering about North Rd/Nepean Hwy intersection.
> through searching on internet for further details, found out it's called
> brumbie ride and it kicks off every morning 6am (which i already knew) +
> mon/wed/fri easy and tue/thur hard.
> a few other questions remain in my unknowledgeable head:
> a) can i just rock up, smile in greeting and try to keep up or is there
> a different etiquette applicable?
> b) how far / hard is it really? i'm pretty much still a newbie, but
> with high ambitions. but the location and time is really convenient
> for me wed+thu
> i'll be very grateful for any kind of information in this regard. :)



Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

Lots of people will be dropped on a tue/thur so you may get someone to
ride with or not.

How far? they go straight down the highway to mordy and then back along
the beach. Lots stop at racer afterwards.

Anyone can rock up but they will be v. intolerant of sketchy riding, its
dark and they sit close on the wheel and will expect that you are
comfortable to do the same. Tue/wed/thur are not really the days to come
if you are not comfortable as speed/being on the edge of your limits
won't make you any more capable of sitting in in a bunch comfortably.

Definitely would suggest a monday/friday as a better day to start with,
see how that goes and then tackle thae hard days.

Hope that clarifies it!



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[PiledHigher]

Olga wrote:
> on the way to morning swim squad have been consistently noticing a swarm
> of red blinking lights gathering about North Rd/Nepean Hwy intersection.
> through searching on internet for further details, found out it's called
> brumbie ride and it kicks off every morning 6am (which i already knew) +
> mon/wed/fri easy and tue/thur hard.
> a few other questions remain in my unknowledgeable head:
> a) can i just rock up, smile in greeting and try to keep up or is there
> a different etiquette applicable?
> b) how far / hard is it really? i'm pretty much still a newbie, but
> with high ambitions. but the location and time is really convenient
> for me wed+thu
> i'll be very grateful for any kind of information in this regard. :)



Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

Lots of people will be dropped on a tue/thur so you may get someone to
ride with or not.

How far? they go straight down the highway to mordy and then back along
the beach. Lots stop at racer afterwards.

Anyone can rock up but they will be v. intolerant of sketchy riding, its
dark and they sit close on the wheel and will expect that you are
comfortable to do the same. Tue/wed/thur are not really the days to come
if you are not comfortable as speed/being on the edge of your limits
won't make you any more capable of sitting in in a bunch comfortably.

Definitely would suggest a monday/friday as a better day to start with,
see how that goes and then tackle thae hard days.

Hope that clarifies it!



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[rickster]

Olga > wrote in message >...
> Thank you both for a prompt reply
>
> mon/tue/fri are unfortunately exactly the time when i swim which leaves
> me the hard thursday and wednesday. oh well, i guess the option is
> simply to ride faster :)
>
> thanks again, will definitely rock up at first opportunity and find out
> what i'm good for. good luck with your riding!

Well, I'd avoid it if I was you. It is by far the riskiest riding I
have ever done, and IMO, has become worse than the Hell Ride. If you
a strong enough to pull turns, you're ok, but if you all you can do is
sit in and be sucked along, then at leat keep your head up. So many
dufuses are head down arse up, when they spank it on the road after
clipping wheels, they don't even know why. It's gets ugly when you go
3,4,5 a breast then into the next lane, and up comes a car, all the
warriors makin' there move around the right get forced back into the
one lane....... a little hook at the front is a massive swerve down
the back....

Try the Brumbies ride, which is a little more sedate. Also, there is
an earlier bunch that leave from North Rd at 5:45 am. It contains
older guys with less ego and more brains.

[rickster]

Olga > wrote in message >...
> Thank you both for a prompt reply
>
> mon/tue/fri are unfortunately exactly the time when i swim which leaves
> me the hard thursday and wednesday. oh well, i guess the option is
> simply to ride faster :)
>
> thanks again, will definitely rock up at first opportunity and find out
> what i'm good for. good luck with your riding!

Well, I'd avoid it if I was you. It is by far the riskiest riding I
have ever done, and IMO, has become worse than the Hell Ride. If you
a strong enough to pull turns, you're ok, but if you all you can do is
sit in and be sucked along, then at leat keep your head up. So many
dufuses are head down arse up, when they spank it on the road after
clipping wheels, they don't even know why. It's gets ugly when you go
3,4,5 a breast then into the next lane, and up comes a car, all the
warriors makin' there move around the right get forced back into the
one lane....... a little hook at the front is a massive swerve down
the back....

Try the Brumbies ride, which is a little more sedate. Also, there is
an earlier bunch that leave from North Rd at 5:45 am. It contains
older guys with less ego and more brains.

[Shabby]

Olga wrote:
> Thank you both for a prompt reply
> mon/tue/fri are unfortunately exactly the time when i swim which leaves
> me the hard thursday and wednesday. oh well, i guess the option is
> simply to ride faster :)
> thanks again, will definitely rock up at first opportunity and find out
> what i'm good for. good luck with your riding!



Traditionally the Wednesday goes out pretty relaxed then hits a bit of
speed on the way back. It's supposed to be a small chainring day all
the way, but this sin;t always adhered to. It's worth turning up and
hanging in as long as you can, your technique and suffering ability
will improve.



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[Shabby]

Olga wrote:
> Thank you both for a prompt reply
> mon/tue/fri are unfortunately exactly the time when i swim which leaves
> me the hard thursday and wednesday. oh well, i guess the option is
> simply to ride faster :)
> thanks again, will definitely rock up at first opportunity and find out
> what i'm good for. good luck with your riding!



Traditionally the Wednesday goes out pretty relaxed then hits a bit of
speed on the way back. It's supposed to be a small chainring day all
the way, but this sin;t always adhered to. It's worth turning up and
hanging in as long as you can, your technique and suffering ability
will improve.



--
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[D. Advocate]

PiledHigher > wrote in message >...
> Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
> in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
> 40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
> will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
> rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
> miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
> nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

I thought this was mainly a Caulfied/Carnegie ride. The roads are
pretty flat so if you sit at the back it should be pretty cruisy even
on the 'hard' days(somehow I always ended up doing turns at the
front). They don't like triathletes (or didn't used to) so I just kept
my mouth shut and didn't tell them.

[D. Advocate]

PiledHigher > wrote in message >...
> Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
> in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
> 40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
> will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
> rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
> miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
> nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

I thought this was mainly a Caulfied/Carnegie ride. The roads are
pretty flat so if you sit at the back it should be pretty cruisy even
on the 'hard' days(somehow I always ended up doing turns at the
front). They don't like triathletes (or didn't used to) so I just kept
my mouth shut and didn't tell them.

[roofi]

errr, I think the bullhorns, Syntace bars, bar end shifters, profile aero
bottle and twin behind the seat bottle holders may have given you away. If
that didn't do it the Accenture "man bra" top, wetsuit, and getting out of
your shoes everytime you stopped definitely did :-)



"D. Advocate" > wrote in message
om...
PiledHigher > wrote in message
>...
> Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
> in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
> 40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
> will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
> rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
> miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
> nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

I thought this was mainly a Caulfied/Carnegie ride. The roads are
pretty flat so if you sit at the back it should be pretty cruisy even
on the 'hard' days(somehow I always ended up doing turns at the
front). They don't like triathletes (or didn't used to) so I just kept
my mouth shut and didn't tell them.

[roofi]

errr, I think the bullhorns, Syntace bars, bar end shifters, profile aero
bottle and twin behind the seat bottle holders may have given you away. If
that didn't do it the Accenture "man bra" top, wetsuit, and getting out of
your shoes everytime you stopped definitely did :-)



"D. Advocate" > wrote in message
om...
PiledHigher > wrote in message
>...
> Just to clarify, this is not the brumbies ride, they leave the brumbies
> in Sandringham at 6 I think as well. Hard is v. hard, average for the
> 40k's is ~ 40k also called the hr of power for tue/thur. Wednesday you
> will also find some of this speed, 'supposed' to be an easy ride with
> rolling tempo on the way back (although you can sit further back and
> miss out on the turns if you need). Will find that at times this is
> nearly as hard as a tue/thur.

I thought this was mainly a Caulfied/Carnegie ride. The roads are
pretty flat so if you sit at the back it should be pretty cruisy even
on the 'hard' days(somehow I always ended up doing turns at the
front). They don't like triathletes (or didn't used to) so I just kept
my mouth shut and didn't tell them.

[D. Advocate]

"roofi" > wrote in message >...
> errr, I think the bullhorns, Syntace bars, bar end shifters, profile aero
> bottle and twin behind the seat bottle holders may have given you away. If
> that didn't do it the Accenture "man bra" top, wetsuit, and getting out of
> your shoes everytime you stopped definitely did :-)

Eh? Nah, I went incognito on a bike with road drops, Ergo shifters,
cages on the seat & down tubes, dressed in full Euro team issue
clothing. They never caught on.

[D. Advocate]

"roofi" > wrote in message >...
> errr, I think the bullhorns, Syntace bars, bar end shifters, profile aero
> bottle and twin behind the seat bottle holders may have given you away. If
> that didn't do it the Accenture "man bra" top, wetsuit, and getting out of
> your shoes everytime you stopped definitely did :-)

Eh? Nah, I went incognito on a bike with road drops, Ergo shifters,
cages on the seat & down tubes, dressed in full Euro team issue
clothing. They never caught on.

[Shabby]

Regarding "How hard is hard?", the other factor which wasn't mentioned
is that they take off hard from the lights, which makes life up the back
even harder by the time the shock wave effect gets to you.

This might be something you should incorporate into your training so
that you're ready for it once you hit the hard days.



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[Shabby]

Regarding "How hard is hard?", the other factor which wasn't mentioned
is that they take off hard from the lights, which makes life up the back
even harder by the time the shock wave effect gets to you.

This might be something you should incorporate into your training so
that you're ready for it once you hit the hard days.



--
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