#1
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Ride to Work Day
Started off in to a wicked headwind, concentrated on keeping the cadence nice and high and the gears nice and low which seemed to work quite well. A few more cyclists on Nepean Highway as you'd hope for on RTWD which resulted in a nice amount of banter back and forth. There was one guy who was quite tasty who I chatted to at the lights. Like me he rides in every day but works in Port Melbourne. He very kindly offered me a tow down Nepean Highway. That's karma people, I helped an old lady at Spencer Street Station last week and the good vibes are swinging back. Approaching North Road we had one dickhead toot us, normally I let that sort of thing go but today is RTWD goddamit! I sprinted up to the car which had stopped at the red lights, the lights were red when he tooted, rapped on his window and gave him a spray Dennis Pagan would have been proud of. I felt much better :-) My kind benefactor (who I busted a gut keeping up with, must be the panniers; either that or he's much better than me...) turned off at Glenhuntly with my thanks ringing in his ears and off I went for the remainder of the ride. Met one young chap who's still at school, he's doing the RTWD to and meeting some school chums before heading to class. Get them while they're young :-) Ran across a few cyclists who were gumbying along side by side in the on-road bike lane. Of couse this means that the inside rider is in the deadly door zone, something needs to be done about that. It's just ignorance that causes cyclists to ride in the door zone. Fed Square itself seemed a bit quieter than last year. I'm guessing the clouds and the headwind may have put some people off; some people just have no sense of adventure. Don't they know that the weather is what makes riding a bike such fun? No one ride is ever the same :-) Hooked up with some work buddies and got my free breakfast. First RTWD that I've worn a cycling jersey to, it sure makes grabbing stuff a lot easier. Tucked in and noticed that one of the cyclists I'd passed on the road was wearing a 2002 ATB shirt so naturally started pumping him for info :-) Yes, he was on the 2003 one which I'm fast starting to suspect is akin to saying `Macbeth' to an actor. Ho hum. A certain Dutchman was pressing the flesh for the upcoming BV elections; didn't see any other candidates there. Very dissapointing. Had a good chat to Rob of Brunswick Street Cycles who's helped us out with stuff for ATB. With luck we'll get some BSC jerseys for the ATB ride. There was a lady on the stage doing the master of ceremonies thing getting every day cyclists to parade themselves and their bikes around the stage. I think I'll ignore the advice about cycling in an Armani suit. She got annoying quite quickly. I did see a flyer for something to do with Amy Gillet but didn't pick one up. Anyone know what that was about? All in all I had fun but I think the turnout was a bit dissapointing. I hope the figures prove me wrong. I feel for the cyclists for who this is their first experience of riding to work. That headwind this morning was quite brutal, not the encouraging start you'd hope for a newcomer. BV can book everything except the weather, that's life I guess :-) -- EuanB |
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#2
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Ride to Work Day
the amount of people i heard say that they were ready to snot that MC woman!!! dang she was annoying (and much of what she was saying was either plain dumb or just factually incorrect, geeesh). The 'fashion' parade was kinda cool tho good to see so many women out riding today. Like frogs, thy are good barometer of how the 'environment' is (altho they ARE rather distracting ) how cool were the trials guys? Hopeless at guessing numbers but i thought about the same as last year? Wonder what turnouts at other locales were like? Had a big smile on the dial all morning getting 'chalk reports' "Oh, that's you! Saw your stuff on insert any one of a zillion locations here " Even got to hijack the microphone for some shameless lobbying. Shoulda seen the stunned look one of the other candidates faces -- flyingdutch |
#3
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Ride to Work Day
Had good intentions of making the breakfast at 6.30am but had mechanical problems so ended up walking 5km home from Forest Hill. There is always next year I suppose. -- Dancier |
#4
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Ride to Work Day
Heaps turned out I thought. I got there kinda late 8am, & didn't have the time to line up for the grub, so I missed out badly. A few ladies about, which is v good indeedy. Spoke to a few people, all are set for the ATB they mentioned. -- Marx SS |
#5
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Ride to Work Day
flyingdutch Wrote: good to see so many women out riding today. Like frogs, thy are good barometer of how the 'environment' is (altho they ARE rather distracting ) *Cough* looking at the bike, honest... how cool were the trials guys? Very. Had a big smile on the dial all morning getting 'chalk reports' "Oh, that's you! Saw your stuff on insert any one of a zillion locations here " Hmmm, done the bike path on Nepean Highway? I wouldn't know 'cause I always use the road but I can make an exception one day if you like? Even got to hijack the microphone for some shameless lobbying. Shoulda seen the stunned look one of the other candidates faces Sweet :-) -- EuanB |
#6
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Ride to Work Day
Not a bad turn-out here at ANU this morning. Light breakfast supplied, and
it was all gone by 8:30. Good to see so many faces. A very nice lady in her 50's from where I work was committed enough to travel almost 25 k's this morning, despite having one of the scariest bikes I've ever seen. She lives in the same suburb as me but a little further out and travelled the long way, and normally only gets on the bike once a year. She didn't realise it was RTWD until I sent her an e-mail yesterday. Boy, I have no more excuses to have the occassional day off. She's an inspiration! -- Bean Remove "yourfinger" before replying "EuanB" wrote in message ... Started off in to a wicked headwind, concentrated on keeping the cadence nice and high and the gears nice and low which seemed to work quite well. A few more cyclists on Nepean Highway as you'd hope for on RTWD which resulted in a nice amount of banter back and forth. There was one guy who was quite tasty who I chatted to at the lights. Like me he rides in every day but works in Port Melbourne. He very kindly offered me a tow down Nepean Highway. That's karma people, I helped an old lady at Spencer Street Station last week and the good vibes are swinging back. Approaching North Road we had one dickhead toot us, normally I let that sort of thing go but today is RTWD goddamit! I sprinted up to the car which had stopped at the red lights, the lights were red when he tooted, rapped on his window and gave him a spray Dennis Pagan would have been proud of. I felt much better :-) My kind benefactor (who I busted a gut keeping up with, must be the panniers; either that or he's much better than me...) turned off at Glenhuntly with my thanks ringing in his ears and off I went for the remainder of the ride. Met one young chap who's still at school, he's doing the RTWD to and meeting some school chums before heading to class. Get them while they're young :-) Ran across a few cyclists who were gumbying along side by side in the on-road bike lane. Of couse this means that the inside rider is in the deadly door zone, something needs to be done about that. It's just ignorance that causes cyclists to ride in the door zone. Fed Square itself seemed a bit quieter than last year. I'm guessing the clouds and the headwind may have put some people off; some people just have no sense of adventure. Don't they know that the weather is what makes riding a bike such fun? No one ride is ever the same :-) Hooked up with some work buddies and got my free breakfast. First RTWD that I've worn a cycling jersey to, it sure makes grabbing stuff a lot easier. Tucked in and noticed that one of the cyclists I'd passed on the road was wearing a 2002 ATB shirt so naturally started pumping him for info :-) Yes, he was on the 2003 one which I'm fast starting to suspect is akin to saying `Macbeth' to an actor. Ho hum. A certain Dutchman was pressing the flesh for the upcoming BV elections; didn't see any other candidates there. Very dissapointing. Had a good chat to Rob of Brunswick Street Cycles who's helped us out with stuff for ATB. With luck we'll get some BSC jerseys for the ATB ride. There was a lady on the stage doing the master of ceremonies thing getting every day cyclists to parade themselves and their bikes around the stage. I think I'll ignore the advice about cycling in an Armani suit. She got annoying quite quickly. I did see a flyer for something to do with Amy Gillet but didn't pick one up. Anyone know what that was about? All in all I had fun but I think the turnout was a bit dissapointing. I hope the figures prove me wrong. I feel for the cyclists for who this is their first experience of riding to work. That headwind this morning was quite brutal, not the encouraging start you'd hope for a newcomer. BV can book everything except the weather, that's life I guess :-) -- EuanB |
#7
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Ride to Work Day
Throw the concept of 'shared' out the window today people, we must have car
drivers bringing their 'this is MY ROAD' habits to our paths... luckily I only had two of these 'incidents' on the way to work.. And parachute pants man who wanted to suck wheel - damn dude, I was running a mtb with about 20psi in the front, do some work next time! cheers, GPL :that white line means this is MY SIDE of the path: |
#8
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Ride to Work Day
GPLama Wrote: :that white line means this is MY SIDE of the path: Oh!?!? I thought it was a Velo-Monorail -- flyingdutch |
#9
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Ride to Work Day
Marx SS Wrote: Heaps turned out I thought. I got there kinda late 8am, & didn't have the time to line up for the grub, so I missed out badly. A few ladies about, which is v good indeedy. Spoke to a few people, all are set for the ATB they mentioned. I was done and dusted by about 07:40 so maybe it picked up? Had a chat with one of the guys I went with, he heard a few people complaining about how much hard work it was (thanks to the wind) and more than one vowed to take the train home. Great, so now they're going to find out what a pita a bike is on peak hour trains That's really going to enthuse them about cycling. Nothing that can be done about it, we were just unlucky with the weather. -- EuanB |
#10
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Ride to Work Day
well, according to the age "Today's annual event attracted almost double the number of cyclists compared with last year." ! hmmmm. I really am crap at estimating numbers -- flyingdutch |
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