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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

GPLama Wrote:

:that white line means this is MY SIDE of the path:

Oh!?!?

I thought it was a Velo-Monorail


--
flyingdutch

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

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