Spring Cycle - aftermath

When I got home from the ride last weekend, I plonked the bike in the backyard and made plans to give it a good wash and degrease - it looked (and sounded) like it had just been trawled out of the Black Lagoon.

After fluffing around for a few hours, I went back to start the cleanup and discovered that the front tyre was flat. After pulling out the tube, I found that the tube stem had separated from the tube - never seen that before. How I got home without it going flat is beyond me.

As I was changing the tube, I had a good look at the tyre and found that it was stuffed - time for replacement. It was covered in innumerable nicks and cuts and was worn to the point where it's clear lots of punctures are going to happen. I cursed the tyre as I refitted it, making a mental note to buy one this week. It was an absolute bastard to get back over the rim - I thought I was going to dislocate my thumbs in the process.

As I packed away my stuff, I found two new tyres, still in their packaging, sitting in my bike box. I'd ordered them on line earlier this year and forgotten about them....

Silly bloody things

I hate the silly pedo-cabs that you occasionally see in the CBD these days - especially when they appear on the main roads like George St. They crawl along at walking pace, which must annoy the bus drivers no end. I wouldn't mind if they moved at a reasonable pace, like 30-40km/h, which is what the traffic flows at most days. Due to their low gearing, they are lucky to do 10km/h.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that they are part of an evil strategy by the stupid Lord Mayor to choke car movements within the CBD.

Spring Cycle, last part

Sheesh, it's almost a week since I finished the ride, and I'm only just getting around to putting the last photos up. It's been that kind of week.

Here's the arch at the finish line. A welcome site after 70km of stop-start-stop-start-overtake-brake etc etc. I got in trouble for riding after passing under this - there was one small sign somewhere telling us to dismount and walk, and pretty much everyone rode past it without seeing it. There was an old harridan off to the right who yelled at us to walk - it turned out she was handing out medals to the finishers, but there were plenty of people like me who were so annoyed at her behaviour that we kept on going and left her to her pile of medals. I heard her say to an offsider later on "Why isn't anyone collecting their medals?" Duh - because you were screaming at them and completely shitting them after they'd been riding for 3-4 hours.

The fountain and fire thing from the opening of the 2000 games. A few years ago, the ride was run on a day when the temp was in the 30s. I was so hot at the end, I rode straight under this fountain to cool off. The water coming out of it was arctic.

The most important thing post-ride: fuel. The bacon and egg roll tent was doing a roaring trade - and they were very tasty. Inhaled one and a small bottle of Coke in under a minute. After that, i was ready to push home.

There was a wide selection of munchies to suit all tastes. Nice one.

The ride home - it went a lot faster, as people were dispersing in all directions instead of clogging up one road, and a lot caught the train home.

Crossing the stream in Concord - there were still plenty of people heading west as I headed home.

And that was it for another year.

Biggest lesson for next year - be at the start line at 0630! Get going before the crowds!

Spring Cycle, Part 4

Hey look - Cav did the ride as well!

Rest point - time for a banana. My shoulders and elbows were aching by this point. Normally, I swap the position of my hands on the bars all the time as I ride. However, because of the density of traffic, and the low skills of so many of those around me, I had to keep my hands on the brakes at all times. I reckon I wore out two sets of pads on the ride - it was brake, brake, brake every 5 seconds.

This T-shirt is an ad for Moose Drool beer. Sounds fabulous.

I know it looks good to wear kit that matches and all that..... but I just don't get into that sort of thing.

Poles in Olympic Park.

And trees. And cobblestones. Now I understand why racing on cobbles is so hard - the bloody things grip your tyres like crazy! You really have to race over them as fast as possible - and this was a line of fresh, smooth, nicely laid modern "cobbles". The lumpy old original ones in France and Belgium must be a nightmare.

And then we went through the trees - no passing possible!

Saw lots of these sorts of things. That's commitment.

And more tandems.

The rest will have to wait until tomorrow - I'm still shattered.

Spring Cycle, Part 3

A conga line of - somethings.

And look - more odd Italian whatevers.

Tandems - never, ever see them, except for days like Sunday. Then, you see heaps of them.

That grey building in the background that looks like a spaceship from Star Wars had a bar that was full of people partying on at 0730 on Sunday morning. Half their luck. To be that young again, when staying awake all night was possible.

Stopping to admire the view of Darling Harbour.

Out of the darkness and shadows cast by massive apartment blocks looms the spires of the ANZAC bridge. Yes, it really was cold and dark and gloomy down there in the depths.

Lilyfield Rd - looks a bit different to my first photo in Part 1. Hordes of bikes. Just hordes. And all crawling up the hill too. Since I climb this twice a day, I got sick of crawling after a while, changed up a few cogs and just blasted past most of them. Some were so puffed, they had hopped off to push. I was out of the saddle and just going for it. There are times when crawling just feels like death.

Yeah - traffic control in 9mm form. Without wanting to be silly, this bike cop was a bit.....porky. You'd think that someone who worked on a bike would be a bit leaner and less rotund.

Not that I mind chunky cops. As I was heading towards the start and passing the Pyrmont Hotel, a drunken patron tried to stagger onto the road just as I hit the corner at speed. The alert (and large) cop standing at that corner grabbed the bloke by the collar and practically lifted him off the ground as he jerked him back a foot or so out of my way. I was too stunned to yell out "thanks" as I shot by.

The "cyclocross" part of the course. Because of the density of the crowds, we had to dismount and walk across this rusty old bridge.

Ladibug - I think they were the Liverpool Anesthetic Department bike user group. Neat. I like how the bloke on the right has his camera slung over his back.

Spring Cycle, Part 2

Lots of people caught the train to North Sydney, so the crowds really picked up at that point. Riding to the start line became a real chore, with me stuck in traffic barely able to crawl up a shallow rise at 15km/h.

This recumbent was an interesting bike, with an internal hub for gears and lots of really low gears. I doubt the wisdom though of dressing in black in something so low to the ground (and invisible to drivers).

Don't see many cyclists in purple.

The start line - it's way off in the distance. It took me 15 minutes to get from where I joined the queue to the actual start. Very boring. They were letting packs of about 150 go at a time, and leaving lots of time between them.

At last - the start, with nothing out in front. We were held here for several minutes to let the group in front get away. I caught the rear of that group within a kilometre or so. There were some very slow riders out yesterday.

The toll gates on the Harbour Bridge - and a sign "do not stop". That was my motto for the day - just keep going, and don't stop.

Lot's of people did stop though on the bridge for photos. Plenty also stopped for flat tyres. I'd see dozens of people changing flats over the next few hours. A big risk was damage from collisions, like getting a pedal caught in someone's spokes. There were a lot of hopeless cyclists weaving to and fro, which is not good when in a tight pack.

40km/h speed limit - I wish. There was a stiff headwind blowing, so I was happy to cross the bridge at 25km/h. That made me one of the fastest people in my group!

Onto the bridge proper, with the two eastern lanes closed to traffic. The expansion joints in the road are a total menace.

How nice to have a big strip of concrete between us and that bus.

Now, for part 3.

Spring Cycle, Part 1

Sunday was Spring Cycle - a day when well over 10,000 cyclists brave Sydney's roads (and weather) for a ride from North Sydney to Homebush Olympic Park. You can do a variety of rides, depending on your fitness level etc. I opted for the full length ride of 50km - that became 80km once you add on getting to the start line and then getting home. Entry is $60.

After getting caught in the crowds the year before last, I vowed to get to the start when the "intermediate" group was supposed to take off. Silly me - I left home at least 45 minutes too late for that. More on that later.

At 6.30am, Lilyfield Rd was deserted, apart from a cold, bored cop standing at the lights waiting for the action to start. (He's not in the photo).

When I got to the end of Lilyfield Rd, the first of the fast movers were appearing. They must have started on the dot of 0630. I was still half an hour away from the start.

As I crossed the ANZAC Bridge, there were more early movers on the old bridge below me.

Even more appeared on the expressway as I hit the edge of town.

Along the edge of Barangaroo, there were hordes of cyclists - some yelling at me that I was going the wrong way.

I really had to hand it to the parents that towed their kids for the entire 50km - like the little girl in the middle on the pink bike.

Check out the rivets on that bridge.

I have no idea why she put her leg out - I think she was that much of an amateur, she was losing her balance! I was to strike lots more like that before the day was out.

Through the rails is the blue of the pool below Luna Park. I used to swim there when I lived over this way. My bike temp gauge was reading 12 degrees - and there were people doing laps in the pool. I was never that keen on swimming - doing laps before 0700 in Sunday when it's freezing.

Then the dreaded stairs to get off the Harbour Bridge.

And now for the next installment....

Water cuts and refugees

I know that there are resettled refugees living and working in the Murray-Darling area because my in-laws have helped quite a few to settle there over the years (my in-laws being refugees themselves).

Somewhere like Griffith is probably not a bad spot to live if you've recently been accepted as a refugee. The area was developed by post-war immigrants, so it's wog heaven. There's lots of entry level jobs that anyone can do even if you have little or no English - but are willing to work hard. The place is over run with backpackers every year from every corner of the globe, who speak every language imaginable, and they all seem to get work picking and packing fruit and so on.

The lefties, and the Greens in particular, are full of compassion for refugees. All the refugees I have ever met (and I won't claim to have met a lot) want to get on with life. They want to work, buy a house, perhaps start a business, get the kids educated and so on. I am yet to meet a slack-arsed no-hoper.

And that's exactly what those resettled refugees in the Griffith area have done - found employment, picked up English as they went and settled into the community. However, the Greens will destroy their way of life if the water cuts go through. They'll be out of work, they'll lose their homes and businesses and they'll have to move their families elsewhere and start again. The most vulnerable members of the community will be those that will suffer first.

I bet the Greens never factored that in. Where's their compassion now?

Heatbulbs - what a great idea

(Reuters) - A German entrepreneur is bypassing a European Union ban on light bulbs of more than 60 watts by marketing his own brand as mini heaters.

Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs -- by producing them in China, importing them as "small heating devices" and selling them as "heatballs."

Thanks to Tim Worstall for that.

Remember, you read it here first.

The Murray-Darling - predictions of a fiasco about to unfold

Here are my predictions of the unintended consequences that will occur if the Greens get their way.

Water cuts will lead to thousands of job losses, business closures and a fall in food production. Greens will blame "greedy banks" for business bankruptcies.

One Green apparently stated that instead of growing our own food, we should just import "cheap rice" from Asia. Their usual hatred of "globalisation" will be forgotten in their desire to replace locally grown rice with globally sourced rice.

With a fall in food production, food costs will increase. The Greens will blame "greedy farmers" for increased prices, not a reduction in supply.

Cheap rice will be imported, but the Greens will complain that Asian farmers are not being paid enough for it (at the same time as complaining that local farmers are being paid too much), and demand that we pay a "fair trade" price for rice.

Rice prices will go up to "fair trade" prices. The Greens will then complain about the impact of rising food costs on the poor. The Greens (and ACOSS) will demand higher dole payments or food subsidies. It will be lost on them that the poor and unemployed were previously farmers on the Murray-Darling, or business owners in the major towns.

Rural job losses will lead to migration to the cities. The Greens will then complain that there are too many people in the cities, and that we should encourage jobs in country areas. Creating jobs will require subsidies, so taxes will have to go up.

Greens are drawn from the wealthiest segment of the population. They will predictably scream the loudest when tax increases are mooted, or they will get stuck into tax avoidance schemes. The increased tax burden will predictably fall on middle Australia, as the Greens cry out for higher taxes, then pay their accountants and lawyers to avoid paying them.

At the end of all this, the Greens will fail to comprehend that all of this is their fault.

You just can't win

The police have been issued with Tasers because they tend to fatally shoot too many mentally deranged people.

When they use a Taser on someone who is mentally deranged and not cooperating, they cop even more flak.

Crikey moses people - what do you want? Do you want the police shooting loonies or just zapping them? Make up your freaking minds please!

I don't believe policing is supposed to be a fair fight. It's supposed to be an unfair fight - the police should always have more force and violence at their disposal than crooks and neer-do-wells.

Because if the cops go man on man with loonies, they generally end up getting injured - and then the same people that complain about police shootings and zappings complain about the cost of police compensation costs!

Friday photo

Just the one photo today. After the road-choking hordes of yesterday, there wasn't much to snap today. Or maybe it just seemed that way.

Bloody wind was blowing a gale on the way home - straight into my face of course. Legs are now cooked.

After a bit of time off the bike, it took the legs 4 days to properly recover from having a rest. Until yesterday, I was getting cramps and what felt like minor muscle tears all over the place. After 5 days in the saddle, they've finally hardened up and feel back to normal. I swear that my hammies were so tight on Wednesday, you could have played the Deliverance theme on them.

Will you pedestrians please get the f*ck out of my bike lane

How hilarious that Tim Blair should have a posting today on Clover Moore's fairly useless bike lanes. I have been trying to use the lane through Pyrmont most days - I think I am close to giving up. It's too narrow, which means it's slow, and I have to stop or slow down nearly every day because idiots step from the footpath into the bike lane without looking. Most aren't crossing the bike lane - they've decided to walk along it like these four.

The bloke with the carton of beer on his shoulder veered hard left just as I reached him and I avoided him by the skin of my teeth. Even after that near miss, he didn't go back to the footpath - he just continued on walking up the bike path, chatting on his phone.

This path might work if the council puts up an electric fence between the pedestrian bit and the bike bit.