Occupy Sydney - three views of the swampies

I paid a visit to Martin Place whilst on the way into work earlier this week. Here is the swampy camp from three angles. It had rained the night before, so I guess only the diehards were left. Or those with water proof sleeping bags.

The bored cops didn't outnumber the swampies - but it was close.

I noticed that their numbers were slightly inflated by a couple of winos that sleep here all the time. I wonder what the winos think of this mob moving in and "occupying" their land?

Thursday photos

These aren't really photos from Thursday - they're just photos I'm putting up on Thursday. The bike had a major mechanical malfunction the other day - it totally not go. I've had things that have slowed me down - broken spokes and broken cables - but rarely something that stops me moving altogether.

It rained just before I left for work on Monday, so I put the spray jacket on.

Of course it didn't rain again for the whole trip, and I had to take it off halfway into town before I expired of heat exhaustion.

On Tuesday, it looked fine - so I didn't bother with the jacket. And then it started raining halfway in.

How's that - a photo of a cyclist right on top of a bike icon.

This is why I like riding to work early in the morning - the views are something else.

Cycling into Spring

If I can, I like to have a crack at the Spring Cycle. It's a cycling promotion event - not a race - and as the name suggests, it's held in spring. Start time is 0630 in North Sydney, which is about 15km from home. I was up at 0500 and on the road early enough to make the start time. The last time I did it, I arrived a bit after 0700 and I was stuck in meandering hordes of inexperienced, unfit cyclists for the next 3 hours.

There's the Harbour Bridge in the dawn light - and me racing to get to the start line in time.

By the time I reached the city, I'd joined up with a steady trickle of riders heading north for the start.

The bastards started things 5 minutes early! I was there at 0625, and watched as the police motorbike on the far right led the first group off.

And there they go - the speedy buggers up front.

Photos are a bit out of order here - this is me heading over the bridge on the bike path.

Lots and lots of cyclists at the start, all waiting to be waved off.

Lots of middle aged blokes stretching the lycra around their tummies. I would class this event as "the middle classes at play". There were a lot of blokes my age and older, riding bikes a lot more expensive than mine, and with corporate jerseys advertising various financial institutions. It must be great to police one of these events - no drunks, few idiots and a great mass of law abiding family folk just out to enjoy themselves.

Approaching the arch of the bridge.

A breakdown crew helping with a mechanical.

Passing shadows.

I couldn't take many photos as I was always surrounded by lots of other bikes jockeying for position. Taking one hand off the handlebars was too much of a risk with that much traffic about.

Passing the Art Gallery in the Domain - the cyclists coming towards us were those first away at 0625. They were moving.

Three shadows.

Going under the fig trees in the Domain. It's a lovely place to ride around.

This bloke's jersey was about "racing begins at 40", with the website being 4tplus.com - ha ha.

Woops - well ahead of ourselves here. This is the finish line in Homebush Bay.

An event like this has lots of starts and stops - one reason I wanted to get away early was that after 0700, the crowding gets so bad, you spend more than half your time braking to avoid people in front.

Tim Blair would hate this - there were people walking around all the cyclists at the finish line handing out copies of the Daily Telegraph - imagine that; the Telegraph supporting a cycling event!

This year's was the best I have done, mainly because I got to the start early enough to avoid the sluggish riders. Only "experienced" riders were supposed to start at that time, and I would rate myself at the bottom of the "experienced" pack - but there were hundreds there at that time who were clearly much worse than me. Over the first 10km or so, a slow sorting took place, with faster riders filtering to the front and the slower riders being dropped.

After that point, the group I was with had overtaken almost all the slow riders that got away before us, and we were able to settle into a nice rhythm where we weren't having to brake constantly for the slugs up front. The pace held at a comfortable 32km/h or so from then to the end (traffic lights and hairpin bends excepted). Like I said at the start - it's not a race, and no one was treating it as such. We spent a lot of time on narrow paths with poor sight lines where overtaking just wasn't possible because of pedestrians wandering the other way.

I'm now utterly wasted - the ride to the start from home, then the ride itself, then the ride home from the finish has done me in. It was about 4 times the distance I am used to doing in one hit, and I didn't spare myself on the few small hills along the course. Commuting gives me lots of short rides of 15-20km; my legs just aren't used to doing nearly 80km in one hit.

What it showed is that I am fitter than about 80% of the cycling population, which probably makes me fitter than 95% of the blokes my age.

And now, it's time for a nap. After some chocolate cake.

Would you buy a used Mercedes from this person?

Thursday prats

Another day, another shot of rowers in the sunrise. You'll have to embiggen the picture to find them.

The guy on the right was a complete prat. He was riding down the middle of the bike path with his earphones in and couldn't hear me and the bloke in yellow yelling at him from behind to move over. Yellow bloke found a spot to overtake, and pink guy was so incensed, he took off at top speed in order to overtake yellow guy.

It doesn't matter what you do or where you go - you'll always find the odd tool.

Opposites - bloke on the left has the baby seat on the back. On the right are too very fit blokes who didn't appear to be commuting - they were just riding into the city by the looks of things for a spot of training. I got the jump on them at a red light (where I know the timing of the lights) and about 2 minutes later, they caught up to me and blasted past like I was standing still. Or even going backwards. They then turned off and chose a big hill to tackle - just for shit and giggles. Bastards.

And then it was time to go home. The lady right in front of me was riding an electric bike. She hardly turned a pedal for the next few kilometres. That's fine if you don't want to crease your suit or wrinkle the stockings, but it won't make your bum any slimmer.

Oops

The view you get when you get a flat tyre and leave the video camera running when you change the tube.

Occupy Wall Street - I like this

Link.

Wednesday photos

Today was Ride to Work day, which means Big Flipping Deal to me, since I ride almost every day. What is has meant in previous years is battling through hordes of slow moving cyclists - kind of like if we had a Every Learner Driver Drives to the Shops Day. Imagine thousands of Barinas with dented doors and Magnas with L plates tottering along at 30km/h, petrified learner drivers at the wheel.

So I got up early, avoided the crowds and managed to take a photo just as the sun was clearing the horizon - and I managed to get a rowing crew almost backlit by the rising sun. How about that?

And here's more rowing crews a few minutes later.

Cyclists really are divided neatly into two camps - those that disparage lycra, and those that swear by it (ie, those that have gone to the Dark Side). There were plenty of the former out and about today - slow moving people in casual clothes or sports clothes generally don't fit the mould of the Sydney bike commuter. I started out as one of them - and then after a bit of chafing and a lot of sweating, I made the switch. And I've never looked back. Cyclists who eschew lycra are, in my opinion, cyclists who have never ridden far enough and/or fast enough to get crotch rot on a hot day.

And then the day was over, and it was time to go home.

Flat out fixing flats

Another day, another flat. Actually, two flats. Amazingly enough, the second occurred at exactly the same place as my last one - I'll have to check that stretch carefully for glass and stuff next time I go past.

The first flat was the result of a puncture patch failing to stick properly. That was the cause of one of my recent flats too - and when I got home and found that out I was ready to kick a few things around the backyard. I was starting to think that I had a shard of glass stuck in the tyre that I hadn't managed to find, but as soon as I put the tube into a bucket of water, bubbles were shooting out from the side of the most recently applied patch.

I've never had this problem with patches before. My prime suspect is the glue - my old tube ran out and I got a new kit not long ago. The old stuff stank - you could get high just by looking at it. The new stuff has no odour and no psychedelic properties. I'm wondering if it's been toned down and therefore doesn't bind properly with the rubber.

My new patch kit also came with sand paper for roughening up the tube - the old kit contained something that looked like a miniature cheese grater, and it really ripped up the rubber.

Either way, it seems like the old stuff was much better.

My resolution for tomorrow is to stop being such a cheap bastard and to go and buy three new tubes. The current ones must have 20 patches between them.

Monday photos

I was up so early this morning, I was sure I was going to be taking the most incredible dawn photos. Then I stuffed around for a long time, and missed the best part of the sunrise. Looking back, I have no idea what I did between waking up and leaving that consumed so much time.

One of those industrial/architecture shots that you find in big coffee table type books on architecture. Here, you get it for free. I was trying to get the sun rising behind the Centrepoint Tower.

I'm not sure that's any better.

Here's a photo I prepared earlier. I dug it out of the archives whilst perusing the photo albums tonight.

Some of those cars are almost as old as some of my regular readers. And I bet they're in better shape too.

One of those days...

Woke up this morning and thought a nice Sunday ride would be a good idea.

Dressed up, packed my kit, walked out to the bike and.... found the back tyre was flat.

Couldn't be bothered changing it. Climbed out of my gear and went back to bed.

Eventually crawled out of bed and fixed the tube, since I'll need a working tyre to get to work tomorrow. I then got really enthusiastic and washed and degreased the bike.

Went to put the back wheel on again.

Tyre was flat.

It wasn't a rogue bit of glass trapped in the tyre - it was one of my useless patching efforts. Time to buy some new tubes - the old ones are starting to get patches on top of patches.

Teenagers

There I am, sitting here in front of the computer last night reading this and that.

Teenager looks over from his blood thirsty first person shooter game and looks at the article I'm reading.

"Who was Steve Jobs?"

Oh, for fuck's sake.....

Congestion heart failure

I bet you're thinking, "Idiot - it's congestive heart failure". Nope - the above photo is about pedestrian congestion at peak hour when trying to get out of the city...

....and this photo is about heart failure. Ahem. It's bloody difficult taking a photo like this when ascending a grade like this in the rain. Especially when I put my foot down as I went around the bend up ahead and the back wheel broke out and went sideways. Brand new tyre as well, with tread - my legs were feeling mighty powerful and rested that day.

It's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll

AC/DC re-enactment.

Like I said - a lot of people standing around watching other people standing around.

AC/DC remake

When Les Kenfield played the bagpipes in the classic video clip for AC/DC's Long Way to the Top, there weren't a lot of women in rock and roll.

But today he will be part of a re-creation of the video clip which will be nearly all women. The female rock and rollers will do a psychedelic interpretation of the Long Way to the Top clip - filmed on the back of a flat-bed truck for the music show Countdown - for the Sydney launch of the Tasmanian Mona Foma arts festival

I rode past this today - it was just a bunch of people standing around on the back of a truck doing nothing whilst the film crew faffed around.

I took some photos, but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. I'm sure they'll show a bunch of people standing around on the back of a truck doing nothing whilst the film crew faff around.

Had better days

1. Dropped my socks in a water puddle in the shower at work
2. Tore a hole in the crotch of my trousers
3. Computer blew up
4. Ran out of shaving gel

Thankfully, that was the worst of it.

Now for some upside - go and watch the rather incredible education video at this link.

The Mark of Chain

Teenager eyed my calf the other day and suddenly got all excited - "Hey, is that a really cool tattoo on your leg".

Nope.

It was a grease mark from where I'd leaned up against the front cog, which left an arc of black teeth up my calf. It was the Mark of Chain. Or perhaps the Mark of Cog. It's certainly the mark of a filthy bike that needs a wash and degrease.

Teenager wandered off all disappointed. I went to the bathroom where it took a good five minutes of scrubbing with a stiff brush to remove it.