Fifty one weeks ago four of us ventured out to Aka Aka and back, via Waiuku and a stop at the bakery at Patumahoe. The weather was pretty average and quite windy, and by the end, one hundred and forty kilometres later, I was a trifle weary.
Last Sunday it was decided that three of us should follow the same loop. Of the four last year, only two of us returned, The Croc and I, we had Wayne Hudson for company this time. The first part went quite quickly, at that stage we had The Worm present, and he made himself useful for the first three quarters of an hour. Then he turned to complete a shorter loop. That left three of us, so we carried on. I suffered yet another puncture just before Drury, front wheel this time, glass again. I think that everyone should have to earn a license for buying beverages in glass bottles. Those who don't have their license re only allowed sipper bottles, and that way there would hopefully be less of the apparently randomly broken bottles that litter our roads.
The ride was steady and very pleasant, apart from some inclement weather. Those roads are excellent, with little traffic and a variety of terrain. Apart from mud and some passing dung they are far better than any city roads.
As we passed over Bald Hill we could see a large, dark squall bearing down on us. A steady ride to the excellent bakery at Patumahoe got us out of the worst and into warmth for a sit down and a neenish tart in my case. We congratulated ourselves on being so clever and avoiding the squall. Saddling up for the homeward leg, we headed out, and were hit by a furious squall that included torrential icy rain, gusty wind and some hail for good measure. So much for our earlier wisdom.
Yet again, I returned home with one hundred and forty kilometres under my belt, weary and a completely filthy bike. It's a ride I'd recommend heartily.
Here is The Croc basking in the comfort of the Patumahoe Bakery, having towed two of us for miles over Hill Road with it's wind and the worst seal in New Zealand. Top effort that man. This morning, I went out in the pre-dawn and endured yet another wet, dirty ride, it's getting past a joke now.
Hot off the wires .xxx is now coming at you via the interweb. That's right, porn addresses will be getting their own suffix .xxx, ergo no longer will you (or I) be able to say that you mistyped the URL and landed in something less than family orientated because you typed .com instead of .co.nz .
In other breaking news, it dawned on me as I rode around in the dark yesterday morning, but I was simply too lackadaisical to address it promptly, that this august piece of meandering witlessness is now more than one year old. Looking back on it's first year has been interesting, I reached my apogee early and then since that moment in the blogging firmament have slide steadily back to the ooze.
Things I have learnt from my first year of writing for the consumption of others:-
People don't follow hyperlinks. Even when I had a link to the sheer naked hotness of Milla Jovovich, the masses didn't follow. A few grubby souls did and waxed lyrical, but generally speaking most links are missed.
Write anything about nudism, rubber glove seduction or poultry, and some serious strange search engine phrases start to turn up in the analytics.
Show people routes, maps and data, they just gobble it up.
The two most downloaded photos are a photo of Doris and Cynthia showing how to ride in an orderly fashion in a bunch and a picture of a slightly sculptural tree with a cloud. Go figure on the tree one, especially when it's been down loaded half a dozen times in Eastern Europe. The former I can appreciate why, the later, that's strange. Technically it's an okay photo, subject is nothing startling and it lacks real emotive subject matter, so I wonder why. Did I just happen to be lucky and catch some strange tree that has significance? Does it invoke a fertility ritual? Am I going to find it spread around the globe on some sort of strange Dig Faster, Work Sets You Free type poster?
Eat spam.
Okay that was just a test to see if you've read that far.
To celebrate, next weekend there will be a ride to satisfy the need for a challenge in me
Yes, I freely acknowledge the title is a play on the title of a biography of Peter Sutcliffe. In the case of Sutcliffe it served to show that even monsters have relationships within the community and the enormity and horror of his crimes were hidden in a regular everyday life.
This morning, I had an encounter with another cyclist, that in no way, shape or form bears any resemblance to Peter Sutcliffe and his use of a ball hammer, apart from the fact that I'd place a fairly hefty wager that the other rider concerned would be married and have children. These assumptions are based on the fact that he was stereotypical of many recent converts to cycling, middle-aged, slightly plump and wearing cycling clothing with an insurance company as branding.
This particular rider was a prime example of behaviour that infuriates motorists and does little to help cyclists in the battle to share the road.
The incident in question took place on Broadway coming into Newmarket. I had ridden around the airport loop and was heading home along Broadway. The traffic lights at the top of Ayr St were red.
I have yelled at riders before for riding through these lights and on one occasion, having stopped and then watched several riders ride through the red light and dodge traffic, had the unpleasant sensation of a very near miss of a rider who was chasing his foolish friends and suddenly realised that I was stopped and unclipped at the red light, he engaged in a bit of panic braking and served to avoid a very stationery me.
Today, the other rider in this sorry little tale was just ahead of me as we approached the red light. I stopped and he wobbled his way through the red light. Shortly the light turned green and I, incensed, raced after the other rider to admonish him.
This is what followed :-
Me - Red lights are for stopping at
Him - Fuck off, I was having a nice ride until you came along
Me - The road rules are for everyone to obey
Him - Fuck off, what gives you the right to tell people what to do? Are you Mr Policeman?
Me - I bet Vero are proud to have their name on your backside
Him - Fuck off, go and play with yourself...
At this point I was turning right at the roundabout and he was sailing straight through, but obviously little discussion or reasoning was going to make any impression.
Going back to the opening title, this man will have connections within the community, most likely he will have a family (although I sincerely hope not for the future of humanity) and will generally be a responsible member of society, but put him in lycra and on a bike and he thinks of no one but himself. Cycling is a community, but is also part of the wider community, and while we expect other road users to obey the Road Code, we as cyclists need to do the same. Behaviour like I witnessed this morning only serves to weaken the cycling cause for greater safety and consideration from other road users.
My enthusiasm for riding in this weather is waning a little. On Sunday, yet again on wet roads, I suffered my fourth puncture in seven days. The offending item, a piece of glass. I'm a reasonably philosophical chap, ride good tyres and generally consider myself to be on the positive side of the glass fairy's ledger, but this run of punctures at the moment is just plain aggravating.
On reflection it's been quite some time since my last puncture, and shortly after I'd effected the most recent repair I met, and rode with, another rider who had suffered three punctures in the preceding week.
There is a huge amount of broken glass about on the roads at the moment, and coupled with the constant wet weather, leakage is an inevitability.
Today is the Winter Solstice, so the days can only lengthen, unfortunately for me, and entirely due to the tilt of the planet, the sun actually rises a few minutes later over the next week or two. The sunsets are later, and the net effect is a lengthening of the day. Little benfit for me, who is a pre-dawn rider through the week. Thankfully the new, LED light that I purchased from Planet Cycles has meant that I can go pretty much anywhere. I even taken the Bethalls Quarry loop in the dark. Only the nasty little descent of Duffy Road, with it's 24% and sharp corner caused any anxiety.
Writing of things steep, I discovered a piece of true misery in West Auckland yesterday, it is well hidden, but is truly a heart pounding, handlebar chewer. Sometime soon, I will slip it into a ride on the unsuspecting and wait for the squeals.
How much comfort do you derive from knowing that others elsewhere look at the same moon as yourself? Me, immense.
Yesterday I rode, it was foul, wet, windy and cold. To add insult to injury, as a direct result of various members of Auckland's more inconsiderate citizens and their ongoing participation in the World Glass Smashing champs, I suffered my third puncture in two rides. Luckily this time, as I didn't have Mikeal, he who is a rubber of his own duck, or The Crocodile to complete the pumping task, it was a very slow leak. Thirty minutes from home I pumped the tyre back up to pressure and made it all the way home.
On Sunday I had two separate punctures, separated by about 90 minutes. One, the first one, was glass, the other was a mystery. Being weak in the upper body I minced about and got the two other males in our party of four to do the hard work and inflate the tyre for me.
Also yesterday I witnessed a true Triathlete moment. A couple of years ago I watched in cringing horror a triathlete on a time trial bike, complete with rocket launcher bottle cages, hump his bike up Grafton Road in full aero position. Given that Grafton Road at that particular point was approximately 9% gradient and the creature in question was travelling uphill and at a pace that a 5 year old girl could run faster than, it was just ugly.
Yesterday's moment was as cringe worthy and definitely more foolish, not to mention inconsiderate. Mt Wellington Highway is rough, narrow, with two lanes in each direction, no shoulder and a lot of traffic. The fool in question was riding a time trail bike, in aero position, in the late afternoon traffic along this road holding up the traffic. It truly was head smackingly stupid and the individual is worthy of being considered for a ban from producing off-spring. There are a number of other roads in the area to get from Point A to Point B, why ride there? In the aero position. Words fail me.
On the upside of things, this morning as I rode up Carter Road in the pre-dawn I was serenaded by a Morepork.
Some things are just so infuriating they make me as mad as a wet hen. Take for example the seeming unwillingness to greet another rider that prevails on Tamaki Drive. I rode there for the first time in a couple of months on Wednesday morning, it was still before sunrise and silence is the order of the day now when a rider passes. What's with that? It's the morning, one's doing what one enjoys, the day is yet to unfold, it's a good place to be, so what's with the attitude? I don't get it.
Contrast that with the cheery greetings I get in the Waitaks from walkers and other riders generally and I'm left a little perplexed. The good thing for me is that now I have a truly good light and I can ride wherever and whenever I choose. I am not confined to the waterfront or town loops.
On that note MAXX (it's the transport website of the Auckland Regional Council) has a very good cycling resource page. There you can find route planning maps, crash data and an input map. All in Google maps, extremely detailed and interactive, and well worth a peruse. The crash data is particularly interesting to me, with some extremely surprising results. The vast majority of the crashes happen in the day, and, at risk of making a gross generalisation, the majority of the night time/ darkness crashes were a result of cyclist stupidity, e.g. little or no lighting, intoxication, etc.
The vast majority of the crashes involving cars were with cars turning in front of cyclists, typically misjudging the speed of the cyclist or failing to see them. There are a few car doors and on Tamaki Drive a few riders who have ridden into the back of parked cars.
These maps are worth looking at, if only to valid your route choices.
The collarbone debarcle is now truly behind me, and I'm as motivated as ever, even this average weather we are experiencing at the moment isn't an obstacle to adding miles to the training. I am also less embarrassed about how I broke the damn thing now, partly through the distance of time, and partly through finding other parents who have done very similar things with BMX bikes or skateboards. I know my limitations and have always given skateboards a very wide berth, so there's no chance of an ugly accident with one of those.
Well, the drought has well and truly broken. This week I got the green light from the Orthopod that, in his own words, I could now do anything. My clavicle is no longer busticated. It is healed. To celebrate I rode my bike in the great outdoors. My first ride was pretty gingerish, but confidence was quickly gained.
That morning was the morning after the downpour of Tuesday and the paths and roads were covered in all manner of leaves, grit and gravel. The pics below were taken post ride, and my bike was clean before the ride.
On this particular ride I rode the new bike path between Henderson town centre and the rural part of Henderson Valley Road. Waitakere City Council are to be commended for this path, it is wide, well surfaced and a pleasure to ride. Except for one little hazard, as one exits the back of the Corbans Estate there is a slightly off camber left hand corner. This corner throws you off line as you enter a bridge, and instead of being firmly on the bike section of the bridge, you can find yourself on the slippery metal grate. In my case I had to make a hurried grab for the bridge railing to stay rubber side down.
Waitakere City Council also deserve another bouquet for finally putting a decent surface on the bridge across the Henderson creek on the North Western Cycleway. The surface now is firm, has excellent traction and doesn't squirm like previous matting. Well done.
Today The Crocodile and I braved the elements and knocked out three hours in pretty average conditions, oddly on a route that is normally pretty well traversed by cyclists (The Ridge Road loop) we didn't see a single other cyclist, they must be getting a touch soft me thinks.
The great thing about all this rain is that the metal roads will be getting well bedded down, and with a few more miles under my belt, I can go and tackle some blazingly great roads in Rodney District. Truly I can't wait.
Fifty one weeks ago four of us ventured out to Aka Aka and back, via Waiuku and a stop at the bakery at Patumahoe. The weather was pretty average and quite windy, and by the end, one hundred and forty kilometres later, I was a trifle weary.
