dhbc second ride

I went on the second bike ride with the dhbc. I have since joined. I was greatly improved after my previous ride and I actually managed a full lap of centennial park and did not crash with any other cyclists this time. I was very pleased with my improvement in fitness.





and I just found this movie on you-tube!

slowies ride

Today I went on the slowies bike ride with the Dulwich hill bicycle club. We started at Macs Bicycle shop on Marrickville road at 6:30 AM and rode to Centennial Park. Unfortunately I forgot to turn on the GPS so I only have the return trip. The others spent time riding around the park for 45 minutes. I stopped and rested. We then returned back to Marrickville and had breakfast at the wonderful Marrickville Road Cafe. I will certainly be doing more rides with this club.



I also experimented with taking a video. The mobile phone is in the clear plastic part of the handle bar bag.



I have downloaded the Prune program to draw my map. It shows the route and the altitude which is cool for a GNU free program. The ride is from right to left on the map, but left to right on the altitude.



16.4 kmh is a bit abysmal and I struggled on the hills to keep up. In fact I was dropped from the pack on every hill. But I caught up again. Still, once I am going well I should be able to manage 25 kmh on average.



Now I need to do the ride to work and back to show the map, also into 400G in the city.

First ride on my bike since 2000

Well, the bike has been sitting in the underground garage for 12 months in this place. Looking sad with it's flat tyres. I decided last December that I should start riding into George street but needed to get the bike going. Also, I have decided not to get a new lease car, so at the end of March I will have no car. I have no intention to get another one in the immediate future, but I have some longer term plans. So from April, I will ride to Paddington. It is a short ride with no hills of significance. If it is raining I will catch the 355 bus.

But I had a problem. The bike was locked. An hour of searching found lots of old keys to who knows what, but no bike lock key. So I had to take the bike up to the bike shop (Mick Mazza Cycles) with the back wheel locked. I got one comment form a Greek man on the way. In the shop, the assistant thought I was a bike thief and wanted nothing to do with it. But the owner cut the lock off, sold me a new one , replaced the rubber liner for the front wheel and cleaned and regreased the bearings. I can't believe am so slack I did not do this myself. In the future I will do it myself again.

Yesterday I walked around looking at the other local bike shops. The one in Marrickville Road is good but it had a very limited selection of add-ons and did not have what I wanted. I found that a shop on Kings Road (king street cyclery) was excellent and had the things I wanted (clip on pedals/shoes and a handle bar bag. I forgot to ask about racing handle bars. But I did not buy any of this. I'll have to get the bag first.

Today I purchased a pair of black dunlop runners so I have shoes that fit in my existing toe clips. They will do for now.

I did not go for a ride yesterday as I was not completely set up. Today I did. I rode around the cooks river and past the airport. All in all about 6km. I feel really good for the exercise. Though my left arm is hurting while I ride. I will have to see the doctor about that. I think I might had RSI. But I do not know.



I took a few photos and one movie with my mobile phone. When I get the bag, I'll have to connect the phone to it so I can take movies while I am riding.