Dickhead of the week

Former Australian cricketer, uber-bogan and all-round oxygen thief Shane Warne has had a funny run of luck lately. Last week he had a bleat about cyclists riding two abreast, something that's perfectly legal in every state in Australia. Drawing on a fairly limited store of intellect, Warne managed to trot out many of the same tired old cliches that most cyclists would be well familiar with, to the delight of some of his dopier followers and the dismay of anyone who rides a bike. It's a familiar debate, we've seen it time and time again on the websites and blogs and comments sections. Nothing new or interesting here. For shits and giggles I've reproduced it below, read from the bottom up:

warne888 Shane Warne 

Please do something about it council and govt - single file all bike riding on the road or a ban for 12 months ! And pay rego - fair ?

13 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

warne888 Shane Warne 

Ps actually if you are going to ride on the roads you should pay rego and have a number plate, only fair Once again,single file please !!!!

13 Jan 

warne888 Shane Warne 

Seriously I'm all for allowing bike riders to ride on the rd's etc but please act responsible and stay in file...

13 Jan 

Yesterday the plot took an interesting twist. Poor old Warnie was sitting innocently  in his luxury car at traffic  lights when for no reason he was attacked by a maniac on two wheels. Again his first post is at the bottom:

warne888 Shane Warne 

its amazing how things pan out, i have only been saying recently please bike riders obey the road rules and keep it safe for everyone ...

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

that i was being polite and careful and the drivers around him otherwise if anyone decided to be an idiot then he was in real trouble.

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

anyway, i drive off he rides off and everyone was shaking their head at this bike rider as he was being very dangerous. he was very lucky

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

can't move nor anyone else, i go to slowly move around him and he just moves with me, yep clipped his tyre and he then abuses me some more.

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

are you doing he abuses me i say get off the road, he stops in front of me and holds up traffic and just stays on his bike ! so, now i.....

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

he pulls out in front of me whacks my bonnet with his hand and pulls out in front of all the traffic, i yell out hey buddy what the hell ...

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

thump on my boot, looked in mirror a bike rider hit my car then held onto my car to pull himself through the traffic, lights change.....

21 hours ago 

warne888 Shane Warne 

guys stay with me here its important... so there i was driving home after a training session at the mcg.. pulled up at the lights, felt a..

21 hours ago 

The story got some play in the papers this morning, quoting Warne's tweets. Turns out the cyclist saw Warne's tirade and came up with a totally different version of events. Some highlights:

“What are you doing? You don’t own the road! Get out of the way” he yelled repeatedly. I shook my head and probably yelled something similarly inane back. Now even more agitated the driver continued to yell, “you don’t own the road”. 

"Before I could the driver lurched his car forward forcing my bike wheel and almost my leg under the front of his car. Dumbfounded at how overtly aggressive the driver had been and aware that we were now holding up the traffic, I pulled my bike from under the car and attempted to continue riding. My wheel was jammed against the frame of my bike and the chain was tangled so I had to carry it to the footpath to fix it."

Long story short, the bloke says Warne drove into him and failed to stop. He posted a photo of his buckled back wheel to support his version of events and reported the incident to the police who are apparently doing nothing because the damage to the bike is a civil matter. And oddly, Warne now just wants to put it all behind him as quickly as possible.

warne888 Shane Warne 

Have just seen bike riders version of events, please buddy - whatever ! I'm not going to get into a 5 year old tit for tat..,

3 hours ago 

I suppose it's too much to expect Warne to be some sort of role model. For a bloke who wants cyclists to obey the law, he's got a funny way of showing the respect he demands. By his own account he ran into someone and left the scene of an accident. He may have been a first-class cricketer but his conduct over the last week does nothing more than show him up as a first class dill.

How to avoid a dooring

The Age newspaper in Melbourne has recently run a series of articles on doorings: accidents that occur when parked motorists inadvertently open their doors in the path of cyclists. It gets people hurt in two ways - from an impact with the door or they crash into or are hit by other traffic when they swerve to avoid the sudden obstacle in their path. After two articles on a young man killed in a dooring incident, the paper also ran a story about a rider who was injured. Finally The Age's motoring section called for stickers to be placed on rear vision mirrors to alert drivers to the danger. It's nice the paper is looking out for cyclists but in my opinion this campaign has missed the point. One hundred per cent of dooring incidents can be avoided if cyclists take greater care and responsibility for their own safety.

Dooring is a well-known hazard for cyclists, it has been for years. It's also an easy one to avoid and here's how:

• Never, ever, ride in the door zone: the space in which an opening door would hit you. In practical terms this is about a metre or slightly more. A metre and a half and you're even safer. 
• When riding along a line of parked cars, keep an eye out ahead for signs of occupants about to exit. Look at the rear vision mirror, look for a head in the driver's seat, brake lights going off, for a door slightly cracked open. Pay particular attention to cars that have just pulled into a space. 
• Hold a steady and predictable line, do not weave into spaces between blocs of parked cars. Suddenly appearing from a gap is another good way to get hit. 
• And if your journey regularly takes you along a route which forces you to ride alongside long lines of parked cars, particularly if there are other hazards like fast moving traffic or tram tracks, give serious consideration to finding another route without these hazards. 

I have a feeling doorings are on the rise in Melbourne because the current bike boom has lured lots more novice riders onto the streets. That's something to be celebrated but better education is needed of some of the avoidable risks, such as dooring. It would be nice if people didn't fling their doors open without looking, but there's plenty of other things motorists should be doing to make us all safer on the roads and somehow I don't think we're ever going to get to them all. Cyclists have to most to gain by taking responsibility for their own safety, and now you know how.

166km so far this year.

An old friend moves on

Over the couple of years or so I've been reducing the number of bikes in the shed. I know the ideal number is supposed to be n+1, "n" being the number you currently own, but for me there's nothing smart about hanging on to a bike you don't ride and is taking up space. Over the last few years I've given away an old hardtail mountain bike and the folding bike I bought in China and sold my full suspension mountain bike and another folder I bought from ebay on a whim. Looking at last year's rides, I did the vast majority on just two bikes and if I had my way - and if it were possible to find a fast road bike which handled panniers and rough dirt roads with elan - I'd own just one which did everything.

Me on the Centurion during a triathlon in about 1985.

The hardest bike to part with wasn't a complete bike at all. My old steel Centurion frame has been hanging in the shed after I sold all my vintage Cmapagnolo gear on ebay three years ago. It's a lovely steel Japanese-made racing frame built at the height of the triathlon boom the mid 1980s, well made and still in fine condition. I've owned that bike since the year after I left high school and it was a bike I raced and competed in triathlons on, so being a little sentimental about it was perhaps understandable.

The bike has stayed with me over the years, through moves from state to state but languished in a shed for a while before I resurrected it as a flat bar road bike when I lived in Melbourne. A few years later I had the bike resprayed and restored it to its former glory, though the paintjob didn't last too well. I rode it while I lived in Melbourne, including a fun few weeks to and from the Commonwealth Games media centre and on a couple of Audax rides. It was as smooth and as fast as I remembered - responding easily to a kick in a sprint and the handling razor sharp.

After the 2007 restoration.

With my growing interest in Audax riding through and perhaps getting older, I've been putting in fewer and few miles on the old race bike and after stripping the last paint job back to the glorious original chrome underneath, the frame again hung in the shed awaiting another restoration that I knew would most likely never come.

A few months ago a friend at work who is a keen cyclist mentioned he was keen to put together a road bike but had a very tight budget of just $400. Richard is a mad-keen mountain biker but wanted something decent for his 20km commute to  work, so it seemed right that my quarter-century old racer should find a second life with someone who would appreciate it. I dug out a back wheel I wasn't using any more and some old cranks and other bits and pieces and pointed him in the direction of the fine folk at the Hobart Bike Kitchen and he was off.   He's done a great job of the rebuild and the bike even featured Ride On the magazine of Bicycle Victoria (which you can almost read by clicking the image at the top of this post and zooming in a bit). It's a fitting tribute to a bike which has served me well. I was delighted to spot my old bike in the rack at work the other day, it was like running into an old friend. Far from being sad or sentimental to farewell an old friend, I'm quite chuffed to know it's going to be going to be ridden and appreciated for years to come. 

105km so far this year.

2011 by the numbers

The figures are in and 2011 was an unspectacular year on the bike for me. It's probably not all that surprising I came up with just 4208km for the year, down about 1000km on my long term average. In my defence I had August almost completely off the bike and was laid low by illness twice for three weeks or so each time in the second half of the year, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much. It was a year of change for my little "fleet" too, gone is the KHS folder I bought on a whim from ebay and gone too is my dual suspension mountain bike. The proceeds of those sales went towards my lovely new steel-framed Thorn Audax which is now the bike I ride just about every day.

The year's total came in 118 rides of an average distance of 35km and an average duration of 1h48m.  My average speed of 19.64km/h was about 0.5km/h up on the previous year, although what exactly that means I really don't know. Just over 78% of my rides were on either my Surly Crosscheck or its replacement Thorn Audax. My old Bianchi did just 688km (15.8% of my distance) last year and my beloved Surly Long Haul Trucker covered 274km (6.2% of the total). On average I spent just over four hours a week on the bike - and that is the subject of one of my New Year's resolutions. In my best year - 2006 - I managed close to six hours a week on the bike, which gives me something to aim for.In that year I managed to maintain an average of 17.7km a day, last year I managed only 11.5km. Doing fewer Audax rides since my move to Tasmania hasn't helped, but the first day of the New Year is not the time for excuses.

Riding less meant blogging less in 2011with just 22 posts continuing a steady decline from the heady 58 I managed in 2006 and 2007 when I started the blog to keep my motivation levels up and track my progress as a rider. I'll kid myself that the quality has improved, but will try to be more industrious in 2012 but working full time in an increasingly demanding job as a newspaper reporter does limit the energy I have left over for blogging. Even so, the blog enjoyed 4810 visitors during the year, which is up slightly on the year before and attracted visitors from just about every country on earth - something which is a source of constant astonishment and enjoyment to me. To each of you my thanks for dropping by. I hope you gained some small measure of information or enjoyment. Special thanks to those who come by regularly to see what's up.

I've now covered almost 36,000km since getting back on the bike in 2005 and have spent 1700 hours in the saddle on 909 separate occasions - the equivalent of 42 working weeks! Here's to a successful 2012 wherever you may be, may it find you always with a tailwind at your back and a broad grin on your face. And on that note, I'm off for a ride.

0km so far this year.

Son Delux hub

A fair proportion of the search engine queries which land people on this blog are about lighting. A lot of people in particular are interested in dynamo setups. I use a Son hub and Edelux front light on the bike I ride about 80 per cent of the time. As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of dynamo lighting because it's always there, ready to be turned on as required and never runs flat. The only drawback is a relatively high initial expense. Cyclists have been spoiled by rapid advances in lighting technology in recent years, particularly with LED lighting which draws less current than the old halogen setups and doesn't burn out bulbs every hundred hours or so. 

Despite about four years of good service from my old model Son hub I decided to again raid my savings account for a Christmas treat to myself and splurge on one of the new smaller, lighter Son Delux hubs. These were originally designed for 20 inch folding bikes but by happy accident were discovered to be perfect to drive the new generation of LED lights.

I built the new 32-hole hub up onto a rim a couple of weeks ago and have done a few shorter rides so far and I'm very happy with the result. The resistance of the hub is not noticeable at all when it's turned on, so I've taken to leaving my front and rear lights on during the day. A few friends who has driven past me in the daytime have mentioned how effective the front light in particular is. I haven't done a night ride yet - the daylight hours in Tasmania at this time of year are very long.

I note from Jan Heine's website that Son has a newer model out to address some minor aesthetic and technical issues with this hub. He's written an explanation here. The differences are too tiny for me to be bothered with, this is a hub I'm planning to be happy with for many thousands of kilometres from now.

(If you found this post useful, you might be interested in my posts on the  Schmidt Edelux  LED front light or the Busch & Muller Seculite Plus Rear Light. I'm expecting to post a review of the Busch & Müller DToplight XS Plus in the coming weeks.

4179km so far this year.

The stylish randonneur

Most of the time I ride in a pair of old Shimano touring shoes which look like sneakers but have the advantage of stiff soles and standard SPD cleats. Being easy to walk in they're perfect for most purposes but the soles are a bit too soft for longer Audax rides. My faithful Shimano SPD-SL road shoes are just about worn out after years of faithful service, so I've been hunting around for a high quality replacement.

Way back when I raced bikes on the road in the mid 1980s, leather shoes were all the rage. They had both leather uppers and thick leather soles and big slotted cleats which locked in onto the back plate of a pedal. Toe clips and straps held the whole lot rock solid. They were impossible to walk in for more than a few steps because the large, often metal, cleats  protruded from the base of the sole. Despite the fact that the SPDs are a much better system, the old leather shoes were far more comfortable - particularly on long rides.

Since I've been salting away a few dollars each week into a "bike account" all year I've been able to lash out and treat myself to a few bike items in the lead-up to Christmas. When I saw a company called Dromarti offering old-style leather shoes I didn't need much prompting. (I've since noticed Vittoria offering a similar pair of leather shoes with the model name 1976.)

At $A275 shipped, they were't cheap but my first impressions based on around 100km of riding are generally favourable. The shoes are made by Italian footwear firm Marresi and come in either black or a very fetching brown. They're as stylish as all hell. Like leather walking boots, leather cycling shoes take a bit of time to wear in and we still have a little way to go but the wonderful comfort of leather I remember from way back is there in spades with the added stiffness of a plastic sole. They're ok to walk in too, though they feel a little narrow after the Shimano shoes. Something tells me this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

4011km so far this year.

Some days were just made for riding.

Hope it's the same where you are.

3979km so far this year.

1000km review: Thorn Audax 3

Having done 1000km+ on the Thorn it seems an appropriate time as any for a longer-term review of the Thorn Audax 3 frame I bought earlier this year. On the whole I'm very impressed, although of course there's a few minor niggles that hold it just short of perfection. (Mind you I should be pretty happy since I built it up myself!) One of my biggest complaints is that I haven't had enough time to do as many miles as I'd like. It hasn't been my best year on the bike, I'll hold back on the excuses.

Positives first. The Thorn rides well, the steering is responsive but not overly so and it isn't greatly affected by the weight of a handlebar bag. I haven't noticed any toeclip overlap. The relatively tight rear triangle means the Thorn accelerates well enough to feel sporty and makes light work of a quick stab up short rollers, but at the same time it's comfortable for long distances and rides fine no-hands. The ample braze-ons on the Thorn meant that fitting racks and mudguards was a breeze. I'm deliriously happy with the Gilles Berthoud front rack with its intergral light mount and matching decaleur to hold my handlebar bag snugly in place and of course my Son hub and matching Edelux are a match made in heaven too. The Tubus Fly rear rack is light and handy for strapping a raincoat to or mounting a couple of light panniers for a longer jaunt.

Minor niggles then: I'd like to be able to fit wider tyres. This is one of those compromises that comes up with touring-style frames. If you want cailper brakes then there's a practical limit to how wide a tyre you can fit. On the Thorn, with mudguards, that limit is about 28mm, although it's happier with 23mm tyres so I'll stick to those for the time being despite preferring wider rubber. The integral pump peg, while handy, is designed for a pump which appears to be no longer made, the magnificent Zefal HPX. I'm still sorting out some minor wheel and tyre issues, but once those are done I reckon we'll be as close to perfection as you can get!

3,952km so far this year.