It's the winter (here in the southern hemisphere) or summer (up there in the northern hemisphere) solstice weekend.

We're experiencing the shortest period of daylight down here ... the sun rose at 7:35 this morning and set at 5:08 pm this evening. Starting on June 23rd, the sun sets at 5:09, and slowly and gradually sets later and later. Wonderful!! Soon evening rides won't be in complete darkness.


Meanwhile today, Saturday, there was no cycling. Instead there was lots of walking as we visited a local city to hunt for furniture. Furniture shopping is hard work. Hopefully there will be some cycling tomorrow.

My weekend started early. I took a vacation day yesterday, and did a 200k permanent, the "Rio Vista Rumble". It was long, hot, not a lot of fun, but I made it through. No riding today, but plan to be at a family reunion and then this evening, stop by a vintage bike show. And probably get in 20-30 miles Sunday afternoon.

I just took the dog for a walk. Got back at 8:30 AM, after a 30-40 minute walk, and I am totally drenched in sweat. Ugh.

Oh yeah, this is the most anticipated time of year of all. There's daylight in the sky until past 9:30pm here in the northeast. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I almost forgot ... today is Father's Day in Canada (and the US?) too. Father's Day in Australia isn't for a while yet, so I wasn't forewarned by millions of ads on TV, radio and newspaper, etc. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers who cycle.


And are any of you in the northern hemisphere celebrating the Summer Solstice by getting out and riding Summer Solstice rides ... maybe something dawn till dusk??


Rowan and I got out for a nice 42.84 km bicycle ride on a pleasant triangle route from our house. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but we were dressed for it, and it ended up being warmer than I thought. Overall it was a very good ride.

When we got home, Rowan and I rode up and down the street on an old coaster postie bike Rowan picked up this week. I haven't ridden a coaster bike in years!!! It was a little over 30 years ago that I switched from a coaster bike to a geared bicycle.

I'll post some pics shortly.

Photos of today's ride ... and especially the test ride on the old Postie bicycle used by the Australian Post way back when ....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...detail/?page=2



https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...detail/?page=3




And heading off on our ride up the road right outside our place ... note that the road is paved!! That's very exciting for us. We can just hop on our bicycles and ride now without having to load everything into the van and negotiate a mud track first.

Anyone else out riding this weekend?

For the fathers here ... did you get out for a ride with your kids??

My daughter is at a Phish concert this weekend, so I rode solo on Father's Day. Did my usual 37-mile loop, this time with a GPS. Turns out it's about 2,200 feet of climbing. Spent most of the rest of the weekend gardening and upgrading the garden fence. Stupid deer raided my bean plants the other night. They don't even have flowers yet, much less beans. Anyway, BillyD got it right--light 'till 9:30 gives you plenty of options for when to ride and how far. Hard to believe we're only a day or two away from it going the other way. Man, I hate it when it gets dark at 4:30 p.m. in the dead of winter.

Rowan looks like a quintessential Fred on the Poste bicycle.

No rides for me this weekend. After a week of hard rides I needed the rest. Up until yesterday, my legs have been very sore. Fine today, and will be ready for tomorrows group ride.

Got 35 miles in yesterday and another 35 in today. Trying to get over a case of jet lag as I got in late Friday evening after a 32 hour trip back from Bahrain.

I rode today. On the road at 6:15 this morning to head up to the LBS to meet with the shop Club/Team for today's ride. They are so strong! I managed to hang on for most of the ride. Got dropped in the paceline on the return when speeds hit 28mph. Only 4 or 5 miles from the shop. Better than last time, when I was dropped about 18 miles out.

When I got back to the shop, I called home and my wife brought my son up to ride the 16 mi back. I took him to lunch on the way. He loves his road bike!

Finished up with 86 miles, something like 4500 feet, and a 16.2 mph avg. Avg. was 17.6 when I got back to the shop. OUCH!

23 Yesterday and 48 Today. Yesterday was Two times up the Mountain about 6 Miles from my house, and today I did some riding with Sprinting intervals on a road closed off for cyclists to freely enjoy their bikes. I ended my week with 189miles.

60 miles worth of hills yesterday. Today rode a mostly flat 110 miles down to North Beach and back. Lots of friendly motorists out and about, I was getting thumbs up and honks from plenty of passing vehicles for some reason. Stopped at the beach and chatted up some cute girls I saw hanging around (turns out they were underage! ).

Hightailed it home and made it back just before sunset. Gotta love these long daylight hours.

79 miles Saturday. Rode to and from work today.

62 miles yesterday at Tour d'Italia (in Italy, TEXAS - not quite the same...) and then 60 miles this morning. Tomorrow I will rest.

80mi sat & sunday... & i've been on the bike for decent rides since thursday... after running on wednesday. i feel incredible and i'm making the most of the extra hrs of daylight.