more serious riding days are sat /sunday, rarely on a bike path, Im on 4weeks anuall break which im two weeks into, so i go for a ride at any time usally in the mornning before the wind picks up or its to late./ see you on the west coast highway some time.

You can't miss me as my bike is bright yellow. Louder than it looks in the photo.

oh well ill just have to keep look'n at the eye candy for now, great to see ya bike. On sat i was just south of scharborough at 6.30 pm may have seen you on the cycle way? i only gave the finger wave two road bikes on the cycle path, my bikes mostly blue with some white bits my gear is all blue and some black.Picked up a tube from near the SAS base, had a small snake pinch, patch and a spare. A few throw there tubes on the tracks.

So, DaveinHobart, you up for the big ATTA time trial tomorrow/tonight?

I'll be there. Just look for the crapppiest bike you can find... silver Vitus front fork, grubby green frame, Brooks saddlebag, white bidon cage (ugh), wide TT2000 tyres and red Time Atac pedals. I'll be close by hassling Pimmy and others. If you don't front, I'll just turn around and go home. If you do, I'll watch you start, then turn around and go home... j/k!

One favour, though... call an ambulance to be stationed at the top of the Bonnet... I don't know that anyone else has done the TT on a fixed, and I think I am going to regret leaving the Merida 8sp on the rack at home.

At least we don't have to worry about Japanese tourists, and someone bringing us down and scratching the chainstay on our non-carbon bikes, eh?

I was in Scarborough but at about 6.30am on Sunday. On Sundays I'm generally with my wife who has an Orbea Volata.

The track near the SAS base is rough as guts. Pretty much like the one to Warwick. I sent an email to Main Roads complaining about the track along the Mitchell freeway, but didn't get a responses.

It doesn't suprise me that you'd find tubes thrown away around there - it is the western suburbs after all.

Man it just snowed here this past weekend, I see you studs in April

Bwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaahhhhhaaa ROFLMAO........(sob)

bloody taswegian comedians!

Hitchy

Hi Rowan,

I'll be there. My bikes in at Ken Self's at the moment. Had my second spoke in 3 days go on Saturday. Guess I should get some decent wheels. One day when I'm feeling rich, maybe.

I'm riding an '04 trek 1000, (brushed alu paint job)

Seeya there.

Hey, don't rub it in too hard with Hitchy and non-C.

It might not be carbon, but at least it doesn't have a bent derailleur hanger

Try this address with cycing path problems www.dpi.wa.gov.au/cycling
Rarely use the sas track, better than riding on the highway with the lunnatick drivers.
The leafy western suburbs has more than its share of broken glass on the road.
The council must have nothing to do, as now there putting illes in the middle of the road arround the burbs

crank'n's sort of got it right. Main roads hasn't really had much to do with cycling infrastructure in WA for a while. BikeWest was absorbed three or four years ago into the department of planning... seen as a somewhat retrospective move. Anyway, you'll also find that more than 80% of bike infrastructure anywhere is managed by local government.

Soooo, the message of main roads probably ended up with someone who literally didn't know what to do with it. The complaints address crank'n supplied might get some results, but a phone call or email to the local council responsible for the path/road might get even fast results.

Fast results from the local council? Iv been trying for too months just to get them to put my recycle bin back on the verg instead of the road in front of traffic.

Sorry, you're right. Should have said "faster". Still leaves it wide open to wait a year or three...

Iv heard some success stories regarding notification of damadged cycle ways, as long as the monies there.

Main Roads looks after the Principal Shared Use Paths that run next to the freeways. Local government looks after the rest.

I'm about as closely associated with it as you can get... and money is part of it, but from my experience it has a lot to do with the lak of acceptance of cycling among the *workforce*. I know that the blue-collars that are employed by the business arm of the capital city council here couldn't care less.

However, finding the right person within a council (or government department) can create a useful liaison that does get things done eventually. What I can't really understand is that a vast majority of cyclists always b!tch and complain, but rarely take up the invitation to establish a BUG or council bike committee to work within these structures.

Theres always going to be knockers of a good thing. Iv been to four bike week breakfast's in the city and the numbers are growing yearly thankfully, so the awareness is growing out there ,takes time for change to filter through and adjustments to council priorites to be made,in the system from all levels, i think people get frustrated with the system / well if theres no votes in it for the pollies they won't touch a problem in some departments. Im lucky to live in an earea that cycling is at least a priority.Trans Perth are doing there bit by supply bike lockers, and cycle paths are getting laid. Looking forward to bike week'05 and another water bottle and a great breakfast and chatting to other cyclist to swap views from other suburbs.

Never been to the breakfasts I as work in West Perth. Might go to the next one though - usually in March aren't they?

I was back in Perth a month ago (clearing out stuff that has been in storage since I lived there seven years ago) and was impressed with the bike lockers. But realistically, how many people actually use them? I did not see anyone putting in or taking out a bike... although I wasn't travelling by train in peak hours. What I did see, however, was plenty of people taking bikes on the light rail, which I thought was pretty impressive.

The reason I ask about the bike lockers is that if the elected reps (the pollies) see them *not* being used, or some stirrer in the community picks up on it, questions start being asked about wastes of money and how these bluddy whingeing cyclists don't appreciate what is spent on them. It's a real question and a real problem.

By the way, I am a little aware of things over there because I lived in Perth for over two years, and took up cycling while there. I also have been Tasmania's rep on the Australian Bicycle Council, and in that role, gained reat respect for Russell Greig, of BikeWest. His is/was a promotional role, and I figure people like him are much more aware of and effective in dealing with the issues than the droll traffic engineers who usually end up managing cycling facilities (using motor vehicle and pedestrian principles rather than cycling ones, and by putting the issues in a too-hard basket).

Well, caught up with HobartDave tonight. That's about it, I suppose.

Dragged my sorry @rse up the hill in a time under 20 minutes. Dave's nightly practice on the hill for the last couple of months paid dividends -- he was down in the 17-minute range IIRC. Good job on the trusty Trek.

I won the fixed-gear division. However, I was the only one in it. And there isn't really a fixed gear division, but I'm lobbying.

Looks like I might have some opposition in a fortnight because several of the truly talented have threatened to turn up on their track bikes. I'm not sure I can improve five minutes over the seven kilometre climb in that time, so I will have to let the title go gracefully.

Of course, the Bonnet is only one of the hills in the Annual Seven Hills Dash (Ash Dash, get it?), a 200km randonnee starting at 7.00am on Sunday. These hills include several of the meanest in Tasmania, including Woodbridge Saddle and Kaoota.

Up for a real ride on Sunday, HobartDave?

Not yet dude, aren't you and I due for a grudge match on Mt Wellington sometime soon? Mt Rumney back in January was only the prologue, wasn't it?

Incidentally, I just wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I was in Melbourne last weekend myself. Oh well.

Oh no, don't remind me about Mt Rumney! I've lost close to 15kg since then and I t-h-i-n-k I've improved my hillclimbing just a tad. Someone who definitely has is Machka after her visit to Tasmania. She has a question for you on the Touring forum, although her georgraphy is a bit out.

The Ash Dash finishes with a climb to the Wellington pinnacle. Great! Not.

I saw Machka's question on the touring forum. I can understand Tasmania improving someone's hill climbing. Heck, even the Great Alpine Road was a doddle by comparison. I'm beginning to like the sound of this Ash Dash more and more. Any idea how much climbing in total? The Wonders of Glorious Mee in Brisbane is 3,304 metres of climbing, and last year that was in temperatures of 39 degrees C (in September!).

I'll have a look at the topo maps over the next couple of days. Funny, I don't think anyone here really puts too much thought into how much elevation gain we ride. Rob (Machka's ride partner) has done PBP, BMB, Perth-Albany-Perth, and I think he puts the Giro 1000 route above them all in terms of climbing and the constancy of it all.

Most of the climbs also start close to sea level -- Woodbridge Saddle, Palmers Rd, the Bonnet, Fern Tree/Neika (the ride starts at Parliament House), Silver Hills at Cygnet, Kaoota (which I personally rate 9/10 in the toughness rating) and Merchants Hill. So you are doing a true, all-the-way climb rather than starting at a higher elevation. The only ones don't really start close to sea level are from Longley to Vinces Saddle on the way to Huonville, and Mt Wellington, of course, which on this ride starts at Fern Tree (but you've still go to get back up to Fern Tree from Longley).

The fixie is definitely staying the lounge room for this one. The Fuji gets to tick over 30,000km since new three years ago. A reason to break out the champers, eh?