I hear you bro. When I could actually call myself a cyclist, I used to ride home from my Friday night kitchen hand job at about midnight. Lucky I'm still here.....

I don't recommend riding after 5:00pm on Friday or Saturday nights at all. Saturdays and Sundays are good mornings to sleep in too: let the drunks get off the road first

Nup....I used to use Chapel St to get to the Hell ride on Sat mornings. The amount of pissed/high/exhausted idiots I've nearly slammed into who step out onto the road I've lost count of. And cars who seem to wait until you're 3 metres from them before pulling out onto the road....

When I was racing in my younger days there was an old (ie >30 :) ) guy in B grade whose nickname was Bung. He used to stay out all night drinking and womanising, then turn up for a race with a skinful under his belt. Don't ask me how, but he always seemed to take some of the purse. Pure class :D

It's a weird vibe riding on Saturday evenings, around 6pm. Plenty of cars full of people who haven't seen each other all week, going out somewhere, so they're talking shit, not concentrating on the road....dangerous.

Exactly right.

Ah sucks. Not that it matters now you've got a bike. But I might as well give you the spiel that I give to all motorbike riding noobs. Better to get a dirtbike and motard it. Much safer and more fun in the city. Has much more cred on the street than your normal learner bike. Plus if you can put your dirt wheels and tires back on and head out into the buh, you'll learn more in a week about bike control than you will in 10 years riding around on the road.

Something like a motarded CRF250X would have been dead cool. But you probably would have got sick of rebuilding the motor. So an XR250 would still have been cool.

But not to worry. You'll learn ok on your ride. ;)


lol. From all the crashes I've had on motorbikes in my time, I used to always wonder how one would hurt themselves piddling around on a pushy. Worst I've had was a highside doing 140 at turn 4 at Eastern creek. Did a tendon in my shoulder and cracked my scaphoid, but nothing to dramatic at all.


Yeah, they work in the wet. Just not that well. ;)

That being said, I used to love riding in the wet in good warm wet weather gear that kept you as dry and warm as in a car. Just a bizzare sensation knowing you have really crappy weather only a few cm away on the other side of your gear. That and controlling a scatey bike was always a fun challenge. I guess it would be less so if I had to ride in the middle of a big city filled with idiots like you guys. ;)

And on the central coast they're all going to another dive in another hamlet on a the very thin and poorly maintained bits of road we have up here (no six lane dual carriageways with bike lanes here I'm afraid).

Decidedly uncomfortable for bikeriders at the best of times. Although we don't have those pesky trams to contend with :)

I was gunna say.....

you ride at night on these roads? How big is Gosford? I take there ain't miles and
miles of well-lit, wide roads. Do you ride at night on country roads? WOW!!

Just a little pic showing how much rian we got last night. That water level is probably 6-7feet above where it should be.

And err.....judging from the clouds out East, looks like we're gunna cop another bucketing any minute now.

I've only been to Melbourne a couple of times, but if that's the view from somewhere near the casino back to Flinders St, then WOW! That water is high!

The central coast resembles sydney circa 1930, including size and civilisation (some families even own one of those newfangled television thingies!). Lots of little hamlets tied together with really crappy roads that aren't capable of handling weekend traffic loads. And very little street lighting on those roads. One notable exception is my flat route from Gosford to Umina which has street lights almost all the way. Yay! :) As for country roads, that's what it's like. Climbo nearly hit a wallaby the other day!

Man, you only have to go 15kms out of the CBD here in Melb along any of the trails at dawn or dusk and you'll be cruizing past 'Roos. I've seen Kangaroos at Westerfolds Park and heck, even a Wallaby and an Echidna in Keilor of all places.

Nature will find a way, as they say.

Oh, hey, shouldn't there be some compulsory road bike stuff in this thread soon? I was riding my mountainbike when I saw the 'Roos, so that doesn't count.

I made it out for a group ride last night, and somehow avoided the rain :)
Will that do tiger?

I'll be riding today, no matter what. I can't miss two days in a row.
I might have to dust off my "ride in the rain", alu Kennedy with the alu fork....YEEEEOUCH

Take the pain

I haven't ridden since Sunday. Strangely I've lost .2 of a kg each day since. So there you go. Cycling makes you fat. :p

I lose 1.5kg overnight, every night. Then put it all back on during the day :) chomp, chomp

You mean you lose 1.5kg each morning dump? Who'd have though. Munchies full of sh1t. :)

HAHAHA you dopey bugger :)

Check these out....


http://www.theage.com.au/photogaller...228805235.html



Apparently the Spirit of Tasmania had to turn back.

Kerferd Rd pier....gorne.

Crane at the MCG building the new stand....gorne.

when i lived in perth i was in northern districts club. crit on sunday morn at joondalup (a satelite city about 30km north of cdb). a roo split the bunch. admitedly small bunch of about 20 riders. i reckon the roo was about 180cm. no one was was hit - just amazing.

not quite the same, but going under toorak road underpass (gardiners ck trail) at about 11pm after work one night, I nearly cut a fox in 2. it shot up a stormwater pipe in the abutment like a... well, like a fox up a drain pipe. that is about 8km from cbd.

and i have lost count of the number of rats i have run over in the dark. messy business, and about as funny as a hatfull of ar$eholes when you hit one on the bend.

BTW, i rode today along the river as much as possible. no roos, but plenty of ducks. a few times i was holding the bike over my head while i wades through hip high water. pretty insane stuff.

cheers

I saw a fox run across Collins St once.

did you ask her out for a drink :-) she could have been one of those high flying solicitor types

lol...