Illegal Bicycle Activity in the City of Sails

Well, it was a logistical nightmare for someone as organised as myself, but we did it, we rode across the Auckland Harbour Bridge!

I had the bikes already mounted on the car when we awoke to beautiful winter's morning. Cold, but fine and sunny. The scheduled ferry services from the two closest wharfs were very spread-out on a Sunday so we drove down to Devonport to catch the 8.30am ferry to downtown. 

Thing-One and Thing-Two enjoyed the harbour crossing and it was a little unique to have the boat full of cyclists. The bike racks onboard filled-up instantly and there were bicycles and lycra-clad weirdo's strewn all over the place. I took a chance and purchased one-way tickets ($12!!!) for the 10-minute sailing to the city. Some folks were buying return fares as we weren't sure if they would let us across the bridge or not. 

After a quick 10-minute ride through an empty city we arrived at the rallying point at the foot of the bridge. 

A quick family portrait before joining the crowd of two or three thousand. 

I was getting excited at this point in anticipation of riding over this thing for the first time in my 43 years. The bridge is 50 years old this week and it's still only available to cars, trucks and buses (buses with no bike racks!). The original design had provision for pedestrians and rail but the budget was slashed before construction began. Typically small-minded thinking from those in charge of New Zealand's largest city.

The crowd listened to the speeches and then started to get a little agitated as we were told by the organisers that we would not be allowed  to cross. The police were willing to provide safe passage but Transit New Zealand were refusing permission. 

Thing-One hangin' with some unicyclists as we were waiting for the go-ahead. 

As negotiations continued a roar went up as a bunch of roadies appeared over the guard rail and sprinted straight up the left hand lane of the bridge. This caught the police napping and they took off in hot pursuit after them. 

Word then filtered through the crowd that it was all go and we slowly shuffled around the (hastily erected) barrier-fence to gain access to the bridge on-ramp. 

At this stage I had assumed, as most of the crowd would have, that permission had been given for the crossing. We found out later that night that the police had been forced to shut down all the Northbound lanes when the lead-riders ignored the police road-block and broke through it. 

It's a great feeling being surrounded by a large crowd of people with a combined purpose. You feed off each-other's energy and there was real party-atmosphere up there on the bridge that morning. 

The crowd was a real cross-section of society. Everyone from babies in strollers and on the back of bikes to walking seniors. Lots of children were out strolling with their families and plenty of young cyclists were having fun zipping in and out of the masses. 

On the TV news that night, and in the paper the next day you would have thought we were a riotous rabble of anarchists. The media really put a negative spin on the whole event when in-fact it was just everyday Aucklanders getting out and enjoying the access we should have to our only harbour crossing. 

It didn't look like many people when we were all standing around waiting, but by the time we all got up on the bridge we filled the whole thing up, all 1.2 kilometres of it. It was an impressive sight and the Waitemata Harbour was just stunning from up there. 

You tend to stand out in a crowd when riding a Pug and a lot of my friends from the cycling community, local bike shops and even contacts from the internet came up and said hello. 

Jakob was there on another Pugsley, or should I say "the" other Pugsley and he was singing the praises of running the Endomorph's tubeless. You save half a kilo on each wheel but I'm not sure I can be bothered changing at this point, I've only had one flat in three years after all. 

Before we knew it, it was all over and we had reached Northcote Point on the other side. I did a few wheelies in front of the advancing police line for the cameras and then it was time to head full-circle back to Devonport. 

The protest had delayed the traffic for 1.5 hours and there were a lot of pissed-off drivers stuck in the jam. I sympathize with them but you have to stand up for what you believe in and it's only by actions such as this that opinions change and things actually get done. 

The motorist traveling in the opposite direction gave us lots of support and there were no end of waves and tooting horns as we made our way across. 

On the way home we rode over the new pedestrian overbridge to the Akoranga Bus Station...

 

Across the long bridge to the O'Neill's Point Cemetery...

With a quick candy-break amongst the headstones...

And a detour past the Devonport Labyrinth...

...Before arriving back at the Ferry terminal to collect the car. We also had two bakery stops to fuel those eight and ten year old legs and stop-offs at two playgrounds. When you're riding anywhere with kids it takes you twice as long and costs you twice as much!

What a fun day we had and I'm looking forward to the "next" bridge-ride, although I suspect the police will take a much harder line in the future.

(I seem to have stuffed-up the links when I was rearranging the photos. If you want to see them big they are all on my Flickr photostream.)

The eternal problem of getting your baguettes home on a bike in one piece has been solved.

Experimental Baguette Transportation Device outside the Baguette Dispensing Facility.

Baguette Obtainer Of The Year [BOOTY] in action.

Ellsworth Ride Ride

I had the chance to go for a quick carpark test ride on this big-dollar Ellsworth Ride cruiser while buying some tyres and tubes for the Cross-Check at my LBS. I like cruisers but it's too hilly in my part of Auckland for this type of bike and I'm always too tall for them anyway. 

The bike has some interesting features like the integrated rear fender but it was the rear hub that caught my eye.

I was curious how the NuVinci "geared" hub would ride after reading good reports about them. You just twist the controller and the gearing changes in a completely linear fashion, no steps at all. It was super-smooth and seemed to have a wide enough gear range but you had to twist the controller more than once to go from the lowest to highest ratio. Either that or the grip on it was slipping.

I think these hubs have a big future on city bikes and if they can get the weight down they would be great on all bikes.

Midget photographer's assistant wanders into frame

I like the internal cable routing

One-piece carbon-fibre bar/fork

Who rents bikes?

Tramp's singlespeed outside the Auckland Public Library

I took my boys for a bus ride into the city centre on Sunday. We cruised around the art galleries, went to the library, checked out all the public sculpture, ate junk food and loaded-up on ice-cream. We had a good time despite the cold rainy weather. 

I'm not a public transport user and was pretty impressed with our new bus route into the city over the harbour bridge. It's a separate two-way bus lane for most of the way and is not affected by the congestion on the motorway. I wasn't however impressed with the expense. It cost me something like $18 for 1 adult and 2 children and it's only a 10 minute ride. I would have used about $5 petrol if I had used my car, but finding free parking in Auckland is a challenge.

$3 per hour or $15 for 24 hours. I think you pay with your phone somehow.

The photo above is taken on Auckland's Queen Street. The main street that slices down the centre of town. In the past year or so these hire-bikes have been available but I have never seen anyone actually riding one. Auckland City is a cold, wet place in winter. It's a hilly and dangerous place to ride around and although I applaud any cycling initiative I just can't see this business making money. I think over summer they might get some customers, but it's never going to take off. I wish them luck all the same.

Fenders Rock!

I put some SKS fenders on the commuter bike 6 months ago and last night was the first time they've been used in anger. I've had a dream run in a typically rainy Auckland and apart from wet roads and a bit of drizzle I've managed to dodge the worst of it. That's until Wednesday night. Wednesday night it bucketed down.

What a difference they make. My back and bum were bone dry and my feet only got a little damp (despite wearing sandals!) because I was crashing through every big puddle I could find to test them out. A home-made mud-flap on the front should fix that, my next project. 

I remember riding my ten-speed in the rain to high-school in the 70s. The objective was to get as wet as possible and the ultimate was to soak people walking on the footpath as you rode through the torrent in the gutters. You didn't seem to mind sitting around wet all day when you were 13.

The Nasty-Evil-Bike sits outside the front door awaiting garage access

When I got the bike in the garage at home I noticed masses of grey sludge on the top of my rims. It looked like mud, but I soon worked out from the blackness of the braking surfaces my brake-pads had been dissolving on the mostly downhill run home. These are 15 year old MTB rims and they are rough as hell and almost worn-through. Little bits of aluminium occasionally come loose and embed themselves in the pads which makes a horrible scraping sound until I dig them out with the tip of a knife.  The wet weather braking is as good as the discs on my Pugsley but I'm a little nervous about a "catastrophic wheel failure" at an in-opportune time. Time to learn wheel building I feel.

Dissolved brake-pad and rim

The Nasty Evil Bike

A cross between Darth Vader and a run-away chainsaw

Those of you who browse through my Flickr photos will be familiar with this beast. It was my first mountain-bike and was raced for 3 or 4 seasons in the early 90s. I did several painful (metric) centuries on it and it's now my commuter "beater" as the Americans say, complete with electrical-tape paint-job, fenders and a rack borrowed from the Pug. 

I call it The Nasty Evil Bike because it has tried to kill me on more than one occasion. The steering is lightning-quick and it is a real handful off-road. You don't get a chance to catch a front wheel drift or a locked-up front tyre, it just slams you into the ground! 

On the road it's more manageable as long as you don't take your hands off the bars or start relaxing. I have tamed the handling somewhat with the fitting of Schwalbe Marathon 2.0 tyres. They provide some relief from the too-stiff solid gauge aluminium frame and grip wet or dusty roads much better than the 1.5 slicks I used to have on there. 

Despite the physical and emotional scaring this bike has left me with I am quite attached to it. It has proven unbreakable and is doing a great job hauling me to work and lugging Carla around town in the trailer. 

With the suspension seat-post off the Pugsley it's pushing 35 pounds, which is laughable for a fully rigid aluminium MTB, but I just might keep it for another 15 years.

Not exactly the Iditabike

It's been in the family over two years now and I still love this bike to pieces. It hasn't lost that new bike allure and always makes riding fun. 

This afternoon I was cooking dinner and it was tasting a bit bland. I had half an hour to pick up some zing from the local supermarket and get back home before the kids arrived from school. 

Pugs to the rescue...

If I go by road there's a big hill in the way, but as long as it's not high tide I can ride from bay to bay along the beaches. Errand running doesn't get much better than a sunny ride along the beach in the middle of winter. I was back home and had the bike washed and dinner rescued before the family arrived.

Pugs resting after a post-beach hose down

The School Run

A couple of days a week when I'm not working, Carla and I ride up to school with the boys in the morning and again in the afternoon to meet them for the return trip. They are still a bit young to ride unsupervised and the standard of driving in New Zealand is pretty bad. 

When the morning ride just doesn't happen for some reason or another, we make more of an effort to get up there in the afternoon for the return trip. I take the scooters along as it's just about all downhill on the way home.

Carla loaded up and ready to go.

We're having such a great summer here, I'm keen to get out of the house and ride whenever I can. I bought a second hand child's seat for Carla, but found it hard to get her in and out whilst holding the bike upright. I also didn't like the top heavy feeling you get with your centre of gravity so much higher. The trailer is much better. Lots of room to carry stuff and you don't even notice it on the back. The best $150 I ever spent.

Waiting for the 3pm bell to ring.

The trailer gets lots of attention. They are not common in New Zealand at all. Children just love it, and everyone says hello to Carla as we're riding around school.

Just passing the tennis courts.

We are very lucky to live so close to Centennial Park and most of the trip home is through here. There are still cars about, but they are few and far between and are traveling a lot slower than out on the road. 

This trip takes us 15 minutes to school and only 10 minutes downhill on the return trip. You would not believe how many mothers live in the same area and drive their big SUVs to school instead of a 15 minute stroll through the forest. They leave half an hour early to get a parking spot and sit there reading a book or listening to the radio. The really bizarre thing is I see some of these same mums out running when they get home! Where's the sense in that?

Race ya!

Hang on Teddy.

I just got these Keen sandals (shoes?) for my birthday and they are fantastic. They are kind of a cross between a sandal and an off-road running shoe. Perfect for bike riding in summer. I have munted my toes too many times in clumsy bike incidents and it's put me off cycling in sandals for life. These are going to be great for a clumsy person like me.

Go by Bike Day

I got up at the unnatural time of 6am this morning so I could join the "Go by Bike Day" group ride into Takapuna. This is a community event held nationwide to encourage cycling, and specifically bicycle commuting. There were two groups riding into town from different directions and when we got there the organisers provided a free breakfast, coffee, bananas, massages, helmet-hair fix-ups, bike checks and a goody bag.


I rode the Pugsley with my 34/18T "road" gearing and it was hard work on the hills at that time of the morning.
The lycra-clad roadies just didn't get a guy riding a 36 pound singlespeed, but I had a few friendlier people come up and ask me questions about the bike. You get used to that riding a Pug. There were 350 cyclists at our local event.


When I got to the meeting point for the ride in It was just getting light. I thought I had the wrong day until I spotted a lone rider behind the coffee cart. The third rider to show up was the Mayor! I had a chat to him about the new local bike lanes. There has been a lot of controversy about the effect they are having on the rush hour traffic. He was probably just gathering votes, but was quite approachable and had made the effort to get out of bed early and dust off his old mountain bike.


The goodie bags were a bit sparse this year. Last time I got a Cat Eye rear blinky that I use all the time. This year it was bottles of shampoo and conditioner. What's with that? Are they implying cyclists don't wash?

The bagels were good. The coffee was good, and It was fun to ride with other people on the road for a change.

After stuffing my face, chatting to a few people and listening to the mayor's speech, I had to ride all the way back past where I had started to get to work by 10am. I have to work until 10pm tonight, but it was worth it.