First BOOTY action of 2010

Baguette Obtainer Of The Year [ B.O.O.T.Y ]

I'll let the pictures tell the story but if there's one thing that draws more attention than riding a fatbike around the neighbourhood or towing a scooter behind your trailer it's a double-barreled-baguette-holster hanging off the back of your bike.

I've simplified the design from last year's model. Less duct-tape and a simple twin-bungee attachment to the rack. Still need to trim a foot or two off the tubes as they don't make baguettes like they used to and I have to do a wheelie to get them out.

Cars give you a wider berth when your bike is 10ft long

Milford Marina in the background. Scungy but always looks pretty in photos.

The DUAL 2010 - Pain to follow...

Despite a distinct lack of post-christmas funds I have gone and entered The DUAL for it's second running. At NZD$145 it's a bit of a rip-off but the organizers have to shuttle several hundred bikes and a couple of thousand competitors across to an island in the middle of the gulf, so it is a logistical nightmare. 

Supposedly some of the profit goes to the Motutapu Restoration Trust which is a very good cause after all. Motutapu means "Sacred Island" in maori and it's a special place with lots of maori and european history. It's also unique in that it's joined by a natural causeway to a young volcano and they both have quite different personalities.

I'm doing the 50km race again but they've added a 30km event this year for casual riders. The terrain is very hilly and you spend the second half of the race climbing in and out of valleys on farm-land. Very energy-sapping as a lot of this is on grass, not a trail as such.

For this reason I plan on taking the Cross-Check. I'll be much slower on the down-hills and will get beaten-up on the skinny tyres but can make up a lot of time if I can ride the whole course. A 36lb singlespeed fatbike was not the best option for the constant climbing involved last year. Most of the riders around me on much lighter geared bikes were walking the steep sections as well, but I reckon with a bit of training they are doable and I won't be stopping to take photographs this time! 

With this in mind I threw the knobblies on the Cross-Check yesterday to get a feel for riding it on rough terrain. My main concern is whether my hands and wrists can take 3-4hrs in the drops at speed. It felt decidedly more plush riding a 45mm tyre @50psi than the usual 35mm/70psi combo. Only time will tell on this one. 

Phat...

...Phatter

Mountainbike?

My DUAL nemesis across the waters. Motutapu on the left and Rangitoto on the right. I can see that damn volcano from just about everywhere I ride!

I'm loving these Paul brakes but the Fire-Cross tyres are painfully slow on tarmac. Practical for off-road only.

Last ride of 2009

I've been really enjoying riding the Cross-Check recently, even more so since I tweaked my cockpit. I'll use any excuse at the best of times to run an errand by bike but if there's any distance involved the Cross-Check is now the first choice as it's so much faster. 

The last day of 2009 involved a trip to the local library to return a (cycling) magazine before they repossessed my library-card. The library is only a fifteen minute ride away so I continued on to Devonport using the mainly off-road Devonport Cycle Route which I've been riding for years but is now "official" and has subsequently been sign-posted and had sections upgraded. 

I'm often blown-away by the stunning countryside some of my internet cycling friends get to ride in, but you don't always appreciate what you've got in your own backyard. Most of the roads I ride have sea views and you're never more than a kilometre or two from the coast. 

I borrowed my son's camera and attempted to capture some of my suburban riding environment on the way. 

We start at Campbells Bay Beach about 400m from our house. There are lots of well-off types on the North Shore of Auckland and by the number of people on the beaches on a warm (but overcast) summer's day they are all off at their holiday homes or out on their boats.

This is up the road at Kennedy park. I come here a lot with The Midget Assassin as it has a wonderful playground. The funny looking building is an artillery observation post from WWII disguised as a house. You can just make out one of the gun emplacements in the background which is about 10m back from the edge of a cliff overlooking the Waitemata Harbour. The North Shore is full of decaying military defenses but the majority were built to protect us from the Russians in the 1880s and the Germans in WWI. This stuff is a bit more recent to repel the evil Japanese. Now we spend all our time encouraging these people to visit as tourists. 

I then pass through Castor Bay. Not a soul on the beach today. Hard to believe there are over a million people living in Auckland.

Over the next headland is the Milford Marina. It's on a small tidal stream that exits to the sea at the north end of Milford beach. It's actually pretty scungy but does scrub up okay in a photo.

A couple of kilometres down the road is Takapuna. I was born and raised here but it's a bit of a shit-hole. Full of rich wankers and bars and cafés full of rich wankers. There is a move to rename Takapuna "Takapuna Beach". How wanky is that? Maybe London could rebrand as "London River"?

This photo is taken at the northern end besides the boat-ramp. The owner of this beautiful titanium and carbon Serotta prefers to drive it around town rather than actually ride it. Roadies... Doh. 

Takapuna beach again. Taken beside the yacht club. Rare sighting of an Aucklander actually on a beach in the Christmas holidays. 

I finally got to the library (which overlooks the beach) and took the bike inside with me as I was in a bit of a hurry after taking all these bloody photographs. Amazing how loud a White Industries freewheel sounds in a library, but I found that by avoiding all eye contact people could not see me at all. How convenient.

Past Takapuna on the way to Devonport is my old stomping-ground of Hauraki Corner. This photo is taken at a new and very impressive section of boardwalk suspended above the mangroves that enabled the cycleway to get a bit further around the coast and avoid a particularly nasty hill. I dread to think how much of my rates were sunk into these next 200 metres but it is a great resource and well used by walkers and cyclists alike.

Mudflats are a great place to play as a child. I used to frolic in the foreground mud with the crabs, smoke dope and ride my motorbike along the shell-banks at the waters edge and paddle canoes out there in the bay. Pollution, Life-jackets and helmets had not made it to New Zealand in the 1970s ;^)

This foot-bridge takes you across yet another mangrove swamp to the Belmont cemetery. It's build over a sewer pipe and really is as long as it looks. I found out today that my bike-trailer has one inch of clearance each side and that I wobble three inches each way when I tow it ;^)

Somewhat ironic that the cemetery is next to this lovely new bike path and not situated beside the main road where it is required.

Not far past the graveyard is this fantastic grassy downhill. This is where I proved my new handlebar set-up is perfect for flying down hills over bumpy ground at speed. I can even bunny-hop in the drops.

In the distance is Mount Victoria. Smack bang in the middle of Devonport and the half-way point where I turn around and head home.

"King of the Swamp"

The Sky Tower is behind the trees on the left and the Auckland Harbour bridge on the right. 

If you can't train your eight year old to pick up his dirty underwear he's never going to charge a camera battery so this is where our journey must end, with all the good photo-opportunities still to come. I'll take those on another day as the scenery in Devonport is really quite something.

I managed to coax one more shot out of the Sony when I got to the top of Mount Victoria. I got married right there in front of us in this "mushroom patch" by a TV anchorman. It was like a cross between a Tarantino movie and Alice in Wonderland. 

The volcano in the background is Rangitoto Island. I'll be racing the Cross-Check over there at the end of March in The DUAL 50km mountainbike race. Must get fitter!

The 350 Big Bike Ride

"You don't look at the camera and I'll eat a sandwich, 

that'll make a good photo."

Waiting around for the start in Betty Winsdor Square.

On Saturday I packed the Midget Assassin, Pugsley and bike-trailer into the car and we headed over to downtown Auckland for The 350 Big Bike Ride. Kind of ironic that I had to drive to a climate change rally but it highlights the woeful situation bike commuters face living on the North Shore. I'm denied access to the only harbour crossing, there is no provision for bikes on the bus network and the ferry is a long way away, sails infrequently in the weekend and is expensive. I also doubt I could maneuver our road-train down the gang-plank successfully. 

Any initiative to start cleaning up the planet has got to be good, right? But for me it was more an opportunity to ride around the city in safety and show my support for urban cycling. Cycling has been getting more than enough bad publicity lately in NZ and there is lots of bad will among the general public towards cyclists in New Zealand at present. 

The ride started in Queen Elizabeth II Square at the bottom of town and the group of two or three hundred (best guess) sailed off up Queen Street on a beautiful spring day. What a different experience it is to ride in a group. I certainly felt the safety in numbers phenomenon as we cruised along soaking up the vibe of the city. 

The riders were a real cross-section of society but maybe biased a little towards the save the whales and university student end of things. There were lots of families with children of all ages and the most fixed-gear riders I have seen in one place. It was also pleasing to see the Lycra-Cowboys that attended smiling and having a good time as I had always assumed the constrictive shorts prevented those facial expressions. 

We left the procession near the end of the route and headed back to Ponsonby for a well-earned beer with friends as the ride carried on to the 350 festival at Mt Eden. The Midget-Assassin had been very well behaved to this point and I didn't want to push my luck. It was a great afternoon to be on a bike!

Heading up Queen Street, Auckland's main road.

Unity Finesmith of Auckland Cycle Chic frocking it in style.

The Midget-Assassin cruising back down Queen Street.

Mundo, Mundo, Mundo!!!

I so want a cargo-bike.

"What you look'n at mista?"

Every conceivable accessory including the family pooch.

Older guy, singlespeed (fixie?), elegant steel frame with fenders. Got my vote for cool-bike-of-the-day but was harassed with a few no-helmet comments from pedestrians.

Classic cars in the viaduct. They looked great but it amuses me how very average cars become "classics" if they make it to retirement. 

"Shush, Lycra-Cowboys on the waterfront."

I just love seeing kids on bikes.

Sorry about the shirt.

Ponsonby Road.

Spring Sprang

The Road-Train arrives at Castor Bay

We are having some fantastic weather lately in Auckland. After a particularly wet winter it's nice to go for a ride on a fine day and leave the raincoats at home. 

Dresses herself - I am not responsible!

Today (for no other reason than it would be a crime to not go for a bike ride) the Midget Assassin and I went to the beach for a picnic morning-tea. We live 500 metres from a perfectly good beach but it's hardly worth harnessing-up the trailer for that, so we headed over the hill to Castor Bay instead. 

Only 16ºC today, but warm in the sun and perfect conditions for cycling.

On of the great things about living in New Zealand is there's hardly anyone here. Even in a city of one million we had the whole park, playground and beach to ourselves. Sitting in the sun looking out at the harbour, eating and drinking with your daughter - life is just too hard sometimes. 

I took the long way home so I could get a bit of a work-out on the hills and we stopped in at a local butcher to pick up some dinner. On days like this you feel very lucky to be out and about riding a bike. It makes a potential chore like shopping a pleasant experience.

My new (to me) Dinky Panniers

A friend of mine mentioned that a local Hospice opportunity shop had a pair of saddlebags for sale. I've been looking for a secondhand pannier on Trademe (NZ eBay equivalent) since I started commuting, but nothing decent at the right price has turned up yet. It's a bit hot in the morning for a backpack so I've been wrapping mine in my jacket (to keep the straps out of the spokes) and bungying it to the rack. This is a bit of a hassle and it's not practical to stop and get something out of the bundle if it starts to rain for example. 

The saddlebags turned out to be quite small but I bought them anyway as the price was right, it was for a good cause, and I don't need to carry much to work anyway. As it turned out a larger pannier would not work on this bike as I had to mount them at the rear of the rack to stop heal-strike on this compact MTB frame. 

They had their first proper outing today and it was very convenient having a handy place to stash all my stuff. These ones are semi-rigid like little oval hat boxes and the lids fit snugly with velcro holding them shut. Just what you need for diving in and out of without having to deal with straps and buckles. 

Of course I look like even more of a dork now, but at my age I'll take comfort and convenience over vanity anytime.

The Morning After

I'm in a happier place this morning. The sun's out, my clothes are in the washing machine shedding mustard and I survived Murder by Burger last night. 

I think you need to have just worked a 14-hour day and be pumped full of adrenaline to beat someone to a pulp. If I get bacon & eggs thrown at me in an hour on my way back to work I might just take note of their registration number instead.

Road Rage

I've just got home after half an hour riding around my neighbourhood trying to find the little shits that threw food at me and just about knocked me off my bike riding home from work tonight. 

It's not the first time I've been hassled. I've been yelled at and had bottles thrown at me, but you almost expect that when you're out riding around town at midnight. This was much more dangerous as I was going close to 40kph and they slowed down very close to me to take aim. I got a hell of a fright.

So if by some strange coincidence the offender is reading this I suggest you don't do it again because if you get stuck in traffic this time I'm going to drag you out of the car screaming like the little coward you are and beat you to a pulp you miserable little fuck.

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.)