Tweed Coast Treadly

Well I did manage to get on the bike today, just 12km checking both headlands to the South and North, but I was only very gently and sparsely sprinkled on. The weather prognosis is for more rain and a lot heavier, lucky we missed the mess that hit North Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, although I sure noticed it from the passenger seat in the plane on the way home on Sunday!

Today the rear rack worked well as a spray reducer through todays puddles. Although it did nothing to ease my mind as I approached the Coast Road, Round Mountain Intersection. When I was about 100 meters away from the corner this pale blue late model ute suddenly appears turning out of the South bound traffic on the Coast Rd onto Round Mountain. The young male driver decided it was a good place to give himself a bit of an ego boost through the self administering of adrenalin by drifting sideways through the corner taking the whole width of the wet, greasy intersection. I felt luck to watch from a distance rather than be closer and directly involved!

Begin Moan;

Today’s little trip saw me pass by a couple of “roadies”, don’t know what else you would call them. I do not think they are members of the fellowship of general cyclists. The first, after I said Gid’day, returned the greeting whereas the other saw fit to yell a callous or could it be spiteful remark “Hope you fall off!” Nice I thought! I was in usual attire, so probably stood out like dog balls to a lycra clad unpaid billboard, but, as is often the case at this time of year when going for a light road cruise, wearing thongs on my feet. (yes If I was to come off at any speedI could do some damage to my feet, but lets not forget my elbows, shoulders, knees, palms and fingers, head,hip, bum, did i forget anything? oh yeah my face.)

During the rest of the ride my thoughts drifted to contemplating the passing comment. Why bother saying that? Why not keep your negative remarks to yourself? Do you hope that others will go through your own experiences? Are you such a bad rider that you expect to fall, again, during  every ride?  Is he the type of person who verbally abuses people whilst in a queue at the bank,etc? Does he just like to tell other people they are wrong to make himself feel better about his own decisions? Is he a road rage practitioner when he gets behind the wheel of his motorised vehicle which is probably a hotted up ute or some such thing? 

It must of got to me a bit, as our paths crossed only a couple of hundred meters from the start of my ride. 

Later around the half way point in the ride, I passed another solo rider near Clothiers Creek road and that consisted of a more standard experience, just exchanging “the wave” and move on about your business.

Moan Ends here;

Just thought I would post an image of the only part of My Commute which always scares me! You have been cruising along at about 30-35kms/hr with the 60kms/hour traffic to hit the climb to the top of Sextons Hill where the traffic merges to 80kms/hour and you have been riding along the 800-900mm verge against an Steel Armco Railing with lots of past evidence of bad driving only to hit this little beauty about 1/2 way up and no way of looking leisurely behind to see if trucks, 4WD’s or buses are about to take the left turn into Banora etc only to be confronted by NO Road surface space to make it past the Very Badly positioned Traffic Island. Sometimes I just ride over it and others I will turn into the intersection and wait for the traffic to clear before doing a U-turn to get back onto the Pacific Highway.

The Scary Bit on the ascent of Sextons Hill South Tweed Heads NSW

Thanks to Google Maps Street View….

Today, after I finished welding the Sieve {900 x 1.8 weldmesh} I will be using to remove the rocks from the 8 truckloads of TerranoraVolcanic Soil over the summer for a vegie garden, my new Giant Cypress arrived at Cabarita Beach Cycles. Excellent!

I got a lift down with Joyann taking the helmet and a full water bottle… anticipation….

Gee it looked nice and clean, well lets put paid to that! So after quickly finalising the fit it’s on the bike… rode along Clothiers Creek Road to the freeway to take a flat smooth 15kms to check out the feel… I was suprised at the speed and power that was available from the 24 gears with the front suspension locked out, but I must try out the handling on the dirt with it unlocked… so onto Cudgera Creek Road and off the tar onto the gravel of Reserve Creek Road and then further onto Round Mountain gravel so about 15kms of loose dusty gravel… not so clean now! The hill climbing was surprisingly easy but there was still no need to use the granny gear! I’ll have to try somewhere else for this experience, maybe Cudgera Creek Road tomorrow?

Handling was throughly enjoyable with no nasty surprises! There was still some time left before sunset, ( I haven’t added any lights yet! and I must remember to take a pump next time just in case that is) so rode off along Kanes Road through to Pottsville and rode over the forge hill at a speed I have never achieved before! the bike seemed to maintain it’s momentum easily ah beautiful! Then it was a bit of a windout along the Coast Road at a high cadence with the wind finally on my back to be amazed that I will need to find more energy to get the ride into top ring and attain the highest speed possible on this bike. I was still able to peddle riding down some hills that i know top out on the old Elwood as soon as your speed reached 40kms/hr. Wow! I might be able to increase my long term average speed above 19kms/hr on this bike! 

Ah the pleasure of taking the first run on a new ride!

I’ll post some more later about the second hand commuter with drop bars I have also just bought, but I don’t want to lose the feeling of breaking in a new steed just yet!

I will need to readjust the front derailleur before tomorrow’s ride it seemed a little askew and shifts between the three front rings was quite hit and miss during todays ride!

All in all I felt like an 8 year old on Christmas day!

The new all purpose ride bought in October 2008