December Cycling Madness

December sounds like the perfect month for some cycling madness. How about a one week all out, no time for family/work/going out, training week. Well, maybe just enough work not to get kicked out and enough family to still get dinner and have a place to sleep. This is how it will work.

1. Monday
• morning - easy ride to turn the legs over 40km map
  
2. Tuesday
• morning - fast flat North Road Ride 60km map
  
• night - tuesday night ride to Mordialloc return 60km map
  
3. Wednesday
• morning - recovery ride with Brumby bunch 50km map
  
4. Thursday
• morning - North Road Ride 60km map
  
• night - Thursday Night Hills ride 50km (map sort of)
  
5. Friday
morning - recovery ride Albert Park laps (map 40km) or North road ride 60km map

6. Saturday
• EPO and testosterone doping
7. Sunday
• morning - beach road ride Arthurs seat return 150km map
  
• afternoon - BBQ and drinks

total distance: ~500km
expected average: 32km/h +
coffee expenses: $35 (10 coffees + breakfast)
secret training factor: 0
the feeling of getting tipsy on the first drink at the BBQ: priceless

3 call it quits to Williamsons road

Well, Well what can I say,
we all wanted out and so we prayed.

I told Joel I did not want to ride,
the extra hill called Williamsons slide.

Joel told me that he also agreed,
he had nothing in him to ride up with speed.

I told Alex what Joel had said,
Alex told me that he agreed.

But when it came to the turn off for real,
Alex changed lanes and sped up his wheels.

He was still going to ride,
the extra hill called Williamsons slide.

I waved and yelled, pump in the air poking,
he turned his head and said he was joking.

we all called "soft" against the cyclists code,
and so we called quits on Williamsons road.

North Road ride, first time

Finaly we have had a presence in the premier training ride of Melburne, the North Road ride. Leaving the corner of North Road and Nepean Highway at 6am and going 50+ km/h out to Mordialloc then back along Beach Road to cafe Racer in St Kilda. I wore a back pack, which got a sneer from another cyclist who thought I had no chance, especially when I told him this was my first time in a couple of years. The pace slowed a little after the turn around point. In the end Alex and I were still together with the main bunch at the end so mission accomplished. Celebrations were held at an old toilet block now converted into a cafe, "Kanteen". Some of the old walls now make up benches, hope they gave them a good clean.

Break in the weather

It had been months in the planning and weeks in the calendar. Sunday ride, 2 times up Arthurs Seat, the premier "mountain" for riding a bike up. Well it may not be that long at 3km and not even 300m of elevation for the main part of the climb, but it sure looks good. Standing steep and visible from most parts around Port Phillip bay. Switch back turns that look just like those in Le Tour and views for miles around.

So when the day finaly comes, everyone was woken by rain. The SMS's where comming in as thick as flies in an outdoor dunny asking "is the ride on". Calmly I swatted them all away and headed for the computer and the Bureau of Meteorology website for the rain radar. It looked perfect, heavy rain that would pass at 6:15 am and then a break in the weather before a cold front with thunderstorms, hail and snow on lower peaks.

We arrived at the start point just after 6 am and it was still raining. 6:20 we got the bikes setup and by 6:30 the rain had mostly cleared. Though the roads were wet, a light tail wind made for a good warmup heading out of Carrum and into the hills past Frankston.

The roads were almost empty. We did not see a single other cyclist. This was as if the quite before the storm. Every one congratulated me on reading the weather so well but I kept nervously looking to the west where clouds were brewing.

Finaly around 7:30am around Mt Martha, cyclists started to show on the roads. As if they were some special breed of beetle that had just found the perfect conditions for a hatch.

To Arthurs seat we did ride, the wind did howl and the weather was closing in so a second asscent was out of the question. We were also running late with 4 puncutres for the whole day, probably due to the wet weather getting all sort of gunk stick to the tires and slowly cut through them.

On our return trip the wind swung so we had a tail wind down and a side wind on the way back. Still my average barely made it over 25 km/h for the 80 km journey. The strom did come. Lots of rain. No hail or snow. We were safely in our cars heading home.

Morning Light

The earth hurtles around the sun and on that journey it tilts. At the moment it is tilting in our favour making the days longer, the weather warmer and more light for our morning bike rides. In fact we are almost in shock at how different the bike rides look after months of darkness. It has even put us off riding, with the light showing roads that do not meet the expectations of our imagination. The legend of the hills ride that has grown out of many cold and dark days of riding, sweating, heavy breathing and burning legs. Maybe we need to start at 5am, maybe we just wait till daylight savings plunges us back into the dark ages.

Today we opted for mountain bikes (MTB's) up the hills. Alex had his road bike in for a service so I decided to, in sympathy, ride my MTB as well. Well half an MTB, I had slicks on. We thought that it would open up the field a little bit and bring us all onto a more level playing field. Well they don't call them mountain bikes for no reason and with the heightened expectations put up against us Alex and I took the early mountain points.

As we rolled into the sprint, every one held their cards close to their chest. We were in a square configuration, the 2 MTB's out front and the 2 roadies out back. There was some chit chat going on trying to hide the tension that was building up as every rider analysed their chances of taking out the sprint. I moved forward on the inside and Alex's tractor like hum started to move a little bit behind, I could see that he was not going to be too interested. Next thing, whoosh, Joel comes through between us and is off. I was anticipating this so I was quickly on his back wheel. Not sure who ended up winning but I was sure happy to have reacted that quickly to Joel's attack.

The final hill saw me with an early break due to a traffic light up Burgandy. I knew that the advantage was unfair so I took it easy waiting to be caught. Finally Alex got to me and went past, I pushed on the pedals to catch him. I looked up and for the first time in a while I saw my shadow, further up the hill, his shadow looking at my shadow looming. I tried to take advantage of the situation. I sat between Alex and the sun, in this way making my shadow merge into his and not give away my position. I pulled back a little, the idea was to change gears and power up and over Alex. Clunck, k-chunk, a bad gear change from me. Alex jumped out of his seat as if he saw a snake to another Cod d' Burgandy victory.

Discussion

Discussions turned to high performance power assisted bikes and compressed air horns on bikes with the compressed air being generated through some sort of pump whilst slowing the bike down a hill.

The idea of the performance power assisted bike is to be able to easily maintain a reasonable average on a road bike over a reasonable distance for commuting situations. For example, commuting along a flat road like Nepean Highway from Frankston (40km) may be a big ask to do on a daily basis even for a competent rider hovering around 33 km/h average. Add power assist that could bring the average up to 45 or 50 even 60km/h and it looks like an interesting thought. It seems that most of the power assist bikes are aimed at people who do not want to pedal at all and still travel at 25km/h. At the moment I can't seem to find a good discussion on the merits of this on the web. I would say it may be an easy calculation, good cyclist averaging 33 km/h on flat course gets a boost from 300W motor and some added weight for motor and batteries...

Ahh there was this, well it is not a power assisted racing bike but it shore did well in a race, up a volcano in Hawaii, Haleakala volcano, Maui. Read the story here http://www.solarnavigator.net/electric_cycles.htm. Then there is always the possibility in participating in the race, next year http://cycletothesun.net/

As for the siren, again there must be a simple equeation which binds the following constants together. It is just a question of filling in the gaps:

1. Horn to sound louder then a shout - ??? dB
2. Horn to sound for a reasonable duration between downhill recharges - 15 seconds
3. Compression required for air horn - ??? psi
4. Volume of compressed air to satisfy point 2 - ??? ml
5. Energy required to compress air for point 3 and 4 - ??? Watts
6. Is it reasonable to assume the energy for point 5 can be generated by a bike rider?

and then the equation to find the energy required (point 5) and compare this to point 6 to see if it is reasonable to produce whilst riding or rolling downhill.

[Power] W = [Compression] psi x [Volume] ml x [some other important factor]

Now an average rider can produce 200W or so, so the question is, is that enough to bring enough air to the correct pressure to sound a horn. Hmm will have to ride on that thought for a while more.

• Here is a pedal powered air compressor http://www.instructables.com/id/E5BEKH7O2SEP286E6D/, this one is a 2 horse power unit so not exactly portable. The idea makes it feasible. Just get a small electric compressor like used in cars for pumping up tires, modify it and feed it to a reservoir cylinder. Then attach an air horn to that cylinder.
• Here is an interesting patent, child playground to convert their play into electricity, using compressed air, http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7005757.html.
• Ok and here is someone who has almost done the same thing, well almost, but he has powered a coffee machine and a 12v chain saw http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen.html http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen/stats.html

No time to blog, riding

Someone may think that this blog has gone stagnate for the best part of Melbourne's winter. After all why would you ride when you could postulate the important questions in life:

• why does it get colder when the sun rises?


• why does the Yarra boulevard in Kew have such a rough bitumen finish?


• Why do Ralph and Joel like to sit out the front of the pack so much?


• Why is Damian always hiding out the back?

Well all these questiones have been discussed and better still in the saddle. Yes we have been riding although this has been probably been largely due to the dry winter. Only today did the spring rain come and we all reached for the mobile, not to press the "soft" button but hoping that someone else would and call the ride off. We had a good ride even if conditions were a bit testing. Andy took out both sprints and Joel showed some form on the first climb no doubt from his secret running cross training, or maybe he just remembered ... "what would Lance do?" (spread the hands out on the handle bars as you continue in a climb to give you that extra bit of breathing space.

A rider is born 28 August 2006

Matilda Jane Milewska near the Col d'Burgandy.

August some time - Damian's return

he may have had a few weeks off the riding but his return was nothing short of breaking all the rules and ethics of cycling with friends. First off he rode on the tail of Joel all the way from Kew to Moridialloc. When it came to the final sprint to the lights, he ducked out and dust flew everywhere as it was the first time his bike had seen some direct wind and he pulled out the win.

On the return trip, some older fellows lead the group into the final straight towards the coffee stop. Joel settled to sit behind the old timers happy that he didn't have to face doing all the work. They had led for some time so there is just no place to go out and out sprint them to a finish line that they may not even be going for. No stopping Damian who again blew past in only his second effort for the day to take the win.

Obviously no hard words at the coffee stop for again as Joel and Richard rolled off to take turns in taking the three of them home, Damian's performance out front was short of a website that loads too slowly and he sat up brought down the speed to 22 km/h and said he was tired.

There was 3, then there was 1 - 30/7/2006

and oh what a lonely number one must be. braving the last kilometers into the ferocious North Westerley was Alex. After completing almost 170 km's on the peninsula, he had to do the final 5km by himself. I can only imagine how the palms along Beakonsfield parade were bending and the gusts were throwing him over the road. Richard had turned around early and I had turned off for home. There was only one left on the road.