Ride home for Friday, 31 October and Critical Mass

Went down to IdealBikes after work to pick up my bike. Dave had mounted the studded tyres and the fenders and I took it out for a ride. Unfortunately the fender was rubbing under my weight, so I worked with Vince there as he gamely tried to fix it as the clock ticked towards 6. We came to an executive decision consisting of "fuckit, I have a clip-on fender on there anyway" and took the fender off and quickly threw everything back together. It was good enough to go, although the tyre started rubbing towards the end and I lost first gear. I had to leave a little early before it finished as I had been invited over to supper at a friend's place (a jolly dashing, intelligent young med student who derided me for my comments of "heavy duty painkillers", explaining that what I was taking were "only" anti-inflammatories and that what I should have been taking "for the really good stuff" was opioids - something I would rather avoid after my experiences with them last year...)

It was a good show, I think the count was somewhere in the region of 150, not bad for a chilly November evening. Standout costume of the evening was definitely Wayne Jay with his skeleton stoker tandem, who drew shouts of "look at the skellington!" from children as he rode past:



Since the feet of the skeleton were cable tied onto the pedals, the skeleton appeared to be pedalling with Wayne, adding to the effect!

Full set of pictures available here.

Distance logged: 22.409km
Time: 92:08
Average speed: 14.6km/hr
Max speed: 42.9 km/hr
Temperature: 6C - 3C, clear
Cumulative distance: 5723.430km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 32.997km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Friday, 31 October

Slow ride in, as I was limited to one gear after the wheel came loose on the 3 speed and the gear chain snapped. I also put the smaller cog on to make the wheel sit further back in the dropouts and also, of course, to make it harder to pedal. To put it in perspective, on my 24 speed hybrid, I would guess I was at the equivalent of 5th gear in the middle ring. This, of course, made it somewhat difficult to pedal up anything more than a gentle incline, or indeed to start from a stop. Such as at a stop sign, say. I think I must have been quite a sight struggling to make a start pulling away from the stop signs like I was climbing the Alps...

Distance logged: 10.588km
Time: 27:36
Average speed: 23km/hr
Max speed: 49.2 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 5701.021km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 10.588km
Monthly cost per km: $0