Category Archives: Commuter

Follow-up Friday: A new name for the Sunday Spin

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I know it’s Monday, but we (Phil Smith and I) recorded this last Friday. And it went to air Sunday. And now it’s Monday.

And the reason it’s the last Sunday Spin ever is in fact some really good news.

In 2013, Phil has been asked to start his statewide Saturday Breakfast stint at 5 am instead of 6 am. And he has proposed back to the ABC powers-that-be that the first hour could be the Mens Shed and Sunday Spin segments that he already records with regular guests on Fridays. And it seems like that is good to go.

So from late January we will be back on the air with 30 minutes each week on statewide ABC at 5.30 am on Saturdays, and on the digital ABC across Australia at 2.30pm on Sundays.

We’re going to need a new name … what would you call it? (The Spinsters??)

Paying my dues to the dirt

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And I know it’s hard when you’re falling down
And it’s a long way up when you hit the ground
Get up now, get up, get up now.

Great song to have in your head when riding. That’s all. (Thanks Adrian).

Not actually on top of the world, but I think I can see it from here.

Spinspiration

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Here is this week’s Sunday Spin, with a focus on commuting and an interview with Gavin Bannerman about the upcoming Pushies Galore event.

I’m about to head off to Mount Perry for a mountain bike race that I just love.

Rebecca Rusch leading the two men who finished one-two in the Dirty Kanza, Rusty & Dan.

And getting me going this morning is an inspirational story from Rebecca Rusch, Specialized-sponsored enduro mtb racer in the US. Last weekend Rebecca raced a 200 mile dirt road event called the Dirty Kanza 200. And finished third, overall. A-freakin-MAZE-ing!

 

As dense as they come

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The Heart Foundation is a really good NGO, and I’ve had plenty of dealings with their Queensland CEO, Cameron Prout, who is a very smart dude who always makes lots of sense.

And so I wasn’t surprised, but I was delighted, when the Heart Foundation announced some research titled “Increasing Density in Australia; maximising the health benefits and minimising harm”.

It’s an ‘evidence summary’ of the available research worldwide which looks at the effects of urban density on population health.

To sum it up: A well-designed, high-density urban environment is a good and healthy place to live.

What we have at the moment is the result of Australia’s national self-understanding of being the ‘wide brown land’ in which there are ‘boundless plains to share’.

Well yes, we do have lots of space, but it turns out that humans do best when they huddle together a bit. We need urban density to make our cities walkable and livable and rideable, and generally more human.

Here’s the research person Prof Billie Giles-Corti on the subject.

We are traffic

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So I went along to an Institute for Sensible Transport seminar on Monday. At which the key speaker was Tom Vanderbilt, author of ‘Traffic’. He has a quite interesting blog. But you had already worked that out, from the Soundcloud embed above. Have a listen!

Extensive readership research* that I have done lately leads me to believe that not every regular reader actually listens to the audio interviews that I put up on this site.

In principle I am perfectly fine with that.

But I don’t want you to miss out on the interesting stuff I find! (That’s why I post the audio snippets, cos they’re interesting, mmmmmkay?)

* or lunch.

Being the change

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Circumstances not entirely beyond my control led to me driving to work this morning, via Mt Gravatt. At peak hour.

It looked like this.

just_shoot_me_now

That’s Juliette St east-bound, just before Thompson Estate Reserve. Which has a bike path running through it.

I saw a couple of cyclists go past under me as I sat there. And sat there. Burning fuel, burning time, burning a hole in my brain.

rider_envy

Yes, its hard to pick out, but there is a rider there.

And Foster The People sang about change. (As always thanks to Adrian & Amy for telling me about the bands I would like).

And of course I hated sitting in the traffic. And I wanted to get out of the car and go over to some other cars and talk to people in a non-confrontational and supportive way and ask them why they were doing this to themselves. Is there really no better way to get where you’re going than this?

But all of us had made decisions which put us in into our own cars and thus into this situation. Me included.

It’s sometimes good to be reminded of how good I have it when I ride to work.

Come and join me to celebrate how good it is. Next Wednesday. Brekky is on me.

Inspirate me. Again.

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Natalie Ramsland, who makes very sweet bicycles for a living, also writes a pretty cool blog. And how is this for inspirational, from a piece on the subject of being a mom and an athlete.

I see Diana’s formidable strength as the result of the kind of life that she wants to be living. She bikes everywhere and every day. She bikes her four-year-old to preschool. She rides to Portland State University. She bikes to her cyclocross races. She even bikes her older daughter to high school in the family cargo bike. When she’s riding alone, her relative lightness ignites her prey drive and makes powering up hills even more rewarding.

No claims to being an athlete around here. But the integration of training into life every day all the time, that’s pretty awesome. I like riding slow pretty often, especially on short transport trips, but every time you jump on the bike its good for you, even when you deliberately ride slow.

More about Natalie’s marque, Sweetpea Bicycles.

 

A rut a mile wide is still a rut

Oh yeah, just briefly ...

Mornings on the bike this week:

  • Uni-Donuts on Tuesday
  • Daisy Hill mtb ride on Wednesday with a small DHWM crew
  • Mt Gravatt repeats on Thursday with Greg & Jan & Dazza
  • River ride on Friday with Bike Shop Girl

Lots of variety, but yet so familiar, all of it. Very enjoyable. If this is me being in a rut, then its a rut that I can get up on the edges of and have some fun jumping off back into the middle.

The fact that I’ve turned my own rut metaphor into a mountain bike reverie probably tips me towards going for a ride up South Boundary Road tomorrow. Or fire roads on the Shogun.

 

Cos you can’t get lost

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we won’t be having a Sunday Spin this week.

There was going to be interesting discussion with the folks from Melbourne Bike Fest. And RU Commuting. Lotsa good stuff.

But best of all this week: a focus on track cycling. Looking ahead to the Olympics. Elite superstars Brits vs Aussies blah blah blah. Anna Meares is cool blah blah.

And a personal appearance from the superstar herself, Dessie Sanchez.

But it was not to be. You can listen to my interview with the Balmoral junior track kids as a consolation prize. I’ve edited the interviews, hopefully someone will get to hear them!