On Your Bike!

Bicycles are a primary form of transport for me in and around the country town of Cooma in Southern New South Wales. The mountain bike tends to be the bash around unit for getting to and from work and heading down town for the smaller shops. At present my commute to work is 5 km from house to office that I now try and do a couple of times a week.

The tourer is set aside for longer Sunday morning trips or if I want to get the feel of my Brooks leather saddle back under my backside. You can knock on the seat and it sounds like a wooden door but it is by far the most comfortable saddle I have ridden. Even though the MTB has a gel saddle (albeit in a somewhat sad state of repair) it has never provided the comfort of the Brooks - particularly on longer rides.

A recent acquisition has been a Pacific Trailer Bike which hitches to the MTB creating an 'articulated' tandem. While not having the refinement of trailers like the Burley Piccolo, it more than adequately serves the purpose it was designed for.

On this occasion we 'decorated' the tandem as the T-Bear express for a competition at the local school fete. We probably didn't need to do it up to take out one of the prizes as it is a pretty individual unit on its own. The trailer even has 6 speed grip shifters (fortunately it doesn't have brakes!) but the boys seem to think that trying to pedal really fast in first gear while going down hill helps - as the combined unit tends to wobble as the excess enthusiasm is transmitted through the linkage between the bikes.

Cooma has a small cycling club, mainly for go fasts, but there are a number of families we have met that are like minded in getting their kids out on the bike and using the bikes for more useful things like commuting, carrying things and, shock horror, actually using bicycles to go on holidays!

At the Snowy there is a small band of about 5 that regularly commute out of a office workforce of 200 with the occasional extra. Effectively just over 1% of the local office. Hmm, wonder if I can get the Clean Green Snowy to support an environmentally friendly commuter program up and going as part of salary packages!!!

On Ockhams razor (6/4/03) there was an interesting talk on the development of the bicycle and some of the impacts that it has had on mobility and women's rights and sexual freedom! To read the transcript click here or go to the ABC website to see this and other transcripts on other issues.

I have been looking at different sorts of HPVs (human powered vehicles) over the years and have developed an interest in recumbent tricycles, particularly the units being produced locally in Australia. Recently at Canberra the OZHPV championships were held where alternative HPV enthusiasts get together to test, trial there own inventions, and race various styles of HPVs (even including the humble normal 2 wheeled safety bicycle!) Below are some images that give some idea as to the range and scope of HPVs that are available and can be thought up.

If in Tassie in February make sure you get to the annual National Penny Farthing Championships at Evandale about 20 km out of Launceston. See these big bikes lean hard into corners on a tight circuit as well as the Slow Race (you thought balancing on a normal bike was hard enough). Best corner is the first one after the start finish line. You can hide next to the straw bales on the inside of the corner for some good shots. Penny Farthing Races in Evandale Tasmania

Favourite Bicycle links

Greenspeed - the website of Australian manufacturer of the Greenspeed Recumbent Tricycle.

Swift Recumbents - Another Australian recumbent maker - the Swift being their mainstay.

OZHPV - To organise and co-ordinate Human Powered Vehicle Events

Velovision - Think laterally! This publication challenges your ideas about what bicycles should look like or how they should be used. Heaven forbid that one of the most efficient transport systems should be useful as well!

Other Bicycle Links

Bicycle Fish - An Adelaide cyclists ecclectic collection of thoughts, ideas and heaps of other cycling links.

Last Updated 01/03/05