Sunday, May 9, 2010

And who said bike trails are lame?

The other day during lunch, another fellow bike rider commented that he’d never ride on bike trails around Melbourne because the trails are boring, so he stays resolutely stays on road for all his travels. This got me thinking as I’m an avid fan of the bike trails as I don’t fancy the idea of having to constantly dodge semi-trailers during my ride.  So on this perfect sunny morning, I set out to proof that bike trail riding can have its own kind of reward. 

Here are some of the images taken during my little pedal, starting from home, to Dandenong & Carrum via Dandenong Creek bike trails, onto Port Melbourne via Beach Road bike path, and returning home via Gardiner and Scotchman’s Trail. 

Bike of choice – my trusty GT Tequesta (Modified for maximum road efficiency, of course) 023
Subject to Flooding?  Err a slight understatement! 031
First obstacle – waist deep water from the overnight rain in the underpass.  Believe it or not I rode through it but I wasn’t too happy about it afterwards. 021
Sun’s up, drying me out after earlier scuba diving. 027
Leaving the industrial town of Dandenong behind – this is what most people don’t get to see. 033
A boat floats by while I took a pee break at the river bank…. 032
Home of the rich and not always famous.  Patterson Lakes. 034
50km mark & I was starving.  Luckily found a great little Japanese shop opening early at Chelsea.  Teriyaki beef & chicken roll, salmon and avocado roll and tuna rice ball. 035
View from Beach Road bike trail at Black Rock.  (Hot bikini girls jogging on the beach edited out to keep this blog G-rated.) 040
St Kilda Marina. 042
A sculpture making an ideal backdrop for my bike to pose with 044
St Kilda beach & some kind of wind sailing racing in the foreground. 048
Station Pier & that little boat called Spirit of Tasmania beached. 050
Southgate – tricky to take a photo where there is no one in sight. 054
Next shot – people are everywhere. 058
Couldn’t resist an arty shot…. 055
Heading home via Gardiner bike trail next to M1.  This sign is difficult to miss. 059
Trail next to the Yarra River – no car to fight with for the next 5km. 060
109.11 Km in 4:45.  Not a bad way to spend a morning ride. 062

I think the pictures above speaks for itself.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Summer Gravity Camp

After nearly 6 month of think about it, worrying that I should put my money into my home or do something less costly as a vacation, I've finally paid for and signed up for this. Summer Gravity Camp with Andrew Shandro (Yeah that guy) plus a week at Crankworks watching the world's finest MTBer doing stuffs that I either have no idea or have no balls in trying to do myself.

Been doing plenty of flat pedal riding lately, Northshore stunts have no room for a clipped in man.

Next item - a quality camera to take plenty of photos!

Roll on August. Whistler here I come.
http://www.summergravitycamps.com/index.php