Cyclists

I'm always impressed by the camarderie of cyclists and I've met a few folk who have helped me out in the past with advice or offers to help fix a puncture, etc. So I always try to pass on this goodwill.

Anyhow bumped into this bloke yesterday when I was cycling home, kitted out on a quality road bike, but with a slighty bigger pack than usual. As I look like a tourer with my commuter set up, panniers and the like, he asked me where I was headed and I said just up the road to Puk Bay. Anyway we chugged along and got talking/yelling due to the wind.

Turns out he was cycling from Christchurch to Whanganui! Averaging around 184km a day he'd left Welly earlier.

At around 08:30 he was hoping to get to Bulls at around 11:00. With the wind blowing a northerly over 30km, I said he'd be very lucky to get to Levin, (I actually reckoned more likely Otaki as I've done this a few times but I didn't want to dishearten him).

Anyhow he's planning on designing a NZ cycling website/data base that features cyclists from all over NZ  contributing to it and grabbed my mob number, he also said he'd update me on his progress.

I took him through Puk Bay as the road is tricky, and told him about the shitty roads through Kapiti and the horrors of the Foxton Straight when it's windy as he'd never cycled through Wellington, Kapiti and Manawatu before.

Made Otaki by 11:30. (I was right). Finally got to Whanganui at 17:15, which is not great but in that wind it would have been shitty all the way to Sanson.

Re: Foxton Straight

"Jesus mate. Pushing along at 22-25km was terrible" - lol

He's preparing for the Nationals and for a youngster, (he's still at uni), these long slogs mentally really put you in the right place.

He was amazed at what we Welly cyclists put up with when it gets windy. To me it was a slightly worse than average day for cycling but nothing special, he just couldn't get how bad it was.

did he stop at red lights?

Did he do the whole trip in the middle of the road?

law abiding considerate cyclist here....but it is risky business even on nice Sunday ride around Kapiti Coast..

Did an epic ride in my late teens in the late 70s complete with yellow panniers  from Auckland to Whitianga(13 Hours incl a beer at Coroglen pub) and then over the 309 to Coromandel after resting up in Whitianga for few days.  Fond memories.  Wouldnt chance it nowadays tho.

I once biked from Upper Hutt to Havelock North via the kapiti coast & the gorge in my 20's. Stopped at Samson for the night. There was such a strong wind through the gorge that I was overtaking cars.

I once biked up Chaytor Street, then the roads up Wright's Hill.

Sod that for a game of soldiers.

Mad cycling story #2356729

On Thursday a car overtook me before promptly turning left off the Karori high street..and then stopped right in front of me rather than going into the side street. I was so speechless after slamming on the brakes that I couldn't even mutter WTF?!?!

And they wonder why Cyclists abuse them. Glad you didn't get hurt. 

This looks quite nice for $100. Could be up to 12 years old this bike. Looks in good nick though.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=648369884&permanent=0 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11186764

Anyone here on Strava?

Dhb long sleeved windslam arrived today from Wiggle...snug for Autumn :-)

just got a new bike. mountain bike . any good tracks in kapiti

Was it here someone posted a link to a place that did custom cycle kits?  I tried to find it looking back in the thread so now I wonder if it was somewhere else.

http://www.bikethetrail.co.nz/

South to North.  Well, that could go wrong with the prevailing winds.

Back on the work commute this week.  Yesterday's headwind almost killed me.

Due to the tube strikes in London over the last few days, there has been a massive increase of cyclists around the city.  The amount of law-breaking that has been going on (running red lights, cycling on already crowded pavements, etc) has been astounding.

Is that you Celia?

My windslam did take nearly 2 weeks...it's only been a week in the past.

Edit: Just a thought..could kiwi customs be doing some surruptitious searching...?

I'm all for cyclists rights and what-not BUT of you wanna play with the big boys (cars) you gotta follow the big boys rules (road code). Yes, I am talking to you, the twat who rode his bike through a red light and just about nailed two pedestrians today.

Rest assured they fuck cyclists off more than other users.

Red lights or pedestrians?

He means we fellow cyclists don't like red light jumpers or footpath riders either.

The thing is and it's possibly due to the fact that cycling mellows our soul somewhat is that we don't feel the need to go on and on about the odd cyclist breaking the road rules.

Just as we don't clog up the "things that piss you off" thread or create a "car drivers" thread to moan about the gadzillion times car drivers, (or big boys whatever that means),  break road rules.  We'd never get anything done in life if we did.

I've not gone through a red light or ridden on a non-shared path either for years, but obviously nobody who drives a car is interested in my courteous and law-abiding approach to cycling. 

The usual culprits on bikes who ride without lights, jump reds and cycle on paths are usually young males who have their own counter parts in the driving world doing equally stupid and usually more dangerous activities in cars that not uncommonly leads to them get splattered all over the road, usually with a few mates messed up for good measure.

I just can't fathom why so many kiwi's are so f*cked in the head when it comes to cyclists and the completely unnecessary vitriol  they heap on them.

They go on about a relatively harmless twat on a bike but meekly accept the carnage car drivers create on the roads.

I am unsure as to whether you believe I am one of those "f*cked in the head" who is "heaping vitriol" but I would be equally pissed off and ranty if a car/bus/motorbike/whatever just about ran me over.

(the two pedestrians I talked about were me and my friend, and we were following the rules)

My post was directly aimed by the use of "yes, I'm talking to you", directly at the guy who just about ran me down.

But I really appreciate you saying that I am f*cked in the head.  You, Sir, can GGF.

I wish I could "like" this post

Trace you did come into the cyclists thread to rant about cyclists. You can't be too surprised that the cyclists didn't like it, even if you were just talking about one cyclists in particular.