Cross-posted on Sydney Cyclist.

It was a very Melbourne-like day, going from sunny to overcast to light rain and back to sunny every 20 minutes. A perfect day to test out my new Shimano Galaxy glasses with Photochromatic lenses.

I’d wanted some new glasses for a while, my BBB Winners have been great but the rubber covering on the arms had started to disintegrate and while I really liked the lens choice I wanted to try something adaptive to save changing lenses during early morning or late afternoon / evening rides.

The first thing I noticed about these glasses is just how light and comfortable they are, when you put them on for the first time inside the lenses are fairly clear and you barely know you are wearing them. Thanks to the rimless design, your visibility is maximised and the top and bottom of the lens, and the shape of the lens means it sits against your face nicely. As I said before, you can hardly tell you have them on.

After putting them on for the first time in the shop, I stepped outside into the bright sunlight to test out the main feature I have to say I was a little underwhelmed. The adaptive lenses are a lot more subtle than I expected, I’ve never owned any adaptive lenses before and I was expecting something not far off Zaphod’s Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, well maybe not quite that black, but something in the realm of the dark lenses on my old glasses. These stay fairly clear and light, but you do find that when you go into the light you’re squinting for a moment, then your eyes relax as the lenses adapt. Unless it’s the placebo effect…. but I do think they are working, if you look closely there is a difference.

So back to the very Melbourne-esque day we were having in Sydney, I rode out of the house and in the direction of Centennial park, it was overcast above my place but it wasn’t long until I rounded a corner and into some Sun. A moment of squinting, then back to comfort. A few minutes later I’m back in clouds, then the rain came. I could still see fine. The rain had cleared by the time I got to the park and started doing some laps, Centennial goes from open sky to tree covered shade in a few places and I never felt like I had the wrong glasses on. A good sign.

Since then I’ve done a couple of rides in very bright sun and they’ve performed well, not as good as specifically dark lenses, but certainly acceptable.

In summary, they are lightweight, very comfortable to wear and adapt to the conditions well. The lens colour change is a lot more subtle that I would have expected, but they do the job. They appear to be well made, have full UV protection and for the price (around the $100 AUD mark) they are great value. They also come with a great travel case and a microfibre bag / cleaning cloth.

I know this is a stupid amount of words to spend on some sunglasses, but I couldn’t find any info online for these (a problem I’ve found before) so I thought I’d help out the next few Google searchers.

It has often been said that Sydney is made up of tribes. This definitely holds true in the cycling world as well. Commuters don’t want to talk to roadies, roadies don’t want to talk to roadies from other clubs, etc etc.

As a result, it can be very hard to find people to ride with, or talk to about bikes. There are a number of forums on the net, some of them even have Australia specific areas however Sydney is never represented there as much as it should be, in part because the camaraderie of Melbourne cyclists mean that they discuss a lot, and Sydneysiders discuss little.

I’ve long wanted to build a site to help this situation a little, the usual excuses stopped me from doing it (you know, working, spending time with my young family, and actually riding my bike etc). Then recently Phil was experimenting with Ning and eventually I went and had a proper look at it too. Ning is the perfect toolset for building what I had in mind, so I really had no reason not to do it.

I present to you, in full Web 2.0 Beta glory : www.sydneycyclist.com

It’s still only a few days old, and things are still being tweaked. But if you are a cyclist in Sydney, please come and join us and say hi!

On the tech side, Ning is an incredibly cool platform – once I’ve spent some more time with it I might do a post from the technology angle.

“Lady 7”. I assume an actual Lady (in the ‘er Ladyship sense). I’ll say it here because you wouldn’t wind down your drivers side window at the lights so we could have an adult conversation.

On a section of road very prone to people stepping out from behind parked cars and people opening doors without looking, riding in the lane is not “how accidents happen” as you advised me by shouting out your passenger window as you illegally passed me. It’s actually how accidents are avoided, even if you felt it held you up 10 seconds for your lunch appointment (it didn’t. We met at the lights remember ?).

Secondly, on pass number two you asked me if my bike was registered. No it isn’t. There isn’t a way for me to do that, nor is it really practical. I’m sorry you don’t like that, maybe you could use your name and influence to find out why. Not that it really matters, your car rego isn’t paying for the road either.

Thirdly. You should be nicer to your fellow human beings. I was standing next to your car a few Kilometers down the road taking this photo before you’d had a chance to order your Chardonnay at Danny’s. Now, I’m not a vengeful person, nor one who breaks the law. But the next guy might decide to put a brick through your window. Your rego is up this month, I know that’s a hot issue for you so it would be annoying to have any hassles with a pink slip too.

A big issue in the bicycle world is supporting your local bike shop versus buying online from eBay sellers or cheap outlets like ProBikeKit.

I won’t rehash the arguments here, I’m sure you can imagine what they are.

Anyway, I need a new helmet. I think at some point I’ve dropped mine and put a bit of a crack in the foam. I happen to like Specialized helmets, they fit my odd shaped head and feel comfortable. Unfortunately they are a little hard to find in Sydney. So rather than calling every bike shop I could find, I did a google for the model I wanted and ended up here at the Bicycle Riders shop website. From what I can tell, Bicycle Riders are a small Brisbane bike shop that have set up an online presence.

They had the helmet I was looking for, but they also have the next model, on special for only $10 more. So I ordered one.

After a slightly longer wait than I would have expected, the helmet arrived today. With no box, just in a postpack. With the helmet straps blackened with dirt. With the “InStrap” adjustment system ground down from a scrape with some hard, brick-like object. With a big gouge out of the foam at the back. I’m guessing it’s been their shop demo model for a while, essentially it’s not a new helmet, and I don’t trust that there isn’t more damage to it.

So I rang them, and very politely explained the problems I had. After being told to wait for thirty seconds, the guy got back on the phone and said “send it back and we’ll refund you”. I was a little stunned by that response, said OK and hung up.

Now I suppose it could have gone worse, he could have told me to shove it. That would have been fun though, I was quite ready for a fight. But he could have said “Sorry mate, it was the only one we had. Is there something else you’d like to swap it for ?”, and we could have gone from there. But he wasn’t interested in keeping me happy in the slightest. I can only imagine they are getting rid of all their grotty demo helmets and figure that anyone who will accept it… great, anyone who doesn’t like it can have their money back.

I know that various people in the bicycle industry see the internet as a major threat to their business, and nobody here wants to compete in a global marketplace, I know that shop staff have their time wasted by people using their retail locations as a way to try on clothes, but DAMN. Do these guys even want to TRY to keep customers (I also realise that I did actually buy this via the internet, but this shop is primarily a bricks and mortar retailer, and doesn’t really count amongst the PBKs and eBay sellers).

Anyway.. I know it’s a rant. I’m cranky. 

UPDATE : Looks like this has a happy ending. I posted the helmet back and the store manager / owner rang me. I had been sent a demo helmet which never should have been sold. He apologised for me being messed about and all is good. Unfortunately they didn’t have any more of that model helmet left, but I have another one on the way with a decent discount. So I’m happy now, but it’s not cool to go deleting blog posts when you think better of it.

Commutebybike brings us a post on this rather unusual machine.

Maybe it's just me but I can't stop thinking about a certain South Park episode. Co-incidence ?

The Google Earth blog has posted up a link to this years Tour stages as a Google Earth KMZ file. This is a great use of GE to preview the terrain that we'll be seeing in July. If you look closely you might even catch some of the Men in Black doing some secret training.

If the wind changes, you'll stay that way.

At least that seems to be the case for Fabian Cancellara.

After some months of procrastination, and a little bit of hassling, my friend Grant bought a bike and has joined the ranks of hardened bike commuters. He's just written an excellent how-to piece on the Futuremakers blog with some good tips on riding to work.

I guess that makes yet another Sydney cycling techie blogger. Must be time for another meetup.

I know I know, it's pretty cheeky for someone in Sydney to complain about the cold, but we've had some chilly mornings lately. I've found myself leaving the house to 6 degrees Celsius a few times. After a few mornings of chilled extremities, I picked up a few things.

Tuff Winter Ultimate Gloves

These are nice and toasty, have some rubber grip on the index and middle fingers to avoid slipping off the brake levers and most importantly, come in a size that fits my hands.

I also have discovered that Tuff also have these very cool retro mesh gloves. I think I might get a pair when it warms up.

I also picked up a pair of Vittoria shoe covers. My shoes are very nicely ventilated, which is great in summer, but not so pleasant in winter. When they are covered up my feet stay at a very comfy temperature. My toes thank me for it.

These, along with leg warmers are keeping me from having an excuse for not riding in the cold. Now I just need to wait for my new lighting system to arrive, but that's a topic for another post.

So Basso has admitted... something, and we can pretty much assume Der Kaiser is guilty too. This begs a rather large question that I haven't seen asked too much.

If WADA and USADA and ASADA and all the other anti doping agencies are doing tests, why the hell aren't they finding this stuff ? As an extension to that, if they can't be trusted to find "stuff", are they finding "not stuff" ? Or are they only finding things when the athletes and their doctors slip up ?

In an interesting bit of news, Bikely.com has been acquired by UK company Future Publishing. 

Future Publishing are a magazine and web publisher, their lineup includes Cyclingplus and Procycling. From the looks of things they are looking to put together a comprehensive web resource for cyclists, and Bikely is part of that vision.

Congrats Jules, looks like all those late nights have paid off!

Read the announcement from the man himself.

I love Red Meat comics.

I've been having a crazy few weeks, and haven't had the mental coherence to write much. But there have been a few things that have crossed my path that are worth mentioning.

Techy

Twitter

After a few prods I started playing with Twitter (or should that be Twittr). At the moment it's a bit of fun, but I can see it as an idea that will have some useful applications, when someone figures out what they are.

Tiddlywiki

Tiddlywiki is a totally self contained, client side wiki. It's very slick, I think I'm going to try it out for a few weeks to keep some project notes and see if I like it.

Google Mail for Domains

After hosting my own mail servers for a few years I'm getting sick of dealing with spam issues, not to mention uptime paranoia. Google have started offering their "Apps" package for your domain, and that includes email. So now I have Google doing all the work for me, I have a GMail web interface if I want it, while retaining full POP access. Awesome!

C# Command line parser

In the seriously geeky category, I had to write a command line application the other day with a bunch of optional parameters. Rather than parsing all the arguments myself I went looking for a decent open source library to do it and found this one. It works very well and saved me a stack of time.

3 Netconnect card

I've been working in some environments with a less than practical network connection lately. So I signed up to 3Mobile's new HSDPA service and got their Netconnect card. Read about it here. It's working well, and I have better than ADSL speeds all over the city. Yay!

iPod without iTunes

I recently found an iPod Shuffle on the road, it had obviously been dropped out of someone's car window, or left on the roof and forgotten. It was great until I left it in my cycling jersey and washed it. By then I loved the thing and had to buy another one (this is the old style shuffle, not the new one). Anyway, I've come to really appreciate Apple hardware, particularly iPods, but I HATE HATE HATE iTunes. So, as a standalone iPod manager, check out the freeware YamiPod. Or, and I can't believe this isn't huge, MGTEK doisp is a plugin to that integrates any iPod with Windows Media Player 11 that allows you to sync just like you would a Windows Media device. It just works. Like I said, I can't believe more people don't know about this.

Cycling

If you've been following the various cycling blogs in Australia you'd know that the pressure is being applied to the parties in our upcoming state election. So far the Labour Party have failed to respond at all, hardly surprising as all their decisions point to the fact that they'd like us to just go away and buy some more cars and pay some more tolls to be stuck in traffic jams. The Libs put out a policy, which for the most part is pretty good (Phil has the rundown). What struck me was the snarky point that seems to be aimed squarely at Critical Mass. Now, if you've read this blog you know I'm hardly a supporter, but the way it was phrased, and the fact that it was there annoyed me a little. So I emailed the author (Peter Shmigel) and asked for a clarification about why such "bicycle protests" were illegal and got a response worthy of Yes Minister.

The statement means nothing more or less than it reads and isn't directed at any particular person or group.

Sigh......

On a happier note, anyone in Newtown tomorrow night (Friday 8th) check out the opening of the first art exhibition at Cheeky Transport.

Music

Sydney funksters Kid Confucius' new album Stripes is out. Go buy it. NOW!

I can't pass this one up, a story that involves cycling and Google Earth.

The Tour of California starts on the 18th and some cool technology is coming into play. A handful of riders will be carrying GPS units on their bikes that will transmit location data which will end up used, among other things, on a Google Maps mashup and a Google Earth feed.

I was involved in the first live Google Earth feed for a sporting event while working on the Sydney to Hobart site, so it's fun to watch other events do similar things (albeit with a much bigger budget). Last year this event had a really nice Google Maps integration to track the current stage, but it was manually entered data. This year they have much cooler toys to send realtime data over the mobile phone network.

More details in this Wired article.

The count of Sydney cyclist bloggers is growing, which is a great thing.  Phil linked to Adrian's blog after meeting him on the Body Art Ride. I met Adrian a few weeks ago when he came along for his first Waterfall ride with DHBC, I didn't know he had a blog though.

Someone else who recently started riding with Dulwich Hill is Michael Glennon who I helped talk into getting a blog of his own. Michael's blog is looking to be a good combination of bike racing and sailing, and is adding to my desire to ride the Alpine Classic next year.  

The next blogger meetup should be lots of fun.

Saturday morning rolled around and I felt pretty good when I woke up, I'd had a good nights sleep, a good brekky and I thought I might give racing at Heffron another go.

After giving the bike a good clean, putting my good wheel (lovingly restored by Dave at Cheeky Transport) back on and making sure everything was in order I headed over to Maroubra. I wasn't feeling great on the way, I put it down to nerves. I kept telling myself I had nothing to worry about, my legs felt good, the bike felt good and I knew I could at least keep up for four laps.

We lined up at the start and I looked around to see a big field, about 25 riders. I guess the nice weather brings people out. After a few announcements we were off. I led for a couple of turns then decided to let a few riders past me and sit in the pack.

I decided this week I'd come up with a strategy, even if it wasn't going to work I figured having some plan was better than just riding around with no plan. I found on one of the two "pimples", small rises that exist on the circuit, that I could make up a bunch of places by heading outside while the bunch slowed down. I figured that if I could be in the front half of the pack at that point in the last lap, I could make up up some positions there, lead into the next few corners and be in a good position for the finish. It was a simple plan, but I decided it would do.

The first fly in the ointment was that the pace of this race seemed to be a fair bit faster than the last one. Just hanging on was going to be tougher. The second mildly annoying thing was one rider who I was following seemed to have been avoiding the shower or the washing machine for some time, wherever I would go he would end up in front of me. Quite a nasty thing to be trying to get in enough air and be breathing in body odour that's covered by the Geneva convention. Thankfully he seemed to disappear after a few laps, as did a quite a few other riders. Not that I noticed, I was having enough of my own problems.

I was trying to experiment with some different lines though corners, in some places you can make up a few positions by cornering tighter than most of the riders. In most though, you either get cut off by people taking a smarter line and having to accelerate to get your position back, or end up in the wind and having to work harder. Discovering this stuff took it's toll on me.

In about the fifth lap, after one of my failed corner optimisation attempts, a couple of riders got a bit of a break on the front. My first instinct was to chase. I quickly realised there was a whole lot of race left, and they were most likely going to wear themselves out so I gave up. My legs took the give up message a bit too seriously at that point and decided they didn't want to be doing this anymore. I slowed down a bit and a number of riders flew past me. No problem, I thought, the pack is about 25 riders, so I must be right in the middle of it. A quick look around was enough to tell me that I was now on the back of the pack as the rest had fallen off already. Not good. I found some strength and pushed to get back up to pace and behind somebody.

The next few laps were hard. I was OK in the back part of the circuit where everyone slowed for the pimples, the corners and the wind. But on the straight it was a real effort to remain on the back of the bunch. I considered just pulling out of the race a few times but managed to talk myself into staying around. I don't know whether the pace slowed a little in the next few laps or if I found some extra strength, but I found my way back into the middle of the pack, tried to ride a bit smarter for a while and conserve some energy and started to feel a bit better.

It's amazing how much about racing is mental. While in the front part of the bunch I'd find myself thinking "hey, I could win this thing", but as soon as I was near the back I had the total opposite types of thoughts going through my head. I was suffering, and ready to call it quits.

So with two laps to go I realised I was in a position to give my plan a try. I used the pimple to move up into the front few riders and stick with them. As we past the line I heard the bell ring for the last lap. The race was now on. As we neared the pimple for the last time I pulled to the outside and made up the places, I was now in front of the group. There was a rider about 50m in front, he was in our grade and moving at a decent pace. I had no idea whether he was a lap behind, or part of the earlier breakaway. After that break was made I was too busy concentrating on my own ride to know what happened so I had to assume the guy was leading the race.

I only had one choice. Attack.

I put some power down and started bridging the gap to the leading rider, and managed to get past him before the final pimple. In doing this I guess I had strung the group out a bit. No matter what now, I was leading the race. Just before the final corner into the straight I saw the 500m to go line on the road. I had a few bike lengths lead, it was time to make another move.

Conventional wisdom says you shouldn't start a sprint too early, but I figured with the element of surprise, the chance that everyone else was hurting, and a tiny head start it was worth a shot. I put my head down, and pedaled as hard as I could. I hit the straight having widened my lead, found some bigger gears and just kept going. I kept waiting for the whole bunch to tear past me, but it didn't happen. Then, with about 50m to go I saw a wheel to my right. I pushed as hard as I could but this guy was going to get past me, I had nothing left to give. I crossed the line just behind him, in SECOND PLACE!

It took me a good 500m before I could breathe properly, I rolled around the course alongside the winning rider. When I could speak again I congratulated him on the win and had a bit of a chat. By the time I got back to the line the reality had set in a bit and you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face. I hadn't won, but I'd survived my first full race, put a tactic into action, and come away with a placing. Good enough for my second attempt I think.

Some stats :

Avg Speed - 33.6 kmh
Max Speed - 49.6 kmh
Avg Heart Rate - 176
Max Heart Rate - 197

A pic of me crossing the line, courtesy of Lindsay

Around the time I started looking at road bikes last year I developed a little fantasy about doing some racing. A decent challenge for myself, but one that was easier to say "I'll do that next year". I started riding with Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club as a step towards this, I figured that when I could keep up with some of the faster guys, I'd be ready. Problem is, some of the faster guys are A grade riders, and if I didn't give it a shot some time, it may  never happen.

So after going along to Heffron Park and having a look at the crits, I decided to just have a go. The general consensus seems to be that you will always get left behind on your first few goes, so I figured I may as well get that out of the way early, then I'd at least know what I'd need to do next time.

Last Saturday, I arrived at Heffron, fresh licence reciept in hand, and signed up for the D Grade race. I got there really early and did a quick lap around to have a look, three quarters of the way around I seriously considered turning around and going home. Heffron park is rough, has lots of corners, and is WINDY. I already knew this, but damn, that lap hurt. My heart rate was rocketing. Figuring it would be a little easier in the bunch I calmed down and waited for people to arrive. I was very thankful to see a couple of club mates arrive to race in the same grade, to hide behind if nothing else. Geoff took me on a warmup lap and gave me some useful tips on the course and how the bunch was likely to act.

We lined up at the start line and the announcement was made there was a newbie in the pack and I was pointed out.... great. We got the go signal and of course I lived up to newbie status by not being able to clip in to my pedals (I seem to have problems when I'm nervous, and no Phil, I'm not going to give up and get Speedplays). After a few metres I got cliped in, found the right gear and got moving. Thankfully these things don't take off straight away.

We took the first few turns and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could corner as quickly as the other riders up near the front, and even happier to find that I wasn't dropping back. Halfway around the first lap I had settled in to a bit of a rhythm and was keeping up fine. In fact, I was wondering if this is as fast as it got because I wasn't struggling at all. I made the mistake about then of looking at my heart rate monitor, I was sitting on a number that I usually only see on a really hard day. My body was obviously working damn hard, but the adrenaline and excitement was masking the pain.

The race continued, I saw different people sit on the front, copping all the wind, I was up there for a moment myself when I realised I really didn't want to be there, so got out of the way and found someone bigger to hide behind. In my second lap I felt a tap on my shoulder, Lindsay had pulled up alongside and let me know I was doing great.

In my fourth lap I took a corner and my wheels skidded a bit, I managed to recover from the skid, but it was a bit of a concern. A few hundred metres later I knew something was very wrong, I panicked a little and took a quick exit off the track and up a grass bank. I jumped off the bike and checked my tyres, sure enough, I had a flat on the front. I walked the bike back to the start line, my race over. Had I known a few more people I could have swapped wheels and rejoined on the next lap, but I wasn't too worried. As predicted, I hadn't finished my first crit, but it wasn't because I wasn't fast enough.

Can't wait to do it again!

That's me, in the red.

P.S. The next morning's ride to Waterfall and back was pretty painful in the 35 degree heat. I really enjoyed having a swim later in the day.

Have a happy new year everyone!

Sometimes it's the simplest things that make the biggest difference.

On Sunday morning I was living every road cyclists nightmare. The bunch was heading uphill and I'd just been dropped. My legs were screaming out in pain, my heart rate was skyrocketing and I was suffering. I'm not sure why this occurred to me, but I decided to focus on my breathing.

When I first started riding I used to see a small hill and tense up and hold my breath, which is obviously silly, and I had to work on remembering to breath. it's funny how these sorts of fundamentals can be taken for granted and forgotten.

So while watching the group move further and further away from me I started to breathe, deeply, holding each breath for a couple of pedal strokes and an amazing thing happened. My legs stopped hurting, my heart rate dropped and I settled into a rhythm. Within 20 seconds I had recovered a bit and, much to my surprise was starting to gain on the group. 30 seconds later I had caught them. Nobody in the group noticed, but it's the private victories that are the special ones.

For the rest of the ride I concentrated on my breathing, especially when it got fast or steep, and I kept up. For the first time I managed to hang with the group the whole way.

It seems silly to me now that something so obvious and basic was holding me back so much, but I'm sure it happens all the time. I can't help but wondering how many millions of dollars worse off the carbon fiber industry would be if people were breathing properly :)

All good fun, wish we coulda stayed longer.

Thanks guys!

Cheeky Transport have started running some bike maintenance classes in their Newtown shop.

Lela and I went along last night for the class on brake, cables and gear adjustment and it was a great way to get some hands on experience. I do some basic stuff myself, and I knew the theory of a lot of what we covered last night, but it's fantastic to be able to do it in an environment where you know you aren't going to totally break something (which is always my fear). In fact, you are encouraged to get things undone and messed up so you can do it from scratch.

I think this is a great initiative and if you're in Sydney and interested in learning more about how your bike works, you should definitely get in touch and register for some of the workshops.

When I bought my roadie, I was faced with the question of which cycling computer to buy. I had decided that I wanted to take training a bit more seriously and wanted a heart rate monitor, and I wanted something to measure cadence.

After looking around at a bunch of options, the Polar CS200 CAD seemed to fit all my criteria, so I started poking around the place for some online reviews. Here I met a big issue, the quality of review data for cycling stuff online is really poor. If you do a search for "<productname> review", you get hundreds of results for online shops with "be the first to review x". So onto the various forums I went.

In the forums, you'll find a lot of bad stories about this particular gadget, for every thread about it, you'll find a couple of people who seemed to have lots of problems, usually ending with them returning the unit. This was pretty disconcerting, but I got thinking about a couple of points.

It's pretty well accepted that people that are satisfied with a product are less likely to be vocal about it than the people that are dissatisfied. So, people who bought it, and have had it work fine without any issues are likely to be just out using it, not whining on a forum.

Secondly, if you think about the ratio of smart people to total nuffies you meet on any given day, you gotta figure that a bunch of the people whining, no matter how convincing they sound, were just doing something dumb. The louder they scream about doing everything right, the more likely it is that they had the cadence sensor on the rear derailer, and the HR strap around their head.

Lastly, Polar obviously sell a crapload of these, and if there were that many problems, it wouldn't be worth selling.

Anyway, enough of the background info.... I bought it, and have been riding with it for 5 months.

My concerns seem to have been unwarranted, it works great. I suspect a lot of people might be messing up the installation, I got mine installed at the shop when I bought the bike, as I wanted to rule that possible issue out.

The main worry with wireless computers is dropouts and interference. So far I haven't seen any crazy numbers come up, except for the night the chest strap was in my backpack picking who knows what. The figures always seem reasonable at the end of a ride. As for dropouts, I had a very short one while crossing the Harbour Bridge, where I'd been told that nothing will work at all. I also had a minor dropout during the Spring Cycle, while near an apartment block in Rhodes, not sure what that was about. I've ridden with this in heat, cold, rain, mass rides and fast group bunches, so I've covered off most of the riding conditions except actual racing. So far so good.

The unit itself is well made, smaller than it looks in a lot of photos, and a nice shape and design. The screen is easy to read, and has backlighting for nighttime riding (not that I've ever used that).

While riding, you can rotate the display through a number of different modes which display different datapoints on the screen at once. I leave mine on the standard one which shows Speed and Heart Rate on the large areas, cadence in a smaller one, and distance at  the top. Some of the other stats you can show in different modes include average speed, ride time / stopwatch and lap time.

The computer stores up to 7 "sessions", which is good if you log all your data somewhere, but want to get out for another ride before you've found the time to transfer it. While not in riding mode, you can open up any of these files and review all the summary data like ride time, Average and Max speed, Heart Rate and Cadence, time in the preset HR zone and calories burned. The HR zone feature is a little limited, it allows you to set a maximum and minimum heart rate, and shows you time in zone, time above the zone, and time below the zone. This isn't bad, but most modern heart rate training methods work of 5 zones which is a feature included in the higher model Polar units.

Transferring the data is a little tedious, and this is one of my annoyances with Polar. The unit allows you to transfer data via their SonicLink technology, which means that your PC records the beeps and squeaks output by the unit's speaker, and sends this to the polar training website. This website is a Flash based application, and one of the most annoying and counter intuitive applications I've seen. Although it would be simple, Polar haven't included a way to store the raw data on your PC. They have this technology available, as you can do it if you pony up the $800 for their higher models which use the exact same method, so it's just a marketing decision not to include it. Like I said, it's annoying, but I knew about it beforehand, so I can't complain too much. Instead I manually copy the data into the very excellent CycliStats and store it all there.

Another minor gripe is that it can take a few seconds to update it's data display if you make a major change in something, for example going from coasting to pedalling quickly will not show on the cadence display for a few seconds. It makes sense why this is happening, they are doing an average over a couple of seconds to give you a more accurate picture of what you are really doing, so there really isn't a good way around that one. It's not a big deal and I can live with it.

All in all, the CS200 is a great unit with a good set of features. It's well made, looks cool, seems tough, and has been very reliable. The cadence and speed sensors don't get in the way or look ridiculous and the stem mount makes it easy to remove and insert the head unit. As I mentioned, there are a couple of minor annoyances, but nothing I can't live with.

Some other options I looked at were the CatEye range. Their double wireless looked great, but didn't have the heart rate monitor, and their heart rate model didn't have cadence sensor. Similarly, the Vetta range had some models with some great features, but no model I could find had all the options. Lastly was the new Garmin Edge. Bike computer, Heart Rate, Cadence and GPS. Pure geek fun. Unfortunately it seemed like they were having lots of teething problems. In the first 3 months there were a pile of new firmware versions, each one fixing some bugs and re-introducing some old ones. Garmin are going to be the company to watch in this space, once they get the issues sorted out, and can get some better battery life they will have a hell of a product.

Finally, if you're soon to be in the market for something like this, keep an eye out for the new CS 400, which looks a bit cooler and adds an altimeter.

Once a year the Sydney Critical Mass ride goes over the harbour bridge. The bridge ride is always the biggest one, with a bunch of people who might not normally do Critical Mass deciding to go along to have a look.

Riding across the bridge has the consequence of upsetting a handful of journalists by slowing down their trip back to their cosy litle suburban existance on the north shore. So it becomes open season on cyclists in all the quality newspapers like the Telegraph (here and here), which sets off all the usual characters and all the usual arguments on various discussion forums on the net and puts everyone on edge for a few weeks until the next scandal comes along and people move along.

I've never participated in Critical Mass, but I was considering it this time around. The instigating reason for this was something that Treadly blogged the other day. Since reading that, I've been stewing about the sheer amount of "public" space that is given, without question, to private cars that are usually carrying a single occupant. The city of Sydney would be a much nicer place without the tens of thousands of cars clogging it up and filling the air with fumes. We wouldn't have a constant state of costly roadworks being undertaken as well as millions of dollars spent on cross city tunnels. I'm not usually anti-car, I fall much more into a "live and let live" camp, but this week I've found myself feeling excessively cranky. I thought I might head out to CM as my own little protest about reclaiming public space. I didn't end up doing it, partly because I had some work things that were tricky to get away from, but more so because my reasons for going out there aren't really what Critical Mass is about.

Which poses the question, what the hell IS Critical Mass about ?

Climate change ? anti-car ? anti public transport (they get just as disrupted) ? Freeing David Hicks ? The right for cyclists to ride on the roads as traffic ? Or more bike paths ?

While Lela was there to assert her right to ride on the road, Chris Mosley (who has been tagged by the Telegraph as the official spokesperson) seems to want $96 million spent on cycling facilities.

A protest is most effective when it has a clear message. Critical Mass doesn't seem to have one. With no message, there isn't a good media angle, so the best option for them is to attack cyclists (not that I think that is acceptable, but in the spirit of being constructive I'm keeping to myself the fate I would like to see befall Anita Quigley and Andrew Carswell). With no message, and a skewed one delivered by the media, most motorists go away thinking "bloody cyclists, just holding up the traffic to be a pest". Most of them will get over it, a few will add it to the list of why they hate cyclists.

From the media coverage, and comments by people involved, the purpose of Critical Mass is cars off the road, and more bike lanes (without going into the climate change and Iraq and oil and David Hicks and workplace relations reasons brought out by people who seem to go to every protest and get confused about which one they are at).

I don't want that necessarily. I want to be able to ride with my 15 month old son on the back of the bike and not be screamed at in a quiet back street in Erskineville by an impatient idiot. I want peopple to be able to ride home from work and not have people screaming at them to "get on the footpath". I want to share the road and be seen as a legitimate road user. I want to be able to go on a group ride on a Sunday morning and not have eggs thrown at riders.

Critical Mass doesn't seem to achieve that, in fact it seems to make it worse. I think the idea of a cyclist protest is a good one, but my feeling is that with a lack of focus, Critical Mass isn't achieving much to help us, other than (as Lela points out) an opportunity to have a bit of fun.

No Phil, I haven't forgotten how to blog :)

I've been spending so much time in front of a computer lately, that spending more time to blog has been low on the list.

Anyway, when I haven't been working too hard, I've been doing some bike stuff.

I had a fun ride for this years Sping Cycle.

The day didn't start well, it was cold and raining when I left the house at 6. That lasted until 10 kms into the ride, which is about when I got a flat by riding over a safety pin obviously not doing it's job of holding someones entry number on. I was moving again not long after, thanks to the wonders of CO2.

The rest of the ride wasn't too bad, there were all the usual inexperienced riders weaving all over the place, but that's what the day is for. It's great to see people out riding who usually don't. I was riding with a couple of friends, had a couple of laughs and enjoyed the ride.

After hanging out at the finish for a while we had a discussion about the best way home. Nobody had any better ideas so I led the way on my usual Homebush to my place route.... which is pretty much hills all the way. Needless to say I wasn't very popular for that, but all was forgiven later over a few beers.

The next day my legs weren't particularly happy with me, and I decided I needed to start doing some longer rides. I've been contemplating joining a club for a while, and it seemed like a good time to do it, so I made some enquires with the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club and arranged to meet them for their Sunday training ride to Waterfall.

The 6:30am start meant I had to be up and about at about 5:30, unfortunately this was the Sunday that Daylight Savings kicked in, so I was dragging myself out of bed at what my body (and my clocks) thought was 4:30! Crazy! Not something I would have ever contemplated doing in the past. I managed to get moving though, and made my way over to the start point in Marrickville on that very chilly morning.

DHBC run a slow bunch and a fast bunch on Sunday mornings, I figured I'd sit in with the slow bunch and take it easy. We started off and I found myself sitting up near the front. I figured that I'd be back with the slow group in a moment or two but that didn't happen. I got chatting to a few people there and got a couple of pieces of advice for riding in bunches. Very friendly group. Anyway, I managed to hang with the fast guys until just after Sutherland, when they kept their pace up the long incline and my legs just gave way on me. Now I know what it's like to be dropped!

I kept going for a while, ate some snakes, had a drink and recovered a bit. After a while I started to get worried that I was lost, I was obviously a fair way ahead of the slow group, either that or I'd gone the wrong way somewhere. I pulled into a servo and started thinking about my options when I saw another group coming down the road. I jumped on the back of those guys, it was a Sydney Cycling Club group that had picked up two of our stragglers who had dropped off the group earlier than me. Three of us turned around a few KMs early and I had an absolute blast doing the fast run back in to Sutherland.

We all regrouped back in Sutherland and had a drink and a rest and started for home. By the time I got home I was worn out, my legs would cramp if I stood in the saddle, but I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to do it again, and I recommended DHBC to anyone looking for a friendly club to join in Sydney.

I didn't get to ride with them this past Sunday, or do the Gong ride as I was on my way back from Seattle again after a very short and intensely stressful trip. While I was there though, I checked out a Bianchi Volpe. I've been wanting a new commuter / run around bike that will also take a baby seat. Since buying the TCR I haven't enjoyed riding my old hybrid at all, so I wanted something fun but a bit more practical. The Bianchi seemed like just the thing, unfortunately they just aren't available in Australia for reasons that Phil blogged a few days ago. I took a ride on a Volpe at Elliot Bay Bicycles in Seattle. It was nice, but a bit too small. They had the size up still in the box and they offerred to build it up so I could see if I liked it. I did, and they had to tear it down again so I could bring it home. Let's just say that lugging a bike around airports really sucks.

Anyway, I got it back together and adjusted (with a little help from Adam, thanks mate!) and I think it rocks! It really seems to be the perfect commuter for what I want.

So, that's what I've been up to. Now I just have to get some more riding in before Sunday so I can maybe keep up for a little longer :)

I've held off writing this for a few weeks because it didn't really seem real yet, however the last week of international travel has changed that.

As of the end of August, I'm no longer a senior developer with Massive Interactive. Most of this year I've been working on a huge project which really hit home that I'm burnt out as a developer and in need of a change.

As luck would have it, such an opportunity arose and I went with it.

I've taken a position as a Solutions Architect with thePlatform, working on designing and managing integrations with thePlatform's Media Publishing System for Australian clients.

thePlatform is based in Seattle, so I've just spent a week there meeting everyone, getting some training, and finding out how everything works. It was a fun week, so much to learn in a short time.

When I started this blog, in my About page I wrote that I was very interested in where the music industry was headed with new technologies. Now I'll be very closely involved with some implementations of new technology for digital content delivery, it's exciting to be back on the cutting edge.

Over the last 18 months, with so many concurrent projects, I've not been vigilant enough about keeping my skills current. While I've been getting .NET 1.1 and SQL Server 2000 to jump through all sorts of hoops, I pretty much let the launch of the newer versions of these platforms pass me by. Two years ago I had all sorts of grand visions about being an early adopter of SQL 2005 and knowing lots about it before anyone else did. Unfortunately it just didn't work out that way, the projects I was working on didn't call for it, and with so much on I couldn't commit the time to diving in. While my new job isn't a coding job, I do have to be current with what people are using to develop solutions today so I finally have the mental bandwidth to start exploring the "new" stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to that. In fact, I've already started.

I am going to miss working at Massive. I made some great friends there and worked on some cool and high profile projects. It can be a fun environment to work in, unfortunately if you let it, it can also be draining. I let it.

Of course, I also can no longer call myself a bike commuter. I'll be working out of my house most of the time. But given the weird hours I'll have to keep to be in touch with the US, I am going to have some time in the day to go for a ride :)

I saw five cyclists on my commute home tonight.

The first one was coming the wrong way down Crown St Darlinghurst, having ridden diagonally across the intersection, in between two cars moving off the lights, into the bike lane (the wrong way) and directly at me. I believe my words were "You fucking idiot". He laughed and kept going.

The second one was just as my light went green at an intersection. A cyclist ran through the crossing red, and did a right turn in front of us. Had the car next to me been quick off the lights, I have a strong feeling I'd have witnessed a very gory scene.

The third was a few blocks later, at another set of lights. I was sitting at the red, there was a cyclist on a kmart looking dual shock mountain bike on the footpath waiting for the pedestrian lights. As the light went green, I moved off the intersection, he rode with the pedestrians, then decided he wanted to pull right and into the bike lane that I was riding in. Not patient enough to wait for me (I'm on the road bike by the way, and obviously was going to take off quickly once I had a clear path in front of me), the idiot starts ringing his bell at me and trying to push across. If you want to be a footpath rider, stay there until you can safely transition to where you decide to be.

The fourth cyclist, no lights.

The fifth cyclist, no lights.

In the same trip, I saw only one of fifty or so cars run a red light.

This came at the end of a day in which we heard the news that a pedestrian crossing Beach Road in Melbourne has died after being hit on the weekend by a cyclist running a red while trying to reach the bunch that had just dropped him.

It looks like the cyclist will get a $200 fine for running the red.

Of course, the Australian based blogs and forums are hot with discussion about this incident. But not screaming blue murder like they do when a cyclist is killed by a motorist, instead a whole lot of people are getting defensive that the Hell Ride is copping the blame, complaining about the reporting style or feeling sorry for the poor cyclist who made a mistake.

We spend a lot of time talking about aggressive motorists, lack of cycle facilities and planning, and wondering how to get our message through to people. How can we as cyclists expect to be taken seriously when 90% of us won't obey the rules and make the slightest bit off effort to be a cooperative road user ? We can't expect anyone to want to share the road with us when most cyclists are confirming the lawless renegade stereotype that talkback radio and the Daily Telegraph like to use.

This is a bigger issue than cycling strategy plans and the removal of bike lanes.

For some people it's an education issue. Some people I think just don't know any better. But others, like the guy who laughed at me tonight, obviously have some justification for being dickheads.

Some people, like Bicycle Victoria's Mark Horner have this attitude :

I run reds regularly. I call it civil disobedience. Call me a dickhead. If I get cleaned up, it's my fault, pure and simple. If I want less risk, I'll be more cautious, and only run a few simple ones.

and

When it is us and 15kg of bike, then, unless we are warping our way to the other side of the galaxy, who we gonna hurt? A frail old lady? A baby in a pusher?

He posted that on Aus.Bicycles at the beginning of this month, those words have taken on a darker meaning now.

Yes Mark, you are a dickhead, and no, road cyclists shouldn't make their own call about which laws to obey because they feel they know better,

Yes, this is a rant. Yes, I'm pissed off. No, I don't have all the answers. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I think it's time we stopped kidding ourselves and start trying to address the problem. We will never get any sort of respect until we as a group show we deserve it.

Update : Phil and Surly Dave have similar thoughts.

Update 2 : Perhaps Shayne Mallard's suggestion for "bicycle rangers" (sounds like a two wheeled superhero doesn't it ? Mighty Morphin Bicycle Rangers!) is part of the solution ?

Update 3 : Melbourne's Herald Sun has a very balanced opinion piece here that is well worth reading.

The only way community attitudes will change is if cyclists lead from the front.

Sounds bizarre doesn't it ? Especially in light of their recent Hummer promotions.

However, I was just reading some posts in the aus.bicycle newsgroup and was presented with these targeted advertisements.

 A brand new way to snack! Stuff one in your jersey pocket today.

Just thought I'd post up a couple of things of interest lately.

First up, Fernando sent me this article from the BBC about a new bike commuter in London which I've seen a few people post about. I did get a laugh out of "the game". Mainly because I'm incredibly guilty of playing that one myself :)

From the folks behind the TDF Blog there is a new blog aimed at commuting and transport cycling at Bikehugger.com which looks interesting.

A few weeks ago Phil posted about a new cycling wiki. I've been keeping an eye on this one and was very annoyed to see a helmet debate break out. Is there anything more tedious than cycling geeks arguing about helmets ? All we need now is the John Forrester acolytes to start up preaching the Vehicular Cycling gospel and the Cycling Wikia will be as unpleasant and political as Wikipedia. I think that blogs are becoming a much better resource for stuff like this, don't like something ? start your own.

I while back I saw something amusing on the aus.bicycle group which I thought I'd share while the Tour is on. It's an explaination of the catgories of climbs in a bike race.

Ben c'est assez simple : Tu prends une 2CV. Si celle-ci monte en 4Ãme, alors c'est un col de 4Ãme catégorie. Même chose avec la 3Ãme, 2Ãme puis 1Ãre vitesse. Maintenant, si la 2CV ne monte pas, il s'agit du col "hors catégorie"...

Which translates as

Well, it's quite simple: you take a [Citroen] 2CV. If it climbs in 4th [gear], it's a 4th category climb. Same thing with 3rd, 2nd and 1st gear. If the 2CV won't climb at all, it's a 'hors catégorie' climb.

Lastly, we had the first Sydney bike blogger beers last night. Thanks to everyone who made it out, it was really cool to put some faces to names. The hot topics were BNSW, Sydney's streets, Pedapods, Bikely, doping, Le Tour, and getting more people riding. It's always fun to watch when you get a bunch of clued in people in a room together and the ideas start to bounce around, everyone has a project or two on the go that will help people riding in Sydney. Very exciting!

I love an aliteration in the morning.

We've been talking about it for a little while, but a date has been decided for a cycling blogger meetup in Sydney.

If you bike and blog, or maybe if you don't, but would like to... come along to the Rose in Erskineville on the 5th of July at about 7:30pm. More details here.

I've been thinking about a road bike for a little while now, and like any self respecting geek I've spent countless hours reading and researching online.

After chatting to Phil about bikes a few weeks ago I started looking seriously at the Giant TCR range, and this week, after much agonising I took the plunge and bought a TCR 1.

I think it's much sexier in real life than their product shot gives it credit for, and what an amazing machine. It's so light!!!!

Now I just have to learn how to ride it :)

On a fairly unrelated note,we're hiring programmers, designers and producers at the moment. Cyclists will fit in well. I also might have to start blogging more about technical subjects to keep James happy.

In my first cycling post I mentioned that I don't get too many hassles from motorists when I'm cycling. I said then, that I hoped this was because of the way I rode, rather than the fact that I'm a very solid, 6 foot tall male. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this is 100% true.

I ride on a lot of the same roads as Lela, often at the same time. We often chat about things we've witnessed and been a part of on the roads, and it's very obvious that she cops a lot more verbal abuse than I do. I basically get none, she gets some idiot swearing at her every other week.

I've always thought this to be very strange, we have a very similar riding style. We both ride safely, both obey the law, and both remain visible and well lit when needed. So it became fairly obvious that she is more of a target for frustrated drivers just because she is a female, and is smaller. I find this pretty upsetting, there are obviously people that drive behind me, thinking "bloody cyclists", but keep it to themselves, because I look like the sort of person that will ride up to their window and give it right back to them (and I probably would). Then when they see someone who is much less of a threat, they let loose.

This really hit home a few weeks ago, we were out on a ride on a Saturday, on a wide bit of road, with lots of room for people to get past. I was about 50 metres in front and a Commodore with a P plate driver and three passengers passed me, going pretty quickly, with the foot down. I didn't think much of it, although they were revving pretty hard, they really hadn't done anything to me. What I didn't know was that as they had passed Lela, they had started veering to the left to try to force her off the road.

That's 4 guys, trying to scare 1 girl. But don't have the balls to do it to me.

So I'm very close to the opinion that most road rage incidents are just spineless people trying to take advantage of people weaker than them. It's no different from a bully in the schoolyard. I find this pretty sad, and unfortunately I'm not sure what the answer is.

Bikely got a bit of a writeup in The Age today. Well done Jules!

You get wet.

We've been having some pretty nasty wet weather in Sydney over the last few days. Those of us that do ride in heavy rain find our mental health being questioned by those around us.

The truth is though, apart from wet socks, I really don't mind riding in the rain. In fact, part of me quite enjoys it. When I was a kid (I suspect this goes for most people) I used to love playing in the rain and puddles. What is different ? The rain didn't get any wetter, the only thing different is how we decide to think about it.

I really hate wet socks though :)

Oh, and I'm very jealous of Lela's new jacket, I think I might have to order one.

A few weeks ago, I had an idea to build a website where cyclists could add in their favorite routes. I thought that if a bunch of people entered the way they ride to work, the rides they do for fun or the rides they do with their families we could build a great database of places to ride. This would encourage more people to ride as you'd be able to search for a ride that suited your abilities, and be able to look up routes near you.

I was going to make this text based, due to the lack of a free mapping provider in Australia.

On Friday, I found out from Leisa that Google Maps had launched Australian map data. This of course, set my curious little mind into overdrive and I did a big re-think about building the site. I didn't get a lot of time to spend on it over the weekend, but I did look at the API and start playing with plotting a route on a map with a view to getting a site up soon.

I was beaten to it.

Bikely.com was announced last night on the aus.bicycles newsgroup and seems to have the same goals as mine, so I'm going to down tools and see how it goes. It's a first release, so there may be a few bugs and the UI can be a little confusing

If you're a cyclist, you should head over there now and put in your commute of favorite ride. Any feedback can be posted via the newsgroup or hold on until a contact link goes up.

This has the potential to be a really useful asset if enough people get on board, add routes and promote it. This is the sort of thing that could be the trigger for someone contemplating riding a bike to work, removing the obstacle of "I don't know which way to go" could be enough. We spend a lot of time complaining about cars and roads, it's great to see such a positive action.

Spread the word!

Last week, with the fun involved in launching a website, I missed the opportunity to blog a little personal milestone. The 9th of May marked the first year anniversary of me commuting to work by bike.

I'd bought a bike about 6 weeks before, in an effort to try to get a little bit fitter and to give myself a little bit more energy throughout the day. I had a pretty disasterous first ride. After wobbling all over the place for the first ten minutes I realised that my tyres were pretty flat (reason #162 not to buy a bike from a big chain sports store) so I headed through the park towards the nearby service station. On the way, I managed to get bitten by a dog ( "He doesn't like bikes" .... gee thanks). I arrived at the service station and almost collapsed when I tried to walk, my legs were total jelly.

Somehow, I wasn't discouraged by that, and managed to do some better rides the next weekend around some of the quieter industrial streets nearby. In the next few weeks I found myself doing laps around a local oval every morning, and loving how I felt for the rest of the day. I was getting pretty hooked.

It was around then I started to realise that riding to work was a possibility. This never would have crossed my mind if I didn't have a couple of co-workers already doing it. It makes such a difference being able to ask someone for advice, and route suggestions, and to just have someone there to prove that it's possible.

So here I am, one year later and 20kg lighter, totally loving being a cyclist. I have some ambitious goals for cycling over the next year, so it should continue to be lots of fun. Along the way I've managed to convince at least three people to buy bikes and ride to work, and another to ride his existing bike to work most days rather than drive. I still feel a huge debt to the people at work for giving me the courage to start, so Adrian, Phil and especially Lela....Thank You.

This one is for pedaller.

Dalmation dog riding a bike in Japan

A Dalmation rides a bike by itself somwhere in Japan. Apparently this dog was always interested in bikes since it was a puppy, so the owner trained it to ride by itself!

Since taking up cycling I've been keen to sing the praises of riding a bike to work. I've managed to get a few of my friends on bikes and commuting, which is great. However I occasionally catch myself giving mixed messages about riding on the road.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, so I'm going to use the term "we". Sometimes we wear cycling as a badge of honour, and we talk about incidents on the road and the hazards of riding to other people. Sometimes when people ask me about cycling, I fall into this trap and get a response like "that's why I couldn't ride on the road, it's too dangerous for me". I instantly realise what I've done, I want to encourage more people to ride, not scare them away, so I try to backpedal (pun intended) and explain that it's really not that bad.

The fact that I can tell the story later means that any altercations I have on the road are not fatal. While I enjoy having discussions with drivers who cut me off, the fact that I can ride up to their window and converse with them means that I was never in any serious danger of being hurt. Had it been really close, I wouldn't have the mental clarity for a rational discussion. Maybe I'm being a bit over dramatic when I take on a driver, but I figure that if I can do my bit to let them know the possible consequences of their actions on the road while I can, perhaps they will be a bit more careful the next time.

The reality is that for the majority of potential incidents on the road, you can see them before they happen. This is because cars have body language. Well, not literally, but the car is acting as an extension of the driver, and people telegraph their actions with small movements of their body, and these small movements are amplified by the steering system of a car. If you pay attention on the road, and are aware of your surroundings, you will pick up clues about what a driver is about to do.

One of the first things you learn if you've every done any sort of advanced or defensive driver training * is that your car will go where you are looking. The reason we see so many flowers on telegraph poles on our highways is because when people lose control of their vehicles, they tend to look in panic towards an object they are scared of hitting. Guess what... that's a surefire way to hit it.

With this in mind, if you watch where a car is drifting on the road, you'll have a pretty good idea of what the driver is thinking about doing. A common hazard on my commute is when approaching a set of lights, a driver will jump into the left lane to try to get to the front at a red light. They often don't look behind them or indicate because they aren't expecting anyone in the outside lane. It's amazing how easy these drivers are to spot, they generally think about it about 20 meters before they do it, and start to drift towards the lefthand lane (yes, left, this is in Australia). Then they straighten up a bit as they look in front of them, and not long after that they do a quick dive into the adjacent lane.

It's not 100% effective, you'll still get people doing totally unexpected from time to time, but if you maintain an awareness of what is going on around you, and watch for visual clues, you shouldn't get too many surprises. It also helps to have a look at the drivers when you are approaching a crossing intersection. If they are on the phone, messing with the stereo or trying to calm down some children in the back seat, be ready to jump out of the way.

I also think we can use this sort of body language to our advantage, and a lot of cyclists do. Hugging the gutter and trying to get out of the way is a timid and submissive gesture. Like animals in the wild, cars can smell fear and this is the time where they will pass too close, or assume you won't make it to the intersection before they do. Getting out into the middle of the lane near an intersection or a roundabout and making eye contact with a driver is a strong gesture that says "I am here and I'm moving as fast through here as you can".

I do realise I may be preaching to the converted here. Some of this stuff is for readers who are wondering about cycling, or are new to cycling. When I talk to non-cycling friends about these sorts of things I find that they have no idea what it means to be a cyclist on the road. I'm hoping that anything that gives some insight into this world can only be a good thing.

* A few paragraphs up I mentioned advanced driver training courses. I believe that people should be required to go do one of these courses before they are given their provisional plates and allowed to drive unsupervised. Most drivers have zero idea about how to handle a car in any sort of adverse or emergency situation. I learnt to drive on a gravel road 40kms from anywhere, where at any minute a truckload of cattle may come flying around a blind corner, and you just had to know how to get out of the way safely. I thought I was a pretty good driver. Getting out on a skidpan, with qualified instructors teaching you how to get in and out of skids and teaching controlled braking techniques was a huge eye opener for me. Of course, compulsory driver training will never happen. One argument I've heard against this is that putting kids onto a race track for a day will turn them into even bigger revheads than they already are. I'd have to disagree with that, I drove out of that place a lot slower than I drove in. The other argument is the cost, people would expect the government to pick up the $250 tab for the course so that they can get their kids on the road as cheaply as possible. I personally don't think that "cheap" should be a criteria when giving people a licence to control a potentially lethal piece of machinery on the road.

"A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness." - James E. Starrs, The Literary Cyclist

The inner parts of Sydney are fairly widely regarded as an unfriendly place to ride a bike. We have a council who seem to be trying to do the right thing, they often say the right things anyway, but we keep seeing some strange decisions made.

Reading councillor Shayne Mallard's blog gives an occasional insight.

"Push bikes are not road vehicles and need to be segregated from ten tonne trucks and pedestrians as they are in Denmark and Germany"

Uhh, no Shayne. They are legal road vehicles, and we don't necessarily need or want to be segregated.

It's great that we have someone on the council trying to fight the good fight, but I think that councillor Mallard should spend less time on his public feud with Clover Moore, and more time speaking with commuter cyclists about what they would like on Sydney's roads.

In the current issue of Australian Cyclist, there is a letter from a reader unhappy with the symbols for bike lanes and bike parking. The complaint is that they just show bikes as inanimate objects rather than something that people ride.

Recently in Newtown it seems that somebody has set out to change this.

I've been commuting by bicycle on Sydney's roads for almost a year now. It's certainly been a learning experience, and one I plan to discuss a fair bit on this blog.

One of the side effects is that I've joined a side in the long running war between motorists and cyclists. Cyclists and motorists for the most part hate each other.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is ineptitude, a large percentage of both motorists and cyclists just lack proper skills. On a bike, this isn't such a problem. When you are in charge of 1000kgs of metal moving at 60km/h this becomes a little more serious. Drivers get very edgy around "wobbly" cyclists on the road, and cyclists get very nervous around drivers sitting in large cars surrounded by mod cons such as mobile phones, CD players and in car DVD players and GPS units.

The next reason basically boils down to impatience. It seems to be human nature, especially in more recent years, to dislike anyone else getting something more than you, and before you. It's the reason we see people trampling each other when the doors open on a boxing day sale. I think that something almost primal is triggered when somebody stuck in a line of traffic sees a cyclist moving up on the inside of a lane to where they want to go. Traffic congestion in a city like Sydney is out of control and people are getting more and more frustrated sitting in their cars for larger parts of the day. To see someone immune from the physical conditions they are constrained by is enough to get some people to fume (pardon the pun).

The third reason comes down to a simple misunderstanding. Motorists don't like cyclists on the road because they believe that cyclists don't obey the rules. This is where it gets confused.

There are basically two types of cyclists on the road, each has their own idea about how to get from A to B safely, and each totally disagrees with the others philosophy.

The first group ride as visible as possible, they want to be seen and respected. Where safe, they will get off to the side and allow cars to pass. Where that wouldn't be safe, they will "take the lane", which means riding in the middle of the lane, as if you were a car. These cyclists are most likely to have a good set of lights on the bike at night and wear bright, reflective clothing. For the most part they will ride within the law, and take some pleasure in pointing out aspects of the law to motorists who challenge them on it.

The second group ride under the assumption that the road really isn't safe, and the motorists that don't intentionally want to kill them will probably not see them anyway. Once they start riding with the mindset that they are invisible, anything goes. Anything that will get you from A to B without having to fight cars for space is fair game, riding on footpaths and up one way streets the wrong way are valid places to ride. Stop signs and red lights become meaningless and bike lights are pointless.

Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. If all cyclists rode out of sight on the footpath, we wouldn't bother motorists (pedestrians would hate us, but that's a whole other story). On the other hand, if everyone rode legally on the road it would destroy any argument about cyclists not belonging if they won't obey the rules. The problem is that these two styles don't co-exist particularly well. To the casual observer, cyclists are one and the same which leads to comments like "why should cyclists get equal rights on the road when they ride on the footpath and run red lights".

I don't think I have any real answers here, it isn't a problem that is about to go away. What we need is a little bit of tolerance and patience. Unfortunately these seem to be very lacking in society these days.

Personally I don't have too many problems on the road. I have the occasional brush with a driver who tries to change lanes onto me (I often exchange words with them when this happens), but I don't end up on the receiving end of too many car horns and yells of abuse. I'd like to think it's the way I ride that contributes to this, but I fear it's just my size.

Update : Some great comments below, and the discussion has continuted over at Phil's blog.