First steps in assessing the local bike scene

Riding my bike hasn't been an option for the last two months, but I've been scanning the local scene and figuring out where I can ride, once the PT says it's ok to get back in the saddle.

The local newspaper is The Adelaide Advertiser. What's nice about South Australia is that road biking gets newspaper coverage, like every other sport around here. Adelaide hosts the January Tour Down Under, so it takes competitive cycling very seriously. I've noted plenty of commuters riding M-F here, usually on limited gears "sit up and begs" and low end mountain bikes. Weather is a bit chilly in the mornings, but by 9am, it's like a warm Seattle day, so I find it funny how everyone is wearing scarves and overcoats as they ride around. On the weekends the flash set comes out to play. Lots of Giant carbon bikes, Specialized, and various European brands. Also a few super cool dude fixies about. I've seen only one type of folding bike, Dahon, and they're pretty scarce.

There are bike lanes in the city, not as wide as I'm used to, and I've seen a couple of close rider v bus encounters, and cyclists choosing (or forced?) to ride in high speed rush hour traffic. These things warn me about the state of the locals re "share the road," which basically isn't as advanced as I'm used to in Seattle. I am forewarned. It won't stop me riding, but cause me to adjust my road behavior to match.

I picked up a copy of the Advertiser's latest rides book (there are several) at the newspaper's retail sales desk on Waymouth St. I also quizzed a cyclist at the coffee shop at Mt Lofty visitor's centre last monday, where I went for a hike on the Queen's Birthday public holiday. Hard to missall the riders slogging up hill to the summit. Looks like I found one of the good training rides for the locals. When my shoulder can take it, I'll ditch the bus ride to Mt Lofty and ride with them.

Back in the saddle in South Australia

Woman on her bike has been busy moving to try out a new job in a new country. Riding's been on hiatus, due to the challenges of such an endeavor, along with living with a torn rotator cuff in the left shoulder.

When the physio therapist says: OK, she's be joining BikeSA and checking out a few of their weekend rides.

On March 30, I attended a webinar hosted by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, APBP, "Women Can Change the World through Cycling."

To see presentations from five knowledgeable women involved in “normalizing” cycling as a transportation option for US women, read it here.

This isn't about bike chic, i.e., how fashionable it is to ride bikes these days. It's about getting more women out there, sharing the road, and using their bikes to commute to work, pick up their kids, run errands, have fun, get healthy, do their bit for environmental sustainability.

Inspiring stuff!

Interesting Advertising at Brisbane Airport

Another one of those quirky things you see when you're travelling.

Masked Monster

There's something wonderful about a university town that does gallery shows like this one.

Share the Road Dunedin-style

I was briefly back in New Zealand this week, to interview for a job at the University of Otago. Outside the Central Library building, this is something I've never seen before, but I like it. "Bike" racks for everyone.

Bicycling Guide to the Gold Coast

Today I visited a bike store at Palm Beach, and picked up the 2010 copy of the Gold Coast City Cycling Guide, a professionally produced brochure that includes 17 linked maps detailing how to ride from Yatala, north of the Gold Coast, through to Coolangatta, on the border with New South Wales. It shows both off-road and on-road bikeways, totalling about 620km of marked routes.

In the 1970s, when I was a Queensland teenager, it was common to see barechested guys dressed only in board shorts pedaling barefoot along the beachfront road, one hand on the bike handlebars, a full sized surfboard surfboard squeezed under the other arm.

I'm pleased to report that yesterday, during my morning stroll at Burleigh Heads, I saw someone doing this.

Back in the 1970s, beachfront cyclists like this didn't have a nice cycling guide like this one.