Did it again ...

I had Friday off work this week, but commuted faithfully the four preceding days. The odometer which the family gave me for Fathers Day stopped working Thursday night. It was a "Fluid" brand, and I found it neither well designed nor well constructed. The odometer itself kept popping out of the docking part on the handlebars, and must have suffered one too many impacts with the road surface.

I've become hooked on having a working odometer - the KM per hour readout encourages me to put in a bit more effort when, as often happens, I have a tendency to drift off. So, this morning, went to my friendly local bike shop (Salters Cycles in Altona Meadows) and bought a Sigma BC 906 which set me back, after deducting my Bicycle Victoria discount, the sum of $40.50. So I suppose I made a loss of $12.90 this week compared to public transport. But I got a nice new bike computer. Very nice piece of design I thought - way the easiest bike computer to install that I've come across. My goal, though, is to actually get through a week without spending any money on the bike.

The week's commuting was very pleasant. A couple of lovely crisp mornings, with the sun rising over the frosty grass - thank heavens for long fingered gloves - and not a lot of wind.

I'm striving to maintain the sort of peaceful glow I get from the first 6 km or so of my ride - the bit along quiet roads and bike path - across the whole journey. I'll have to keep working at it - the busier it gets, and the more traffic I encounter, inevitably something will send my blood pressure into the red zone: that van that sped past about an inch from my shoulder, the oncoming cyclists who pass pedestrians on their side and force me onto the very margin of the path, the turning car sitting right on my tail as I turn as well, the girl opening her car door oblivious of how hard I had to break not to collect her ... But that's my other goal - to get through a week without getting too pissed off about anything.

My new regime is to take one Friday off a month and do something nice. My wife took the day as well, and after an early appointment taking our son to the Children's Hospital - a very good place to count your blessings I always find - we set off on the tandem to ride to Yarraville for lunch and to see the film The Flying Scotsman, the story of Graeme Obree who held the one hour cycling record. Worth seeing I thought. Today pottering around, taking the dogs for a run, going to the bike shop, the nursery, the local shops, we put in around another 20 k.

Tally for the week:

Don't know exactly, thanks to dead odometer. At least 250 kms
Rained on: not a drop. Things are getting mighty dry here.
Near miss with car: nearish anyway - Car door on Burwood Road, stopped with a bit to spare but got the heart pumping. The girl who opened the door was quite surprised to see me - "Oh, hello" she said cheerfully, and sauntered off.
Near miss with another bicycle: none
Punctures: none

Economic of bike commuting #2, roundabouts, better dorky than dead

Rode every day for another week.  Once again, I deprived Connex, who run the train system here in Melbourne, of $27.00.   Coming home last night though, my front light became increasingly feeble, so down to the supermarket for a set of rechargable AAA batteries - $21.95.   A small cash  net profit for the week then.  Of course the benefits are not only financial - 
I'm feeling a bit fitter and enjoying life more, which of course is priceless.

I've found a slightly shorter route for part of the trip, - a bit more on road but a bit faster too - so the total for this week 295 kilometres.   Added to last week's 318, I've ridden near the equivalent of Paris to Brest.  Took me two weeks to do it though.  How people do it in 25 hours straight or less, I have no idea.

Had another incident with a car not giving way at a roundabout - from which I've come to suspect that maybe there is a visibility issue.  From behind, car headlights pick out all the reflective bits and pieces on coat, bike, ankles, shoes, bag etc.  At a roundabout, the headlights aren't actually pointing at you, so maybe they just don't see us?

Whatever, I've adopted a philosophy of better dorky than dead - so I've got a light cable tied to my helmet, and a sort of reflective, flashing sash thing that I was given as a gift and had never used before.  I figured it wasn't much use sitting in a box so now I ride along emitting an errie green light.  Hopefully the car drivers are too busy laughing to run me over.

Tally for the week Monday to Friday:
Distance: 295 kilometres
Rained on: not at all - absolutely beautiful weather, a bit nippy in the mornings but.
Near miss with car: one - another roundabout.  hmmm.
Near miss with another bicycle: some guy heading towards me decided to pass another cyclist on the yarra trail on the narrow ramp leading down to the pontoon as I was heading up it.  Scared the heck out of me - don't know what he thought about it.