cycle sydney

was fun morning.. very easy ride. managed to cruise in at 1hr 38mins.. loved
the cross country bit on my road bike.. saw at least 5 crashes.. also the
placement of some of those cone markers sucked.. placing them on the left
and right sides of the lane sometimes pushed the bunch tight but we all
survived. I also got shouted at by a cop for slowing down at an intersection
( was making sure no traffic was coming from the left and right- just a
natural thing to do!!)

"Arpit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

what did y'all think?

yeah, i was surprised at how easy it was, it was really conjested
though, i left at 8:20 I think. As for crashed, a buddy i was riding
with was ahead of me then suddenly realised he was supposed to go left
instead of go straight ahead- very poorly marked. He turned in my path
suddenyl, and i had to brake so hard my bike stopped within a few cm
of his front tire, but pivoted on the front wheel. the bike was 90
degrees to horizontal when he grabbed my arm and pushed my back down,
thank god 🙂 around a corner at a reasonable speed a kid crashed into
me on my left but managed to stay riding,riding next to him he was
very apologetic and seemed tobe very shocked:

Kid: sorry
me: dont worry about it, are you ok?
kid: sorry
me: are you ok?
kid: yeah
me: cool

kid of few words :p

thats all the incidents i had 🙂 oh also 2 guys on road bikes raced
me on a straight stretch, I OWNED them on my mountain bike with
knobbies 😄 havent gotten over that yet 😄

As for cops, meh, what are they gonna do.... i can imagine them on
their radio "it was a guy! on a bike!"

As for improvements to ther ide, i think they could have controlled
traffic a lot better, and given us the entire road, without those
stupid markers . I heard cars hooting and police yelling at the cars
but didnt get an opportunity to use my air horn, except at a rest stop
when my backpack hit the trigger :p Also, seriously we paid 40 bucks,
couldnt they just greenify the traffic lights? Making roads wider is
important, ive never used my brakes so much 🙁 but it was fun, and
encouraged me to keep a sustainable pace.... i guess... maybe next
year ill go earlier 🙂
I really hated the line to get the tshirts, i was thinking about just
ging home without a tshirt to escape the line in the hot sun of 1 o
clock in the afternoon (i took ages in the ride coz it was so
conjested.) they asked us for our tshirt sizes on the form--- couldnt
they have sent them in the mail?

Overall i REALLY enjoyed that ride, and I WILL do it again next year,
as well as participatin gin more rides with lots of other people. I
hear bike north have a few rides.

dyno said:

was fun morning.. very easy ride. managed to cruise in at 1hr 38mins.. loved
the cross country bit on my road bike.. saw at least 5 crashes.. also the
placement of some of those cone markers sucked.. placing them on the left
and right sides of the lane sometimes pushed the bunch tight but we all
survived. I also got shouted at by a cop for slowing down at an intersection
( was making sure no traffic was coming from the left and right- just a
natural thing to do!!)

"Arpit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

what did y'all think?

yeah i left at 7:30 (soon as the horn went off) .. the first few sets of
lights (100m away from start) we already had to stop for the red signal.. i
cant beleive they didnt let us go through.. trying to stop a few thousand
people at the start for a red light was stupid.. i got my shirt also but i
had 1 person in front of me in the queue :-p

i had my 30secounds of glory when i powered past around 30 people up a hill,
not sure why i did that maybe it wsa by mcdonalds for breakfast?!

"Arpit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

yeah, i was surprised at how easy it was, it was really conjested
though, i left at 8:20 I think. As for crashed, a buddy i was riding
with was ahead of me then suddenly realised he was supposed to go left
instead of go straight ahead- very poorly marked. He turned in my path
suddenyl, and i had to brake so hard my bike stopped within a few cm
of his front tire, but pivoted on the front wheel. the bike was 90
degrees to horizontal when he grabbed my arm and pushed my back down,
thank god 🙂 around a corner at a reasonable speed a kid crashed into
me on my left but managed to stay riding,riding next to him he was
very apologetic and seemed tobe very shocked:

Kid: sorry
me: dont worry about it, are you ok?
kid: sorry
me: are you ok?
kid: yeah
me: cool

kid of few words :p

thats all the incidents i had 🙂 oh also 2 guys on road bikes raced
me on a straight stretch, I OWNED them on my mountain bike with
knobbies 😄 havent gotten over that yet 😄

As for cops, meh, what are they gonna do.... i can imagine them on
their radio "it was a guy! on a bike!"

As for improvements to ther ide, i think they could have controlled
traffic a lot better, and given us the entire road, without those
stupid markers . I heard cars hooting and police yelling at the cars
but didnt get an opportunity to use my air horn, except at a rest stop
when my backpack hit the trigger :p Also, seriously we paid 40 bucks,
couldnt they just greenify the traffic lights? Making roads wider is
important, ive never used my brakes so much 🙁 but it was fun, and
encouraged me to keep a sustainable pace.... i guess... maybe next
year ill go earlier 🙂
I really hated the line to get the tshirts, i was thinking about just
ging home without a tshirt to escape the line in the hot sun of 1 o
clock in the afternoon (i took ages in the ride coz it was so
conjested.) they asked us for our tshirt sizes on the form--- couldnt
they have sent them in the mail?

Overall i REALLY enjoyed that ride, and I WILL do it again next year,
as well as participatin gin more rides with lots of other people. I
hear bike north have a few rides.

dyno said:

was fun morning.. very easy ride. managed to cruise in at 1hr 38mins..

loved

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the cross country bit on my road bike.. saw at least 5 crashes.. also the
placement of some of those cone markers sucked.. placing them on the left
and right sides of the lane sometimes pushed the bunch tight but we all
survived. I also got shouted at by a cop for slowing down at an

intersection

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

( was making sure no traffic was coming from the left and right- just a
natural thing to do!!)

"Arpit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

what did y'all think?

I left right from the start (about 7:35). It felt very uncomfortable in a
very tight bunch until we looped around to the bridge onramp (there were
already people sitting after a crash outside Harris Technologies). The first
few sets of lights weren't much fun. If they could free this up at least for
the first 10-20 minutes it would be a big improvement as a lot of the people
(myself included) aren't used to riding in a bunch & many don't realise the
potential implication of shifting line a few inches.

It was my first time doing the ride & I was pleasantly surprised at the
levels of organisation (had read some bad things from previous rides). There
were a few areas that were a bit poor, but overall, there wasn't much dicing
with cars. I took 2 hours exactly on a MTB with knobbies (quicker than I
expected). There was no line up at the T-shirt tent when I got there (9:35).

Going home I got a train just after 10 at Westmead - had the last
compartment to myself. Changing trains at Central to get to North Sydney
before the ride wasn't much fun. Every train was packed. I was lucky &
squeezed on to the second one that came while I was waiting, but many were
still on the platform. I think next time I'll stay on the East Hills train
to Wynyard & ride up from there.

The third left hander after the harbour bridge was the low point in my book
(corner of Harrington & Essex near the Quay West apartments). It seemed
obvious to me that most people weren't expecting a steep hill after taking
the turn (I realised going down Harrington & down-shifted dramatically).
There were people with clip-ins everywhere weaving left & right trying to
drop down in gear while not falling over. I avoided 5 or 6 before running
out of options & going for the feet on the ground (like everybody else). I
don't know what they could do there - perhaps extend the loop to George St &
have a flatter start to Essex St & hit the hill at pace?

The Cross Country at Rhodes seemed strange (wouldn't have liked to be on a
road bike). I was thinking what a disaster it would've been in the wet.

Overall, apart from the specific gripes, I was pretty happy with it. I'll
probably do it again next year.

"dyno" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

yeah i left at 7:30 (soon as the horn went off) .. the first few sets of
lights (100m away from start) we already had to stop for the red signal..

i

Quoted message said:

cant beleive they didnt let us go through.. trying to stop a few thousand
people at the start for a red light was stupid.. i got my shirt also but i
had 1 person in front of me in the queue :-p

i had my 30secounds of glory when i powered past around 30 people up a

hill,

Quoted message said:

not sure why i did that maybe it wsa by mcdonalds for breakfast?!

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 11:53:55 +1100, "Justin Turner"

justin(nospam)@(nospam)logicalfusion.com.au said:

I left right from the start (about 7:35). It felt very uncomfortable in a
very tight bunch until we looped around to the bridge onramp (there were
already people sitting after a crash outside Harris Technologies). The first
few sets of lights weren't much fun. If they could free this up at least for
the first 10-20 minutes it would be a big improvement as a lot of the people
(myself included) aren't used to riding in a bunch & many don't realise the
potential implication of shifting line a few inches.

It was my first time doing the ride & I was pleasantly surprised at the
levels of organisation (had read some bad things from previous rides). There
were a few areas that were a bit poor, but overall, there wasn't much dicing
with cars. I took 2 hours exactly on a MTB with knobbies (quicker than I
expected). There was no line up at the T-shirt tent when I got there (9:35).

Going home I got a train just after 10 at Westmead - had the last
compartment to myself. Changing trains at Central to get to North Sydney
before the ride wasn't much fun. Every train was packed. I was lucky &
squeezed on to the second one that came while I was waiting, but many were
still on the platform. I think next time I'll stay on the East Hills train
to Wynyard & ride up from there.

The third left hander after the harbour bridge was the low point in my book
(corner of Harrington & Essex near the Quay West apartments). It seemed
obvious to me that most people weren't expecting a steep hill after taking
the turn (I realised going down Harrington & down-shifted dramatically).
There were people with clip-ins everywhere weaving left & right trying to
drop down in gear while not falling over. I avoided 5 or 6 before running
out of options & going for the feet on the ground (like everybody else). I
don't know what they could do there - perhaps extend the loop to George St &
have a flatter start to Essex St & hit the hill at pace?

The Cross Country at Rhodes seemed strange (wouldn't have liked to be on a
road bike). I was thinking what a disaster it would've been in the wet.

Ok, your the second person to mention a 'cross country' . where was
it? what was it? i dont remember any cross country....

Quoted message said:

Overall, apart from the specific gripes, I was pretty happy with it. I'll
probably do it again next year.

"dyno" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

yeah i left at 7:30 (soon as the horn went off) .. the first few sets of
lights (100m away from start) we already had to stop for the red signal..

i

Quoted message said:

cant beleive they didnt let us go through.. trying to stop a few thousand
people at the start for a red light was stupid.. i got my shirt also but i
had 1 person in front of me in the queue :-p

i had my 30secounds of glory when i powered past around 30 people up a

hill,

Quoted message said:

not sure why i did that maybe it wsa by mcdonalds for breakfast?!