Big Friday

Last Friday was, as Guim Valls Teruel, likes to say, “Awesome”

Guim, as you know if you read the previous post, has just arrived in Australia, having ridden from Beijing on an E bike, a Wisper.

He’s heading for London which is about 80,000 kms away, he figures, having already done 10,000 in the last eleven months.

Thursday afternoon, he pulled up to my house on Hillside road, having called me from the bottom of the hill that he was almost here. I was hiding in the shrubbery, ready to catch his arrival on video.

But my mobile rang and I almost missed the moment, a historic one for me since I’ve been following Guim’s journey, and helping him to some extent since he left China. He almost went right on by.

He’s a wiry, fast talking, Spaniard with a lot of sun in his skin. He burns with passion for this “Awesome” way of traveling.

He proves too that E bikes are not just for short trips around the neighborhood as most of us imagine.

Guim gets 80 kms. out of one battery charge, and with two batteries, he can go on indefinitely. Almost perpetual motion

One day, on his way down to my house from Brisbane, he did 220 kms.

How does he do it? The trailer he pulls has a solar panel on top.

In the trailer, is his second battery, recharging as he rides. He finds it best to swap batteries over when they are half charged, after four hours of sun.

Well, Friday 23rd April, saw us resorting to what we call here a Ute, namely small open flatbed truck, to get our two E bikes down to Sydney for a 7 am appointment with a Lord.

Gium was mortified to be going into town by Ute and not by bike, but he’ll re-do the ride into Sydney next Tuesday.

There was no other way to make the morning meeting Lord Tony Berkeley who we’d been asked to take on a bike tour of Sydney.

Tony, as he insisted we call him, was in Australia for a rail freight conference. (He’s a world expert on rail)

But he’s also chair of of the All Parties Committee on Cycling in Great Britain, . He rides a bike to get around, and doesn’t own a car he told us

Anyway, we made the rendevous in time and, with bikes provided by Paul Van Bellen of Gazelle, we moved off.

But not before Guim had spoken about his ride from Beijing and his hope of catching up with Lord Berkeley in London, if he makes it that far.

Tony rode a step through Gazelle Innergy, his first time an E bike.

Our guide for the ride was Fiona Campbell, Transport planner, Cycling, with the city of Sydney and well placed to show Tony a glimpse what’s being done for the city in terms of new bike-ways.

Just a glimpse because we only had 90 mins. for the tour.

From Tony’s hotel, we went under the Harbour Bridge and around the docks to the Pyrmont bridge. Then on to a third bridge, the spectacular Anzac span.

Being just after 7 am, we were going against the morning traffic, including a lot of incoming cyclists, more than ever I’ve seen before.

That was good but it felt very crowded on some of the narrow shared pathways.

Secondly, it was astonishing to see how many people ride to work in Lycra, hunched over as if in a race or in training.

It may be practical but it’s not an appealing look compared to our party, almost the only ones sitting up straight….

… and dressed in normal clothes.

None of my business, you might say, how others ride. Cycling is a broad church.

Yes, but a church in which sit-up bikes like ours are often looked down upon, even though they are the transport bike of choice almost everywhere else.

Looking appealing on a bike does matter because it’s what makes others decide to get out of their cars and ride. Looking comfortable is equally important.

Australians all know from personal experience that the hunched over position is not comfortable. It puts pressure on very delicate parts of the anatomy, not to mention causing back and wrist pains.

Of course we are told that if you are properly measured and fitted for a bike, if everything is tweaked much of this pain can be avoided.

I find that strange. How come Bike Share Schemes around the world, which all use sit ups , all promise and deliver a comfortable ride?

No matter what your shape or size, the ride is comfortable, the only adjustment being seat height which you do yourself.

I suspect that for that average person, every time they see a racing bike and posture in places it does not have to be, it’s a reminder of why one does not ride a bike for transport.

If I’m wrong, do please tell me why.

The drama of the carport
We are told incessantly that more bikes are sold in Australia than cars.
That means almost every Australian, coming our of the house, faces an interesting moment of choice since in the carport or garage will be a car and a bike, or two or three.

Now, if a Danish or Dutch head sat on the departing shoulders, then the bike is what would leave the garage most often, irrespective of distance, weather, even terrain.

In Australia, all those thing can be favorable for a bike trip and yet still the car will be taken 99% of the time, even though it costs more, steals an exercise opportunity, and encases one in a cocoon of toxic leakages from benzine based plastics. In summer, baking under the sun, these are highly carcinogenic.

None the less, it somehow seems perfectly sensible to us to drag around a ton of metal and plastic each time we move this envelope of flesh and bone we call home. Why?

Could it be that the bikes, all those bikes outnumbering cars, are so uncomfortable, and so unsuited to carrying anything, that they are automatically ruled out?

So the said, sentient being, the average Aussie, drives the ton of metal to the gym to sit on a comfortable bike, a stationary sit-up, for an hour or so. Now is that crazy or what? If the gyms were hooked up the grid it might make a bit more sense.

Such thoughts wander through my brain as I weave through the Lycronistas, thrusting at me, shades drawn.

I’m not totally against these miracles of lightness and speed . Everything in it’s place. I am certainly for cross biking as I call it.

I mean, different bikes for different hikes as Gill Charlton so beautifully demonstrates in, Bike it or Not

So, here we were four us, all upright and stately, soaking up the morning sun, and what a morning!

Fiona gave us an interesting commentary. Tony later said he enjoyed the ride enormously and had some ideas about E bikes to take back to the UK where they are right now working out their policy on such bikes.

We got him back the hotel just in time, having to cut the tour a bit short. That was my fault, in part, as I was constantly asking the party to stop whilst I filmed them.

Anyway, after our ride against the Lycra tide, Guim and I dashed back to the Central Coast where Guim did interviews with our local TV station, NBN. The Daily Tele Newspaper, our local ABC station, and lastly the Express Advocate.

A few days later, a short piece in the Sydney Morning Herald is sparking some debate.

Also, Adam Spencer, who rides a bike to his job at the ABC, had me on air for a chat about the new E bike regulations which we hope are coming soon.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/04/27/2884006.htm?site=sydney

Thanks so much to Quentin Riley for the truck, and to Nicole Taylor for arranging much of the press coverage. Thanks too, to Fiona Campbell for planning the memorable ride. The photos on this post were mostly taken by Paul Van Bellen. Thanks, Paul and for supplying the two Gazelle bikes as well

Later next week, there will be movie material to see.
All the best, Mike