On a whim I picked up an entry to the ‘Bay ride for this year (210kms organised road ride around Port Phillip Bay). More for the fact that 2011 has not been a big year for me on the bike & this event was essentially what got the ball rolling for me when it came to taking on bike riding as an adult for fun & profit.
With the hindsight of previous rides at this event, I knew that any sort of meaningful training matter less to my average speed & finishing time than the prevailing winds on the day. So I opted to just rely heavily on the scant few kms commuting to/from work as the groundwork to taking on the big day. Everyone else I know is sitting this one out so any motivation I get during the ride will be for within. Hoping for the best, planning for the worst – it’ll fall in there somewhere between the two no doubt.
The Commute: Bike maintenance counts: A well washed & freshly lubed bike doesn’t mean squat if you’re faced with your first emergency stop of the year & your brakes fail in a shriek of grinding metal & a white knuckle close shave.
Apparently my recent rainy commutes had taken their toll on my Avid Juicy 3 disk brakes & the rear pads had precious little material left. The frantic dive onto the anchors last Tuesday night chewed what remaining pad material off the backing plate & took the pad’s retaining clip with it, mashing it in a ball & lodging between the calliper body & disk. This meant my rear braking force instantly evaporated, although thankfully my front brake was still there & bit down hard hauling me just short of the lurching yellow panels & green/white decals of a wayward Silvertop.
I dismantled the rear brake for the balance of the commute, with resisting the urge my left hand had to engage the lever being a bigger struggle than I would have imagined.
Ironically without spare brake pads for my commuter, I mounted the MTB for the ride in today for the annual ‘Ride to work day’. Big effort for all those at the workplace & I, for once, didn’t mind so much losing my regular spot on the workplace bike rack. Being late for work, I had no time to indulge in festivities en-route.
In other news, daylight savings has arrived, so MTB (FGP) dirt crits at Westgate is now run in daylight. For me, this is a negative, as pretty much everyone in my category (B grade) had disappeared over the horizon as I turned the first few corners of singletrack. It looks like I might have to delve into my pot of good fortune & start to run my corners deeper while attempting to stay off the anchors for longer, if I’m to claw back the massive deficits I’m losing out on the open stuff. Perhaps the fact that the top 3 places in my category went to riders less than half my age is a good indication that some hobbies are not as suitable to people over 40yrs as I had thought. In any case I wasn’t last, so there was still something to keep me coming back.
Motorbikes: Back in the day when my hands were always oil stained, I carried about a constant whiff of petrol & didn’t have a girlfriend, I spent a lot of time with a Ducati 748 (1997 model) Bi-posto Strada, which I only had eyes for. It wasn’t perfect, & as the day long sojourns into the twisty roads of the high country & track days became a little staid, I drew up a list in my head of the things I would have loved to modify on my 748 to make it the perfect motorbike for me. Now in 2012 Ducati will be releasing such a bike. Streetfighter 848.
I haven’t considered sporty motorbikes much of late, what with vitriol & contempt motorcyclists are generally treated with ( in Melbourne anyway) & how every single piece of ‘happy road’ in Victoria has been sanitized & policed into submission. But this bike seems like too much of a good thing to pass up. It’ll still be at least 6 months before they fill the dealership floors & I definitely want to test ride one before I sign my life off to the devil ( in me), but the prospect of going back to straddle one of Italy’s most iconic engined motorcycles is very tempting indeed.
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