Second ride- now we're getting somewhere

Continuing with my posts looking back at my cycling renewal, here is a review of my second ride.

11-08-07 Ride 2 - A real ride
Dist 46.18km (Note- this distance includes the 2km we did in the car park a week earlier)
Trip Time 02:55:00
Av Speed 15.80kph
Max Speed 46.10kph

After all the holdups, we finally had a fine day with nothing else getting in the way of a ride. We set off with the plan to follow the Capital City bike path from Rushall Station (which is just 100 meters from our home) around to Docklands, over the river to South Melbourne, work our way through Middle Park to Beach Road and down along as far as our legs will take us with the backup that we can just catch a train home.

So finally we are off and everything feels great. The mitts feel comfy with the winter under gloves keeping my fingers warm, the bib knicks really do feel good on the bike (even though I am hyper aware that a guy my size in lycra is going to get plenty of looks), the shoes feel great to pedal in and the bike feels nice to ride. But just 5 mins into the ride the gears are playing up and the chain jumps off, jamming the rear wheel solid, causing me to come to a skidding halt (lucky I was only going slow). In my panic, I almost didn't get my foot unclipped in time! Yikes!

I put the chain back on and we continue to ride along the path but my bike is just not right. The gears are jumping all over the place and we decide to ride to BSC to have it looked at straight away. We ride down Nicholson Street and its Polka Dot Lisa's first real time in traffic at speed and she does fine.

I take the bike straight into the workshop and they look at it straight away. After fiddling about with it for a few mins, the mechanic tells me that it was adjusted really badly and that it should be fine now. I'm starting to think that our bikes were put together in a rush as there has been several little things not right (Polka Dot Lia's headset bolt was finger loose, the top cables seem incorrectly routed at the headset, etc). I don't know if its BSC's fault or Kona's; I'm just saying - thats all.

While my bike is being fixed, Lisa gets a new battery for her bike computer as it was dead as a dodo and we are off again, back up Brunswick St to rejoin the path.

We ride along the path and we are both enjoying it. We pass through Carlton and we hit a few small hills and as per usual- Polka Dot Lisa cruises past me, however this time I'm able to make my way up without feeling like I'm gonna die as I'm comfortable and my shoes on the pedals make a huge difference.

At one stage there is a decent downhill followed by a hill straight away so I try to pick up speed down the hill in a vane attempt to beat Polka Dot Lisa up the hill but nope again. Lisa cruises past. Damn- this is getting annoying... LOL!

On we go as the path follows a creek under the City Link road and I find this bit rather tedious. I would rather be on a road for some reason.

When the path comes to Footscray Rd, I can't see further any path so I suggest (to Polka Dot Lisa's displeasure) that we ride along the road to Docklands. As we ride along with traffic zooming past us as quite a rate, I see we have to move across 4 lanes of traffic to get to the right hand lane and with a few head checks I see a nice big gap in the traffic and yell out to Polka Dot Lisa to follow me (I just know she's hating me for this). We move through the lanes without any drama and make our way to Docklands without a problem.

We follow a path that seems to be headed in the general direction we planned and we stop at a funky playground for a natural stop, drink refill and a photo op.

Onwards we continue and we ride through Middle Park till we hit a busy street with cafe's - mmmm breakfast time! It is about now I can feel the looks from diners as they notice the big fat guy in lycra. I wish I could hide but there is nothing I can do so I just walk on by, holding my head high.

Mmmm- breakfast. Eggs Benedict goes down great and a Soy Chi hits the spot. We both enjoy the stop and we feel refreshed and ready to go again. This cycling thing is really starting to be a lot of fun (especially when you combine it with yummy food).

Back on the bikes and down to Beach Road. Riding along we are doing about 32kph which I am impressed with. That is until some of riders in team kits fly past us at least 15k faster. Oh well, baby steps.

Beach road feels good- its flat, the surface is good and there is minimal traffic lights to slow us down. As we came up to the intersection with Fitzroy St, we came to a stop at the red light only to see a team kit rider sail past us and straight through the red light. Bad form dude... :(

We turn off at Luna Park to check out St Kilda Cycles. I had been advised that they have a great selection of lights there and seeing as we will be purchasing lights soon- this would be a good opp to see what you get for your money.

After checking out what St Kilda Cycles have, we head back to Beach Rd and continue south. The k's roll past and we are doing OK. We ride without stopping for breaks and at one stage I see a cyclist ahead that we are catching! WOOHOO! Finally I get to pass someone. As I move up on the guy, I can hear Phil Liggett's voice in my head, commentating me up the Alp d'Huez (lol). As I pull out and pass the guy, I say "G'day" and he does like wise to me. Its only now that I realise that the guy I'm passing is in his late 50's. Oh well, it felt good while it lasted.

As we ride on, suddenly I hear Polka Dot Lisa yell out to me from behind so I pull off the road. Polka Dot Lisa's shoe lace got caught in the chain and she was lucky it went in one end of the chain ring and came straight other the other side of the revolution and didn't get really badly caught up. Hmmm... cycling shoes for her are now looking like a more important purchase than first though.

We ride on, through Elwood and Brighton. There is a long slight hill around here somewhere and I start to drop off the back as Lisa powers past me. Damn this extra weight I have to lug around- it's bloody hard work!

As we ride on I can feel my legs starting to feel wobbly and I begin to look around for a sign pointing to the nearest train station. We have done about 36k so far and I'm pretty happy with that effort. Polka Dot Lisa spots (get it- SPOTS..ok- bad joke) Hampton Station and we turn off and catch the train back into Melbourne.

As we ride the train back, a group of teen boys get on with their fully tricked out, top of the line, full suspension mountain bikes. I can tell these bikes are never taken bush and its just a sign of rich mummy's and daddy's. They act like a pack of tools and we can't wait for them to get off the train. Damn kids! LOL

While traveling into the city, we look out the window and see the city buildings in the distance and I feel better about how far we rode. When you can see a marker like that, suddenly it feels that little bit longer that you have actually ridden.

We get off the train at Melb Central as I want to get another jacket in the city (a blue version of the green one) and we feel super conspicuous in our lycra walking through the Saturday shopping crowds. As luck would have it- the shop was all out of my size in the blue jacket and they don't have any in their other stores *sigh*. I will be sooooooo happy to fit into a XL so I have more shopping choices.

Next Polka Dot Lisa pops up to Lincraft to get some velcro she can sew to my knicks and leg warmers to stop them sliding down. Because of the size of my thighs, the leg warmers keep sliding and rolling down and exposing my knees. Very annoying having to pull them back up every 10 mins.

Back on the road through city traffic and Polka Dot Lisa is really doing well with the traffic. I'm really proud of her as she was a bit nervous about how she would go with traffic when we were planning to buy bikes. Now she's doing fine. Very cool!

As we ride down Brunswick St, some boys about 12 think its funny to play chicken with Polka Dot Lisa by running in front of her and causing her to brake and swerve. I was in front and didn't know about this till she caught up to me later. If I knew this was going on at the time I would have doubled back and given these punks a piece of my mind (lets see how brave they are with a 6ft tall, heavy set bloke)!

Up through North Fitzroy and back under Rushall Station to home we go.

I'm a bit sore all over and yes I'm tired but I loved it and an pretty thrilled that we did 44km today.

Onwards and upwards (tho that night I was pretty sore all over.. LOL).

Second ride- now we're getting somewhere