so, during the week it emerged that the city of stirling wanted to restrict the speed of cyclists using the shared path between trigg and watermans bay. the reason for this change is that a study was conducted by the city of stirling and it found that “between 1500 and 2500 cyclists used the West Coast Drive shared path weekly, with many riding at “dangerous” speeds”. great. 1500-2500 cyclists are a lot but how many is “many”??? were 2000 cyclists riding at dangerous speeds??? and what is a dangerous speed??? you can also have an accident at 20km/hr. looking at the picture above, which was used on one of the news websites about this story, i can see another issue that was not tackled by this knee-jerk reaction. the pedestrians in this pic are not actually keeping left on the path. the guy in the red shirt and his partner are actually walking towards the flow of traffic. so what should a cyclist do in this case??? now i am a firm believer in “riding to conditions”. this applies to both the road and the path. if it is wet and slippery on the road, slow down for the corners. if the path is full of kids, dogs, people with headphones on, then don’t try for a strava pb. the city of perth shared paths had a better answer and that was to promote a mutual respect between users rather than targeting one group. regardless of the speed of the cyclists, in my experience, it is often the erratic behavior of the pedestrians that causes accidents on paths. not keeping left, stopping and changing directions without looking, walking on the left with their dog on the right, prams 3 wide so the mums can chat, walking and reading the paper while listening to music via headphones. it is a shared path, so both parties are responsible for everyone’s safety.
the biggest problem that this stretch of shared path faces, is the lack of shoulder on the actual road. here is a screen shot of the google street view just north of trigg. as you can see, there is nowhere for a bike to ride. when i have used this stretch of road i always ride on the path as the road is busy and winding, so traffic always banks up behind you. instead of keeping a shoulder, they have added an extra gap in the centre to keep the traffic separate. so, bikes are on the path.
one reason why i haven’t been too concerned about this action is that there is no way that they can enforce it. the police will not enforce it and it will be up to the council rangers to fine people. now it is not mandatory for people to have a working speedo on their bike, so how will everyone actually know how fast they are going??? that stretch of road is also not flat with lots of ups and downs. even a 8 yr old on a small bike would be able to roll faster than 20km/hr when they are on the path. do they get fined??? from what i have seen so far it has been an emotive, knee-jerk reaction to a problem that has been ill defined by subjective measures.
ride leaders sponsorship – August’s Ride Leaders are proudly sponsored by Retul Bike Fitting. there has been an update to this months sponsors post and they are now offering any spr member a full bike fitting for 20% off. that means you and your bike can be as one for just $199. please see the previous post detailing what they provide and we thank them for encouraging our members to step up as ride leaders. ride leaders will receive a $10 Dome voucher to be used after the saturday ride. if you have a business that you want to promote to our members, check out the previous post to both promote your business and help out the club.
rules of engagement – please read the previous post if you come out on any of our rides. it is up to all members to enforce these rules.
kit order – the previous kit order has been delivered and will be available for collection at the coffee shop after the saturday ride. if you cannot get there, please make alternative arrangements with the kit committee. the current kit order will close at the end of september and we have been promised that it will be ready before the tour of margs. it is important that anyone considering doing the tour has the correct current spr uniform for the event. remembering the cold and wet stages that we had last year, this may also mean a spr vest to keep warm. check out the previous post for more details.
spr club champion – the 2 remaining races are pinjarra classic and now the state road champs. the current leaderboard has been updated to include the last pickering brook race. find out where you sit in the club championships.
pinjarra classic – a great challenging race that is ideal for anyone that regularly does the sunday hills ride. more info here.
beverley heroic – the heroic is a participation ride with a difference. it takes in some quiet country roads around beverly and york and also includes sections of unpaved roads. you can use your modern racing bike, but the appeal is to dust off the old clunker and see if you can punch out 100 miles old school. for more info see the previous post. as an added incentive, if you provide a volunteer for the day, you will get to ride for free. jobs range from driving cars to ticking boxes, with some jobs having their expenses covered. please contact toby on jedi@mrvesparazzi.com if you can help out and to sort out your free entry.
spr watertower challenge – you may have seen that entries are now open for the spr watertower challenge. for those of you that are relatively new to the club, it is a participation ride for teams of 3 that takes in a number of the high water towers scattered around perth. the majority of these towers are found on the tops of hills, but not really big hills. there are 2 distances a metric century (100 kms) and an imperial century (100 miles/160 kms). the ride is supported with feedzones and a sag wagon and is open to any cyclist out there. more info on the watertower event page. spread the word.
tour of margaret river – registrations are open in the club shop to be part of the spr race team heading down to the tour of margs. we have positions for 4 men’s and 2 women’s teams. due to the popularity of this race, you cannot just enter as an individual and the teams slots were effectively sold out months ago. spr has secured 6 teams and will now look to fill those teams with club members. to prove that you are willing to commit to the training needed for a race like this, we are asking for the entry and accommodation to be paid for now. once we have all interested parties, we will then pull together the teams based on riders with similar abilities. due to the logistics of this years race we will also be hiring vans to transport everyone and their bikes. we now have the 5 volunteers required and we thank those people for giving up their time to help look after the riders.
tomr training session – as we get closer to the tour of margs, the race committee (all powerful) want to get a better look at the riders that are intending to represent spr. there will be a special trainign session this saturday leaving before the main ride at 7am. it is open to all those that think they would like to race in spr colours down at margs. this gives the race committee (all powerful) a better understanding of the spread of abilities and how we will need to setup teams.
ride routes – it looks like the heavy rain predicted for saturday will not hit us till the afternoon. slight chance of a shower during the main rides, but it should be ok. sunday long hills sees us head out to turner road for the first time since gary’s accident. the ride route has been changed to avoid the descent down canning mills road. please look at the route so you know where we are headed.
saturday 29th august
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional – trans shelley 40.59km spr saturday
tour of margs group – kings park and dalkeith
fast & main groups – hale & ridgehill 50.58km spr saturday
sunday 30th august
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
short – khna weir 72.23km spr sunday
long – khna trnr obs 101.76km spr sunday
monday 31st august
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
main group – south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 1st september
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
wednesday 2nd september
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr wednesday 14.22km (uci masters)
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
development group – stock road repeats
thursday 3rd september
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30arm
spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
friday 4th september
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am