All posts by peter

ride routes 17th & 18th of december

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thumbs up for the golden spokes

so my boy turned 3 this week and i realised that his life must be so much more exciting than mine.  something new on tv – wow.  going to daycare – wow. rides in the car – wow.  having lunch – wow.  hanging out with pretty girls….yep, he is living the dream.

christmas breakfast – this saturday after the ride we will have our christmas breakfast.  this is a standard ride (not a dress-up one) but we will finish at the DOME for coffee and a feed all for $15.  this is an opportunity for a social catchup and a chance to look back on another year in green.  more info here.

spr/rccc criteriums – this sunday dec at the tech park circuit we will have our first crit of the season. bit more info here.  we need volunteers to make sure this even is well run, so please put your names in the comments on the other page so we are sure we have enough people.  grades from “d” through to “a” so there is a place for you.  you can race and help out in between as needed.

spr drink bottles – are now available and will be sold at the coffee shop after the saturday ride. $10 650ml and $12 800ml.

spr ironhorse clothing t-shirt – the t-shirts have arrived and will be distributed at the coffee shop after the saturday ride. if you cannot pick them up from there, send me an email to organise an alternative pick up. t-shirts can still be purchased online from here.

ride routes – there is no sunday hills ride due to the crits being held in tech park.  come down and race instead.  don’t forget our new coffee location on saturday and diversion to the ride route (see here).

saturday 17th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.46km (“lennie” hill rd)

sunday 18th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

no main hills ride today as the club crits are on and you should be there supporting your club

rccc/spr crit series – race 01 (sun 18th dec)

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this weekend will be the first of three crit races that we are presenting with the rccc at the tech park circuit in bentley.  for those that were involved last season, then nothing has changed and we will run grades a – d starting with d grade at 8:00am.  if you have never raced before and would like to give it a go, then this is for you.  nice easy 1km circuit means that if you do get dropped, then you only need to do one more lap before you can come home (rather than 45kms solo…from experience).

we will also need a bunch of people to help out on the day.  jobs include –

  • traffic management
  • timer
  • line judges
  • refreshments desk
  • set-up and pack up

if you can help, put your name in the comments below.  with enough volunteers it should be easy to race and then help out before/after your race.  with enough volunteers, it should mean that people will only need to man a corner for one race, not the whole day.  do your bit for the club and help out.

circuit map

ride routes 10th & 11th of christmas month

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ryan and the drink bottles

cheers to the freaking weekend.  I drink to that, yeah yeah (coffee that is…while you are collecting your spr ironhorse t-shirt)

this has been one of the longest weeks that i can remember.  well probably not as long as the people sat for 9 hours on the tarmac of the airport, but it has just dragged on forever.  work is going off with meetings, performance reviews, restructures, christmas drinks, christmas parties, freakin everything.  2 more weeks till christmas and it seems that we have to cram everything in.  a bit of pain (especially on thursday morning) seems to be the one way i remember that i am alive.

spr/rccc criteriums – sunday 18th dec at the tech park circuit.  final approvals are just going in now.  i will post more info soon, but we will be looking for volunteers to run this again.  also looking for people to race.  if you haven’t raced before and what to give it a go, then this will be a great event for you.  not too technical and only 1km long circuit, so if you do get dropped, you don’t have to ride 45km back to the start by yourself (from experience, that is).

spr drink bottles – are now available and will be sold at the coffee shop after the saturday ride.  $10 650ml and $12 800ml.  plastic model of ryan not for resale.

spr ironhorse clothing t-shirt – the t-shirts have arrived and will be distributed at the coffee shop after the saturday ride.  if you cannot pick them up from there, send me an email to organise an alternative pick up.  t-shirts can still be purchased online from here.

christmas breakfast – it is on again next saturday 17th at the DOME coffeeshop. more info here and make sure you rsvp if you are coming.  this is different to the christmas ride that is the last saturday (24th) before christmas where you are encouraged to dress up and decorate your bike.

ride routes – don’t forget our new coffee location on saturday and diversion to the ride route (see here).

saturday 10th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 39.04km (benara rd)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.92km (morley drive)

sunday 11th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 90.23km (welshpool & observatory & kalamunda rd)

spr ironhorse t-shirt – distribution

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the t-shirts have finally arrived and will be distributed at the coffee shop after the ride this saturday. 

we have about 30 left so if you still want one you can order them here.

water bottles will also be available to purchase this weekend after the ride.

  • 650ml – $10
  • 800ml – $12

cash only on the day.

ride routes 3rd and 4th december

a week off the bike and i am suffering bad.  somehow managed to stay with the fast group this morning, but i think it was more luck than skill with the crosswinds that we had.  the uci course hurt on wednesday and the tuesday small chainring session was a struggle.  think i will ask santa for a new set of legs for christmas.  not sure if i would want something like george hincapie’s legs with varacose veins popping out everywhere or maybe i should go for marianne vos’ legs.  not as strong as the guys, but would do ok in perth b grade and would look good in a pair of heels.

ndcc classic – this sunday we will have 25 people racing the northern districts classic.  included in this will be a bunch of girls on their first or second race ever.  actaully 8 of the 12 women racing are from spr, so there will be a lot of support for them.  however, as some of them are new to spr, we are short a few jerseys for the day.  if you are heading along, can you please bring any spare jerseys that you have especially the smaller size ones (men’s s or xs, or women’s sizes).  also, as there are so many people headed out do we have any volunteers to take the tent and esky out for the day.  i will be watching the christmas pagent on sunday, so will not be at the race.

cyclocross sweat and sand series – kicks off on saturday at claremont showgrounds run by pmbc, see here for more details.

main 2 – we are looking for a new ride leader for main 2.  russell thinks that it is time for him to move on and wants to be pushed a little harder, so is heading up to main 1.  i would like to thank him for all the time he has spent keeping that group together and i really appriciate all that he has done.  if someone would like to step up (or down from main 1) to look after this group it would be great.

main 3 – steve and some of the guys have banded together to re-form main 3.  this group will take any of the faster riders from the transitional group as well as any that are struggling to hang on to main 2.  this group will provide a step between the trans group and the longer faster main groups without getting smashed.

movember – thanks for all that donated to the movember cause.  we managed to raise over $1000 this year but you can still donate here.

christmas breakfast – it is on again and this time we have a venue rather than someone’s house.  more info here and make sure you rsvp if you are coming.

ride routes –  don’t forget our new coffee location on saturday and diversion to the ride route (see here).

saturday 3rd december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 41.18km (reverse river ride)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.09km (abernathy rd)

sunday 4th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 82.79km (brookton & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 97.99km (carradine & peet & observatory)

spr christmas breakfast

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it is time to celebrate the end of the year and time we had another breakfast.  this year’s christmas breakfast will be held at the DOME in the city in 2 weeks time on the 17th dec.  toby will provide a voucher for cup of coffee and a buffet of food as well as a venue that is a bit more convenient than my house. 

cost will be $15 and it will be after the ride as per usual on saturday morning.

as this is a catered venue, we will need to know the rsvp’s about a week in advance.  please indicate via the comments section if you will be attending.  rsvp’s close the 11th dec.

spr in public

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so there has been a bit of chatter on the bicycles.net forum which is what i alluded to last week in regards to bike path etiquette.  we have been over this before and i don’t want to have to go through specifics of what the law is etc, etc.  basically there are rules for riding on the road and there are rules for riding on the bike paths.  if we are not following them in either situation then there is going to be consequences. 

in the case of the path, it is not the first time that we have been singled out as a violator of the bike path rules and by the same guy again.  however, i am not really happy about the way that this has been done as it looks like we are a group that always uses that path and just pushes everyone else out of the way.  in actual fact we hardly ever use the path except to get across the freeway.

anyway, below is the link to the forum that started this latest round. 

http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=46736&p=710668#p710668

 

not only that, but now i am getting emails from this guys mates and we haven’t even had any encounters with him. 

Hi

I’m a fellow rider with Brad Casserly and on occasion when I’ve been out by myself I’ve run across groups as well double and triple abreast on the freeway bike path.  This is illegal to do so except when overtaking.  Rides should be single file with the possibity of the last rider coming to the front only when it is safe and no corners or hills in sight if you want to be doing rollling maneuvers.  Whilst I haven’t seen SPR kit on my rides yet I’m sure it will happen one day.  I ride with a helmet camera and it is actively recording when on the bike path.  I’m also riding on a touring bike loaded and will NOT move off my line. I take up the whole side of a path anyhow in the configuration.  If anyone does hit me, I’ll have it on video and their bike will be trashed as it will most likely be carbon fibre running into my 19kg steel monster.

Please consider other path users on your rides, and your group members.  Inform your riders that it is single file only on bike paths.  Bike Force in Fremantle used to do this, unsure if they still do.  Tell riders at start it’s single file on bike paths and indicate single file when they do get onto the bike path.  Why can’t other arranged groups do this?  Someone has already been killed in Subiaco on a bike path when they hit double abreast riders.  Please don’t add to the fatality count.

Regards

Stuart

so basically, this guy has had no issues with us, but he has put us on notice that when we do have an encounter with him, we will come off second best…and we are potentially adding to the fatality count by using the path.

really, what i am trying to show here is that when you do something in our kit, there are consequences that you might not see in the 10 sec interaction that you have had.  impressions count and some people consider us to be a menace on the bike paths.  we did have the discussion about kit for members only, but i felt that we have a good enough culture within the group to be able to self police any misdemeanours.  our safety values on the road and our interaction with traffic is quite good but we need to show the same courtesy and respect to the path users.  again, i think that we need to minimise our path usage so as soon as possible, take the footbridge that gets us back on the road asap.

the last day of movember

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today is the last day of movember and so it is the final plea for donations to this worthy cause.  i personally have enjoyed the month and the looks i get when walking through the city sporty a extremely sleazy mo, are quite interesting.  i also found out that my mo hair is very coarse and basically sticks out at all angles much like a echidna.  so i don’t think i will keep it long term, but we may need a few more donations to convince me to shave it off before christmas.  donations can be made through the link below.

el prez sanchez.

http://au.movember.com/mospace/580320

 

tour de perth – stage 2 road race

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here are a few pics from saturday.