Self Righteous Cyclist

With four boys in the family, there's usually one of them wanting or needing to upgrade their bike at least every 12 months.  Fortunately for us there's often the opportunity to hand the bike down to the next sibling   However as the boys get older and their interests move in different directions, so too do the types of bikes they want to ride.  Liam my second eldest held high hopes for a BMX, one with "pegs for grinding" at the skate park to be precise.  With what seems the highest concentration of bike shops per capita, the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne provides well for retail cycling therapy, but this time around we  tried a different angle and headed to the Bike Shed at CERES in East Brunswick to see what we could pick up to build a BMX. The Bike Shed is a true DIY experience, so don't expect to be served in the retail sense. It runs as a co-operative and is staffed by some very knowledgeable volunteers.  They won't fix your bike...

What's black and has two wheels and bounces up and down on the freeway?  My bike after it came loose from the bike rack at 110km/h!   This year's summer holidays have been memorable for many great reasons, but watching my bike bounce up and down in the rear view mirror at 110km/h was not one of them.  The car was packed to the gills with everything we needed for the next 3 weeks of holidays.  The last thing to do was put on the circa 1995 bike rack; you know the one designed to take skinny bike frames like the old retro one left hanging in the shed.  First on was Paula's oversized Merida aluminium framed road bike and last on was my oversized Scott carbon fibre framed road bike.  We were both planning to compete in the annual   Benalla triathlon   just after Christmas.  It was clear from the outset that this rack was not designed for these bikes.  By the time I'd wrapped cloths around the frame and put the fastening plate onto the ...

Our family's summer holiday this year was to the mid-north coast of NSW to a little place named Boomerang Beach, about 20km south of Forster, the original home of the Australian Ironman triathlon for my triathlon friends.  With quiet undulating and winding roads in the hinterland it's great cycling country, similar in many ways to the back roads of Lorne, in my home state of Victoria.  The local popularity of cycling was evident to the large numbers out early on Sunday morning and the large number of bikes on the roofs of cars.  Unfortunately with a fully loaded car  and no roof racks I was not one of them. But just because I didn't have a bike, doesn't mean I don't have a cycling story to tell.  Yesterday on my commute back to Melbourne ahead of the family to get back to work, I had time to kill in the town of Raymond Terrace, just north of Newcastle.  The last thing you expect to see in the food court of the local shopping centre is a touring bike. In...