Rolls

Seen in Shinjuku,this weather beaten example of the aptly named Rolls saddle from Selle San Marco .

dep't of bling~spokey dokes

I fell in love with these wheel reflectors at first sight.Made by Trent Jansen,from recycled street signs,I purchased them from Tokyo Bike in Collingwood.

cafe roundup~Galleon,StKilda

My little slice of happy joy,deep in the heart of StKilda.The team here could write the book on customer service.Fast, friendly,efficient; never been served a bad coffee in ten years. And a big hello to Norma at the laundry next door who treats waffles like a princess.I'm going to give the Galleon 5 big and permanent shiny stars.

Where?The Luna Park end of Carlisle street.

dep't of parking

My dream 'shed' as seen in a Tokyo apartment building.

A ride through logistics land

'Logistics'.It's one of those fancy words,a little like 'architect'.A clever way to make an ordinary task sound important and exciting.Every city has a hidden world which I like to call 'Logistics Land'It's the place where shipping containers arrive to be 'un-stuffed'.(Don't laugh,it's official terminology).Once unstuffed, the goodies within are  distributed from point A to B and that's the logistics part of the operation.It's a world of vast corrugated iron warehouses with little more than  prefab offices attached to the front.In Melbourne,Laverton is the epicentre of Logistics Land and it's where I work when I am not on the wharf. As with most distribution hubs,Laverton has no public transport,and walking is not an option for any but the most foolhardy.

It just so happens,that Federation Trail,a government funded bike path,connects downtown to the far south western suburbs of Melbourne.It cuts a swathe through logistics land and is one of the more bizarre bike rides in Melbourne.From our house to office it's a 2 hour slog on my slow,heavily laden single speed schlepper.A major part of the trail follows the open,and happily now defunct,historic Werribee sewerage canal.I have to admit that I am torn between a high stress 25 minute commute in my company car or a reasonably stress free slog on the treadlie. At the moment I'm aiming for one velo commute per month.Anything else will be a bonus.

Fed trail with the back of my office on the horizon.

The final leg home,with downtown in the distance.The SS abode is another 40minutes beyond.

I was wrong about Wollongong

They say that the sense of smell can trigger intense childhood memories.For me,the stench of sulphur will always take me back to Wollongong,1975.

I was  sixteen years old,hopelessly naive,and running away to sea for the school holidays.At sixteen you don't have the ability to look beyond the immediate.Well,I didn't,anyway.All I saw was the belching smoke stacks,steaming coke piles,iron ore dust ;all of it overlayed with the screeching,gurgling hiss of the blast furnaces. Of course,if I'd had my bike,I might have seen things a little clearer.

Now,nearly fourty years later,here I am again. The old steel mill,formerly BHP,now Blue Scope, is still there.Only just.We can  barely afford to buy our own iron ore these days, let alone the steel smelted from it. Wollongong has become a university town and increasingly, a satellite suburb of Sydney.

I cycled south,along a bike path past the steelworks,out to the main street of Port Kembla. Over half the shop fronts are boarded up.There's an air of hopelessness here and I can't see that it will ever come back to life. Head north,though,and it's a different story altogether. Some pretty wonderful beaches,Diggies cafe and if you cycle far enough,you reach the South Coast Sea Bridge.

Yup,I was wrong about the Gong.

2012 Roobaix revisited

With Melburn Roobaix,2013,just around the corner,I figured this would be as good a time as any to post a few shots from 2012.

 Blaine and his Bullitt blaster.

Who you gonna call?

Tokyo flash~pt 2

Seen in Omotosando,Tokyo

Hello Tokyo~rubbish bins

During a tour of Tokyo,our guide made the ridiculous (and obnoxious)claim that Roppongi was so scruffy due to the large number a gaijin(foreigners) living there.
It may be because there are almost no rubbish bins in Tokyo that if you leave your bike in one place for long enough,it will end up like this?

Sandy

 I grew up around here from the mid 60s through to the late 70s.Back then,Sandringham,or Sandy as everyone called it,was a solid working class,seaside suburb.There was even reputed to be a gang;the Sandy Boys.Tough,faceless delinquents,not to be messed with.Now, it's become an expensive, upper middle class, suburban nightmare,bicycles not welcome.

So I was more than happy to see this beautiful Bakfiets in front of the supermarket.I hope the owner didn't get booked.