A northern ride

This might amuse those of you who are sick of reading about rides in the Tweed Valley or Byron Hinterland. The northern end of the Gold Coast isn't exactly a hot-bed of spectacular riding. It's flat, with relatively few trees and the rapidly expanding scourge of suburbia. About the only thing it's famous for is a piece of roadwork on Hope Island that has now been going continually since 2004. It might surprise some of you then, that I set off with my regular ride partner Martin, and we actually found something.



The ride using the service roads west of the M1 to Oxenford was more pleasant than I had expected, if not particularly interesting, but it was after turning off and over the climb of Bailey's Mountain road (at 100 metres in height, it hardly qualifies as a mountain, but I digress). The view from the summit was largely obscured, but the descent found a lush green valley stretching as far as the eye could see. As we continued north, there were even patches of rainforest to keep us amused. The only downside was the road through that area ending after just a few kilometres and forcing us back to the V1 to the north.



Looks like some kids had some fun without having any idea what they were doing. Oh, to be that young again. As it happened, Martin and I decided to detour to Upper Ormeau road (something I've written about in the past, look it up), before returning home. On the way back (in blistering heat), we bumped into an old friend who was hosting a German cycle tourist. This lady had cycled across Europe and Asia, and around most of Australia solo. Now there's someone I truly admire! I'd love the time to do a trip like that, maybe one day....

Tosspot of the week

According to this report, there have been 441 hit and run assaults on the Gold Coast in the last 12 months, and yes, the term "assault" is a far more accurate description than the politically correct expression, "accident".

441 hit-and-runs on Gold Coast
Stephanie Bedo January 20th, 2010

THERE is more than one hit-and-run on the Gold Coast each day, with a six-year-old being dragged for 20m after being struck by a moped in the most recent incident.

As police hunt the callous moped rider, figures released yesterday showed an alarming 441 hit-and-run incidents happened on the Gold Coast in 2009.

On Monday a moped rider struck the boy, who was riding a children's scooter on a footpath in Seaworld Drive in Main Beach.

The boy, who was holidaying with his family from NSW and staying at the Sheraton Mirage Resort, is in an induced coma in Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital with a fractured skull and severely cut leg.

He was riding his scooter with his nanny when the moped crashed into him from behind.

Police said the moped rider dragged the boy for about 20m on the front of the bike.

Other pedestrians had to jump out of the way as the moped nearly hit them while fleeing.

Gold Coast Police District Superintendent Jim Keogh said he did not know why the moped rider was illegally on the footpath.

"I don't know if it's deliberate (but) it's certainly a callous act when you consider the young boy was dragged along for some (distance)," he said.

Supt Keogh said the moped looked too 'flashy' to be from a hire company.

"Without doubt he's hit the boy and knew he struck him," he said.

Regional traffic co-ordinator Darren Soppa said hit-and-runs made up about a tenth of all accidents on the Coast.

"It means people aren't abiding by traffic regulations in that they're supposed to stop and provide details of name and address and contact details so appropriate action can be taken," he said.

Let's be realistic here, people run away from these crime scenes because they have something to hide. This guy took off in the way he did because he was drunk, stoned or guilty of something else that would have been exposed if he waited the two hours it takes for the police to show up, and that's before we even consider the illegality of the act of running away, but then, it's not as if the police or the courts ever consider that either.

I've said this before, but now would be a good opportunity to say it again, this problem requires a serious, third-world fascist police state solution. What is needed here is to bring in a penalty that includes a mandatory minimum five year prison sentence for ANY hit and run assault, and a mandatory minimum 25 years if the victim is killed. Do that, and the hit and run assaults will stop after the first two offenders are sentenced. Unfortunately, road safety just isn't a high enough priority in the eyes of the electorate, so after the usual whining, nothing will be done.

The next generation has arrived

The next generation of headlight has arrived. Regular readers of this blog (both of you) have probably tired of my harping on about how wonderful my E6 headlight was, and how it enabled me to take long rides on dark, deserted country roads late at night. There were even occasions where that light allowed me to ride through the night. Pretty good, huh? Well now it appears to have been superseded.

Last night I took my first proper night ride with my newly fitted E3 headlight (which runs off the same Schmidt hub Dynamo generatior as the E6 did). It was absolutely superb. Similar in brightness, but with a wider beam than the E6, but still managed to focus most of the light on the road where it's needed, although it provided more than enough ambient light to read roadsigns and so on (and this on a dark night with NO moonlight). In fact, where the beam focussed on the road made the car headlights look dim by comparison. Yet when I hit the stretch of the ride where glow worms lined the side of the road, they weren't disturbed by excessive ambient light. I don't think much more can be asked of a light.

I'm looking forward to giving it a more solid hit out when the Audax season starts. In the meantime, I'll probably keep an E6 on hand as a back up, should anything happen to my E3 (I'm not sure how waterproof they are, and last night wasn't going to test that, unless my excessive perspiration counts). For the moment, however, I seem to have found the next generation in headlights for long distance cycling. I might just give it another run on Thursday night.

The downpour

I'm late on this post, but such is life. At the end of last month, we received the first decent rain in five months, a freakish downpour that lasted several days. Of course, I rode in the rain everyday, even though it cost me a camera. Due to time constraints, most of the rides were 100km "training rides" rather than epics, so I didn't see the point of typing out massive ride reports. Instead, I'm just going to post a heap of random pictures from the various rides in the rain, just to show why rain is the ideal cycling weather -- and indeed the ideal weather for general existence.