Rutherglen Photos

Abandoned Springhurst railway line, looking back towards Rutherglen

At the same crossing, Springhurst direction

Springhurst from the station, early morning.

Lloyd, Richard, Nick

Richard

Dome, Lloyd, Nick, Simon

Dome & Simon, Chewton

My water bottle, and....

Simon's version

Chewton Christmas yarn bombing.

Lloyd, Chewton

Lloyd leads the pack

Simon Watt

Early morning Shadows, I took about 8 photos like this to manage.....

one or two ok ones.

My trike, early morning, Rutherglen Scout Hall

Dome Deli, Rutherglen scout hall. The mural is inspired by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, and takes some of its scenes from the 1967 Disney film of the book. Its been a l o n g  t i m e since I was in cubs or scouts but still remembered that much.

Nicks trike, back on the road within a few days of a major weld break.  It went very well.

William Reid

Firepit scrawlings

Rutherglen Scouthall, firepit in foreground.

Richard, railtrail, Wahgunyah to Rutherglen

Richard hams it up, Corowa Christmas party.

Furious Five, Corowa

Corowa

Llloyd, Rutherglen

Llloyd's trike.

An eclectic fron yard in Rutherglen

Me, Lloyd Charters Photo.

Dome and Richard

Hi,

It had been a few weeks since I went for a decent ride, and I was keen to catch up with some friends and attend the OzHpv rally weekend Scheduled for November 30 to December 2.  I had been to the area for a similar weekend 5 years ago, and got there the same way, by train to Springhurst which is on the Albury train line from Melbourne but almost nothing else happens there!

There are some plans to get Springhurst connected by Bike trail to Rutherglen along the abandoned railway line which ticks all the boxes for a bike trail; flat, sheltered by trees and running past wineries and workplaces.  And there are nearby rail trails which are already great at attracting bike tourism.

Meanwhile the slightly more experienced riders can just ride on the roads which vary from flat and moderately busy to flat and very quiet to hilly and very quiet.  I am quietly convinced the Rutherglen area is a hidden gem for cyclists.

Last week I had a bit to do Friday morning including picking up some timber for bike parts so wasn't able to catch an early train to Springhurst and got the later midday train. Arrived at the station in plenty of time, and there's a luggage compartment, so my oversize bike / rolling thing had no problems fitting in.  An uneventful trip up, soon after arriving at Springhurst was riding toward Rutherglen.  On the way there, I saw William Reid arriving in his multi- hundred-thousand km  riding toward Rutherglen and a bit later was rung by Dome: the ride to Corowa was waiting for me to arrive.

Dome had booked the First Rutherglen scout hall as basic accommodation for the weekend, and I unloaded my sleeping bag and clothes when I got there and greeted Lloyd, Richard, William and Dome.  The road to Corowa was nice and flat, and we took in a few of the roads we'd ridden on 5 years ago.

Corowa was jumping when we got there, with the annual Christmas town gathering starting up.  Lots of Christmas of decorations were up, and some of the stores brought their wares out onto the street and sold them from there rather than being stuck inside.  And the op shop was even open!  After a few refreshments we headed off, Richard leading us around all the crowds and to the rail trail back across the Murray to Wahgunyah and Rutherglen.  After a rest and a bit more setting up at the Scout Hall we caught up with Simon and Tim who had driven up from Geelong. Off to a pub for dinner after that, nice food, nice beer, friendly locals.

Nick Chau turned up as we were meandering home from the pub and we settled down for the night on various levels of luxury of bedding - I needed to fit everything in the bike so there was only room for a sleeping bag but Nick had an entire compressor-blown-up-double-bed-mattress.

I was tired and slept well despite the hard floor and in the morning I rode out to Wahgunyah again before the long ride of the weekend started.  Richard led the ride again, and we went back to Springhurst, through Chiltern and Barnawatha before coming home to Rutherglen. Chiltern had an excellent bakery where we stopped to fuel up.

After the ride I made a few op shop visits and some of the others tagged along. One of the op shops was past its closing time but the friendly gentleman running it seemed happy to stay open later and talk about the Great Victorian Bike Ride coming to town a few days before, traffic and work in Dandenong and generally solving the problems of the world.

After that we went back to the scout hall to rest before the OzHpv AGM and another pub dinner.

After the pub I rode out to the railway line where a rail trail could run and took a few photos.  Back at the scout hall the moths were out in force and we had to turn the arc lights off in the hall and rely on the foyer lights to stop them overrunning us.  Struan arrived with another heaps comfortable bed setup, and I packed up most of my stuff so I could leave early in the morning.

The Sunday trains back to Melbourne were from Springhurst at 7am and 1 pm and I decided on the early train, and left Rutherglen about 6 am before anyone was stirring.  It was windy going back to Springhurst and I had to ride with a bit of a lean on but that was ok.

The train back was comfortable and it was good to get a cup of tea and some food from the snack bar. Back at Southern Cross I had my only minor mechanical of the trip, my chain came off, and I got oil all over my hands which wasn't much fun. Anyway, arrived home in good time, happy that the weekend went so well.


Regards

Steve Nurse


Steve Nurse

New Wheel Covers

Hi

Over the last few days I have been working on some aero wheel covers for my trike and have finished them now.  They consist of some cut up foam mats and gaffer tape.  On one side there's a removable valve cover.  Have yet to see how they go but they might add a few k to my speed on the flat.  I'm about halfway through making a front fairing as well.  The chain at the front seems to be quite messy from a wind resistance point of view and I hope to rectify that a bit. Anyway, I plan to take this trike to Rutherglen this weekend for the OzHpv rally, see how it goes up there.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Regards

Steve Nurse

Support Crew at Darebin

Kyle

Tim leads Kyle

Fttling and synching the Garmin

Tim and Kyle

Nick and Tim

My trike at Disc.

Hi

Today I was expecting to see Tim Corbett from OzHpv at the Darebin Velodrome (disc).  I'd been up there and ridden at an OzHpv day a few weeks ago where I officiated.  Anyway Tim rang and was running late, could I officiate again?  So I rode up to disc in time for the start, but had to wait a while till anyone turned up, and that was Tim and a bit Later Kyle Lierich.  I didn't want to ride so acted as roadie for Tims trikes, helping to change pedals, adjust boom lengths and pump up tyres which was quite enjoyable.  After a while Nick Chau turned up but a "track ready" inspection revealed a huge crack in the welds of his trike with the front part likely to part from the back any tick of the clock, so no riding for him either.

Rode back home before it was all over, and later Tim dropped by and left some OzHpv gear at our place.  Spent some time in the afternoon making wheel discs for my trike and plan to ride to work tomorrow, no real excuses for a 20 degree day with tailwinds on the way home.

All for now, Regards

Steve Nurse

A Mamachari

Hi

Most weeks I volunteer at a bike fixer-upper-shed, Wecycle, helping get older bikes out of peoples' sheds to those that need them. Its fun work, the volunteers are friendly and easy to get along with and occasionally you get to fix a a nice old banger of a bicycle like the ones shown in the photos. I started work on her last weekend by this week she was up for sale for $100, someone else having completed the work.  Anyway, nice bike. This blog post by Simval84 shows the same model bike, with more extensive descriptions of  Mamacharis.

Regards

Steve Nurse

A few commutes

Hi

After landing back home from Darwin, I started a new job in Dandenong South a few days later, and I've had 2 weeks of work now. Didn't manage to ride to work in the first week (drove our car), but commuted 2 days by train and bike in the second week.  Getting to work by bike and train is the hardest bit, once you are there you are committed and have to use some form of human power to get home.  It helps that its coming into summer with long days and no real issues with bike lights and visibility.  Its also quite a bit cheaper than driving.  Aside from the petrol use, there are direct tolls on the M3 I use to get to work which are more expensive than the train fare.

Anyway, its all gone well sofar, and I have worked out that 2 hours is about par for getting home on the mostly flat 40 - 44k trip, and it can take 2 1/2 hours.  Anyway, I have a short term fitness goal of getting home from work by bike in under 2 hours.  That might be a bike fettling goal too, I think I can get 2kph faster with rear wheel spoke covers, and maybe 2kph faster with a front fairing. Then add a lighter seat, woohoo! Yes I know, dream on!

Regards

Steve Nurse

In Darwin

Darwin velodrome is near the airport and I....

.....snapped this lady practicing cyclocross in the centre of the field.

Slightly dodgy bike path on the way to the airport.

The load carrying.....

setup.

A presentation from Steve Rogers from the Centre for Appropriate technology was about their mobile phone signal magnifiers.  These are installed in remote communities and allow mobile phone access beyond the normal range of existing networks.  They are completely passive and don't need power of any sort to run. The installation shown in the pic was installed at a remote location called Boggy Hole on the Finke river where (the name says it all) Southerners who didn't know how to drive their 4wd's would get bogged and ask the ladies for assistance. The phone magnifiers gave them mobile phone coverage

Posters at the.....

Darwin Outdoor Cinema.

Lisa at the croc zoo where the dinner was held amidst.....

the raucous squawking of these birds overhead.

At the croc zoo, Abraham Leung right, Alexa Delbosc left.  Abraham gave a great talk on Non-government ways of paying for cycleways, he is an enthusiastic and charming presenter.  I'll put up a link to the paper when it becomes available. He had a short go on my exotic Bickerton when strolling between conference sessions.  "You should see my other bike", I told him.

Matthew Burke gets animated during a "Transport Debate", a small piece of theatre and lightheartedness amidst mostly serious presentations.

This was one of the possible routes between conference venues, a covered walk-and cycleway atop a breakwater.

Clinton Hoffman from Driveabout showing off his companies amazing ......

phone app which teaches road laws and learner driver information. It is available in 8 aboriginal languages, and aims to decrease barriers to aboriginals getting properly licenced and driving within the law.  Fully 25% of aboriginals in custody in the Northern Territory are there for driving offences, and the phone app is Clinton's attempt to rectify the problem.  The animations included car crashes, graphically demonstrating what happens when you try to overtake a road train doing 90 kph in a (say) crap 1982 Honda Civic.

Herbs growing at the Youth Hostel.

Bike at the place where I went swimming a couple of mornings in row.

Hi, a few more pics of my Bickerton folder on my ATRF conference trip to Darwin.  The presentation of my research on Human Generated Electrical Power went ok! 

Don't want to add too much, except to say that there is fairly laissez-fair helmet wearing in the Northern Territory backed up by some laws with plenty of wriggle room to not wear a helmet. Coincidentally, a facebook post alerted me to this article concerning one of our major cycling organizations attitude to helmet wearing in Victoria moving away from agreeing with helmet compulsion.

My own position on helmet wearing is this - I make my helmets into daggy ensembles including lights, reflective tape, a visor and a mirror which held make me visible, see map instructions, not get sun, wind or rain in my eyes, see behind me and generally function well as a cyclist on my usual recumbent trikes.  That makes my helmet and me daggy or a bit of a Fred.  But for others - make up  your own mind I reckon and it is a bold and welcome move by the Bicycle Netwirk to advocate against our helmet laws.

Regards

Steve Nurse at Darwin Airport.