As I currently work at the Clayton campus, why would I ride to Caulfield? Because they will be renovating our building (yes again…) and this time they want 100 people to move to space in Caulfield for the six months the renovations will take. Although we were told late last year that they wanted to renovate the building, it was only a few weeks ago that they dropped on us a deadline of construction “starting” in June. After much discussion within our team, we finally decided to say yes to moving.

At Clayton we are not in the main campus, we are out on Blackburn Road which means that on the days I don’t ride my bike, there is free parking on the street a short walk away. At Caulfield the parking is much more limited (there is also a large railway station next to the campus) which changes my transports options to bicycle or public transport.

After extensive review of online maps and aerial imagery, today was a test and this is the path I followed:

The route is what I determined to be the most direct, while still avoiding hills and busy roads where possible. The route back is different, significantly in that I will not return via High Street Road as a big downhill would turn in to a painfull uphill stretch. Just look at the elevation profile:

Breaking the ride down it is:

• Along High Street Road taking advantage of the downhill to maintain speed
• Onto the Gardiners Creek Trail, including crossing under Warrigal Road
• Loop onto the footpath and then follow Argyll Street that parallels the railway line
• At the freeway join the western end of the Scotchmans Creek Trail to get to East Malvern Railway Station
• Through the station carpark and then out and along Waverley Road.
• Leave Waverely Road for the parallel side street of Ardrie Road
• Onto Burke Road for a short distance and cross over Princes Highway at the lights

The route home is the reverse of this until nearing Holmesglen Railway Station where I enter the station carpark and then use the pedestrian bridge over Warrigal Road where I follow the railway line until Mount Waverley Railway Station. The benefit of this change is that instead of climbing the hill up the busy High Street Road, I use a mix of off-road paths and side strees.

Variations include:

• Heading up to Mount Waverley Railway Station and following the railway line on the way in
• Keeping to the Gardiners Creek Trail and getting to East Malvern Railway Station from the other side of the freeway
• Following Gardiners Creek Trail further until Winton Road and then using side streets on the north side of Waverley Road

Of course there is one other variation that I wouldn’t plan on using, but is handy to have: using the train between East Malvern and Mount Waverley Railway Stations.

It is not yet final if we will move to Caulfield during the renovations (keeping the team together is one of our conditions), but now I know that cyling is a realistic option.

Quirkology was quite an interesting read, but it is 59 seconds (which I am currently halfway though) that surprised me. Most of this was because I didn’t fully realise that it was a self-help book, albeit a self-help book that is backed by peer-reviewed research. This should be the only kind of self-help book.

Take motivation for example. Research from large scale scientific studies found that techniques such as focusing on a role model, thinking about bad outcomes of missing the goal, trying to supress unhelpful thoughts, relying on willpower or fantasizing about reaching the goal are not effective.

On the other hand making a plan, telling other people, thinking about good things of achieving the goal, rewarding progress, and recording progress all signifigantly increases the likelihood of achieving the goal. Most of these involve writing, which other studies have found to be considerably more effective than simply talking or thinking about something.

So here are parts of a plan that I am sharing with the world to achieve a current goal of mine: losing weight.

1. Reclaim the habit of cycling to work. I will allow three exceptions: it is raining enough that I would be soaked through, I need to head somewhere directly from work (ie not enought time to ride home to get the car), or mechanical issues that make the bike unsafe.

2. Exercise every day. At bare minimum this is the above cycling to and from work, but on the weekend this means at least a 30 minute bike ride or going to the place mentioned in the next point.

3. Going to the gym (yes, some would be very surprised to know that I know what one of those is) at minimum three times a week.

4. Eating better. This fairly broad and covers avoiding take away and soft drinks, cooking for myself (but avoiding fats and sugary sauces) or resorting to healthy frozen/prepackaged meals.

As an aside, finding appropriate frozen/prepackaged meals has been an interesting journey. Many pasta type meals include parmesan for that delicious aroma while heating, but are actually passable. I would say that those that include rice are preferable. But then you get to those with “potato”, while not hard, I would consider these to be dwarf bread.

For a long time I have known that it was time to replace the chain, cluster and at least two chainrings. For longer than that I have been needing to replace the rear disc brake. The rear tyre is also wearing down so that should be replaced, and it is probably also time for new brake pads (at least on the rear with the new disc).

This all adds up, but don’t really have an idea of what the total would be and it is part of a balancing act between replacing parts on the current bike, or to simply buy a new bike. I have obviously been deferring that decision.

Now, while riding home on Friday night, probably becuase I hadn’t been maintaining the chain enough, I had some slight chain suck that slightly bent the front derailleur. It still worked, but ended up with unexpected changes when at the extremes on the rear. Not good.

Today I made some time to have a look and while I had the chain off the bike for cleaning I strategically applied a pair of pliers to bend the derailleur back into approximate shape. It should do.

But this adds another item to the above list, an item that you don’t normally replace due to normal wear and tear. I now need to think about the repair vs new bike question.

To mount it I ended up going the extreemly high tech route by using rubber bands – doubled up – and the mount for the Cateye light that I am no longer using. As it turned out there is a groove on top of the mount which is enough to keep the light pointed in a consistent direction. The rubber bands simply hold the light to the mount.

Despite this solution being quite workable I am planning on making a proper mount. In the long term what I want is a mount that I can use for swapping back and forth between lights and a camera.

One of my original concerns was about battery life. After going through a couple of pairs of alkaline batteries I bought a new charger and a set of four NiMH batteries. From the rechargeable batteries the light is still very bright (I haven’t done a side by side test with alkalines) and I have been needing to charge the batteries only once or twice a week.

I haven’t been keeping a detailed record, but I can say that on my way home the light faded out to nothing from batteries that I started using last Friday. So a full charge gave around 25 minutes flashing (it was dull and rainy on the way to work one morning) and 4×25 minutes on turbo.

I’m quite happy with it and I doubt that I will get a second one – either on the bike or helmet.

Although I used these lights last year, I was never quite satisfied with the EL530, the bright spot in the beam isn’t very wide.

So I started looking around for other options and I came across this impressive setup that didn’t use lights designed specifically for bicycles: Fenix L2D Premium 100 Flashlights as Bicycle Headlights. I was impresssed, but I wasn’t sure so I ordered one of the lights online to test. I reasoned that if it wasn’t suitable for my bike I still needed a new torch.

It arrived today.

It is very impressive.

(I got an L2D Premium Q5 which is slightly higher spec than the L2D Premium 100)

Next to this, even at the lower settings, the EL530 is pathetic. In turbo mode the difference is insane.

Now I have to work out how to mount the light. Do I go the lockblock method which doesn’t allow for much adjustment, or do I do something else? I might be able to rig something up temporarily using the Cateye mount as a base with velcro straps to hold the light on.

Also, do I buy a second one to mount on the handlebars? Two at the lower power level would mean a wider coverage and less battery changes. What about one to mount on my helmet? A helmet mounted one could be very handy.

Since I took that photo I have been varying my route home, but I usually go this way once or twice a week. Earlier in the week work began on the four painted islands and yesterday I took this photo of the result, all four are now actualy traffic islands:

(The photo isn’t the best, it was quite late and there wasn’t much light, and in hindsight I should have recreated the original photo.)

So what does this mean?

Previously when riding home this way cars would simply drive over the painted islands (I still don’t know what the road rule is about that), but now I suppose that they have two choices:

• wait until after the traffic islands where there is space for them to overtake; or
• try to overtake in one of the gaps between the islands.

I sure hope that they choose the first option, there is not space for the second.

Hold on… let me back up a bit…

This woman is a danger to other road users and should not be allowed to drive a vehicle:

Whoops… not far back enough…

On Thursday I was riding to work as usual and had turned into Ivanhoe Street from Waverley Road, my next turn is a right into Leicester Ave. As I was nearing the right turn I heard the car behind me – I had seen it in my mirror – come over the speedhump quite hard (ie quite fast) so I moved a bit more to the right (to be just to the left of the centre of the road) and indicated right in accordance with this road rule:

31.  Starting a right turn from a road (except a multi-lane road)
     (3) If the road does not have a dividing line or median strip
         and is not a one-way road, the driver must approach and
         enter the intersection from the left of, parallel to, and as
         near as practicable to, the centre of the road.

So there I was: riding to the left of the centre of the road and indicating right. So what did the car do?

Did it wait in accordance with this rule…

142. No overtaking to the right of a vehicle turning right etc.
     (1) A driver must not overtake to the right of a vehicle
         if the vehicle is turning right, or making a U-turn from
         the centre of the road, and is giving a right change of
         direction signal.

…or choose the moment I was about to turn right to overtake.

Obviously I wouldn’t have been talking about it if they had followed the rule. If I had started the turn a few seconds earlier I would be writing about being run over, a very different post.

When I realised that the car was coming around on my right, I was able to swerve back to the left and watched it fly past and narrowly miss a car parked on the other side of the road just ahead of the next speedbump.

As I had now missed my usual turn, I continued on with the intention of taking the next right. Until I realised that in my experience the most dangerous driver on a side street at that time of the day is the parent making a drop off. On this hunch I took the second right, Chivers Ave instead of Sandgate Ave, where I knew there was a childcare centre.

My hunch proved correct and there the car was, unloading children. So I stopped, leant my bike against a tree on the nature strip, and from the footpath asked her if she saw me indicating that I was turning right. Her response: “you shouldn’t be on the road”

I said asked her if she knew the road rules and that she endangered my life. Her response: “you were indicating for too long”

I was stunned. How can you be indicating for too long? What if I had been turning into a driveway instead of the next road? At this point I retrieved my camera from the top of my bag and took the above photo. She asked my what I was doing and I told her that I wanted a clear record of her and her car in case I wanted to take it further. Now her response was: “you will be the one in trouble if you take it to the police”.

Huh? I hadn’t mentioned the police.

We exchanged a few more words – she didn’t object when I asked if she was comfortable with endangering the lives of others – before she turned away and walked into the childcare centre. I put my camera away and continued riding to work.

After thinking about it during the day I decided – it was the “you will be the one in trouble” comment – that I would indeed go to the police. When I stopped at the police station on my way home it was quite busy and I had to wait for a while. When I did speak to the officer on the desk they listened to what happened and said that no charges could be filed – no damage or injury – but they would be able to contact the driver and remind them of the road rules. However as it was busy they asked me to come back on the following day.

This is where the inconsistency and my annoyance comes in.

When I returned to the police station on Friday afternoon there was a different officer at the desk and this one said that there was nothing they could do, they weren’t prepared to contact the driver like the officer I spoke to the day before had said they would do.

Was the first officer genuine and there were just busy, or were they fobbing me off becuase he didn’t want to do anything? If the first officer was genuine, why did the second officer have a different response?

To the woman: You were wrong, I did not get into trouble by taking it to the police. But fortunately for you, they didn’t do anything about it. So here it is for all to read, my record of the incident.

We covered:

• Federation Trail
• Werribee River Trail
• Skeleton Creek Trail (lower section)
• Hobsons Bay Coastal Trail (part of)

The Skeleton Creek Trail was not part of our initial plan, our plan was to head back up the Federation Trail and around the Western Ring Road Trail to Albion Railway Station. Because of this change we were not aware that there was only one bridge on the Skeleton Creek Trail that allows you to cross from the west side of the creek to the eastern side.

We did not use the bridge and continued along the west side of the creek, which meant that once we reached the end of the path there was no way to cross over. However Google Maps did show a ford across the creek which we did use to cross over, but only after jumping a fence into the Cheetham Wetlands. We then crossed over a small channel to get back to the path on the east side of the creek.

In hindsight we should have crossed the creek at the bridge, but the way we ended up going was definitely more interesting.

More details and photos are now up on the expedition page, which is how I know that myka, one who made it to last week’s location, was at today’s location, but an hour later.

It is and it is, so I guess I have to go.

The Melbourne weather forecast is for 28°C with the local temperature being 26°C.

Today’s geohash location is in the backyard of 186 Central Road, Nunawading, around 8km from where I am now.

If I had checked the location earlier in the day I would have done things a bit differently as I have only just returned from a short ride after picking my bike up from a service. Instead I would have picked it up a bit later in the afternoon and ridden over to Nunawading from there.

I was thinking of going out to do some shopping, so I could just drive over. But I have just checked the wiki and seen that there was someone else made it to the location by train and bicycle last week. Maybe I will ride over.