HEALTHY TRANSPORT HOBART

Riders filling the left hand lane on Sandy Bay Road

“It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century”.  ~Author Unknown

The September ride made the most of the break in the weather following heavy rain on the morning of the 25th to soak up the almost clear skies and colorful sunset before wild weather hit once again on Saturday. Approx 60 cyclists followed the route with a lap around the city and through upper sandy bay and up the back streets of Battery Point. The Hobart bicycle squad from Tasmania Police provided a bright coloured escort with their yellow weather jackets and their help was appreciated. Our bike mechanic team cleaned 4 extremely dirty chains and performed some basic tune ups as well (remember to get to Franklin Square early if you require some assistance). 5 spot prizes were give to a random bunch of riders including a basic bike tool ($30), a reflective anklet ($20), 2 rear lights ($25 each) and a seat bag ($35).

One of our trusty bike mechanics cleans a dirty chain

Once cleaned the chain is oiled

Our youngest rider (she is still in a trailer) contemplates more bike friendly streets

Following some really constructive feedback from a number of people we’d like to start giving each ride a theme for the month on a local cycling advocacy front. So this month we are started nice and easy by writing to Premier David Bartlett to invite him and his staff to Ride to Work Day on Wednesday 15^th October. We handed out the invites at the start and end of the ride and will  post them all together. If you have any advocacy issues you’d like us to theme a ride on then please get in touch. If you didn’t get to the ride a copy of the letter is below.

Riders sign the invitation to David Bartlett to 'Ride to Work Day"

Parliament House

Hobart

Tasmania, 7000

Dear David,

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in ride to work day this October 14^th. I and hundreds of other bicycle users will be peddling our way to work on this date and would love to have your company for a scrumptious free breakfast at Mawson place.

I would also like to invite your colleagues and assistant staff to participate in the ride and register on the national

registration page with your team. (visit http://www.cyclingsouth.org.au for more information).

At the Hobart Waterfront breakfast at Mawson Place (Corner Davey and Argyle St) Andy Muirhead from ABC local radio will be broadcasting live from 6am. There will be lots of free food and hot beverages.

There will be activities such as Crank Virtual Reality Cycling where you can have a go at riding some of the worlds great cycling routes and ABC is providing helmet hair repair.

The final version of the Hobart Regional Arterial Bicycle Network Plan will be on display.

At 7.55am everyone will get into formation for the great aerial bike photo.

You can register on this web page: http://www.registerridetowork.com.au/ and I would appreciate if you could notify me once you and your staff have.

Thankyou in anticipation

It looks like the rain will clear about midday this friday for the first Critical Mass back in the day light. Lots of us will be bringing a picnic dinner to have in St Davids Park after the ride so you are most welcome to join us. It was also Car Free Day on Tuesday so what a great opportunity to celebrate a couple of days after (we only found out on Sunday night and didn’t find enough time to organise something).

Please Bring
LIGHTS on your bike- front and back
-A plate of  food
-A picnic rug
-Warm clothes
- Your favourite beverage(s)
-A rain coat (though we do have a wet weather option if necessary).
-Friends

Meet 5.15pm Franklin Square

Bike fuel on the go

The HTH headquarters is experiencing a glut in good high grade bike fuel after a few trips with the Bob Trailer to Eumarrah Health Food Store @ 39 Barrack Street, West Hobart. This place is stocked to the brim with bulk fruit and nuts which mixed together make some amazing energy for a daily rider. We suggest putting a small selection in a container that fits in your drink bottle holder and you’ll never struggle home sapped of energy again.

We go through about a 500g a week each which costs about $5 and ride approx 175km a week, which means that we get about 35km per $1 we spend. $1 fuel for a car however will get you about 10km so we feel pretty confident we are saving a heap of money and feeling better for it as we don’t have to pay for lap band surgery or gym membership!

Nuts are an awesome energy source

Dried Fruit is far better than chocolate

Word on the street is that the new bike culture cooking machine, the Hobart Bike Kitchen has found its feet. After a couple of sessions the crew of about 5 people are working on a bunch of old frames they have collected to provide cheap and sexy bikes to people who want to stand out from the crown on some recycled bicycle goodness. Why import em from China when there is thousands in the backyards of Hobart eh? Getting to know how your bike works and can be maintained is some of the most useful knowledge you need when it breaks down so we suggest you get along to one of these sessions to learn from the masters.

A quick ride by a few of the lower bicycle racks at the Sandy Bay Campus of the University of Tasmania on Tuesday 15th September revealed all of the racks overflowing with bikes. The week before at the Clinical Campus for the School of Medicine 18 bikes were parked at the front entrance to the building (we will get a photo of this impressive sight ASAP). Such large numbers of cyclists using the current facilities shows that there would certainly be a demand for more user friendly and expanded bike parking as well as shower and locker facilities.

While its pretty common to see athletes wearing multicoloured licra as advertising for their sponsors, Healthy Transport Hobart inspired a large dose of respect for the humble reflective vest recently. We are all about safety so why would we wear anything else.

Two members of HTH,  James and Liam Correy put their legs and arms to the test in the 2009 Huon Valley Winter Challenge to see just how they compare to those who take their bicycle riding, running and kayaking further than just getting from A to B. The training schedule mostly involved just riding a bit faster than usual on our way to or from Uni or Work with a couple of dashes from Hobart over to Kingston to get the endurance up. Turns out that riding everyday brings fitness levels up close and personal to some pretty serious athletes.

The Healthy Transport Team brought home some wine and wooden apples for their efforts in the mens two man team section with a 2nd placing. Hopefully we’ll see more of the serious multi-sport athletes out on the road getting from A to B.

The kayak was our weakest link so ‘kayaking to work’ might have to be considered in the weeks before the next winter challenge.