Bite sized servings of mostly Brisbane cycling culture, news and related happenings.
Once upon a time, the Brompton was my daily driver but sadly the little guy has been out of action for quite some time. That is until the other day when I needed to take a car somewhere and leave it. The Brompton folding bike came through for me to get me back from one end of town to the other and reminded me how much fun I’d been missing out on.
After a long mountain bike ride yesterday, today it was time for something a little more downtempo. With winter weather being about as good as it gets, a slow ramble on the e-cargo bike along the Redcliffe and Sandgate foreshore seemed like just the ticket.
No car required. The ebike covered the ~40km round trip right from my front door with very little effort from me and with well and truly enough battery power left over to do the loop a second time.
There were stops for lunch and ice cream and a whole lot of postcard worthy vistas to take in.
I found these shorts at BigW for $20 per pair recently and they work extremely well on the bike. In fact, they’re my new go-to shorts.
Supporting the smaller brands for bike specific clothing is great and usually provides a superior fit but economically there are limits as to how much of that clothing most people can afford.
So, when I stumble upon non-bike specific clothing like this that also happens to work well on the bike, I stock up. There’s also a satisfaction to adapting non-bike clothing (or non-bike anything, really) for use on the bike similar to the satisfaction I get from creating a good bike kludge.
They’re made of a synthetic stretch material and easily accommodate a pair of padded bike shorts underneath plus they feature a really handy little zippered pocket on the front for keys or other small items.
So far, I’ve used them for mountain biking, various other casual rides and non-cycling occasions. Wear is proving really good so far most likely due to the synthetic fabric so I should be able to get around in them for quite a few more years.
Despite the ironic hashtag and despite their current political malaise, cycling in LA is anything but sucky according to this video. The whole culture and vibe and sense of inclusion is definitely something to aspire to. LA cycling culture is an example for Brisbane and other Australian cities.
My original plan to go mountain biking this weekend was well and truly sidelined as an unexpected downpour of winter rain came over. Unperturbed, this morning I prepared a bike with fenders and dangled a pannier bag off one side of its’ rack to accommodate a few items of wet weather gear then proceeded to hit the bikeways.
The moody sky and wet surfaces made for a surprising tranquility and a few nice photos while tunnels and park shelters provided hiding spots from the intermittent showers.
Around three score of kilometres through the northside plus lunch and a couple of stops to gawk at the bay from various vantage points seemed a better way to spend a wet Sunday than being glued to yet another screen, I thought.
A frosty Tuesday night and it’s time for another night ride. I headed down to the foreshore at Sandgate and Brighton tonight to take in the still, cold air and reflections over Bramble Bay. There was about four layers on me for insulation and I have to say they worked pretty well.
I came across this video from GCN recently and thought it was a really good take on converting at least some of your life to cargo bike life. Even if you don’t think too much about the environment or urban traffic congestion (though I hope you do), this video shows why cargo bikes are fantastic from a financial perspective if nothing else. Though, of course they are fantastic for a lot of other reasons as well and are just out of this world fun to get around on.
Some places I know of around Brisbane to start looking for your cargo bike:
The Schneider Road to Viola Place bikeway link is something that I know Space For Cycling have been campaigning about for a really long time and looks like it’s actually about to happen according to BCC’s own website.
I couldn’t resist rolling past there the other day when I was out and about on Brisbane’s northside and, indeed, there are already signs that things about to start happening.
For those unfamiliar, the Schneider Road to Viola Place bikeway link will mean we can ride out along the Kedron Brook all the way past DFO and then end up at the back of Eagle Farm where we can ride over the Gateway Bridge Bikeway or along the Terminal Dve Bikeway to Ascot.
Check out my latest offering in the main blog. Keeping well in the mind is more important than ever and bikes might just be able to help you.
With winter weather too good to ignore, yesterday morning I decided to hit the bikeways and roads of Brisbane’s inner north. Going mostly west to east through Newmarket, Paddington, Milton to the CBD then on to Norman Park and Bulimba. I then took a short CityCat ride to Brett’s Wharf before making my way back to Kalinga and the Kedron Brook Bikeway. Sadly however, I wasn’t able to incorporate a Story Bridge crossing into my ride.
Shopping at Westfield Chermside by bicycle. A birthday present for someone close is what I needed to get today. There’s probably several other centres I could have gone to get just the right thing but since Westfield Chermside provide bike racks right at the shopping centre entrance in the underground carpark, why would I go anywhere else? And as a bonus the carpark entrance links straight up to the Downfall Creek Bikeway. Nice one Westfield Chermside.
Of course, the Yuba e-cargo bike meant that my gift-giving generosity would not be too limited by size either. I reckon just about any gift I could think of short of a new fridge would be no problem to get home on the Yuba. And even then, there’s always home delivery.
No looking for a carpark, no walking to the entrance, no worrying about the cost of parking if you’ve stayed too long and no traffic jams on the way in or out. Shopping at Westfield Chermside by bicycle is super easy.
Winter is finally here and yesterday I was fortunate enough to have been able to grab a mountain bike and take a few hours to enjoy the crisp, sunny weather at Bunyaville and Ironbark Gully joined up via the elusive Back Link Trail.
If you’re heading out, note that, yes, track 7 (Steps) is still out of action.
I don’t know if the Brisbane Story Bridge saga has now turned into a back and forth buck passing game or whether it’s actually, as several people including the PM have said, just a case of neglected maintenance over a long period of time.
In any case, this issue is going to linger for some time to come and I think it spells trouble for the current Brisbane City Council. On one side, they have us angry active transport users who have been completely locked out of the bridge and on the other side they have angry motorists who are bristling at the prospect of having to pay tolls that BCC have suggested to cross the bridge. Now (rightly or wrongly), they also face the prospect of receiving no support from the federal government. Being cornered from three sides can’t have a good ending.
In the meantime, from the standpoint of needing to move forward somehow, it just so happens that there’s a very nice, relatively new and probably under utilised road tunnel running exactly parallel to the Brisbane Story Bridge under the river.
Hmmm, I’m thinking very cheap or free tolls for the tunnel especially for heavy vehicles, maybe blockage of all but a small amount of light passenger vehicles on the bridge and then most if not all of the bridge’s lanes handed over to active transport users and pedestrians. Maybe the maintenance and repair cost of the bridge then goes down as we’re no longer catering to heavy vehicles or high volume, maybe we plop a few food and coffee vendors in the middle of the bridge. The surrounding neighbourhood gets a bit safer and more pleasant which also helps property prices that local residents really appreciate. We also get one step closer to a car-free CBD and maybe, just maybe BCC survives the next council election. This is all just spitballing and maybe I’m crazy, but it kinda sounds like something for everyone.
Some of my favourite quotes from this video.
“How fast can you move until discovery is lost? How much slower do we need to travel to really see?”
“The unpaved world is a closer sense of truth about where we are and where we came from.”
“There’s a misconception that nature is something different from us.”
A fantastic take on riding a great route in US but also about the state of the world and how we should consider reflecting on the way we’ve been looking at things.
Police make court bid to stop cycling protesters blocking Brisbane’s Story Bridge
I’ve been out for the count with some kind of lurgy for past few days so my bum hasn’t made contact with a bike saddle and nor have I caught up much on what’s been happening in the Brisbane cyclosphere in that time.
But I did catch the above story regarding developments in the Story Bridge saga and the picture ain’t pretty. In short, it seems BCC won’t budge on allowing one of the bridge’s lanes to be temporarily converted into a bike lane and are now seeking a magistrate’s ruling on disallowing any further protests to try and make the lane conversion happen. That and some pretty desperate sounding name-calling on BCC’s part.
As one of the earlier stories on this said, looks like car is unfortunately still king in this town. It’s just not good enough. Stay tuned.
I mentioned a little while ago that I don’t listen to many podcasts but that sometimes I dip my toes in The Cycling Independent Paceline podcast.
Well, that’s not 100% true. I actually also listen to The Cycling Independent Revolting podcast quite a bit and dang that thing is good.
Granted, it’s not gonna be for everyone but if you enjoy a little spicy language, some super cool insights on stuff you never even knew you needed to know about mixed with some boyish humour, you may really enjoy it.
It’s a cycling podcast with almost no mention of cycling but Stevil and Robot pull it off so well. That’s all I’m gonna say – just give it a spin.
Restore Safe Active Transport Access Across the Story Bridge
Well, looks like it’s time to giddyup and do something more about the ongoing problem of access to the Story Bridge paths.
Thanks to Cr Trina Massey who has put up this petition to let the people in power know that we’d like to get done what needs to be done which is to temporarily barricade off one of the lanes on the bridge so that bicycle, scooter and foot traffic can continue to flow while repairs are under way.
So, if you care about this, get clickin’, get tickin’ and let them know what we want.
Finally some great weather again and the bikeways are actually pretty dry. This is what the Enoggera Creek bikeway looked like this afternoon. It was part of a larger loop through St Lucia, Taringa and back to the northside through the city. I arrived home just on dusk with lights on but no jacket required because winter just doesn’t seem to be happening this year.
Story Bridge restoration project – Kangaroo Point
Well, this is gonna get very interesting. Looks like the paths on either side of the bridge will remain closed to cyclists and other active transport users until at least the end of 2025 though the way the way things tend to blow out, my guess is that it will be way longer. There’s so many questions about this.
In the meantime, what we need is an alternative route that takes active transport users seriously which, to me and many others, means taking one of the road lanes on the bridge and barricading it off so pedestrians, scooter riders, cyclists and other active transport uses can continue to include the Story Bridge as part of their normal route.
Let’s face it, if these bridge repairs required car traffic to be excluded from the bridge, those in power would be falling over themselves to provide the most convenient alternative possible no matter the cost. The thing to remember is that active transport is as important as car transport and anything but the highest effort to prevent its disruption is unacceptable.
More:
Soon this feed will be filled with variations of my night ride images. Yes, tonight was another night ride. There was rain, there was darkness but there was also much fun had. A bike with fenders seemed best.
I packed a rain jacket but ended up not using it because of the unnaturally mild winter we’re having (don’t get me started). A shortish ride on bikeways and back streets. The Jinker Track bikeway, parts of the Cabbage Tree bikeway, Arana Hills, Mitchelton, Everton Park.
If you’re keen, you might get one more chance for the week tomorrow night before the rain really comes down on Thursday. Maybe.
