Poverty Cycle 2012 Ride Report

What a day for a bike ride!  The rain held off until we'd packed up, but the wind was strong from the get-go and disrupted both the riders and the supporters.  I only rode 40k, but considerably faster than I would normally ride into such a wind. (Actually, I would change my schedule if possible.)   By the time I got home and had a long bath my body feels fine, but I have no oomph and my legs feel particularly empty.  Curiously, my most troubled body parts are my eyes and sockets - they feel very dry and windblasted.

The picture below shows the start/finish area, and should feature a line of gazebos on the far side where the supporters are clustered.  They were already up when we arrived at 7; we were fixing one at 7:30, and and 9 they were taken down after two had been written off.

Today was the Poverty Cycle, a charity ride that my work is trying to establish.  Last year we trialled a family-fun-day model, but this year went with a corporate challenge format.  Teams of 5, racing nine rider-laps of a 20km course with no more than two riders going at any one time.  Most of the course was flat, but there was a big hill about 3/4 of the way round.

My team did not win.  By the time we finished our 8th lap (4 pairs), prize-giving had already started and our final rider couldn't see the point.  Everybody had at least one lap, though.

The winning team was a bit more committed:  by 7:15am (for an 8:30 start) they were on the trainers in a stall beside the parking area and out of the wind.  They smoked everybody, averaging 35 minutes/lap.

I rode in the 2nd and 4th pairs.  First up I paired with Richard, Doesn't he look like the boss and me the working man in my coarse woollen suit?  I picked the suit up from the Sallies in Te Aroha, two weeks ago, for just $15.  Couldn't resist, and I expected that Richard would be in street clothes since he is already riding around to appointments dressed like that.

One good thing about the weather - it helped keep us cool.  I changed to my everyday road helmet for my second time round, which had much better airflow (but is boring black).

Richard was running aero bars, and kindly pulled me around the track.  He is a much stronger rider than me, probably due to commuting up a nasty hill every morning, so even leading into the wind his pace was all I could handle.  The one time I took over, in a sheltered spot, I misjudged and sapped my energy just before the big hill climb.  I actually felt better and better going up the hill, as my system caught up on itself.

The most exciting part of the ride came right at the end of the first lap.  We turned into the start/finish area, and two of those sign holders (behind us in the photo above) blew across our path!  Thankfully far enough ahead to avoid quite easily, but it did start the heart pounding.

Second time round was a bit hard at first, after eating a couple croissants and standing in the wind for ages, but the flat sections were actually easier overall.  Franck (pictured below with the person I entrusted my camera to) set a pace better matched to mine, then dropped me on the hill where I didn't have much left in my tank.  I shamelessly drafted most of the way again, as he never tucked in behind when I was leading - why do that work for somebody who doesn't appreciate it?

I'm pretty knackered tonight, but it has been a good day.  I can't see myself taking up racing, but I might give it a go again next year.  My friends chipped in $520 for anti-trafficking work in Nepal, so I'm pretty pleased about that.  Thanks to everybody who sponsored me.

Hope this blog isn't too meandering - brain fog is closing in.  Off to bed now.

Bike Pride and the Wynyard Quarter

Was tickled to show the Yuba off to David Haywood and whanau on they way out of the Orcon Great Blend last night. Apparently they've considered a cargo bike with two child seats. Hope I restrained my enthusiasm below the boring fanatic threshold.

Then cycled through the Wynyard Quarter due to open tomorrow. Nice spaces, and a handy ramp up to the viewing platform. That nice existing frontage around half the Viaduct Basin will hopefully connect right around (timeline suggests 2013?) and should benefit from having more outdoor punters in the area rather than the restaurant/bar clientele of the Viaduct. Speaking of which, the bridge provides nice pedestrian access between Wynyard and the Viaduct which could change the dynamic of the whole area.

Got several comments appreciating the bike lights as I cruised around, but uncertain how much to value the opinion of the guys peeing off the wharf.

Now it's getting hard - FY2011 Carbon Accounts

Our pollution figures for this year have increased a long way back towards their 2007 levels. Major contributors were my trip to Christchurch for a polo tournament and the purchase of a new laptop.
Looking ahead, we have decided to set a target of reaching the current¹ globally sustainable per capita emissions level (~1.2T CO2e) by 2050. This requires us to reduce by just over 3% each year, compounding. That will become increasingly challenging, and require systemic change² around us as well as personal lifestyle choices.

For the new year, we plan to find 2% by halving our regular butter and sugar consumption. These are mostly used for baking, for which we will increasingly use margarine. We are testing various recipes with less sugar, and may alter our selection of baked treats. As a side benefit, this could be healthier.³

We want to make the remaining 1% savings amongst our "irregular" consumption: rarely taken actions or supplies for special occassions. These are the source of all variation recorded between this year and last, as we haven't performed a new baseline audit and continue to use our 2010 figures. The very irregularity of this consumption makes it harder to work with. Over time we will expect continuing fluctuation, but require an underlying downward trend.

Accurately reporting this will require an improvement in our accounting practise. A likely first step will be to amortise the big figures, a practise we have so far applied only to the house. Our new laptop will be used over several years, but we thought there would be enough similar items from year to year to smooth out. That will be less and less the case as we make smarter purchases.⁴ We may also plan to fly domestically once every n years, rather than on a most-years basis, and budget that into our regular baseline.

__________
1) With world population expected to rise to perhaps 9 billion by 2050, the per capita sustainable emissions level will presumably decrease.
2) 20% of our current emissions are due to public services we have no direct choice about consuming. Yesterday Heather initiated conversation with a Dunedin city councillor on this very topic, building on a hint of shared interest.
3) Going significantly dairy free would make a much bigger impact on the carbon numbers, as well as distance us from an industry which has recently expanded beyond the country's carrying capacity. We remain held back by uncertainty over how to supply Heather's calcium needs and reluctance to overhaul the complex dietary system we have developed for her over eight years of illness.
4) The laptop also stands out because we bought it new, rather than second hand. We have chosen to assign all emissions responsibility to the initial (retail) purchaser, so the choice between new and second-hand is much more stark in carbon terms than dollar terms. We could change this policy, at least on large items, which would be more accurate in many ways but opens the thorny question of how to apply depreciation.

Beach! Beach! Beach!

Which one needs the wheelchair?

Yesterday we went to the beach to try out something new - the Vera Wansbrough Memorial Beach Wheelchair. The chair has fat, low pressure wheels to glide over the grass and sand right into the water. The goal was to get Heather to the water more often, which seemed a fitting use for some money inherited from her beach-loving grandmother.

The chair was a great success, and will be well worth the money (approx $600) if we get out a few more times each summer. No more parking the normal chair where the path ends and carrying Heather across the sand into the water. No more carrying her back up, all slippery and wet.

In the future we won't take the other wheelchair, but took it just in case yesterday. It did provide a nice place to sit and talk to Heather, while she reclined in her personal lounger.

The wheels also make a handy seat.

With its big wheels, the whole contraption floats when nobody is sitting in it. With a person sitting in it, the wheels still float but the foot end gradually sinks. We hope that a simple floatation device strapped on that end will give us a fully floating option that Heather can swim on and off.

The following video shows how smooth the process of coming out of the water was. If you're wondering why we pause, back up, and move forward again, that's me discovering where the floating wheels touch bottom and start turning. I also stop to check if it works to push from the head end, but decide that it works best to pull from the feet. We do need a handle to save stooping over and avoid lifting too high and banging poor Heather's head.

MUTE BEFORE WATCHING - NASTY STATIC

Do try this at home. Our system is cobbled together from a pair of 49cm Wheeleez Wheels (distributed in NZ by BeachWheels.co.nz) and a $50 fold-out beach lounger we were given several years ago. We bought an axle and locking pins with the wheels, and ran the axle through a piece of hdpe pipe I had around the house (it was too small for making polo mallets). Two hose clamps were also required. Here are all the parts:

The pipe is simply lashed to the mid-section of the lounger, using hemp string. I had to use a needle to thread the string through the plastic canvas, to get the axle at a suitable balance point.

Using the pre-fab lounger saved heaps of effort putting the canvas onto a frame, but it was never designed to go into salt water and will presumably be replaced in time. By then it will have earned an honourable place in history for proving out the idea.

The frame was designed to have a support under the knee, which doesn't work when it is being lifted and the force goes the other way. To stop the lounger folding up at that point I put the hose clamps on to hold the two tubes together. The clamps loosen with a screwdriver and slide off the end of the the lower tube, allowing the lounger to fold again for transport. So far it is working, but you can see that the previous (pivoting) attachment between those tubes has been strained during testing. I think that the strain has eased since I moved the axle, but only time will tell.

Net result: one very happy Heather.

Did I make it to Christchurch?

Yes. And wasn't the weather beautiful!

So it's been almost 3 months, but here's my report for the record from the polo comp in Christchurch.

Winter Whack - 3rd Place Winners!

Our team started out with a good couple of wins, but couldn't sustain the intensity and got wasted by in 3 minutes flat by the eventual champs - Polo Disco. In the 2nd/3rd playoff we put up stiffer resistance, but eventually the same team which twice beat our fellow Aucklanders put paid to us as well. Props to Glenn who sorted out the Auckland teams - he must of done a good job of balancing us up as we came out 3rd and 4th at the end of the day.

Play was pretty intense at times - you had to commit the body right up to the action, which resulted in a bunch of spills. At one point I lost my rear brake in our first game, and eventually traded the bike off for Glenn's. Playing so many games at that intensity did take it's toll, and I reckon that was a factor in the later games. Polo Disco was clearly a cut above us in skill as well. Not just us, as they swept up the entire field pretty handily. I think they had 3 goals scored against them all day, but thankfully nobody enforced the down-trou rule or there'd have been a lot of flesh on display.

The whole tournament had a great atmosphere, and everybody seemed to have fun. There was quite a range of skill levels, with people drawn in to make up teams or whole teams of occasional players. No way could Auckland have fielded 21 players like Christchurch did, but hopefully a return tourney will pull out a few of our potential/interested people.

Everybody's first question on arrival was why there were so many vegans in the Auckland delegation. The Chch crew is based around fathers who can't get out for mountain-biking like they used to, whereas I can't think of any player from Akl who has kids. Very different demographics didn't hinder us enjoying a night at the pub together beforehand and an aftermatch dinner at the Dux (which has several vegan options).

One last thing to point out - the club house next to the courts is a great idea. It allows them to store edging for the court, rather than losing the ball under the raggedy fence edge or digging it out of weedy gutters. We need something like that in Akl.

Cycle Friendly City

Christchurch was truly fabulous to cycle in. Lots of cycle lanes. Nary a hill through much of the city. A beautiful park with good tracks to ride through. Most importantly - lots of other cyclists to keep the drivers in the habit of looking and waiting.

They also allow bikes on buses, and I went 30kms out to Rangiora for $5.80 each way to visit a colleague. Get off at the other end with your bike, cycle to a store to pick up a drink and choccies, and find your mate's house. So much harder on foot. But do allow for the fact that the first bus after school gets out may have a full rack.

So thanks, Christchurch! Thanks to Craig for being the main man behind the tournament, and thanks to Mads and Malcs for putting me up and feeding me lots of warm, scrummy soup. (I did get sunburnt on the big day, but it wasn't always warm down there.)

Enough from me. Check out more photos from the day.

Long Way to Work

For probably the first time in my life, I took the scenic route to work today.

It's been a very rainy spring, but the sunny gaps are lengthening and I found myself in one this morning. On top of that, I was on the fixie for the first time after weeks of carting the laptop backwards and forwards (which tips the balance to the Yuba). Riding a light bike, in the sunshine, with nothing urgent waiting in the office, it just felt right to breeze past a turn-off and go a couple extra blocks.

Happy.

En Route to CHCH

Greetings from Auckland Airport, where I'm waiting for a delayed flight.  I left home at 06:45, arrived at the airport just on 0800, an hour early, and discovered that I'd left my passport at home! :-(  To add insult to injury the slowly-dying cellphone had another fit, but eventually I got hold of poor Heather who arranged for a friend (thanks, Chris) to drop the wallet off for me.  Not really what she needed just before I went away for 5 days and left her with much more self-care work than usual.  Poverty is having nobody to turn to, eh!

Anywho, turns out you can check in without the wallet so I bagged the bike and had no trouble checking that in.  Then I got the wallet and commenced waiting again.  Plenty of time to look forward to a fun weekend, and getting our butts kicked at the polo comp.