Working on the chain again!

Emma demonstrates how easy it is to clean your bike's chain. Your bike will reward you with many extra hours of pleasant riding for a small investment of your time and loving attention.

Thanks, Emma. You're a You Tube Star - now for helmet cam.

Carolyn

Keeping Hydrated

Cycling back home last Sunday my thoughts turned to why I felt comfortable when the temperature was nearly 30 deg C. The blue sky beamed above, no, not too many puffy, white clouds up there and the bitumen was a nice shiny black below yet the heat wasn't overwhelming. Then I felt the breeze! What contributes to the wind chill factor to bring on hypothermia can also make a hot day pleasant.

Being an incurable wordaholic I mused about the difference between the terms "ambient temperature" and "apparent temperature". I confess to a life-long interest the science of weather. This addiction began when I did a course in climatology. I will leave it to the Bureau of Meteorology(BOM) to explain all to you. Suffice it to say that the apparent temperature is calculated from the ambient temperature, with humidity and wind taken into account to give you, dear reader, a real idea of the physical comfort/discomfort you might experience in the outdoors should you wish to venture out.

I stopped pedalling, stunned that I could remember this from eons past, and took a drink of water. Oh, another controversy, how much water to imbibe? Well, Sports Medicine Australia comes to the rescue here. In summary, here it is:

"Carry copious supplies of water. Drink around 500 ml before starting your activity, then 200-300 ml every 15 minutes. After completing your activity, drink another 500mL!.

In hot conditions, exercise should be reduced in duration and intensity, or postponed to a more suitable (cooler) time. Alcohol and caffeinated drinks such as tea and coffee increase fluid loss, thus promoting dehydration. They are best avoided before, during and after exercising, until fluid losses have been completely replaced."

Oh, NO ooooooo, no more coffee for me! For those of you who know me, it's ALL ABOUT THE COFFEE!

Then, I started to think about the heat combined with the humidity that we all seem to complain about. (Well, some of us, okay, maybe just one of us ... ). Unfortunately, for this we need to consider WBGT (wot?). Having followed the link, you will know that this is the Wet Bulb Global Temperature, and that it is very useful for athletes training in heat and humidity to work out what the heck to do. If you are a training buff you may like to read the information about this for coaches by Sports Medicine Australia or this similar information from SMA's South Australian branch.

I'm now so confused that if it's hot, I'll just stay indoors! However, if you would like the information about the current weather in Coffs Harbour then you can decide!

Carolyn

Just a laugh

The weather here in Coffs, like most of Australia, has been unseasonably warm lately. It's been "too darn hot" and caused the cancellation/rearrangement of 2 planned events due to "inclement weather". Very wise decisions on the part of both ride leaders.

Here I am sitting in air-conditioned comfort (global warming? I can hardly feel it if I keep my head buried in the sand) as I wait for my new recumbent trike to be assembled. I've been surfing the net (the UV index being far too high for any other kind of surfing) and came across Cyclist 101. Herein is the link.

To whet your appetite, dear reader, I unashamedly plagarise the blog's author, Cycle Dog by copying the following paragraph:

"Never engage recumbent cyclists in conversation about their outlandish machines. They’re referred to as ‘bents’ for good reason. They’ll extol the virtues of their bicycles until your eyes glaze over. You’ll wish that, like a muskrat, you could gnaw off a limb in order to escape. Bent riders are the bicycling equivalents of Moonies. Do not get sucked into the cult."

Cycle Dog also makes some observations that will have regular cyclists sizzling as well. Be warned, you may LOL!

Ironically, my new trike has come all the way from Great Britain. It hails from ICE (Inspired Cycle Engineering). GB has been unseasonably wet, and lots of bridges have crumbled in the ensuing floods. (Quick, where's my shovel, I need to bury myself deeper!)

Oh, and my trike's contribution to global warming?

After leaving GB on the 10th November, it arrived in Honolulu, on the 13th after a brief stopover in Kentucky of just 4 hours. On the 14th November, it found itself in the hands of some charming custom's officers where they were entertained for two days.

I won't even begin to think about the environmental cost of extracting the metals for the frame from their respective ores, the industrial processing needed. The energy cost involved in the manufacture of rubber tyres, the fossil fuels used to produce the seat ... (the media seems to forget that when we run out of crude oil (and therefore petrol) we'll also run out of all the associated byproducts). Now, what are our cycle jerseys made of again? I digress ...

My new TRICE trike is now safe in the hands of bike mechanics who love it and are carefully assembling it for me.

May I be condemned to cycle for all eternity to pay for my environmental sins. Anyone care to join me?

Carolyn