weisan
06-20-2011, 06:39 PM
Visiting Melbourne, Australia for a couple of weeks for "business", met up with forumite "thinpin" to ride around the Mornington Peninsular area on Saturday, as my Irish pal would say, "what a nice bloke!" and he is exceedingly generous to let me ride his personal bike, not only that, he left it behind for my remaining stay, and the bike is none other than a...Duende Pegoretti...AMAZING!!!
We were caught in the rain during the first hour or so of our ride, and then the sky broke, and it was glorious. As thinpin puts it: "snatched from the jaws of defeat..." This is how things went down...
Right at the foot of Arthur's Seat, the only major climb for the day, thin-pal had a flat. We sort of expected this because of the bad weather and the amount of debris on the road that tends to get stuck on the rubber. That was taken care of quickly and off we went, to the hors category climb...
I must say, the ride up Arthur's Seat was a pain in the a$$. to my shame, the thought of getting off the bike and walk did occur in my mind. The last time, as far as I can remember, when that loser mentality came on was eons ago when I first started riding again. After laying off the bike for a week and a half, and fighting jet lag, my fitness had dropped considerably. But, I made it up there nevertheless, with thinpin whistling and stopping to take pictures of me suffering like a dog around the hairpin, which he will pay later. :no:
That was the only major climb of the day, and thin-pal declared ceremoniously, "Oh it would be downhill and relatively flat, and no major hills after this..." As soon as he said that, air fizzled out of his rear tire. He was jumping up and down like a monkey, and I had to calm him down, "hey bud, not the end of the world, okay? We will take care of it and then move on, no problem." I put in the spare tube that I was carrying and started pumpin' but it just wouldn't hold air..had a leak, Oops X 1...Oh, we had a patch kit, no problem...squeezed the glue tube...nothing came out, Oops X 2
What do we do??? The nearest store is at Dromana. that means going down Arthur's seat and then climbing back up...."don't look me, I ain't climbing up that monster hill twice!" And even that, we are not 100% sure that there is a shop that carries bicycle supplies there. So, what are the other options? We decided that I will ride down the street to the next small town called Red Hill and see if there's anything in the General Store. When I got there, I could smell the sweet aroma of pastries and coffee. I asked the store mgr, "Do you have a spare?" He sort of looked at me, "Huh? we sell food here." Anyway, thin-pal caught up with me, he managed to get enough air in to get going again. We picked up Tarzan Glue at a grocer and continued riding w/o any further issue. From then on, it was wineyards, vista views, seaview on the left, and the best part, the SUN was out. I had a bit of challenge on the undulating roads but nothing like Arthur's Seat! Overall, we had a blast. I had traced out the route on a map below.
And then yesterday, I was able to head out for another spin. I started from a small little town called Rye and rode to Point Nepean. Taken directly off the Visitor's Guide...
"The history of Point Nepean spans back thousands of years to the Boon wurrung people. Since then the park has been used to quarantine people arriving in Victoria, defence forts (where the first shots were fired on WWI and the first allied shots in WWII) and for military training (officer cadets)."
I must say, it's a pretty neat experience. They have good quality roads (about 5 km one way) meandering through the park, with many historic landmarks that you can stop and tour, take pictures etc.
The wind was gusting like crazy, whipping up the waves and blowing me off the path. As I approached the tip at Fort Napean, the wind was especially strong, so I got off and walked a bit. Then on the way home, I was practically flying, took me less than 1/2 hr to get back when it took almost an hour to get there. It is a lovely place, I intent to bring the family back when we officially moved later this year.
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080496.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080504.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080503.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080508.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080518.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080510.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080559.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080546.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080547.JPG
We were caught in the rain during the first hour or so of our ride, and then the sky broke, and it was glorious. As thinpin puts it: "snatched from the jaws of defeat..." This is how things went down...
Right at the foot of Arthur's Seat, the only major climb for the day, thin-pal had a flat. We sort of expected this because of the bad weather and the amount of debris on the road that tends to get stuck on the rubber. That was taken care of quickly and off we went, to the hors category climb...
I must say, the ride up Arthur's Seat was a pain in the a$$. to my shame, the thought of getting off the bike and walk did occur in my mind. The last time, as far as I can remember, when that loser mentality came on was eons ago when I first started riding again. After laying off the bike for a week and a half, and fighting jet lag, my fitness had dropped considerably. But, I made it up there nevertheless, with thinpin whistling and stopping to take pictures of me suffering like a dog around the hairpin, which he will pay later. :no:
That was the only major climb of the day, and thin-pal declared ceremoniously, "Oh it would be downhill and relatively flat, and no major hills after this..." As soon as he said that, air fizzled out of his rear tire. He was jumping up and down like a monkey, and I had to calm him down, "hey bud, not the end of the world, okay? We will take care of it and then move on, no problem." I put in the spare tube that I was carrying and started pumpin' but it just wouldn't hold air..had a leak, Oops X 1...Oh, we had a patch kit, no problem...squeezed the glue tube...nothing came out, Oops X 2
What do we do??? The nearest store is at Dromana. that means going down Arthur's seat and then climbing back up...."don't look me, I ain't climbing up that monster hill twice!" And even that, we are not 100% sure that there is a shop that carries bicycle supplies there. So, what are the other options? We decided that I will ride down the street to the next small town called Red Hill and see if there's anything in the General Store. When I got there, I could smell the sweet aroma of pastries and coffee. I asked the store mgr, "Do you have a spare?" He sort of looked at me, "Huh? we sell food here." Anyway, thin-pal caught up with me, he managed to get enough air in to get going again. We picked up Tarzan Glue at a grocer and continued riding w/o any further issue. From then on, it was wineyards, vista views, seaview on the left, and the best part, the SUN was out. I had a bit of challenge on the undulating roads but nothing like Arthur's Seat! Overall, we had a blast. I had traced out the route on a map below.
And then yesterday, I was able to head out for another spin. I started from a small little town called Rye and rode to Point Nepean. Taken directly off the Visitor's Guide...
"The history of Point Nepean spans back thousands of years to the Boon wurrung people. Since then the park has been used to quarantine people arriving in Victoria, defence forts (where the first shots were fired on WWI and the first allied shots in WWII) and for military training (officer cadets)."
I must say, it's a pretty neat experience. They have good quality roads (about 5 km one way) meandering through the park, with many historic landmarks that you can stop and tour, take pictures etc.
The wind was gusting like crazy, whipping up the waves and blowing me off the path. As I approached the tip at Fort Napean, the wind was especially strong, so I got off and walked a bit. Then on the way home, I was practically flying, took me less than 1/2 hr to get back when it took almost an hour to get there. It is a lovely place, I intent to bring the family back when we officially moved later this year.
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080496.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080504.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080503.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080508.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080518.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080510.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080559.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080546.JPG
http://alicehui.com/pics/sorrento/mini-P1080547.JPG