Maribyrnong Ride, Sunday 25 April 2004
When one gets up on a Sunday morning one might have hundreds of reasons fornot getting out for a bike ride because ... the weather is a bit iffy or
there is a bit of an itch in the throat or maybe that headache will
dissipate faster by staying home to play with the kids or, ... but that grey
Sunday morning 7 people had their priorities right and got together in
Footscray for the start of a trip along the Maribyrnong river.
Riders on the day were-Renild, Ludo, John, Peter, Jon, Jana, Robert
I have only been involved with the recumbent world for about 6 month's, so I consider myself a novice, but ... I know when I see something good and that morning I saw something good as soon as I parked the car and switched off the wipers : A Row Bike ! Apart from being very pretty, closer examination revealed {fine + simple = good} engineering. A quick trial showed easy and fun riding (on flat road) and a surprising self steering ability.
Pictured here Ludo on the Row Bike >
More details about the Row Bike...
So off we went upstream, along the river. My recollection of the Maribyrnong river area is somewhat solidified in time when 20 years ago I used to cross it every morning on the train : desolate waste land bordered by disused meat works. That was probably the second good thing I saw that morning. The area has been totally revived, a mixture of sensible housing, parkland and ducks and kayaks on the river ... very pleasant and running along the river the wide track was nice and flat ... until ... we came to an area, which on the map leads to a lookout. Lookouts always mean climbing, unless you've hit the end of the world and this was an 18 carat one. Perfect concrete surface, but steep and yes, I had to dismount. Robert psychologically correct as always, blamed my gearing, but I know better : I'll work on my condition and I'll be back! After racing down the other side of the hill we briefly lost contact with the escapees but some waving and shouting persuaded them to retrace their steps and to descend the second hill they had climbed before. Shortly after a light rain started. It was a very fine gauge that pierces through every layer of your clothing until it mixes with your sweat on your bare skin. Got the picture? Nah, It wasn't really that bad, but it could have been if it would have lasted longer than 5 minutes. Around 2pm we arrived at the cafe in Brimbank Park. Perfect place for a picnic. Good food, reasonably priced cappuccinos and lots of tracks to try out the other bikes and trikes !
The return trip was rather like the way up as you would expect, was it not that I didn't had to dismount at the hill !!! Jana commented rather tactlessly that she also had the impression that this side of the hill was easier to climb than the other side. In an effort to make our trip a bit more interesting, John simulated a puncture on his Row Bike. We managed to get him back on his bike by stuffing a 20" tube in his 16" tire. I didn't know it would have been rideable, but it was fine and as long as I get that tube back nicely pressed and ironed that's going to be the end of it.
So we were gently rolling down the final kms along the wide section of the river ... dusk was coming in fast from the east and the lights were popping on along the river ... gloriously peaceful ... thank God for giving me the energy to get up early on a Sunday morning to go for a ride. ... although He gave the wrong impression with the weather at first.
Report and photos by Ludo S.