30.10.08

1.5 Hour Trial

I just wanted know how much I could do at the moment. so I undertook 1.5 hour bike trial myself today.



Here is the result:
1.5 hour bike trial (30 October 2008)

Trip Distance: 37.23 km
Average Speed: 28.98 Km/h


It's such a miserable result. It's definitely lack of stamina I'm not even able to reach an average speed of 30 km/h......

well, there are some excuses to make.
  1. I had to stop some times by the signals.

  2. It was a windy day.
well, it all could happen in the real race.

I need to speed up at least 30% by the day of the race.

One thing, Don't miss the Halloween Alley-Cat. It's on tomorrow.

The Flyer:


For more information on the Halloween Alley-Cat visit:
http://shitcitybikeclub.blogspot.com/
Oh, shit I still haven't find what to wear.

Tell me if you know a good place to buy fancy death dresses.

29.10.08

THE GREAT BIKE RIDE presented by City of Perth

I found an interesting notice on the paper this morning.


There is a 106km and 53km road race around the Swan River on 23rd of November. It's called 'The Great Bike Ride'


For people who don't know about the Swan River:

The Swan River is probably the most well known symbol of the city of Perth that runs right next to the CBD of Perth to the Indian Ocean. As it's connected to the ocean swan, river is a saline river so I heard that you can see sea animals like dolphins sometimes, and of course, swans as well (but note that swans in Perth are BLACK).


Here I show you some photos of the Swan river:














I'm kind of thinking of taking part in this race by my fixie bike (Gear Ratio- Front:Back/46:15).

Do you think I'm crazy? If you don't think it's crazy, fairly cool, you are already fixie geek!

Well, but I need to see the course first.

For more information on the Great Bike Ride visit:
http://www.greatbikeride.com.au/

The course (PDF):
http://www.greatbikeride.com.au/docs/map.pdf

28.10.08

Tuesday Arvo

Since I only have class in the morning on weekdays I usually wonder around Perth every afternoon after class except the day I work .

I went to a bike shop in Fremantle as I heard it sells a variety of bike gears cheaply. It did. well, I don't know much about bike but a built wheel (rim: velocity's deep rim hub: sorry forgot but fairly smooth one...) was around $150. and tires are much cheaper than bike shops in city, man. You'd better check it out!

It's called 'Ideal Cycles' on 380 South Street Fremantle (search on Google for more details)

I bought a rear gear with 19 teeth and attached on the other side of my back wheel to make pedal lighter in order to enjoy doing tricks and skidding.

On the way back, I remembered that BLOC PARTY would come for a concert to Perth in the end of November. So I went to a record shop, Planet, in North Perth to check if there were still some left or not. God, There was plenty left.
Apparently, the venue's capacity was expanded due to unprecented demand and selling 8000 more tickets. and the shop still had 300 left. It's $79.99 /p

I think I'm going get one but I wanted to check the new album of them before I make a decision. so just bought their new album 'INTIMACY', which just released on 25th.


Bloc Party



Then I got home, had dinner and inserted the CD into my computer to listen to it.



.......................................

..............

....




not working...


gosh!


this picture describes my present feeling:


26.10.08

BIKE POLO NIGHT

There was a fixie night today as usual, well, since the day light saving started from today here it is no longer a fixie NIGHT though.

It was a bit different from ordinal fixie night, didn't do any tricks. Instead we did a sport.

I have never seen this kind of sport. It is called Bike Polo (or Cycle Polo). It is basically same as polo, you know the one on the Polo Shirts. For bike polo we simply use bikes instead of horses. But it is more bloody than you think if you play this sport with fixie bikes (some are even brakeless with binding pedals). I saw many crashes and fallings during the game.
Bike Polo is like this:


and if you play this with fixie bikes it would be like this:
and if you form a team it would be like this:


It's a fun sport as long as you don't mind get injured!


17.10.08

スローライフへようこそ

授業が月曜日と火曜日しかない(しかも授業時間2時間半)今日この頃、僕の生活はサイクリングから始まりサイクリングで終わっているような気がします。

日曜日:地元のおっちゃんおばちゃんとサイクリング
     カフェ
     地元のピスティー達とトリックの練習+街中サイクリング
     パブでビールとピザ
     
月曜日:よく寝る
     昼から学校
     パブでビール

火曜日:少し勉強
     昼から学校
     ネットサーフィン

水曜日:引越し

木曜日:朝サイクリング
     昼サイクリング
     夜自転車整備

金曜日:朝サイクリング
     自転車屋めぐり
     
オーストラリアのスローライフ。恐るべし。
学生なのかニートなのかわからんようになってた

14.10.08

What's a Day. 2

'I want you to pack your stuff and leave.' he said quietly.

Actually, it was my second time for this failure. So I said okay, anyway I was suppose to leave the house on the coming Tuesday and to be honest, I didn't really feel comfortable with the conditions they offered to me.

These were like that:
1. $5 for laundry (plus bring your own detergent)
2. Not providing, juice, milk and water (Get your own)
3. Everyday different dinner time (8.00 pm on average)
4. No 'one-more go' for dinner
5. It takes 50 mins by bus to the city
6. Bread, ham and cheese are basically the only food provided for lunch and breakfast

I'm not complaining about the condition but I was paying this for AU$220 per week. So, you know its quiet a lot of money, I didn't think it worth staying there so I decided to move.

Anyway, by the failure possibilities of staying there until next Tuesday was ruled out.
There was no dinner provided on the last day and no refund as well.

I had some Tim tam chocolate which I bought couple of days ago left on the my desk, packed my stuff and hit a hey. Feeling of sadness and hunger made me unable to sleep well....

Next day (Saturday)I went to my neighbour who takes care of other international student from the same institute to leave most of my stuff until I move to my next home-stay family as I was planing to stay in a backpackers' hostel for couple of days with minimum amount of luggage. They kindly said okay and I brought my stuff.


I saw 2 bikes with flat tires in the garage at their house and they asked me if I can fix them. As I ride bike like a crazy cow it wasn't big deal for me to do it so I repaired the two bikes. Surprisingly, they invited me lunch. I was so happy as I haven't had proper meals since the night before. and I also surprised by their meal. It was actually really good I saw the big difference between two home stay hosts on the same street.




After the lunch I move to a backpackers' hostel called Governer Robinsons in the city (North bridge). Even though it was a bit expensive($28 per night for dorm) I loved it with its clean and cozy rooms, kitchen and a warm and friendly atmosphere of the hostel.


Conclusion of this story:
Cycling is very fun!




End

12.10.08

What's a day.


There is a story that i want to share with you.



On the last Friday, I was off to cycling as usual after school. I was kind of board because my class is just really short, was a self study type and what I did in the first week in the class was just typing practice.


Ayway, I went cycling for a while to check out one of the lakes near my house. One the way to the lake there was a massive park and I saw a group of kangaroos running in the park far away. It was actually my first time to see them.
When I came back to my home. There was a hoemstay daddy at home, using the Internet as usual. Somehow, he seemed to be upset. He looked at me and said 'where have you been, Yohei?' I said 'Just cycling to a lake' and he continued 'did you lock the key? it wasn't lock when I came back home, it was completely open'. He told me that I must lock the key and set the alarm when I was the last person at home. and It seemed like I forgot to lock. So I apologies for the mistake.


He was still upset and said quietly:


I want you pack your stuff and leave here by tomorrow's noon.


To be continued.....

4.10.08

Check out my picasa!

Hey, I just met some of messengers and fixed gear riders here in Perth. I have put photos of them on my Picasa (Web Photo Album). Have a look!