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Neil & Alexander's Page

Neil & Alexander North Shore NSW, Australia: 1wx2s2a0rnvcd; Share

Discussions (78)
Events (1)

Neil & Alexander's Friends

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Neil & Alexander's Groups

Pro Cycling (8 members)
Commuting (80 members)

touring (18 members)
North Shore Bicycle Group (8 members)

Recreational Riding (29 members)

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Neil & Alexander's discussions

Bicycle NSW AGM/Constitutional Review

Replied 1 day ago

Running Red lights - does it maker your ride faster?

Replied Sep 5

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Neil & Alexander's Events

National Ride to Work Day Breakfast
October 15, 2008 from 7am to 9am – On the bike path at Fleming Park, Naremburn.

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Latest Activity

Adrian and Neil & Alexander commented on the video GyroBike 6 hours ago

Neil & Alexander replied to the discussion Maybe a new Rail Trail in NSW 14 hours ago

Neil & Alexander replied to the discussion How steep is your commute ? 1 day ago

Neil & Alexander replied to the discussion Lithgow to Dubbo 1 day ago

Profile

What sort of riding do you do ?: Commuting, Road Cycling, Recreational, Touring, Whatever

Where in Sydney do you live ?: North Shore

Tell us about your bikes: Many, and mostly workhorses for towing the cargo trailer or transporting the kids, touring, commuting or occasionally going fast(er) on the weekend.

About Me:: Our household doesn't own a car (we never have) but we still pay income taxes, GST, stamp duties, fuel excise (to run the mower three times a year) and council rates all of which help subsidise motorists' use of tollways, prop up the car manufacturing industry and contriibute to the building and upkeep of the roads and paths they drive on (and we do mean to include the paths) and we cycle on. We volunteer some of our spare time to the community via bushcare and the local school P&C.
Neil used to edit and produce cycling magazines then freelanced writing cycling guide books for Lonely Planet and Open Spaces ("Bike Rides Around Sydney").
Alexander is now in year 6 and has graduated to an Avanti Black Thunder 24" wheel MTB for personal travel. His sister, Laura, rides a Trek MTB with 20" wheels. Their mother has a green Jim Lemon touring bicycle (pictured below) which is the thing she says she likes best after Neil and the children. Our Kotzur tandem is a nice green, too, but is unfortunately gathering dust until the children are big enough to ride it with Neil.

Website:: http://www.osp.com.au/about/authors.htm#

Laura helps her mum climb Bust-Me-Gall Hill in eastern Tasmania

Heading north on the east coast of Tasmania

A touring cyclist passes poppy fields in north-eastern Tasmania

Riders and their rigs ready to roll from the Pub in the Paddock, Pyengana, Tas

Over the mountain to Ringarooma, Tas. This was even steeper, rougher, tougher and wetter than it looks.

Easier riding once on top; the road less travelled (esp by cyclists).

Neil & Alexander's Blog

How many cyclists on this site ride tandems, we wonder. Should there be a tandem group to discuss everything tandemic? Perhaps. We are musing upon this subject after Neil completed a very enjoyable 60km jaunt with his regular stoker, Andrew, on Sunday. It was one of those crisp but shiny and bright Sunday mornings on the northern beaches with less than usual traffic. Maybe all that Olympics watching had tired out the otherwise early drivers who were catching up on their shut-eye instead. We had… Continue

Posted on August 25th, 2008 at 4:16pm — 1 Comment (Add)

Another Olympic event

We know it's not a competition. This Sydney/Melbourne rivalry is just so much hype. No truth to it at all. But... We have to note that the Sydney Cyclist site (316 members) is (still) streets ahead of the Melbourne Cyclist site (247 members) as of this morning. Sydney Cyclist is powering towards the gold, even though one of our leading riders has taken a nasty tumble. (Bodies heal but that square wheel is gonna slow D down, so time for the rest of the team to share the pacemaking.) Hang on, w… Continue

Posted on August 15th, 2008 at 11:24am — 2 Comments (Add)

Are bike path designers pole-ish?

You have to wonder whether bike path designers really deserve whatever it is they are paid. Or is it a case of paying peanuts and getting monkeys? It could just be that the RTA, as the responsible authority, has no real interest in cyclists (surely that can't be??) and believes that we will be happy with whatever scraps we are thrown. Members of this site have already canvassed a number of deficiencies of the new Gore Hill Fwy/Epping Rd shared path. Many of these have related to user behaviour… Continue

Posted on August 8th, 2008 at 9:10pm — 27 Comments (Add)

Comment Wall (17 comments)

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At 12:00pm on August 25th, 2008, Darrell Stone said…: We had a 24 x 34 bottom gear, but Merrilyn tended to only be a weekend social cyclist, while I was usually commuting 35k a day 2-4 days week as well as the weekend rides. So given that configuration, we walked a few hills on our tours. We did find that when we both wore heart rate monitors, we were able to even the load so that I wasn't the only one stuffed at the end of the day. ;-) I could back off until her HR was up near mine and we were then able to climb hills that we had not been able to previously. The HRM also helped to get into the right gear for her pedaling capability. I tended to push a harder gear than she was capable of contributing much to, so we geared down a bit and span more.

At 7:48pm on August 24th, 2008, Jamin said…: No suspension on the Mountain unicycle except for the legs being able to absorb all the impact. Legs do braking as well.

At 7:09pm on August 24th, 2008, Darrell Stone said…: Seeing the photos of your tribe on tour reminded me of something that we did to make it easier to drag a laden tandem up the hill while we were touring. We made a "harness" for the stoker so that she could pull the bike up the hill while I balanced and pushed it. As you know, tandems aren't easy to balance and push up hill, and it is pretty near impossible for 2 people to push. We used our 3-4m clothesline and tied it to a shoulder strap that we had for carrying our handlebar bag. The strap formed a sash over the stoker's shoulder to spread the load and it all worked quite well for us. We got quite a few looks (especially from the tourist buses) and plenty of friendly toots.

At 2:49pm on August 24th, 2008, Kim said…: Neil, I'd love to cycle Tassy. Can you tell me what parts you would recommend? What time of year would you recommend?

At 5:48pm on August 14th, 2008, Darrell Stone said…: Hmmm! I was a bit disappointed in Tassie. I found that the rewards weren't worth the effort required. Then again, I don't travel as far each day as you seem to, and certainly haven't climbed every mountain yet. Having done the trips there that are on my website, I doubt that I would go back again.

At this stage, I think that my Kosciuszko trip - which I hope to do in Mar/Apr next year is good, as are my planned 5 weeks away in Sep/Oct going from Lithgow to Cootamundra, West Wyalong, Dubbo, Muswellbrook, Manilla, down the Oxley Hwy to Wauchope and then back to Newcastle. I hope to do the beautiful areas of N NSW in spring of 2009. At some stage, I want to get to do the Flinders, but all of these plans hinge on my wife's health, so I can only dream at this stage, at least until I head off.

Good luck with your trip.

At 1:09pm on August 12th, 2008, Bob Moore said…: Hi Neil
Re those pics, I can save them off Sydneycyclist and then upload into my album, which seems a little roundabout. Not sure if there is a way to transfer them more directly - must ask Damian. Or you could start a photo gallery of your own and then I think its easy for me to drag and drop such pics into my album.

At 12:12pm on August 12th, 2008, DamianM said…: Change of name ?

At 10:12pm on August 11th, 2008, KimR said…: Hi there. Thanks for posting the Times letter. Some people like Mr Herron just can't see there is more than one one to look at things. I still think that overall his extreme views help to raise the profile of cycling as people read and take in the more balanced replies to him.

At 1:03pm on July 26th, 2008, GW said…: Love the discussion about the number of cyclists! I ended up driving from Randwick to Redfern for work at peak hour this week (not something I"d normally do!), and was amazed at the sheer number of cyclists I saw.

At 5:54pm on July 25th, 2008, Darrell Stone said…: G'day Neil & Alethea. I plan to head off on 30 August and I think that I'll go via Tarana Quarry at this stage, but that may change. As we will be
travelling on a Sunday, we may use GWH if the traffic looks OK. Thanks for your feedback.

At this stage, this is the plan
Sat 30-Aug train to Lithgow
Sun 31-Aug 68 bathurst
Mon 1-Sep 62 carcoar dam
Tue 2-Sep 61 cowra
Wed 3-Sep rest
Thu 4-Sep 71 young
Fri 5-Sep 76 cootamundra
Sat 6-Sep 55 temora
Sun 7-Sep rest
Mon 8-Sep 70 west wyalong
Tue 9-Sep 106 forbes
Wed 10-Sep 82 peak hill
Thu 11-Sep 72 dubbo
Fri 12-Sep rest
Sat 13-Sep 51 wellington
Sun 14-Sep 72 gulgong
Mon 15-Sep 81 bylong
Tue 16-Sep 99 muswellbrook
Wed 17-Sep Train home