Bike riders in Coffs coming out of the woodwork!
Back in September a few Saturday morning 'Coffs Community' bike rides were organised - initially in conjunction with Bike Week. They proved so popular, that they are now happening every Saturday morning - and so Marc and I rocked up on the Santana yesterday morning to see what it was like.
We had actually tried to do this 2 weeks ago - only the information in the paper was incorrect! We turned up at Bob Wallis cycles at 7am - when the starting place was the city centre, at 6.30am!
That day we took ourselves over to Sawtell anyway, and passed a couple of groups coming back along the bike path, figured it was the Community Ride, so we detoured via the City Centre on our way back, found everyone having coffee at one of the outdoor cafes in the mall, and got the correct info.
I am still not quite sure why I agree to these things... as I am not much of a morning person. I was particularly bad getting up at 5 am yesterday morning - probably something to do with still not going to bed till after 11pm the night before - and muttered about it loudly enough to myself to give something Marc can tease me about for the rest of our days. I was serious though! It was bringing back the bad memory part of getting up on the Big Ride, and I was berating myself for even contemplating doing all that again!
Of course, once I get going it is ok.. (though I was quite shattered by mid-afternoon and needed to go and have a sleep - something I normally only do if I'm sick!)
Around 78 people (I gather) turned up for the ride; the numbers are increasing all the time. All ages, all abilities and experience by the looks of it. A mum and dad with a trailer bike on one seat, and a child seat on the other. A couple of kids with road bikes and cleats. Plus a heap of other people. They made up 4 groups - A grade do around 35-40km... B1 does 30ish. ... B2 does around 25.. and C does around 20. I think.
We decided to go with B1. We'd heard that the A group are super serious about their riding, and certainly don't wait for you if you fall behind, so didn't want to bite off more than we could chew. We had no trouble, however, with B1, and spent a lot of our time on the brakes... and never really put in at all, so we figure next time we'll tag along with the A group and if we get left behind, so what. It will give us something to work towards.
We headed out to Sawtell along the bike path on Hogbin drive. Glad Marc put a suspension seat post on for me.. it made a lot of difference on the bike path, which is a bit of a ka-thunk affair. I'm not sure of the wisdom of such a big group riding along a narrow bike path (especially having experienced meeting such a group head on the other week!).. but I guess you have to use the bike paths when they are there.
One of the good parts of riding in this sort of thing is the opportunity to meet other people who are keen about bike riding. Straight up there were people from the Coffs BUG, so we didn't feel so alone. Plus another women started chatting to us because we were on a tandem.. because their family had a Bike Friday triplet on order - AND - with their 2 kids, they were going on a bike riding holiday in Cuba in January. Classic.
The idea of the community bike ride is to return to the city centre by 8am.. and then most people order a coffee or whatever from the cafe. Nice morning out.. bit of exercise.. and home in time to do a few truckloads of washing.
We had actually tried to do this 2 weeks ago - only the information in the paper was incorrect! We turned up at Bob Wallis cycles at 7am - when the starting place was the city centre, at 6.30am!
That day we took ourselves over to Sawtell anyway, and passed a couple of groups coming back along the bike path, figured it was the Community Ride, so we detoured via the City Centre on our way back, found everyone having coffee at one of the outdoor cafes in the mall, and got the correct info.
I am still not quite sure why I agree to these things... as I am not much of a morning person. I was particularly bad getting up at 5 am yesterday morning - probably something to do with still not going to bed till after 11pm the night before - and muttered about it loudly enough to myself to give something Marc can tease me about for the rest of our days. I was serious though! It was bringing back the bad memory part of getting up on the Big Ride, and I was berating myself for even contemplating doing all that again!
Of course, once I get going it is ok.. (though I was quite shattered by mid-afternoon and needed to go and have a sleep - something I normally only do if I'm sick!)
Around 78 people (I gather) turned up for the ride; the numbers are increasing all the time. All ages, all abilities and experience by the looks of it. A mum and dad with a trailer bike on one seat, and a child seat on the other. A couple of kids with road bikes and cleats. Plus a heap of other people. They made up 4 groups - A grade do around 35-40km... B1 does 30ish. ... B2 does around 25.. and C does around 20. I think.
We decided to go with B1. We'd heard that the A group are super serious about their riding, and certainly don't wait for you if you fall behind, so didn't want to bite off more than we could chew. We had no trouble, however, with B1, and spent a lot of our time on the brakes... and never really put in at all, so we figure next time we'll tag along with the A group and if we get left behind, so what. It will give us something to work towards.
We headed out to Sawtell along the bike path on Hogbin drive. Glad Marc put a suspension seat post on for me.. it made a lot of difference on the bike path, which is a bit of a ka-thunk affair. I'm not sure of the wisdom of such a big group riding along a narrow bike path (especially having experienced meeting such a group head on the other week!).. but I guess you have to use the bike paths when they are there.
One of the good parts of riding in this sort of thing is the opportunity to meet other people who are keen about bike riding. Straight up there were people from the Coffs BUG, so we didn't feel so alone. Plus another women started chatting to us because we were on a tandem.. because their family had a Bike Friday triplet on order - AND - with their 2 kids, they were going on a bike riding holiday in Cuba in January. Classic.
The idea of the community bike ride is to return to the city centre by 8am.. and then most people order a coffee or whatever from the cafe. Nice morning out.. bit of exercise.. and home in time to do a few truckloads of washing.
Labels: Coffs rides, santana
posted by Tracey at 10:36 am
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