Accent On Albury is a glossy brochure our local council produces a few times each year, with community events and promotions. I always read it right through – not only is it well put together but I like to get some idea of what’s on locally.

The front page piece for February 2010 is ‘Take care to protect cyclists on our roads’. It aims at informing (reminding of road rules) and especially at improving safety. There must be some concern at our statistics:

The percentage of Albury car crashes in which a cyclist is hurt or killed is more than double the state average.

Sixty-seven cyclists were killed or injured on our roads from 2004-2008. Of all car crashes in Albury that resulted in casualties, 13% involved a cyclist, compared with 5.8% across NSW.

It’s good to make us think of safety. But I doubt that the council is really concerned. If they were, they would have to consider the condition of local roads, as well as decisions made in road planning. Some are crazy. Instead of this, the only suggested reason for such a high rate is participation.

To some extent, these figures reflect the number of local people who cycle, according to AlburyCity’s Road Safety Officer, Kate de Henin.

Hmm. Sounds like too easy an explanation. As soon as you do any reading on cycling and safety, you come across quotations like this, from Bicycle Victoria:

A new study published in the April 2005 issue of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia has found that the more pedestrians and cyclists who share the roads with motorists, the more likely they are to arrive at their destination safely, supporting the concept of ‘safety in numbers’

In other words, Albury should have *fewer* injuries and deaths, having a higher participation rate. I like what this article does to remind about roads rules. I commend its tone of voice – not confrontational or finger-pointing. But I also think it’s time for council to work harder on roads, road markings, intersections, and cycle lanes.

The photos below I snapped about 100m from home. (And, at 4pm on a day of 36°C, I now recommend against the barefoot option.) The road is Albury’s internal freeway, opened in 2007, and is part of the Hume – the major transport route between Sydney and Melbourne.

Exciting, hey?

Well, perhaps exciting is not the word. Yet it is good & useful, brings more safety, etc. A road worth having.

(Another aside: this road probably enabled us to buy our house. I understand not one other offer was made on the place, with the road about the start construction. I don’t mind this road.)

Here comes the roads & rides part of this posting. There’s a tiny sign in the above photo. For your convenience, I have a separate shot of it for you. You are still welcome to visit Albury and read the sign for yourself.

You can enter the freeway at this point and ride north – which I have done – all the way to Sydney – which I have not. You can go across the river, and from there ride the whole freeway to Melbourne. That’s over 500km north, or 300km south. But the two or three kilometers which cross the Murray River? Never!

Daft.

This road a great surface, good shoulders and good visibility. The alternative cycle-way is like following Alice down the rabbit-hole. So down the rabbit-hole we go.

I have seen one rider, though: a bmx guy with no helmet. Perhaps I should have run him over to point out the dangers of this smooth piece of tar. Maybe next time.

When tootling around the internet on a day off, I came across an amazing set of photos of an old bicycle’s gearing system. Since it’s on a Dutch company’s website I suspect it has not been seen by too many people here in Oz.

So have a look and see if you can figure out the way this works. Hint – the bike had four gears.

A verbal description of the chain path: top of front chain-ring to bottom of front chain-ring to top of large/low gear at rear to bottom of large/low gear at rear to small cog hanging from chain-stay to bottom of small/high gear at rear to top of small/high gear at rear to top of front chain ring again.

Confused?

It all means that, when you pedal, *both* rear gears are engaged and moving with the chain. (Compare modern derailleurs where the chain sits on just one of the 8, 9, 10, or 11 rear gears.)

But before we get to the really weird bit, a look at the front, where the chain can be changed between the two front chain rings. It’s a little different from the modern method, but recognisable.

The little doobie on the left moves up or down to shift the chain onto the small or large ring.

I like to ride, but I’m not a racer. Some silly things happen on roads – silly riding as well as silly driving.

So I like this. Commitments from riders (rather than riders simply making demands on drivers).

And cyclingtipsblog.com is one of my favourite blogs, too.

On Wednesday I did what sounds crazy. Got up in the dark and went for a ride. Not long, about an hour and a half. I needed proper lights. And it got above zero only for the last 15-20 minutes.

Why did I bother? Why did I enjoy it?

Some people do this because they’re proper cyclists with training regimes and they ride 5-7 days per week. I’m not them – never raced and have no desire to.

I think I know why – place and time.

from geology.isu.edu

I used to think (a week ago) that it was simply place. Riding is wonderful to reveal the layout of an area: here is that little creek, this is where the rise gets really steep, that curve reveals a great view, that road always has a headwind, etc. In a car I know the way but it all feels flat, the character muted.

from naturalsciences.com

If you like cycling – like me – and if you stayed up late watching Paris-Roubaix – like me – then this video will bring a great grin to your face.