To spend your life living in fear, never exploring your dreams, is cruel.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The 30th Icicle Ride



On Saturday I went to see one of the few films I was really interested in watching at MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival), called 'The City of Life and Death'. It's a film about the Nanjing (Nanking) massacre; it was a big regret of mine that when I was in Nanjing a couple of years ago the museum dedicated to the massacre was closed for renovations. The film was a huge critical and commercial success in China, and the organizers correctly predicted a big turnout, putting it in the largest capacity screen available. It's great that so many people in Melbourne turned up to watch a subtitled film. As with Speilburg's 'Shindler's List' and Haneke's 'The White Ribbon', it was shot in black and white. It didn't disappoint, containing some of the most startling scenes I've ever seen on film. There wasn't much character development, but it didn't need it, instead going for a more overarching view in order to capture the unimaginable scale of events.

Normally I would have returned back home to sleep, but instead I turned up at midnight at the petrol station near the Calder raceway, meeting 150 or so other bikes for the icicle ride. This is a group ride run overnight in the middle of winter which is well-known in Victoria and has been running annually for 30 years. The ride is run over three legs of about 120 kilometers each, finishing this year in Healsville at about 6 or 7 in the morning. I wouldn't call it a fun ride but it was certainly challenging, with temperatures dropping to zero in some places. Getting my commemorative badge upon finishing brought a sense of achievement: I can now say that I have completed an icicle ride. There was a lot of wildlife about, with two riders colliding with kangaroos and one other with a wombat. It emphasized to me one of the key dangers of riding at night in Australia.

Doing the icicle ride got me looking into issues concerning wind chill when riding. The National Weather Service in the USA use an equation to model the effective (i.e. wind chill included) temperature based on the air temperature and the wind speed. I've plotted it below using degrees Celsius for the temperatures and kilometers per hour for the speed. The equation is only valid for wind speeds of 10 kph and above, and for air temperatures below ten degrees.

The three lines represent different air temperatures: 5 degrees (sold line), 2.5 degrees (dashed line) and 0 degrees (dotted line). At these sort of temperatures a good rule of thumb is that the wind chill factor when riding is about ten degrees. The non-linearity in the curves is to be expected. Perhaps of more interest is the fact that differences in the air temperature become larger once the wind is taken into account. No wonder I was so cold.



Technical Note: The equation plotted is W = 13.13 + 0.6215T - 11.36V + 0.3962TV where T is air temperature (degrees Celsius) and where V is speed (in kilometers per hour) to the power of 0.16.

Riding Distance: 405 kms

Monday, July 19, 2010

Day 4/4: Around The Hume



I've learned much about my tolerance for cold on this trip. With my current full warm gear (non-electric) set-up, and riding at 100 km/h, anything over ten degrees is pleasant. Between five and ten is no problem at all for long distance riding. Between two and five is okay, but not hugely comfortable, with tingling hands and feet that necessitates hugging the engine every so often. Two or below and I'm staying in bed.

And perhaps tackling sixty kilometers of dirt solo, in the middle of nowhere, may be a bit too adventurous for a dirt novice. But as always, the experience has been great. I set off back to Melbourne from Yass (appropriately enough) straight down the Hume, stopping off to see a dog on a tinderbox (don't ask me) and the submarine display at Holbrook, one of only three towns not currently bypassed. And that will be the last overnight journey for my rear tyre; I gave it a good send-off.

Riding Distance: 610 kms
Total Distance: 345 + 285 + 290 + 610 = 1530 kms

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Day 3/4: Around The Hume



I crashed today. It was the first time my poor bike has been on its side for about 10 months. But it wasn't all bad. Firstly, I caught it on video. Secondly, it was on fairly wet dirt, and if you are going to crash that is the best place to do it.

Another cold morning and I was off to Corryong for a morning pick-me-up and some fuel, with the intention of taking the back-roads to Tumut via Towong, Greg Greg, Tooma and the wonderfully named Tumbarumba. Condensation from the mist was building on my visor and turning into frost. The petrol station attendant said that she'd driven up that way the day before, and gave me dire warnings about mist, kangaroos and ice in the shadows cast by the trees. It turned out not to be quite so dangerous today though, and it was a superb route to ride. The scenic lookouts, looking down onto cloud cover over the valley, were simply breathtaking.

At Tumut I stopped in at the modern tourist information center in the old butter factory and took the road to Wee Jasper, which contains two stretches of dirt, both of which are about 30kms long. Literally seconds away from the end of the first stretch the bike and I went down (see video below). I'm not sure why, and I didn't have the awareness to examine what I had just ridden through. Most of the road was dry, but this section at the bottom of a valley was damp. The video shows a patch of ground darker than the rest, but perhaps I am just looking for excuses.



No real damage to me or the bike, other than both of us being very muddy. I picked the bike up and got it going again by fully opening the throttle before cranking the engine. I tackled the second section of dirt and then rode from Wee Jasper to Yass underneath a brilliant red sunset. By the time I connected with the Hume again at Yass it was pitch black, but fortunately I finished the twisties before total darkness fell. I didn't travel many kilometers today, but those kilometers were perhaps the hardest I have ever ridden on a bike. It was an awesome day.

Riding Distance: 290 kms

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Day 2/4: Around The Hume



It was an incredibly cold morning in Wangaratta; my new digital temperature gauge was reading zero degrees, and its ice warning was flashing away at me. So I left it until 10am by which time it had risen to a whole three degrees. Then bike problems, similar to those observed in another cold morning in Mt Gambier, meant I was having coffee instead of riding the bike. It cheered me up though, as I decided the problem was with the choke and therefore minor, and by the time I had my coffee the temperature had risen another few degrees.

All this meant that I didn't get my bike started until 11am, and I had decided to spend a more relaxing day drinking coffee and exploring. I felt that the bike needed a long straight ride to get itself going, so I took the C374 to Yarrawonga on the state border. I'm glad I did, because Yarrawonga-Malwala is a lovely town, and I picked a great spot overlooking Lake Mulwala near the tourist information building for my second coffee of the day. By now the sun was out; I could have stayed there all day, but it was time to reluctantly move on.

I headed East on the Murray Valley Highway (B400), through Rutherglen, connecting with the Hume again at Wodonga, where I followed the signs to the army museum. The army museum at Wodonga appears to have had a lot more money spent on it than the one at Puckapunyal. All the exhibits are well presented and have been restored to their former glory. It even had a few motorbikes, including a Suzuki GS450 (pictured). It was disappointing that on a Saturday afternoon I appeared to be the only person there.

Further East I got off the Murray Valley Highway at Bonegilla, heading North on the C541, crossing the bridge and taking a superb detour to Bethanga (22 kms return). Although it was getting late I had heard that this was a great road, and I had heard correctly. Looking up at the guard rail on the road running up the hill you are about to climb is awe inspiring. After chatting with some locals at a scenic lookout (pictured) about how I was crazy to ride when it was so cold (my gloved hands were clutching the warmth of the engine), I returned down the hill and continued East.

The C542/6 is a great motorbiking road running along the Murray River; it was difficult not to get distracted by the eerie sight of the river and the numerous leaf-less trees within it, all shrouded in mist. It looked like a scene from a horror movie. I planned to get to Tintaldra or even Corryong but darkness fell so I stayed the night as the only resident in the welcoming one-pub town of Walwa.

Riding Distance: 285 kms

Friday, July 16, 2010

Day 1/4: Around The Hume



The Hume highway, linking Melbourne and Sydney, is one of the most boring roads on the planet. But there are some interesting things around it and I'm going to explore them on this trip.

I've been to three military bases before: one in Bangkok to do some target shooting and one each side of the Korean demilitarized zone. As I turned off the Hume at Seymour I was about to visit my forth. Puckapunyal is a huge military base containing an army museum which is known for its collection of tanks. If it was in Melbourne it would get a good number of civilian visitors. Unfortunately it doesn't because, well, its in the middle of a huge military base.

Getting in the base was no problem; after being given a visitor pass at the security check I was free to ride the bike inside the base to the museum, which even had a 'motorcycles only' parking area. The collection of tanks was impressive in size, much larger than even the army museum in London. It could do with more investment though for restoration of both the tanks and the faded signage. They also had a memorial for soldiers who had died in training. Fresh flowers were placed for the latest casualty, Private David Smith who died at Puckapunyal this time last year.

In the afternoon I tackled three rides listed in my motorcycling atlas. The first was the old Hume Highway which runs parallel to the railway line between Seymour and Longwood. Many years ago it used to accommodate all the traffic, but now it is essentially empty, and apart from Avenel there seems little life left in the towns along the route: an interesting trip to the past. The second ride was from Euroa to Merton, and from there I went on to do the well-known Mansfield to Whitfield run. Mansfield was busy today as it is the gateway to the snowfields at Mt Buller. Mansfield to Whitfield is twisty and generally downhill (with lots of debris today), which is a combination I definitely need more practice at since I typically use engine braking on the flat. From Whitfield I ploughed on up the faster section of the C521, back to the Hume at Wangaratta.

Riding Distance: 345 kms

Sunday, July 11, 2010

First Aid Kit



I nearly always take a first aid kit on my bike. Any first aid kit is secondary to knowledge. Once you've taken a first aid course you might be thinking about what you need in your kit. This is my approach.

The purpose of the kit is not exclusively for use at the side of the road. It often happens that somebody goes down, carries on riding, and then realizes they are more injured than they initially thought once the ride has finished and the adrenaline wears off. Another thing to consider is that there is always a trade-off between size and utility. Kits that you buy off the shelf are often contained in a user friendly and compartmentalized case, which is good for home use, but takes up unnecessary space. So I just throw everything into a cell container I got from a backpacker store. Making your own kit also helps you think carefully about what to put in it. The contents of mine are as follows.

Large Items:
High Visibility Vest
Small Torch
Emergency Blanket
Instant Single Use Cold Pack
No 15 Wound Dressing
Triangular Bandage
Two Crepe Bandages (7.5cm and 10cm)

Flat Items:
Some Gauze Swabs (7.5cm x 7.5cm)
Non-Adhesive Dressing (10cm x 10cm)
Combine Dressing (20cm x 10cm)

Small Items and Instruments:
Some Plasters and Island Dressings
Antiseptic Wipes
Alcohol Wipes
Scissors, Forceps and Shears
Pins and Tape
CPR Mask and Gloves

For me this a good trade-off. The cell container is about 20cm x 15cm x 10cm and everything fits in it except for the high-viz vest. The cold pack is the biggest item, followed by the emergency blanket, triangular bandage and wound dressing. Having no cold pack would free up a lot of space but I think it is worthwhile. I don't have any eye dressings or saline solution steritubes, or any specialist burns items. For documentation I have a small pad and pencil in my jacket.

The use of most of these things is fairly self explanatory. The cold pack is useful for strains, sprains and bruising. The wound dressing (no 15 is the largest size) is a dressing attached to a bandage, and is the first thing I would use for most wounds. An exception would be if the wound was bleeding heavily, in which case I would use the combine dressing (a large pad designed to soak up blood) first. The alcohol wipes are for cleaning instruments. The non-adhesive dressing is useful for burns or road rash. Bandages can be used to secure dressings or directly to support or splint limbs. Shears are used to cut clothing; they are usually only included in large first aid kits.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

On-road Coaching



A new experience for me today, doing an on-road training ride. On-road training rides are not ordinarily done in Australia; this one was part of a Vicroads trial to assess its effectiveness. They hope to get 2400 people; 1200 of these will take the on-road training (the treatment group) and the other 1200 will not* (the control group). I was in the treatment group, so I headed down to the HART training center at Kilsyth this morning, doing my good deed for the day by settling the petrol bill for a mother that came up short.

The instructor was excellent; myself and two others were lead on a ride around the area of about 100 kilometers, stopping lots of times for chats about roadcraft, hazard awareness and the like. Normally there would be four participants and the instructor, but it worked better with just the three of us. The carefully planned route took us through some urban traffic, then on to some more rural roads. It included a few corners but nothing really twisty or demanding. And that was as it should be, because although anyone on a restricted licence could take part, it is principally designed for those who have done 500-3000 kilometers, rather than my 13000.

It was a very useful and enjoyable day out, though the other two in the group who were less experienced may have taken more out of it. There were two things in the on-road training that stood out for me; two things that you can't get in a car-park. The first was that the classroom training stuff works much better when you are not in a classroom. The frequent stops and chats about riding, and about past experiences of riding, simply work much better from a pedagogical point of view when you are out riding. The things discussed become tangible, particularly if the discussions relate to an incident that has just occurred. The second is the ability of the instructor to talk to you on the radio headset when you take your turn as the lead rider of the group. There is nothing quite like the direct feedback of the instructor in your ear telling you, when you are approaching a crest in the right wheel track, that the left wheel track is a better place to be. You simply don't forget advice given over a headset, because you relate that advice to the corresponding visual information.

Our instructor realised that all three of us were safety conscious motorcyclists, and he tacitly acknowledged that some of the things he went through were (my words) preaching to the converted. When three bikers turn-up, all with back protectors and one with a neck brace (a motocross rider), the ATGATT discussion is naturally going to be a short one. But this didn't make the experience any less enjoyable, and we got a nice brand new high-viz vest to take home. Unfortunately it's got 'Honda' written on it.

As for the trial itself, it has been very well designed and set-up. It is easy to criticise these things but it is more difficult to provide alternative solutions. That said, when the results come out in 2012, they will show that on-road testing has no effect in crash reduction. This is because the 2400 riders in the trial do not represent learner motorcyclists. They only represent learner motorcyclists who would choose to participate in a training program. In statistical terminology, the 2400 participants are not a representative sample of the population of learner motorcyclists. The sample of 2400 is known as a volunteer sample, which is scientifically a bad way of doing things but often there is no way of doing anything else for practical or ethical reasons. A better description of the population here would be 'safety conscious learner motorcyclists'. The training in this trial will often preach to the converted; the conversions that may show the real benefit of this training will simply not be seen.

From a purely scientific perspective, taking a random sample of 600 participants from all learner motorcyclists would be far better (and much cheaper) than using 2400 volunteers. But many will take the view that forcing those 600 learner motorcyclists into doing on-road training would be unethical, even if it were legal. It is unfortunate that getting accurate answers to scientific questions is often at odds with civil liberties. As a result we get a trial such as this one which can do much, but cannot do what it purports to do; it cannot scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of on-road training for learner riders.

*Not strictly true as the control group will receive the training at the end (a wait list control group). This is to encourage participation (people may not participate if there were a 50% chance of not receiving any training) and to appease ethics committees.

Distance Travelled: 105 kms