The Chocolate Mill

A group ride for me today, with a run up to the Chocolate Mill just north of Daylesford. The chocolate mill is a shop that makes its own chocolate on site, and as a result it is so much nicer than the horrible chocolate you typically get in Australia. As a motorbiking destination rides to the mill usually go well since it's an enjoyable ride with no particularly dangerous roads. This one was no exception.

The basic route took us to Woodend via Whittlesea, Wallan and some roads around Mt Macedon. Then to the Chocolate Mill, stopping off to see Trentham Falls (pictured), with an unusually high volume of water given the recent rains and flooding in the region. Then back to Melbourne on the Western Freeway, but not before enjoying part of the well-known biking route between Kyneton and Mymiong.

Something I must focus on is not looking at unusual hazards. A bike goes where you look, so looking at hazards is a bad thing. In the first leg of the ride another rider ran wide ahead of me and as you can see from the video I left it unnecessarily late to countersteer around him. The video was taken from a new helmet mounted camera. Click here for some edited footage of the ride.



Riding Distance: 360 kms

The Red Chapel

I watched my last film at MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) on Thursday: The Red Chapel. It's a documentary about North Korea - the Danish director and two Danish comedians born in South Korea (presumably without South Korean passports) visit the country on the pretext of doing a comedic theatrical performance. The film won Best Foreign Documentary at Sundance, and there was a full house of about 300 (mainly Australian) people to see it.

The monuments and places visited didn't interest me so much; I have been to North Korea and everyone who goes there, whether tourist, journalist or diplomat, sees the same things. What was great about the film was that the younger comedian Jacob showed so perfectly the contrast of emotion in any North Korean visit. Your North Korean hosts are so unbelievably kind and generous to you, it is hard to remind yourself of what actually goes on there, and even harder to bring it up in conversation.

There was a great moment at the end where the director gets Jacob, who has cerebral palsy, to ask his female host why he hasn't seen any other disabled people in Pyongyang. But before she thinks of an answer, Jacob rescues her by saying that he should meet some on his 'next visit'. I know exactly that feeling. It was very difficult for me to ask the hard questions, particularly when you are being filmed all the time (as all tourists are) and when there is a more senior onlooker in attendance. There is no danger to you, but the consequences for your host is one of the many unknowns.

There was nothing of interest to me at MIFF on its final weekend, so instead I took a cycle ride from the hills of Belgrave, on the Eastern end of the metropolitan train line, South West to the beach at Carrum. The first section of the ride links Belgrave to the pretty Lysterfield Lake area via some rather muddy tracks through Birds Land Reserve. It was heavier going than I expected, and at one brief point I had to get off the bike a walk it through the mud. A commuting bike was not the ideal piece of equipment for this section of the ride. Rough tracks comprised the remainder of the route from Monbulk Retarding Basin to Lysterfield Lake. Around Lysterfield Lake is the State Mountain Bike Course; a large network of mountain bike trails that were built a few years ago for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The local cafe doubles as a bike shop where you can rent or buy mountain bikes, some with price tags of over 6,000 AUD.

It's a faster run from now onwards, cycling through some country roads and linking up with the asphalt bicycle track alongside the Monash Freeway. On this section, just South of Lysterfield Lake is Yun Yang Temple: a large Chinese temple complex (pictured below) which was well worth a look around. The residential roads of Wattle Drive and Box Street allow you to link up with the Dandenong Creek Trail and from there is the direct run, mainly on wide bicycle tracks, to Carrum. The Dandenong to Carrum run is a well known route for Melbourne cyclists; a good fast route away from traffic, and a nice energetic way to end a ride. After a quick stroll on the beach, a coffee was the order of the day before catching the train home.



Cycling Distance: 48 kms

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

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

PW: Guard of Honour

Last week Peter Willoughby was taken by cancer aged fourty-four. I didn't know him well as I rarely do evening group rides, but he was a popular member of the Victorian motorbiking community and it was appropriate that I joined him for his last ride today to Altona Memorial Park. We donned green ribbons (Peter was a Kawasaki fan) and rode behind the hearse for the short distance from the petrol station to the park, making a loud racket as we made the final turn into the park gates.

The funeral had a huge turn out and was very emotional compared to other funerals I had been to. Cancer is a terrible disease. Peter was diagnosed with cancer four years ago. He did more in his fourty-four years than most people do with eighty-four. I could never cope with the knowledge of death as well as he did: death scares the hell out of me. That isn't such a bad thing though; although I am thirty-two I have already done everything that I really wanted to do in life. Looking back, I have done a lot. I attribute this to my fear of death; everything from now onwards is a bonus. When it happens to me, I hope it is sudden.

Peace, perfect peace.
Peter Willoughby

Social Eastern Jaunt

This week hasn't been a good one for Bangkok. I used to live in Singapore, and Bangkok remains almost a second home for me. The huge shopping center Central World has gone, including the brilliant SF World Cinema on the top floor. And 100 or so lives have been lost. I was watching an orchestra in Bangkok's Lumpini Park a few months ago, where the compere expressed his hopes that previous problems were behind them. But this was unlikely; the success of the yellow shirt airport protest would always create greater problems for the future. Bangkok depends largely on tourism, and it will be going through more tough times for at least the next year or two.

People are the most important thing, and with this in mind I headed out on a free Sunday for a rare group ride. It was a learner's group ride to the East of Melbourne, including the Black Spur and a ride up to the alpine resort of Lake Mountain; the last opportunity for this season as winter closes in. An enjoyable day was had by all, and it was good to catch up with those that I don't see so much these days. I took my turn as the tail rider coming back through the Black Spur; riding behind the learners was interesting, being reminded of what I went through when I was learning. And I gained some perverse pleasure watching the long queue of cars backing up behind me. Revenge.

Belgrave To City

The train to Belgrave is generally empty other than a smattering of tourists on their way to ride Puffing Billy, a steam train which goes all the way to Gembrook and back, taking about four hours in total. Four hours on Puffing Billy is enough for anyone, so most go to Lakeside, about half way down the track. The trip on Puffing Billy is expensive but fun, especially for kids, and you can sit on the edge and stick your legs out of the carriage. It's one the the main tourist attractions on the Eastern outskirts of Melbourne, along with the Dandenong Ranges, Healsville Sanctuary and the Yarra Valley wineries; tour companies often combine these for day trips.

It amazes me that you can ride all the way from Belgrave (the most Eastern of Melbourne's metropolitan train stations) back to the city on mainly recreational bike paths. But you can, and it's my favourite city day ride. Belgrave is over 200 metres above sea-level, meaning that the ride is generally downhill, and potentially has a very cold start. It wasn't too bad today though.

Following the fairly rough, unofficial and hard to navigate track North of the rail line is fun, as gravity does the work for you. At the end of the track I went down the main road (Burwood Highway) under the rail bridge and into Upper Ferntree Gully Station car-park, which had a small market on and is where the tourist information centre for the Dandenong Ranges is located. Further on, I crossed the rail line before Ferntree Gully Station and after about 1km took the signed turn-off to the left onto the Blind Creek Trail. From here the ride to Jells Park is straightforward, following the signs to the Knox City shopping centre and then to the Dandenong Creek Trail (which the Blind Creek Trail becomes just short of the park). On the way to Jells Park I rode pass some high-quality (seriously) graffiti on the underpasses (“Love Me While You Can!”), the statue of Oppy (bottom picture) and a large permanent sign usefully informing me that the shared path ahead is closed until June 2006!

Jells Park is not surprisingly popular. It is arguably the best park in suburban Melboure, having a nice lake and many shared paths. It also has a cafe and restaurant, which is a great place to have lunch if it isn't too busy; today it wasn't due to the inclement weather, so I stopped for a bite. From Jells park I took the Scotchmans Creek Trail, which initially climbs and goes through suburban streets. The planners have deemed that different routes through the streets each consist of the Scotchmans Creek Trail, leading to a plethora of trail signs going in literally every direction. Whichever way you go you should end up near the Monash Aquatic Centre on Waverly Road. I crossed Waverly Road and took the track near the TAFE: the trail part of the Scotchmans Creek Trail.

It's faster from here onwards. At East Malvern golf course Scotchmans Creek becomes the Gardiners Creek Path, which eventually goes on the bicycle and pedestrian bridge suspended under the Monash Freeway, connecting with the Main Yarra Trail going all the way to Southbank in the city. There are many local sporting venues on the way: a kids' Australian rules football game, two hockey matches and cycling in the velodrome were the spectacles on offer today. After an early dinner, I foolishly decided to cycle the 25 or so kilometers home, taking a look at the newly re-laid but yet to be open section of the Main Yarra Trail. The route home included Yarra Boulevard, which provides a good spot for taking a photo of the Melbourne skyline (top picture).

Cycling Distance: 93 kms