Today I went on the Bents and Folders Ride with Bike North. They met at Meadowbank wharf, which was quite a ride. I could have ridden it in 16 km on roads, but I chose to use the Cooks River Bike Track to get there in 23 km. It was a good chance to test out the Cooks Rive Bike Track in the GT3. I found two problems. The first is that I do not fit on the track under the bridge at Canterbury Road. I had to detour across the parkland grass to get to a local service road. The crossing of Canterbury road was easy in the morning, but I had to ride up the hill to the lights in the afternoon as there was an endless stream of cars. But one good side effect is that I found the bicycle shrine.
The track itself is very nice and in good condition. The top of the track in Altitude is at Rookwood. I nearly headed into the cemetery as I could not see the exit in the road noise barrier. Luckily I decided to look because I knew the track did not go through Rookwood. The only other issue I had was at the F4 freeway. The barriers were too small for the trike. At one end I could get through by getting off the trike and pushing it around the barrier. At the other end I could go under the barrier if I removed the flag. I then zoomed down the hill, quite cold really, through home bush bay and over the Parramatta River to Meadowbank Wharf. Here I met up with the Bike North group. It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. I was going to allow 2 hours, but had got up early and decided to leave early.
There was quite a collection of recumbents and folding bikes. There was another trike, I think it was a Cattrike, and we passed another trike riding over the railway bridge heading back south. When I was writing my name in the registration book, the back cover came off my mobile phone. The cover fell into the Parramatta river, but luckily the battery landed on the wharf. So I now have the battery held in with sticky tape.
Along the way we saw some archers doing practice on the archery range. So we all stopped to have a look for a while. Then shortly there after we arrived at the Olympic mountain bike and BMX track. Our evil Cattrike rider headed off on the course. But had a bit of troubles at the tops of the climbs. But from where I was I could not see the cause of the problems.
The ride was very well organised and run. They had a very effective system that kept the group together. We rode down into Homebush bay and around the park. At the Sydney Olympic Park ferry terminal, we stopped and people had a chance to ride the bikes. I let several people ride the trike, including the evil cattrike rider. I also had a ride on the Cat trike. It had a completely different steering mechanism, one brake handle and the gear changers are on the steering leaver. I also had a try on one of the two wheeled recumbents and I really could not balance it. Afterwards I though that I have developed habits on where I put my weight on the greenspeed and this was preventing me from balancing the two wheeled bents.
We then rode south through the main Olympic park to Lilies Cafe. On the way we rode up the spiral track to the top of the toxic waste dump. This did me in and I cracked. After that, riding up hill was a bit of a struggle. I picked up a map and had chicken schnitzel for lunch. I left the group here and headed home. On the way I met up with one of the other bent riders and we rode the Cooks River track together for a while. I was needing to stop occasionally as I had a sore knee. It is sore on the inside of the knee and I was advised that this may be because my seating position is not set up correctly. So I will go and do some research on the topic.
When I crossed Illawarra Road, I visited the fabled chocolate shop, Adora hand made chocolates. It was quite good. I had a hot chocolate and bought some chocolate covered ginger. I will have to go back there some time.
After a 71 km ride, I got home. This is the farthest I have ever ridden on the greenspeed GT3 and my legs are sore. But I held up well and easily could have ridden further.
