Second Session

My second session of riding was on the following Sunday morning at about 7:30am. It was good weather and I knew there weren’t going to be a lot of cars at the major intersections (where I live)! So I took the opportunity to take it to the road.

It’s interesting. I saw a bicyclist turning into a road before me (you see his shadow against the fence first). The cycle culture’s virtually non-existent in New Zealand, Auckland in particular, that whenever I see someone cycling (now that I’ve started to pay attention to them) I get excited. Maybe it’s just a “good on them” feeling, but anyway.

I’m not sure how I feel about speed bumps. They’re not an obstacle, probably adds something to the bike ride, but it definitely would be better if they’re lower (I understand they’re primarily for cars).

I practiced signalling a few times -  you can notice the moments here and here. My bike sways terribly as I momentarily lose and regain my balance. I haven’t been used to riding with one hand so I got thrown off balance a few times - that’s one area I need a lot more practice on!

There were minor hills, but you can tell how much they had an impact on my riding still. You can hear the revolutions of the wheel and hear the difference in speed when going downhill as opposed to uphill. So they may feel slight in the car, but it’s a different story on bike!

As you get up to Mt Eden Road there’s noticeably marked lanes for the cars and buses, but none provided for bikes. The parked cars don’t help at all either and as a cyclist you’d have to turn your head and make sure there are no cars coming from behind… Well in my case I slowed down so they would pass me first. There was enough space for the car to pass me by going into the median strip, but I didn’t want to risk anything, so I slowed down behind the car and let them pass.

I don’t know how to make the links pop up on the blog instead of Youtube, but hope it gives the idea..

It was a really quick ride. Mount Eden is a hilly area so I didn’t really want to go out too far in case it took too long to get back - there’s always a consciousness of having to climb the hill after going down it earlier, which puts me off going down the hill in the first place.. which is something to consider.