cycling

  • No Beg Pardon In Our Garden

    Our garden, Kangaeroo Corner (even though it’s not a corner), is unabashedly at its best in the spring, though it also thrives in places during the other seasons. Flowers are blooming now, bringing immense delight. Flowers I grew from seeds–hardenbergia and kangaroo paw now, a dwarf wattle that briefly flourished last year before I killed it through neglect, and hopefully some banksia–bring a special kind of joy. Having said that, the garden hasn’t provided the comprehensive delight it had brought at times in previous years. Part of the reason is that it hasn’t needed to. For the few years up until the summer of 2024 work wasn’t going exactly to…

  • Spring Is Here, But Not In My Step

    Arthritis is taking over my body, seemingly joint by joint, with my left foot in particular so painful it’s becoming a struggle to walk, even as the spring makes the prospect of doing so ever more appealing. Arthritis runs in my family and I often teased my mother over her crooked fingers which had been warped badly by the affliction. I’m laughing from the other side of my face now as my digits are pained and twisted. It’s creating something of a dilemma because it has severely hampered my cycling, which had been instrumental in maintaining a semblance of good health.\ I started struggling to change gears a couple of…

  • Floral Flamboyance Makes For Exquisite Visit

    I’m in a mad rush today because my customary morning riverside bike ride continued for almost twice as long as usual despite being roughly the same length as I was mesmerized by the spectucular blooming of spring flowers, which mostly means cherry blossoms. I was waylaid by the sights on a number of occasions. One beauty trap lured me along a river I rarely traverse. I was rewarded by a whole series of breath-taking views. The upshot was that I was late getting home. And didn’t shower until half an hour or more than my usual time. Which meant I missed the start of a meeting. And that prevented me…

  • Hitting The Early Morning Jackpot

    After three days of incessant rain, we finally got a dry start to a morning, which enabled me to get out on the bike and end up being rewarded with the most extraordinary sights for getting out so early. Wet roads are my enemy as I don’t have the grip strength to brake sharply, and using rim brakes on my bicycle means their performance in the wet declines significantly. So I had an added degree of caution as I started riding, but about a third of the way through my customary morning ride, I began to suspect I may be onto something special when I saw how resplendent Mount Fuji…

  • Cherry Bomb!

    Cherry blossoms have started to bloom in Tokyo’s suburbs. For the most part, flowers have yet to reach peak bloom along my most-traversed part of the Tama River. But in some of the areas where the flowers are at their best, the view is lovely. It was a bonus to be able to see them in flower this morning as I had presumed the entire weekend to be a washout. It rained incessantly yesterday. It gave me time to do some much-needed study for work, which is paying me to take the course I’m doing. I should be putting in a bit more effort on my studies than I am….

  • Bye-Bye Brompton in Pal-ace

    For me, riding a Brompton bike is about more than mere cycling. I didn’t realize it when I first picked up one of the prestigious folding bikes a bit over a decade ago. At the time, I just wanted a fold-up bike that wouldn’t break after a few rides as other collapsable cycles I had purchased seemed prone to doing. What I didn’t know was that bikes need care and maintenance. I know, dumb, but that was what I thought. Having spent most of my time until then on ultra-durable mama-chari that are virtually unbreakable, I believed all bicycles were like that. So the Brommie used to get me upset…

  • Should’ve Been Astuter With Astuto

    Someone stole my Astuto bike and I’m feeling pretty lousy about it. The bike was special because a lot of people showed me kindness and generousity so I could build it up from scratch. I should have kept her inside the house, but we simply don’t have the room. I thought she was covered by insurance, too, but it turns out not to be the case because the bike was not taken from inside the home. Apart from the benevolence I received, the bike also promised to help me rejoin the cycling community. I was once an avid and highly active cyclist, but over the past few years, arthritis has…

  • Velodramatic!

    I’d love to say I’ve done something exciting on my bicycle, but I mainly thought of a snappy word that should go down in posterity as a snappy blog title. I’ve been cycling, but not nearly as much as I would like to have done, but then again, perhaps too much. We have had a really cold snap the past week or so, and getting out and about on a bike while riding into the icy winds is not the greatest fun. But I have been rewarded finely for some of the efforts, with delightful skies and some wonderful photo opportunities. And I have managed to stay safe so far.

  • Whirlwind Week And Winter Wonderland

    It’s been a whirlwind week, not because of the speed that it has passed, but the tumultuous time it has been. That’s not to suggest it was a torrid affair. In fact, it was anything but. Work was a generally great time. Monday I had been expecting to receive notice that my trial period was over. It didn’t happen. But I was informed on Tuesday! I’d forgotten that Monday was a holiday in Australia for Australia Day. My boss is based in Melbourne. Moreover, my employer bent the employment rules. Instead of giving me a contract to the end of the current fiscal year, which will finish on March 31,…

  • A Handmade Tale

    Some of Japan’s finest cycling handiwork was on display at Handmade Bicycle 2025 held at the Science Musuem in Tokyo on Jan. 25-Jan. 26. Given that I had no other plans, wanted to do something special to celebrate Australia Day and needed to go for a ride with a decent bit of distance, I decided to go. The exhibition was filled with exquisite, hand-crafted bicycle, and there were also complementary events such a talk show, screening of a cycling-themed film and test rides. There were also some sales of parts, bikes and merchandise, so it was a fairly substantial event comprised of 50 booths of mainly manufacturers but also cycling-related…