File this under thank God I don't live in Dubai anymore. It seems the local constabulary have set their sights on the true menace of Dubai's streets; not the speeding, dangerously driving automobiles, but the cyclists of course!
According to this (semi) recent Gulf News Article (I don't really read it much anymore, thus the delay), they have been not just ticketing, but confiscating bicycles where the riders were using roads with speed limits over 60km per hour. I thought that was pretty much every road in town, or at least that's how the locals drive.
First off, it isn't illegal to ride on roads with speed limits over 60km/hr, if it were the bicycle master plan would have noted it to be sure. Just to back that up, you'll notice signs at the entrances to all limited access highways which explicitly prohibit cycling. So if the remainder of the streets were off limits as well, there would either be more signs on those roads, or no need for the signs on the expressway entrances since there wouldn't be bikes anywhere. Secondly, if all of the major arterial roads were indeed off limits to cyclists, no one would be able to cycle ANYWHERE, since the road network is completely based around arterials with few to no connections in between.
I am all for responsible cycling, and some of the issue here seems to revolve around cyclists riding the wrong way (bike salmon) and on the sidewalk. In those instances, I am all for enforcement, since that would probably be the only way to get people to change their habits. People are obviously riding that way for a reason though, and that reason is incredibly poor infrastructure. If you actually had a road system that wasn't as biased toward the automobile, and an insane network of one way streets, perhaps not as many people would feel the need to break the law.
I love how in the article they talk about the bicycle master plan as though it's about ready to drop. By this point I am surprised they are even still mentioning it. That thing has been collecting dust on someones shelf for well over two years now. I seriously doubt any of it's provisions will ever see the light of day.
I actually almost wish I was still in Dubai right now. I would love to get stopped by the police and have them try to confiscate my bike. I would throw the biggest fit they've ever seen, and more than likely get arrested. At least it would get some press coverage for the subject. Honestly, if this was happening to western Expats there would have been at least some mild outrage. It just goes to show what a stratified society Dubai really is. I'm fairly sure they haven't been confiscating $5k Cervelo's on Friday morning Wolfi's rides.
On second thought, I am glad I'm not in Dubai. What would be the point of crusading for anything in such a f'd up city.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Johnny GONE lately
And so it ends...
My loyal reader (readers?) may have been wondering what happened to the intrepid Dubai Sans Auto. Was he run over by a bus? Sideswiped into a ditch by a careless Emirate driver? Finally felled by heat exhaustion? Hauled in by the RTA secret police for sedition?? No my friend (friends?), nothing so painful became of me, I merely got the f*ck out of Dodge. Well, technically Dodge booted me out, but in any case I am gone for good.
It was an interesting 10 months to say the least. I came in with grand goals and the best of intentions. I was going to not only ride Dubai, I was going to help make it a better place to cycle! I had dreams of starting up a bicycle advocacy group along the lines of New York's Transportation Alternatives; lobbying the government for better bike infrastructure and instituting safety campaigns amongst wrong way riding Indians. But beyond this blog, which I hope at least helps a little, I didn't get many of my goals accomplished.
Not to pooh pooh the blog (I surreptitiously obtained the Dubai Bicycle Master Plan for Gods Sake!); I think in the end it will provide at least a glimmer of hope for those who are thinking of commuting by bike in Dubai. I remember when I was first looking into moving to Dubai, one of the first questions I asked was, "can I ride my bike in Dubai?" It is a rather basic question, but the answers I could dig up on the internet were far from helpful. There were a couple of asinine replies to message board queries that basically said, "try it, and you'll die", and then of course there were the Roadsters (but unfortunately their rides didn't go by my office every morning). Neither informational tidbit was very useful, and thus the genesis for this blog - spreading the info that I found, sharing my experiences on the road. I wanted to let people know that it is INDEED possible to ride your bike around Dubai, that you can IN FACT live in Dubai without a car and get by just fine. I only hope that I have inspired someone, anyone, to get out of their car and onto a bike.
I am back in NYC now, where things have changed quite a bit since I left (for the better). In the last two years the city has built hundreds of miles of new bicycle infrastructure, including fully protected lanes! The number of cyclists on the road has doubled in just a few years; things are really taking off. It is frankly a relief to be back in a city where cycling is taken seriously as a form of transport. Though NYC still has a long way to go before it becomes the next Amsterdam or Copenhagen, it is definitely on its way.
Here's hoping that Dubai will go through with its plans to create a vast cycling network. I still see press releases every once in a while extolling the virtues of Dubai's Bicycle Master Plan (which I still have a copy of if anyone wants to read it), but the start date seems to be continuously pushed back. I keep thinking things might change soon, like right before I left I rode down Al Wasl Rd in Satwa and noticed they were widening the street. Al Wasl Rd happens to be a route on the bicycle master plan, designated as an on-street lane. It will be interesting to see if the widening has anything to do with the bike route, but somehow I doubt it. Just like they managed to completely rebuild the intersection of Al Wasl Rd and Al Diyafah St well over a YEAR after the BMP was issued and not include the 'planned' off street bicycle infrastructure in the new design, there seems to be no impetus to include the provisions of the BMP in on-going construction works. Whom ever is in charge of bicycle infrastructure at the RTA (if there IS anyone), certainly has zero wasta.
I've left Dubai, but my interest in the city hasn't completely waned. I plan on blogging (occasionally) from afar to keep everyone up on the latest and greatest. Me and my better half have already decided we want to come back to Dubai (on holiday) in 10 years to see what this mess of a city turns out to be. Hopefully by then we'll be able to cruise around unfettered by crazy drivers, but I'm not holding my breath.
If anyone cares to take up the reins, and continue to blog about riding in Dubai, let me know! I would be more than happy to share my miniature bully pulpit. Conditions: must ride to work frequently, and love all things non-auto (public transit, etc)! Anyone out there??
Peddle on my friends!
-Dubai Sans Auto (Sans Dubai)
My loyal reader (readers?) may have been wondering what happened to the intrepid Dubai Sans Auto. Was he run over by a bus? Sideswiped into a ditch by a careless Emirate driver? Finally felled by heat exhaustion? Hauled in by the RTA secret police for sedition?? No my friend (friends?), nothing so painful became of me, I merely got the f*ck out of Dodge. Well, technically Dodge booted me out, but in any case I am gone for good.
It was an interesting 10 months to say the least. I came in with grand goals and the best of intentions. I was going to not only ride Dubai, I was going to help make it a better place to cycle! I had dreams of starting up a bicycle advocacy group along the lines of New York's Transportation Alternatives; lobbying the government for better bike infrastructure and instituting safety campaigns amongst wrong way riding Indians. But beyond this blog, which I hope at least helps a little, I didn't get many of my goals accomplished.
Not to pooh pooh the blog (I surreptitiously obtained the Dubai Bicycle Master Plan for Gods Sake!); I think in the end it will provide at least a glimmer of hope for those who are thinking of commuting by bike in Dubai. I remember when I was first looking into moving to Dubai, one of the first questions I asked was, "can I ride my bike in Dubai?" It is a rather basic question, but the answers I could dig up on the internet were far from helpful. There were a couple of asinine replies to message board queries that basically said, "try it, and you'll die", and then of course there were the Roadsters (but unfortunately their rides didn't go by my office every morning). Neither informational tidbit was very useful, and thus the genesis for this blog - spreading the info that I found, sharing my experiences on the road. I wanted to let people know that it is INDEED possible to ride your bike around Dubai, that you can IN FACT live in Dubai without a car and get by just fine. I only hope that I have inspired someone, anyone, to get out of their car and onto a bike.
I am back in NYC now, where things have changed quite a bit since I left (for the better). In the last two years the city has built hundreds of miles of new bicycle infrastructure, including fully protected lanes! The number of cyclists on the road has doubled in just a few years; things are really taking off. It is frankly a relief to be back in a city where cycling is taken seriously as a form of transport. Though NYC still has a long way to go before it becomes the next Amsterdam or Copenhagen, it is definitely on its way.
Here's hoping that Dubai will go through with its plans to create a vast cycling network. I still see press releases every once in a while extolling the virtues of Dubai's Bicycle Master Plan (which I still have a copy of if anyone wants to read it), but the start date seems to be continuously pushed back. I keep thinking things might change soon, like right before I left I rode down Al Wasl Rd in Satwa and noticed they were widening the street. Al Wasl Rd happens to be a route on the bicycle master plan, designated as an on-street lane. It will be interesting to see if the widening has anything to do with the bike route, but somehow I doubt it. Just like they managed to completely rebuild the intersection of Al Wasl Rd and Al Diyafah St well over a YEAR after the BMP was issued and not include the 'planned' off street bicycle infrastructure in the new design, there seems to be no impetus to include the provisions of the BMP in on-going construction works. Whom ever is in charge of bicycle infrastructure at the RTA (if there IS anyone), certainly has zero wasta.
I've left Dubai, but my interest in the city hasn't completely waned. I plan on blogging (occasionally) from afar to keep everyone up on the latest and greatest. Me and my better half have already decided we want to come back to Dubai (on holiday) in 10 years to see what this mess of a city turns out to be. Hopefully by then we'll be able to cruise around unfettered by crazy drivers, but I'm not holding my breath.
If anyone cares to take up the reins, and continue to blog about riding in Dubai, let me know! I would be more than happy to share my miniature bully pulpit. Conditions: must ride to work frequently, and love all things non-auto (public transit, etc)! Anyone out there??
Peddle on my friends!
-Dubai Sans Auto (Sans Dubai)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Bike Lanes in Dubai's future? Probably Not
As I mentioned recently, there doesn't seem to be much progress on the Bicycle Master Plan front. None of the phase one routes are being built, and they haven't even bothered to stencil bicycles onto the beach road path (a recommendation of the BMP). I did recently discover Dubai does indeed have a bicycle stencil, as I saw some bicycle pavement markings approaching the beach path (not to be confused with the beach road path). I had heard about the beach path, but hadn't actually seen it until recently. I think that mainly has to do with the fact that it goes from no-where to no-where. Literally, there is only one way to get on, and it's in the middle. I personally can't think of anything more boring than riding around in circles which is probably why I hadn't ever seen it before (and why I don't drive out to Nad Al Sheeba to ride). You might as well get a trainer and ride your bike in your living room while watching footage of the Tour de France - it would be more interesting.
Speaking of recent discoveries, I attended City Scape last week (or was that two weeks back? I am a bit lazy in my blogging duties), and was quite impressed with the Meraas Jumeriah Gardens project. Not only was I impressed that they had the cajones to exhibit a model (since they clearly are not working on the project, they knocked down half of Satwa and then sat on their collective hands), but I was also impressed by their actual vision for their development (should they ever actually build it).
It seems the Meraas folks are new urbanists! Everywhere you looked there was dense development, public transportation, walkable streets (with closely spaced signalled intersections), and... wait for it.... BIKE LANES! Not even just bike lanes, bike lanes and bike boxes at the intersections! They even went so far as to have little cyclists in their models. It was truely heartwarming to see.
There are 16 bikes on the first block alone! But in a bow to reality, two buses are blocking the bike lanes
Not so sure if putting the bike box in the crosswalk would be standard practice, but I like the grassy median and the sidewalk cafe!
I really like that they were on-street bike lanes as well. I don't think cycle tracks are going to work very well in this city since no one bothers to stop, much less look when making right turns (and thus you would need to come to a halt at every intersection and wait for traffic). If you want to actually get anywhere, you are going to have to mix it up with traffic.
The more I ride around Dubai, the more convinced I am that they should shelve their BMP and just take about 35cm from each travel lane and donate it to a bike lane (a three lane road like 312 road behind DIFC could easily handle a nice 1.05m wide bike lane). Standard lanes in Dubai are 3.5m wide, and must be a minimum of 3.0m, so there is plenty of room. Also, narrowing lanes generally leads to slightly lower speeds, which is an added bonus!
I had heard of the Jumeriah Gardens development before, and besides that whole tearing down half of Satwa thing, I thought it was brilliant in that they decided to build it right in the middle of the city rather than off in never never land (AKA Dubai-land, or some other hard to reach location). The only way this city will ever become a true city is if it creates a dense core and makes that core incredibly pedestrian, transit and bicycle friendly. I always thought the high rise district along SZR was a bit silly; who centers their city around a highway? Plus, its all too linear. Some of the new buildings in the DIFC will help on the east side of SZR, but the Jumeriah Gardens development would really flesh out the area and make it a dense urban district. Then all you have to do is submerge SZR between the trade center roundabout and the 1st interchange and cover it up with a park! Could you imagine? It would restore the street grid to the area and make the whole district one piece again.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Bike Culture in Car-land
Recently whilst trawling the blogosphere for interesting liveable streets news I came across a link to an interesting article in LA Magazine, Postscript: Bike Culture. It’s a rather in-depth piece on cycling culture in LA; from the established bike coalitions to the newer hipster infused Midnight Ridazz. The article examines the rise of the nascent bike culture in LA, which until recently couldn’t boast much in the way of cyclists, much less a movement, especially when compared to cities like San Francisco and Portland.
It really has to be one of the first pieces I have read which both accurately depicts the constituent parts of cycling culture and cycling advocacy, without devolving into trite stereotypes. Not once is the word spandex mentioned, which is something of a milestone in itself for an article covering cycling. The closest they come is, “type-A roadies”, which I would say is not an unfair description of roadies and avoids the ever present clichés.
LA is apparently a huge melting pot of bike culture (which must be quite recent since I was quite lonely when riding around several years ago). The older guard is represented by the LA County Bicycle Coalition, a traditional advocacy group. In the middle are dedicated bicycle advocates working alone or in groups to lobby / harass those in charge to make changes to the streetscape and ingrained anti-bike attitude of some city agencies (namely the police). On the very left you have a whole array of newer riders, some drawn in by advocacy, but many purely for the alternative culture. Whereas many cities have one critical mass ride per month, LA can sometimes reach double digits.
Critical mass, Midnight Ridazz, C.R.A.N.K MOB, Crimanimalz; each has a different M.O. Midnight Ridazz are more critical mass-ish, but the C.R.A.N.K. MOB appears to be more of a roving bicycle rave, and Crimanimalz like to ride on the freeways during bumper to bumper traffic to illustrate the futility of the automobile. How is it that so many different groups popped up in a city like LA? Is it a backlash to the reigning car culture? A sudden mass migration from San Francisco? The article posits that perhaps these groups will provide the necessary “sip of Kool-Aid” that will sell people on joining the larger bike culture (commuting, running errands, regular advocacy, etc).
It really has to be one of the first pieces I have read which both accurately depicts the constituent parts of cycling culture and cycling advocacy, without devolving into trite stereotypes. Not once is the word spandex mentioned, which is something of a milestone in itself for an article covering cycling. The closest they come is, “type-A roadies”, which I would say is not an unfair description of roadies and avoids the ever present clichés.
LA is apparently a huge melting pot of bike culture (which must be quite recent since I was quite lonely when riding around several years ago). The older guard is represented by the LA County Bicycle Coalition, a traditional advocacy group. In the middle are dedicated bicycle advocates working alone or in groups to lobby / harass those in charge to make changes to the streetscape and ingrained anti-bike attitude of some city agencies (namely the police). On the very left you have a whole array of newer riders, some drawn in by advocacy, but many purely for the alternative culture. Whereas many cities have one critical mass ride per month, LA can sometimes reach double digits.
Critical mass, Midnight Ridazz, C.R.A.N.K MOB, Crimanimalz; each has a different M.O. Midnight Ridazz are more critical mass-ish, but the C.R.A.N.K. MOB appears to be more of a roving bicycle rave, and Crimanimalz like to ride on the freeways during bumper to bumper traffic to illustrate the futility of the automobile. How is it that so many different groups popped up in a city like LA? Is it a backlash to the reigning car culture? A sudden mass migration from San Francisco? The article posits that perhaps these groups will provide the necessary “sip of Kool-Aid” that will sell people on joining the larger bike culture (commuting, running errands, regular advocacy, etc).
Midnight Ridazz, who perhaps should be called Midnight Standazz, as I could find very few photos of them actually riding (perhaps they can't cycle and shoot at the same time)
One of the advocates who straddles the line between the ‘anarchist’ mass rides and the more mainstream advocacy groups has a great website about ‘vehicular cycling’ called cyclistview.com. A topic I believe I covered earlier, but warrants another mention here. The basic concept is ‘taking a lane’, that is, taking the space that the law gives you. If you ride in the gutter, you just make it easier for cars to pass you without giving you enough space. If you ride out into the lane, they will firstly SEE you, and second, need to change lanes to go around you. Some might call it being obstructionist, but I (and many others) see it as being safe, and riding within the law. I believe it is THE best way to ride in Dubai given the shenanigans of some motorists here. People may honk, but they will not run you down. Stand your ground!
Be the little green man!
The thing that intrigues me about the article is that this is all taking place in LA! LA, a place that is not all that dissimilar to Dubai in terms of physical layout and near universal allegiance to the motor car. LA faces many of the same physical obstacles as Dubai in becoming a slightly less hostile place to ride. LA DOT’s bike coordinator is interviewed for the piece and basically cops to being unable to help out much at all. To take away parking or a lane of traffic is beyond her remit and for others – political suicide. I would imagine a similar fate for bicycle infrastructure here.
LA is in the midst of drafting a bicycle master plan (coincidentally authored by the same planning firm which wrote Dubai’s BMP). From what I have read it is not going very well, with some activists advocating for torching the current plan and starting over. Apparently the plan bows a little to far towards status quo and auto / traffic interests and doesn’t do much to relieve the plight of cyclists. After looking at the Dubai BMP and speaking with those involved, I am quite sure something similar happened here. Not that the RTA is actually implementing the plan anyhow, but what they have approved is basically window dressing and not much help at all for anyone who actually wants to get around town on a bike in an efficient manner.
I seriously doubt that Dubai will ever spontaneously sprout a ‘bike culture’ like those in LA or Portland. Everyone sites the weather, but its not really much of a factor most of the year. As I have said before it is much more a psychological block. On top of that, I don’t really think Dubai has the right ethnographic mix of people to support a diverse bike culture. They’ve got the roadie bit down, and a few mountain bikers sprinkled around, but where are the young, just out of college, idealistic, artsy people who make up the bulk of most cities thriving cultural scene. I don’t think this is really the place they would choose to move – and I don’t blame them really.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Almost Famous
I debated about posting about this, but in the end decided I am not quite as famous as I had hoped I would be, so anonimity seems less useful (and I am leaving town soon).
YES, it was me in the National last week. That blockbuster below the fold article about a hapless young(ish) man who does not own a car in Dubai, but rather gets 'sticky' when he rides to work on his bicycle. Now the young(ish) man has a new alternative; the metro! Along with his trusty sidekick - Senior Brompton, he flies effortlessly to the metro station (easily beating the trailing auto-bound photographer (OK, so I ran a couple of lights)).
As far as I know, its the only non-roadsters, non-it will be here someday bicycle master plan, article I have seen in Dubai. Only in Dubai would I make the paper for riding my bike to work. Hopefully a couple of people read it and hopefully a couple of those people might think, hey, maybe I'll try that! Wolfi should stock up now, them babies gunna be flying off the shelf!
They must have taken about 500 photos, suppose they picked this one since it has the metro station in the background. Thank God they picked one where I wasn't wearing my helmet! Would have been dork-ville central.
I never said 'sticky', I prefer, 'icky gross', or 'sweaty beast' I do hope that more people start cycling, but not just when it gets cooler. Come on peeps, learn to love your sweat!
YES, it was me in the National last week. That blockbuster below the fold article about a hapless young(ish) man who does not own a car in Dubai, but rather gets 'sticky' when he rides to work on his bicycle. Now the young(ish) man has a new alternative; the metro! Along with his trusty sidekick - Senior Brompton, he flies effortlessly to the metro station (easily beating the trailing auto-bound photographer (OK, so I ran a couple of lights)).
As far as I know, its the only non-roadsters, non-it will be here someday bicycle master plan, article I have seen in Dubai. Only in Dubai would I make the paper for riding my bike to work. Hopefully a couple of people read it and hopefully a couple of those people might think, hey, maybe I'll try that! Wolfi should stock up now, them babies gunna be flying off the shelf!
They must have taken about 500 photos, suppose they picked this one since it has the metro station in the background. Thank God they picked one where I wasn't wearing my helmet! Would have been dork-ville central.Just for the record:
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Metro Bike Racks - Update!
This morning I saw the first of what I believe are the promised '30 bike racks' at each metro station. A little sleuthing turned up this post from the manufacturer of the racks. Apparently they were custom designed for the RTA. I haven't seen any at the financial center station yet, but hopefully soon!
Photo from Dero Bike Racks WebsiteThe design looks pretty good, a place to put your front wheel to stabilize the bike, as well as a taller (and beefier) bar to lock the frame to. Let's hope the RTA rolls these out all over town, not just the metro stations!
State of the pedal update
It’s been a while since I have posted about cycling – one might think I had given up on it or something. As my loyal reader will note, I NEVER give up on cycling! I guess I have just been preoccupied with other topics lately. I suppose it’s time we had an update, so welcome to my ‘State of Cycling’ post.
The biggest news on the cycling front is the arrival (FINALLY) of my new (old) frame for my fixed gear bike. If you read my post about the multitudes of bikes in my proverbial stable you may remember I had a fixed gear bike converted from an old Yokota road bike my friend John had given me. I ended up riding it into the ground (figuratively, not literally), and fracturing the head tube – rendering it rather useless for riding. Subsequently I went on a fruitless odyssey looking for a replacement frame, only to find one when I wasn’t looking for it (who knew my replacement frame was in Australia?).
I originally bought the replacement frame last November, but due to a many factors, I didn’t actually receive it until I was in London on my re-secondment (I’ve never been seconded from a secondment before! Very meta). It was a looooong wait, but totally worth it. I love my new (old) bike, and ride it to work every day now here in Dubai (when I don't wuss out and ride the Brompton to the metro).
I am fairly certain I am the only person in Dubai rockin’ a fixed gear bike, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that point. I’m not exactly your standard fixed gear freestylin’ hipster (I even have trouble doing track stands), but I do really enjoy the ride and agree with all the other platitudes people use about fixies (you feel connected to the bike, feel the road, etc). Plus, the minimalism appeals to me.
Also on the bicycle blotter, I finally went out for a cruise with the Friday Morning Fanatics (AKA. Wolfi’s wolf pack, AKA the Roadsters). A friend from work caught the cycling bug (unfortunately not the commuter cycling strain) a couple of months back and had been nagging me to come along for a Friday ride. I’ve never had anything against the ride, I just never really wanted to get up that early (unless it was to run 20 miles into the dessert).
I think what finally changed my mind was a recent ride I did in Massachusetts while I was on holiday. The trip was planned around attending my friend John’s wedding (the same guy that gave me the Yokota which turned into my first fixie, the only man with more bikes than me). John is an incredible athlete (we used to Adventure race and hash together), and his new wife is also an adventure racer and all around athlete, so the days leading up to their wedding were a crazy sports carnival (and drink fest). There was yoga in the morning, then a mini adventure race, followed by a ‘grooms road ride’ on the morning of the wedding, then I went kayaking, followed by a run.
In case you are wondering, "why did you bring a bike 8000 miles to a wedding?" Well, we didn't fly them over, just rented the bikes in Boston and rode down to the wedding. Oh, and after the wedding we did a 3 day bike tour up through southern Mass and Cape Cod - sweeeeet! I must give big props to my better half, who managed to fit all of her wedding kit (including hair dryer) and clothes for a week and a half into two medium sized panniers - Boo ya ka!
The weather was horrible for the grooms road ride – sheets of rain were falling, and I hadn’t ridden in a pack for a while, but I had the best time on the ride. I’ve never been a huge roadie, but that ride made me want to come out and try one of the roadsters Friday flings.
I have a big problem with driving somewhere just to ride your bike, especially when it is just across town; so I decided to ride over and meet up with the pack as they passed Safa Park. The website said a group would usually wait there for the main group, and it was easier (and quicker) to get to than the lime tree. I arrived around 5:30 and saw a group waiting, it wasn’t long before another group rolled up and we rode off to the east.
My friend had mentioned there would be a rest stop at 40km in, so when 50km rolled by I started to wonder what was going on. I asked a guy next to me and he said this group actually leaves earlier than the regular group, only stops once rather than twice and rode about 130km. Hmmmm, seems I had joined the wrong group – no one had mentioned the earlier group, my friend or the website, honest mistake.
I figured I could easily do the distance, but I was slightly concerned about the pace. How right I was. After about 60k, and without much warning, everyone took off like rabbits. I hung on for a while, but didn’t manage to catch the pack and they slowly pulled away doing about 28mph (I was managing 26, close, but no cigar). In retrospect I should have dug a bit harder to pull back up to the back of the group as it is much easier to draft than fight it out on your own, but I was under the mistaken assumption that they were doing a relatively short sprint. Such is life.
After about 5 minutes I managed to lose sight of them completely, but was saved (or so I thought) by a lone straggler who I figured had fallen off the back as well. After 10 minutes of pushing hard I managed to catch up to the straggler, only to find out the guy was out riding solo and not with the pack at all. I was never really worried, as I have a rather keen sense of direction, but I really wanted to know where that darn gas station was (I could have used a snack). I managed to make my way back home without any problem, averaging a pretty decent pace might I add.
My only regret is I didn’t bring anything to gnaw on, only two bottles of water (as I was expecting to stop at a gas station with the group and buy something). I was rather beat by the time I got home since I didn’t make any pit stops. Even so, I made an extra lap around the neighborhood to make sure the odometer read 100k rather than 98.7k. Total time – 2 hrs 50 min, which gave me an average pace of 21 mph, not too shabby for a guy who normally only rides 10k each way to work!
I may go out for another ride with the Roadsters (in a different group of course), but I can’t say I am all that fussed about it. I thought I would like it more after I had so much fun on the ‘grooms road ride’, but perhaps that was because I was riding with friends. Riding in a pack is nice, you can cruise along without much effort in the slipstream, but in the end, I think I would rather spend my time out exploring and wandering.
The biggest news on the cycling front is the arrival (FINALLY) of my new (old) frame for my fixed gear bike. If you read my post about the multitudes of bikes in my proverbial stable you may remember I had a fixed gear bike converted from an old Yokota road bike my friend John had given me. I ended up riding it into the ground (figuratively, not literally), and fracturing the head tube – rendering it rather useless for riding. Subsequently I went on a fruitless odyssey looking for a replacement frame, only to find one when I wasn’t looking for it (who knew my replacement frame was in Australia?).
I originally bought the replacement frame last November, but due to a many factors, I didn’t actually receive it until I was in London on my re-secondment (I’ve never been seconded from a secondment before! Very meta). It was a looooong wait, but totally worth it. I love my new (old) bike, and ride it to work every day now here in Dubai (when I don't wuss out and ride the Brompton to the metro).
I am fairly certain I am the only person in Dubai rockin’ a fixed gear bike, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that point. I’m not exactly your standard fixed gear freestylin’ hipster (I even have trouble doing track stands), but I do really enjoy the ride and agree with all the other platitudes people use about fixies (you feel connected to the bike, feel the road, etc). Plus, the minimalism appeals to me.
Also on the bicycle blotter, I finally went out for a cruise with the Friday Morning Fanatics (AKA. Wolfi’s wolf pack, AKA the Roadsters). A friend from work caught the cycling bug (unfortunately not the commuter cycling strain) a couple of months back and had been nagging me to come along for a Friday ride. I’ve never had anything against the ride, I just never really wanted to get up that early (unless it was to run 20 miles into the dessert).
I think what finally changed my mind was a recent ride I did in Massachusetts while I was on holiday. The trip was planned around attending my friend John’s wedding (the same guy that gave me the Yokota which turned into my first fixie, the only man with more bikes than me). John is an incredible athlete (we used to Adventure race and hash together), and his new wife is also an adventure racer and all around athlete, so the days leading up to their wedding were a crazy sports carnival (and drink fest). There was yoga in the morning, then a mini adventure race, followed by a ‘grooms road ride’ on the morning of the wedding, then I went kayaking, followed by a run.
In case you are wondering, "why did you bring a bike 8000 miles to a wedding?" Well, we didn't fly them over, just rented the bikes in Boston and rode down to the wedding. Oh, and after the wedding we did a 3 day bike tour up through southern Mass and Cape Cod - sweeeeet! I must give big props to my better half, who managed to fit all of her wedding kit (including hair dryer) and clothes for a week and a half into two medium sized panniers - Boo ya ka!
The weather was horrible for the grooms road ride – sheets of rain were falling, and I hadn’t ridden in a pack for a while, but I had the best time on the ride. I’ve never been a huge roadie, but that ride made me want to come out and try one of the roadsters Friday flings.
I have a big problem with driving somewhere just to ride your bike, especially when it is just across town; so I decided to ride over and meet up with the pack as they passed Safa Park. The website said a group would usually wait there for the main group, and it was easier (and quicker) to get to than the lime tree. I arrived around 5:30 and saw a group waiting, it wasn’t long before another group rolled up and we rode off to the east.
My friend had mentioned there would be a rest stop at 40km in, so when 50km rolled by I started to wonder what was going on. I asked a guy next to me and he said this group actually leaves earlier than the regular group, only stops once rather than twice and rode about 130km. Hmmmm, seems I had joined the wrong group – no one had mentioned the earlier group, my friend or the website, honest mistake.
I figured I could easily do the distance, but I was slightly concerned about the pace. How right I was. After about 60k, and without much warning, everyone took off like rabbits. I hung on for a while, but didn’t manage to catch the pack and they slowly pulled away doing about 28mph (I was managing 26, close, but no cigar). In retrospect I should have dug a bit harder to pull back up to the back of the group as it is much easier to draft than fight it out on your own, but I was under the mistaken assumption that they were doing a relatively short sprint. Such is life.
After about 5 minutes I managed to lose sight of them completely, but was saved (or so I thought) by a lone straggler who I figured had fallen off the back as well. After 10 minutes of pushing hard I managed to catch up to the straggler, only to find out the guy was out riding solo and not with the pack at all. I was never really worried, as I have a rather keen sense of direction, but I really wanted to know where that darn gas station was (I could have used a snack). I managed to make my way back home without any problem, averaging a pretty decent pace might I add.
My only regret is I didn’t bring anything to gnaw on, only two bottles of water (as I was expecting to stop at a gas station with the group and buy something). I was rather beat by the time I got home since I didn’t make any pit stops. Even so, I made an extra lap around the neighborhood to make sure the odometer read 100k rather than 98.7k. Total time – 2 hrs 50 min, which gave me an average pace of 21 mph, not too shabby for a guy who normally only rides 10k each way to work!
I may go out for another ride with the Roadsters (in a different group of course), but I can’t say I am all that fussed about it. I thought I would like it more after I had so much fun on the ‘grooms road ride’, but perhaps that was because I was riding with friends. Riding in a pack is nice, you can cruise along without much effort in the slipstream, but in the end, I think I would rather spend my time out exploring and wandering.
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