CITY TO FRANKSTON AND BACK TANDEM & SINGLE BIKE DASH Saturday 22 March 2014 This was not a day of drama on the high seas. It was a day of drama on dry land. It all began when I got a phone call from my Captain/Pilot to advise me that he had left his helmet at home and he was on the train heading into the city. A quick trip to 7 eleven for a $5.00 helmet fixed that problem. Two other tandems turned up with flat tires which should not have been too hard to rectify. Ha! Ha! I attempted to pump up the front tire on one of the tandems and believe it or not, the dam valve snapped off at the tube. Of course that meant we had to fit a new tube which got us out of that jam. We eventually got underway and we decided to pump up Michael’s and Ron’s tandem tires at Beach Rod Cycles on route in Brighton. William, the proprietor of Beach Rd Cycles very kindly lent us a floor pump which done the job of inflating the tandem tires and William also gave Ron’s tandem a quick service while we were there. Those drama’s behind us we were back on track on pedalling our way to our first designated stop at Tour de Café in Mordialloc were we all met up for a short break. We had Joe who was a first timer tandem bike captain on board Ron’s tandem bike and he was finding the going a bit tough into the head wind so Joe and Ron decided to leave the group at Mordialloc and ride back to Port Melbourne to wait for us to return for lunch. I am sure Joe will be a great asset to the tandem teams on future rides and we thank him for joining the group. The ride from Mordi to Frankston was done at a faster pace and it wasn’t too long before we were climbing Oliver’s hill. My Captain/Pilot was experiencing trouble shifting gears on the front derailleur so we did the climb on the middle chain ring which didn’t worry us old farts too much. The downhill run on Oliver’s hill was a real buzz. We managed to reach in excess of 77 kph but we run out of gears and couldn’t pedal any faster. When we arrived at the visitors centre it had been invaded by the Triathlon mob that was setting up for Sunday’s event. We had Bob in charge of Michael’s tandem and these guys had some trouble remembering where we were to meet up in Frankston and they went to McDonalds. Because they didn’t find us there they continued on so we told them we would catch up to them and meet them in Mordialloc. We were at the Frankston Visitors Centre where we had arranged to meet up. We left the visitors centre and were on route to Mordialloc and my tandem captain, John realized that he didn’t have a lid on his head. Yes folks, he had left his helmet and bag with his money inside it back at the visitors centre so we had to hook a U-turn and head back to collect these important items and as luck has it, they were still where John had left them. There are honest people living in Frankston. The group waited for us to return which was very nice of them so we eventually met up with them and upped the ante with our pace seeing that we now had a tail wind. We were humming along at speeds between 35 & 45 kph back to Mordi which was starting to take effect on this old guy’s crook knee. However, we motored on and there was a young cyclist who was riding along with us and failed to stop at a set of lights that had just changed to red. Unfortunately, a pedestrian stepped out onto the road and the young cyclist ran over his foot and knocked him backwards onto the footpath. So we pulled over to make sure the pedestrian was not too seriously injured. Fortunately he was able to get back on his feet and he appeared to be okay apart from being a bit shook up. Anyhow, we made it back to Mordi without any other drama but when we arrived at Tour de Café there was no sign of Bob and Michael. A phone call established that the terrible twosome had also forgotten to stop in Mordi and they were now in Beaumaris. We thought that Bob had taken a wrong turn given his past record with getting lost because his compass was pointing south instead of east. Anyway, after a short break in Mordi we set sail for Port Melbourne still hiking along at a cracking pace hoping to catch up to Bob and Michael which we eventually did just before we arrive at Spontino’s in Port Melbourne. We were hoping that Bob hadn’t taken a wrong turn and got lost on his way back. We were worried in case Bob thought that we were going to meet in Port Arthur in Tasmania and that we may have boarded the Spirit of Tasmania at Station Pier at Port Melbourne. After such a drama filled day it was time to say our farewells at Spontinos and head off home. Despite all the minor hick-ups along the way, this was yet another mighty fine hit out on our two person two wheeled machines and of course single bikes. Thank you to all the sensational members of Melbourne Cycling and Tandem Bike Victoria for making such a great day out.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 02:30:39 +0000
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