The Napier-Hastings Commute: Being seen

Woo hoo, it's the first day of Bike Wise Month! To mark the occasion, we talked to our regular Guest Blogger, Tanya Winter, about her ride to work this morning and the importance of being seen while cycling.



I’m going to sound like I have just come off the Ark, but when I first started cycling there was no such thing as fluro gear.

You tried to wear bright-ish clothing and used big, heavy bike lights, where the “D” batteries lasted about 5 rides, but that was about it. You just hoped motorists and pedestrians saw you.

I did have a few dodgy moments in the heart of Wellington in those days (not THOSE kind of dodgy moments!). Ones where I had car doors opened on me, people walk across the road in front of me, and cars not give way to me. Funny, I didn’t really put two and two together back then to conclude that they simply could not see me.

Nowadays there is no excuse not to be seen on your bike. I’m not talking about being lit up like a Christmas tree or anything, but enough so people can see you from afew hundred metres away. Fluro clothing and small, energy efficient bike lights are relatively cheap and easy to come by. It is really important that other road (and cycle pathway) users can see you.

This morning I cycled to work as it is day one of BikeWise month and I’m helping my team whip all the others in Council. But that is a different story! Although February is generally the hottest month in the Hawke’s Bay, I have noticed that the mornings are starting to get darker. I cycled in with my biking buddy Craig, and both of us had front and rear bike lights on. I also wore my fluro bike top, which I purchased for about $20 from a website called Torpedo7. And I bought a nifty fluro bike bag cover which slips over my back pack from Avanti Hastings, again for about $20. It’s amazing how confident and comfortable you feel when you know people can see you.

For most of the journey this morning we were sharing the road with cars doing 100km/h. It is important they can see us.

So, enjoy Bike Wise month everyone. Ride safe. Ride strong.

Guest Bloggers: The Napier-Hastings Commute: Friends

Tanya's been commuting to work from Napier to Hastings a bit lately. This week she talked to us about sharing the ride with friends...it sure beats riding 20km by yourself! Enjoy



The Beatles weren’t wrong when they said “You get by with a little help from your friends.” Today, I rode into work and managed to persuade my work mates Craig and Caroline (pictured above) to come with me. To be honest, there wasn’t a great deal of persuading required. These two are mad keen cyclists. Staring at the backsides of your colleagues is a great way to start the day, especially if they are cyclists with rather toned ones!

Logistics are important when you ride with friends. Caroline, Craig and I started the “what day will we ride in this week” conversation on Monday. We had to all align our diaries and personal commitments and find a day that suited all of us. We also live in different parts of Napier, so organising where to meet and at what times needed to be sorted. The great thing was it worked like magic today, and we had a great ride in.

Riding with others is fabulous. There is the companionship you get on the way, and the trip goes by really quickly. Craig, Caroline and I are reasonably experienced cyclists so we drafted the whole way to work. This means one of us took a turn out at the front for a while with the other two tucked in behind and were sheltered from the wind. This provides an advantage to the following cyclists who essentially have a chance to recover their legs before it’s their turn to go out the front. We were riding between 28-30km/h most of the way in, which is much faster than I can do when I ride in by myself. There is also the motivating factor with others. You try your hardest to keep up because you are in a team situation and don’t want to let the side down.

Riding with others also requires you to have an extra heightened sense of what is going on around you. We rode in a line one behind the other which is the safest way to ride. In this situation not only do the three of us need to be aware of the traffic around us, but we need to be in tune with the other riders. I was aware of where Craig and Caroline were in relation to me and our surroundings the whole time. If you think about how much physical energy is expended on a bike, and couple that with the mental energy required to stay alert, it gives you some idea of what fitness level would be required for an event like the Tour de France where they ride over 3,600km in 3 weeks! That’s roughly equivalent to Cape Reinga to Bluff and back, plus some. Amazing!

Guest Bloggers: The best car drivers are people who cycle

This week we talked to Cheryl Paget who proves the best car drivers are people who cycle. Have a great weekend, the sun is meant to come out!



So, two things happened in 2011: firstly my 77 year old Father-in-Law who has had two hip replacements cycled 1407km from Lands End to John O’Groat’s (the length of Great Britain) and secondly, my employer organised a “Shape Up for Summer” exercise and diet challenge for its staff.

The latter made me realise just how deeply unfit and overweight I was, and the former made me wonder what on earth my excuse was not to cycle the paltry 5.6km from my house to work every day, especially considering that when I lived in England I cycled everywhere.

Since moving to NZ I have adopted the kiwi way – that is, drive everywhere, and I really had run out of excuses for not getting on my bike. In England I used to plan my week around cycling – I would arrange my appointments on one or two days so that I would only use the car on those days, the rest I cycled. I saved a fortune in petrol and looked great from all that exercise. Then I moved to Hawke’s Bay, with all that amazing food, long lunches and wine, I stopped riding and took up eating! The bottom line (double pun intended) is that I needed to lose weight and biking is a really good way to keep trim, and compliments the swimming and walking I started doing during the “Shape up for Summer” challenge.

So, shamed into action by my pensioner relative, I really had to get on the old bike.

A quick and inexpensive trip to Revolution Bikes to have my trusty steed checked over, a few trial runs around the area to make sure the old adage that once you learn how to ride a bike is true - and I was ready. D-Day was chosen as the first day back at work after the Christmas break. Start the New Year off as you intend to carry on I thought.

So I’m into the third week of cycling to work - there are odd days when I need to take the car, but I intend to cycle every day and plan when I need the car, rather than the other way round.

If you think you can mostly drive and cycle in on a couple of days it just doesn’t work out, you need to completely change your attitude to your commute to stick at cycling to work. Well, that’s my theory! The challenge will be when schools start back, I just hope the need to operate “Mum’s taxi” will not impinge on my riding to work, but I will just need to plan my week a bit better I think.

It is a tad hairy out there I admit, dodging car doors being opened onto you, swerving to avoid people who pull over into the cycle lane to park, narrowly missing people who overtake then immediately turn left, and you need to give drivers at intersections the evil eye to make sure they see you before they pull out, and I will confess, I avoid roundabouts if I can. But it’s no worse than being in a car, and let’s face it there are poor drivers out there who are a menace whatever vehicle you are in, and at least it gives me something to talk about (I’m a great Facebook ranter!)

The net benefits outweigh the odds though, I feel much brighter when I get into work and mentally alert ready for the day. After all, there’s nothing your boss can throw at you that you can’t deal with if you feel that you dodge death daily on the roads! The fact is, the best car drivers are people who cycle, so if everyone rides a bike at some point they will be more considerate of cyclists. The road is safer for everyone if car drivers wait that extra nano-second for the bike to go past, or check their side mirrors before getting out the car, and the best way to understand what a cyclist is going to do on the road is to be one yourself.

Even after two weeks I have noticed a difference in my fitness, I am less puffed out and not quite so bright red when I arrive, and I am experimenting with getting changed at work or just cycling in my work clothes. I am actually quite pleased that I can cycle up the hill to my house – a while ago I would get off at the bottom and push the bike up (one of my excuses for not cycling was “the hill”) two weeks ago I was getting halfway up and then getting off, this week I have actually managed to cycle to the top! OK, so I need a lie down and a beer when I get home, but hey I did it! In another couple of weeks I may be able to cycle up the hill without seeing stars, but I reckon I will still need the beer!

Guest bloggers: New found courage

This one is a goodie! Marit was always a bit nervous on her bike after a scare with a big truck, but has since found the confidence and is now loving biking with friends to wineries and enjoying the scenery. Well done Marit!



I hadn't ridden on my own bike for 21 years as I had a scare on St Georges Rd in the first few months we lived there. I didn't want to ride along the road there anymore because of a close encounter with a speeding truck and no room to safely get out the way on the narrow berm!

However 5½ yrs ago, I was persuaded by my very keen sister, brother and sister-in-law to go on a bike wine trail, which we did – it was 24kms and a great day.

And then this Christmas holidays my sister Bianca once again asked to go on a bike ride so we did with a group of friends (Cheryl Paget, Zoe Wilkinson and Julie Speers). Four of us hired bikes at a bike hire place at East Rd, Te Awanga and Julie brought her own.

We cycled down to Clifton Café for morning tea admiring gardens and pohutukawas in full flower. Then back to Clearview Estate for a very civilised lunch and glass of wine. After lunch we cut through the vineyards behind Clearview up to Park Rd, struggled up the steep hilll and down the gravel drive to Maggie T’s Pots. Then whizzed down the hill and back to the bike hire place where we left Zoe and Julie. Cheryl, Bianca and I continued biking around Haumoana and onto the cycle ways for another 8km ride. It was a great way to spend the day and the bikes were great – lovely comfortable seats and very simple (no gears).

So the fun of cycling with family and friends (plus the bonus of café, pottery and winery visits along the way) has inspired me. My old bike has been taken out of the garage and after cleaning off the cobwebs and 21 years debris, we took it to the cycle shop last week to see if its resurrect able.

I have not heard otherwise, so we pick it up on Friday and the cycling will recommence. It will start with a few rides to work with Cheryl and then registering in the Bikewise Challenge.

Marit :)

Guest Bloggers: The Napier-Hastings Commute: Logistics

This week we talked to Tanya Winter who lives in Napier and often bikes to work, in Hastings!



I have been cycling for 25 years and when I moved to the Hawke’s Bay I knew I would be spoilt for choice in terms of opportunities for cycling. My decision to live in Napier whilst working in Hastings was a conscious one, driven somewhat by the perfect commute distance of 20km between work and home. The only part of this that seems a tad unfair is the prevailing winds in the Hawke’s Bay seem to work against me. It is generally a South-West wind in the morning and a North-East wind in the afternoon. Some would say the resistance training is good for me.

I biked into work today taking the Marine Parade walkway-Clive route. My decision to ride today was made last Sunday as it requires a number of things to line up. They are:

- the weather – I keep an eye on the forecast about 5 days ahead of when I am going to ride in. Call me a wimp, but I actually want to ENJOY the ride to and from work, so it’s important that the weather is good.
- my work commitments – I often have meetings that start early or finish late. I try to find days where this is less likely to happen. The ideal time for leaving work to bike home is 5.30, as the initial rush of traffic has gone. I also try and find days where I don’t need a vehicle during the day, although I have used work cars if necessary.
- personal commitments – I ride on days where I don’t have personal commitments after work, unless they are later in the evening and I can get home with plenty of time to go out again!

I left home today at 6.30am, and it’s a 45min ride from home to work. I carry all my work clothes in a pack on my back, and things like my swipe card, mobile phone, bread for breakfast, purse, sunglasses. I leave a towel and a fully kitted toilet bag in the shower facility at work. That lessens the load to carry. I don’t like ironing, so its relatively easy for me to find clothes that I can stuff into a backpack, and they come out the other end looking OK. I know for some people, particularly guys with shirts, this would be more difficult. For this reason, some people leave clothes at work.

I shower in a building adjacent to the main offices which is frequently used by tradespeople...and that itself is an interesting exercise! I remember using the back shower one morning and coming out only in a towel to find one of the painters there. I’m sure it was a start to his day he would rather not have had. I guess we were both lucky I had the towel!

I am able to make toast and a cup of tea and am ready to start my day just before 8.

Guest Bloggers: New year, new challenges

Happy 2012 everyone! We're pumped for a new year and new challenges. Today we talked to Rochelle again to see how she was feeling after Tour of the Bay last year and whether she'd continued cycling. Enjoy.



Cycling is awesome, but I need to make it habit-forming. After the Tour of the Bay in October I got out of the habit. Determined to start cycling again, last weekend I pumped up the tyres, donned the lycra and headed off for an early morning bike.

I was expecting it to be a lot harder than it was, funny how muscles work. It helped that cycling last year coupled with the Summer Challenge at work (measuring steps with a pedometer) got me walking more and eating healthier and then I shocked myself and joined a gym.

Still going to the gym too, but that’s another story. I recommend everyone who doesn’t think the gym is for them to give it a go; I was one of those people and now look forward to my work outs!

Anyway, the bike ride was a fizzer. I got 10kms in, heard a funny noise, kept going, noise didn’t stop. Decided to check it out and had a flat back tyre. Awesome. Luckily I’d bought a mini-pump for last years training and the tyre lasted until I got home. A bunch of lovely walkers along Puketapu Road stopped to check if I was okay too.

Now I just need to keep up the gym, try to avoid takeaways and fix that puncture so I can go on good long bike rides.

Rochelle