Bikes on Trams (Blackburn's Velodrome, Melb)

[Hippy]

"JAF" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> If you do use public transport how will you get home after training anyway? I would take the car.
> I used to go from FTG to Swinburne

Reverse the path I took getting there, basically. Just ride back to the station. It'll depend if I
can leave my track bike at the club or not.

> Is Blackburn CC only velodrome based, or do they have other
rides/races
> etc? Are they friendly to new/inexperienced riders?

They run road and track racing and cater to juniors and seniors and total newbies. I was a total
newbie with them.

Track training is on most nights of the week for different skill levels (check the website). Novice
track training is on Thursdays at 6pm.

METEC criteriums are also run on Thursday nights at 6pm. METEC is a closed circuit usually used for
driver and motorbike-rider training. Training sessions are run here on Wed I think. It's in Kilsyth.

They also run longer 'road' races which are listed on the race calendar which is <everybody> "on the
website!"

http://www.blackburncycling.org.au/

hippy

 

[Nick Payne]

You could get there on a tandem. Harry and Billie Worthington once told us that in the 1930s they
used to ride to track meets on a tandem. Billie was stoker and would have Harry's track bike
slung over her shoulder; their baby daughter was in a box on the rear rack, cushioned by a car
inner tube...

I think Harry was born in either 1912 or 1914 and was still racing in the 85+ age group until a few
years ago. In his day he was one of the best trackies in the country.

Nick

"hippy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I just called Yarra Trams who run the tram service along Burwood Hwy. and their official response
> to my question about whether or not bikes are allowed on trams was "No, bikes are only allowed on
> trains".
>
> So now I have to find some other way of getting from Hawthorn to Blackburn's velodrome.. :-(

 

[Arpit]

On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 04:40:45 GMT, "hippy" <[email protected]> wrote:

>"PiledHigher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Remembering you will have to take them off when you get to training, won't be allowed to use them
>> on the track

why not?
>
>This, combined with the need to swap forks to fit the brakes, is the reason I haven't done it yet.
>
>hippy

 

[Fred Nieman]

hippy wrote:
>
> I just called Yarra Trams who run the tram service along Burwood Hwy. and their official response
> to my question about whether or not bikes are allowed on trams was "No, bikes are only allowed on
> trains".
>
> So now I have to find some other way of getting from Hawthorn to Blackburn's velodrome.. :-(
>
> Looks like I'll have to train from Hawthorn to Blackburn station and then ride the track bike
> along Blackburn Rd. to the velodrome... illegal, given that I haven't fitted brakes to it yet.
>
> Any other alternatives? I prefer the above option to driving to work and then to the 'drome with
> the bike in the back.. but it may come to that <sob> peak hour driving <sob>
>
> hippy

A lot of other people wrote: <intelligent and insightful things, snipped nevertheless>

The reason why you are allowed take a bike on a train but not on a tram is (in terms of Legal
Positivism) because you are allowed to take a bike on a train but not on a tram.

The real reason is probably a combination of pragmatism and history.
* Pragmatism: flash back to when bicycles and/or public transport were the majority ways to get to
work. Friday 7 November 1927, the 7:42 train to Flinders St picks up 50 blokes (yes, I know, I
know) at Carringbush Station (ok, yes, I'm making this up), 25 of whom put their bikes on the
6-car train, but they fit in fine. The alternative to the
7:42 is the 666 (making this up, redux) tram from Mont Camberthorne via Carringbush to Flinders St.
If 20 of the 50 blokes (many of them probably C J Dennis-ly Sentimental) tried to take their bikes
on the W-Class (Hi Dad!) tram, that bird wouldn't fly.
* History: Now back to now: same rules, with maybe just the same justification (I have no probs
fitting my bike on the Upfield line train in the pm when it's raining, but it would just not
be right to stick it on the tram up Sydney Road)... or maybe it's just because the rules
haven't changed.

Maybe a solution?

(Background: you can't take bikes on trains in Japan, because if everyone did, see the 666 Tram
scenario above times a coupla thousand)

I bought a bike in central Tokyo about 10 years ago, and asked my Shibuya LBS (sort of) guys if I
could take it back to my apaato ("apartment") in the outer suburbs by train. They said "[shhh] maa,
neh, muzukashii darô, naa" (literally: "[intake of breath through closed teeth with head tilted]
well, you know, it may possibly be difficult, perhaps", idiomatically: "absolutely no, no f*ckin'
way, don't even think about it, man.")

After about 2 minutes of worried looks, intakes of breath through closed teeth with head tilted, and
"maa neh, komatta da naa"s (ok, so we spoke the International Language of People who are Serious
about Bicycles, but when in Sakura-ga-Oki-Chô, do as the Sakura-ga-Oki-Chô-ns do, or something) they
suggested I shell out Yen 3 000 more for a "baishikuru baggu" (that's pronounced "bye - shee - koo -
roo bug-goo, but I'm sure you don't need me to translate)...

So, my beautiful 1993 GT Karakoram is transformed from a prohibited item into a big package slung
over the shoulder of a lycra-clad Gai[koku]jin traveling on trains all over the 8 Blessed Islands of
Zipang. Cf: Roland Barthes, "The Empire of Signs", and all.

Seriously, there is a point to this post. Really. Buy 3 metres of Condura Nylon, some webbing to
make a carrying strap, and a big zipper. Then spark up the Bernina (or Janome, or whatever), take
the wheels off your track bike (yep, I know they may not have QRs), set it down and trace out a
pattern, and sew yourself up a baishikuru baggu.

And then take your no-longer-a-bicycle-but-a-package on the tram.

(if you want my real e-mail so I can lend you my real physical baishikuru baggu, post a
response on a.b)

p

 

[PiledHigher]

Originally posted by Arpit
>why not?


Because track bikes are fixed gear with no brakes for safety on a tight track, no one can slow down too quickly.

 

[its_stuart]

Hey you could just conceal the Bike on your person Hippy. Do they make fold up track bikes?