Want to get your girlfriend into cycling? Break her collarbone!

I saw a frightening sight when I was heading out for an afternoon ride the other day.

I live in Neutral Bay, and was heading over the harbour bridge to take in a couple of quick laps of Centennial park before the rain came in.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway, the north side is accessed by 5 flights of stairs with ramps down the middle to allow you to walk your bike up and down.



The view from the bottom




The braver souls among us ride down the ramps - including impressively some couriers on fixies - while the more sedate choose to walk down.

Personally, I find walking down the stairs in my Look cleats to be just as dangerous as riding the ramps, so I drop on in at the top and roll through.

I find the key to the matter is to keep the weight waaaay back, have the front brake hard on and modulate the pressure on the rear break to keep it just on the edge of locking up. Rolling through the ramps and then curbing the speed on the platforms makes life controllable, but from all appearances it is easier for those on their MTBs than it is for me on my roadbike.

So on this fine afternoon I was halfway up the stairs when a lad comes along on his MTB and rolls down the ramps, making it look all quite easy. Ten seconds later, I am at the top of the ramp, and a girl who was obviously riding with him navigates the little chicane that stops you hitting the steps blind at full speed, then stops at the top:


The view from the top


She tells him that she is going to walk the steps, he calls out telling her it is easy, and that she should just ride down.

She stands there debating it a little while, walks down one flight of steps, then her parter calls out again that she should ride it.

By now a small group of asian tourists with cameras have gathered, and he tells her that she has to go now to please the crowd.

He gives her the advice that she should just use the back brake on the way down, to which she replies "which side is that again"!!!!


She then tries to navigate the stairs by rolling the bike up to the ramp, putting the front wheel over onto the ramp, pedals at 12 & 6, one foot on, back brake locked up, then just lifting the other foot and rolling in.

I couldn't drag myself away - it was like watching a train wreck.

For those who have got the taste for blood given my title, you missed out, she made it down successfully although not gracefully! I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way.

It left me wondering about what the hell this guy was thinking. The girl was clearly not an experienced cyclist - she didn't even know which brake was which - why would he put her in that kind of danger.

A couple of times coming down there I have got it slight wrong, like being on the hoods instead of the drops and not having enough braking leverage, or getting my loose shorts caught on the back of the saddle and not being able to move my weight around - that was enough to leave me wishing I had been wearing brown undies that day - this girl could have really got hurt.

I am trying to get my wife into cycling - there is no way I would try to make her do something that A) she didn't want to do AND B) was stupidly dangerous, if she hurts herself she is never going to get on a bike again, and she will be mighty pissed at me.

/RANT

BTW - I am obviously having some layout issues here with offsite images - stay with me while I get it sorted!