Karen! Mind on the job girl - John and Rob are waiting patiently for their coffees. If you're going to get distracted every time you see a baby this just ain't going to work.
Sunday, 25 March 2007
Oh, for Pete's sake!
Karen! Mind on the job girl - John and Rob are waiting patiently for their coffees. If you're going to get distracted every time you see a baby this just ain't going to work.
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Truck! 2 (or Slip Sliding Away)
Yes, there was another truck incident. However, this time we accept no fault and should we ever meet the driver of this truck he won't be getting a drink.
We were riding through Huapai on St Hwy 16 (Yes, same bloody road and all), doing about 30-35 km, when the driver of an articulated rig decided to do a u-turn right smack bang in front of us. Articulated trucks take up a lot of road space so there was no going around this guy. To cut a long story short, Rob managed to throw himself half out of the trike before making a recovery (of sorts).
See accompanying photo showing the extensive wounds suffered by that brave soul Rob.
Funnily enough, John having very restricted forward vision only, couldn't see Rob flailing alongside the trike and assumed he had fallen out completely somewhere back up the road. The idea of being stuck in the back of an out of control tandem at 35 km/hr didn't upset John at all for some peculiar reason. He was, however, pleased and somewhat surprised to find that Rob had reappeared in the front seat by the time the trike came to a stop.
We have since reassessed our collision evasion strategy.
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Truck!
Learning to ride in harmony on the tandem has, at times, been challenging. At other times it has been downright scary!
Let me explain the way the tandem works. There are, needless to say, 2 seats - the rear seat has a regular foot-crank, which is pedaled from a semi-recumbent position, while the front seat is equipped with a hand-crank, which also acts as the steering. Brakes can be applied from either position though Rob controls the 2 front disks, while John controls the rear disk. This is a good time to point out that the trike has 2 wheels in front, one in back. Gearing is all performed from the rear seat. In total there are 48 gears. So, Rob in front steering and braking, John in back operating the gears. Simple, right!
One morning, early in our training, before we became the seamless operation people witness today, we found ourselves at the top of a short but steep climb, facing Highway 16. Our intended route required us to cross the Highway. Unfortunately the road was only visible for a few hundred meters to our right where it dipped out of sight. No problem, we just had to be quick. Rob being the eyes and ears of the duo scanned for traffic and seeing and hearing nothing, yelled GO! The smart ones among you are asking yourselves how, if John is deaf, could he hear such a command - the answer is that John is only partially deaf and can generally, if there is not too much other noise, hear Rob screeching commands from up front. Therefore John heard Rob yell GO! What he didn't hear was Rob telling him to select an appropriate gear to cross the Highway - remember we had just climbed a steep hill and we were in a way low gear. He didn't hear it because Rob didn't say it, he'd forgotten to. And so we ended up frantically pedaling into the middle of the Highway (all 3.5 meters of us) but getting nowhere fast. By the time Rob had figured out what was happening a large red truck came barrelling over the hill, headed straight for us! As luck would have it, there was a small fruit shed with a car park on the far side of the road, just big enough that the driver was able to swing around us and get back onto the road - the fact that he did is a testament to his skill. On reaching the fruit shed car park, sitting a couple of inches higher in our seats, we took time to reflect on our strategy.
We have vowed to shout the driver of that truck the drink of his choice should we ever meet him (and he doesn't punch us out).
And so we survived, of course, and we learned from our near-death experience, so why did the trucks come for us again...?
Let me explain the way the tandem works. There are, needless to say, 2 seats - the rear seat has a regular foot-crank, which is pedaled from a semi-recumbent position, while the front seat is equipped with a hand-crank, which also acts as the steering. Brakes can be applied from either position though Rob controls the 2 front disks, while John controls the rear disk. This is a good time to point out that the trike has 2 wheels in front, one in back. Gearing is all performed from the rear seat. In total there are 48 gears. So, Rob in front steering and braking, John in back operating the gears. Simple, right!
One morning, early in our training, before we became the seamless operation people witness today, we found ourselves at the top of a short but steep climb, facing Highway 16. Our intended route required us to cross the Highway. Unfortunately the road was only visible for a few hundred meters to our right where it dipped out of sight. No problem, we just had to be quick. Rob being the eyes and ears of the duo scanned for traffic and seeing and hearing nothing, yelled GO! The smart ones among you are asking yourselves how, if John is deaf, could he hear such a command - the answer is that John is only partially deaf and can generally, if there is not too much other noise, hear Rob screeching commands from up front. Therefore John heard Rob yell GO! What he didn't hear was Rob telling him to select an appropriate gear to cross the Highway - remember we had just climbed a steep hill and we were in a way low gear. He didn't hear it because Rob didn't say it, he'd forgotten to. And so we ended up frantically pedaling into the middle of the Highway (all 3.5 meters of us) but getting nowhere fast. By the time Rob had figured out what was happening a large red truck came barrelling over the hill, headed straight for us! As luck would have it, there was a small fruit shed with a car park on the far side of the road, just big enough that the driver was able to swing around us and get back onto the road - the fact that he did is a testament to his skill. On reaching the fruit shed car park, sitting a couple of inches higher in our seats, we took time to reflect on our strategy.
We have vowed to shout the driver of that truck the drink of his choice should we ever meet him (and he doesn't punch us out).
And so we survived, of course, and we learned from our near-death experience, so why did the trucks come for us again...?
Sunday, 11 March 2007
It's all go!
Good one, our major sponsor has just committed the funds we needed to make it all happen. Thanks to SPARC (Sport & Recreation New Zealand) we can now get into the planning proper. Our other major supporters at this time are Auckland Parafed who deserve a special thanks for having the faith to back us when it was still more of a dream than a reality. We welcome any support organisations and individuals can offer us. Areas of need are cycle equipment, cycle/outdoor clothing, and nutritional products. If you can help email Rob at rob.creagh@xtra.co.nz.
The rough plan at this stage is: a 3 stage cycle tour of the North and South Islands. Stage 1. Auckland - Rotorua Stage 2. Palmerston North - Napier (likely to change) Stage 3. Christchurch - Oamaru. Our transport is a tandem recumbent handcrank/footcrank hybrid, made by Greenspeed of Australia. As far as we know there are only 2 of these babies in the world (maybe 3). The riders are Rob Creagh in the captain position (up front) and John McPeak in the stoker position (grunting it in the back). Managing this intrepid pair, and hopefully cycling part of the journey, is Karen Howlett.
To make things more interesting Rob is a tetriplegic, while John (the big showoff) is deaf and blind. For obvous reasons the decision has been made to put Rob up front with steering and braking duties, whereas John gets to holiday in the back with nothing to do but change gears and sporadically apply the emergency brake to either annoy Rob or prevent serious injury (more on that later). Karen has refused to have a physical disability and chooses instead to assume the role of authoritarian mother. May all the Gods protect us!
The objective of the journey? To promote the New Zealand Government's No Exceptions Strategy, which has as its Vision: "All people participating in the physical recreation and sport activities of their choice."
More later...
The rough plan at this stage is: a 3 stage cycle tour of the North and South Islands. Stage 1. Auckland - Rotorua Stage 2. Palmerston North - Napier (likely to change) Stage 3. Christchurch - Oamaru. Our transport is a tandem recumbent handcrank/footcrank hybrid, made by Greenspeed of Australia. As far as we know there are only 2 of these babies in the world (maybe 3). The riders are Rob Creagh in the captain position (up front) and John McPeak in the stoker position (grunting it in the back). Managing this intrepid pair, and hopefully cycling part of the journey, is Karen Howlett.
To make things more interesting Rob is a tetriplegic, while John (the big showoff) is deaf and blind. For obvous reasons the decision has been made to put Rob up front with steering and braking duties, whereas John gets to holiday in the back with nothing to do but change gears and sporadically apply the emergency brake to either annoy Rob or prevent serious injury (more on that later). Karen has refused to have a physical disability and chooses instead to assume the role of authoritarian mother. May all the Gods protect us!
The objective of the journey? To promote the New Zealand Government's No Exceptions Strategy, which has as its Vision: "All people participating in the physical recreation and sport activities of their choice."
More later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
