Truth in advertising

Television commercials for cars promise lots of things: Fun, convenience, exhilaration, power, speed, control, happiness even sex appeal if only you will part with a year's pay to buy one of their infernal machines. It's bullshit of course. When you read about people's experience of driving in this town they usually use words like frustration, stress, helplessness, rage and delay. Being in a car in traffic is like being trapped in a cage. It's a distressing experience. Then there's the pollution you're causing...

The feelings that I have when I get on my bike to go to and from work are much closer to those portrayed in the car advertisements. Freedom to go whenever I want, to travel at whatever speed I want, the satisfaction of cruising over hills like they're not there because my muscles are used to doing that ride every day. Just being fit makes you feel really happy. As for weaving through stalled traffic, that is hugely satisfying. Forging ahead while the rest of the herd just sits and fumes, it makes me laugh out loud sometimes to see the lemmings madly struggling with each other to get their huge vehicles a few metres ahead only to be stopped again at the next set of lights. They all look so unhappy.

I love greeting other cyclists along the way, there's a sense of shared adventure when you see another rider, there is often a quick chat at the lights, a smile and a wave from total strangers that you would normally never speak to in a big city like Sydney. Car drivers seem to loath one another...

Sometimes it's tough. It rains, the wind blows in your face and you do have to watch out for the hurtling metal boxes, but it's more than worth it. It makes you feel so alive, like life is worth living, worth a bit of effort. Riding in the rain is a beautiful thing, the city is washed clean, the smells of wet grass and trees are fresh and vibrant, not to mention the lovely hissing sound your tires make in the quiet streets.

Back to work

This week it was back to work at the ABC preparing another season of The Chaser's War on Everything. As usual we kicked things off with the tradtional sauna/vodka Tofu BBQ Party.

SBAR on Triple J

Triple J's Arts reporter Claire Frost attended the ride this year and interviewed several riders and painters. You can hear the program she produced and see some pictures by clicking on this link.

Southern Courier today

Front Page News

Page 5 article

2007 Ride Report

Shopping malls collapsed, roads flooded but the Sydney Body Art Ride went through.

Congratulations to all the wonderful people who showed up for yesterday’s third annual Sydney Body Art Ride. Despite the gloomy weather reports and a number of conflicting events we managed to muster 200 riders and the sun shone down on us all day. In fact the perfect weather lasted until we had finished packing the last few things back at UNSW. Then the rain came down and conveniently rinsed the left over paint off the lawn. (The Purple riders had left the biggest paint puddle)


This year we had a coffee van, a veg/non veg BBQ and music.


With the numbers down a bit our paint team was able to put in extra effort on giving people more elaborate designs and in the first few photos I’ve seen there is some great artwork. In fact the whole event was a bit more relaxed and easy to manage. This year was the first time we’ve had a “Sad Wagon” to pick up riders whose bikes break down and for the first time we needed one. One of the Red Team was collected and transported to the Beach. Seems like the Gods love SBAR.


As organisers we were very proud of how well behaved everyone was down on the Beach. Conditions were pretty rough so everyone stayed inside the flags and didn’t go in too far. Three riders were stung by blue bottles and unfortunately two of them were younger riders, all three have fully recovered and I guess we were lucky that out of 200 people only three got stung.

Our youngest rider this year was seven years old (apart from the pregnant women of course) and the oldest was 60. We had the highest number of Piercings ever recorded with a rider displaying nine of them to take out the prize. We also had a new colour in our Rainbow, a group of people brought along their own white paint and added floral designs which looked fabulous. Two of the Whites took out the “Best Decorated Bike” prize with their extremely floral tandem.

If you have photos please send us a disc for our exhibition and website.

There are some excellent shots to look at on Jason’s website


You can also visit Phil at Spinopsys for some more photos with an emphasis on the mounts of our noble participants.
We will add more to our usual fotopage as they come in.

Jens also has some fabulous photos.

Excellent images by Rod Spark

Thankyou to everyone who came along and especially to all of our volunteers who work so hard every year to make sure we all have a great day.

Final Preparations

Picking up the fence.

Dahon Prize

Hope you've got some sponsors. This year's highest fundraiser wins the bike of the year. A Dahon folding bike kindly donated by Cheeky Transport Newtown. This prize is not awarded until the 1st of March so there is still plenty of time to get people to sponsor your ride, even after you've done it. To get your sponsorship form and fundraiser letter you must contact Samantha at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia.

TAG

Via Velorution

We've got a fence!

Steve and I headed down Wardell Rd today to Turella to meet Paul and Des at Mekanarky Studios. Our mission? To paint the new painting enclosure for next weekends Sydney Body Art Ride. We had a huge tin of light blue paint that we had picked up on the discount rack at Bunnings. As you can see it turned out to be the perfect colour.

First we paid our respects to the Mekanarky Goddesses who ensure success in all creative endeavours.

Ran finishing off the french braces

Paul gets to work

Steve painting the french braces

Des feeling well satisfied with the colour

Painting the backs

The finished job, aint it nice?

We've got Paint!

Des and I went over to Mortlake today to the Matisse Derivan Paint Factory and picked up the paint for the Sydney Body Art Ride.

Dave from Matisse.

The Pink has extra Pinkness this year! (It's an LPG powered car btw)

Here it all is safely stowed and waiting for Jen to come and collect it. Silver is for the Marshals, everyone else can choose whatever colour they want. Should be enough paint here to do up to a thousand riders.

Busy Day

Today was very busy with the girls first day back at school and media attention hotting up.

Wendy and I went in to Ultimo to do an interview at 2SER with Sarah Hanniffy

After that we headed up to Oxford St and did some intensive postering. Posters are starting to run a bit short, we might have to print more next year.

Wendy at the Tool Shed.

We popped into Wooly's Wheels and ran into Philip Gomes of Spinopsys fame. They already had our poster up in a prominent place so that everyone coming into the store would see it. We spent some time trying to persuade Phil that he should be one of our Silver Marshals and gave him a handful of postcards for him to distribute to especially favoured customers.

Got back home in time to pick up the kids and then fielded calls from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Southern Courier who both wanted pictures for articles they are writing about the ride. I also spent some time trying to organise a BBQ for the morning of the ride so that everyone can have some tucker while they are waiting to head off. I'm trying to persuade the volunteers that we need a vegetarian option. Meanwhile Wendy is still chasing prizes and someone to make coffee. I heard from Red Captain Tania today, she has moved to WA so the Red Captain position is now vacant.