http://www.flickr.com/groups/sydney_tweed_ride_2010/
Last Wednesday it rained all day. I know this because I was out and about riding in the rain with one very waterlogged Susan from RocketFuel for a few hours to long.
We rode a few lanes and streets to finally come up with the route for the Sydney Tweed Ride.
What a great day. Sunday for me was get in the van and drive to the park. Unload the tea set from the van at a friends house that was just across the road from the park where the BFF was having a photo shoot slash promo. At about 8.15 I was running late and still carrying stuff to the house that had power for my urn.
Arriving in the city I quickly got some coffee and rode into a large group of people dressed in tweed. I rode up and parked my bike. Wow a whole row of Mavern Star SkidSars. utterly fantastic. It was ten degrees in the shade and the tweed felt right at home keeping me snug and warm,. I found my Red Lanterns (people with a job on the ride) to brief them on the ride ahead.
I was thinking how to manage the various crossings of main roads and catch up points. It came to me that the reason KRudd failed was because he micro-managed everything and people hated this. I did the opposite. I gave each Red Lantern an intersection to manage each. So they where the boss there and no single person ends up being 'super bad guy'. This worked really well with all of the helping Red Lanterns enjoying their ride and having a special area to be in charge of, it worked well with even good reports.
On the ride was a total mixed bag of riders and bikes and styles. From a 7 month old in the front of a Bullitt and a few other kids in various bike seats was one about 6 year old who rode (the whole way)pasted to the left on mums front wheel. Excellent job Rudy.
I rode the whole event from the very VERY back and I am happy to inform. we had a beautiful ride on a sunday morning though the city and up to Taylor Square and then out to Alexandria. A wonderfull 11.3 km total length and 3.8 km as the crow flies.
Getting to our destination we actually encountered a single 4wd (BMW) with attitude and was trying to get past a group of riders over double yellow lines and then cut into the middle of a the group dangerously.. the driver of the car did this 3 times. I think when the driver got past we still got to the intersection first as the driver actually went the wrong way and came back to do it again. 30 seconds later and we would have been gone. Just goes to show all the agro was in the drivers seat.
The ride was a great thing with the general public tooting horns in appreciation and not anger for once. Onlookers looked on gob smacked from the pavements everywhere we rode.
I decided that having tea and biscuits would be super civilized so I went shopping and sourced some tables and urn and tea bags milk, sugar, cups, coffee, and electricity and water and someone to keep an eye on it all.
Thank you Jarrah from SYDBMA for being the (single) strong arm guy. He has a broken collar bone.
Andrea from the house by the park.
Koz at Clodelli in Clovelly rd who made the tea spot possible.
The tea was a donation driven thing. It worked. After all bills and donations I rounded out having enough money to buy A coffee and a loaf of nice bread.. I was quite happy to break even but to make 7 dollars made me smile more than if I had made 300. It was good to keep it simple and for it to work.
I would like to thank everyone who came along on the Sydney Tweed Ride 2010. Without you it just would not have been the same. A very special thank you and Job well done to the Red Lanterns, You all did a perfect job at the right pace and vibe.
Personally I had a great time and enjoyed being there . Watching the previous weeks of organization and meetings and stuff was made all better with a great plan coming together.
For more info on the Sydney Tweed Ride look here
View Sydney Tweed Ride 2010 (11.3 km) in a larger map
even more info at rocket fuel
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