Category Archives: Humour

Are Specialized road bike riders the equivalent of middle aged Porche drivers?

Dear Rouleurs,

It has been a while. MMT has been busy with his day job and whilst he’s been cycling plenty, post-YAFV, there hasn’t been must time for blogging. So this post is an instant remedy to that situation. Speaking of remedies, MMT has received his first COVID vaccination, this year’s flu shot and is booked in for the second COVID shot in August. As Victoria is back in Lockdown 4.0 (really…who could be bothered counting these things :-), MMT urges everyone in Australia to get vaccinated…now. Seriously, what could be more important than being vaccinated against a life threatening illness.

MMT digresses. So whilst being out and about, MMT has occasionally crossed paths with an unknown Specialized road cyclist. MMT reckons that he’s seen this rider a few times heading to or from Mordialloc, always wearing Specialized clothing and riding a Specialized roadbike. This rider is reasonably fast, pretty grumpy but not Peter Sagan. MMT couldn’t identify the make of the bike but wonders whether the following applies. See graphic below.

It is interesting what a quick internet search reveals, such as this opinion by https://www.probikecorner.com/is-specialized-bike-overpriced/

“Specialized offers some of the most expensive bikes on the market. While they do go on sale on occasion, even their sale price is going to be more expensive than 99% of bikes from competing manufacturers.”

Or this from Bike Radar – https://www.bikeradar.com/features/why-are-bikes-so-expensive/

Ouch…so really is Specialized the equivalent of Porche or BMW? If so what does that say about individual that buys one? Middle crisis victim or merely appreciating the finer things in life?

Until next, stay safe, get vaccinated and ride lots

MMT

And suddenly the world seems like a safer and saner place….

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT’s Blog has rarely strayed into political commentary, but after being glued to ABC and SBS’s coverage of the American election in early November, its time the gloves came off. Donald ‘Dump’ Trump was finally visited by the karma fairy. All the lying, cheating and no doubt soon to be revealed stealing has caught up with him and his cronies.

Finally, sanity prevails….thank you America’s voters.

Trump’s reaction of hiding in the White and sulking is a fitting footnote to his presidency. The American people living in the states of Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, who voted for the Biden-Harris ticket, take a bow. You’ve restored America’s international standing and made the world just that little bit better. Thank you.

MMT is going to have this put on a t-shirt….

Aside from die-hard Trump supporters, the most aggrieved group in American society, who will dearly miss Trump, are cartoonists. Once Trump is dragged by the Secret Service out of the Oval Office, what will they have as inspiration? So while this blog is openly disparaging of Trump and his lackeys, it offers its condolences to cartoonists world wide.

The following is smattering of cartoons that have caught MMT’s eye over the last couple of weeks

No doubt history will say that Donald Trump’s presidency was one of the greatest periods of time for political cartoonists.

Anyhoooo, that will MMT’s last foray into political commentary for this year, cycling is much more interesting.

Until next keep safe, ride safe and Make American Great Again

MMT

The Stage 4 Lockdown Blues

Dear Rouleurs,

It’s the second week of August and MMT is, to quote Shaun Micallef, ‘mad as hell’. Apparently, the Victorian version of overseas passenger quarantine was run by a bunch of muppets who didn’t brief or prepare their staff. Now all of Melbourne is in stage 4 lockdown and all of country Victoria is in stage 3 lockdown. Bummer…. The pic below shows The Age headline for the 3rd of August. In the end, the State Government didn’t have choice. The mounting mystery case list and sadly, deathtoll simply couldn’t be ignored.

The impact of that has meant has a drastic reduction in MMT’s time on the bike outdoors. People living in Melbourne are only allowed one hour of exercise a day and aren’t allowed to travel outside of a 5 kilometre radius of their home. The combination of those 2 restrictions has meant a lot of short, and some what frustrating rides inside the Red Circle of Boredom….

And there it is in all of its glory. The Red Circle of Boredom has meant a number of rides around Albert Park Lake and Fisherman’s Bend. If MMT had more than 1hour, he could have ridden to Williamstown and back. Being so close to the Bay has meant a large reduction in ride variety. Fortunately, MMT still has St Ali’s and Brother Bubba Budan in that zone so at least he has access to decent coffee when needed.

Now before MMT forgets the Red Circle of Boredom, is based on a rather heplful website, https://2kmfromhome.com/. The author is a fellow called David Bolger in the Republic of Ireland. You can find him here on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davebolger. It looks like his website received some serious interest from Melbourians judging by this tweet.

If MMT hadn’t seen this website on Strava, he may resorted to using a Melways (…remember those?? ;-), a pin, a piece of string and a pencil, to achieve the same end. Very old school geometry vs a new snappy website…the website wins. If you feel so inclined you can buy Dave a coffee here at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/devhaus. BTW, Coffee in Ireland must be seriously expensive at 5 Euro ie $8.23 AUD…ouch.

Any how, ride safe and stay safe

MMT in Stage 4 Lockdown