Author Archives: Marv

About Marv

A avid but amateur cyclist who regularly commutes to work, rides for exercise and completes the occasional long distance event. I also write a very poor blog marvmadethis.com about the joys of work/life/cycling balance with his long suffering wife and 2 little angels under the age of 5.

Post-holiday angry rant part 2 – ute driving bogans

Dear Rouleurs,

This blog will be part 2 in a 3 part series in what MMT is now calling his Angry Rant series. MMT was going to write about the theft of hisbeloved black, Sttoke coffee cup. That will now be part 3. However a close encounter with another bogan dickhead in a ute, this morning, left MMT fuming and now a few hours later somewhat amused.

MMT was cruising past Elwood Beach at about 6:45am when some bogan dickhead rolled down the passenger side window of a white flat bed ute to scream “Get off the road!!”. MMT gave the bogan dickhead the middle finger and continued on his way. About 5 minutes later, the bogan dickhead passes me again with the same ridiculous outburst. This time MMT is prepared with an iphone  handy. The bogan dickhead ute has been stopped by traffic lights on St Kilda Road. MMT catches up and starts taking photos.

As you the reader can see, MMT snapped the licence plate, YBM 890, the make of the ute, Mitsubishi Triton and a good close up of this loser covering his face. If that’s not a sign of guilt, then MMT is not sure what else would be more damning. May be video evidence would do the trick.  My guess this bogan may have had a ‘oh shit’ moment, where suddenly something that must have been amusing to him, has suddenly become something with potentially nasty consequences.  MMT wonders if this P-plate driver doesn’t have some ‘form’ or ‘priors’.

Stiil, it Just goes to show the civilising power of a mobile phone with a camera, can level the playing field. If there had been less traffic around MMT would have stopped and taken further photos.   Not so chipper now Mr Bogan Dickhead, are you??  Oh well. So the question is what to do with this ‘smoking gun’ other than naming and shaming in this blog.

Either way I offer a heartfelt ‘Vaffanculo!!!’ with the appropriate hand gesture to this bogan dickhead.

Marv

Post-holiday angry rant part 1 – dump trump

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has been back 10 days in Melbourne and already the heady days of #Iloveholidays are over.  In his jet-lagged state of foreboding, MMT has taken solace in the ready availability of world-class coffee.  The Spanish seem to relish the taste of UHT long life milk.  MMT wonders if its exclusively used in cafes in that country.  In MMT’s opinion, using that kind of milk makes coffee undrinkable. Yup, MMT is a coffee snob and bike snob 😉

So on his way to a near by coffee shop, MMT spied this horrible sight.  MMT had to look twice to sense-check his reality.  After all, who in their right mind, in Australia, would have a bumper sticker supporting the current American President. I’ve left the licence plate in the photo as a form of ‘name and shame’.

MMT very nearly keyed this car out of spite and protest.  The only thing holding back that act of protest/vandalism was the thought that just may be this was some weird, deeply ironic joke.  Either way, MMT was very, very conflicted at the sight of something so idiotic. Its not like Australia has a shortage of political idiots.  One only has to look at the most recent coup d’etat against the previous PM Malcolm Turnbull, to see how many of them are present in the Australian Liberal Party.

MMT digresses, the coffee was good and MMT was able to re-direct his rage to this blog.

Until next time ride safe.

MMT

The snow in Spain has fallen mainly on the plains…brrhhhh!!!

Dear Rouleurs,

Team MMT has journied to San Sebastián via Salamanca and Burgos, since MMT’s last blog.  Up until 72 hours ago the gods of weather had smiled fortuitously. Then a wicked cold front came whistling in off the Atlantic Ocean to bring rain, wind and send the mercury plummeting.  So much so that it snowed down to the 600m level across Spain.  This included Burgos and Avila, places MMT had passed through only days before.  So that has meant zero beach weather in San Sebastián, although the skies and seas around the city have been spectacular to watch.  MMT digresses.

MMT has a number of holiday happy snaps of some pretty interesting bikes he has seen parked on the street in various Spainish cities so far.

Madrid

This old track bike was seen in the back streets of La Latina. Zeus seems like such a grand name for a model of fixie.

Another interesting urban bike, parked near Tirso de Molina metro station. This one is manufactured by Felt Racing.

Salamanca

This is one of the more interesting ‘bikes’ MMT has ever seen. Spotted in the Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, this gentleman was out riding with a bunch of mates on a Sunday morning.

Burgos

This wonderful custom three wheeler was presumably being used by for deliverys for the local tavern it was advertising. Spotted in Burgos.

MMT has taken a few photos of Brompton bikes over the years, but has never seen a kiddie passenger seat added to the frame. Spotted just up the road from Team MMT’s Airbnb apartment, Burgos, Spain.

San Sebastián

This wonderful old hybrid Orbea took pride of place on in the San Telmo Museum, San Sebastián.

This Mate bike was parked outside of Team MMT’s favourite Patisserie in central San Sebastián. Has there ever been more attachments added to folding hybrid e-bike?? It should come as no surprise that this bike is manufacturer in Copenhagen.

So there you have it. Could there be a more different set of bicycles published in a single blog anywhere in the world?? MMT thinks not 😉

Until next time ride safe

MMT

Where has the time gone? MMT is hanging out in Madrid

Dear Rouleurs,

It’s been nearly 3 months since MMT has been able to write up a blog.  The main reason being his new boss, so is desperate to make their mark in the world of agile methods as applied to banking information technology.  Sounds like a bunch of buzzwords?  You are not wrong.  Either way its meant no blogs.  So much has happened in the period of time.  Simon Yates of Australian team Michelton-Scott won the GC at the la Vuelta. Rohan Dennis won the UCI world championship time trial.  Amazing stuff.  At some point MMT will have to write something up on both events in celebration of two outstanding achievements.

So MMT what is MMT up to??  We’ll today he’s sitting in a very nice Airbnb apartment in Madrid listening to his wonderful 2 1/2 year half pint snore in blissful sleep.  Yup, Team MMT is on holidays in Spain.  This morning Team MMT shook off jet lag accumulated over a 24 hour flight from Melbourne, visited EL Rastro, the wonderful Sunday morning flea market that occupies an entire central suburb in old Madrid.  On the way.  MMT noticed a very interesting bike, that he had some vague memory of seeing in Urban Cycling.  So here it is.

MMT did a quick google on the manufacturer, ‘Yerka’ and found a very professional website and what appears to be a very interesting piece of bicycle engineering. Much to MMT’s surprise the manufacturer has a shop/office Biciobikes located in Madrid, only a few blocks away. So Tuesday, he’s going to drop by the shop and indulge in some very poor Spainish to find out a bit about the bike.

Adiós por ahora y monta con seguridad en tu bicicleta.

MMT in Madrid