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.

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

Melbourne is stage three lock down and someone at Garmin is having a very bad day…

Dear Rouleurs,

Of course it was too good to last. Back in May, Australia looked like it had dodged a COVID-19 bullet. Now that bloody virus gotten loose loose in Northern Melbourne and trigger this new stage 3, 6 week lockdown. Almost all the COVID-19 cases in Australian are in Victoria at present. About the only silver lining in this awful mess, is that road traffic around Melbourne has reduced significantly, which is great for cyclists. Who knows may be Melbournians will adopt the bike as their preferred mode of transport.


MMT took a snap shot of a great Mark Knight cartoon, that is in all honesty is bit rough on Victorian Preimer Dan Andrews. However it does capture the mood of frustration about how Victoria’s quaratine system was clearly being run by muppets. It appears that the Rydges on Swanston in Carlton and the Stamford Plaza in Melbourne’s city centre have been the epicentre for this new surge….WTF…. As the number of new cases keeps bounding along in the high 400’s, it will be interesting to see how the security company running fares in the recently announced inquiry.

Now speaking of stuff ups, something very odd is going on the Garmin Connect website. MMT has been trying to upload today’s ride around the Capital City trail when he encountered this error. Its been down for nearly 8 hours, which is seriously weird, given that its probably sitting on a Google or AWS cloud. MMT will be really f%#ked off if his 56 km ride disappears in into thin air. He finally navigated, clockwise the Capital City Trail, on the third attempt.

MMT checked a few social media groups and tried the website again tonight and its apparent something has gone wrong. Even an a UK newspaper, The Independant, has reported the outage. Someone at Garmin must be having a very bad day. In word…bugger..may be the website has caught COVID-19 or been done over by Chinese hackers…conspiracy theories run wild.

Until next time, ride safe and keep safe

Marv

COVID Photo gallery

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has been busy collating a series of happy snaps and social media memes as a record of COVID-19 and its impact on Melbourne. Most of these photos have been taken whilst MMT has been out and about on his bike. Speaking of which, MMT is quietly chuffed at doing over 1000 km in June.

So the photo below, isn’t included in the gallery as it was taken in Sydney. MMT thinks it perfectly captured the insanity of what was occurring in Australia’s grocery stores back in March 2020.

Chapeau!! to the Newtown branch of NSW Fire and Rescue service. Readers you can find MMT’s COVID Gallery <-here.

Until next time, ride safe and stay safe.

Marv

Product Review: Loffi Cycling Gloves

Dear Rouleurs,

Melbourne’s seemingly endless run of cool sunny days has continued well in June. MMT has been out and about on his beloved Domane, most days, cruising around the bayside suburbs. Melbourne hasn’t returned to pre-COVID 19 normal yet, but it is noticeable that traffic has increased. So with that in mind its been with some pleasure that MMT has been riding around in Loffi gloves.

MMT thinks he first saw Loffi gloves in an edition of Treadlie, one of the more enjoyable Gen-Y/Hipster magazines available in Australia. Treadlie has a reputation for being a ‘cool hunter’ magazine for cycling afficiandos in Radelaide. MMT has even visited the original shop back in 2010. MMT digresses.

So back to Loffi gloves. The supplier Loffi, is based in the UK, which means that if you live in somewhere like Australia, the exchange rate doesn’t work in your favour. MMT purchased one pair of the Glove 2.0 for 35 UK quid. The picture shows what the gloves are like. So quite apart from being ‘cute’ they are also extremely warm and comfortable. They are perfect for cool winter rides and seem to handle bad weather very well. So far MMT rates them 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 out of five smiliey marvs.

Happy, happy clappy gloves that are warm and soft on the hands.

They took a few weeks to arrive not helped by Fedex needing MMT’s mobile number in Australia. MMT received a somewhat embarassed email from the owner of Loffi, Jack Hudspith. Personal email from the owner…whoah that did happen ;-)!!! The owner included a pair of thermal inners at no extra expense to make up for the slight shipping SNAFU.

The origin story for the goves can be found here in the company’s mission statement. here’s a chunk of it liberated for your edification and education:

And so the idea for Glove was born – with the hope that a friendly, human interaction such as a simple wave could be the answer – and a step in the right direction at least. Ever since, our aim has been to help prevent negative interactions, spread some goodwill and encourage more people to cycle and create a friendlier environment on the roads.

The wave and the smile on our gloves are basic and positive tools for social interaction, have no language barriers and are universally understood, which we think has made them so popular around the world – we’re up to 43 countries and counting!

MMT is seriously considering buying a second pair and hopes that Loffi is working on a fingerless version of the glove for the warmer months.

Until next time, ride safe and be safe

MMT