“PPCC Communication”
June 2021
Hi all….Welcome to the June 2021 edition of the PPCC Communication.
May 2021:
Weather conditions and rider numbers have been good through May. We have been spoilt with great riding weather – a little wind at times but dry roads. Make the most of the conditions as we are now into the winter months and this first week of June has I think given a little taste of what is to come for the winter months. Long sleeves, jackets, ‘long’ Knicks and winter gloves have started to appear in the last couple of weeks. The heaters at Kerry and Bronte’s have been fired up as well on several occasions after rides…..a good sign that winter is with us!
Good to see a number of riders now back on the Abattoirs Road course and Gary’s group back to 9:00am to complete the shorter ride. With good weather conditions and little wind, the last two Saturdays had all riders ride off in one group on the Port Broughton Road to the ‘phone box’. A good steady ride out with Gary dictating the speed to his turn around point just after Cockies Crossing where he and anyone else not wanting to do the extra 5km to the phone box head back to Pirie at his speed. With an increase in speed, the rest of the group continues on to the phone box and turns for the journey home….chasing Gary’s group. . I think all will agree, the last 2 Saturday rides have been great. Hopefully we can get to do some more over the coming months.
Whyalla Cycle Club – Crystal Brook 60km Cycle Road Race:
Sadly the June 26 Crystal Brook ride has been rescheduled to July due to road works on the road from Georgetown to Gladstone. It was hoped that these works would be completed in time for the race /come try event but unfortunately the WCC could not get confirmation of a completion date.
I had been informed by Derek Siwek from the Whyalla club that they would probably be having their ‘Pichi-Richi’ ride on the 26th June (for those interested, we are invited to ride in as well) and the Crystal Brook ride around the 24th July. Stay tuned for confirmation on dates.
Get Well Soon:
Good news for JR and great to see him home for weekends and back on his bike.
Club Colours:
Most of our club are aware but for those who are not – I have been in discussions with a manufacturer in Adelaide with a proposal on a new club ‘kit’ for our riding members. Discussions around colours from the original black and white Pirie colours to the brighter green and yellow prior to the current kit some are wearing now. ‘Black-Chrome’ manufactures all types of sportswear from basketball, football, soccer and cycling. They have designed and manufactured cycling kits for many of the clubs in Adelaide. I purchased some of their ‘off the shelf’ riding gear for myself and am very impressed with the quality of their Knicks and Jerseys. Black-Chrome have got back to me with a design ‘mock up’ (can be changed) with the green and yellow colours for us to look at. My kit (Knicks, Jersey and socks) cost around $210 which I thought was reasonable. There is no obligation to go ahead but I think brighter colours on the road would be safer for us all as a club. The next step is to review the ‘mock up’ and then decide if we want to go ahead as a club and how they will be paid for, something to be discussed at a ‘committee meeting’. There will be a ‘minimum’ amount we can order before the kit can be manufactured.
I do have other designs in these colours which are done on the ‘Black-Chrome’ website. Perhaps we could organise for us all sit around my laptop and design a kit between all of us! Your thoughts?
Telstra 5G - Heads up Helmet Project:
I was watching the ‘Sunrise’ program one morning this week and was interested in a story coming up with Anna Meares ‘throwing’ her support behind the development of a new cycling helmet. I see the story has also been included in the latest email to members from BikeSA today. I also went to the Telstra site and found the story.
“5G is giving cyclists the ability to see around corners. (Gianpaolo Carraro June 7, 2021)
COVID fundamentally changed the way we get around. Cars now share the road with more delivery riders, commuters and bike clubs than ever before. In Melbourne alone, it’s estimated that the popularity of riding soared by 270% following the onset of the pandemic. But as the number of cyclists increased, so do the troubling statistics. Because most road infrastructure is still intended for cars, cyclists can often be put in harm’s way. In the months between September and November 2020, one food delivery rider was killed every 11 days in Australia. But it doesn’t need to be this way.
We’ve been working to connect Australia’s roads to cars for some time. We’ve got partnerships in the “Vehicle-to-Everything” (or V2X) space dating back years, but when we saw the problem of cyclist safety take the spotlight, we knew we could do more. 5G isn’t exclusively limited to smartphones, tablets and laptops. With the right tech, we can use it to keep riders safe, too by building a connected bike helmet full of safety gear. Together with our friends at Australian cycling start-up, Arenberg, we’ve created a connected bike helmet prototype that is 5G-enabled for our most vulnerable road users.
The helmet prototype features a 5G connection, which passes video, GPS and other data up to a data processing and analytics cloud, and our V2X program which gathers data from connected cars on the roads.
Our 5G network – which now covers two-thirds of Aussie population can carry huge amounts of data at incredible speeds, making near real-time communication for vehicle safety possible. The bike helmet prototype gathers a range of data, and meshes it together with data gleaned from connected cars around the rider, and connected infrastructure and road cameras around the city. This information is then fed to a rider through a speaker in the helmet to provide real-time safety information, alerts and warnings. It’s more than just giving cyclists eyes in the back of their head: it’s giving them the ability to see around corners where traffic is at a standstill, and even helps them predict the future. One of the greatest concerns any rider has is being “doored”: where a driver or passenger opens their car door into a bike lane, causing a full-speed collision with a cyclist if not careful. Car doors swinging open can force a rider out of their lane and into the path of another vehicle, where they might not be so lucky. When a driver or passenger opens their door, real-time video from the bike helmet is sent over 5G and analysed in a cloud platform, where the opening car door hazard is identified. The platform then pushes down an audio alert to the rider to react it time, thanks to the super low-latency connectivity offered by our 5G network.
One life lost on the roads is one life too many. As more and more people take to alternative means of transportation to tackle city congestion, climate change and general fitness, we have to use every piece of technology we can to keep them safe for the future.” (Gianpaolo Carraro, Incubation and Product Excellence Executive, Product & Technology – Telstra, June 7, 2021)
Only in the development stage but pretty exciting and I guess expensive but what price do you put on safety?
BikeSA:
Have you renewed your BikeSA membership? Membership includes insurance which not only protects you but also your fellow riders in the event of an incident.
Renewal can be completed on the BikeSA website, forward your receipt to our Treasurer for reimbursement of the fees.
As a Bike SA member you can participate in their organised rides. Contact Bike SA or check their web site.
(08 8168 9999) (office@bikesa.asn.au)
Have your say:
This is your newsletter as well so email your article to me and I will add it to the monthly newsletters and our web site. Ie: Coming events, cycling news articles, items for sale/wanted etc. Please email me anything you would like to contribute’ J
Be safe, consider others and enjoy your riding.
Cheers,
Brenton
0417823057
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