New Bike Goes Fast.

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 Roger, on an impulse, bought a bike. He walked past Cash Converters and it called to him from the rabble of unwanted road bikes that usually cluster out the front of Cash Converters. He went to look and the bike became more interesting the more he looked: internal hub; belt drive; nifty built-in LED lights; and a single left-side fork (is it still a fork if it only has one side?)

He came home and thought about it. Then he went back to Cash Converters and came home with the Cannondale Bad Boy for a bargain price of about $2000 less than what it was worth. Of course having a new bike was no good if he didn't ride it so in no time at all we were off for a ride on the Parklands Trail around the city. 

Did you know someone stole half your forks?
 

And off he went like a rabbit, on a mission to see how fast he could go.

We zoomed along the the pathways through Victoria Park, or one of us zoomed and the other one plugged along taking photos and procrastinating and generally not even trying to keep up.

Somewhere out there on the horizon is someone on a new bicycle, getting a little frustrated because as soon as he hits top speed he has to stop to cross a road.

 

I found a field of yellow flowers, perfect for bicycle posing.

We dropped in to the cafe near the Torrens Weir sluice gates.  The winter rains had arrived in Adelaide and there was water running through the gates of the weir, something I'd not seen before.

Weir and water.

Bicycle, weir, and Adelaide City in the background.

The Par 3 cafe at the Torrens Weir sluice gates had a prime position at a bottleneck where cyclists came to cross the river and where golfers came to do golfing at Par 3, which I understand was right nearby but I don't know a thing about golfing so I could be very wrong about that. Regardless, the cafe was well patronised by both cyclists and golfers, and we were entertained by a vast variety of bicycles that came and went: tandems, recumbents, cargo bikes, and of course Mr Roger Rabbit on his (to him) brand new very fast Cannondale.

Come on, finish your tea.  I want to see how fast I can go.

We completed our circumnavigation of Adelaide City with a quick spin through the West Terrace Cemetery, always a picturesque part of the Parklands trail.

This beautiful little building is the Smyth Chapel, originally opened in October 1871 in honor of the recently deceased Rev. John Smyth.
The shared pathway wanders through the cemetery, one of Australia's oldest capital city cemeteries.  It would be bad form to speed through the cemetery, even if one has one's rabbit legs on.

Parklands trail completed, Roger declared himself more than satisfied with his bargain bicycle, and home we went to the cat.

It was hard to tell who looked the most satisfied with themselves here.




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