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As per my previous post, here are some photos of the Frankston beach boardwalk extension, currently under construction:

Frankston beach boardwalk extension

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About 23 km travelled from home to a friend's house in Chelsea along the Bayside trail, last Saturday. I took my mountain bike this time as my main road bike has a rear puncture.

I noticed the frame for the extension to the Frankston foreshore boardwalk is mostly completed. No boards down yet though. The extension will stretch about 350 metres from the footbridge across Kananook Creek (near Frankston pier) to Frankston Lifesaving Club. The frame actually stops short of the footbridge, on the northern side of Frankston Yacht Club. It'll be interesting to see how they link the extension up to the bridge. The existing boardwalk allows bicycles so presumably the extension will too. Photos coming soon.

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Another 45 km travelled on the mountain bike last Saturday, this time with a friend of mine. Home to Frankston to Baxter to Somerville to Tyabb to Hastings, then back to Somerville. The Baxter to Somerville bit is a bit hairy because they still haven't built the missing link between the Frankston-Baxter and Western Port Bay trails, so we had to ride on the road. Riding along Frankston-Flinders Rd is the worst bit. Fortunately it's only a relatively short distance (just over 2 km).

The Frankston-Baxter trail still doesn't reach Baxter shopping centre, which I think is pretty incredible. Instead, it stops 1 km short, at Golf Links Rd, with nowhere to go really. It's been that way for at least two years.

Aside from some bumpy bits and a few road crossings, the ride along the Western Port Bay trail was really relaxing. I would've liked to have gone further south, but it was getting dark. Next time!

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Roughly 44 km of road riding on my mountain bike in the heat yesterday. Home to Mt Martha and back. I drank two litres of water in three hours, and my nose is sunburnt... :-/

Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia

In other news, I've had an electric-assist bike on loan for several weeks now. I've probably done a few hundred km on it, but its range is limited to about 20 km, so I haven't written any "ride reports" while I've been using it. The bike is styled like a mountain bike but is quite a bit heavier, so you can't really ride it once the battery goes flat - at least not with the hills around here.

The bike uses a 24 volt battery and takes about 6 hours to charge. The motor just freewheels if you go much faster than 20 km/h, so while it helps you climb hills or ride into a strong headwind, it's mostly just dead weight on the flat. To make room for the battery, the frame of the bike is about 20 cm longer than an ordinary mountain bike, so the weight and extra length can also make it a bit of a handful when doing slow turns. It's just something you have to get used to. There is suspension only in the front forks, which means the ride is still pretty rough and the battery tends to rock around. The design is pretty poor in that regard. The front suspension also has a tendency to bounce, which can make steering at high speed a bit unpredictable over rough terrain. All said though, the bike is good fun to ride. I'd just like it a lot more if it was a bit lighter and had rear suspension.

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