It's a great way to stay in shape

Today was a great day to stay in shape. To my three loyal followers sorry there is NPFRC (no penny farthing related content) this week while we had a public holiday. Although my finger is a lot better thanks for asking. Did you see how I subtly worked in that I now have 3 followers! My quest for blogging immortality is coming to fruition. I'll soon knock Fatty off his lifetime achievement perch. 

This morning I decided to go for a ride on the roadie. I like my road bike it has a carbon frame (since all lifeforms on earth are based on carbon I wonder why it's so expensive?) it's a nice fast light bike and a pleasure to ride. With a nut bar in the back of my jersey I headed off towards Redcliffe on a regular ride.

On the way out I was struck by an idea how about a bridge challenge! A 7 bridge challenge! I would ride over the major bike and road bridges in Brisbane! I would use exclamation marks with reckless abandon! Take! that! society! In! your! face! As with all major life decisions I channelled my sensei who spoke to me and showed me what I need to ride over!

Whilst my sensei has never steered me wrong I checked with my emergency back up penguin sensei who showed me the light.

Well that clinched it, it was obvious both masters agreed, I will ride over lots of bridges.

Thinking about this challenge made me realise my mathematics skills are really poor and I would actually need to ride over 10 bridges (plus one nut bar wasn't going to cut the mustard nor curdle the cream). So the TBBC (Ten Bridge Bike Challenge) was established. The three ground rules est 7:45am 13/06/2011 -
1. I needed to ride over the entire bridge not just half way and turn back,
2. What ever bridge I decided to include was part of the challenge
3. That was about it.

The bridges in order of completion were
Ted Smout Memorial Bridge (Bridge to Redcliffe) July 2010
Sir Leo Hielscher Bridge (Gateway Bridge) opened June 2010
Story Bridge opened July 1940 (Bradfield Highway) 
Goodwill opened October 2001
Victoria opened 1969
Kurilpa opened October 2009
William Jolly opened March 1932
Go Between opened July 2010
Eleanor Schonell (Green Bridge) opened December 2006 
Jack Pesch (Indooroopilly) opened October 1998
I also went over the land bridge at Herston but since it doesn't go over water and stuffs up the nice ten with a strange and decidedly bizzare looking 11 I've discounted it, in addition I haven't included Centenary Bridge as I forgot about it. The rules dating back to several hours ago indicate it is perfectly acceptable to not count it.

The first bridge Ted Smout it about 20kms from home, it's a looong bridge (2.74kms), the old bridge was so rough you needed new fillings after each time you rode it. The new one is very nice wide and separate peds and cycling with a line.

The second bridge Gateway was about 25kms from the first. It is a decent climb this bridge also a little controversial when it was opened as some genius thought that 10kmh was a realistic speed. I've heard of people doing comfortably and safely 60kmh down (when nobody is around of course)

Next stop was the Story bridge a decent hike from the Gateway. I regularly use this bridge to commute. It's pretty busy and a bit narrow and you get the pleasure of breathing the fumes from all the cars. Generally i just want to get across it. 'Intersting' note it is the shortest highway in Australia.

Goodwill bridge was a big deal for cyclists and pedestrians a missing critical link. I use it regularly as does thousands and thousands of others. There can be tension between users but rarely any problems. 

Victoria bridge is home of the worlds thinnest on road bike lanes. Even on my road bike my lust ledges (aka love handles) hang over the edge (this photo is from the off road path note the Aaron 'licence plate', pretty stylish hey!)

Kurilpa bridge had a fairly controversial design kind of like those images of spider webs on drugs. It's surprisingly steep coming up from the south side. 

The William Jolly was one of the bridges I forgot about when I first counted in my head the number of bridges. Whilst you can ride across it, the path design is suboptimal generally I use the roads

Go between is a toll bridge for cars and free for bikes and pedestrians. It's fantastic they included cyclists and peds but it is the fifth bridge in the space of a couple of kms.

I took this photo to show the exciting design features. It's cyclists only on this side and pedestrians on the other.

The Eleanor Schonell Bridge really opened up access to University of Queensland. You'll note the plastic bag special effect it is a special effect exclusive to my camera.

The final official bridge was the Jack Pesch an extremely popular bridge and home to the worlds largest bollard. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Brisbane even on an international level far outshining the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota. Whilst that guy may look normal he is actually a giant standing 10m away from the bollard.

And here is my bike on the bridge. Note in the background there used to be pontoons along there but the floods destroyed them.

This was a picture from the land bridge but please don't look at it as it doesn't count.

The TBBC was complete with about 107.5kms travelled. I ate one nut bar and stopped and bought a snickers and it really satisfied.

Thanks sensei spongebob for your guidance to complete the TBBC.

Thanks Sensei penguin for your confirmation of the guidance to complete the TBBC!

In a perfect world they would be sensei spongebob penguin