Cafe Cruising around Auckland

It’s 7am on a spring Saturday morning and Auckland’s North Western cycle path is busy with groups of all sorts of riders out enjoying the sunshine. The diversity of riders is really impressive at this time of day : bunch riders of all ages, mountain bikers, groups of friends, families and more often than not groups of leisure e-bike riders on intrepid journeys exploring the city in their signature yellow hi viz jackets. Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of organising Share the Road Truck Blindzone workshops for a number of these groups in Auckland and around the country. The first of these groups which caught my attention was a brilliant and incredibly vibrant group of (mostly)silver haired riders called the Cafe Cruisers led by a very charming character , broadcaster John Cowan. The Café Cruisers are an Auckland-based bunch of older leisure cyclists who meet together several times a week for social riding. Their main rides are on Saturdays and they usually have 20-30 riders.

Auckland’s Cafe Cruisers Blindzone Workshop at Wesley Community Centre

The Cruisers “wobble around Auckland, an odd assortment of people of varying fitness and experience”  Rides are typically 20-30km with usually a cafe at the start and a lunch together at another cafe. The group has over 300 riders on their email list and they cover the whole city with at least one group ride per weekend and very often extra smaller group rides during the week.

I joined the cruisers on a number of rides and have always enjoyed their free-wheeling spirit of fun and adventure cruising cafe to cafe linking up many of the city’s great new cycle paths, parks and quiet roads. The city really comes alive when you are rolling with a fun bunch  in this way and what better way to experience the incredible landscape of the City’s  harbours, bays, estuaries and volcanic peaks than with an up for it adventure party. 

The group engaged  enthusiastically  with Share The Road’s truck blindzone  workshops and afterwards the response was really  positive. They commented on how interesting and fun it was but also many remarked how much more aware they were of hazards from heavy vehicles. Most  were just unaware how difficult it is for truck drivers to see cyclists and John was sure the training  has resulted in better, safer riding practices in the group. They have already arranged to repeat the event next year.