Its only fair to put the good in as well as the not so good ;) It
rounds off my first week and if anyone follows my footsteps maybe of
some use.

Some excerpts from my blog at
http://mec-symonds.eng.monash.edu.au/twiki/bin/view/SymLife/MyCycleDiary

Day 2 Return
* What a difference the day makes, or in this case the type of
train. It must have been of the newer sort, the carriages were not
segregated, from the inside you could see and walk down the entire
length of the train or at least half of it. This makes a big
difference, as no matter what door you board thru you can make your
way to an empty spot. The upshot for cyclists is that the train is
more evenly seated because people tend to drift to spots with space.
Thus the rear carriage, which is set up for handicapped access, is
clearer. Thats my theory anyway. The doors, which are a push button
are much easier to open and get thru too. The fold down seats are
groovy and allow for more bike space when not used for seating.
* Well done Metlink...now if we only had bike slots in the end
carriage.... ;(

Day 3 towork
Spent some time at Huntingdale and found the cycle trail. somehow
missed the signs before hand. I was turning left after the up ramp not
right. The signs maybe camouflaged with graffiti ill check next time.

The other end,Monash end, of the cycle path is a bit lame. It ends at
Clayton rd I returned to the dark side and went up the bus lane, there
is no other way? This time the bus came past much closer, cant blame
him tho. I guess we wait for the cycle path to be finished.
My route map
http://mec-symonds.eng.monash.edu.au/twiki/pub/SymLife/CycleToWork/Huntingdale-m\
onash-cycleroute_sm.jpg

* The path is not as bad as I first thought, I wish that all the
crossing buttons were on the left and they had a bar for me to hang
off. Putting the button on the right, as some are, puts you and your
bike on the wrong side of the path.. if there were others coming the
other way.
* The little giveway crossings do break up your momentum but to be
honest you get used to it. Its purely a bump thing, maybe its a way to
slow you down but in fact its worse, you have to stand on your pedals
to absorb the shock and keep your eye on traffic from the road ie
looking over your shoulder as you hit a bump, whilst pedalling uphill,
not pleasant/easy.

So after only a few days I have ironed out or gotten used to most bugs.