Links

Audax Australia
This is the umbrella organisation running long distance cycling events in Australia Their website includes a calendar of events.

Bikejournal
A place where cyclist can keep track of their mileage and any number of other statistics, as well as an attached forum.

Bikeforums
A set of discussion forums covering almost every conceivable cycling related topic.

Cycling Adventurer
The Cycling Adventurer has tossed in the structured life of an urbanite to explore the world by bicycle. A well-written site detailing how he came to cycling, and what he learned along the way.

Crazy Guy on a Bike

Bicycle touring journals from all over the world, including a couple of my own.

Johns Cycles

This is my LBS on the Gold Coast. While they cater more to the racing market, their service, advice and workmanship is the best on the coast.

St Kilda Cycles

Importers of all manner of things hard to find in Australia, including the legendary Schmidt hub dynamo & E6 lights.

Blogs

Bicycle-eye
Wonderings and wanderings out and about in Portland, Oregon, US

The Journey
The journey begins in Perth, Western Australia.

Lance Notstrong
The "other" Lance!

Ms Mittens
The Wired Cat on-line

Iron Gambit
.

Aussie Writer and Cycletourist
A blog chronicling the writing and cycling of a seaside baby boomer.

Up in Alaska
Jill's subarctic journal about ice, bears and distant dreams of the midnight sun.

The Kin Chronicles
Taking mediocrity to a new level of ordinary.

Allez
Riding and running with a vengeance.

London Cycling Diary
Pedalling across the capital since August 2005.

CouchPilot-2-BikePilot (Zin's cycling blog)
Living an adventurous life with Type-2-Diabetes.

The adventures of Crazy Biker Chick
... Including cycling, adventuring, cooking, knitting and ranting.

Redneck Espanol
The two wheeled Spanish redneck.

Treadly and me
"Work is something I do between riding my bicycle".

Crowlie
Womanist philosophy and theology. Cycling, climbing, art, single-motherhood and fire-twirling.

Adrian Fitch's random rambling.
A bit about cycling, a bit about genealogy, a bit about radio but mostly a lot about nothing at all.

Geo's big adventure
The life and times of Geo.

It's about the bike
Musings on the cycling life.

Spinopsys
Various cycling tidbits.

Industry Outsider
A blog about bikes and stuff.

Tweed Coast Treadly
An old man's bicycle riding diary.

A cyclist's life in Tenerife
(Canary Islands).

Bike to work to live to bike
It's never too late to get back on the bike

Stupid Hurts
Just the random scribblings of a guy with a bicycle

I'm not drunk enough for this
Really, I'm not.

BikeHacks
What can I say? Just read it.

Mozam's cycling adventures
A random collection of the things I like to do most, and mostly that is to ride my bikes, bicycles that is... My musings from competitive riding, long distance endurance to puttering around the neighborhood..

More cycling blogs

Blog Directory - Blogged

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Friday, November 18, 2011

The Empire strikes back

The Empire strikes back It always feels good to be back in business. 4 months ago I was waking up in hospital after being run down by a red light runner, nursing three broken bones and spending 13 hours unconscious. In just under 12 hours I'll be taking off for a four week tour in Tasmania. I've been there before, of course, but I still have some unfinished business to attend to down there. The good part is that I probably won't have to deal with the heat I copped on the 200k here on the 'Coast last week.


I do have a journal over at crazyguyonabike.com, but given my track record of updating while I'm away, I'm not sure it's worth mentioning here. At the same time, I have one of the best personal injury lawyers on the Gold Coast chasing some closure for me, after the police showed they were unable/unwilling to do their job.


Life is good again.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Survival



Someone at Audax Australia made a decision to schedule a 200km ride in this region in mid-November. I wasn't about to argue as I needed an excuse to ride the kilometres, but when those northerly winds are blasting in and consistently increasing the temperature, it becomes clear from an early stage that this ride is going to be about survival. I hadn't done this particular circuit before, but apparently it was based on areas that the late Frank Papp used to love riding around the Tweed Valley. Although I hadn't done this particular route, most of it was familiar to me.

Incredibly, there were about 60 riders turned up for this particular event, although the majority of them did the 110km option. We set off over Hogans Road after the usual messing about with Bilambil. I hadn't passed through this particular area for several months, and it was good to be reacquainted with that particular rainforest again. It reminded me that I need to do another night ride here among the glow worms soon.



There were some minor navigational issues presented after climbing up Terranora (also for the first time in ages), but these were taken care of fairly quickly. Unfortunately, those detours were a necessary evil, due to the three-year "job creation" roadwork project near Sextons Hill. After this it was a fairly easy coast to the first checkpoint at Casurina Beach, then a nice rise over Clothiers Creek to Murwillumbah. The heat was starting to take it's toll now, but at this stage I still had plenty in reserve and was happy to soldier on.



It was after Murwillumbah that the heat combined with my (still) relative lack of condition became an issue. One of the hills immediately after Murwillumbah in the obscure Wardrop Valley forced me to slow down quite a bit, and I didn't really recover that vigour for most of the remainder of the ride. Still, this section, too, is quite scenic, so I didn't mind taking my time. I crossed the Burringbar Range and the unknown 15% bump on the road to Pottsville for the next checkpoint. I actually thought about bailing because of the heat here, as it was making it difficult to keep food down. In the end I decided to press on because I would have had to ride home against that northerly either way.



The next stage was back to Murwillumbah, this time via Stokers Siding and Uki. Strangely, I started to recover slightly on this stretch, probably just a function of lowering my expectations, and things started to feel OK again. That was until the last 5km into Murwillumbah, where the northerly wind forced me down to 18km/h. From my observations, nobody else seemed to be going any faster, so I just sucked it up, knowing that there was a big climb ahead to take out most of the remaining wind.



I thought the final climb over Tomewin would be one of the slowest I've ever done there. It actually turned out not to be the case. It was late in the afternoon by now, so there was some cooling shade over the road. I hung on grimly over the 11% section in the middle of the climb, and reached the summit with less difficulty than I had anticipated. At the top of the pass, the temperature was now dropping. Relief.

I descended the mountain, and rode through the last 10 or so through Currumbin Valley to finish the ride as I was running out of daylight. Better yet, I could now keep food down, something I made the most of when I finally returned home. Sometimes the reasons we do things are rather obscure, but in this case, I'm glad to have put this one to bed. The route for this ride was indeed very scenic, and I'll almost certainly return next time. I just hope that next time sees some rain or some cooler temperatures.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Eden's garden - without a warning!



Who hid Mt Warning on Saturday? I could have sworn it was there last time I passed this way. Either way, as the Rajnishi wasn't on the road due to it's 1,000km service (which, just quietly, came a few hundred kilometres too late), it was time to drag Kevin 007 out of the stable for some dirt. I was joined my Martin for the early part of the ride, which basically involved the old trek through Bilambil and Urliup, before looping back to attack the climb over Tomewin. It was on this climb that I started to realise I might have been on a good day.



I headed off on my own in search of dirt, first along Garden of Eden road, which is more famous as the starting point of the climb to Mt Cougal. On the way back I scared the crap out of a roadie, by rejoining Tomewin road just as he completed the climb (I descended out of Garden of Eden road), and letting him think I had just completed the climb in super-fast time. However, I had more important things to think about.





It was now time for the ridgetop journey along Glengarrie "road". I always seem to be nervous at the start of this one, probably with the knowledge of what is to come. The track hugs the ridge for a while, with a steep rocky climb at the end, and it is here that I've had difficulty in the past. This day was also the first time I've attempted it since the infamous crash on July 28.



As it happened, the climb over the rocky section proved easier than I thought. Maybe I'm just stronger than I thought it was, or maybe it really was just easier. Either way, it felt like a bit of an anti-climax at the end. The descent wasn't too difficult either. There has been some work done on the road there, and it seemed to make a difference. They even look to have graded the Zig-Zag road, but frankly I couldn't be bothered checking it out.

The one mistake I made all day was passing over the food stop at the Bilambil bakery -- riding home against that hot northerly wind probably deserved more energy than I was prepared to expend on it. As it was, I navigated it at a relatively conservative pace. I did manage to pick up the Rajnishi later in the day, and a phone call from Martin that evening hatched another plan -- the climb to Best of All Lookout at Springbrook the following morning -- complete with it's 19% sections. This is what living is all about.



  • Some of you might have noticed a lack of posts recently. Simply put, I've been too busy to write any. I will catch it up over the weekend, with a big announcement on the way.

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Hitler hates the GC 600

I must be getting old, or turning into a fascist dictator. Hopefully it's both, but I can't find too much to disagree with here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXz9cfjuYI&feature=youtube_gdata_player&noredirect=1

I still haven't figured out how to embed a youtube video on this blogger interface. Oh well, it's worth a look anyway.