Wet weather dreaming

Just sitting around waiting for the weather to improve I found this beautiful montage on Big Wheel Building.


Marble to Crested Butte, and back, via credit card. from lacemine29 on Vimeo.

What a difference a day makes

Out on the trails for a quick hit before heading off to work again tomorrow.

How puurrrfffect they were too! Where did all that mud go?

Cornubia was shinning this morning. Here on Jack's Track amoungst the Grasstrees I was doing some web clearing. No not the interwebb, the original type.

Here is a small hitch hiker that I picked up. On the bars is fine, but unfortunately they usually end up strung between my arms as I grip the bars or worse still, on my chest. I only hate spiders slightly less than I hate snakes..........

 'till next time. Follow that singletrack.........

Karingal 4 Hour

Sunday morning dawned cloudy and cold. Well, cold for this time of the year here in Queensland. A quick look outside confirmed what I had been hoping against for several days now. Rain. Lots of it. Bugger. I continued to drag myself around the house, eating some breakfast and thinking that I did not really want to ride around in this weather for four hours. Bloody bugger. I couldn't not turn up either. Being a member of the club and knowing the massive amount of effort the other members had put into track preparation and setup, I HAD to go! "Oh well" I told myself. I am only in the social category today so I will just trundle around and have FUN. The bike that best suited these conditions was my Kona Unit single speed. The words Single Speed and Karingal 4 hour were not to be used in the same sentence as far as I was concerned, but the weather had tipped my hand and out of bicycle preservation I HAD to ride Stanley.

Getting the bike out of the car it proceeded to bucket down again. I still felt like I was moving in slow motion.  Not really wanting to do it. Once down in the start area the other guys from the wednesday morning ride crew were set up under a shelter kindly supplied by Chris. This was very civilized and proved to be the first bright point in the day. Hellos were exchanged and I had dawdled for so long that it was race time already. The rain held off for the pre race brief and all that I heard was that social riders were to start at the rear of the field. No problems. I can do that. So I did. I made sure I was absolutely dead last away. Climbing the first hill I couldn't help myself and passed about twenty riders. They must have been saving themselves for later.

Early on when you could make out the colour of my kit. This didn't last long.

I continued to cruise around chatting to Deano and Chris at varying points. It was very wet but the Maxxis Ignitor on the front wheel was gripping the drowned earth with aplomb and giving oodles of confidence. What wasn't giving quite as much confidence were the brakes. They were fading to nothing, being ground away by the mud. Luckily the BB7s are simple and easy to adjust which I did until the pads were no more.

At least I had some brakes. Chris had lost all rear brakes and had decided to call it quits as Karingal is a track that demands at least a rear brake in these conditions. So Dean0 and I continued to circulate and chat and generally laugh at this absurd situation. That was until I was climbing a steep pinch, standing and putting in the big ones when my chain gave up the ghost, went "ping" and I duly kneed the handlebars about as hard as I could!! Some choice words escaped my lips but luckily no one was around to hear. Shortly after this Dean0 turned up, laughed and commiserated me on "losing" in the Daisy Hill Wednesday Morning Crew bragging rights challenge. Oh well, I was in second place after Chris's retirement, Rich's locking his keys in his car and Dr Geoff and Coaster pulling the pin early that morning. I decided I was going to finish the lap and scootered the flat bits, coasted the downhills and pushed up the climbs. I messed with some other riders minds by pushing up behind them as they struggled to grind away up the hills. I had a chat with Outdoorgaz while he shot photos of the race for our club. Most of these shots here are courtesy of Gaz, so thanks again mate for putting up with the wet to document our stupidity!

The end result was a Nightmare on Elm St scenario for our respective washing machines........yet we were still smiling?

Stanley hates me, but I think he secretly had fun too despite throwing his chain. I gave him a spruce up today with a new front axle, front brake pads, bottom bracket and with a new rear wheel to build as well as new rear brake pads to install.Oh, and a chain! Most of these maintenance items were due anyway, apart from the brake pads.

Thanks to BSMC and For the Riders for a great day out and and awesome prize pack just for turning up!

Junior River Loop

The two weeks of the school holidays have come and now they are almost gone. Unfortunately I have spent most of them away with work and the kids have gone to a vacation sports program. I did however have one free day with the kids. I put it to them. "What would you like to do today?" Ummm.........lets go for a ride!

So a short notice, little leg friendly ride route needed planning. Flat terrain is a must as the kids seem to lose interest very quickly when the trail points upwards. Rivers in Australia have very little drop to them so the logical choice was a loop around the Brisbane River.

We drove to West End for a quiet spot to start and what a glorious day it was. Clear and calm, if a little warm. The track along the river makes me a little nervous due to there being no barrier between an overconfident six year old and a splashdown!

We had a quick stop at Southbank for morning tea where several biscuits met their end and plans were made to bring bathers next time for a quick dip in the lagoon.

We then rode past the Kangaroo Point cliffs, which was new territory for me. While we explored the various shelters along the waterfront a heavy shower crept up on us. We took shelter under a large tree but ended up pretty well soaked. Luckily the warmer weather meant that we weren't uncomfortable for long. Leaving our shelter we happened upon a waterfall cascading over the cliffs. We were definitely in the right place at the right time. Very difficult to drag the kids away from this one.

From here we worked our way around to the Story Bridge and had a bit of a search around for the access to the bridge. Exploring with two small kids in tow is always tricky as you can not put too many unnesessary kilometers into their little legs lest they blow up ten kilometers from the car! So with a bit of road cycling past the Story Bridge Hotel, dodging cement trucks ( I must have looked like a duck trying to herd my ducklings along a busy road) causing more hair loss and greying we found the access ramp to the bridge.

Then a cycle through the lunchtime crowds along the north bank walkway to our lunch stop at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately the gardens were off limits with temporary fencing lining the riverfront, so lunch was eaten sitting on the riverbank. Well I ate. The kids were sucked in by that magical pull bodies of water seem to exert on small humans! So ham and cheese shrapnel was being sprayed in the name of safety. It is very difficult to get the right amount of volume while choking down your lunch.

From here we rode underneath the Riverside Expressway and followed our nose to the access ramp for the Kurilpa Bridge. Surely designed by a blind committee, this bridge has polarised opinion on it's styling. Lets just say in my opinion it beats swimming the river, just don't look up at the tangled mess of it's structure.

Photo borrowed from QLD Public Works Dept.

From here we retraced our tyre tracks to West End and managed to climb into the car just as another heavy shower was passing. The ride had been fun as well as surprisingly long in distance. I was very impressed when I noted the GPS read 19.5km. Well, more proud than impressed. The kids had managed the distance with no whinging (apart from Miss 8 blaming me for her leaving her sunglasses behind in the car) and seemed to have gas left in the tank. It certainly helps when there is plenty of beautiful scenery to take in as well as Chicken Crimpy bikkies and chocolate milk to fuel the legs!

I may not have had much in the way of quantity these holidays, but we made up for it with a quality day out.

Early Starts and Silver Linings

I am most definitely not an early morning person. I am not grumpy early. I just am not .....anything really, except present! This has led to me wrangling my roster to maximise late starts, which I infinitely prefer to those mornings where I wonder if I have only just closed my eyes when the alarm is blasting me out of bed.

The down side to working lates is that photographic opportunities are somewhat limited. When a camera needs a longer exposure time to take in an amazing view, it just doesn't seem to work for some reason when the camera platform is doing 850 kilometres an hour!

So, to my newly re-discovered Silver Lining. There are some exquisite views to be taken in when most normal people are unconscious.

Take yesterday. Sipping a strong, smooth latte' I took time to reflect.

Then once it was time to get to it, we looked to Mt Warning for inspiration. I wondered if there was anyone at the top looking back at us while they enjoyed the fruits of their labour up the mountain?

We sipped coffee at 300 knots.

All very serene for us, however the good folk of Murrwillumbah possibly wanted to throw rocks at us for the deafening racket!

Then, looking down on an international arrival as it arced gracefully overhead Parkes VOR while inbound to Sydney. They never knew we were there........but we saw them........

They were sipping latte's too..........probably.

Then all too soon it was time to get back to work.

 Oprah's next destination.(cue wild screaming)"The Olympic City". A nice place to visit if you have Oprah's wealth. Luckily, Australia has a place to suit everyone's budget.

This will do me.

It must be time for a ride.

See you the other side of a good sleep and the Freedom Marathon.

A new toy.

I have picked up a new toy (a Samsung Galaxy S) in the last week or so. It just amazes me how far phone technology has come in the last few years. To be able to post this from the 17th floor balcony of a Gold Coast hotel with pictures taken on the same phone camera is doing my non techno savvy head in!(although I am being true to my roots because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to post my artistic exploits!)
Not to worry though, my long suffering reader! I will soon be able to waste precious seconds of your life with visions of from my only equally important existence!
Now if only only I can work out how to copy and past with only a touch screen keyboard.


Chow for now.

Single Speeding Slick Singletrack is Soul Soothing

Introducing Stanley.

He is a very unassuming, low maintenance sort of single speed. His technical name is Kona Unit 2 and he is modded with some White Brothers Rock Solid carbon forks.

He and I are just getting acquainted. Last weekend for our very first ride we decided to get to know each other fairly intimately and take on the Eastern Escarpment. Great first ride on a single speed, as by the end of it you will know if it is meant to be or if you want to murder your steed with an angle grinder and blowtorch, then hide the remains in several neighbours wheelie bins! I am happy to report that Stanley and I survived our introductory ride with the seeds for a healthy mutual respect being sown.

Yesterday morning dawned with passing rain showers. Perfect Stanley weather!

We planned a quick scoot over to Daisy Hill and back before soccer duties. Trails were perfect here in Cornubia with a little rain to damp the dust down and dry trails in Daisy. It never ceases to amaze me how localised showers can be at times. On the way home via Stupidly Happy we sampled some Super Sweet Single track Serenity.

The rain was clearing, yet the belly of the cloud was still dragging itself over the Cornubia Escarpment letting through random shafts of golden sunlight to highlight the trail.

This is going to be an interesting relationship................

By the way, I survived the addition of another steed to the stable. It is poor Stanley who lost out and lives in the garden shed. N+1......