More big days

Its amusing the things your think about while you pedal along a lonely road. For instance, why hasn’t anyone pointed out before that TISM predicted Michael Jackson’s death from drugs years ago

“Where will I get my next drug action? Odds on it will be Michael Jackson”.

It was dozens of these realizations which passed through my brain this weekend as I sat and pedaled. Occasionally something interesting would happen like arriving in a town with the promise of food, but mostly it was sit and pedal and think.

I did see an amazing meteorite that left a flaming streak across the sky before exploding in a brilliant blue orb.

I did accidentally bivvy in some guys backyard. I thought it was an industrial area as I bedded down in the long grass but the cold light of morning revealed a house next to the ‘warehouse’ and I had accidentally ridden in via his driveway…. no harm, no foul.

I ate 15000 kJ’s in a single sitting at  Port Maccas. It was awesome.

Day 2 legs felt better than day 1 legs – go figure.

A successful weekend and a fair indicator that I have found enough legs to be able to ride across Aus. Now I just need to get the head in the right place and all the chips should fall into place.

Free promotional shot for Martin at Rocky Trail

Cold misty morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P-Mac & back

I couldn’t really be bothered riding this weekend but all the gear is packed and I’ll pedal up to Port Macquarie on saturday and back on sunday. It’s a fairly boring ride but I need the K’s and the road is pretty smooth so it isn’t all bad. I’ll fire up the spot again here so if anyone is interested in following my progress, then tune in while I tune out (and pedal).

I’m half thinking about making a 4 am start on Sunday morning so I can be home at a reasonable time on Sunday. I’d guess there will be a little over 8 hours of pedal time so it should see me home around midday.  I can’t wait to eat my own body weight in hot food on saturday night.

 

Nabiac and back

I managed 300k’s today. 0700 start and 1900 finish. About 11 hours of pedaling time and an hour of eating, toilet breaks and fixing a flat tyre (i didn’t see the rock and pinch flatted within sight of the half way mark).

It rained on me several times but the weather was generally pretty good.

I had been pretty nervous about my ability to do 300k’s in a day after last weekends struggle to make 180 in a day. Was I kidding myself and I didn’t have it in me? There were a few things against me last week. A huge hill, fat tyres, bad weather and crumbly back country roads. I knew changing out the tyres from 2.2 knobbies to 23mm 700c road tyres was going to make life a little easier but I had no idea it was going to be this much difference.  I was averagaing at least 6 kph faster than last weekend which was a huge relief.

Aerobars are the greatest things ever. I must have spent 80% of my time on the aeros and it now just feels natural

Anyway. no photos, no GPS file, just a nice day in the outdoors.

 

 

 

 

Tempting fate

I spent quite a bit of time talking up how bullet proof Conti Gator Hardshells were today. I’ve done hundreds, if not a thousand k’s on that tyre and haven’t had a flat. Right up until this morning. I don’t know what it was but it went through the tyre twice and and made quite a mess. There is a small amount of herniation but at the moment, it is holding up so i’ll keep riding it and see what happens. Me and my big mouth…

Singleton – best track ever!

Today I fell in love with lap racing again. I wasn’t even racing, but trying to chase down the lead pack whilst riding a giant reign in work boots and long pants and it re-kindled a love of the pursuit. I could see the lead pack in the distance and slowly came into contact with them and  I hung on as long as I could but was inevitably dropped. It didn’t seem to matter however because the Singo track was so much fun.

The track has the most magic wide sweeping corners that allow you to come in way too hot and somehow skate your way through. There’s copious amounts of room for passing and the whole course is lined by Jongewood trees that dare you to see how close you can get before they grab your bars and throw you off.

The real win however is the location. Singleton saw a fraction of the rain that fell in Newcastle. If my front lawn is any sort of barometer, then Glenrock is a write off and Awaba has taken a beating yet Singo was perfect. It’s a real asset for mountain bikers in the Hunter and I’ll be taking my Mrs for a ride out there soon because she is going to love it.

 

You’ve gotta know when to fold em…

I don’t think I could have possibly chosen worse weather to go on a bike packing trip. It was freaking cold, rained the whole time and my route was suspect at best. Everyone I know thought I had completely lost my mind once and for all. None the less, I decided to chance everything to learn a few lessons about the art of bivvying in bad weather.

I left work (in the rain) on friday night with the goal of getting to Clarence town. There was no real reason to get that far except that it was a name on a map and I was heading that direction. I was soaked to the bone within 20 minutes of heading out despite wearing a very reliable Gortex jacket but whilever I was riding, I was warm enough to be comfortable. I hit Clarence town and decided 730pm was too early to go to bed for the night so I kept on riding while the roads were quiet. I hit the outskirts of Dungog around 9ish and decided it was time to pull the pin for the night.

I picked a spot about 20 meters off the side of the road hidden in amongst a copse of trees and shielded by an embankment. It was a bit rustic but beggards can’t be choosers. I started shivering as soon as I stopped pedaling and I struggled to pull all the bits and pieces off the bike and set up the bivvy poles. I followed a carefully thought out order of unpacking designed to keep the inside of the bivvy dry and keep the sleeping bag and neoair dry.

I stripped off my sodden clothes, climbed into the bivvy and spent 10 minutes wrestling with garments getting dressed. For reference. Imagine trying to get dressed inside a sleeping bag that is clinging to your body. Eventually I unfurled the sleeping bag and warmth slowly returned. Sleep was fitful. Despite having a -9 down bag, I was on/off cold and then there was the things that go bump in the night….

I awoke with my heart hammering and the sound of something really close and really big breathing heavily only a meter from my bivvy. After a couple of dog encounters already that day, my first thought was a giant farm dog that had tracked me down. After I realized I wasn’t being bitten and there was no barking, I deduced it was either a cow or a kangaroo. Since I wasn’t being trampled, I lay there trying to calm my heart rate and eventually drifted off to sleep again. I awoke many more times to the dreaded sound through the night but there was no way I was getting out of my sleeping bag in the rain to investigate.

I was glad when morning broke and I could finally figure out what was going on. It turns out I had camped next to a massive waterpipe which as well as carrying water from Chichester, also acted as a fence for a paddock. On the other side in a perfect semi circle stood nearly 40 cows all eyeing me suspiciously. Geez I got a laugh out of it.

Not so funny however was the state of my bivvy. I was surprised I wasn’t floating on my neo air as the inside was soaked. I’m unsure how it came to be like that as it was zipped up tight and there was way to much water for it to be condensation, but it also made my sleeping bag quite damp which is a real worry when using a down bag.  I literally poured water out of my bivvy, packed everthing up as best I could and hit the road.

I rolled through Dungog and headed for Chichester with the aim of riding through the Barrington Tops to Scone. A really tough ask since Barrington tops out at 1500m eleveation and Dungog is at 50m. I knew I was in for one hell of a slog and it didn’t disappoint. Even the rolling backroads that lead to the start of the climb were sorting me out. It has been a while since I have ridden a fully laden bike and those extra 10+ kg’s really take it out of you.

The climb up Lagoon Pinch Forrest road wasn’t so bad. I sat and spun in Granny ring and watched the altimter on the GPS tick over from 350 at the start to 720m before the road came to a locked gate. I knew from the topo maps that the next bit was going to be ugly but I had naievely assumed that the trail would be maintained… fail. It was so overgrown and covered in debris that there was no hope of riding it and the sign clearly stated “Very steep trail next 12kms”. I got off and started pushing. Knowing that it was going to really burn my available daylight but still keen to have-a-go.

Then I hit the fallen trees. Not a single tree but several completely obliterating the trail and an absolute mission to get the bike over/under/through. Never mind, I’ll get through this and things will be better… fail. The next fallen tree only 20 meters further up the tree was as wide as I am tall and involved a tortuous slog in the mud to get around the base amongst the tangle of exposed roots. Looking further up the trail revealed even more fallen trees and it became time to review my predicament. What was otherwise going to be a 5-6 hour hike a bike to reach the plateau (with another 100ish K’s along back roads to make Scone) was now looking more like a 10 hour hike a bike and I just didn’t have the stomach for it.

I was already wavering between sweating while riding and shivering as soon as I stopped and with a sleeping bag now of questionable warmth when wet,  bivvying at the top wasn’t going to be an option either. It was time to retreat and live to fight another day. So I made the painful decision to turn around and head for home. I thought about taking a turn off and heading to Singleton but I had already learnt the lessons I was searching for and decided to head for a warm shower and a hot chocolate.

I was pedaling squares all morning and had only eaten sporadically and it occurred to me when I returned to Dungog that coke and chocolate were the order of the day. It proved to be just what I needed and I started to feel better and better. A second coke at Clarence town and then a Pie+sausage roll+coke at Raymond Terrace saw me firing on all cylinders for the first time all day. Gee, what a revelation (how many times do I need to relearn this lesson?).

The final tally for the whole ride was about 250 k’s (I forgot to start the GPS on the way to work on Friday morning) and about 180k’s with some big arse climbs on day 2. A long way short of my target for Trans-Oz but the conditions were atrocious and I was riding fat tyres and carrying a few extra heavy items that I will forgo for Trans-Oz.

One thing I will add to my gear before departing is an ultralight tarp to act as a ‘fly’ for the bivvy in horrendous weather. The bivvy will still keep out the wind and dew and I’ll only break out the tarp if the rain is set in and flogging down.

Anyway, enough talk, here are the few measley pictures I managed to take as it was hosing down every time I saw something photo-worthy.

Pre planning

Home sweet home

Part of the heard scattering as I poke my head over the pipeline

The straw that broke the camels back

I got through this bit and then had to go back again. I nearly broke my ankle several times as I tumbled over amogst the dozens of fallen limbs

About to get very wet near Raymond Terrace

Lets try again

OK, the weather forecast is terrible but I’m going to have another crack at a weekend of riding. I’ve set up the spot so here’s the new link: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ri5BTWO7G5eUT8O4yJ9onU6j8ooqIO2

I think the highlight is going to be the 6k’s of road on Carey’s Peak Trail which climbs from around 500m to 1500m in 6 or 7 k’s. It’s going to hurt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No excuses

Hosing rain today. I’m still coughing furiously but now that it has been over a week since I have ridden, I had to man up and go for a ride. I just rode the Fernleigh cycleway to test out the aerobar setup. I needed to adjust the saddle tilt a little to accomodate the changed body angle, but otherwise they were pretty good.

I got all my gear together this evening for this weekends ride. Hoping to break 400k’s but we shall see.

Oh, and a draft for my trans-oz kit came through today. It’s looking good. Only six weeks till I’m in Perth

Tinkering

Not a single pedal turn this weekend. Too unwell to be interested in it really. It has granted me the opportunity to make some inroads into my bikepacking kit which I hadn’t got around to before however.

1. I fabricated a light mount which attaches to my aero bars and gets around the problem of my bar bags obscuring the light close to my front wheel (and reflecting it back into my eyes). Now the light can sit way out in front of my bar bags completely out of the way. I scratched my head for a long time over this one looking for some kind of ready made product that would do the job. Ultimately, I had to break out the hacksaw and dremel to build something myself. I used an old avid brake lever by cutting off the clamp and jamming + gluing it into a short length cut from an old set of handlebars. While it is pretty ghetto, it doesn’t look too bad at first glance so it suits my frankenbike perfectly.

Light mount bracket

2. I had been planning on mounting bidon cages to the fork legs before riding Trans-Oz however I decided it might be a good idea to road-test the concept before heading arriving in perth. All manner of things could go wrong and I’d rather it happens now rather than later on.

Ghetto bottle cage mounts.

3. I patched up my frame bag. The fabric securing the velcro across the top tube which I thought was insanely strong decided to tear like perforated paper at the end of my last trip. While the full lenght velcro on the frame bag was impossibly secure, it also meant there were very few hand positions to carry the bike from when the inevitable hike-a-bike occurs. I’ve now settled on three velcro tabs across the top-tube which will hopefully be equally secure but a more hiking friendly (not that I expect to shoulder the bike very often on a Trans-Oz road ride).

Re-jigged frame bag

Something to do after TD?

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to stumble across this before: http://www.tourdafrique.com/tours/tourdafrique/in-depth

It sounds like one hell of an adventure and a good excuse to see the world. I’m not saying I’m a lock for it (or that the Mrs will let me) but a man can dream.

So after being forced to abandon the C2C this weekend, I think I have a backup plan for some big K’s through the Barrington tops next weekend that will see me arrive at Singleton in time for the club 3 hour race. Surely aerobars will be some kind of advantage in that race right?  I’d need to knock out around 200k’s on saturday to make the race start on time so it will be a nice training ride for Trans-Oz.