Tropical, humid, sweltering. That’s how it’s been in Brisbane for the last little while. Some prefer more colloquial expressions like “hot as balls”. However you phrase it, the heart of summer is here. Somehow it doesn’t seem as much fun as I remember it growing up in these parts. Maybe because as age catches up with me, my ability to tolerate extremes diminishes or maybe it’s just because it’s actually getting hotter each year or maybe it’s both.

Still, I prefer that weather events don’t prevent me from riding where possible but I’ve had to make adaptations. For one, because I’m not really a morning person, I’ve been saving my rides for the end of the day, packing lights and riding into the evening. Also, I’m not racing so I don’t need to set records. Slow and steady is the way to go. Gravity provides thrills when the opportunity arises. And I ensure that the extra drink bottles get put to good use.

Mostly though, I’m thankful that the heat only provides me some minor discomfort when I’m riding my bike because things could sure be a lot worse. I can’t even imagine.

My music picks tend to sway heavily from the extremes of one genre to another so today I’ve selected something referred to by some as “improvisational jazz”. Pink Dolphins by Anteloper is instrumentally complex in the most fantastic way and varies in style throughout the album such that it takes the listener on a journey of a broad gammit of ambience and mood. It’s almost like a jazz flavoured prog album and worth every blow of their saxophones.

If you’re up for a long read, I’ve just published a new article in the main blog on the subject of ebikes. It’s all about separating the illegal, overpowered, cheaply made ones from the legitimate, legal, high quality ones and why it’s a better time than ever to get an ebike into your life. Check it out.

Well, that’s it for another year. Like any year, 2025 had it’s fortunes and disappointments but all up it was a challenging year to be honest (for me at least) so here’s to 2026 and the hope that it can be the beginning of something better. We have bikes and we have Brisbane so my hope is strong. Onward and upward.

This Is Not A Bicycle

In my endless quest for the sublime, the slightly weird, the definitively off-kilter I came across this piece by Petor Georgallou.

I recommend reading the whole thing but if it had ended after the following line in the first paragraph it still would have been brilliant:

“Travel by bike offers the widest selection of strangeness by covering the most ground while also being in the world, with the number of stops limited only by a personal expectation of reaching a destination.”

What’s not to love, right? That answers pretty much the biggest “why” of riding bicycles that I’ve been trying to convey for the last eight or so years of this website’s existence.

Bicycle Queensland calls for active transport corridor to be fully reinstated in Logan – Gold Coast Faster Rail Project

Action is needed folks – the Logan Faster Rail Active Transport Corridor looks to have been cancelled. Yes, it seems that the Brisbane community is about to be duped out of a large and essential piece of bikeway for which the land has already been purchased with your tax dollars. Please read BQ’s write-up and think about contacting your local member to get this reinstated.

Brisbane has some great pieces of public art hiding in alleyways, at the backs of buildings and various other nooks and crannies. Riding bikes is a great way to discover them because bikes are slow enough to make you take notice but fast enough to cover the ground required to go from one piece of art to the next.

If you’ve still got Christmas shopping to get done, riding to the shops is a really good idea. As I’ve said previously, Westfield Chermside has bike racks in the underground carpark right near the entrance which means no parking hassles, your bike stays out of the weather while you’re in the shops and you get to enjoy the summer days and evenings along the way. Plus the bikeways lead right up to the back of the centre.

Tilapia have been a problematic, invasive fish species in Australian rivers and creeks for many decades. You can help the problem while also having some fun by fishing for them in Kedron Brook and other Brisbane creeks.

Grab a pair of polarized sunnies and you’ll probably be able to see them but beware, they’re fussy eaters and a bit tricky to catch so you’ll need patience. My own fishing trip the other day proved this as I returned home without a single bite even though I watched them swim right past my bait all morning.

Getting to the fishing spots is done best by bike as there’s plenty along the Kedron Brook bikeway and remember that once you catch a Tilapia, you can’t throw it back or take it home. Unfortunately, you can only photograph, destroy and dispose of them in a local bin.

Daytime being fairly hot and a bit too busy for me to ride still left me with the evening this weekend. Turns out it was a good option anyway – largely empty trails, quiet back streets, wallabies in the reserves, Christmas lights at people’s houses.

Bikeway counters seem to be going down all over the place. This one near Windsor has been completely turned off for at least the last couple of days. Note that these bike counter outages have been going on for a lot longer than the couple of times I’ve mentioned them here.

EDIT: looks like you can report the non-working bike counters here. I guess if they don’t know, they can’t fix it.

‘Tis the season to be bike commuting.

Looking for a great Black Friday deal? Well, you’ve come to the wrong place. Not only because this website doesn’t sell anything but also because there’s no such thing as a great Black Friday deal. If you’re buying a Black Friday “bargain” you’ve probably either been duped into buying something you wouldn’t have otherwise bought or it’s actually not a bargain and you’re paying too much. And if you’re making up reasons as to why I’m wrong about that, there’s an even greater chance I’m actually right.

So, instead of buying bullshit items you don’t need with money you don’t have, why not do, oh I dunno, pretty much anything else. Riding a bike is a good start. If it’s too hot, ride to somewhere you can swim or get a cold drink. Or you can skip the riding and cut straight to the swimming or walking the dog or playing monopoly or skimming rocks at a creek. I think you get the idea.

Life is short, freedom is fragile so for the love of Lob don’t hand any more of either than is absolutely necessary to the corporations who have created enough problems already. That is all.

Uganda Fixed: Night Flight to Kampala

Yep, it’s as simultaneously mad and inspiring as it sounds. In many respects, what these guys did and how they view riding bikes more generally constitutes the very soul and core of cycling – the simplicity, the minimalism, the rejection of the status quo and the absolutely true freedom. It’s worth a read.

If you’re looking for somewhere to ride, I may be able to help. Check out my routes and journeys in the main blog.

Bravely or stupidly, yesterday afternoon I decided I’d had enough of the great indoors,  grabbed a bike and headed towards a spot along the Pine River at Bald Hills. This despite the blobs of red and orange approaching on the weather radar. All was well until the sky decided it had given me enough chances to retreat and simply let ‘er rip. Shirt clinging to body, shoes full of water and brakes howling, I was holed up outside a nearby 7Eleven chewing on a piece of banana bread and sipping on a Coke for over half an hour before being able to head for home. It still beat sitting inside though and I’d definitely do it again.

British stoner/doom metal band Elephant Tree‘s 2014 album Theia is one of their earlier works but what I consider to be the “purest” of their output. The thick, heavy sound is a sweet, sweet, slow moving musical molasses that is in a totally different time and place.

Needing to get to multiple places in Brisbane today that I don’t normally go, the Brompton provided the perfect way. Doing a longer initial commuting stint then getting a lift with the Brompton in the boot of a car, then another short ride followed by a CityCat trip and finally another longer stint of riding, the Brompton was able to provide both fun and function. Carrying a change of clothes and toiletries for a freshen up plus a laptop and all the other requirements for the day, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

What’s happening with the Brisbane City Council bike counters? This one at Victoria Park is one of many around Brisbane that’s been falsely showing zero as its count for quite some time despite the obviously high amount of bicycle and scooter traffic coming past throughout each day. What have I missed? Feel free to comment if you know the answer to this mystery.

Couldn’t go past this. Pedal People have been operating a bicycle powered rubbish collection business in the US for almost a quarter of a century and going strong. So many great things about this.