Ironbark Gully And Samford Ramble

Well, life has managed to suck me into conforming to various not-always-pleasant-but-nonetheless-necessary responsibilities of late which is the reason for the large gap since my last post here but that’s OK because, despite my tardiness, I’m still within the bounds of the terms of this site that I set out for myself.

Anyway, aside from the fact that I’m back to commuting bimodally on my Brompton after my extended stint of Brisbane City Council bus commuting, I also managed to squeeze in a weekend bicycle ride about a week ago. And after flip-flopping about deciding what sort of ride I would do in the limited time I had, I decided to grab the trusty Trek Crossrip (which for reasons unknown to me Trek have stopped bringing into Australia) and head through Bunyaville, over to Ironbark Gully and on toward Samford.

Since it’s trundle over to the Gallery of Modern Art, the Crossrip’s 28mm road tyres have been supplanted by a very nice set of Schwalbe 38mm cyclocross knobbies which I have sitting in my garage and periodically swap out for the road tyres as the need arises.

And if you’re wondering what pressure I ride these tyres at, you’ll be interested to know that I use a highly scientific system to work out the correct pressure which I suspect closely mimics the system used by renowned bike blogger, Bike Snob of New York City. In this case, my calculations ended up at 4387 Newtonfarts which translates roughly to…I don’t know or give a shit. That contrasts slightly to the figure I arrived at for the road tyres which ended up at 4895 Newtonfarts which again translates to…I don’t know or give a shit. There, the secret is out.

So, with the technical stuff out of the way I jumped on my steed and headed out through the conurbations towards Bunyaville. Cyclocross bikes are obviously still a rarer sight around here than I realised because of the number mountain biker heads that turned as I trundled through the Bunyaville fire trails up to the Jinker Track and up to Bunya Rd toward Ironbark Gully.

Because my riding is still in injury recovery mode, it was not quite as ambitious as some previous rides so there was plenty of time to stop and take some snaps. That wasn’t a bad thing because it forced me to look at the trails and surroundings that I’d otherwise thunder through at top pace on a mountain bike in a different light so all that was old is new again.

Before long, I came to the intersection of the fire trails where I would normally turn right and up to the head of the Kombi Express and Sunset trails (which I have ridden on the Crossrip previously) and the thought of going there did cross my mind but quickly dissipated when I thought of how long I might be off the bike if I re-injured my back. So, instead I went straight and down toward the carpark where I would cross Samford Rd, cut through the tracks up to Lanita Rd and on to the Ferny Grove Rail Trail.

The Ferny Grove Rail Trail is quite short at about 2.5km but it has to be one of the loveliest bits of bike infrastructure the government has built in recent times. And, as seen on the sign, it was also cheap as chips. I reckon you’d be lucky to get one kilometre of road for that and probably less if you factor in the pubic health costs of the obesity and other ailments caused by the “convenience” of driving.

After getting to the end of the trail and up to Petersen Rd, it was time to head home and this is where the versatility of the Crossrip really showed because I decided to go back along the road instead of retracing my steps due to the disappearing daylight. The Crossrip provided a speedy but comfortable ride through the Hills District and back home while simultaneously allowing me to jump up gutters and cross parks in a way that you just couldn’t do on a road bike.

That’s it for today but before I wrap up, you may or may not recall a few posts back I mentioned that Boneshaker Magazine is sadly going out of production but that they still have some merchandise and copies of their magazines available. Well, I managed to get my hands on a rather handsome cache of their stuff which includes the latest edition of the magazine, several back issues, a fairly standout cycling cap, a couple of stickers and postcard.

Those magazines are chock full of cycling culture stories, poetry and reeeeally awesome artwork. You won’t find any race results or write-ups on how to go as fast as you can on the latest carbon fibre wonder bike in there but you probably will end up a little wiser and a little closer to what cycling is really all about. If that sounds like it could be of interest, head over to Boneshaker and get ’em while they’re hot.

Until next time, ride safe and enjoy.