A Little Of This And A Little Of That

After a long spell of cold weather, this weekend Brisbane was offered some respite with the temps jumping up into the high twenties of the Celsius kind. This made for pleasant bicycle riding so on Saturday I jumped aboard the Cannondale shopping bike to refill my echo filled larder with much needed supplies.

As I’ve mentioned before, for the price of that trailer and rack, I can’t overstate what great value that rig is and how much utility it currently provides.

With the chores done, Sunday was wide open for the wide open road. I decided to dust off the Scott Scale 940 mountain bike and do some multi terrain perambulating. Because it’s a great little ride and because I’ve got some ideas for a possible future ride that needed some research in the area (stay tuned for more about that), I headed through Bunyaville and over to Ironbark Gully again where I would head east toward Keperra.

I’ve introduced you to the Scott Scale before but my re-acquaintance with it today reminded me how much I like it and I congratulated myself heartily for adopting it into my stable a couple of years ago. An alloy mid-range 29 inch wheeled creature, this bike provides excellent utility, has a nice smattering of components and weighs less than some bikes many times it’s price. Mine is almost stock standard with the only mods being the 1x conversion that the good folks at Avanti Plus Fortitude Valley did for me at the time of purchase, the seat, grips and the addition of those stubby bar ends because I haven’t quite let go of the 90s yet.

The Scale eats up singletrack, climbs like a mountain goat (partly thanks to the lockout on the Fox fork) and is light and nimble enough for stints along the road if that’s how your day pans out. I’ve used it for longer day trips as well as just blasting around and have no complaints to date. Of course, it’s also vertically compliant, horizontally malleable and actively messages the sub-atomic Bozz particle as you ride to provide up 0.5% more efficiency through the last eighth of the pedal stroke – you know, all the shit that will likely have a net effect of precisely zero to you and me. Seriously though, awesome rig for around a couple of grand – go see Avanti Plus in the Valley.

Anyway, on to today’s ride. At Bunyaville and Ironbark Gully, I did a few of the usual suspects as far as singletracks go though I avoided the Kombi Express again so as not to push my luck with my back but I did do a bit of this:

…and this:

…and this:

Eventually, I popped out on Lanita Drive which I followed to the Ferny Grove train station and joined back up to Samford Road.

Before continuing along the bikeway on Samford Road, I noticed a sign that said Brisbane Tramway Museum. Not too many years ago, that sort of thing would barely have registered with me but because I’m now a churlish old fart trying and failing to appear interesting, this was like a red rag to a bull so I had to take a look. Time was short, however, so instead of going in I just stood at the fence like a sex pest and took some photos. I was impressed enough with what I did see, though, that I’ll be returning another day for a ride on the trams and to take a closer look at those conductors’ hats. Check it out.

A little further along, I was keen to see what the recent upgrade to Settlement Road had in store for cyclists because that was part of my top secret future ride research (stay tuned). The green paint on the road as I approached indicated that someone had at least thought about bikes and the resultant bike lane on both sides of the road was a definite improvement. That is until I got about half way up the hill to find this:

Genius. Maybe you’re supposed to camp on the grass at the side of the road and wait for the bus from here. That was fairly disappointing so I turned around and headed back down the hill.

On the way down, I looked across toward the old quarry and noticed that the hill was zigzagged with what looked like singletracks. I’m not sure if that’s what I was seeing or if you’re allowed in there but if anyone knows more, feel free to chime in at the bottom of this page.

Then it was time to hit the local Noodle Box where lunch awaited.

After my garlic prawns, it was time to start winding things up so I headed home along the road through the Hills District and cut through a relatively new bit of bikeway which included this rather impressive arbor.

That’s it for today. Don’t put the winter jackets away yet because I think we’re in for more cold this week. And keep on riding.