With all the recreational road rides and mountain bike rides that I do and write about, you probably all think that a vast media empire like this blog affords me a life of luxury and frivolity at the level that Murdoch or Packer might enjoy. Sadly, that’s just not true. There’s work to be done, groceries to be gotten and errands to run if I want to be able to pay for my web hosting, my bicycles and keep food on my table. Continue reading “Business As Usual”
Afternoon and evening rides have a unique charm. Whereas morning rides tend to invigorate, rides late in the day have a more mellow, downtempo feel to them. I also find that packing a good set of lights for any ride that I start after about two or three in the afternoon (depending on the time of year) alleviates the anxiety of getting home before dark and instead allows me to enjoy the transition from day to night. In the late afternoon and evening, the sun dapples the landscape with flickering rays which are woven between long shadows, refractions and highlights not seen earlier in the day. The sounds of the various creatures around me change and air gets gradually and ever more pleasantly cooler. Such was my recent afternoon trundle through the Samford Pony Trails and up Mt Nebo along the Goat Track. Continue reading “Pyretic Daze”
With my recently commenced phase of enthusiasm for road biking now in full swing, I decided it was long enough since my last encounter with Mt Mee in Brisbane’s north-west. So, adorned with stretchy clothes and clown shoes once again, I awoke at an hour that I had forgotten even existed, shovelled a large bowl of carbohydratey foodstuff down my gullet and flung myself out the door. Continue reading “It’s Mee Again”
Heartbeat
Lungs fill
Cranks turn
Uphill
Under a doonah of grey sky
Gold piercing rays of sun shine
Pantomime backdrop
I know this place but it’s real now
The circus has left me
It’s raw, it’s clear Continue reading “Ambience”
I do quite a bit of bleating on this blog about normalising cycling, slowing down and forgetting about trying to be a racer. And whilst I firmly believe that, I have also said that there decidedly is a time and place to throw on a pair of knicks and a cycling jersey, wake up at a ridiculously early hour and go for a sprightly road ride. To me, one of the things that makes cycling great is the variety of experiences that can be had via the many cycling disciplines available and there has probably never been more on offer than right now in terms of infrastructure, first class advocacy for cyclists, bicycle variety, quality and value for money which allows even an average schlub like me to taste all the flavours of cycling with multiple bikes without completely breaking the bank. Road biking is just one of those flavours and it’s the one I’m craving today as I head through the Brisbane CBD, explore some awesome cycling routes and do Brisbane’s quintessential road bike climb, Mt Cootha. Continue reading “Rolling With The In Crowd”
As a paradox to some of the utterly insane laws and attitudes to cycling in Australia, we have an almost dizzying array of choices when it comes to places you can see and things you can do on a bicycle. Take the greater Brisbane area for example. Just in this small pocket of the country, you can explore mountain ranges, lakes, beaches and islands with almost no requirement for a car. And if you combine your rides with the available trains and ferries, the world really is your oyster.
With that, today I’m going to show you how you can go from city to island paradise using only a bicycle and a GoCard (and a bit of food, drink and sunscreen…and pants – definitely wear pants at all times) because I’m going to be traveling to Russell Island in Brisbane’s southern bayside region. It’s been a while since my last ferry crossing with a bike and this seemed like a great excuse to do it again. Continue reading “Island Hop”
I’ve been eyeing off Lake Manchester on various maps and write-ups for a while now so I decided that now was as good a time as any to finally make the journey. As the day’s experience showed me, this isn’t exactly a casual ride (certainly not as casual as I thought) so if you’re thinking about tackling this one, make sure you’re in in reasonable condition, bring plenty of food and water and carry enough spares to get yourself out of a wide range of possible mechanical failures. You will be a long way from help most of the time and unlikely to even see another person in the depths of the Brisbane Forest Park. Continue reading “There Once Was A Man Called Chester”
Unlike the last bike-plus-train write-up with a reference to rainbows in the title, the bike leg of today’s effort is a lot less epic though just as enjoyable. The point of the trip is a day’s visit to see someone on the Sunshine Coast which I would probably otherwise do by car so it’s also an experiment in non-car transportation alternatives. Spoiler alert – the result of the experiment is that, disappointingly, if you’re looking to get to the Sunshine Coast quickly, the car is your only real alternative. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an enjoyable day out with pretty well zero stress and great scenery along the way instead of staring up someone’s exhaust pipe while hurtling down the Bruce Highway, then traveling this way is definitely for you. Continue reading “Sing Me A Rainbow, Steal Me A Dream”
It’s been a long wait but, after fourteen months, Bicycle Network have finally released their verdict on whether or not they will support a relaxation of the Australian Mandatory Helmet Laws (MHL) and the crux of the decision is this:
Bicycle Network is recommending that these laws be relaxed with a five-year trial permitting people older than 17 to choose whether they wear a helmet when riding on footpaths or off-road cycle paths.
Assuming that your job hasn’t been usurped by artificial intelligence and that you’re not retired, there’s a fair chance that you went to work today or at least some time this week. There’s also a fair chance that like most Australian commuters, you drove to your workplace as the single occupant of a car even if you only had your laptop and your lunch to carry. That’s problematic for many reasons and, besides notable exceptions like tradespeople and couriers who legitimately need their vehicles daily for carrying loads (the topic of ferrying children to school requires a separate post) and for whom the vehicle is a depreciating rather than devaluing asset, there is a better way.
One option is to gear up and commute on a dedicated commuter bike, road bike or mountain bike and that’s a pretty good way to go but not everyone wants to commit to doing that every day so, in this post, I’m going to show you my favorite alternative. Those of you who have read a few of the posts on this website already know that I’m a big proponent of the Brompton folding bike because it allows me to toggle at will between riding and using public transport without raising an eyebrow or a sweat while allowing me to carry all the stuff that an office sausage like me might need for a day’s work. So, today I’m going to attempt to show you what a day with the Brompton actually looks like from morning to evening. Continue reading “Bike About Town – A Day In The Life Of A Brompton”
I’ve been eyeing off Brookfield and it’s surrounds for a while now and although I’ve ridden mountain bikes in the Brisbane Forest Park and Gap Creek Road for around a couple of decades now, I’ve only touched Brookfield very briefly in the past. Sunday’s ride was a bit of an impromptu affair so the photography is scant and this post will only be brief but I’m already planning a longer ride to Brookfield in the near future and will have my staff of photographers, editors and other minions at the ready to provide more extensive coverage. Continue reading “Bucolic Lanes To Suburban Trains”
Summer is really starting to show through here in Brisbane with more and more days in the high twenties which will soon break decidedly into the thirties. The magpies are breeding and attacking as always and the greenery has an unmistakably summery eucalyptus smell to it. To me, that is prevalent nowhere more so than in the Bunyaville State Forest. As a child I would come here on school excursions to the wildlife centre and from early adulthood in the nineties to the present, Bunyaville has been a mainstay in my mountain biking diet.
With the fresh new season upon us, I thought it fitting to renew my mountain biking options as well. I’ve talked about my Avanti Torrent before – a bike which I bought it back in 2010 when my attitude to mountain biking was very much about taking the roughest possible sections at the highest possible speed and, in a sense, “overcoming” the environment rather than moving through it. Over the years, however, that attitude has peaked and toned down to a decidedly slower pace. It’s also why I tend to blather quite a lot on this blog about low performance, casual dress for riding (all styles of riding – not just mountain biking) and generally not giving a shit about much besides enjoying the journey and the surroundings. OK, it’s not quite as pure and unadulterated as that – as a cyclist, I’ll always love bikes and gear but the focus has definitely shifted. Continue reading “Dirtbags Ahoy!”
Just a short update today on Sunday’s ride for anyone looking for some hills or just a pleasant roll through the countryside. I decided that it was time once again to get the Emonda out and hit the tarmac for some road riding except, unlike the last time this bike came out to play, this time I would be donning the stretchy clothes and clown shoes so as to do a “proper” road ride.
After ogling some maps of my local area using a popular mapping application, I spotted Bunya Road running off Eaton’s Crossing Road and remembered some of my riding buddies telling about the hill training they did there. Although this would definitely not be a substantial road ride and I thought twice about whether or not I should risk agitating my back problems by riding hills, in the end curiosity and stubbornness got the better of me and Bunya Road is where I would be heading. Continue reading “One For The Road”
Well, spring has finally broken through the depths of winter. The sun is out, the birds are singing and yet another Prime Minister has dropped out of the anus of the Australian polity. Still, I suppose we should be thankful that we didn’t end up with Hannibal Lecter in the highest office. Yep, the next federal election can’t come soon enough. Continue reading “Poison Fish, Poison Fish, Tasty Fish”
What should you wear when you ride a bike? Knicks and a jersey when you road ride? Mountain bike jersey and some kind of padded shorts when you ride a mountain bike? Maybe some expensive bike specific jeans for riding around town? The question is, are all those specialised cycling clothes really necessary on every ride? The marketers wanting to sell you that stuff will naturally say yes. I’m here to say maybe, sometimes and even not all that often depending on the riding you do because choosing to ride a bike shouldn’t always require expense and faffing. So, in this post, the point I will be trying to make is that there are plenty of mainstream and often cheap clothes available which can be used for cycling though there are certain attributes to look for which make some clothes more suitable than others. Hopefully, that will open the possibilities for cycling clothes, make it cheaper to ride and make it less of a hassle to jump on a bike when you just want a low performance recreational ride or to go to the shop to get milk, bread or a few beers. Continue reading “Not A Thing To Wear”
The working week is over, it’s a bright, serene Saturday afternoon with a hint of spring in the air here in Brisbane and my desire to find the (perhaps tenuous) links between art, cycling and this great city is bubbling to the surface. What better way to realise my whimsy than to grab a bike and skedaddle over to Gallery Of Modern Art to see Patricia Piccinini’s Curious Affection exhibition? Especially seeing as though this would be it’s last weekend on display. Continue reading “Congeniality By Bicycle”
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. Continue reading “A Little Of This And A Little Of That”
Of course, that header image is quite a bit of hyperbole – this is Queensland and we barely know what cold is but however this temperature range is categorised, I’m loving it at the moment and it made for an immensely enjoyable ride this afternoon.
For the first time this year, I took my Trek Emonda out and headed down the Kedron Brook bikeway and along the Shultz Canal toward Nudgee. Dressed in a pair of shorts and a sleeveless hoody over my nicks and jersey, I was gleefully breaking every dress code of road cycling (written and implied) not least of all because lycra is thin and the turtle was scared enough as it was. But also because this bike is great to ride no matter what you’re wearing and wearing whatever the hell you want while riding is almost as important as the riding itself. Continue reading “Chillin’ In The Cool”
Continuing in the spirit of my decidedly unathletic, slow injury recovery rides, today I’m cycling to Brisbane’s Victoria Park Golf Club to play putt-putt and enjoy a fat lunch with some friends. And if that all sounds a bit ostentatious, that’s because it absolutely is. Continue reading “Forrrre!”
In my last post, I wrote about riding my Crossrip over mixed terrain slowly. In this post I will be writing largely about the same thing over different terrain (though this post also features delicious fried rice). If that’s too much of the same thing for you, stop reading now and ask for a refund of the money you paid me for accessing this website*.
Anyway, here we go…
The destination of today’s little escape is the swampy bits of the Boondall Wetlands with the gravel roads running through them so I started by heading out through the bikeway next to the Carseldine golf driving range towards Deagon. Continue reading “Swamp – The Rambling Continues”
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. Continue reading “Ironbark Gully And Samford Ramble”
The Brisbane Bicycle Explorers Club recently put on a great evening recounting Brisbane’s rich music history including a tour of iconic Brisbane radio station 4ZZZ.
As I mentioned the last time we met here, I had on the cards the Streets Of Your Town Brisbane Music Heritage Ride (part of Bike Week Queensland) pending the state of my wellness. Well, I’m happy to report that I did indeed attend the event, it exceeded my highest expectations and I recommend that anyone with a bicycle and a hankering for a great night out tag along to next year’s installment. Continue reading “A Good Night Always Has The Right Amount Of Zs”
Sometimes life keeps you guessing about exactly what you should do next and you just have to be a little inventive, dive in and maybe sometimes even take a little risk. With that in mind, today I decided that my recent back problems had taken up enough of my time and that I would start easing myself back into riding. So, I dusted off the squishiest, most forgiving mountain bike I own to cushion my flip side lumbar regions, packed a few essentials into a small canvas satchel and took off for one of the slowest, most non-mountain bike urban mountain bike trips ever embarked upon. And despite photos that may give the impression of the contrary, suburbia was never more than a literal stone’s throw away. Continue reading “Just Making It Up As I Go”
Brisbane’s weather and constantly improving bike infrastructure lends itself well to shopping trips by bike but Brisbane shopping centres also need to do their bit to attract more cyclists and save themselves money while they’re at it.
Food is great. It titillates your palate, keeps chefs employed and gives you an excuse to stop work in the middle of the day. Best of all though, is that it prevents you from dying. Humans have used various methods throughout evolution to acquire food from hunting and gathering through to the advent of agriculture and eventually to urbanisation and the rise of the supermarket.
But with supermarkets coming about in the context of car-centric urbanisation, a raft of problems came with them. For one, the amount of space required to park all the cars being used for grocery getting at a supermarket often equals or exceeds the space required for the supermarket itself. For all the touting of convenience they use to market themselves, supermarkets (and large retail complexes more generally) are made all the more inconvenient by the need to park a considerable distance from the entrance and then lug all the groceries back the same way prior to exiting while inhaling other shoppers’ exhaust fumes and putting yourself in danger by mingling on foot with cars which are reversing, scrambling for free parks and drivers often losing their shit due to the stress of the whole experience. Continue reading “Civilized Food Gathering”
As I mentioned previously, my aging back has the been giving me grief over the last little while which means the amount of riding I’ve been doing is precisely zero. That situation is driving be batty beyond words but on the upside it has given me the chance to do some maintenance on my extensive (some would say excessive) fleet of velocipedes.
Today, I’m going to talk about a couple of specific issues relating to the Brompton – finding and stopping creaking noises and the Brompton sinking seat post syndrome. Although the Brompton is extremely well engineered, like anything, it isn’t completely impervious to a few niggles every so often and those two can be particularly frustrating. Water, dirt and aging will eventually catch up with any machine that has moving parts – which means all machines – and because the Brompton has a few more moving parts (at least in the frame) than your average, garden variety bike, there’s a few more issues that may pop up from time to time. It should be noted that I am not a professional bike mechanic and readily seek the assistance of a bike shop when it all gets too hard. I do, however, at least try and have a go at fixing stuff myself where I can and, in doing so, have accumulated a little experience I can share. Continue reading “Finding The Ghost In The Machine”
