VELO MODA

Dawn. The air is cool and a light fog hovers in the distance as I pilot my road bike through the first few kilometres of my ride trying to keep up a reasonable speed to counter my lateness while simultaneously trying not to push my cold muscles too hard. The roads are quiet with patches of last night’s rain mostly soaked into the tarmac and, aside from the birds, the only sound to be heard is my tyres whooshing along the road surface.

My first stop will be a rendezvous point in Brisbane’s far northern suburbs where my accomplices and I will set off for the little town of Dayboro and onward to climb Mt Mee. The climb is about 7km long with a gradient of about 5% which can be done at quite a relaxed pace to help you enjoy the stunning scenery of the rolling hills to the west. Continue reading “Into The Fog – Climbing Mt Mee”

There’s something about country towns that puts a spell on you. They wind you down a few notches and put you in a different frame of mind. They run at a different speed to the city – a better speed in my opinion. It’s a speed that’s closer to that which human beings run at. Fernvale in South East Queensland is no exception. But Fernvale also has something extra special to offer bicycle obsessives like me. It’s located upon one of the jewels of country South East Queensland – the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. Continue reading “Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Taste Test”

In strange times, strange things are bound to pop up on the wild, wild, web. Continue reading “Short And Strange”

I’m sure as eggs not an art aficionado much less an artist. The fact that I spend most of my time using the opposite side of my brain required to create art is testament to that. Try as I did to draw and paint when I was a younger human, life and other interests took over and my artistic aspirations along with my meager skills shriveled and died like an abandoned pot plant.

Still, none of that should stop me or anyone else immersing themselves in art. Even if you haven’t been trained what to look for, making your own sense of the art in front of you is one of the most profound, calming, inspiring, escapist, perspective adding and enriching things you can do almost any day. And maybe not knowing what you’re really looking at is the best way to appreciate art anyway. Continue reading “Life Is The Art Of Cycling”

This post is called Culture And Politics because I want to allude to one simple fact: the low mode share and abysmal attitude to cycling and cyclists in some parts of the Australian community has nothing to do with using a bike to get around being impractical, inherently dangerous, unfeasible or because cyclists are somehow better or worse that other people. It has everything to do with the current state of our culture and poorly informed attitudes which are fuelled by the reprehensible policies and decisions of some of our politicians as well as the vested interests of corporations in and around the domain of selling oil and cars. Continue reading “Culture And Politics”

So maybe you decided that riding bikes isn’t just about getting up really early on a weekend morning, putting on some special clothes and trying to beat some personal bests or competing with your peers. Sure, doing that stuff is fun but maybe you’ve decided that bikes can be used for everyday transport too. Maybe you decided that sitting in a car for every bread and milk run, work commute and local errand isn’t as necessary and “right for the times” as every auto affiliated corporate troglodyte and politician has been drumming into us for the last hundred years – that, in fact, using cars to the degree we’re currently doing is not good for the economy, the environment, urban planning or your health and is actually completely insane. Good for you.

But there’s a few problems. Whilst bike infrastructure is slowly improving, it’s still quite likely that your workplace has nowhere to park your bike and lacks showers. Maybe there’s a nasty and unavoidable stretch of road on the way to work and maybe the shop/theatre/restaurant you want to get to after work is waaaay down on the other side of town and a good few kilometres from the nearest train station. Australian cities are nowhere near Velotopia, that’s for sure. If only you could combine your bike rides with a few segments of public transportation. Continue reading “Why You Need A Brompton”

I awoke frantically to find that my alarm had not gone off and there was no way I’d make to the early train I had planned to catch. Bleary eyed, I got out of bed, regained my thoughts and realised that on the upside at least breakfast and the morning’s other preparations would be a less hurried affair as I waited for the next train.

Today, after much anticipation, I was heading to Nambour from Brisbane to begin a bike journey which would ultimately end at the town of Rainbow Beach at the very northern part of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. I would pass through arguably some of the most picturesque hinterland, state forest beaches in Queensland along the way and cover about 120km on this single day journey. Continue reading “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”