"I love you, just don't shit on the couch".
I love my wife.
Fair Winds,
LDR.
"I love you, just don't shit on the couch". I love my wife. Fair Winds, LDR.
2 Comments
DO NOT take the road less travelled!! I have a somewhat rocky relationship with dirt roads (rocky, get it?).... But i keep going back to them because there are some amazing places that are only accessible if you're willing to get off the black stuff. The pic above was taken back in October 2011 after a charity MTB race, and since then i've only ridden a mountain bike once. Bikes with no suspension can only get you so far though, so when i found a tempting Strava segment on a notoriously rough road through a national park, it was time to build up a mountain bike. I had been slowly tinkering away on a '99 Giant ATX980 dual suspension MTB i found at the tip last year, so quickly threw it together for this ride. This meant i had only 4 usable gears on the back (which became 4 and three quarters as the new cable settled in) but the suspension and brakes were working very well. The plan was to ride from my parent's farm at Kin Kin up to Wolvi, then through Goomboorian towards Rainbow Beach to come down the Cooloola Way. It only took a couple of k for me to realise that plan was tremendously ambitious, as i had forgotten how excruciatingly slow mountain bikes are on the road. At 25-27kmh on the flat 120+kms was going to take a hell of a long time, so i decided to instead go out and back on the Cooloola Way, despite my aversion to backtracking. There was some early morning fog around as i rode through Wolvi. Which quickly burnt off as the temperature inevitably started to rocket upwards. After passing Mt Wolvi the dirt started in earnest, and the corrugations were shocking. "I-i-i-tssss g-gun-na b-b-be a lo-o-o-ng d-d-d-day-y" i said to myself, and then i realised the shaking enabled me to belt out a beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace" and i had a good laugh. The laughing stopped shortly after though, as only 900m after turning onto Cooloola Way i was presented with a fork in the road. I didn't remember this from the last time i was up there (admittedly, 4 years ago). The only signage was one the declared "Right to Harry's Hut Rd". I knew Harry's Hut was off the main road, so left it was! The mate who put me on to the Strava segment had said the road was smooth enough for him to sit on 80-100kmh in his car. Either his car has some incredible suspension or i'm on the wrong road... But it did look familiar, so i plowed on anyway. Mile after mile of road of varying quality passed under my wheels, and i started going through a fair bit of water in the heat. So when i came to a pretty little flowing creek, i jumped at the opportunity. Now i'm well known for my ability/willingness to drink from water sources that Bear Grylls would baulk at, but even for me the water out of this creek was a bit dodgy. I had plenty of good water still on hand though, so kept some of the swamp water in case of emergency. Not long after this the road got really good, signs every few kilometres attested to it's use for logging trucks so it was well graded and as wide as the national highway. The only fly in the ointment was the use of fairly large gravel which would presumably pack down well under a 40 tonne logging truck. Even with my mount being 16 years old and fairly low end, it was some way short of 40 tonne, so i got spat around a bit. After a ridiculously long time i finally popped out onto the Tin Can Bay Rd, a full 25kms too far west. I set off on the incredibly boring sealed road towards Rainbow Beach, but by the time i reached the turnoff i had only my dodgy water left, and the small picnic shelter on the side of the road didn't have any water. I wasn't sure where the nearest water supply would be, but it wouldn't be less than 10kms away and could be 30kms or more. With the heat well and truly up and mobile reception sketchy, i decided to take the safest option and ring the sag wagon. This was a good decision, as we were able to make a day of it, popping in to Tin Can Bay for breakfast- Before heading round to Rainbow Beach to take in the view of Wide Bay- And then finally heading back on the Cooloola Way, which as my mate had said was in very good condition (though still a bit rough for the semi slicks i'd fitted). So in all, 71 quite challenging kilometres, and now that i know exactly where i need to go i will be fitting some more aggressive tyres to the ATX and heading back there post haste. Fair Winds, LDR. Well it's not quite tonight, but it's still tonight in Ouagadougou and i have a good reason for the wait. Or rather, a number of good reasons. That particularly unpleasant sight was courtesy of a nest of wasps that took umbrage at my presence while i was doing some lawnmowing late yesterday. Hurt like blazes but a bit of ice and time sorted it out. So, Thursday morning i decided to join the bunch ride out of Noosa. The run out to Boreen Point is at a steady pace, followed by a ridiculous flat out blast back into town that i have never yet been able to hold onto. Not wanting to use any more petrol than absolutely necessary, i needed to be on the bike at 5am to ride the 23kms up the coast. I actually got on the bike at 5:13, so i had to give it a pretty good go. I still managed to get to the Noosa Bike Shop before the bunch left, so i was able to just hop on a wheel and take it easy for a while. In a few minutes i found myself riding alongside a not unattractive lady with a slight South African accent. Now Lycra is not usually the most forgiving material, so when one sees a lady rider whose form is flattered by it, one gets a bit- In due course we reached the very quiet village of Boreen Point, and with my legs not being at their best i decided to just stop and wait near the Apollonian Hotel while the bunch did the short loop to the lakeside. Then it was on, and while the pace didn't reach it's ludicrous maximum, the bunch was still sitting in the mid-high 40s as we headed back towards Tewantin. There was an unpleasant encounter with a moronic woman in a clapped out old Volvo who decided she needed to hold her horn down from the moment she saw us in the distance to some time after she had passed all 50 odd riders, but not to worry 046 RJV, i'm sure the police will be able to help you with that.
As per usual, i got dropped after a few kilometres but i was still happy with my efforts. Just before the turn off to Cootharaba a couple of blokes passed me and i was able to hop on their wheels and take a turn. It was while following one of them that i was pondering the unusual pattern on his knicks, until i realised that it wasn't a pattern, it was see through. And that line was not a seam. And he was in his 60s. Look i know i said "tomorrow" but really, what is tomorrow? Those kinds of things are hard concepts to nail down, so rather than get bogged down in metaphysics, let's just agree that today is tomorrow. Today is also today, so once i've covered the today that is tomorrow, i'll have to make another post for the today that is today. So yay 2 posts in one day! Monday was pretty much a write off, i don't know if it was the stress of my defeat at the hands of the kittens or something more sinister (is there anything more sinister than being defeated by kittens?) but i simply didn't have the energy required to do much of anything at all. After doing basically nothing, i ended up falling asleep around 3 in the afternoon, and not waking up for 14.5 hours. That precluded riding before work, so after a long and productive day i eventually hopped on the bike at 6:40pm. This would have been just fine if it weren't for the fact that a certain someone had forgotten to charge their headlight. So 5 repeats of Gyndier instead became 1 (although it went quite well, thanks for asking) and headed for the start of a 20km TT loop i had found on Strava. Along the way a mate passed in his car, which can only lead to motorpacing. Thanks to other traffic getting in the way it didn't last long, but topping out at 55kmh was fun. Not ideal just before starting a 35 minute flat out effort, but fun anyway.
The loop went ok, not great, but ok. Nearly 2 minutes faster than the previous KOM (and only other person to have ridden it) for an average of 35.2kmh. Once my legs come back to me and i pop on the aerobars, i think 40kmh should be a reasonable goal. Sadly i now have to leave the house, so Part 2 of today/tomorrow will have to wait until tonight. No guarantees on whether my philosophical interpretation of tonight matches anyone else's. Fair Winds, LDR. When i'm not riding bikes, my preferred form of exercise is riding bikes. So it was no surprise on Friday that my back was giving me a bit of trouble after using my non-existent upper body to load corrugated iron on Thursday. So with that in mind i skipped riding for that day. Over the last year or so my back has acted out a few times, and given it has usually coincided with periods of limited riding, my theory is that my body has reached a stable state which is upset by relaxed cycling muscles. In line with that, i went ahead with riding on Saturday morning, expecting only that it would do no harm, but as it turned out it actually completely settled things. Very pleasant! I had limited time on my hands, so was only able to do 2 repeats of Gyndier Drive at Tinbeerwah. Gyndier Drive was closed to motor vehicles after the new road up Tinbeerwah was put in, and it is a wonderful community facility, well used by cyclists, skateboarders, joggers and dog walkers, all of whom somehow get along just fine. It's popularity with cyclists was well evident on Saturday morning, as it was absolutely packed. This was a very good thing, as it gave me plenty of rabbits to chase! Being only my first week back on the bike however my fitness was not at it's usual level, so while i went rocketing past every man and his dog on my first climb, it was a very different sight for run #2. You know i said the other day that the first goal for the year was the Mooloolaba Tri? Well silly me i had forgotten the ACTUAL first goal, which is That Dam Ride down at Stanthorpe on the 8th of February. The inaugural event last year (my impressions here- http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=71236&start=25#p1087550 ) was one of the most incredibly painful things i have ever put myself through but great fun all the same. This year there is a different course which i am told is "easier" but it's still 120kms with plenty of hills. Add at least one NRS pro rider participating and it's a safe bet it will be a very tough day in the office. So i need to get plenty of climbing in the legs over the next few weeks. After that it was a busy Saturday morning of work at the pool shop. My specialty is repairing robotic pool cleaners, but i work on other equipment too. Unfortunately that means sometimes i have to deal with things like the Zodiac MX-8. The shop i work for doesn't sell them, so i feel at ease to heap scorn on Zodiac for allowing a toddler to do their R&D. Honestly it's as though the designer's sole purpose was to come up with a cleaner that does the same job as any other cleaner, but with twice as many parts. 2 of those gearboxes, plenty of metal screws to rust and seize, and more bevel gears than you can shake a warranty form at. Anyway, after finishing with that (and fitting my brother's new Pro-Lite wheels for him) it was off to get some more iron. It was pretty solid work in the "lovely" Queensland humidity but my back continued to behave itself. Then a quick bit of lawncare when i got to the farm before finally getting home around 7:30. A solid day that one! Sunday didn't get off to the planned 5am start thanks to more rain, but in due course i was able to head out for 20kms of flat spinning at moderate effort. Then it was time to go down to Brisneyland for the first time in many months. Now to look at, Brisbane is kind of nice, but driving through it with the thousands upon thousands of dribbling imbeciles who presumably got their driver's licences from an Ekka showbag, is a really unpleasant experience. With some help from the refedex, Steve and my godlike patience, i managed to Do the To's on my To-Do List. Just as i was congratulating myself on such, and preparing to battle the mindless masses once more, my Brisbane based brother rang, at his wit's end with bike problems. Don't look at me like that, this stuff is free, what kind of quality were you expecting?
After a bit of head scratching i worked out the issue and said bike is now tickety boo again. So i returned to the Coast for my usual pre work nap, and jumped up at 10pm full of optimism and energy. Tonight was the night i got myself some free kittens! Well, no. Tragically, for the 4th week in a row, the kittens outwitted me yet again. But damn i got close, so close. I doubt the highly refined "get it in a corner and grab it" approach is going to work though, so i'm getting my hands on a trap (a humane one obviously). And that's where i need to leave this post, stuff has happened between 2am Monday and now but i am very overdue to get some sleep, so toodle pip til tomorrow! Fair Winds, LDR. |
LDRcyclesCycling. Farming. Repairing robots. Not sleeping. Archives
February 2016
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