Author: Ben

Perfect way to finish off a weekend? A quick spin on the dirt sounds pretty close to hitting the mark. A txt or two rousted up the lads from their sunday slumber and down to the Longley Hotel for another ‘Tramway Dirt Run’. Gus and I turned up early, so we grabbed a seat, tucked into a couple of draughts and watched a beltin’ blues set in the beer garden.

Once Lingy and Clinton rocked up we rolled out and headed up the hill to Allens Rivulet for our first stretch of dirt. The climb out of the Rivulet and up to Kaoota is excellent..  ..I’ve been reading a bunch of Dave’s ‘Vintage Bicycle Quarterly’ magazines which do a fair bit of pluggin’ old school alpine cycling. Think fixed gears, woollen jerseys, 650b and handlebar bagged bikes being flogged across the donkey cart tracks of high altitude France and you’ve got it. Those mags have really has wet the palette for dirt climbs and this one certainly fitted the bill: steep, loose and a great big alps style road switchback.

From Kaoota we descended the old coal tramway to Margate. The tramway is probably a tad rough for the CX bikes we were on but hey, why not make it a fun trip? We really opened the throttle on the downhill and pushed the bikes hard. My steel framed bike really excelled in soaking up the bumps (two thums up for 4130!) and I finally worked out descending in the drops. Rad. Crossed the ‘Presidential Gap’ (Previously known as ‘Kiwi’s Gully’) on the rickety bridge and down in Margate via some paddocks and a horse trail. No leeches hitched a ride on this occasion 

The return loop was fun as we discussed the merits of gears, steel and the 20 plus bikes stored in a certain BnC’ers garage. Really was a great arvo out, sure beats the hell out of sitting indoors infront of a computer game (Mischa).

When? Sunday 27 Decemeber @ 11:00am.

Where? Start and finish @ the Longley Tavern.

Why? Riding bikes is rad. Riding bikes uphill, downhill, on roads both paved and dirt, along streams and among trees is rad. Riding with mates is rad. Why else?

What is the plan? Kick off from from the Longley Tavern soon after 11:00am, head up the hill to Lower Longley, across Vinces Saddle to Halls Track, descend into Pelverata, climb up to Kaoota, down the old tramway route to Nierinna, across to Poverty Gully and down into Margate via the Rivulet Track, up Sandfly Road and return to Longley, grab some takeaway beers and cool our feet in the picturesque Northwest Bay River (Longley Waterhole). It’s not a huge day in the saddle, nor too hard but you may want to throw some wider rubber (28c+) on your road bike should you choose to ride one… pace won’t be fast so mountain bikes and townies are welcome to join us. Again, it should be fun as fuck.

Last year(?) we had a BnC ‘Silo Run’ that morphed into a kind-of ‘Grass Track Dual Slalom/4X-ish’ event in the Pirate Ship Park, Battery Point. T’was a great day, we drank beer, listened to tunes, swapped bikes and threw ourselves down the Park’s steep grassy slope on a sunny Saturday arvo.. sounds like fun eh? Well, to finish painting the picture here is a link to the original post event post:

https://www.bottlesandchains.com/?p=652 

..and another link to a description of ‘Dual Slalom’ for the uninitiated:

http://mountainbike.about.com/od/fitnesstrainingracing/f/Dual_Slalom_faq.htm

A few of the BnC heads are keen to revisit that afternoon, so over a ‘few’ beers at the AGM it was decided that this Boxing Day arvo fitted the bill and yes folks, the second annual Pirate Ship Park Grass Track Dual Slalom event is on!

Want the wood on this event? Yep.. Any type of bike will work and (ahem) ‘racing’ will be tailored to all levels of skill and (lack of) fitness etc, etc. Time? Meet at the ‘Pirate Ship’ at 2:00pm, 26 December. BYO beer, stubby cooler, esky, bike etc.. We’ll try and roust up a stezza and some tunes. Afterwards we may or may not go and eat at the Vietnamese Kitchen and have a flatland/trials comp. Come along! You know it’ll be fun!

It’s been a busy fours weeks back on the Southern Isle. No sign of the baby yet and I’ve been rackin’ up some serious dirt-road miles with a few of the BnC lads. I’ve had upteen flats and the center lugs on my new tires are already showing signs of wearing out! As I’ve just arrived home from a overnighter to Bagdad can’t say that I’m too pumped on typing up a ‘proper’ post.. so instead I’ll link to two of Surly Dave’s post’s on some recent BnC missions in the deep south: Out Along the Huon and Another Forest Mission

If these daytrips have wet the palette keep Sunday 27th December free, Dave and I are planning another dirtbag trip to a yet to be decided destination. Keep you posted.

OMG. Best ‘Bikepacking Adventure’ thread in MONTHS: ‘Dave’s Hairy Monster’. Unreal photography. Amazing landscapes. Two blokes on bikes going places. Beautiful places. It doesn’t get any better. Inspired? I am. Summer’s here, we own bikes, we have an amazing backyard, let’s get amongst it!!

..with the spectre of ‘responsibility’* looming on the horizon, it’s ‘down tools’ to roll the dice for perhaps the last time.. Come on the run with Benny as he heads south of the CBD in an attempt to evade his husbandly duties. Yep, a weekend of bicycle hobo-dom in the deep south. Pack a banjo. Bring ya Lumberjack hat. Chew tobacco? You’re welcome to join us.

This overnight mission will follow some of the south’s lesser known backroads in an attempt to evade authorities and angry wives.. The route as is stands in my minds eye? Well..

Hobart – Fern Tree – Neika – Longley (beer and swim stop) – Sandfly – Kaoota – Pelverata – Upper Woodstock – Woodstock – Cradoc – Glaziers Bay – Lower Wattle Grove – Petcheys Bay – Lymington – Cynget (beer, counter meal and pick up a carton or two) – Deep Bay – Ables Bay – Eggs and Bacon Bay (Camp, swim, consume beer, sing sea-shanties and throw rocks at Possums) – Deep Bay – Gardeners Bay – Woodbridge (civilised coffee stop) – Kettering – Coningham (swim action) – Snug – Margate – Peter Murrell Reserve – Blackmans Bay – Kingston Beach (beer stop) – Taroona – Hobart.

Total distance? 247783kms give or take a bit.. would have been more exact if bloody www.bikely.com was working properly..

You’ll need to pack the following:

x 1 – Tent.
x 1 – Sleeping Bag.
x 1 – Stubbie Cooler.
x 1 – Dinner Jacket.

Any type of pushie will do. It’s not a roadie specific ride, we’re rollin’ and we’ll roll at our own pace. When? We’ll kick-off proceedings at Machine Cafe @ 09:30am Saturday 05 December.. That means LEAVING Machine @ 09:30am, if you want some tucker, get there earlier Old Salt. The ride will wrap up sometime late Sunday 06 December.. probably conclude with a pub meal somewhere pending on the level of sobriety of the cyclists. Too wasted and it’ll be 2minute noodles at the Viper Den..

Keen to come? RSVP Benny at benny@bottlesandchains.com or just rsvp this invite.. whatever.

Don’t miss it. You know it will be loose.

*(fatherhood).

My drive side pegs arrived in the post today. As soon as I got home they were bolted onto the BMX completing the creation of my ‘ultimate woman-dinking machine’. To test the pegged up ride, I whacked my 7.5 month pregenant wife on the rear and headed up to the local pub for a beer and feed.

Pedaling was a little sketchy as Mishmashes centre of gravity is currently a tad ‘high’, making handling pretty freakin’ touchy. For the ride home I sat Mish on the handlebars with her feet on the front pegs.. waaaaay better, but the two Coronas and lime I had at the pub may have just added some dutch courage to the mix. Just need a longer seatpost and the BMX will be perfect! At least as perfect as it can be without having a sidehack strapped to it..

…anyway, it’s definately summer and the BnC event ideas are brewing away in my minds eye. The below BMX ‘Jam’ video added further fuel to the fire.. with ‘Slayer’ on the soundtrack, how could it not?

9th Street Halloween Jam 2009 from james stevens on Vimeo.

The words of BnCs favourite NZud’er, Matty Rayment: “Cooper’s Pale Ale is delicious. Apparently it’s made from angel tears and panda blood*. Who knew?” …we did Matty, we did. For this very reason a Surly Chain Tensioner/Bottle Opener was installed on the rear of the 1×1. Tip of the day? Always have a case of  Coopers handy.

(* L-Dub had me under the impression that Coopers was ‘vegan friendly’. Who knew?)

In my continuing quest to locate a BMX sidehack I came across this site.  A wedding on a BMX? Yep, you bet’cha! Adds further stoke to the sidehack fire. So gotta get me one. P’haps an Impakt Bicycles sidehack would fit the bill? Mnnn, sidehack.

Whoa. That was a big weekend and it aint even over yet!  In my thrashed and sunburnt state I don’t particularly feel like posting.. but as it was an amazing weekend I think I should at least try and document some of it.

So here’s the wood.. 

Saturday morning, Mishmash and I loaded 15 BMX’s into the ute and headed down to Mutitjulu to run another B’n’C Community BMX Repair Workshop. As we hadn’t been down there for a few weeks the turnout was huge. I reckon about 40 kids turned up ready for some spanner twirling action. Many kids dragged along other defunct and derelict frames, so we really had our work cut out. A few Rangers from Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park turned up to lend a hand.. This was well appreciated! Worked solidly on the bikes for about four hours and in this time we churned out around 30 functional (mostly brakeless) BMXs. The kids hit the BMX track for an impromptu dirt jam with some HUUUGE air grabbed over the big tabletop (I have some mad pictures of this) before riding off over to Uluru for a swim in the waterhole. Felt pretty good to watch ’em ride off into the scrub. Unfortunately this was the end of all the spare parts and the Mission Australia funding.. so until we either secure another grant or get some coin donated that’s it. 🙁

Saturday arvo myself and a few of the aready mentioned Rangers decided a overnight bikepacking mission to Tapiya was just the ticket.. Perfect opportunity to test out my Epic Designs bags (which performed flawlessly) and flog some inexperianced riders over the soft sand. But it wasn’t to be.. the Rangers all rolled out on 29ers, leaving me the only 26″ rider and mate, do those big wheels make a difference or what?! They bloody kept up with me most of the way! I’ve gotta get me one of those! Anyway, to wasted to write more and given I’m still using 35mm film, you’ll have to wait for the pics.  Over and out.