Author: Ben

The dates for the 2008/2009 Tasmanian Christmas Carnivals have been announced yo! Dates are as follows:

• Rosebery: Saturday December 20th, 2008
• Latrobe: Friday December 26th, 2008
• Launceston: Sunday, December 28th, 2008
• Devonport: Monday & Tuesday, December 29th & 30th, 2008
• Burnie: Thursday 1st January, 2009
• Hobart: Sunday 4th January, 2009
• St Helens: Saturday 17th January, 2009

Time to start preparing for the upcoming Track Season. Hobart Wheelers will hopefully be resuming the Friday night track training sessions at Newtown Oval and for those further north, Alice Spring Cycling Club opens it’s 333 meter, 37 degree banked concrete velodrome every Sunday arvo for training rides. Hopefully we’ll see some serious BnC representation @ these Carnivals and if I remember correctly the Brunswick riders were keen to do a VS BnC Teams challenge in the lead up to Hobart. So go on cadets, throw 92 on ya fixie and hit the Track! 

Check  http://www.fixedgearfever.com/modules.php?name=Velodromes&op=list&cid=au to read a short blurb and see a Google Earth satellite image of each of these venues yo. 

The debate is finally settled and the results are in.

Gears officially blow .

Like an anchor they add weight and slow you down.  Time is wasted each time you faff about changing them. Do yourselves a favour and ditch the dead weight. Fixed is quite simply faster. I ran a series of er, ‘experiments’ to prove the above statements. Twice I rode the Southern Vets TT @ Sandford, once on a steel fixed gear clunker and the second on a trick full carbon, geared race bike.. AND what happened? I was FASTER on the the FIXED gear! The results speak for themselves:

Geared carbon wunder bike – Time: 23:26    Average Speed: 35.33kmph

Fixed gear steel clunker       –  Time: 23:24    Average Speed: 35.88kmph

http://www.ozbybike.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=9

Changes are afoot here @ B’n’C HQ.. L-Dub will soon be off to Melburn-town to start his new life as a woman (does this mean The Scandal will disband?), and Mashmonster and I are off to the Red Center in two weeks..  As Les Hiddens was unavailible to shoot the new season of Bush Tuckerman and Disco is currently doing his bit designing an improved CM-2000 in Cairns, Mash and I have stepped into the breach… or something like that. Been doing alot of reasearch into desert cycling to learn what we should expect. Ant’s site OZ-by-bike has been particularly helpful. We’ve both opted for simple and practical bikes.. Mish is taking a single-speed Kona Paddywagon and I’ve re-built the Surly Steamroller for bush conditions: CX armadillo tyres with puncture resistant tube liners and goo filled tubes for the ever prevalent three cornered jacks, bottle mounts, comfortable bars and pannier mounts..

Dave’s blog http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/ is one of the better bike-centric blogs I’ve read. The posts, http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/dope-historical-prospective.html and http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/monday-morning-talk-around-coppi.html are particularly worth reading.

Hanmer Springs is one of the South Island’s premier Mountain Bike destinations. A series of quality trails lead out of the town and climb up into the surrounding hills.. The return descents are well worth the effort of pointing up. Mash and I hit Hanmer last month for a few days of riding. We arrived morning after the first snow fall of the season, so it made for challenging riding.. especially on my 32 x 17 geared singlespeed. Mark and Neil of Krank clothing and Peak Fuel made us welcome in town and Neil even loaned us additional cycling clothing to ward off the cold after only having chatted to him for 5minutes.. These blokes were two of the nicest fellas we met in NZ.. So take 5minutes to have a squiz at their websites if you get the chance, or if you are ever in Hanmer drop in and see ’em for a yarn.

 http://www.krankdirtwear.com/  http://www.peakfuel.co.nz/

Winter is in full effect in Tasmania, snow, ice, mud and slush.. ALL the usual winter fare. At BnC we don’t let the inclement weather slow us down, we just bust out the fat tyre flyers and head for the hills. The past few weeks has seen the boys out and about on trails all around the state. Mischa headed north and rode a few laps on the sweet Stubbs Road singletrack, Clint has been taking advantage of the softend soils and has cut miles of new trails at *********, and the two Matt’s have been leading their tribe of singlespeeders up hill and down dale each weekend.

Interstate, Mishmash and Jimmy have been pimping their rides in Canberra. The Mash-machine has had a facelift and Jimmy bought himself a new rig, a Specialized Stumpy. Both of them have been doin regular missions to Majura Pines and Jimmy hooked up with a Canadian who is training for a 24solo.. Finally got a report of Jimmy being worn out, never thought that would happen… The White brothers and Simon Ditcham completed a tour of WA with their band the Scandal.. On the way home they stopped off in Melburn and did a few laps of the Brunswick Velodrome, I’m not sure they were sober at the time?

Overseas.. well, Hunners slept with the right people and was given a job couriering in old Londontown.. Dutch Timmy has being scratching around in Holland looking for ANY elevation to climb on his mountain bike.. “I have to say I miss the hills and mountains a lot. When I ride my bike I look for every elevation in the road (like bridges and dykes) and sprint up to the top. There is a small training hill which is a loop, so I just ride up there like 10 times to get the feeling of a good climb. I am smashing all the people on expensive carbon roadies with my steel old school single speed, so the BnC-training camp paid off I am now working in the local bike shop, so I am spending money on upgrading my bikes. Today I got a full lycra kit from the boss, so yes, I am also wearing lycra now…” ..and Canadian Dave is back in Canada hassling chipmunks, they’re not quite as big as possums but Dave stated that they are just as satisfying.

I took this photo whilst in NZ. Thinking of the family’s anguish over losing a loved pet I decided to help out and post up the flyer on BnC..  

Last Saturday Mr Buckley and I turned out to rep BnC @ the STVCC and Triathlon Tasmania Sandford Time Trial. Bucks decided to take on the 20k TT (which included an absolute bitch of a hill climb) whilst I took the softer 14k option. Neither route was particulary flat, with plenty of undulations and potholes to boot. The turnout for the event was good with plenty of serious Timetriallers in both distances.. Continue reading “Fixed Time Trial”

I’ve been having a long running discussion with Mischa about the merits of hard tails for thrash sessions. We’ve sat and watched the ‘Hard Tails Rule’ section in ‘Earthed 3’, where Peaty and another rider slay English back-wood trails on zero inches of rear travel, mightly inspiring stuff.. A recent issue of Dirt Mag (www.dirtmag.co.uk) sung the praises of hard tail thrashing.. This is a hymn book I’m happy to sing from, I especially love the pslam ‘Down and Out on a Hardtail’.. (http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/features/down-and-out-on-a-hardtail) Personally, I love the connected feel a hardtail gives you with the ground.. especially if it’s made of steel. Throw a 140mm fork on a steel hard tail frame, a beefy wheelset and some wide tyres and you have a ready made recipy for fun. Anyway, when I came across the new NS Society frame.. well, I fell in love..  As my esteemed college is in the market for a new bike ..and taking into consideration our earlier conversations, I felt THIS bike needed a BnC post just to throw in another opinion..

So Pringle? Yes??