Author: Ben

Canberra?? Yep, it was the phone call I didn’t want! My wife just rang me to say she’s been offered a job in Canberra.. Well at least it has a velodrome^^^^

Ah, Christmas time! Busy, busy,busy! The Bottles and Chains crew have been in full effect!! We pretty much kicked it all off with an xmas ‘strays’ bbq at Margate.. which of course got looser as the night progressed. As the beers were flowing freely, we decided to hold an impromptu race meet on the back lawn. A grass track was marked out and the racing commenced, albeit slightly er, ‘gladitorial’ racing. American Dave got body-checked on the final corner blowing his chances of a hat-trick of race wins! Haha.

Um, what next? Oh yeah.. we hit the mountain and the sandflats for a few runs on the mountain bikes (rad fun!), but the next big B’n’C event was over road trip to Launnie to catch the carnival at the Silverdome! To cut a long story short.. it was an eventfull trip north.. I wont even mention the bad culinary experiance we had with our northern brethern except to say “DO NOT EVER EAT @ ‘CUCCINA’ CAFE”… yeuw.. bad,bad,BAD. Ah we stopped at the velo-tracks at Parrattah (An old-school gravel track from waaay back in the day) and at..

Campbell Town. The CT track was in ok shape for a velodrome that isn’t used anymore. A few patches in the tarmac and it would be ready to roll again. We spent about half hour rolling around it and getting a feel for the oval. Not to bad eh, but the back straight is super windy!

After Campbell Twon we headed to the Silverdome to catch the Launceston Carnival. I would say about 3000 others were doing the same thing, the dome was fully packed!! Wow! What a night of racing!! Ben Kirstan and Shane Kelly were among two of the standout riders competing. I’d have to say the Keiren, A-Grade scratch and the Flying 200 were the events that stick most in my mind. A few of the Hobart crew were there riding as were our buddies from the Brunswick Club, Brent and Nathan. Simon Price was riding well, his tactical nous really shone thru in the events he competed in.. Phil Jarvie had a spill and destroyed his front wheel, it kinda just ‘wrapped’ around his front hub!! Janelle Smith also raced well in the womens event.

After the carnival we had to roll into Launnie to get some petrol for the panno. At the service station a policeman decided to come over as see who these 3 rough looking hoodlams in the matching black B’n’C hoodies were..

Policeman: “What is ‘Bottles and Chains’ mate?”

Mischa: (in a deeper than normal voice) “A bike gang!!”

Policeman: “Motorbikes?”

Mischa: “nah, pushbikes..”

needless to say the Policeman soon decided we weren’t a threat to Launcestonians and left us alone.. Ah and finally we said farewell to the Canadian last night. Yep, Dave’s pulled up stumps and headed across the ditch to New Zealand where he’s heard that the possums are much bigger and live in plague proportions. We’re all sad to see him go (cue pan pipe music) and wish him all the best in his travels eh.. I’m interested to hear how his last night in Hobart was, maybe Mischa or Liam will spill the beans online later in the week?? Went for one final spin with him on the mountain bike yesterday over at Delphis Drive.. he took a trip over the bars but didn’t break anything. Nice way to cap off his time in Hobart.

Anyway stay posted to Bottlesandchains.com.. We’ve found a replacement token foreigner “Belgian Timmy’.. we’re all cashed up (expect B’n’C skinsuits and jerseys), we’ve got a new B’n’C team BMX and a red fixed Khs track bike for pub and sk8park duties, Dave’s donated some bike parts so except some new builds in the new year.. basically we’ll be BIGGER & BETTER in 2008! Stay safe and have a rad new year from all of us a B’n’C!!!

Mischa and I headed south this morning to go on a relic track hunt.. It was a fun little road trip but not as fruitfull as the New Norfolk venture. Firstly we checked out the Franklin Velodrome. It is another outdoor oval affair, a round track, slightly banked with no real straights in it. Overgrown to hell and the edges were crumbling. Apperently someone pulled all the weeds out of it a few years ago slowing its rate of decay. Not a particularly inspiring track, probably would have been slighly below the quality of Newtown ‘s velodrome in its day..

Next we headed to Kingston to assess the old BMX track. It was trashed. Kinda a shame that BMX racing, like Track, has declined to a point were these tracks has been left untended to overgrow and fall into disrepair.

Our final stop was the TCA cricket ground at the Domain. Dave Welsh was telling me that back in the 1930’s they used to hold ‘grass-track’ races around the oval and that the banked turns are still in place.. Well we had to see this for ourselves… and yep, the banked velo track is still there!! Haha! I would love to hold some events there! Skid city!

NEWS HOT OFF THE PRESS!!

Clinton, Jackie and Ethan Turner welcomed the newest member of team Bottles and Chains into the world @ 3pm this arvo! Eva Elizabeth Turner!! A healthy little girl!!! Jackie is doing well and will be pleased to be able to drink beer again (we’ll sort you out asap Jack). We’re all stoked here at B’n’C head quarters for the Turner Burners and believe that Clinton may have allready contacted Treadlies about purchasing a ‘pink’ bike? Well done!

Series 1 of track wrapped up on friday night. It was a bit of an anti-climax as the final race was washed out. Kinda sucked. The B’n’C support team had all turned out and even some stray Victorians (Nathan and Brent) had rocked up wanting to race.

Anyway it ended well for team Bottles and Chains with a 1st and a 10th place overall for the series. Hats off to Vanders and Dave for running the whole show.

1st. Ben Storer 100.5 (Team Bottles and Chains)

2nd Danny Pullbrook 89

3rd Janelle Smith 87.5

4th Steve Rossendell 81

10th Clinton Turner 68.5 (Team Bottles and Chains)

This year has seen a real growth in the numbers of riders at track. But there is just one comment I’d like to make.. I noticed that there were alot of cyclists turning up to watch who showed a real interest in having a go but were turned off due to the cost of buying the required CA licence. If a cheaper alternative could be found, be it a club membership or alike, I think we would have seen the numbers participating double. Perhaps this is something the Hobart Wheelers could investigate?

 Track will be back after xmas/nye with Series 2. Keep and eye on www.track/hobartwheelers.com for more details.

Yesterday arvo myself and few of the B’n’C boys drove out to New Norfolk to check out an old velodrome we’d heard about. We found the track, but it wasn’t what we’d hoped for.. Years of neglect had left the tarmac in a bad way. Glass, grass, potholes, moss and tree roots had all done their work. It was totally unrideable. Such a shame.. It is without a doubt the nicest shaped track I’ve seen so far. It has two distinct straights, beautifully curved ends and a bank runs the whole way around. It would have left Newtown Oval for dead when operational.

We spent a bit of time just kicking about, checking the whole track out. The relic features really said alot about the hey-day of track in Tasmania. There were lights set up at intervals around the oval, so at some point they must have held night races. It really must have been a huge cycling scene.

I’ve heard rumours that someone had been looking into having this oval re-surfaced. Likewise, I heard that at one point the Southern Pedals were considering re-surfacing the now derelict velodrome at Franklin oval. It would be awesome if either eventuated. I believe that if the numbers of track cyclists in Hobart continues grow as it has been doing, this is could be a real possiblity.

I’d be interested to hear any stories about racing at New Norfolk or Franklin. If you have any yarns that you’d like to share or, even better, some old photos.. send them in to Bottles and Chains and we might post them up in a retro track thread.

info@bottlesandchains.com

 

After months of fruitless searching for a 56square track frame one landed in my lap Friday night.

Dave Welsh handed me this beautiful ‘Ken Self’ frame at the last track meet. It had been hanging in his garage since he last raced it in 1978. Dave was happy for me to have it, as he was keen to see it being raced again.

So today was spent in Clintons garage cleaning it up. The bottom bracket and headset were stuffed but everything else was a-ok. It came equpped with Campy pista cranks, Sugino Super-Mighty ring, some old school track pedals and a Cinelli seat. Nice eh.

Hoping to have this machine up and running for the second round of track racing after christmas!

ah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree eh? American Dave had this er, ‘altercation’ @ the oval last night.. (Those McCaigs must really hate geared bikes?)

hmm, anyway on a slightly different bent.. the numbers were slightly down on other weeks at track last night. Dave Elleridge only ran one grade so Clinton and I had to race against Steve Rossendell and that young fast guy on the Avanti and sh#t they are quick! We went ok though, managed to hold our own and pull a few 2nd’s out of the hat!

It’s friday. It’s raining… spewin’! No riding today, well not for me anyway but I bet Dave is out there getting a wet backside! Haha, sucks to be a courier sometimes eh mate! Well I hope the downpour stops in time for track tonight..

Ah, now what rubbish am I gunna talk about today? (Haha, whilst the boys are away in Melbs no-body can edit my posts!)Well I’ve mentioned my opinion on the merits of er, riding plus .05 before..^^^^ so perhaps I should voice my views on riding with tunes? Yeah, why not..

My Old Man reckons that stuffing headphones in ya ears whilst riding is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. You can’t hear the traffic about you and you’re effectivly losing 1 of the 5 (?) senses.. I suppose he has a point, but for me, the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

I often ride with my mp3 player blaring in my ears and I always seem to ride faster and way harder! ..I think my choice of tunes has alot to do with this. Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Mindsnare and Mark of Cain are probably my favourite riding tunes (it’s all about matching drum-beats with heart rate.. ) although Slayer can be a tad much.. I’ve hit a pretty solid double that I normally wouldn’t touch whilst cranking ‘Angel of Death’..!

..but then again, I tried to ride up Mount Wellington trails listening to Lee Scratch Perry.. made it way harder than it needed to be.

Hope your having fun riding in Melbs Mischa! Show those mainlanders ‘how we roll’ in Tassie! (insert B’n’C team salute here).

Ben

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDyvbgnbzEA

Well, being the resident er, B’n’C “History Nerd”.. I couldn’t help but post up this link. It’s the earliest known footage of a guy rockin’ flat-land tricks on a fixie and it dates back to 1899!! I’m pretty impressed, especially after seeing a bike of this vintage last week.. I know how clunky and heavy that pushie woulda been!! Respect!