Category: Bikes

Sometimes I’m easily distracted.. “Where DOES that dirt road go?” Curiosity laid to bed plans to complete the ‘Channel Century’ today. Midway ’round, I turned my roadie uphill to follow some previously unknown (to me) gravel double track into Snug Tiers Reserve.  A bit of scratching about and I found a track that linked into the Kaoota to Margate Tramway and back home. The trails were a bit of an ask for my 28c shod road bike and I spent most of the ride wishing I had a little more rubber beneath me.. ..so when I got back to the Ranch I whipped my 29er out and headed out for round two. Turns out, double is trouble.  Halfway down my second passage of the Nierinna Creek Track I spilt my rear tire and was sprayed head to toe with tubeless slime. No worries, I’ll whack a tube in a nurse her home. Whipped the tire off only to find that inside she was like a pin cushion from our time in the desert (which is THE thorn capital of the world). Twenty minutes of picking pricks out and I’m back on my way, winding through some very nice singletrack, across a paddock or two and home in time for a beer (or two) with the Old Man. Not bad for a sunday outing.

So I’m here at that museum of old and new art, which makes me some kind of special and priviledged person (because I live in Hobart). I think those years of failing subjects at art school must have paid off (though my HECS debt hasn’t), because a lot of it seems to make sense on some level. But really, the important and relevant thing on this website is the fact that there’s an artwork here featuribg a bike, there are heaps of hipsters, and I saw some guy with a Fyxomatosis mussette, which is common elsewhere but rare here. Exciting times…enjoy the update, suckers. Here’s a photo…

Summer is coming and it is chock full of festivals and events, big and small. Two of the most notable are the long established Taste of Tasmania and the opening of the new and intriguing Museum of New and Old at Moorilla.
If you are considering attending either or both events then it is very worthwhile cycling there as Bicycle Tasmania is providing free valet bike parking.

For a even better and very social day out please consider helping out for a few hours as a valet bike parking attendant, as well as participating in these two great events.

The Taste valet bike parking runs from December 28th to 3rd
Jan, 11am – 11pm daily, (except New Year’s Eve, which finishes at 4 pm).
If you can help out with The Taste valet bike parking please contact Patsy Jones Email – patsycj@ozemail.com.au Phone – 0409 950 327

The MONA Opening Weekend valet bike parking will be in operation Friday January 21 4.00pm – 12.00pm, Saturday 22nd 9.30am – 12.00pm, Sunday 9.30am – 11.30pm.
If you can help with the valet bike parking this weekend please contact Tim Stredwick Email – tstredwick@velosmith.com.au Phone 0458 214 776

For the past two years we have held a ‘Grass Track Dual Slalom/4X-ish’ event in the Pirate Ship Park (Battery Point) on Boxing Day. Each time it has been a fun event, we’ve drunk beer, listened to tunes, swapped bikes and thrown ourselves down the Park’s steep grassy slope in a ‘loose’ race format. …and it’s happening again this year! Sweet!!

Wanna come? Bring a bike, any functioning bike will do (Jordie ruled it on a Ladies Town Bike last year), something to drink, something to nibble on and your race face. Time? Meet on the grass on the hillside above the ‘Pirate Ship’ at 12:30pm, 26 December. 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 (K1w1? Hunners?). Mishmash and Huon are going to come for a run. See you there!

As promised, the first of the B’n’C events this December! Feel like a long ride through the Southern Tasmanian countryside, hitting the best back roads between Hobart and Dover? Yep?? Well.. meet the boys at Machine Cafe 09:00am Monday morning for civilised coffee before rolling out. Plan is to find some cheap accomodation in Dover and book into the local woodfired pizza joint that night for a feed. Return to Hobart the following day. Simple. Keen to come? RSVP on our B’n’C Facebook events page. Hope you see you there!

Oioi cadets, I know it’s been a loooooong time between posts on the B’n’C site so I’ll divulge the excuses for each of the team: Mischa is in Africa shootin’ stuff (35mm) and getting all Wilbur Smith; Liam is busy saving Melburn from being overrun by crust punks one hipster vegan gig at a time; Nic White is busy keeping Cascade in business (although exactly who is in ‘liquidation’ is a topic up for debate); Matt Grundy has found domestic bliss; Hunners hit thirty, realised he had become ‘Van Wilder’ and has gone underground in an attempt to finish his degree before turning fourty; and me? Well, in between discovering the effects of each new germ brought home from Childcare I’ve been expanding my waistline in the Central Australian Desert. With temps to hot for riding in anger (meaning little to report) and limited time availible between nappy changes and hanging them on the washing line has meant the B’n’C online prescence has slipped. I promise it won’t stay this way.

There are a few things hanging in the wings this coming summer, there’s the ‘(D)overnighter’ ride on 20>21 December (keep an eye on our Facebook group for more information), a ride to the summit of Mt Wellington for a sunset beer before the New Year and I’m pretty sure Lingy has a Tweed Ride and Gentlemans Race planned. I’ve applied for a few jobs in Tasmania so, fingers crossed, hopefully I’ll be a resident of the Southern Isle again by February. You can guarantee that if I score any of those jobs I’ll be organising another ‘photocat’ before Easter!

Ok, by now you’re wondering about the above picture? It’s the banner from my new blog ‘Les Cafards’ (http://lescafards.blogspot.com/).. This blog will be a little differently focussed than the general B’n’C content but still velo orientated. Hopefully a few B’n’C readers will flick over there and have a read from time to time. Plug over.

Haven’t got any new bike pics to post as Mishmash has stolen my camera so you’ll just have to be patient!  Thanks for checking back on the B’n’C site, just remember, ‘good things come to those who wait!’

“Gee what a suprise, ALL the bicycle lycra louts and senior citizens on 2wheels are mobilised in a military fashion by bicycle tasmania again. Great media saturation. BUT what about the real ratepayers and majority of voters in Hobart who are sick of Slobart and agressive bicycle riders blocking our progress just getting to work ” when required ” how much work productivity is lost travelling at kids bicycle speeds on the way to work. For those voters in Hobart who require paid employment to feed their families and pay their car/motorcycle registration fees etc. ( bicycles free and don’t need to obey traffic rules apparently ) this feel good utopia is on par with solar power for our homes ( more ” FREE” government money. Gee who really pays”

Feel free to join the discussion here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=147200221975378&ref=mf

I know the weather may be against us but please come along to Franklin Sq at 5.15pm this afternoon as a show of support for the Sandy Bay Road Cycle Lanes.
Ald Damon Thomas submitted a petition to Council this week with approx 500 signatures against the proposal.
I have never seen the Hobart cycling community so unanimous in support of anything before. We have to show that support to overwhelm the relatively small minority who want to see Sandy Bay Road continue being a motor vehicle sewer.
Come along to Critical Mass today and ensure you and everyone you know makes a submission to Hobart City Council in support before Friday 3rd September. The online feedback form on the HCC website takes only a minute to complete.

“It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now
All hell cant stop us now”

If you have never bothered, never had the time or just not heard of it before, well now you have so you have to be there.
This is important, lets show the naysayers that the whole of the Hobart bike community roadie, mtb, hipster, you know who you are support the Hobart City Council proposal. It’s not a show of hands it’s a show of wheels and lets make it impressive.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124376284276567&ref=mf