Category: Bikes

I’ve been loving the daily commute to work, Margate via the Channel Hwy through Taroona to Hobart (27kms) and back each day.. although I may be becoming known as the ‘smelly guy’ at work (no showers on site). Commuting is a great thing, I’ve met two single speeding roadies this week.. one guy (sorry I forgot your name) on a Langster and Jess on his Pista Solo, yarned with a few other commuters, had time to think about things other than work or domestic issues (bikes) and at the same time practise my ‘spin’ for track. Can’t believe how much it’s improved my fitness as well, it is the best type of training eh.. each morning I race against myself, I put on the same album on my mp3 and see if I can be at a further point along the road before it finishes (I was short by about 20meters today).. And I quite enjoy ‘duels’ with other commuters, especially the ‘faux-lypians’ on their carbon/titanium bikes with their shaved legs.. Haha.. nah, no disrespect, I’m just jealous.. and can’t afford an uber-bike. Oh, the picture? ^^^ What has it got to do with this post..?? Nothing really. It’s just a cool pic of a bar at Parattah next to the former Velo-track. 

A SORDID TALE OF THIRST AND PUNISHMENT IN THREE PARTS.

After a brutal bender of a Christmas/New Year period it was about time to get back into the saddle and finally get more blood than booze pumping around the old arteries. Saturday morning was the designated time and Treadlies bike shop in Kingston the place. Early on there seemed to be a fair bit of interest in the mountain bike run which would take us climbing up out of Kingston, paddock bashing down to Longley and back again via some beautiful flowing single-track.

The fist obstacle of the day was the heat. Hobart really turned it on for us with a cloudless 32 degrees. Too brutal for a ride? Most obviously thought so because when we set out there were only 3 hardcore B’n’C faithful churning the pedals.
Continue reading “Riding our luck. PART 1”

Hobarts ‘Bikes and Spikes’ carnival was held on sunday at Newtown Oval. BnC were in attendance, with one team rider (being myself) entered.

Before anything is said about the carnival a few ‘thank you’ are in order..

– Tim Smit: Mate ta for getting out of bed early Sunday morning and driving me to track.

– Clint & Jack Turner: Cheers for picking up and delivering my errant seatpost in time for my 1st event.

– Dave Dennis: Thank you soooOOoo much for loaning me your bike, the advice and for acting as my pusher.. Can’t thank you enough mate.

– Simon Va Der Aa, Dave Welsh & Nathan Fraser: Ta for the advice boys, Dave I’ll stay low next time, Vanders ta for the heads up and Nathan I’ll try not to almost kill you next time!!

Ok.. now the event. Well.. The 1000m handcap, I came last. The 2000m wasn’t much better.. (I was so nervous that I was shaking like a drunk with dt’s). Went ok in the Miss ‘n’ Out race (reckon I was about middle of the field), but it was in the Sprint Derby and the C Grade Scratch that I started to calm down, relax and get my head around what needed to be done.

I drew Steve Rossendell and Jeremy Hills in my heat of the Sprint Derby.. I knew I was pretty much screwed, I mean Rozzie won the wheel yestreday and Jez won one of the northern carnival wheels (Burnie? Devonport??).. so what else was there to do but sprint ‘BnC Style’ from the outset and make them earn their win!? Well, that tactic kinda worked.. Dropped Jez and the rest of the field off the back but was mowed down by Rozzie. 2nd wasn’t a bad result.

The C Grade Scratch field was pretty strong (eg: Danny Pullbrook) so I wasn’t liking my chances.. There were ‘suprise’ sprint laps where the winner could pick up a cash prize. These laps were indicated by a whistle blast as we crossed the line.. well I was hanging off the back when I heard that whistle blow and I went for it.. a 450m sprint later and I was $30 richer!! Yeah! A sprint lap win!! BnC represent!!

Throughly enjoyed my first ever carnival, met some great people (Nath & Brent give us a call next time ya down eh?), learnt ALOT and it was great to have all the BnC boys in my corner backing me! Bring on St Helens…

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^^^^

Hey troopers, welcome to the new year! I hope everyone made it through all the celebrations without too much permanent damage or emotional scarring. The official BnC HQ recycling bin is in its third consecutive week of overflowing thanks to the ridiculous amount of beer and pizza that gets consumed in this house. We’re all about proper nutrition and hydration around here.

Summer seems to be doing its job a little better now that Christmas is out of the way and the weather’s kicking in again. Time for mountain biking I reckon. If you’re in Hobart and feeling the weight of the holiday season still, Metro are running a daily bus up to Fern Tree that will take bikes. All the fun with none of the effort! As far as I know it leaves daily from Franklin Square (bus stop M) at 10am. I think I might cave in and take it up a few times, just for uh…testing. Make sure the service is good and what-not. Might be worth checking with metro to confirm the time and other details of the service though, ’cause you can’t trust half the shit I spout.

Two weeks of holidays ahead for me, time to relax. I’m off to Coles Bay for a couple of days next week, so if you know of any killer trails in the area let me know. The MTB will be getting a workout for sure. After that I’m hoping to get in a solid ride every single day, but I’m a lazy bastard so I’m sure that plan will go to the dogs.

The Tasmanian summer track carnivals are still going! So if you haven’t made it along to one yet, there’s still time. Hobart’s carnival is on this Sunday (featuring BnC’s Ben “Huh, tactics?” Storer) so you should definitely come out to the track at Newtown oval for a bit of a gander and some yelling.

It turns out Ben was talking absolute rot (just for a change, ha!) in his previous post and it was actually Justin McMullen who hit the wood in Launceston and destroyed his front wheel. He sent us through a photo of the damage and I’m sure you’ll appreciate this bit of the e-mail:

“Wheel was trashed. No other damage to bike to report. I just landed a few burns and not even too many splinters. Pulled one splinter from between the inside of my skinsuit and my butt that was 3 inches long. Thankfully it didn’t actually go in. “

Goddamn!

We’re always keen for photos and stories from riders all over the place, so if you’ve got something to share (or promote, or say, or whatever) drop us an e-mail!

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!

MJ, who runs The Australian Cyclist blog has just put up some interesting articles from Tasmania’s cycling past that are definitely worth a read. The blog is filled with scans from old issues of The Australian Cyclist magazine and is a great look at cycling from back in the day. Go check it out!