Coopers Pale Ale – NZud Matt falls in love

Happyness

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?)

Cross Your Heart

For those who haven’t noticed, PDX Cross is back for another season. As we ease (very) slowly towards warmer weather, we can entertain ourselves by browsing plentiful images of people covered in mud and grime, tearing themselves apart on the cyclocross courses of Portland. Naturally, they always seem to be enjoying themselves (when they’re not bleeding, and sometimes even then). Roll on over for all your tasty CX needs.

pdxcross

To keep on with the theme, I just dropped a heap of magic beans on a new frame and some cantilever brakes. I’d say bring on the mud, but given the weather over the last few months, there’s really no need. Might need to up the cowbell content though. Now to start pondering components and colours…thoughts on black?

Man Overboard!

I found out tonight that Wade, who owns the blue fixed conversion I spotted rocking a DIY BnC spoke card yesterday, got collected with a car door later in the day. He’s down and out with a broken collarbone, which sucks a big one! Getting doored is one of the constant risks when you’re riding in the city, and it’s shit to hear of someone getting done in by it. So best of luck to ya Wade, hope the recovery is a quick one and you’re  back on the bike soon!

Also, cheers to Jono for hooking up a sweet full moon ride tonight. Small turnout, but it was perfect weather and good fun. Ended up with a fair amount of mud on the bike after a backstreet detour went a little stray, but the moon was shining and the breeze was minimal, making it a ripper night for a ride.

Tassie MTB Plan – Feedback Time

Feedback for the draft Tas MTB Plan closes on October 11, which is only a week away. Worth checking out if you’re a mountain biker in Tassie. Actually, probably worth a read regardless of what you ride. Go check it out, and throw some words at them if you’ve got any thoughts. The more voices, the better.

Naturally BnC featured in a small way, with clogs mcgee Timmy getting one of his fine Wildside photos featured on the title page. Nice one mate.

Outback spanners and a weekend in minority.

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.