Middle Distance Rides

[brades68]

Nice work, much better scenery than i usually see!
Ohh look, a cow

Keep it up, you might get me thinking of getting a MTB and heading down SEQ for a look around

Cheers
Mick

[ajh003]

Hey MG - Can you actually ride over the Gateway ?
Is there a bike path ?
BTW
Love the reports

[MountGower]

G'day

There is a path over the Gateway Bridge. I tend to try and avoid Sandgate Rd Beyond Nundah and turn off at Virginia and usually would have gone through Hamilton, Albion etc before coming back on to Sandgate Rd from Hudson Rd where there is more room and down Montpellier and through the back of the Valley to the Story Bridge.

Now, after turning off Sandgate Rd at Virginia, I can go down Melton and over to Nudgee Rd via Gerler Rd or just down Nudgee Rd. I prefer the former.

Then there is a path along Lamington Ave, or at a more convenient time of day, just go left at Kingsford Smith Drv. There is a path between KS Drv and Lavarack Ave where the bridge crossing starts or just go down Fison Ave from Schneider Rd where the Lamington Av path comes out and down Cullen Ave.

I found it to be a good way to get home on the day.

Cheers.

[MountGower]

G'day Everyone,

I had another reply and was asked to do the same ride as last week. Another more proficient rider, this time a competitive MTB rider, having bought a road bike in April. I felt much better this week and the average speed was about 1kph faster. Makes me wonder just how much better you've got to feel, LOL. After the ride up Nebo and Glorious, I suppose it's a game of catch up in the average speed department. It was just nice not to be jet snotting great wads for half the ride.

Another picture perfect day. In fact, if you asked me to describe the perfect day for cycling, on or off road, I'd point to August 14, 2010 without hesitation. After the drought breaking, last winter was very wet and this one started out the same, so whilst I acknowledge the need for water, our winter is to die for when it comes to cycling and it's just fantastic to get some of it back after what was admittedly a neccessary break.

Whilst my peaks were not my best toward the tops of Brisbane relentless powerclimbs, on the flats, all I wanted to do was wind up and push on. It was great to finish a 100 miler not wanting to get off the bike and feeling as good as I did.

Big thanks to Ben for being so pleasant to ride with. Also to Brisbane's Magpies who are obviously as captivated by the weather as I am. Another week off after their early kick off.

Here are the pics. One from Mt Nebo Rd and another panorama from Redcliffe.













I'm really torn now between road and MTB. More so than I can ever remember. If the weather keeps up, I'd like to go to the Gold Coast and back, via some hills one way and there is my annual Hell of the South ride - Bromelton, Coulson, Peak Crossing, Ipswich, which is beckoning because it is a magnificent ride in these winter conditions. These are both 200km rides. Perhaps someone out there might want to help me decide. An MTB zealot perhaps??

Have a safe week and happy cycling.

[MountGower]

G'day

I said earlier that I would not forecast the rides I do and welcomed any PMs or emails prior to Saturday's adventure.

But.........

After planning to ride the MTB tomorrow, especially in the absence of the Epic people, it appears that only a gale will dry the place out now. So, if anyone out there is interested in a long road ride, please chime in.

The options I'd prefer are Coolangatta return, Gold Coast via the hinterland and return if there is enough fuel in the tank or the Hell of the South, which is Bromelton, Coulson, Peak Crossing, Ipswich return. All are about 200km. I'm open to other options, if they are not the same as the last two Saturdays and there is parking available here at Coorparoo, if that helps. Departure will be at 5am or just after.

Either way, have a good weekend.

[MountGower]

G'day

Today I did something I had wanted to do for a while. I rode Nerang State Forest for the first time. Perfect day for a MTB ride with the Epic tomorrow. I saw one other rider all day and he was repairing a log ride.

Nerang, acording to the netcrap I have read to date is somewhat of an all mountain and down hill type park and not to be ridden with anything less than 5" of travel and a load of experience. I can now, with great pleasure, confirm that this is indeed netcrap.

I absolutely loved Nerang. I had a mud map with me, but just went in through the main step over and followed my nose. It is a trail of two halves. In one area, it is more technical, rocky and undulating and on the other it is faster, smoother and more flowing. Both areas have a large amount of trails and it was a great place to ride. I did just over 40km and if that included more than 1km of fire trail, I'd be very surprised. I know there is more in there for sure and can confirm that I found one trail partly constructed.

Nerang was harder on my wrists than anything else. My legs had plenty left, but I am very happy with the ride today. It's a place I'd highly recomend regardless of what type of bike you have. There are loads of roll overs and bridges and a good amount of switchbacks. The roll overs are big and exiting to ride over. They were all completely safe and much easier than they looked. The bridges were a mixed bag and I walked some and rode some. To be honest, I think the bridges all need ripping out and replacing properly as they are all built from skinny old trees and have an undetermineable life. If this were done by the rangers, these trails would be too good for words.

I can't wait to get back there and ride it again. If you haven't been there, start making plans. It's just too good not to go to the top of your list. I'd like to have taken more pics, but I am not riding to take pics, just taking pics here and there when I ride. I could have taken heaps.

Please note that the second and third pics are taken from the trail, they are not of the trail.

[MountGower]

G'day

Yesterday was an interesting ride. Not because I hadn't done it a squillion times. It's the route I've taken many times more than any other on the road. It was interesting because of the amount of coincidences it threw up.

Coincidence 1:
The bloke who rode with me a couple of weeks ago, who shall, from this moment forth, be refered to as Ben, because, after all, that is his name, emails me and tells me that he wants to go on another road ride, but thinks it might not work because he has to be home by 9-9.30. I am having trouble deciding what to do, because I too must be back at the same time in order to leave for my daughter's bithday activities. I am now very much relieved and happy, because Ben is a good rider and I now have a good source of motivation for a fairly fast 100km flat ride.

I woke up at 4am and immediately have to admit that I am not feeling as keen as I was yesterday. A bit dull and thick headed. Yes, even more than usuall. I got up and went for a pee. I always insist on having clear urine and am disturbed by anything less because I know I am too dry otherwise. Today is not a perfectly clear morning, if know what I mean and whilst most people would have looked in there and wondered what I was worried about, for me it was a good explanation for why I am not feeling 100% and I am starting to think about how much my legs will be burning later no matter how much I drink now.

Coincidence 2:
We both arrive at the Murarrie Crit track together, 7 minutes late. My appologies. I wish coincidence 2 could have been more exiting aswell.

We went reasonably well. Not a hammer fest, but a firm ride with only a couple of brief chin wags with the wind behind us and one two minute photo stop.

Ben usually sits back several meters from me. I assume, as a better rider, he is maximising the benefits of the ride and I am more familiar with the ride routes. He also has no problem giving me a wheel if I wave him through, which I did between Redland Bay and Tannah Merah.

I was right about feeling dry and my legs really burnt toward the end. Tim was doing the mountain biker on a road ride routine, changing down, spinning up and pushing hard up Brissy's power climbs. I was doing the this bloke is killing me routine, out of the saddle and busting both arses at once to keep up, which, with the aid of a couple of convenient red lights, I did.

This leads me to.........

Coincidence 3:

We are at a set of traffic lights at Mt Gravatt, a few Ks before Ben will turn off, at about the 95km mark of 106km. He looks at me and says somethink like "I don't know what's wrong with me, but I feel a hundred times worse than I did on that 160km ride the other week".

Well, I'll take what I can get, I suppose, but bloody hell Ben, you took your time telling me. I guess he already knew I wasn't flash either, beause I was moving on to the wrong side of the road all day so my huge jet snots didn't go all over him. On reflection, I'm glad he didn't tell me he wasn't going great as I might have eased up and a 100km ride requires some effort if you are going to make it worth while.

What Ben did tell me early on, which was another incentive to power on regardless, was that he came 25th out of 575 riders in last weeks 100km MTB Epic race. A great effort. So I think his belated revelation was a secret well kept in the end. I'd hate to ride with him feeling good and me not. So coincidence 3 was pretty damn handy and his order of information perfectly measured to aid my performance.

I held 30kph+ until Ben turned off and just surrendered it in the end. What a great morning. A morning that could have been an easily justified sleep in, but turned in to 3 1/2 hours of clear air and pain. An easy choice for sure. What's the go with these people who don't like that, my legs are bloody killing me feeling? Are they mad?

Here is a panorama. This is a photo I have taken a few times and will take many times in the future because I know it's potential. It requires a real alignment of the planets, so to speak. The sky needs to be clear, the tide needs to be half out and the sun needs to be almost up. Yesterday, there were a couple of clouds, we arrived too early and the tide was too far out.

It's better than that sad effort I posted at the top of the first page at least. I find that I have to reduce zoom level of the browser page to 80% to see it all. Perhaps that is the case with the other pamoramas I posted. I'm not sure.



Have a good week everyone.

[tomns]

Great ride report and photos mate, will have to man up at some stage and come for a ride with you

Cheers
Tom

[MountGower]

Tom, any time. Some clear weather in the near future would help realise some plans for road rides that are more scenic in better conditions. I'll email you if they become likely. Don't hesitate to do likewise.

Well, during the week plans were made, modified and cancelled. My fault in the end. I planned going over the MTB Friday arvo which was delayed by visitors. I noticed my rear brake pads were basically gone, so changed front and rear because the standard pads that came with my XT brakes are powerless and have not lasted at all. This is where the trouble started as I was in a hurry and was not holding the pistons back long enough for the fluid to recede fully and ended up lying to myself about the level of success I had achieved so I could have a shower and go to bed.

The next morning brought disapointment. As if it ever wasn't. I ended up going to Nerang again and as with last time I was there well out of peak hour and saw only one other rider. This time he was on his bike. I rode a few more fire trails this time and between this, meeting the other bloke and finding even more single trail than last time, the Nerang penny has all but dropped completely. I now pretty much understand it's layout perfectly.

The ride was 40km and this time the new trails I found were harder than the ones I rode last time and omitted this time, so I was fairly well done in the end. The temperature was noticeably higher and I wasn't surprised to find out later that it had reached 27 degrees and a humid 27 aswell.

No great news I guess, but another good time was had. I couldn't be bothered with the camera but took one up the fire trail and one of the single trail entry where I ate some bird seed and dried up stuff and chatted to the one other rider I saw all day.





Happy father's day to all fathers and have a good week.

[foo on patrol]

I should stop being a slack father and take my son out to some of these places, to ride our MTBs.

Good write up on this area Gower

Foo

[MountGower]

G'day Foo

When I was a kid, we had friends at Beechmere and I can remember there being a lot of forestry roads north and south of the Bribie Road. Probably not the best place to assert one's percieved rights as a cyclist, but depending on the level of motorised traffic, possibly a decent place to build some off road fitness for your son. If you're up to involving the car, there are plenty of options. Mtbdirt has a link on it's homepage called Trails Information that lists a couple of parks around Landsborough.

Yesterday I rode a few single trails at Gap Creek. I'm not as keen on Gap Creek as much as I was when it was in between banned for motor bikes and allowing MTBs. Those days were good at Gap Creek, as they were at Daisy Hill, but my main concern with Gap Creek is visibility. It is poor, or to be more exact, there is none. All, as usual though, was well and after popping out of the end of the Boscombe Rd single trail I began the familiar rise and rise of the South Boundary.

After half a vegemite snadwich and a quick chat with a bloke I hadn't seen for a while I came back down Augies and Creek Rd. This leaves a fair bit of the South Boudary descent to enjoy, which as usual, I enjoyed. Then it was back in to Gap Creek for some more single trails and bask home. This week was a bit sleep deprived, so I never even rode of from Bielby Rd until 6.30, which is super later for me, but it was a good and varied ride in the end, which totalled 55km.

One thing that was very noticeable yesterday was the sound of tyres going over the trail at s;ow speed whilst climbing. I really love the sound of horses walking along in movies which is probably enhanced electronically, but it's a sound that I love. You could hear a pin drop in the BFP yesterday and my tires going over the trail sounded very much the same. I know it sounds a bit strange but it added another thing to enjoy about the ride and my mind was really alert to it. I'll be listening for it in the future.

I can't say I was spent after it, but after not really feeling like a ride, it was very enjoyable. I truely love the BFP. Even a done it a billion times ride like the one I did yesterday is never boring.

Pics? I left the camera at home on purpose. I really needed a sleep in yesterday, but knew it was a bad idea. I also knew I couldn'tbe bothered stopping, getting the camera out, etc. Think gum trees. Think great views. Think great views partly obscured by gum trees. Thrown in several Ks of twisty single trail................

.....................and have a good week.

[plasmapuff]

Spring is here now = More roadie time?

You still only do Saturday's right?

Hope to meet up with you again soon. Its been waaaay too long

Thanks for all the inspirational photos and posts by the way.

[MountGower]

No worries, Julien. Get in touch when you're ready. Unless I'm feeling particularly like being burned to a cinder, we might make it a flat ride this time, though.

Maybe a mountain bike might be on your shopping list?

[MountGower]

G'day

Well, not long home and straight in to it this week. I did a familiar MTB loop today at Daisy Hill. Probably the closest trails to me. This is a pretty long ride because it ventures to other near by parks and comes in at almost 70km and is pretty hard going in the end. The good thing is that the only bitumen is riding across West Mt Cotton Rd twice and that's it.

The ride starts at the top car park at Daisy Hill and ventures, in a round a bout way to the fiveways, down Possum Box, the Choc Buddha, Second Cummin' loop, back to the fiveways and down Tunnel of Love and Koala. Then it's over to Ripley's and Gillian's for an out and back and then a loop of the Black Boy trail and Stonehenge. Through the bush to the Eastern Escarpment and a lap around Karingal scout camp.

From there it's back over the escarpment (murder), back through the bush for a ride around the Cornubia Escarpment and back through the bush again to Daisy Hill. Down the fire trails to Nirvana, Turning Japanese and the ride back to the car park. It's great to have a ride like this so close to home and is no boring day out by any means as long as you don't do it to death.

I had an unfortunate experience today aswell. Riding towards the stepover in to Karingal, I had my first puncture in the Exiwolfs. It was a harpooning to be honest I clearly heard and felt it go in and out. The woosh of air I expected, but I didn't expect it to stop immediately, as it did. Punctures just aren't common enough here to run active sealant, so I put very little in there. Just enough, I thought, to seal the bead. That was at about 5 months ago, so I was amazed that it sealed like that.

As I say, it was a harpooning and when I stopped I could see how big it was. As I rode through Karingal I could hear it bursting and resealing, so I stopped at the scout buildings and decided to deflate, top up the sealant and reinflate. I had no choice really and it went smoothly and much less fuss than a tube change. The problem is that the harpoon hole was causing me grief still, so when I got back to the top of the escarpment (double murder) I pumped it back up and rolled the damage down whilst I had some bird seed and dried up stuff and a drink. I never heard from it again.

In the plans I'd made for this unwanted BS, step 1 was to drop a bit of super glue in the hole. This was made ussuming dried up sealant and a deflated tyre, so wasn't really a possibility today. I was luck really. This hole was about as big as it could have been without requiring wheel and tyre removal. I'm still in a better position to resolve issues and get on wih the ride than I ever was running tubes, so I am as happy as I could be after having my perfect, unmarked tyres harpooned by what I suspect was one of those little pointy branches that adorne the bigger little branches that are on the ground everywhere you ride here.

You could add a massive amount of time taking pics on a ride like today. I have a slightly random selection, focussing on the Eastern Escarpment for reasons I don't know for sure. Perhaps blowing a valve and having to stop in order to preserve life is a more opportune time to take pics than blasting through single trail with a grin from ear to ear. I still managed to remember the singles for you too.

Next time I do this ride, I'll remember to take some different ones.

Here is a couple from the Black Boy trail and the Stonehenge trail head, which is usually like riding through a canyon. Someone has obviously kicked them over, but do not fear. Rebuilding has begun.







This is part the way up the Eastern Escarpment, looking down, but you can't see the bottom. It's over the far ledge and down again from there. The next is looking to the left at the property beside the climb.





A bit further up and looking at the old shed.



From the shed looking towards town and all in between. Incase you can't see it, I've got a close up.





Looking up at the next section of the climb from the shed.



There's another bit after that too, but I was too busy to take photos. Here is one from the top. A bad day for photos here. We have had very few typical winter days here in the last two winters. Nice warm mornings when it's cloudy, but pretty dodgy pics, unfortunately.



I'll try and find a better one from up there and post it. I know I have them.

I'm also free Monday for a ride. Let me know if you want to go somewhere. It may be quite wet, so the OnOne may get a run up the bike paths to turn the legs over. Any ideas? I'm happy to hear them.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a good week.

[Comedian]

Hey this thread delivers MG. There is some great stuff in here

[MountGower]

Thanks Comedian. Unfortunately, due to rain the last two Saturdays have been rather boring. All I can report is some shortish bike path rides.

Hopefully my riding and this thread can resume some kind of read worthiness soon. The weather forecast is bad though, so I am readying myself to do a wheel swap from the Big Mama to the Inbred and just ride what ever fire trails I feel will be the driest next week. Obviously single trails will be too wet and I'm not a great fan of wet roads either. Failing a rather wet fire trail ride, I may bite the bullet and do the full 160km on the bike path. I've done it a few times this year and am sick of it, but a full pictorial account may interest someone, if not me.

Here's hoping for next Saturday. In the mean time, here are a few pictures from the Bulimba Creek path at Eight Mile Plains.

There are quite a few of these exercise machines along the path at this point, with all different exercises. Not a bad idea if you live within jogging or even riding distance.

















Sorry to bore you all after a reasonable start. The idea that there's always next week is not something I'd like to apply to too much of my life, so here's hoping next week is fine or that I can employ some depaerate measures to overcome these desperate times.

Have a good week and stay dry - if you can.

[Chris L]

Is anyone else allowed to post in the photo thread? I might have some fresh material in the next few days.

[MountGower]

Chris

This is not my blog, so I can not dictate what is posted here or who posts it. As for your "photo thread" , I'd have thought someone motivated enough to load pictures in to a hosting site might have the strength to start their own thread. I started this thread to give an account of my middle distance rides. How that fits in to your visions of a "photo thread" I can't see at this point, but I can not stop it from happening.

I guess I could have just gone and posted this stuff in Tour de Mike, but I didn't. Hopefully the reasoning behind that doesn't require an explanation.

[MountGower]

As for this thread as an ongoing project, I'm afraid the rain has put it on hold. Perhaps this weekend will see it back on track.

Cheers.

[MountGower]

G'day

To put an end to this craziness, that is, to put an end to riding my commuter on wet bike paths, I pulled the commute tyres off the OnOne and wacked a pair of Exiwolfs on it. The idea being to avoid being scared off the trails through fear of rear suspension devastation. The only problem with a theory like that is that whilst you are saving your pride and joy from major servicing, you are not saving the trails. Quite the opposite.

So I got a tip that Karawatha holds up well after rain and decided that my Inbred and I would be there with bells on for some exploration of what is a pretty small park compared to most. I knew we were in for rain last night, but when I got to Illaweena Rd I was confronted with a flood and have since learnt that they had 30mm of rain over night. Coorparoo had 25mm.

Fortunately Karawatha lived up to its reputation and whilst it was extremely wet, it was also very firm and the bike stayed fairly clean considering how wet things were. There was only one spot where there was a danger of clay mud caking. From the top of the lookout where I took the pics of the mountains to the south, you can ride the stone ridge along and decent over some light coloured gravel water bars and then go down a trail for a while. At the bottom I could see the clay waiting and managed to avoid the inevitable dramas from unfolding. So I was amazed by the firmness of the place considering it was completely awash.

There was a fair bit of single trail in there. Typical of a lot of unofficial trails, they were, in some cases, in dire need of attention, while others were fine. One was like riding that trail over in Bayview that was overgrown with saplings. You are hunched over and trying to avoid hooking your bars the whole way. Only today you can add almost a foot of water.
I managed to clock up 43km in there, which may surprise some people, but with all the doubling back etc that comes with piecing together the layout of an unfamiliar park, it wasn’t that hard. Riding rigid was not so bad and I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the OnOne today. No doubt there were a few times where I really missed the dual suspension, but that's just how it is. You can’t go from one to the other without noticing and I was really pleased with the handling of the Inbred. There was a part there where I was flying along a twisty trail over near Compton Rd and had to acknowledge just what a great steering bike it is.

Here are some pics.





























Hopefully something interesting will happen on my day off on Monday.

If not, have a great week.

[MountGower]

Another 40km ride today. This time in Daisy Hill. I was feeling the effects of the rigid bike after a second dose today. This time pretty much all single trails. I have to acknowledge that whilst the absence of suspension was a little more obvious today, so was the way this bike corners. The Big Mama is a fantastic cornerer, but I have to say that so is the OnOne Inbred. I was really proud of the way it handled trails that are much better suited to suspension.

I was looking forward to taking some pictures of the old quarry / lake at Dasiy Hill today to compare with the ones of Karawatha I took Saturday. I got another one of those "Insert new battery pack" messages again. I must have done my old trick of unplugging but not switching off after an upload.

Oh well, four days of work and back in to it.

While I'm here - I bought my first GPS today. A Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. Haggling over some topo Australia V3 maps now. Then you'll get some decent piccies.

[dclnmurray]

G'day








Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a good week.

Hiya

Great writeups and i found them interesting with my son as we live at Kuraby so know the area fairly well. if you don't mind me asking and what i don't know is with the two photos above, where are these actually located. They look super places to get to.
My son and I tend to do road cycling but if we can find these we are happy to pull out the MTB, dust them off and go for what looks to be an enjoyable ride.
Also Not sure how I would get from Daisy Hill over to West Mt Cotton Road as we have tried and Venman national park they don't allow bikes in there.

cheers

Dave

[MountGower]

Dave

Got your PM and replied there.

Dean

[MountGower]

G'day

I had an email from Ben early in the week and promptly set about making a fool of myself, plotting a ridiculously optomistic adventure of a lifetime. Fortunately Ben has had two weeks off after some hard racing, so I was spared the indignity of looking like a total goose when I fell apart at the 55km mark. Actually I fell apart before then, but a vegemite sandwich got me home.

We rode all of Daisy Hill, took my secret tunnel to Cornubia, discovering that being in a secret tunnel doesn't immunise you against wrong turns and then rode a few of Daisy's trails again.

Here are a couple of photos for you to compare the old quarries in Karawatha (previous post) and Daisy Hill. Also, for all you lovers of old cars, there is one from Cornubia.

[MountGower]

G'day

As I've been saying recently, I am a little bored with my usual rides. I am also not sure I am fit enough to justify driving a long way to places if i'm not up to riding a long way. Last weeks ride proved that I'm not on top of things as much as I'd like to be. Todays ride was completely the opposite. It was reasonably long and hard and I felt great after it to boot. A great turn around I really plan on building on and launching from in future weeks.

Last week, you may recall, Ben and I cancelled plans to go off in search of a way off getting from Daisy hiil to Mt Petrie. Riding with Grandmaster A, as he shall be refered to from now on, we left nothing to chance and headed straigh for our goal. In fact we found a way with very little road all the way to the intersection of Scrub Rd and Old Cleveland Rd, Belmont. Then it was off to the familliar grounds of Daisy Hiil for a blast around the single trails.

I was amazed at how much energy I had at the end of the ride. Such a fast turn around after those rainy weeks. The ride all up was a decent 77km of hard yakka and getting towards where I want to be again quickly. With Monday off work, it could be a chance to capitalise on the situation with a quick trip up to Mt Nebo and back before facing some responsibilities.

Here are some photos

Looking at a few places from Mt Petrie.

Town:







Mt Gravatt:





Old Balmoral Power Station and Port area:



Wynnum - Manly ??, Bay, Islands:



Leslie Harrison Dam and Bay:



Here's a dam behind Mt Petrie and a couple of The Leslie Harrison at Priest Gully:







A fire trail leading up to the 5 ways and a shot near the top of Stonehenge at Daisy Hill:





See you all soon. In the mean time, ride hard and stay safe - in that order.

Cheers.