Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

morini
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:53 pm

Sounds brave. Are you sorted to return to Warwick and how do we find you if your getting a thrashing from the train on the way up? I'll PM you my details just in case you get stranded.

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:41 pm

Hasn't been locked in yet but i'd say my wife and aunty will just meet me up at Stanthorpe to head back down to Warwick afterwards.

Got your PM in any case if I need it. As for
morini wrote: getting a thrashing from the train
no way! Bring it on! :D
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morini
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:20 pm

That's the spirit. I'm still laughing as I write this. Can't wait.

As an after thought. I reckon you've got to do 60kms in, at best, 90 minutes = 40 km/hr. I'll wait for you at Dalveen so at least you've got someone to tow for a bit of the journey. You're a farken hard man.

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:15 pm

90 minutes? The website reckons the train's schedule is for 2hrs 15 :? . Either way, i'm keen, that thing weighs 83 tonnes, it hasn't got a hope :) .

The Noosa Century is less than a fortnight away, so by May 26th I should be in reasonable shape. The bike should be in good health too, she's getting a full strip down in the next few weeks to make sure she's ready for the Noosa Strada Bianche in August.
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morini
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:24 am

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking something doesn't make sense. Then it on dawned on me - Warwick to Dalveen is only about 30 clicks. Warwick to Stanthorpe is the 60 clicker. You should do that easily in an hour and a half. Do you want me to bolt down on Saturday night and oil up the tracks, just in case. :lol:

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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:25 pm

The train was beaten this morning, just.
Not by me and not by Koen on the tandem. First his spare kit bounced off the bike over a grid then two kilometers later the poor bugger suffered two punctures in as many minutes. They still limped home in good spirits.
Great fun, about 20 riders turned up but only 3 managed to beat the train.

Next train is on May 26 followed by June 22.

More photos to come.


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Last edited by morini on Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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foo on patrol
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:41 pm

Would have been a crisp morning up there to, I should imagine. :lol:

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coyote
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby coyote » Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:26 pm

Well done everybody, sounds like one and all had fun. 8)

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Pax
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby Pax » Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:57 pm

Fantastic, and great pics, thanks for sharing. Hope to join you for a future one of these.

Well done to all.

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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby munga » Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:08 pm

any idea what the trains time was?

morini
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:30 pm

No idea. I'll try to find out.

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koen
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby koen » Sun Apr 21, 2013 5:27 pm

A beautiful day..sun was warm and perfect temp for riding. All went well on the tandem until the rabbit fence grid stole our spare and then just catching the train towards Cottonvale when we hit some coarse metal on a road repair and flatted. Our spare was returned but was perished and leaked so we used both tubes and rode on well after everyone else was gone for the last 15ks or so on rough bitumen. My sister was not too pleased especially when we went over 30. It was rough on the back end! All consoled though wth pies at Zest Bakery...mmmm.pies!
Photo beloe of Terry waiting at Dalveen as train approacheth..then much huffn and puffn and chuff chuffn
I wasn't annoyed today until this forum logged me out automatically 3 times. Someone please lengthen that time a little.
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Terry and train

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koen
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby koen » Sun Apr 21, 2013 5:33 pm

Just a note...its pretty flat and some gentle ups and downs but Terry said later..."that was actually quite a hard ride"
The bitumen probably robs about 2-3kph if you are used to hotmix.
And I have found before that riding carefully on flat tyres does not damage anything. We rode the same tyre back from Stanthorpe with a new good tube though tyre had a hammering and needs replacing. Probably would still be okay except for the coarse metal of the roads there.

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:01 am

koen wrote: I wasn't annoyed today until this forum logged me out automatically 3 times. Someone please lengthen that time a little.
I always have at least one other tab open so if i'm writing a long post I can click about in the other tab to keep logged in. And if it's taken a while to write, CTRL + C just to be sure.
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brett.hooker
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby brett.hooker » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:03 am

That is soooo cool !!!
What a great experience...
Will have to line up one of these myself...
Loving my Merida's and working towards adding a Pinarello to the stable... Go go go...

morini
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:42 pm

Added a couple more photos.

The guys that beat the train from Data#3 did it in 35 minutes, with a wait of two minutes at the Summit rail crossing to let the train catch up. Race distance was 22 kms at an average of 36 kph.

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elantra
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby elantra » Mon Apr 22, 2013 4:27 pm

morini wrote:The train was beaten this morning, just.
Not by me and not by Koen on the tandem............
Well, that may be true that only 3 of 20 beat the train.... BUT

By the time the train had actually stopped and the passengers started to disembark half the cyclists were already there(huffing and puffing) on the platform.

What a splendid day it was.
The approach to Stanthorpe is significantly downhill and a bunch of 5 of us were really closing the gap on the train coming into town.
the last few km were 50+ km/hr.
Sorry that Koen had some grief on the cattle grid and subsequent punctures.
At the early stage i thought i would try to stay on his wheel but they were moving too fast - for a while at least.

Special thanks to Morini for posting this great event on the forum, thanks mate.

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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby morini » Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:34 pm

Glad you enjoyed it Steve and that's your group of 5 in the last photo. Hope you enjoyed the post winery tour ride home.

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:38 am

So long as the train looks like this..





And not like this...






I'll be laughing! :D
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elantra
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby elantra » Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:26 am

Actually it looks like this...

Image

This challenge would also be suitable for Singlespeed or Fixed gear bikes.

The gradient from Dalveen to Stanthorpe is very moderate, slightly uphill for several km to "the Summit" and then slightly downhill to Stanthorpe.

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Wed May 15, 2013 7:10 pm

Only 10 days to go now!

I'm all set to go, gave the Mercier a good going over and popped on new shifters and rear derailleur. Fingers crossed she keeps up her end of the bargain :) .


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RonK
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby RonK » Wed May 15, 2013 7:24 pm

Does anyone have a map of the full cycle route from Stanthorpe to Warwick? I'd be interested to plot the profile.
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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Wed May 15, 2013 7:41 pm

Unless there's a change of plans, i'll be riding along Old Stanthorpe Rd to Dalveen, and then I think it would just be onto the New England Highway to Stanthorpe. I would post a screenshot from Google Maps but I can't work out how to do that (new computer has the new Windows :evil: ).

I'm very keen to know what the profile is, just haven't got a computer set up with Google Earth at the moment.

EDIT: ok got google earth underway, but atm I can't get it to show Warwick to Stanthorpe on the old road, only the main highway. On that at least, the first 7k are rolling, then a fair size hill peaking at 11k, before a big climb from 16 through to 28k. A little downhill, then a more gradual climb to the max altitude of 933m (from 455m in Warwick) at 44k, flat ish to 52k then rolling downhill to Stanthorpe at the 60k mark.

I'll keep trying to get it to display the route I want, and then get a photo up. Certainly looks like it will be a good workout :) .
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RonK
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby RonK » Wed May 15, 2013 8:55 pm

ldrcycles wrote:I'll keep trying to get it to display the route I want, and then get a photo up. Certainly looks like it will be a good workout :) .
Lachie the forum has tags to display a Google map.
Cycle touring blog and tour journals: whispering wheels...

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ldrcycles
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Re: Race the Darling Downs Dasher steam train

Postby ldrcycles » Wed May 15, 2013 10:41 pm




Like that?

EDIT: try again.

EDIT: nope, I can't get it to show the right route :evil: .

Well I can't get either google maps or google earth to show the Old Stanthorpe Rd route, but with a bit of mucking about I was able to come up with a figure of 58.9k and 905m of climbing :D .
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