10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

MTBRuss
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10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Fri May 01, 2009 11:58 am

Hi Guys and Girls,

I thought I'd share my latets adventure: http://www.10deserts.com

It's an original adventure. I'm utilising the little known (in Australia) 4" Fatback from Alaska, plus Extra wheel trailer fork, and home made trailer.

The ride includes some tough terrain. Please follow my progress, and if you enjoy following, please make a donation for the RFDS. I depart from "The Alice" tomorrow.

Thanks for any support. Cheers, Russ.

MountGower

Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MountGower » Fri May 01, 2009 5:30 pm

Fantastic Russ. I'll follow it for sure. All the best.

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Earthy Ochre Man
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby Earthy Ochre Man » Tue May 05, 2009 9:15 am

Wow! What a crazy bike!

I am really impressed with the SPOT tracker also.

Good luck with the trip.

Matt D.

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Kalgrm
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby Kalgrm » Tue May 05, 2009 8:59 pm

I want one of those bikes!

Good luck Russ.

Cheers,
Graeme
Think outside the double triangle.
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Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it ....

MTBRuss
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Sat May 09, 2009 10:57 am

Tandem wrote:Hi Russ

Nice to see you back here again. What an adventure you got ahead of you.

We arrived here in Cairns a few days back and should passed the halfway mark on our tour around Aussie.

Myself and Jenny wish you all the best for your trip

Cheers Werner & Jenny
Best luck also for your travels Werner. How far have you travelled now? All on the tandem??? I'm done on the Tanami now. What beautiful country, even if a little corrugated. Some friends of mine can hopefully help out with posting photos whilst I'm out on the CSR, commencing tomorrow.

Always look on the bright side of life - hehe:)

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hartleymartin
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby hartleymartin » Fri May 15, 2009 7:34 pm

With the various pointy things there would it be worth getting tyres that are belted with kevlar, those thicker rubber "thorn resistant" tubes and even then getting some sort of tyre liner? Heck, if I am expecting punctures, I'll give them something to get stuck into before they go flat!
Martin Christopher Hartley

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John Lewis
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby John Lewis » Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:14 pm

Looks like Russell did a lot of km today. T I think he'll probably easily make Wiluna tomorrow to complete the Canning Stock Route. Great effort. I've been plotting his progress from Spot onto 1:250000 chart.

John Lewis

Edit: Latest position at 7.36 pm WAST is about 15km north of Wiluna so perhaps he'll keep going and make it tonight.

MTBRuss
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:34 am

John Lewis wrote:Looks like Russell did a lot of km today. T I think he'll probably easily make Wiluna tomorrow to complete the Canning Stock Route. Great effort. I've been plotting his progress from Spot onto 1:250000 chart.

John Lewis

Edit: Latest position at 7.36 pm WAST is about 15km north of Wiluna so perhaps he'll keep going and make it tonight.
Hey John, thanks for taking the interest to follow. Yeah, it was a great race for me to get to Wiluna quickly as I was about to run out of food. I could have eaten the eyes the arse-end out of a dead camel. Unfortunately all my SMS updates were not getting through at the time to relay my race against the clock (stomach), but anyways, got there safely, and better still, to a nice warm dinner and rum and coke late that same evening.

I underestimated physical exertion on that route. I estimate I lost about 3kg. I've just completed the Anne Beadell now too, and my food estimate went much better, even allowing for me to comensate for being so hungry after CSR. I'm heading off on leg 5 as soon as the weather permits.

Please everyone, keep donations rolling in for the RFDS. Consider it a karma thing in case you're even out here yourself. Last update is we've raised just over $3000, and hopefully will get some more exposure as I head off into the Simpson. My route there will be nothing short of tortuous for bike and self. All your support helps my motivation. Cheers, Russ.

John Lewis
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby John Lewis » Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:45 pm

Hi Russ,
Must have missed this post.
Yes I've continued to mark your progress across the Anne Beadells and up to Birdsville.
You will have some great memories. I've been telling everyone I know and asking them to contribute. The RFDS is a worthy cause. They are important to us here even though we are only about 400km from the city. They are our emergency transfer lifeline.

All the best on the Simpson. The tracker shows when you are doing it tough as the markers get closer together.

John Lewis

MTBRuss
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:59 am

Woohoo, all finished! Nine months in the planning, and three months for execution; 7500km (over 90% off-road), 2000 sand dunes (not that I was counting), some amazing memories, some hard times and funny meetings with 4WD passers-by. I have to confess I was a little teary at a couple of points on my final leg after dedicating so much time and effort to this expedition in the past year. I'm richer for the experience, and ever so grateful of the amazing support from the mountain bike community for both my efforts and in the form of donations to the RFDS. I received a call from the marketing manager from RFDS yesterday as thanks for my efforts. RFDS is well exposed in central Australia, but the organisation really appreciates any expsure to the eastern sea-board.

Although we've not yet raised our target donation amount, we're well on the way and have several more radio and one TV interview scheduled. Through chance meetings out in the desert too, I've also been invited to do a presentation at some rotary and seniors' groups, and also a couple of schools; all with the prospect of raising some more funds.

Here are a few teaser photos from legs 7, 8 and 9. I'll get lots more on the 10deserts website as soon as I can.

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MTBRuss
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:53 am
Location: Brisbane

Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:27 pm

Finally I've caught up on things back home and gotten around to posting some more photos: http://adventuruss.com/blog1.php/2009/0 ... tos-photos. This is one of my favourites, a glorious golden sunset along the Anne Beadell :

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Hope you enjoy viewing as much as I enjoyed capturing :wink:

MTBRuss
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:26 pm

I recently put together a short photo tour of my 10 deserts bike tour. Here tis!:

http://russellworthington.blogspot.com/ ... -tour.html

redned
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby redned » Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:01 pm

Russ,

I am interested in the balance of your gear. Even though you have the single-wheel trailer, you still seemed to have most of your gear in large panniers front and rear. Most trailer users appear to take pannier weight off the rear wheel and load the trailer.

Great trip and terrific photos. Extremely envious!

cheers

MTBRuss
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Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:53 am
Location: Brisbane

Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby MTBRuss » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:56 pm

Hi Redned,

I designed the trailer specific for water carrying, so it could be as basic as possible. Given I had one stretch of 645km on the Anne Beadell without water en-route, the trailer was designed to carry 40lt water. For that stretch, I also had to place 10lt on my rear pannier. A 45kg trailer is already more than what the extrawheel trailer fork is designed for, but it still served well. The photo above in the Birdsville pub shows how it looked fully loaded. I believe many of my other photos are taken when this load is somewhat reduced. On several stretches between bores on the CSR, I could get by from bore to bore with between 20-30lt. On the easy stretches around lake eyre I always had <20lt, but also had less weight in the panniers at the same time.

You are right it is nice to distribute the load, but at least on this trailer, 45kg is it's upper limit. Beyond this, the load had to go on the bike.

Hope that makes sense. Cheers, Russ.

redned
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Re: 10 Desert Solo Cycle Epic

Postby redned » Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:43 pm

thanks Russ,

clear as an Anne Beadell sunset!

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