Audax 300km - Downs and back

I've always liked long distance, solo rides. We moved out to a rural area when I was growing up, when we lived in town I had a bmx as most kids did, but when we moved to the country the wheel size increased to match the wide open spaces and distances we had to cover. I had this old 3 speed 28" mens racer, that thing could bomb the gravel roads and eat up the road on our adventures to the weir for fishing and swimming, the bomb shelter for Rambo missions or to Bichels watermelon farm for, well, watermelon.

Times change, now I get to bomb on my Cervelo S2, and strangely enough, on some of the old country roads that I grew up riding.  The route for the 300 Downs and Back has some family heritage significance for me, so along with 8 or so other randonneurs, we headed out from Westlake at 7:00am. Only 2 of us doing the 300, with 6 doing the 600.

Out through the western suburbs, east Ipswich and beyond, the smooth blacktop to Laidley (via Walloon, Grandchester and the first burg - Laidley Gap) and first checkpoint at the bakery in town. Brevet card signed, grabbed a hedgehog slice to eat on the bike.

The fastest part of the road is either in the wheel ruts or on the white line... crisp clear day!

This house has an interesting story from back in the day...

The owners had a nephew that attended the local Ag college, he had one of the then latest road bikes, equipped with 12 gears (hey, this was the early eighties). I had a quick ride and was hooked, amazed at the range of ratios - going back to ride my old 3spd just didn't feel the same...

Stopped in Gatton to pay respects at the cemetary, then settled into a nice rhythm all the way to the 2nd checkpoint at MaMa Creek. The bunch must have overtaken me during my stop in Gatton, as they were sheltering next to the shop at the checkpoint. I had planned short breaks, so card signed, an iceblock and a small chocolate milk kept me happy and first to leave CP2, headed for CP3 at the top of the Dividing Range climb. Cruising up through the valley:

Knowing there was water at the top of the climb CP3, I cameled my water and settled into a rhythm, arrived just as they were setting up. Here was where I made my first food mistake, I had my nutrition and hydration plan going well, but then Sandy brought out the delicious banana and date cake. Just one slice couldn't hurt, so downed that while topping off bidons and idle chatter as the other riders rolled in. All good, but then I grabbed another piece to eat while rolling off and I think that filled whatever small space was in reserve for deep breathing, so felt a bit bloated after that.

Moving into the hotter part of the day and not a lot of shade to be found, the pinch of a cramp in the quads appeared and it was time for a short nap under whatever tree I could find. Nap done, then onto the short pinch climbs to Toowoomba itself.

CP4 was at a servo at the top of the range, for some strange reason my sun-addled brain told me to buy more solid food - a potato scallop, mystery meat patty and chocolate milk. Ugh, really didn't need more solids. Bombed down the range, but then felt like I was dragging a truck tyre behind with that food in the belly. Super clear day, After the range the gradient is constant downhill, so averaged 40km/hr+ all the way to Helidon.

Rode through Grantham, still a lot of flood devastation and restoration work going on, despite more than 12 months since the event. CP5 in Gatton and just a powerade and mars bar. The effects of not sticking with my food plan was in full swing, felt like a constant stitch and unable to deep breathe without discomfort. My food plan was simple - a gel each 100, energy bar each alternating 100,  with a single date and drink each 5 or so. Snack on muesli bars or honey shotz  as needed. My brain thought I needed that extra bought food at checkpoints to remain comfortable, but really my calorie needs were met by what I was carrying. Stupid brain.

Fantastic sunset ride on the backroads near the Gatton Ag college.

To be followed by a brilliant moonrise along the flats near Walloon. Very few cars, great temps, good road and just the hum of the Zipps for company. Great day on the bike.

Flinders Peak, Ipswich-Boonah trail part I

For a very long time I've wanted to get out to Flinders Peak. From afar, I would see it each day when riding to work. Local area maps revealed very little about the area, the trails within or the history...until recently. Ipswich and Boonah Shire councils have worked together open up and promote the are and its trails - most importantly the Ipswich-Boonah Trail.

I had an Audax offroad night ride at Peaks Crossing, so this was the perfect timing I needed to stage a bikepacking overnighter in the area. Seeing as I was supposed to be in NZ for the Kiwi Brevet and had a bit of form to spare, it was only fitting that I make it a door to door micro-adventure. So, loaded up the Fargo, set course and got truckin'!

From Daisy Hill, headed out via Greenbank, Springfield, then to Yamanto via the Centenary hway. Dropped into the Maccas drivethrough for some dinner. The Centenary hway stretch was bliss - smooth hotmix, wide shoulder and gentle rollers.

Afternoon view of the peaks in the distance from the Centenary hwy.

Dinner en route - chicken wrap and choc thickshake

The audax night ride was 35k (mostly) offroad loop, under a full moon. A variety of bikes, from my ti Fargo, to hybrids, mtbs and even a few road bikes with 23s on. With paperwork and a quick briefing done, it was off into the night. We went along one trail that was bottomless blacksoil goop, sodden from the previous weeks rain, I found a C line through the grass beside the trail - story goes the road bikes didn't fare so well, one rider was running Speedplays and lost a LOT of time digging mud out of his cleats...

After the ride we shared stories and chatted about each others bikes. One rider was a recent  (and many time rider) of PBP, he had some interesting stories about the bikes and riders of this years PBP.  I headed off to make camp, somewhere around midnight I crawled into the Contrail. The mozzies were horrendous, big greys, every 10 seconds or so during setup I'd go off on a Peter Garret dance to shake them off - glad I decided on a screened tarp instead of the bivvy.

A quick brekky and onto the trail - a lot of vertical and a bit of walking. Be interesting to see what the trail is like with fresh legs, I need to rethink my shoes with hike-a-bike sections in mind, feet got cut up a bit with the walking and pushing up the steeper 30%+ sections, some reminded me of Filbert, Lombard and Divisadero streets in San Francisco.

To add to the terrain, you constantly need to scan the trail ahead for these guys - Golden Orb spider. They spin a thick, super sticky yellow web with a Kevlar-like silk, can grow with a leg span as big as your hand and cause a pucker moment when you hit the web on a descent. You do the Garret dance as you strip off helmet, pack etc and wonder where the spider is...

I remember years ago when the Chuck Norris quotes were popular, I recall one quote as going "Chuck Norris has no chin, underneath his beard is another fist". The terrain was a bit like that on this trail, you'd ascend a bit then turn a corner, and find another climb and another climb after that - just like that fist. There'd be a short steep descent into a ravine, then you walk out of it to another climb.

Pretty soon I came to the saddle of Mt Blaine, with views directly out to Flinders Peak and beyond. The descent to Flinders plum was 35%+, rocky but in good condition.

Down near Sandy creek the trail disappeared into the long grass, was really glad for the gaiters and sock protectors from Moxie Gear. They have a 5mm closed cell shin guard around the front of the gaiter, with just lycra on the back panels. Great for trail brush, but not confident with them for reptile protection...

Reached Flinders Plum, to find the trail had been temporarily closed . I was planning to navigate past the base of Flinders Peak, then exit to the south east and return via Undullah, Jimboomba and Logan Village, but this track closure forced me to return on the same road route via Springfield and Greenbank. Ah well, next time a bit furthur.

What's in the workstand today? Tank Hoops...

Client needed to replace his worn Ambrosio rims, too many Italy and France trips!

Built these up with some CXP33s, DT 240 hubs and black DT champions. Good for another 15 years.

What's in the workstand today? Italian pride Wilier...

Rebuild for a client, from a Carrera Erakle, to a Wilier Cento.Very nice build.

What caught our eye in the workshop was the completely integrated BB for Campagnolo, so no need for screw in cups, Ultratorque cranks slipped right in.

This build was full 11spd Super Record Ti, Ambrosio wheels, 3T bars and stem.

What's in the workshop today? White speed...

Yep, another day in the office, building awesome bikes. I love my job.

Stock standard 2012 P3, Ultegra.

Client is racing on the weekend.



What's in the workshop today? Cervelo S5

I've had quite a few of these in the stand since the TDF release, mighty Thor spent a bit of time in yellow on the VWD model.

This client is trading up from his bulletproof soloist, his planned build is Dura Ace, 3T kit and some Reynolds 65mm Strike carbon clinchers. Nice.

Time to get immunised - it's a Tandemic!

More history, turning back the crinkly pages of time, this story emerges from mid 2009. Enjoy.


Yep, we've got one here". That was the reply down the phone. Many shops didn't have them, or had some totally unsuitable model for our purposes. You see, our bike room is full of some great bikes built for a specific purpose, however we had a growing need for an addition to the fleet, something that would extend our boundaries even further. We needed something to carry the pet monkey. We needed something to carry a heap of gear with ease. We needed something with more than one seat. We needed a Tandem When researching Tandems on the net, some interesting stuff came up. It turns out that way back in history there was a race of people called the tandemites, they apparently bred camels with two humps so two people could ride them at the same time. These people resided in a land called Tandemia. Now, apparently the Dutch expolorer Abel Tasman (who discovered Tasmania) was a distant descendant of the tandemians, hence when he found Tasmania he named the island in the native tongue 'Van Diemens Land' but also has the latin root of 'van dem' which means to go forth in two and do something constructive with your time. I guess when they wrote the latin language they left it pretty open to individual interpretation, Jean Claude should have taken note of this . We now know this island by the name of Tasmania, with some more googling I found this loose Latin translation of 'tas' meaning two, and 'mania', meaning heads. There is the connection - 2 heads on the one bike. Now if there's one thing we can all agree on, Tasmania is a great place to ride a tandem, you'll always remember it as the place for two heads. Just a basic interpretation, well according to the internet anyways... Back to the bike. Being our first tandem we weren't going to be very fussy with options, nor did we have a huge budget to blow, so a basic entry level unit would do us. A north side store had one on the floor and they were open on Sunday - 'lets go have a look' - which wifey knows is code for 'lets go buy it'. It was an Apollo Tandem Elite, with quite a few features that I liked. The fork and rear triangle will accommodate a 700c wheel with a large tyre, so I could run a second set of road wheels for daytrips, and will easily fit a 2.5 fatty for any offroad work. Cable discs give the wheel size flexibility, yet a rotor upsize is on the cards. At 18kg before any mods, it is about the same weight as my AC trailbike, and about a third of the weight of the Baby AC Speaking of the pet monkey, a critical issue was basically where to put her when we go out as a family, but more on that later...

Simple, durable 8spd drivetrain, with the incredible stopping power of 6" rotors. No, really, apply the brakes and it's incredible that you stop.

Wifey reckons the shed is getting pretty full of bikes, 'Yeah, bit of a tandemic, don't you think?' was my reply. She rolled her eyes and left me to ponder on the next planned mod. Now, where'd I leave that Topeak catalogue...

Got a few challenges already, the BOB skewer doesn't like the rear rack so there will be some custom manufacturing going on there, the OEM seats are far from comfy (no surprise there), front pannier rack is yet to be decided upon and the pet monkey needs something to rest her head on.Rode the beast into the city the other day with the girls, had a couple chase us down for a km or so along the riverside, they are planning a trip in Singapore next year and had all sorts of questions."AW - you gotta get one mate, they are great fun, although riding any form of singletrack would be a challenge for many reasons - poor turning circle, strange COG, poor rampover and lack of suspension", I'm glad we have two nimble bikes for this purpose. Ha, loaded it up with the half wheeler and the whole shebang is as long as the Mav. I'm curious to see how it would handle with the halfwheeler, and the BOB attached to the halfwheeler. Self powered B-double...


So, what has 2 wheels and three seats - from my other builds you may have already guessed - tandem with a Weerider attached. As the Pet Monkey still has a bit of time in the weerider until she is ready to go onto a half-wheeler for extended rides, she remains my little travelling buddy, my snack feeder, flower gatherer and general curious monkey. Like the other builds, this new weerider was a cinch to fit (don't worry folks, the Baby AC and its weerider are still in service) and even more comfy to tour with after a custom mod from my workshop, but more on that later.

As I have mentioned, the 6" brakes were inadequate for our purposes - loaded touring with the BOB - so an upgrade was a necessity. The first stage is a rotor upsize, an 8" for the front but could only fit a 7" rotor on the rear due to clearance issues with the stays. The Tektro cable brakes will remain until another upgrade to Saints later on.

I've got the Topeak pannier rack mounted, I can use it with either the DX Trunkbag with flip out panniers, or with my larger Axiom pannier bags as this model rack has the hook bar for panniers.

Only one issue, this model rack allows clearance for disc brakes, unfortunately the bulky extension block prevents the BOB fork mounting on the skewer. I've got some manufacturing to do...

With a few more items from the Topeak and BBB catalogues the bike is almost complete - BBB ergo grips, Topeak Turbo Morph floor pump with guage, Topeak seat pack, Topeak bottle cages, handlebar bag and Tribag.

We've done a few shakedown runs now, one thing that did need attention was the gearing - factory standard granny was 28-32. With 3 on board, loaded panniers and a trailer it felt like we needed a bit more bottom end. It was off with the 28 and on with a 22, man it looks small. Also rebuilt the cassette to include a 34 sprocket - old SRAM cassettes are great to keep in the graveyard.

The pet monkey isn't getting any smaller, with all the bushwalking/running/jumping that she does her widdle wegs are getting wonger by the week. The head tube of the bike is short, the fork crown height is pretty low and the stack height is around 35mm, so my bars were pretty low. On went a BBB 130mm adjustable stem and this corrected my position and gave the monkey plenty of wegwoom for now and the future. She's 15kg so still has plenty of time left in the seat, just no room if she wants to bring home a boyfriend from college :)

Which brings me to the new mod - the Baby AC sported a pair of bars for her to hang onto for singletrack, on this build she doesn't need to hang on so tight, the premise here is long days in the saddle with her sleeping whenever she wants. Anyone who has had a fully relaxed sleeping child on a weerider knows that they are just a big floppy thing sliding off left and right. If you can control the head, the body will follow suit. Well, it works with horses. And snakes. Apparently.

So into the workshop, my favourite part of the house. It's my domain, where I can make lots of noise, make stuff from other stuff, be a guy, watch whatever I want on the plasma, scratch, fart and basically be the master of my universe. Full of some really cool toys and tools - stuff that can take off an arm in the blink of an eye and some real noisemakers too. Yep, bloke heaven. So, by harnessing the power of the universe, keeping my fingers away from the bitey bits of the machinery and having the odd scratch - I made up a little cushion for the pet monkey to rest her head when she has a sleep. I should have made one of these years ago, but it took a while to get the power of the universe connected to the shed, all sorts of balanced encabulation issues - I won't bore you with the details - anyways it works a treat. Pet monkey loves it.

I'm sure she remembers every bit of the days ride...



With Wednesdays off I get the chance to make progress on the tandem. But first I get to spend a bit of time with the pet monkey before we ride to daycare. We colour in, talk about world news and current affairs (I had no idea she knew so much about the commodities market) and watch a bit of Play School. Occasionally we fight over the red Playdoh, but we sort it out - I find sulking really works. It's a good routine we have, she likes the pattern we have and throws the best tantrums when the routine is broken - should have some really good video for her 21st...


Which brings me to the next project on the tandem, fitting the BOB. The Topeak rack fouled on the fork of BOB so some extension plates needed to be fabbed up. Instead of hacking into some alloy stock with reckless abandon, the job has to be carefully measured and planned out, taking into consideration the travel path of the BOB fork and clearance during coupling and decoupling among other points. Once measured, I made a rough pattern out of 2mm polyethelene, rigid enough to hold the rack in place yet able to be cut with scissors and machined with ease. I can adjust the pattern with accuracy and speed, ensuring zero wastage of my alloy stock. A second pattern is made once the spacings are confirmed, this becomes the accurate template for reference, but I still mark out the alloy stock from scratch instead of transposing lines and drill marks.

40 x 6 alloy flatbar stock

All shaping by hand, rough out with a bastard cut, drawfile smooth, arris the edge.

Completed product, etch primed and shot matte black.

The top bolt mount on the non- drive side uses the top brake tab bolt for reinforcement, whereas on the drive side I tapped the derailleur hanger bolt and used that for mounting.

So with the rear rack sorted out, turn the attention to the front rack. An Axiom Odyssey rack sorted the front end panniers.

The cassette also had some surgery - it was an 8 spd 11-32, but it somewhat 'lacked in size down low' - it needed an enlargement. I keep all my old parts and found a worn 9spd 11-34, split off the 34 and replaced the 32 on the 8 spd. The slight thickness difference of the sprocket didn't matter as it is on the outside of the stack. SRAM cassettes are easier without the alloy/riveted carriers as with Shimano.

Upon road testing I found the change down from the middle chainring to the 22T a bit too much of a drop and a few dropped chains were the result. Limits were set correctly, I even had a few times when the chain would not drop - I blame it on my stoker not backing off when I change - it seems she has selective mind reading abilities :)

I can get hold of chain guides/dog fangs easy enough from suppliers, but I was running short on time due to an upcoming trip - I needed a solution now to dropped chains. I scrounged around in my parts bins and found the perfect donor part, with a bit of modification it would do the job perfectly.

It's a front reflector bracket to suit oversized bars, made of thermomouldable plastic. Using my Belgian made heat transfer tool, I re-aligned the molecular structure of the transverse plane to reflect the angular requirement - or in laymans terms I bent it to shape.

I swapped out the stand from the commuter (Goldwing) but the chain rubbed in certain gear combos. Fabbed up a riser block out of some 60 x 12 flatbar stock, countersunk some M5 capscrews to secure the block.

With a few shakedown runs I was certain the OEM Innova tyres were not up to the task of loaded riding. With a pressure rating of just 65 psi, with them inflated to the rating it left no room for the natural increase when loaded. They were just too squirmy, plus with no real puncture protection barrier. Punctures on a loaded tandem are best prevented than repaired. I've always been a fan of Vittoria tyres, talking to the distributor at Ausbike reinforced this as they have a passion for the quality of their tyres.

The Randonneur is a gem of a tyre and had the features I needed - puncture belt (doubles as a wear indicator), pressure rated to 95psi, reflective sidewall, all in a 26x1.5 package. You can get a folding bead without the reflective sidewall.

I can barely see the gear indicators with the Weerider fitted, so fitting a computer on the bars would be futile. I still needed trip data though, and Wilson needed somewhere to sit to stop him whining (you'll have to read my SoCal adventure to know the Wilson story). I bent up a piece of conduit and screwed it to the bottom of my custom Weerider headrest, Wilson and the backup battery pack are highly visible now. He's a bit of an attention seeker so it suits him to be prominent.

Lighting, hmmm, where to mount? With so much stuff crowding the cockpit, this was the logical spot for the Ayups.

That's about it. For the moment anyways. Bike is ready for the trip now, the report for that will be appearing soon...