Another year, another resolution?

Plenty of people have been writing about the uselessness of resolutions.

Here is why I probably need to find some lifestyle change in 2012.

If I can keep the km going up, the mass will come down.

Old bikes

Same motor different bikes, 1976-2011 cycling for fun, fitness and friendship.

Andrew Demack's post on  Briztreadley about the bikes he has owned and why he bought them has caused me to fondly reminisce  about my own bikes over the last few decades. My main criteria in buying has always been to get the most bike for my justifiable buck. Only a few of my rides have been purchased new. Maybe there will be a time in my life where I can walk into a bike shop and look at those luscious high end machines with the intention of actually purchasing one, but if that never happens then I will still feel blessed that I have had a rich bicycling life.

I was eight years old in 1969 when my cousin Greg (15 y.o.) went wide on the corner coming down from Old Daybora Rd in Petrie, and under a truck. I remember the phone call from my Aunty Jean saying he was on life support, and then later that night there was another call to say that Greg had died. To our close knit family this was an enormous tragedy. My father had been involved in a very serious motorcycle accident on Annerley Rd in the late fifties, and still bears the disability to this day. These seemingly unrelated accidents left our family wary of two wheeled transport. 

I didn't get my first bike till I turned 15. Mum and dad bought me a Malvern Star 10 speed. It was a beauty, with dynamo lights and a special lightweight frame. My brother and I did a bike tour run by an organisation called ISCF, where we rode from Ipswich up onto the Darling Downs and back to Fernvale via Toowoomba and Esk. My shining silver 10 speed was the envy of many of the school age riders. With typical teenage disrespect I managed to pretty well destroy it within 18 months, riding it off  road and endlessly practicing wheelstands that led to many Sunnybank streets being painted with blood of the Lanham. My last memories of this bike are of me riding to and from BSHS. Our home was in Sunnybank. The original rear wheel and gears were wrecked, and I had fitted a huge rusty 28" fixed wheel monstrosity from my mother’s bike from the 40's. There was no SE freeway and I battled Ipswich and Beaudesert Rd's in peak hour traffic, no brakes, no cycle lane, 16 y.o. and completely bullet proof. I could beat the buses, and on a good day (northerly) I could beat the train home to Sunnybank. Then I got a job, and of course a car.

I don't remember how many bikes I bought or built up in the next 13 years, none were expensive and few got ridden very far, the odd 25km training ride was thrown in when I thought I was getting a bit heavy (like 77kg). I do remember a 12 speed Apollo that  I had bought for about $80. In 1989 it was knicked from our carport and I made an insurance claim. I had to go to a few bike shops to get replacement quotes. At the Pinelands Shopping Centre in Sunnybank Hills was an Allan's Bike shop where they quoted me $439 for a Kojima Eagle. Unbelievably a cheque came through for this and at 28 years old I had my first ever new bike. The Kojima was highly geared and had uncompromising racing geometry. I never took riding it very seriously until my buddy and occasional riding partner (who seemed to know a lot about things like the Tour de France) and I decided that we would sign up for a  cycling tour run by the Bible society. It was called Bikes for Bibles, and we did fundraising and organised training rides for 10 weeks before the event. It was our first experience with bunch riding and there were club racers involved so we were induced into group cycling etiquette.



Andrew and Bruce at the start of the Universities Tour 1993

 The 1993 Bikes for Bibles Universities Tour. (Brisbane-Beaudesert-Warwick -Toowoomba-Dalby-Kingaroy-Kilcoy-Caboolture).

The 10 weeks training of 200km a week saw me trim down to about 75kg and I felt really fit, probably for the first time in my life. After the tour Andrew and I had a bit of an intro to racing, C grade with Kangaroo Point Club. We had a ball, but many readers of this will have been bored already with our recounts of how we went.

Cycling slipped back out of my lifestyle as I was busy with my career and roles at home and at church. Occasionally Andrew and I would organise a bit of an overnight adventure where we would travel with our bikes and a credit card. On holidays we would usually take bikes and have a few rides. My Kojima became a bit worn and I bought a cheap hybrid ($100). I rode this on a couple of our tours. Then one day in 1998 somebody knicked it out of the back of my car. I put in an insurance claim, popped in some money of my own, and suddenly and unexpectedly was the owner of the most beautiful looking cycle I am ever likely to own, an aluminium Trek7300 hybrid. 

Sorry about the shorts. The TREK 7300

This was a solid and reliable bike. I remember riding down Mt Tambourine (where my parents were living) at 83km/h and feeling as steady as a rock. At the time I had left my hard but well paid job at Bradken's Runcorn foundry and was working as a technician for CSIRO while studying engineering at QUT.  I would occasionally commute on the bike to QUT from home or work. And the inevitable happened. One night I came back to where I had chained it up and it was gone. No insurance this time. I have never mourned the loss of a material possession before that night. I experienced all the stages of grief. In fact... if you ever see a beautiful black hyb... shut up Bruce, it's gone. That was 12 years ago!

Budget for a new bike was an issue. I set myself $300. For this I managed to get another good machine. It was also a TREK hybrid, a gorgeous metallic green 730 steel framed version that was a few years older than the stolen 7300. It was in good condition, one of those bikes that had no doubt been purchased with good intentions but had then never been ridden much. This bike became my faithful commuter over the next few years.

I wasn't really doing a lot of riding for fitness. Andrew got quite keen and participated in a fund raising ride organised by the Engadine Rotary Club in 2002 (I think). I wasn't much of a companion on his training rides as he was quite fit and ripping my legs off. It sounded like a real challenge and a wonderful holiday at the same time. Andrew won a car for his fund raising efforts and was probably a bit obligated to go along in the following year. I decided to join him. Once again I committed myself to 200km a week of training, and after about a 12 week slog at it I had dropped from 98kg to 88kg. I found the ride challenging but achievable. I was on a hybrid and almost everyone else were riding racers, and Andrew and I rode in group 3 (of 5). Our daily average speeds were around 26km/h. By the end of the week I was feeling very strong and keen for some more bunch riding. I would ride to Tennyson in the morning and jump on the back of the first pack to come past and invite myself to their ride. I fixed up the old Kojima (now 14 y.o.) and found I was going about 2km/h faster on that. Time for a new road bike!



Andrew and I somewhere in NSW, 2003 Sydney to Surfers



A Kojima MTB that I had a bit of fun on in Karawatha and a family holiday in 2003. It was sold to help finance the incoming KHS.




The KHS Flite 800.

 

2003 was a watershed year. I had lost weight and gained a love of road riding. Les Hewett, a work colleague from QMI introduced me to a Star Cafe ride on Saturday mornings, and soon after a wonderful bunch doing a thing called donuts on a Tuesday and Thursday morning in West End. The final hit out up Dornoch Terrace after the 5th lap of the 6km loop eventually became my weekly focus and I recorded my performance against the other contenders to be first up the hill. This may seem a little sad but I had lots of fun. I started shopping around for a new ride. I sold the old Trek (to a mate from church who got another 7 years out of it) and my mountain bike, and a fancy guitar and I was able to buy my a serious road bike. It was a second hand 853 alloy steel framed 9 speed KHS equipped with 105 running gear. I paid $1400. It was comparatively weighty at around 11kg, and had a raked out riding position that none of my friends liked the feel of, but over the next 3 years I rode it 30 000 km and had the best form of my life. My weight averaged 85kg over these years. I did another Sydney to Surfers in 2005, with a faster bunch and our average for the whole ride was over 30km/h. I also had a brilliant around the bay experience with my Southbank Bunch friends.



My current ride, purchased in 2006



 

The KHS was becoming unreliable. I broke some handlebars on a 60km/h decent, the freewheel gave up on an important ride and the shifting gear was pretty flogged. Cycling 3 or 4 times a week had become a lifestyle for me, I had justification for a new bike. I was also earning plenty of money with my new post graduate position working at QMI. The new budget would be $3000. But to get the most bike for the buck, again I went second hand. I found a Campag 10 speed Record Equipped fully carbon Giant TCR, brought out to Australia from the US by a semi-pro racer who was working in bike shops. At least 3 kg lighter than the KHS it felt beautiful to ride, yet strangely didn't seem to go any faster. My number of k's per week was dropping off, and in direct inverse proportion my weight was going up. At a time of my life when I expected the workload at home would be diminishing, in fact it got a whole lot busier. Jenny and I had been fostering for quite a few years but embedding the Arthur sibling group into our lives brought a new dynamic to our household. Part of the motivation for a career shift into teaching was to try and give me more time at home. This hasn't really worked but I am really enjoying teaching and it brings me more satisfaction than any other job I've had. During the last few years I've also done a little mountain biking, mainly with Andrew who is really quite into it and does crazy stuff like racing. He is a good friend and always waits for me. I am finally feeling a little form coming back and am looking forward to some great cycling years ahead. Maybe a new bike soon???

 

 

 



Norco Hardtail. Bought for $100, spent $400 getting it ridable.
Still a servicable bike.

 

My curent MTB, another Norco Hardtail,
with much better brakes and forks.
A much faster bike than I am rider.





 As I have composed this epic I realise that I have done many enjoyable things on a bicycle, but the best part of it has been nothing to do with which bike I've been sitting on, how much it cost or why I bought it.  It has been almost entirely about the people who I have been with. But that is another story.





Gold Coast via Tamborine

One night this week Jenny asked me what ride the Southbank Bunch was doing. “Redcliffe”, I replied, suspicion in my voice.

“Oh”, she said. “You don’t really like that ride, do you?”

“Well actually I was looking forward to a long flat ride with my friends after the hills of Tour de Dave”

“I just thought that Saturday might be a nice day for the family to go to the coast, maybe you could ride down and meet us.”

And so a plan was formulated. I am keen to keep working on improving my form on the bike and so I wanted to clock up some km’s. I weighed up riding straight down and then later riding home, but eventually decided on a longer ride down. There are various alternatives to straight down the V1 to Southport. I elected to go via Mt Tamborine. It has a 7km climb that is steady and achievable (for me) on the road up from Tamborine Village. So even though the 91km route is significantly shorter than a “ride in-Redcliffe-ride home” SBB ride I thought I should get a pretty good workout.

This is the route from my place to Southport. it can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/62ujf2g

I left home at 6:00am, lights on and wearing arm warmers as the morning was fresh. The forecast was for a fine day with light to moderate southerly breezes in the morning. I was a little surprised at how low my average speed was for the first couple of hours on the bike (about 23km/h) as I would have thought that TdD should have given me some extra horsepower. I am often slow at the start of a ride with a hill in it, I seem to psyche myself out a bit and overdo the conserving of energy.

Between Tamborine Village and the start of the climb I had an unusual incident. I was rolling down a small hill at about 35km/h, in a world of my own, probably solving the world’s problems, when my left peripheral sensed movement. I turned my head and saw a medium sized wallaby eyeball to eyeball coming flat out straight at me. It saw me just as it was pushing off on another tremendous bound out onto the road, and it was able to adjust its trajectory enough to sail past behind me. The incident took less than a second but for me and skippy there was a whole lot of our life crammed into that instant. I was still a bit shaky 2 minutes later when a bunch of 4 fit looking cyclists called out to me as they whizzed past. I almost jumped out of my skin.

The arm warmers came off at the bottom of the climb and my heart and head did battle for the 1^st km of the climb. To me it seems that the gradient gets easier once you hit the long sweeping bends about 3km up. I settled into more of a rhythm and was able to change up a couple of gears in the second half of the climb. I was conscious of the 10.00am rendezvous with the family and so kept going once I had finished the climb. There are a couple of nasty steep bits on the Tamborine plateau, but once through them it was onto a fantastic 3 stage descent. I had a vague plan that today I would pass my personal 15 year old fastest speed on a bike (83km/h). I did this on an aluminium framed Trek hybrid riding this same descent back when my parents lived at Tamborine and I used to frequent the district more often.

I achieved speeds in the 70’s for the first 2 downhills, but cars held me up a bit. For the really big descent I checked that I had some clear road in front of me, then tucked in on the steep, rough (no holes, just heavily textured) road and hung on for grim death. I found visibility a problem as my eyes were watering. About halfway down I moved my hands to the hoods and glanced at the speedo. 84km/h. The corner was approaching and through my tears I could see brake lights. Give it a couple more seconds and then trust in the Campag Record brakes to do their thing. It is like a base jumper knowing when to pull the ‘chute.  I was behind a car for the rest of the roll down the mountain. I check of the stats showed 85km/h max. A real thrill for me but as Margie tweeted to me later it was a good job the roo didn’t jump out during that descent! No doubt more experienced downhillers could get a lot more out of that descent but on the day it was good enough for me.

From the bottom of the hill to Oxenford are some rolling hills and one mongrel 12% hillock that I had to stop on for a breather. After Oxenford it was a flat 22km around Hope Island and onto the tourist strip. Once on the flat I felt my legs come back a bit, although my backside had decided that the ride should already be over. A piece of metal through the back tyre 5km out from the finish held me up for 8 minutes and then I was at Southport, rolling around the foreshore and looking for my beloved.

Ride stats: 91km, 21.5km/h average, 6:00am start 10:30am finish. Top speed 85km/h. Tamborine climb 38 minutes.

What a beautiful day it was. The smaller kids and I had a swim, they played on the wonderful facilities in the park across from Australia Fair, we had Red Rooster for lunch at Main Beach, we went  into SeaWorld for a few hours looking at the penguins and the seal show, and also Renee and I tried out one of the new rides. Jenny did the drive home and we had a good chance to catch up with each other. All in all a top day. And at night Nick O’Donnell showed me how to make a profile chart from a google map, no Garmin or anything!

Tour de Dave 2011, riding in heaven

I had a ride this long weekend worthy of an attempted story. Le Tour de Dave is a 4 day spin for road cycling enthusiasts who are in some way connected to Dave Clarke. My own contact with Dave is through the Southbank Bunch who ride every Saturday morning, but Dave is now in the bike shop business and has a wide and diverse congregation of friends and associates. Fund raising is involved for the Endeavour Foundation and the spirit of the ride seems to be that participants enjoy great company, scenery, food, laughs and a significant physical challenge.

I loved the nervous excitement as a petri of personalities, riders from previous years and first timers mingled and began to get to know each other at Dave’s shop. We rolled out into a persistent southerly breeze. It was to be in our face for the next two days. Groups worked with varying success at gelling and riding together. Navigation and group cohesion gave many of us opportunity for personal growth on the first day. I finished at 5:20pm after 138km, the last rider into Beaudesert. I was very tired and had been battling cramps for the last 50 kilometres. As I sat in front of my T bone at the RSL that evening I put my head in my hands and wondered how I could possibly ride tomorrow, over the range at the Mt Lindsay border down to NSW. I opened my eyes and my friend Les was smiling at me, shaking his head. It clicked to me that tomorrow didn’t matter. I was out with people who are the best.

I really struggled the next morning.  I was hiding on the back of group 3, wiggling around in my seat trying to find a less painful spot for my chaffed bottom. At 50km the start of the climb was actually a relief as I could stand up a bit. Magnesium tablets supplied by the Barley’s seemed to keep the cramps at bay. I crawled over the top of the range and rolled down to Grevillia to take over driving duties. I felt happy with my performance for the day. The groups showed much better discipline and enjoyed tight bunch riding down the scenic valley of the Richmond River to Casino for our second night. The Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant provided a bargain banquet for a happy and noisy bunch that had conquered 150km for the day.

Keen to see whether the couple of days riding had done my legs any good, I jumped on the front with Dave for the 1^st 10km out of Casino. I climbed over Naughton’s Gap not last and feeling like it would be a good day. The ride north towards Nimbin is probably the prettiest leg of the whole tour. The extended wet season that we have experienced has given the countryside a magnificent green plumage. I don’t like Nimbin, where we had a stop for coffee; I feel a pretence about the place. The climb over Blue Knob saw me last up the hill again, but some judicial wheel sucking saw me finish the day with energy still in my legs. Murwillumbah. Yay! To celebrate I went for a walk down town and found a massage therapist. My legs were a bit tender however they enjoyed some hot rock massage technique and a lymphatic drainage treatment that I had never had before. It was the final night together for the tourists and a hefty meal of pizza at the Flamingo Restaurant probably undid the health benefits of the sublime 100km leg.

Many of the riders had been sweating about the Natural Arch climb on the last day’s stint to Nerang. I had dealt with my own concerns by pretending the Tuesday would never come. It was a pleasant surprise for me to find that a driver was needed for the 1^st half of the day and I gladly accepted the role. It was good that I did. The steep incline at the end of the climb looked menacing from my position behind the last rider. You get to know something of the character of a person when you watch them push themselves to their ultimate physical capacity. My hat is off to Richard Baker who was the last of the brave riders to breach the gap. Great determination.

I was on the bike for the next 40km down to Nerang via a seemingly never ending series of short sharp climbs. My legs received a final flogging. The sandwich stop 5km out of Nerang was blissful. I watched a group of still enthusiastic riders set off for the full circuit all the way back to Graceville Bike Hub and then I joined the more mortal riders on a rapid train journey back to the city.

My friends know and love me for who I am. This is nice and I try to reciprocate. But I am not happy with a few things. I cannot blame my poor form on simple lack of training or having too full a life. I was the heftiest participant on the ride by some margin and it doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t want my mates to have to wait for me at the top of hills or pace themselves to accommodate the big happy guy. I feel ready to change a few things in my life and would like to set a goal of doing this ride next year in the first group. What is disappointing is that I have worked hard in the past and found that kind of form but for various reasons I have let it slip away. I need to find a way of maintaining the appropriate lifestyle. I guess having a goal is a good start.

Andrew is a wonderful roommate for me and I think long exposure has given him some immunity to my more banal characteristics. I look forward to being a more compatible riding partner for him in our escapades to come. I also met some new friends on this ride and got to know some old friends much better.

In winding up this reflection I would like to thank Dave for his vision and leadership. The Tour de Dave is a wonderful concept and he shows great maturity and aplomb in managing the event. He has a way of relating with everybody that is warm and genuine, and he shows a generous spirit. Les Hewett plotted a seamless event. We were always in the right place at the right time with the right resources. God put creation on show for us and Les was the tour guide. People with the ability to plan, stay organised, disciplined and serve others with a smile on their dial are the people I admire and want to hang with.

Mt Gravatt Hills

I'm no climber but when Chris from Graceville Bike Hub fitted the 50/34 to my aging Giant last week he said "you will be able to ride up walls with this thing" I thought I should at least try it out on some hills. Some of my more insane riding buddies do what's called the Kenmore Hills Ride (KHR) through the western suburbs of Brisbane. The north side is too far away for a weekday ride for me, and I have been thinking for a while that a similar kind of ride could be done closer to home. On rides into the city for my regular Southbank Bunch (SBB) outings I have always avoided the hills in the Mt Gravatt/Holland Park area, and I consider myself crafty at finding the flattest possible route to anywhere.

Today was different. I was out to find the nastiest hills I could find in the Mt Gravatt area. Streets that usually give me a cold shiver if I accidentally look up them on a normal ride became part of this ride’s agenda. In planning the ride I wanted to stick as closely as possible to the KHR philosophy of never doubling back or travelling the same stretch twice, but with Mt Gravatt itself to be the feature climb of the ride this was not entirely possible.

I rode in towards the city from my home at Runcorn, and I guess that the route only becomes relevant to most people once the hills start. Rolling East on Gaza Rd from under the M1 I turned left up Bapaume Rd. This goes straight up at a quite severe gradient. It is not a long haul but it quickly gets the heart rate up near max. Just over the crest of this hill I turned right into Kneale St, and this climbs to some beautiful views of the city. There are some nice houses up here. As I crested this hill Mt Gravatt still loomed above me on my right and I could see across Logan Rd to another hill that the ride would include. A roll down Hockings St to Logan Rd, north for a couple of streets, then back up Brodie St. For hard core riders there are options of Barton or Gower to get back up to Castle Hill St, but I was already a bit shaky in the legs. Back down Hockings St again and this time right onto Logan Rd and then left at Nursery. Right into Rise St and I was riding slowly getting my legs ready for what was about to come.

Frost St is not pleasant. It goes straight up at a consistent steep gradient. I made it about a third of the way up, and Bruce and his 34 cog were finished. I think this hill will challenge most riders attempting it on a road bike. I got off and pushed to the top, walking on the lush green footpath to protect my brand new cleats. A roll back to Logan Rd via Crest St and Nursery Rd gave me a chance to get some breath back and then it was time for a lap of Mt Gravatt. I climbed slowly as my legs didn’t seem to have much left after the Frost St attempt. There were plenty of sightseers on top of the mountain peering out towards the city to see if it was a sea, but apart from a light brown snake appearing in a few places it doesn’t normally it was impossible to tell that a crisis of such magnitude was occurring only kilometres away.

The free MotionX GPS that I was running on my phone cut out a few times and the route data that I ended up with is missing a few chunks. It does not show clearly how I made my way back to the Gaza Rd starting point via the foothills of Mt Gravatt. Mountain St and Verbena St were used to get me across to Messines Ridge Rd for a lap of the Mt Gravatt campus of Griffith Uni, then a nice long roll back down the hill to Gaza Rd.
The route described above is only 15km long, and there are many variations or additions that could be made to it. Other local riders will have their own versions of Mt Gravatt Hills, and it is possible to make easier or harder versions than this one. But I do know this. I’ve had enough climbing for today!