How was the ride lads, it was bloody warm today!
I wish i came, Dad did the return with about 220k with his cousin,
The headwind coming home was gnarly and bloody hot.
fantastic day! great to get on the busway for the first time. made it down there in just over 3 hours. train ride back from helensvale was a bitch!
Great ride, fixed for the third year in a row. Start to finish 33.5kph, so getting better each year. 50/18 was perfect for me, but the surging into roundabouts and and at the bottom of the hills (can you call them that???!!) was abit bit anoyning, but heh, its a casual ride.
Saw a couple of other fixed, but was amazed at the distinct lack of steel. Caught up with the “Steel” crew and saw a few, but otherwise only really a handfull out of 7500 riders. I was gobsmacked, carbon, carbon and more carbon.
My mate clipped a coreflute sign on the way down after a swift swerve by the guy in front. Fortunately he didn’t go down, which consequently made it the funniest thing I saw all day.
Top ride overall, and would thotoughly recommend it to anyone, as long as you dont take it too seriously.
The train trip back was a whole other story. Arrived at Helensvale at about 10:30am to find it chock a block due to a 1 1/2hr delay on the track. So we took the option of riding to Nerang, to jump the gun. This was a great plan until that train parked up at Sailsbury for 30min where we finaly bailed and rode back to Southbank from there. 4hrs to get back! Great work Translink, good way to promote public transport whilst partnering with a cycling event. I think I’ll fork out the $25 for the bus next year.
135k at the end of the day, loved it, and not feeling too bad today.
stu, was that you on the gios roadie conversion? we were very happy to see some steel rides on the way down. a gitane, pug, few no names and glad to have seen the gios. That looks fan-bloody-tastic.
carbon frames and deep carbon wheels. everywhere.
had a few funny fixie comments directed at us. notably to ‘watch out, these fixie riders have no bike handling skills’ before pasing at least two scenes where roadies binned it on flat straight stretches. also scott calling out to the masses ‘roadies, how many km’s have we done?’ before being told to ‘get a garmin’.
vaeske, no not me. I was flying the flag for the bitsa mongrel steelies, with my blue fork from the dump on my no name red frame. Did see a Llewellyn, a Jones, a Berretto and a couple of others with really nice paint jobs with chromes stays. Love it.
The only comment I caught was one directed at my mate, to “watchout for the fixie dude on the downhill in case he gets the speed wobbles” Which I can’t really argue with, me nudging 60 is not a pretty sight.
Probably one for the Confessions thread, and an apology I need to get off my chest, I did drop a 15mm spanner out of the rear pocket, about 15k out, whislt in the pack. It has never happened to me before, and I didn’t even hit a bump, just must have worked its way out with me jiggiling trying to push the average up. sorry if it caused anyone grief.
I SAW THAT SPANNER@! I was telling tom about it after! lolz
ahhh, shame, would’ve been good to catchup with you lot during the ride, but would’ve expected you fellas to be averaging 40s?? might’ve seen you gladrappa in your gear outfit at helensvale?? did you ride a roadie or nobrakes?
my roadie —₪i felt too sick to ride fixed. i literally coughed about 500 times that day — and i had been that way for almost 2 weeks. I was actually going to see a doctor today if it didn’t clear up. luckily it did.
i think i was at helensvale for ages. tom dragged me there and we got there just after 10 and my ride didn’t show up until well after 11! and i was a frequent visitor to the store to buy water and snacks!
I rode down on 50/16 fixed - Black Steel Soma - 2h40min 37km/h. I didn’t feel good in the last 10km. Was there by 8:05. Saw a few fixies early on. Met my wife at 8:30 off Smith St for a cool, relaxed lift home. My legs were rooted.