I’ve just had a holiday at Rotto. One of the very nicest things about Rotto is the lack of motor vehicles and the number of bikes.
I’m glad I took my oldest beater because of the way the Ferry guys pile bikes on top of one another. They are not gentle.
Seeing the huge variety of bikes that people ride at Rotto got me thinking about what the ideal Rotto bike would be. It would have to be rugged, corrosion resistant (lots of salt water & salty air), simple/low maintenance, light, comfortable, with cargo carrying capacity (for a slab of beer, extra luggage, etc) and some gears (for when its loaded). Currently, I’m thinking of an unpainted aluminium cyclocross frameset with an internal-gear hub (or a 1 x 9 set up), risers, mini v brakes, 35mm tyres, a big flat CETMA-style porteur rack at the front, a rack for pannier bags at the back, a chain-guard and a good set of lights.
At times during my stay on Rotto I also thought it’d be really cool to have a Surly Big Dummy with an Xtracycle kit to carry passengers and larger gear, but that may be taking things too far.
I still think an impractical track bike with stupidly steep pursuit geo running 88gi or more and riz0rz would be ideal for rotto… Well at least to do some crits around the island ha ha
Actually I’ve never been to rotto… I’ll have to one day!
HLC — I strongly recommend at least a few days at Rotto. Time seems to go slower on the island. It’s definitely not a cheap working-class holiday, as it was when I was a kid. In fact, if you’re taking the whole family for a week (as I did), then it’s probably cheaper to go to Bali. As against that, Rotto is a beautiful & relaxing place, its easy & quick to get to, you don’t need a passport, you don’t need to change money, there are no language issues, there are no beggars, and you can still say you’ve had an ‘overseas holiday’.
I saw only a few ‘fixays’ on the Island. Generally, they were red or white colourways, running single speed, with deep section rims and risers. One exception was a black brakeless track bike with drops and what looked like much more than 80gi. Thats a dangerous bike to run on the island given how profoundly stupidly many of the pedestrians and neophyte cyclists over there behave.
I also saw a new Oppy C6 on the island — go figure.
Hellocoulson — who’d have thought? ‘Broken’ would have been a good description of most of the island’s facilities when I was a kid. Now those facilities are all pretty damn good.
i went to rotto every summer for nearly 15 years. its probably the only thing i miss about wa (except maybe my parents, maybe). anyway i can’t contribute to this thread re bikes, just felt like reminiscing. do kids still party at pinkies?
Ideal Rotto bike? one of the hire ones as you can ride it pissed and not give 2 fucks about it. Plus if it gets pinched from outside the pub as heaps of bikes do then ur not to fussed about loosing your $50 deposit.
