Round the Bay

Anyone here interested in a round-the-bay-in-a-day type ride, one weekend perhaps?

My ears are pricked up and my eardrums are listening…

does anyone know how long it would take? its 200-odd k’s… maybe a couple of shorter rides the weekends before would be a good idea. I suppose this is the map. I’ll have a think about a more exact route…

From here:

…the ride started at five…Two hundred and twenty kilometres in 8 hours 40 minutes…

…but those guys were sixty. Hopefully thats the time to beat.

I like the idea but I don’t think I could do it.

I’ve done 100km in one ride and the last 20kms were a struggle, although that was a fairly fast pace. I don’t think I could actually ride 210km fixed in one ride.

sure you could. If I can ride 160km without a road background then you (and I) can do 200. Especially with a few riders, especially if you’re sharing carrying a bag or whatever.

  • Joel

You just need one of those Profile drinkbottles, you’ll be right!

And the other question is what gear? It’s fairly flat(?), and on a non-windy day id expect a reasonable avg speed… so you dont want to spin the whole way there. Depends i guess. I reckon a couple of casual 100’s beforehand might be nice.

Count me in.

A few warmup 100k’s would be good before the main event. I had a chat to my dad about it and he’s done it a few times, six to eight hours each time for him. I know I can hold his wheel for 100k’s at an average of 30kph, but I’ve never done anything over that.

The only real question is: What bars to use?

Options:
a) Track drops; evil on the back
b) Bullhorns; not a bad option but some dont like them
c) Obree-position; UCI outlawed and uncomfortable as fuck
d) road bars; comfort
e) flat bars; single-position? no thanks
f) sushi bars; might be alright
g) road bars with aero extensions; hmm…

If i was to go alone, id ride bullhorns with aero bars on, but its a bit unsocial. I’ll probably just go bullhorns alone.

Do what I did:
Fill a cupboard with at least one example of each - bullhorns, sushis, drops, mtb riser bar. So far I’ve got 7 different handlebars to choose from, plus a pair of Visiontech mini TT aero bars. And I don’t even have Pista drops or On-One midge bars yet.

You have to have options!

I’m hanging for Obree-bars though… :cry:

I suppose the Franger 80k would be a good start. Would need white shoe covers though.

i think the round the bay can done for sure, esp with a bunch as pointed out by Joel. I think THE way to go would be western side first, come home through frankston… its hillier but anyone who has done it before will know that the last 60km from geelong to melb goin the other way will be soul destoying… esp fixed if the wind gets going. depending on the date i’ll

  1. be living in melb and be there; or
  2. be living in canberra and be there.
    the return from sorrento to frankston has some nice little kicks in it, nothing you couldnt crank a decent gear over. some of the bends in the road down there turn the corners into blind missions and it can get pretty gnarly with the weekend harley/yama/kawa/suzu riders whipping through there, but an ambo incident would make for a tops story around the water filter at work.
    i reckon rhino should return for this ride too… and joel, we can head down together if i’m still up here.
    we can make it massif.

You guys are thinking way to much. Fill your biddon up… grease your chain… ride.

As for gearing. Life begins at 80 inches :twisted:

My fixie don’t hold bidons…

life may begin at 80"… but all the fun starts at ~68"

Rhino says: “39/15 : the go anywhere gear” :slight_smile:

I’d like to second that!

the “go anywhere, yet get nowhere” gear.

79/81 inches ftw.

  • Joel

winge winge fu*king winge. Gear choice doesn’t really matter at all…its all about doing some dumb ride together and getting half-way and thinking you can’t ride any-longer. As long as the weather is good, it sounds a great ride (and you always have a train to jump on if you really, really need to).

Bloody hell, next you guys will be writing about PSI or something.

Just ride and remember our fixed.org moto…"doing dumb stuff together’.

Rhino - you should start a new topic for that!

you guys should come/go down to melbourne for this. If you do I will.

  • Joel