Don’t hate, but I went for a gravel ride. Yep. I indulged in some “grav-trav” or perhaps I “groaded” or whatever fancy term the cool kids of cycling are using this week. It was dirty and it was fun. I didn’t have one of those fancy carbon aerodynamic “gravel bikes” that the industry insists you…
Tag: riding
Tyre pressure: Do you go low?
When I first started road cycling, I was very much in the “bang 110psi in both 23mm tyres” camp. It’s just how it was. Hard is fast. Skinny is fast. Who needs comfort when you can go FAST! These days I’m a little more relaxed, I know that (especially at my weight) higher pressures are…
Have we reached “peak gravel” yet?
Gravel. It’s so hot right now. Flip through any road biking mag or scroll the usual websites and you’ll see it. Stories of romantic journeys across wild landscapes, grainy black and white photos of wide tyres crunching over high contrast pebbles. Gravel riding. It’s basically the new Rapha. I was naievly thinking (hoping) that the…
Trail Build Part 2: Time to tool up
After digging the first section of my backyard trail using hand tools, I needed a more efficient solution. It was slow and tedious work! A bit of YouTube research led me to this guy who uses a rotary tiller to cut his backyard trails. What a revelation! I didn’t even need to visit the hardware…
Covid-19 has killed the club ride!
Well, it’s official. The Coronavirus has killed off the club ride. Okay so maybe that’s a slight overstatement, but it’s not far off the truth. In a statement released earlier, Cycling Australia have recommended that; “all organised club activities that involve close contact be suspended.” The statement goes on to advise; “If riding two abreast,…
2020 Resolution Ride #2 – Country Ramblings
Having been distracted by the new trail bike recently, I was quickly running out of available days to knock out a solid metric century ride this month. It was going to have to be today. I knew this Saturday most of The Herd were away doing triathlon things (ewwww) so it was to be a…
Are eBikes cheating? The (not so) endless debate!
Just the mention of eBikes is enough to get people raging. It’s cheating! It’s just not cycling! Get off the trails! Pedal harder, you slacker! Even with all this backlash, the past few years have seen an explosion in eBike sales. Sales of commuter eBikes, road eBikes and mountain eBikes all booming. There’s gotta be…
2020 Resolution Ride #1 – A birthday spin
This year one of my goals is to knock out at least one 100km ride each month. It’s something I try and do every year with varying success and a good motivator to get outside and ride – especially in the not-so-appealing months. Luckily for me here in Tasmania, January is not one of those…
Happy New Year! How a decade has aged me…
Here’s a giggle for you all to ring in the new decade! Two photos of yours truly, taken almost exactly 11 years apart! I’ve been riding bikes of all sorts, shapes and sizes for most of my life. I love life on two wheels and every opportunity for a ride I grab hold of with…
It’s almost 2020! Three goals for next year.
December! December! December! Can you believe it? Christmas is just around the corner and another year is winding down. For my brother and sister cyclists in the Northern Hemisphere it’s deep into winter training time. Luckily for me down here in the depths of Tasmania it is (apparently) summer! Even still, December brings about thoughts…
One Million Miles
One million miles. Or in metric terms, one million nine thousand three hundred and forty four kilometres. Sound like a lot? Well that’s because it is! And this chap is going to be the first ever person in the UK to cycle 1,000,000 miles in a lifetime … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/05/82-year-old-become-first-person-britain-cycle-one-million-miles What an absolute legend! What does…
What I learnt riding 100km on a mountain bike
I can knock out a 100km road ride pretty easily. That’s not a brag, it is what it is. I know I could jump on my roadie tomorrow morning and have it done before lunch. Recently I had an idea, what about a metric century on a mountain bike hitting a bunch of trails along…
