Singlespeed Worlds Day 1

Both Nidley & I are travellers that like to get to the airport early, especially when checking in big luggage. On Tuesday we were so keen that we got there 30 minutes before check-in opened, and got to be first in lineOf course early check-ins means early beers - well the sun is over the yard-arm somewhere
The flight over on NZ Air was pretty good - the funniest part was the look on Nidleys face when he asked for a beer from the stweardess and was given the option of Speights Pure or Export. The Pure came in a Red-Bull shaped can, and as he said 'the best bit about the beer was that there wasn't much of it'.
We got into Auckland and got through customs & immigration with no problems. It was the first time I'd used my Australian passport - very exciting in a fairly dull way. Of course it means I need to memorise a new passport number now, because it's always in the overhead compartment when you're filling in the immigration form.
Once we transferred over to the domestic terminal we bumped into some other riders we knew so retired to the bar. Just as we were leaving we heard our names called for last check-in - another first for me. We ran down to the gate and quickly boarded the plane, which was small enough for us to apologise to every sinlge passenger individually.
There wasn't even a door through to the cockpit so you could peer out of the front as we landed. I think the plane was too small to do any damage if it was hi-jacked.
Once we got our luggage we jumped into a shuttle-taxi - a great idea they have in NZ, minibusses that drop you off at your motels when they're full or there are no flights immediately due for not much money at all. We actually made it a group with one more person than the bus should legally take, but the driver just suggested that if we crunched up at the back we'd all fit in. Our first view of the more easy going NZ lifestyle :)
We got to the motel and along with the milk, towels and keys the owner handed us a beer. The rooms were small but functional, and the front room very quickly became a bike assembly point
Take a good look at that carpet - we didn't see much of it for the next 6 days...

Singlespeed worlds

Just back from the Singlespeed world championships in Rotorua. What a week! This picture pretty much sums up the holiday...

and this the race

Pictures here - http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Dogtank/WSSWorlds - and I'll flesh out some text around them later in the week...

This one's for Gordy

:)

Sunshine!

As you probably noticed from the pictures below, the sun has finally re-emerged. Yesterday was incredibly windy - far too windy to be riding road bikes any distance - and the trails would have been sopping wet - far too wet to ride mountain bikes, especially those that need to be 100% clean for impending international travel - so we were forced to celebrate the good weather with a social beer ride.

One of our number decided to take advantage of Brisbanes new 'city cycle' scheme, an excellent bike-rental system that has recently been introduced. There are now hundreds of bikes scattered round the city at various rental stations, and once you've joined up you just wave your card in front of a reader, select your bike and you're off!

The idea is that they're to be used for short trips around the city, so rental prices are pretty cheap - the first half an hour is free, then there's a sliding scale. And once you've dropped a bike off at a station you can simply wait for a couple of minutes and check out another one. And if you need to find a bike station and you have an iPhone there's an apple app out there to assist.

I hope that this catches on as it's a fantastic idea. The main problem is the nanny state helmet laws over here (mandatory for all bikes) which means that you need to carry a helmet round with you before you can take advantage of it. But from the reactions we got yesterday with just one city bike, people seem interested. Check it out at http://www.citycycle.com.au/ .

The bikes are pretty heavy, but that does mean they make good anchors to tuck regular bikes behind on a windy day


whilst you're relaxing and enjoying a brew or two
Lipton Ice Tea of course.

Getting palmed off

Brisbane is a subtropical city, which means that we're blessed with a multitude of palm trees. When I first got here as a backpacker back in 1999 I was fascinated by the concept of palm trees in the middle of a city, and pretty much all of the first roll of film I shot over here was taken in the botanical gardens contrasting the flora & the CBD. Jetlag may also have played a part in that.

However palm trees can also be a pain. They drop big fronds that can get block up roof gutters, get tangled in overhead wires and generally make life complicated. I think that gardening fasion has also swung away from palms and they're seen as 'daggy' and old-fasioned.

So how do you remove a palm tree from the middle of a housing block? You can't just saw a wedge out off the bottom and shout 'timber'. First you need to climb the tree

Then you need to chainsaw off the fronds, dropping them down to a crew with a mulcher belowNext let the chainsaw drop (using a very cool 'throw it out and let it swing' motion) and downclimb a littleShimmy down the trunk and chainsaw off the bit that's above your headand throw that down to the ground team

Repeat until the palm tree is no moreEasy.
This post dedicated to my Dad, who has a (perfectly rational) fear of both heights and chainsaws.

Still raining

Yup, still raining. Dams that were 15% full two years ago are now opening sluice gates, watercourses that have always been dry are now full and everyone's getting a bit twitchy. I had an American friend visit over the weekend and the poor lady had to cope with the worst weather I've seen in the five years I've been here and the worst exchange rate in 20 years!

Pictures when there's something other than rain to take pictures up.....

Wet weekend - addendum

As I've said before, we don't ride much in the wet in Queensland. The trail fairies don't like it if we leave trails in the mud as these can soon become rain channeling ruts that will blow out the singletrack. And the riders don't like it because - well, it's muddy isn't it? One of my friends will even stop, get off the bike & daintily skip around even the smallest puddles. This normally leads to someone who's lived & ridden in the the U.K. (yes, usually me) saying 'You think this is muddy? This ain't muddy - we used to ride in mud so deep you'd need to use a snorkel / so thick we lost a rider in there once and had to wait 6 months before he surfaced / so sticky I've still got some in my ears 5 years later', etc etc etc.

To be honest they can be a bit soft down here when it comes to mud - everyone knows there's no such thing as bad conditions, just bad equipment :). But this weekend there was a local XC bike race held on private land, which meant that the public trails were not being damaged and the riding could continue. Some people pulled the plug early but the valiant continued

Even the mudskipper left me eating my words - he rode whilst I peered out at the clouds going 'oooh - I'm not so sure.....'