Big Block

One warm February Sunday (Feb 4)... another training ride. The local cyclists refer to it as the 'Big Block'. I suppose you might call it riding 'round the block'. It's just a BIG block.

We drove into Coffs and parked near Park Beach, then headed out to the highway, rode up the 'Big Banana Hill', down past the Big Banana, and then 'turned off the highway and rode 'up Bruxner', a 3 km uphill grind, winding up through banana farms. It actually isn't too steep, but tell anyone you've ridden up it and they are impressed. Sensational views to the ocean, problem is you're riding away from the view, and you're too busy focusing on riding up, you don't think to stop and take a photo!!

It's a good feeling to reach the top.. you suddenly find yourself in a patch of rainforest...

And, having been here before, you know the next bit down the hill, through the rainforest, is yee ha! And you lap up the coolness because the rest of the way, out of the trees, is going to be hot, hot, hot. The stretch along Bucca road to Nana Glen was pretty challenging - from a traffic point of view, plus there were a few unkind hills in there. I was feeling it - and got the 'you need to work on your aerobic fitness' lecture. Hmmm, well, what was I doing right now then?! Also considering during the week before my back was playing up -it hurt to just walk! - and that cough I had for 6 weeks really knocked me.. yes, well.. this was aerobic training!

We stopped at Nana Glen for lunch. Didn't see Russell, but a bunch of middle aged trail bike riders chatted to us and gave us a big rap for having ridden with the kids 'up Bruxner' and out to Nana Glen (and that we planned to keep going through Coramba back to Coffs.)

The road from Nana Glen to Coramba was mainly through farmland.. Cait snapped a few photos when she could. Loved this:

We had to deal with a few wallies in their cars being impatient about overtaking.. one clown freaked me right out, he roared impatiently past Cait and me who were behind the others a bit.. then screeched in behind the triplet.. then sped all too close past them. Then, because he was obviously in such a hurry, after Marc made it kind of obvious that he didn't appreciate his actions *ahem* (well, I gave him the finger as well!!) slowed down, as if to have some sort of confrontation with us for daring to be on the road.




Karangi General Store.

Total km, by the time we got back to the car in Coffs, about 63. Not bad for a hot day and a few hills. What you might call TRAINING!!

Photos from the Yamba-Grafton return trip.

Breakfast at a cafe on the river at Yamba before heading off. The girls were fascinated by the jelly blubbers or whatever they are called in the river!
And the triplet drew a bit of attention from passers-by!

Heading into Maclean... on a bike you have time to read all the names on the tartaned telegraph poles. Maclean has been promoting itself as 'The Scottish Town'.. and it combines trappings of Scottishness with quaint old country town buildings.



The girls spent a lot of time in the trees both days. Just made for kids to climb and sit in.

The bridge back over to Woodford Island.

and riding onto the ferry
On the road between the ferry and Lawrence we noticed all the birds in the trees in this bit of marshland..

Just resting!
In the park at Lawrence again...
On one of the country lanes between Lawrence and Grafton.

Backtracking to Tracey and Cait riding into Lawrence - the general store behind us is just across the road from the park and the river.

I think this one was taken back on the island, with all the sugar cane fields...
And this was along the west side of the river, heading to Grafton.

Grafton to Yamba - and back.

Last weekend of school hols (Australia Day long weekend.)

We got the idea from the family that was riding in Cuba. (I wonder how they went.) An overnight 'credit card' bike trip. Drive up to Grafton. (60km from here.) Park car somewhere. Get on bikes. Ride to Yamba. Stay in motel. Ride back the next day.

Why? To make ourselves do a reasonable distance as training for the Big Ride.

Logistics? Pack the bare essentials in panniers, ride along the non-highway side of the river, crossing over on one of the vehicle ferries at one point, buy snacks and lunch on the way.

So we did it; got the bikes sorted (some mechanical jobs, and a wash) on the Friday, and we did it Saturday and Sunday. It was a good trip, despite the near 40 degree heat on the Saturday. I suppose you'd have to call that part training as well.

I've marked the route we took in purple. About 32 km to Lawrence. Catch the ferry across to Woodford Island, then 12 km to Maclean, and then about 18 to Yamba. It's easy riding - mostly flat, bar a minor 'hump' just short of Lawrence (which we even avoided on the way back by taking the 'scenic' route.) It was a great ride to get into a rhythm and test your pace.

I'm sure people thought we were insane - particularly on the Saturday. In fact, a woman at Lawrence looked at us - I nodded .. and she said dryly, "Bit hot for that, innit?" I was inclined to agree, as we only about half way - or less. Still, when you tip water over your head and clothes, and then move through the air quite briskly (ie. on the bike), then you get a cooling effect.

I suppose when you have embarked on what seems to many others as sheer madness, (particularly when you appear to be dragging the kids with you on your madness) you look perhaps more intently than you might have done for all the positives.. all the good things that come out of it.

Riding through the countryside lets you experience and appreciate the surroundings in a way you just don't do in a car. The kids greet the cows... "Mooo!". The tandem travelling behind usually gets to witness the "What the hell was that?" reactions to the weird contraption that has just whizzed past them. One horse did a classic double take. And while most cows were fairly unflappable, the calves tended to react. One pair looked like they racing us as they loped along the fenceline the same way were were going. (Or maybe they were just looking for mum.)

People also talk to you to ask you about the bikes. And so you get to meet interesting people. One guy with his family in tow talked to us for a bit, and then told us he owned and lived on an island on the river up near Iluka. And invited us to go and camp on it sometime!

Anyway.. guess the pictures we managed to get ("we" mainly meaning Caitlin of 'Stoker Photography Inc' - and Beginner stoker photographer, Alison.) tell the story.

Riding out of Grafton.

Morning tea at Lawrence.

On the vehicle ferry crossing from Lawrence to Woodford Island.

[still more to add... this is time consuming!]

Lunch at Maclean.

Things not quite going to plan..

I'm ashamed to say that there hasn't been much in the way of bike riding happening in the Schmidt household of late. Not really ideal with the Big Ride looming; thank heavens it is a few weeks later this year. So much for the aim to get more training in this time.

December:

Back in mid December we did rock up to the Community Ride with the kids in tow (bribed with promises of Big Brekkies from the Town Centre outdoor cafe where we usually have a coffee and OJ after the ride.) The lure of bacon and eggs had Ali and Zoe all up and at 'em. Caitlin was (unsurprisingly) grumpier,.. couldn't find socks, blamed Mum for not being able to find socks, blamed Mum for her socks being in Alison's drawer... Not received very well by Mum before 6 am, as you can imagine.

"Mum" was already dealing with her own doubts about going. The weather didn't look too crash hot, but Marc was sure it'd be ok. Half way to town, the rain began. (I tried not to give him the "I TOLD you so" look.) We kept going because, well, we were up already, we'd made the effort to get the bikes on the car (no mean feat getting the triplet on its super rack), and we had limited riding opportunities together because of Marc's overseas work commitments. We had rain gear. It wasn't that cold. Training. He We said.

Not the usual turn up at the Community ride.. Only a few other crazy people with a 'rain, hail or shine' mentality, but there was a sense of camaraderie as we set off. Well, I felt it. Marc, Ali and Zoe felt it. Cait didn't. She was cold. She had wet feet... Her bum was wet and cold. Her legs were cold. Etc etc etc. I suggested she put her thermal top on under her rain jacket, but she wasn't cold there. Just the legs. And they were going to freeze and drop off. 'Just think of the Big Brekkie' I said..... "Don't care about the breakfast." We got as far as the airport, and I couldn't handle the carry-on anymore. Maybe I could have if I wasn't trying to push through my own issues; I'd been coughing for a few weeks, and it was a bit of an effort to keep up with the triplet and the rest of B-group, especially with the stoker on strike.

She got an earful from me the whole way back to the car, and for the next half an hour. This might sound harsh, but she had committed to doing the next Big Ride with us - committed to it the minute she crossed the finish line on the 2006 one. She's played rep level netball. She knows that for sporting achievement you have to push through discomfort sometimes. Etc etc. When I found out that she'd worn cotton undies under her bike nix, despite having been advised on numerous occasions not to, I really hit the roof. Small wonder her bum was staying wet. "Decide NOW, Caitlin, if you want to do the Big Ride or not, because I WILL NOT be let down by you again. I need to train (you need to train).. and if you aren't prepared to do it, I will do it on a single. Without you."

I left her in the car, and rode the tandem solo back a couple of blocks to meet the others for coffee and breakfast. No! No way was she getting the breakfast that she didn't care about. The others did ok on the ride - no great drama - the rain stopped - Zoe copped a bit of spray on the back, but she was fine. And they enjoyed their brekkie.

Unfortunately, Christmas was the next thing to get in the way of more riding. We went to the Blue Mountains for a week for family commitments, and it wasn't practical to try and take the bikes as well. And I coughed, coughed, coughed through everything physical we tried to do - a course of antibiotics the week before Christmas not achieving anything.

January:

A few days after we got back I went to the doctors again. Different antibiotics. And the advice to rest. I figured that as soldiering on (with trying to swim and bushwalk) hadn't worked, I'd better try the rest thing... difficult as it was. Hate being a blob. Husband with itchy pedal feet - and both of us frustrated that we were wasting riding time while he was on leave. What can you do... ?

By yesterday I was starting to feel like I was almost better. Almost. Grand plans to get to the community ride on Saturday morning. Yesterday while having a late bodysurf with Ali and Cait, Marc dislocated his shoulder. Something he does from time to time (and he probably should get a shoulder reconstruction, but the time involved in recuperation would kind of cramp his/our style!, so he keeps putting it off. He is just careful about activities where he is likely to put it out: diving at Touch, sleeping with his arm 'above' his head, and being a bit cautious with bodysurfing.. usually. Till he gets carried away and the waves are dumpers, and he gets dumped.

So, sore shoulder.. arm... rules us out for bike riding in the morning. It usually takes a few days to settle down again. So today I figured I had better test my lung capacity. Rode my bike round to the tomato stall to get tomatoes (6.5km grand total)... few inclines... and I feel like an asthmatic (or what I imagine an asthmatic might feel like.) So perhaps 30 km tomorrow morning would have been a tall order. Perhaps I should fill the repeat script for antibiotics tomorrow and really try to knock this thing on the head.

And we will have to get our riding in where we can. Marc is back at work next week. Unsure yet when he has to go back overseas.

Meantime we are working on making some improvements to 'the green tandem'. I want/need a cluster with lower gearing.. but with the current arrangement being a 7 -speed freewheel cluster (do I sound like I know what I am talking about?) I am a bit limited with options and will have to go with a 'megarange' one that makes a big leap to a super granny cog (something like 24 to 32 teeth.) I gather that people like the 'bail out' gear concept, but I feel like I will miss my 28 tooth granny. I don't think that I want such a big jump... I think we were still talking about maybe changing the front wheel.. and were kind of interrupted by the shoulder dislocation thing. I also want to drop the height of my headset... so a bit of work to do to make 'The Tank' more ..... appealing...

Last minute training?

I said I was going to record every "training-worthy" kilometre I did... so riding the 'just short of 5km' to pick up the car from the mechanics yesterday qualifies. Particularly as I'm the one who probably requires the most training. Even if 5km hardly seems worth getting the bike out for.

I feel quite odd, as you just don't see many other 40 + yr old local mothers getting around on their bikes as a means of getting from A to B. For that distance I throw on all the bike clobber, and bike shoes, simply because they are more comfortable to ride in. Think I've said before that I feel like a bit of a wally, but if it makes the riding easier, well, who cares.

The bike shoes are one of the best investments we made. I'd never experienced clipping in to the pedals before, and couldn't believe the difference they made. Had them a year now. I christened them on the Spring Cycle last year - a baptism by fire as there was a bit of stop/starting involved on that route. Caitlin is starting to agitate for a pair.. now that her feet are almost as big as mine, she thinks she will be safe from growing out of them. As she still wants to grow a couple of inches (to catch up with friends), I'm not sure she's grown out of her puppy feet yet... so it's hard to know when to make the investment for her.

Meanwhile, I'm getting interested in the idea of another bike - more road than mountain bike. Though perhaps the slogging along the road on the chunky tyres qualifies as the equivalent of weight training.

So.. anyway... Sydney bound on Saturday.. and hopefully meeting up with a bunch of other tandem nuts around 8 am Sunday morning.!! Lets hope it doesn't rain like they are predicting!

Coffs BUG ride.

So we decided to do another Coffs BUG ride.. this time a Medium grade one, a bit of a drive (1.5 hours ) south down the highway. Scotts Head to Stuarts Point, start time 9.45am for a 10am departure. Approx. 35 km return.

We decided it was worth going to a) test the trailer set up, b) a different way to get us riding that sort of distance, and c) it would be more social than just us trying to clock up that many km by ourselves. (We ended up joining up to Coffs BUG... at the end of it. I am pretty keen to help out in any way I can with bicycle advocacy.. more bike paths I say!)

We arrived to find that Bob and Barbara (who live about 100 metres from our place in the next street, and who we met on the Big Ride) were there. Barbara had apparently considered knocking on our door during the week to ask us to go on the ride (but hadn't.) The mental telepathy had done just fine instead!

The ride was pretty cruisy.. we had no problems keeping up, and didn't even get overtaken on the hills (a nice change from the Big Ride.) It was a smaller group than the Breakfast ride, so it was easier to talk to people, and this time we got to learn a few names. Riding with the BUG is a safer way to ride on roads - a case of motorists seeing a few riders, and (hopefully) being more alert as to other riders ahead. The leaders are very caring, so less experienced riders are well looked after.

Needless to say there was a little bit of interest in the triplet, and how we got it. I guess if you can't confess to a bit of a mad-sounding jaunt overseas to pick up a special kind of bike while you're in a group of bike riding enthusiasts, then where can you confess to it?

So, around 13 km to Stuarts Point. Stop at the local takeaway, order lunch for a bit later, sit down and have a snack.. then zip the 5km out to Fisherman's Reach and back. Pick up lunch.. coast down to the park, and eat burgers by the river.

Anyway, here are some photos of the day...

The group at Fisherman's Reach .

Caitlin did her 'pillion photography' thing; this one is taken from our bike, looking behind (yes, we did get ahead of the triplet a couple of times), while Mum tries to keep the bike steady, on the road into Stuarts Point.

Fisherman's Reach.

Stopping after a hill to regroup and wait for the slower riders. A good excuse for a rest.

Us at Stuarts Point. Team Blue.

Awww....

And this is how the bikes are travelling.

There were a few other photos.. As the Blogger in Charge here, however, I retain the right not to publish any unflattering ones of me. (And believe me there were a few of them... I should ride 35km every day ... and not eat rubbish in between.)

Trailer tinkering

He has been busy this week, in between full time work, getting the rusty, trusty old trailer ready for triplet transportation.

Last night in the carport:


With 'new' tyres, and new lights, she's ready to go. We think we will go down to the Coffs BUG ride from Stuarts Point to Scotts Head (35km) on Sunday morning. Test drive the trailer transport as well.

Test rides, and a whole lot of tinkering...

Finally, the weekend, and a chance to take the new machine for a proper spin. Friday night we made grand plans to go riding in Coffs, after Marc had done an hour of training for Touch. By midnight he realised that neither of his two ideas for transporting the triplet were going to work.

One idea, using its convertible features, had been to pull it apart, reconnect it as a tandem, and put the middle section on the Mac Rac (where we'd previously carried the trailer bike.) He pretty quickly decided that that wasn't going to be practical.. couldn't be good for the bike to be pulling the connectors apart frequently... never mind the time involved (removing the chains etc as well.)

Next he decided to extend the racks we were already using. (He had come up with a very clever system of overlapping, and screwing together two bike racks, for carrying the other tandem. - more details about that some other time...) It was strong enough in the middle, but hung over the roof rack too far at the front, and the clamp was thus moved too far back, so that wouldn't work either.

Hmmm.

Looks like the only option was going to be to use a trailer... and that was going to take some tinkering to set it up. Just another bike related project.

Meantime we have a backyard full of tandems:

To get the 'Tank' (which is what I've now dubbed the green tandem), operational again, he had to borrow the back wheel from the purple one while we get two broken spokes replaced. For now, he's also had to borrow the pedals from the purple one as well, for the CoMotion. So it's sitting there, cannibalised for spare parts at the moment.

Anyway, we finally got out... basically in our old configuration (Marc, Cait and Zoe on one, Alison and me on the old faithful green one) because we were running out of time to muck around with seat heights. (Alison is due for a turn riding with gung ho Dad, and not stuck with Mum... 500km with Mum is probably more than anyone deserves...)

We headed north on the same route we did with the Coffs BUG breakfast ride, and ended up at Mullaway for a quick icecream from the general store, then hightailed it home before it got dark. Clocked up 26km, and Marc had only praise for the CoMotion. He confessed that he'd been just a bit anxious about whether it was going to be as good as the hype (and the money!)

Even I could tell it was good.. they were leaving us for dead - even faster than he was when they were handicapped by the trailer bike! He said it handled like a dream at higher speeds as well. And the gearing was great.. didn't even hit granny gear. - stayed on the middle gear, even up a couple of short sharp hills. He had the grace to feel a bit guilty that he was riding such a nice bike, and two of us would still be on the Tank. [*Well, to be fair, maybe I could ride the Santana, but I will need to wait till he is able to change the gear levers on it... Or maybe I could just play on the conscience factor, and get me a nice CoMotion tandem as well. It wouldn't be as pricey as a convertible triplet! At the very least, I demand a lower geared cluster on the Tank!]

I just wished I had helmet-cam or some such, to record the reactions of people we passed. Some would do a double take just after the CoMotion whizzed past them, when they realised it was a triplet. The funniest was the person on the tennis court, serving, who stopped, mid-toss, to gape. "Take it again!" we heard their magnanimous opponent say.

At least we all felt pretty good after 26 km - like a walk in the park. Must be some residual bike fitness left over from the Big Ride. A new experience for Zoe having to pedal along with the pace Marc sets, but she is all positive about it all, acknowledging that she has to get used to it, but keen all the same.


Much of Sunday Marc spent working on the trailer, which is a bit of a rust bucket. We are really due for a new one, but it will have to do for now. New lights were needed; there had always been a problem with the earth on the old ones.

I went out to pump up the tyres on the Tank, and just as I was asking Marc if the triplet would need pumping up too, I saw that its back tyre was flat! Another job... this time patching. And the realisation that we didn't have the correct spare tubes for it!

So we decided with this ride we'd have to stay close to home.. just in case. We headed out with new combos... Caitlin and me on the Tank, and Alison on the triplet. Pretty quickly I realised that Cait wasn't just a pretty face.. (or just a pain in the bum - trust me, most days I feel like strangling her at least once.) She had learnt a lot from riding stoker to Marc... , had good 'stoker intuition' and was giving me instructions on how to get into a rhythm! And it certainly evened out the ledger... Marc was struggling a bit more with Alison, who, to be fair, still has to get used to the way he rides. Plus she also tends to be more erratic with her riding... either full on turbo, or clocking off! Caitlin, meantime, has the benefit of age (maturity?) and the fact that she has never ridden enough solo to get used to doing her own 'thang'.. unlike Alison who has clocked up 387 km on her own bike, riding to and from school, since she got her bike computer last christmas!


I suggested to Caitlin that she might have to do these next two rides with me... we'll be even faster if she's not taking photos as we ride along!



Might be harder for Marc, (the CoMotion didn't seem quite so fast!) .. but at least I won't be left behind!

We only managed just about 20km, doing 2 circuits of the same route... but it's better than nothing. Listen to us... "ONLY 20km" !!!

Twice during the weekend's rides, the CoMotion had two near misses, which is pretty damn scary. On Saturday, we were barely a block from home, when a car just about sailed out of a side street into the triplet. Both Marc, and I following on behind, could see that he looked right, past both of us... a road train of bikes, and was about to sail on out till Marc yelled. At least he had the grace to acknowledge the near miss as he passed us... and it was a reminder of the importance of making eye contact with drivers, so that you know they know you are there.

On Sunday, just whizzing around the local streets, a guy picked up a big chair or something out of the back of his ute, and just stepped out into the street without even looking, only a few metres from Marc. I suppose he expected that he would have heard a car, and wasn't expecting a triplet bike in stealth mode. Again Marc yelled, and the guy jumped back just in time. Could have been nasty.. never mind the injuries to the people.. it'd be impossible to replace any bent bike parts in a hurry.

Anyway, back home, and Marc was back out in the carport tinkering on the trailer. No rest for this boy over the next week or so... It's tough being the bike mechanic and general handyman and resident technical expert.

Getting psyched up to ride again!

We have had a bit of a lay off with the bike riding, but things are starting to happen again. Time to resurrect the blog, I thought.

Biggest news since the Big Ride is that we have been 'accumulating' more tandems! I said to Marc that perhaps he could give up his job, and we could import tandems and tandem-associated bike paraphernalia from the US. I was only half joking!

Sadly, there is really not much happening with tandems in Australia - well not compared with in the US - and thus, not much choice, particularly, once you have read up on tandem quality, etc, and decide that you'd really like to buy a good one. (I can't claim the researching guernsey here.. that is all Marc's cup of tea! - as is the tandem "shopping".)

A few months back he saw a Santana road tandem on eBay - in the US. To cut a long story short, he got it. It wasn't without its hassles, particularly when the guy selling it put up out of date information about the cost of freighting it to Australia.

In the end, and after a few bordering-on-heated email exchanges, Marc organised it all from this end. The freight itself didn't cost that much.. it was the taxes at this end that bumped up the end price.

But, with a drive up to Brisbane to collect it, we are now the proud owners of a Santana... *said almost in reverent, hushed tones*.

Of course, noone in Australia really has any clue as to its quality!

It is also quite a few years old, so might be considered a bit of an antique by serious Santana tandemers in the US, but to us it is magic on wheels.

We have only actually ridden it any distance twice.

When we headed down to Newcastle in July (for netball, and family commitments) I ended up having to put it on the roof of the car myself - as it turned out Marc had to work down that away, so it made more sense for him to meet us there. Between the weather, and netball watching and removalist/unpacking duties, we were able to take it for a 30km spin around Swansea.

And 2 weekends ago, we dragged our sorry backsides out of bed at 6.00 am on a Sunday morning (this is akin to a miracle for me..) - met up with a road bike riding friend, and did a 44km return ride down the highway, up through some banana farms, and back along a more 'country' road (and a bit more highway.) She hummed along on the flat, and was positively awesome down the hills. As with any tandem, it's a bit tougher up the hills, but we did ok.

Unfortunately I didn't think to take the camera on either ride, which is a bit slacko of me!

We have yet to master me being able to stand.. I am not used to the narrow handlebars.. having never really ever ridden a road bike in my life!

Anyway...

more about that later, and I will try to sort out a photo to post here... with more updates on yet another tandem purchase, and our plans to do the Sydney to Gong ride on the first weekend in November!