Buster Report

Whispers from the peleton this morning are that an M1 rider - who might I mention has clocked over 500k this week - came a cropper whilst out doing secret ekky training this morning.

Details of the fall are sketchy at this stage, but it is known that the rider is a member of the Carbon Club and has a number of secret M1 blog alias'.

Sunday Social Ride

There is a social ride on this Sunday leaving from Bunnings at 5:30am.

The leisurely roll will take a scenic route including Kirkwood Road, Glen Eden, Barney Point, Auckland Point Lookout, Gladstone's Marina and Spinniker park.

The entire loop is around 32ks and will finish at Maccas for a "chat and a cup of what-ever-you-like"

This is a Non-Smash, Non-Shop Kit ride. Just ask Cros.

DIRTY RAT BUSH MECHANIC

Last Sunday was the shortest Dirty Rats ride we have had this year. The ride started with me getting a slow flat (again).

Rule No 1. When going down a hill with a slow flat. Dont lean forward to take the weight off the rear. Man did i fall awquardly. No skin loss. But a corked leg from hell. Long story short, I changed the tube while we were all eaten alive by a plague of mosquitoes. Then the Zulu and I said our goodbyes.

But nothing will stop the Dirty Rats apart from when Chris Baker snaps a chain. Then looks to the sky and thinks. What would Man vs' Wild do?

Old Dark Horse tore out half his tyre on some razor rocks. As you can see by the photo. The boys found an old plastic bottle. Cut the side ouy of it and used it for a sleave for the tyre. Man what a smart little Dirty Rat.

This Sunday the 28th, the Rats are having a day off the goats. There won't be an offical ride anyway. BUT.... The next Sunday the 7th of March is the Tannum bash, starting at the coffee shop at 6 am. Lead by the Grey Horse himself.

Da Waz Up Ride

It was an early start to the bunch ride this morning, with the SSES (Secret Squirall Ekky Squad) spotted doing sprint training before 5am.

An M1 bunch welcome goes out to Mark Adamson who joined us this morning on his brand new Trek. Mark hung on for the entire paceline effort this mornng - certainly not a shabby effort. I think the bunch has just gained a few extra horse power. Watch this space.

Speaking of the paceline, LG's GT TRANSFORMED from road bike to BMX bike thanks to a "slippy" seat pole. Its funny, I knew that we humans were protected by Autobots, but I never knew that there were Bikebots living amongst us aswell!

Best of luck to Woody who heads south on Friday for the Mountains to Beach mountain bike race. 5 days of racing leaving from the Snowy mountains and heading east towards the coast. Woody will also be hooking up with the SEQ crew (Pete & Karen) for the event.

Rumour has it that 3Cat LG was out doing 3k Haddock repeats after this mornings ride......

THREE CATS...

OK, so I'm a little bit behind the eight ball this year with my training. To make up for it, I have been sneaking in a climb of One Tree Hill three times a week before training rides. Telling LG last week what i was doing, guess who i see climbing One Tree Hill this morning! Old LG and Spycat. They couldn't settle with just one, the pair of em' chucked in two just to three cats me. Just to rub it in, Lord Garmin ended the ride by smacking me on Cockatoo Drive.

THE DOM was found riding past Beacher. Bit of a mistery where he got to, but found his way to Maccas.

LG has handed in the average speed, clocking in at 34.11km/h. Can we get a second opinion on that? I'm not quite sure if we hit it that hard this morning. Never know, my secret training may be paying off.

We havent heard much from the bunters about their ride. Can someone please leave a comment about their epic journey. Piney looked shattered at maccas, Popey must have dropped the hammer! Did i say Popey? Boy did i notice a bit of biff forming in his legs this morning. You better not be over eating big boy!

Close shave this morning by the CALTEX truck. What is everyones thoughts on this one?

THREE MEN AND THE DOM

The Zulu, Bush Slasher, THE DOM and I were the only ones to go around the block. It was an nice steady to hard pace. A few hit outs.

We lost THE DOM after the crossroads. Turned out he had a flat and didnt have his phone on him. Story goes, he flagged someone down and the rest is history.

Check out the height of the river!

ONE FOR THE GIRLS.

THIS IS A SURVEY

Mick sent Me in this to put on the blog.
http://survey.qut.edu.au/survey/168303/1021/

THE SATURDAY WAY OUT TO YARWIN

For now on this is the way we will be pulling off the front heading out to Yarwin. The right side rider will NOT pull off to the right. The right side rider will move forwood a bit and pull to the left. Wonce you have pulled to the side. Back right off the power so that you can get to the rear of the pack as quickly as possible. If there is a pothole in the gutter then you should be able to see it. If you cant see a pothole that might be in the gutter then you should get better lights. There was a light review in a cycling mag a few months ago saying AYUP lights were the best. Just Google AYUP. Remember NO LIGHTS NO RIDE.
SAFETY FIRST...

Road Rules For Cyclists

This is an excerpt from the Qld Gov web page “Road rules for cyclists”
Keeping left and overtaking (s129, s131, s151, s141)

You must:
ride as near as is safely possible to the far left side of the road — on a multi-lane road or a road with two or more lines of traffic travelling in the same direction as you, you can occupy a lane and travel in the right hand lane when necessary (for example, to make a right turn)
ride to the left of any oncoming vehicle
not overtake another vehicle on the left if that vehicle is turning left and giving a left change of direction signal
not ride more than two abreast unless overtaking
ride within 1.5 m of the other rider if riding two abreast.

What this means is; when we heading out to Yarwun ( not a multi lane road ) if you are on the inside, when you look past your bars you should see the white line under or inside your left brake hood.
This means you will be about 30cm from the white line. The rider beside you will be WITHIN 1.5 m of you meaning he will probably be still comfortably left of the centre of the lane.

The least we can do is obey the rules. What do you think goes through the motorists heads, they are doing 100 kph, closing at 70kph and seeing riders closer to the centre line than the left line. They also see the shoulder almost 2meters wide …unoccupied. ? ? ?

Ride to set a good example

SATURDAY WORKING BEE

With 32 riders at the start of the ride, there was a significant buzz in the air. Must have been the mosquitoes. It was bound to be a fast paced ride as the bunch were sitting on 36km/h on the way to the Yarwun/ Targinnie turnoff. The Zulu pulled in beside me to pull a turn on the way to Targinnie, and that is when the pain started to settle in.

At yarwun we trialed the new paceline idea, with the super-hitters launching themselves off the front at Yarwun and accross to The Village, with an average speed of 41.7km/h. Thanks for coming back to pick up the shitter-hitters.

Having to pull up to do a little working bee at the old calliope river bridge, all the riders pitched in to move the logs. As you can see, i was clearly doing all the work.

Cannot remember to much of haddock drive, as the hammer went down and the whole climb was just a blur.

It was good having Finn Turly form rocky turn up to train with us. Must mention Ben 10 and Finn are two very talanted tri-atheletes who are both in the Queensland team. Ben and Finn choose to harden up, and get speed work by training withe the M1 bunch.

A big welcome back to Jarrod, our own personal bunch doctor.

Did I mention who won the bunch kick today?

I believe there was to much chit chat at the coffee shop and not enough talking on the ride.

LIMAR SPECIALS

4 Limar Helmets have just arrrived. Red, Blue, Carbon Wrap and White. They are a fantastic looking helmet and we are doing them for $110 to any M1 rider.

Don't be slow, these helmets must go. This is a great fitting helmet with easy adjustment, a uni-fit design and weighs in at 255 grams! Ultra comfortable helmet. Don't miss out!

Also, 10 pairs of Limar socks going at $8 a pair. Assorted colours and sizes available. Limar nicks are available, only $59 each!

WATCH THE LIP WITH THE KISS OF DEATH

Crash alert, crash alert. It is always going to happen. Just letting everyone know about the speed bumps throught the marina. They have a nasty little lip just on the side of the bump, as you can see by the photo. If your skinny little 700c tyre gets caught in the Lip with The Kiss Of Death, chances are your going down and someone is going with you. This is exactly what happened last night. Just ask Lauren and The Dom.

PUT IT DOWN TO A VOTE

There are a few riders in the Saturday hitter bunch that are interested in lifting the pace a bit.

The idea will involve- Pacelining from Targinnie or Church Hill through to the Historical Village. If you do not want to pull a turn, you will sit on the pack of the line. Similar to a bike race, where you get a rotating bunch up the front and the others sitting on the back, getting a bit of speed work. Once the remaining cyclists who were pulling turns or sitting on reach the village, they will turn around and pick up any riders that have been dropped.

How often would you like to do this? If at all.

Every Week?

Every Fortnight?

Every Month?

I am putting this to the riders as I am not quite sure on this one. Please voice your opinions freely.

POOR MANS POWERBAR

Well well well... I couldn't believe my eyes while at the shops the other day. There they were! "SPACE FOOD STICKS".

I remember back in the early 90's whilst living in Mt Isa, I would head over to Townsville every third weekend. I would depend on Space Food Sticks to get me home. They were my cofidon, my best friend, my main source of energy. After everything we went through together, there was only one set back to these sensational snacks, you had to wash em' down with plenty of water. So now i'm going back to basics with energy food. Powerbars are out. Space Food Sticks are in..

From now on, the new Tuesday morning trend is to climb to the top of haddock. NOT the top where we all rest and recover, no no no, the road to the right, just before the pit stop that will lead you to another 1.2km of absolute hell and torture. This will give you a total climb of 3km. Is this what the doctor ordered after the tuesday morning smash? Or is it an unstoppable addiction, of which you want no one to know about?

Rest is for the weak...

Rumour has it that haddock drive is not a good training circuit for cyclists as there are parts of the climb that are too steep to do you any real cyclist any good. I climb like a house brick and lord garmin climbs like a roof tile, haddock drive is going to become our saviour, hale to haddock drive!

TANNUM DIRTY AND WET

Sunday, the 7th of february, the Rats hit Tannum with their baggy tyres and tight shorts.

The day started off great with a Maccas coffee at 5.30 am. Zulu was tied up on the thought of overdosing on caffeine, already having one before the ride. Lucky thunder was there to convince him to have one more, promising that it will be fine.

The Woolies carpark was alive with MTB riders. Very nice to see Ekka and Craig Wise turn up. We were treading on a Vultures (Dark Horse Sean ) turf that morning. I must say it was great to have a change of track to ride on. Ive never seen so

much water on a mountain bike ride in my life.

We worked out a way to make sure that no men get left behind. Thanks to Dominic, who, like most men, through expiring circumstances helped to create a new, simpler way around things. The first 45 mins reminded me of a movie I once seen, "Little Boy Lost" or was it "Little Dom Lost". The second man lift up rule was created. Known now as "THE DOM", it is used at a T-section, where, the second rider of the bunch, lifts up, parks and leads the pack into the right direction.
The hill climb was a great test for all the wannabe mountain goats. Handing the climb of the day to BSB. Dark Horse and Myself also got a mountain goat prize.

Ok, so the only reason I started the mountain bike rides was to hope that someone damages something on their bike and they bring it in to me (Brad or Jordy) so I can fix it and make lots of money, right? Thats how it should work anyway. But, I never counted on My new Fisher blowing up, just gotta hate that. For those of you wanting to know what that crackle and pop was at the last few metres of the climb. I over torqued and cracked my freewheel body. Big motor, little diff. This ended the day and we headed back to the Coffee Club to get another caffeine fix.

Dont forget this Sundays ride starts at 5.30 am sharp. That is we leave at 5.30 am from the Choice Petroleum on Philip St.

SATURDAY SMASH FEST

It all started off as per normal. Zulu laying down the law about pot holes. And explaining how to put your mate in one if you don't like him. And the pot hole was found, just spotted a little bit too late then what we all would have liked... sorry cam.

NEWS FLASH. Lord Garmin just sent in the average speed for the ride. 34.89 kmph. No wonder there were riders going out the back like a drug bust in a night club.

The double bump pump step class caught up on Bush Slasher, not able to do his repeats of haddock, actually, no-one recalled him doing a single haddock after the smash. One of the many Wendy's today.

Dominic enjoyed his saturday hell ride back to maccas after being caught out on the way back from Targinnie at church hill. One day Dom.. one day. Yet to say, Dominic is improving every ride.

Great ride from Marty, Mick and Kat. The three soldiered over Cockatoo Dr. Or limped.

The last four Wendys of the day were Chrissy Anderson, Wiff, Big Greyhound and Myself.

Although I did class myself as a soft serve this morning, I have an excuse. It's in my program not to do Cockatoo Drive. I will just be sticking with the sprinklers.

SATURDAY MORNING BLOCK RIDE IS ON

Dont let a bit of water scare you. The ride is on no matter what. I'm hanging out to have a brew at Macas after the ride. So Ill be there, rain hail or shine. No Wendy's soft serve tomorrow. Its concrete time.

Im going to let all of you in on a small secret of mine. I have been doing a little "mental core" training in the winter when it never seems to rain, just to toughen me up. Once a week I have been putting my rollers outside, and underneath the sprinkler in the blistering cold and going for it.

Rule 1. The sun has to be down.
Rule 2. Dont let the neighbours see you.

This sort of training has help me to become the cyclist I am today, and has taught me to cope with any weather condition that is brought upon us. Harden up guys. Get under the sprinkler.

CHECK THIS OUT

Rainy Weather Blues

OK God. I think thats enough rain. Ive been sitting on Youtube playing songs about rain. There are heaps of them.
Can anyone tell me when it is going to clear up? Is there going to be a ride tonight? I say yes - we are riding tonight. That's if it's not raining - of course.
I dont know how i did it. I sat on the rollers for 30 mins last night, until my head fell off.
Just for something to do in this rainy weather, can you all post what secret training you have been doing .....

DIRTY RATS HIT TANNUM

This Sunday the 7th of February, The Rats will be meeting at 6 am at the Tannum Sands Coffee Club . Sean (Wendy I dont go riding in the rain) Vacher has been mapping out some tracks.
We had a good turnout last sunday on the ride. We would like to welcome the new boy, Ray, to the Rats. Ray had to call it a day after cramping forced him to Mackers early, stomach or muscular, we will never know...
The Zulu almost had a story after nearly finding that fine line between having extreme fun and eating dirt.
Dont forget 6 am sunday at Tannum Sands Coffee Club...
Tell a friend and bring some money for a brew later.