Ready to go

Steady rain at the moment.  Colloquially you would say ""pissing down""  Hope it stops soon.  I don't fancy setting up camp in the rain.  I bet Joe will wish he had mudguards!!!

Had a good ride yesterday with Brian just up to Upwey; it was good because it was my first ride fully packed (Well almost fully packed, still missing the tent).  Bike is heavy and it takes more effort to stop, but it goes well...on the flat anyway.  Uphill wasn't too bad but I am glad I got the bike with lower gearing.  I could feel it in the legs even on a short ride.
Apologies for the lycra in the picture, but suck it up there will be more to come.

Off to Wilson's Prom today.  Peter is driving us down and having a meal with us before returning to Melbourne.  I am looking forward to a good meal of salmon and knocking off a few bottles of  plonk.  The best preparation for a long ride.

Route

While our starting point is fixed (Tidal River on Wilsons Promontory) everything else flexible. We are aiming to reach Coffs Harbour but whether we get there is dependant on everything that happens along the way. The main consideration is to finish in a town that has a railway station as we are planning to return home by train.

Although the route is flexible, our intention is to stick close to the coast and to overnight by the sea when we can. Traffic and hills will be issues. As much as possible we want to avoid heavy traffic and while we are happy to tackle hills they will reduce our daily mileage. Our plan is to avoid Sydney traffic by catching a train. This may change too as we have plans to visit some landmarks in the middle of the city and to stay with Tony’s brother.

Google Map

Baggage

As this is an unsupported ride, we have to carry all out own gear. We will be camping along the way as well as staying in hostels and caravan parks. We have ridden on supported rides where we haven’t had to carry gear in the past and also done some overnight unsupported rides but this totally different.

Tony has chosen to carry all his gear in panniers on his bike whereas I have chosen to tow a trailer. For both of us this is a new experience. The bikes are geared for climbing hills so we should be able to drag our gear up the hills. The stretch through East Gippsland to the south coast New South Wales will be our biggest challenge.

Assembling the bikes

Last year Tony and I did a bicycle maintenance course at Northern Metro TAFE in preparation for our big ride. The instructors were bike mechanics who worked in bike shops around Melbourne. Their tuition was excellent and we enjoyed it very much.

Now with new bikes to assemble here was chance to use our newly learned skills. Oh dear!

As the bikes arrived partially assembled it was matter of fitting the handlebars and seat and connecting and tensioning the brake and gear cables. Missing from the delivery was a small but important bolt for the front derailleur. Both of us visited separate bike shops to obtain this bolt and both us returned with items that were too long. Apparently this bolt is extremely rare. I was lucky enough to find one on another bike in my shed. Tony had to improvise and use the longer bolt and pack it with a washer.

With just over a week to go before departure the bikes are assembled. Now there is just fine tuning. The true test of our bikes and our mechanical skill will commence shortly!

The journey begins

Our journey began with a conversation that to make our 50th birthdays memorable we needed an adventure. As we are both cyclists, a bicycle tour was obvious as it enabled us to travel on a limited budget and still do something worthwhile. 


The route came easily. Wilsons Promontory to Cape York, the most southerly point on mainland Australia to the most northerly point. Some quick internet research showed not only was it possible, others had already done it.

Further research showed us that it would probably take 3 months to cover the 6000 kilometers around the coast. 

With families to consider we came to the realization that we couldn’t do the journey in one trip. Hence the first leg of our journey, Wilsons Promontory to Coffs Harbour. The journey to this point took 18 months of dialogue and was mostly speculative. Even after we set a departure date we had no confirmation that it would occur. Tony was most positive and had Janelle’s agreement early on. I stalled but finally committed to the project in October 2010. Departure was to be March 2011.

The next step was to find some suitable bikes. We both had hybrids that we used for commuting but felt we needed something better because of the weight we would have to carry. We both had been looking on the Internet and in local bike shops. The most suitable local options were over our budget, second hand opportunities passed us by. 

Eventually we found an American web-based retailer who had a suitable product but didn’t sell overseas. Fortunately we found an intermediary and placed our orders 1 month of our intended departure. Delivery was prompt ending concern that we may have to delay our departure.

www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/gran_turismo.htm Link to bikes

Tony’s bike arrived first. He quickly discovered one quirk. The bikes were set up for riding in the USA so the brakes were transposed. With a fortnight to departure we have been assembling and testing the bikes. Fortunately we know what we are doing (irony!)