Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

Don't really know what you all look like, but at least it beats Spandex ...
The survival chance for a Spandex roadie during our winters is exactly 0% :D Trust me: Nothing beats the feeling of riding warm with howling frosty wind outside your clothing :)
 
No snow today, but a bit more rain would be welcome …
Borallon, Queensland

Borallon, Queensland
8.42 am; 13.5 km from home.

Map : Borallon, Queensland

Pink Arrows : Photo above
Yellow Arrows : Post #1 of this thread.
 
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Ride's over. Let's head in for refreshment
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Usually when I ride from home (above), I take the quickest route to the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. That's about 750 metres or around two minutes.

The return trip defaults to a long grind up our street which was laid out in the 1970s. Back then, 'town planning' of suburbs like ours which were neither town nor country often amounted to drawing two parallel lines on a map (a sheet of paper?) and chopping up the space between the imagined roads into plots of around a hectare each.

In the video below, we leave the rough section of the rail trail (state responsibility) as it meets the edge of civilisation and becomes a concrete bikeway administered by the city council. Turning off the bikeway we head into 1990s suburbia in which houses are crowded together on blocks of land that are less than a fifth of the size of those in our neighbourhood. The streets, littered with concrete humps, roundabouts and 'slow points', are named in honour of wine grape varieties. Here the husbands are morally obliged to keep the grass under control rather than let it resemble the antipodean version of the Seregenti which prevails nearby in the semi-cleared scrubland which Jen and I have called home since the mid-eighties.

Click four-arrow icon to view full-size video.
I think I need to move🤣🚴‍♀️
 
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I have been reading a lot of recent posts complaining about riding in the snow and ice... take a look at this young lady! ;)
Thanks to RandallS ... https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/corbets-couloir-on-mtbs.40681/#post-386815

Anyone who has ever skied or snowboarded Jackson Hole knows just how nerve-racking it can be to send it into the infamous Corbet's Couloir, even in the best of conditions. Doing it in icy conditions on mountain bikes is nothing short of insane, and that's exactly what we did. Corbet's Couloir is one of the most legendary and challenging ski runs in the world. This spring, Cam McCaul and Casey Brown attempted the first-ever Mountain Bike descent of the double black diamond ski run. There's a litany of other adjectives you could prescribe to the lines McCaul and Brown threw down - Sketchy, heavy, and borderline suicidal all come to mind - but ultimately, the end result was jaw-dropping.

 
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I have been reading a lot of recent posts complaining about riding in the snow and ice... take a look at this young lady! ;)
Thanks to RandallS ... https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/corbets-couloir-on-mtbs.40681/#post-386815

Anyone who has ever skied or snowboarded Jackson Hole knows just how nerve-racking it can be to send it into the infamous Corbet's Couloir, even in the best of conditions. Doing it in icy conditions on mountain bikes is nothing short of insane, and that's exactly what we did. Corbet's Couloir is one of the most legendary and challenging ski runs in the world. This spring, Cam McCaul and Casey Brown attempted the first-ever Mountain Bike descent of the double black diamond ski run. There's a litany of other adjectives you could prescribe to the lines McCaul and Brown threw down - Sketchy, heavy, and borderline suicidal all come to mind - but ultimately, the end result was jaw-dropping.

Very impressive that he kept the rubber side down and the rear wheel behind him.
 
You mad people who bike in the snow: do you ski in the blaze of summer?? Do you swim in sand?? There's such a thing as appropriate weather for a particular activity, ya know. Even going out to bike in 40F has my eyeballs chattering. Maybe I'm just a wuss.
I was a heavy skier for a long time (instructor for a couple of years too) but knee injuries from team sports started the decline and the "unexpected journey to the bottom of the elevator shaft - thankfully a short drop or I wouldn't be typing this" finished me off in 2012.

Biking is as close as I get to skiing and I love it for that reason - and ebikes make it possible to enjoy.
After my "Humpty's moment" aka the great fall, an ebike was key to recovery from a ruptured quad.

Other winter sports are behind me as well - I used to referee all levels of hockey, including collegiate, but have been retired for almost 20 years.
I stayed on for a couple of years after shelving the skates but my heart wasn't in it as an advisor.

My old bumper sticker said it all - "I'd rather be skiing!"
 
I have been reading a lot of recent posts complaining about riding in the snow and ice... take a look at this young lady! ;)
Thanks to RandallS ... https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/corbets-couloir-on-mtbs.40681/#post-386815

Anyone who has ever skied or snowboarded Jackson Hole knows just how nerve-racking it can be to send it into the infamous Corbet's Couloir, even in the best of conditions. Doing it in icy conditions on mountain bikes is nothing short of insane, and that's exactly what we did. Corbet's Couloir is one of the most legendary and challenging ski runs in the world. This spring, Cam McCaul and Casey Brown attempted the first-ever Mountain Bike descent of the double black diamond ski run. There's a litany of other adjectives you could prescribe to the lines McCaul and Brown threw down - Sketchy, heavy, and borderline suicidal all come to mind - but ultimately, the end result was jaw-dropping.

A dear friend of mine has a personal view on Casey Brown, and to some degree, I agree with him.
Not all, but some.

His points were:
  • She will die young (my comment - if you see the list of her injuries, she's likely been close already)
  • Her brother was a legend. I read about him a few years ago. Absolutely zero impulse control.
    Those children were raised like animals in New Zealand and it shows here. (my comment - there's a video about her and her family that shows why he may think this, but his view is a bit harsh IMHO))
  • But it takes those types to show what humans can do. But they die young and the norm survives and reproduces.
  • There’s a kid at work who knows all sorts of extreme skiers.
    The sponsors push them into really stupid things.
    One guy quit on the spot when asked to do something super death-defying.
    Good on him!


    I understand his point of view, and I'll keep him anonymous, but I will also add, of all the people I personally know, he's the guy that would have done this type of thing.
    I am surprised at times that he isn't more damaged than he is from some of the stuff he did (and survived), mainly on rudimentary mountain bikes and skis.
    On skis, 75% of the time I was close by...
 
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Even going out to bike in 40F has my eyeballs chattering.
Ever wondered why Randall, Prairie and I wore goggles? :) Chez: my story is simple; because of medical reasons, I have to ride not to die soon. Besides, "I'm loving it!" Talking about skiing in the Summer the answer is: ski-jumpers compete in the Summer too. Using plastic surfaces.

"Third Time Around"

Ride 1: I was out of milk. Rode out to the shopping mall on my Vado. +4 C, yet frozen snow on local roads, clean highway. Although Winter Plus 2" tyres are spiked, I exercise careful riding. (Such tyres behave erratically in the snow).
Ride 2: I was waiting for a delivery of a new pedal set to the parcel locker. (Don't ask me how but I managed to do some damage to a Stamp 7 pedal on one of my rides...). The late delivery typically happens around 9 p.m. So I rode up the shopping mall again. No delivery. To make some excuse for the ride, I entered a small shop selling Spanish delicacies. Bought wine and olive oil :)
Ride 3: At 9:44 p.m., I got a notification the parcel got delivered.

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These are for the Monster :)

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I was enjoying snow rides very much!

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I was mostly riding with 20% assistance, making my Vado feel a traditional bike :)
 
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A dear friend of mine has a personal view on Casey Brown, and to some degree, I agree with him. Not all, but some.

His points were:
  • She will die young (my comment - if you see the list of her injuries, she's likely been close already)
  • Her brother was a legend. I read about him a few years ago. Absolutely zero impulse control.
    Those children were raised like animals in New Zealand and it shows here. (my comment - there's a video about her and her family that shows why he may think this, but his view is a bit harsh IMHO))
  • But it takes those types to show what humans can do. But they die young and the norm survives and reproduces.
  • There’s a kid at work who knows all sorts of extreme skiers. The sponsors push them into really stupid things.
    One guy quit on the spot when asked to do something super death-defying. Good on him!

    I understand his point of view, and I'll keep him anonymous, but I will also add, of all the people I personally know, he's the guy that would have done this type of thing.
    I am surprised at times that he isn't more damaged than he is from some of the stuff he did (and survived), mainly on rudimentary mountain bikes and skis.
    On skis, 75% of the time I was close by...
I am afraid you may be right to some degree with regard to Casey... I have seen her story repeat before many times and it often does not end well.
Having spent a year of my younger life skiing in Vail, I have witnessed a certain type of personality that is always drawn to taking ever higher risks.

Nonetheless, she and her family have an interesting backstory growing up in the wilds of New Zealand. ;)

 
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