Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Sunday Ride - Anzac Highway - Glenelg - Bower Road - Glenelg

All

Sorry I stuffed up. When I set the schedule I didn't realise that I had scheduled the Kat Killer Klassic for the coming Easter Sunday.

So a bit of ride exchange is in order.

This weeks ride is the more Easter Sunday friendly Anzac Highway -Glenelg - Bower Rod - Glenelg 

Meet 7:30 am in the City

Coffee at Glenelg

A short history of the KKK
The Kat Killer Klassic honors the anniversary of one cats tragic death and Dave’s spectacular fall. For those not in the know early 2009 David C, an original BG and mad cyclist took a bad fall when his paths crossed with a suicidal kitty that resulted in the cat ending up in Dave’s front wheel and subsequently jamming into his fork effectively stopping his front wheel ‘dead’ and ejecting him into the bitumen. The cat survived the ordeal but passed later that night.

Hence the KKK RIP.P 

The KKK will now be the 10th of April 

Monday, March 21, 2016

Pub Crawl

I have been commissioned by the events and entertainment sub-committee to book a afternoon of fun pub crawl  on the Handlebar pedal pub.


Each bike takes 16 people 12 pedaling 2 yelling at the rest to speed up.  The hire is for 2 hours with 3-4 stops along the way and we can pre buy up to 4 drinks each in the Esky. There are two bikes so we can get as few as 8 and as many as 32 people along for the ride.

I will only book if I have 12 definite takers as we have to pay up if we cancel within 14 days.  I am fairly busy leading up to this so some assistance with organization will be appreciated.

The BG Pub Crawl rules are

  1. We wear full BG kit with running shoes as there are no cleats on this thing
  2.  Points will added for chirping the tyres
  3.  Brian sits on the front left  so he can win all the sprints
  4.  Pubs to stop at will be chosen by consensus on the Sunday ride prior
  5.  Points will be deducted for any drinks dropped
  6.  What happens on the pedal pub stays on the pedal pub
  7.  Points will be deducted for inviting Ralph or Ruth along
  8.  The Points don’t matter 

Please review the pricing below and indicate a date preference.  Saturday the 9th has no football on and Saturday the 16th has a evening Crows game

I was thinking 1-3pm or there about TBC.  I sent a link  to a meeting planner out by email. See if you can get someone to send it on to you.


Bike.jpg


Bike.jpg
Finances

I think if we work on $60 per person assuming we have 12 people. That’s roughly 3 or 4 drinks per person. Final pricing will depend on numbers.

Hire of the Bike is =$500 (Assuming no late fees or $1000 for abandoning the bike)

Drinks are here

Regards

AM

Friday, March 18, 2016

Sunday Ride - Hallett Cove

All 

Sundays ride is down to Hallett Cove and back to Glenelg for coffee. Route will be finalised when we meet in the City.



Meet in the City at 7:30 am 


It looks like a nice day for a ride.



Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Three Peaks - Congratulations to Phil and Big John + Ride Report

Sunday while we were enjoying a fantastic day out doing the full BG Epic Ride - Meadows loop on a fine, still and foggy in places day, Phil and Big John were tackling the even more Epic Three Peaks. In comparison to  Phil and Big John we were taking it all very easy. Cruisey even. 

We did discuss how those of us tackling the 3 peaks were travelling. You know "they should be over the Tawonga gap now, which road do they climb back to Falls Creek on" etc

I can now report how they were travelling.

So Major Kudos to Phil and John who completed the  235km and 4000 vertical metres of ascent 

https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/peaks-challenge-falls-creek/the-route/


Phil who finished in 12 hours 22 minutes.
"It Nearly killed me. Cramping on Hotham slowed me down a bit that's for sure. Came good in the end. Felt like throwing the towel in for the first five hours but ended up pulling myself together and getting on with it. Thanks for your support"

Big John who made it look easy and did the ride in 8 hours and 48 minutes  
We believe that makes him both 53rd overall and an absolute legend

Coffee stop will be extended this Sunday to allow for the complete story download assuming  of course that Phil wants to get back on the bike.. 





Ride Report
The Sunday Group did the full Meadows loop which we haven't done for quite a long time. We gathered at the bollards with Brian and Michael pushing hard on the climb. Michael went sub 30 (28:20). Brian was so focused and spent he didn't even acknowledge Graham and I as he went through the bollards. For a second I thought he would reprise Franks famous excursion into the trees to look for Ralph but he held it together.

 As mentioned above the weather was almost perfect warm, no wind and except for some really weird fog on the road into Meadows it was sunny. The perfect weather was marred by the early departure of Hugh and Echunga with a bent hanger. The slow group had gone ahead in an attempt to reach Meadows and let the fast group catch up once the mechanical was solved. However when they caught me about 5km out and I could tell by the lack of "whoosh, whoosh" wheel noise that Hugh wasn't with them. They passed yelling "get on the back" doing  40kpm plus. I chased but it was always optimism over realism.

Yes there were tasty things at the Meadows bakery as well as the err dulcet tones of bagpipes. After a quick discussion it was diced we would do the proper loop and return via the Clarendon. 


The road from Meadows was busier than we recalled but it was no real issue and once we were out of the Traffic, right turn  after Clarendon, we enjoyed some of the nicest climbs in Adelaide. I had forgotten how enjoyable the climb from Claronden to the Cherry Gardens was.  We regrouped at the top of ever climb and got back to the city around 12:15.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sundays Ride (by popular demand) is the Meadows loop

Sundays Ride (by popular demand) is the Meadows loop. I am not sure why something about tasty things at the bakery!

There will be a Slow Group for those who haven't got a lot of kilometers in the legs. So please don't be put off and come out at least for the early stages of the loop if you feel your not up to the full journey. 

We are doing the Meadows loop in the clockwise (Mt Lofty first) direction. This allows a selection of escape routes of varying degrees of distance and difficulty. The anticlockwise direction doesn't work as well for escape routes.  

The full loop is mapped here and I suggest if you haven't ridden it before to download the map to either your GPS or phone . The first part is easy to follow but there are a few roads less traveled on the southerly return. 

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/896816431  94 km (from the city) 1338 m of ascent

Meeting Times 

7:30 am in the City
8:00 am at the Tollgate (bottom of the freeway bike track)
8:30 am at the Bollards 

Escape Routes 
I have plotted a set of escape routes (distance from city)
Escape Route 1: Bollards, Mt Lofty etc (for those who just want to say hi.)
Escape Route 2: Mylor out and back. 58 km 
Escape Route 3: River Road to Hahndorf and return 75 km
Escape Route 4: Echunga, Echunga Rd to Hahndorf, river Road home  82 km 
Escape Route 5: Meadows - Out and Back. Debatable if this is easier but I have included it as it sticks to the hills and avoids some of the pinches on the return loop. 

Coffee at the Meadows Bakery
Full Loop or out and back will be decided at Coffee depending on how people are feeling. 

No Excuses, No Stuffing Around and No Prisoners Ride

We had a great turn out of 18 for Sundays "No Excuses Club ride" and as it turned out no stuffing around and no prisoners ride.

It was a great morning for a ride however it was humid and we were already sweating before we hit the road. Once again we got every red light  as we headed down onto port road. I think the road works on South road are going to start impacting this ride in the future so I will keep an eye on whats going on and we will need to flexible.

We held a medium high pace down Victoria rd with quick turns on the front until the heavily contested sprint point. The weather may have been hot but the pace was even hotter. The bunch was hitting the high 40's before the sprint even began. From my vantage it looked like the bunch just kept accelerating shedding riders until the final kick.

As reported to me Hugh won, followed by Sam and Mo.

As a few of the boys pointed out it was a interesting pace for a "come an try" ride, but that's what sprints are for. We obeyed the rule of leaving no one behind we waited for everyone to regroup get some much needed hydration before the run down the beach at leisurely pace. This was all fun and a car turning right at a roundabout was witness to a beautifully executed group emergency stop. No wheel touches or bus stop flops to be seen. Just the whole group stopped and bathed in  a flood of sweat as the cool breeze generated by movement stopped.  

I was told who won the second and third sprint but sorry I have forgotten. We regrouped at the service station and went onto Glenelg for coffee.  

Being Clipsal weekend a lot of people had places to be and the home by 11 rule came in very handy. So most people returned via Henley or Anzac Hwy.

A great day all round.