Week #46, 2018. Challenges, Challenges galore.

The Cycle365 website hosts a variety of cycle related Challenges.  So at the moment I am tackling my personal challenge of riding 5,200 kilometers by 31st December as well as Coffeeneuring and the November “Do something for your Community” challenge.  Luckily they sort of slot together by completing multi-purpose rides!

Bicycle365 Community challenge.  

I organised a bag to hang off the back of the Magnum into which I can easily put a can or two from the roadside with a quick stop and pickup.  On Monday I rode the Armstrong Lane ride and picked up a full bag of cans and bottles and dumped them in a bin at Bishopsbourne.

Unfortunately the pictures I took somehow went missing.  Never mind, next week I can cycle Armstrong’s Lane again and finish the job.  Looks like somebody dumped a bag of cans and then the bag left the site leaving the old soup, baked beans and fruit cans in place.  The second trip should clear the rest up.

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Coffeeneuring # 6 – Meander Bridge Cafe

I hadn’t been into the Meander Valley via Montana Road for a while so that seemed a good trip for #6.

I prepared the trike by the weir at Deloraine.  I am now taking the front wheels off when carrying the trike in the car.  It stops the whole thing bobbing about when cornering or going over bumps.  After folding it a few times and learning the tricks I can now carry it folded without getting chain oil over everything and without the seat falling out during the ride.  Today I have fitted an underseat water supply c/w tube to rider – how will this go?

The climb out of Deloraine is not so easy as no muscles get a chance to warm up before you are into the first 8% incline.  I went around the back streets to avoid holding up traffic through the main shopping area, used bottom gear and quietly cruised up the hills very slowly.  Eventually arriving at the junction of Emu Bay Road and Mole Creek Road (after quite some time) we left Deloraine with a glorious downhill top gear run heading towards Montana Road.  It has been some years since I rode Montana Road and I had memories of a few hills to get things going.  Yep, here they were.  Again I tackled the steepest in bottom gear to preserve the legs for later.  At the top of hill 2 I suddenly thought “Bugger, left my wallet in the car”.  Stopping, I checked the pannier and yes, I had.  That put a dampener on having a Coffeeneuring Coffee stop along the way.

Just outside the Ginseng shop and Cafe.  No coffee there today – no money.  As you can see the road is very pleasant, especially today with no wind and somewhere around 22-23°C – perfect cycling weather.

There was not a lot of traffic and those drivers who came past were all polite.  Thank you.

Getting close to the Meander Valley and the Western Tiers – it continued to be a lovely day.

Cycling through Montana it became obvious that quite a bit of work has been done to remove gorse.  Prior to this ride I have always been aghast at the way gorse had grown to practically house height amongst the trees.  I could see signs that the mite responsible for killing gorse was doing its job while other signs showed roots were being grubbed out and areas cleared.  Great.

I made a little detour to visit the above barn.  It has been gradually falling down over the 10 years I have lived in the area.  After taking this picture I looked up the road to see two cyclists heading towards me.  Carole and Glen from our Friday riding group.  They had spotted a flag and chased it down to see if it was me.  I mentioned my state of penury and they both offered me $5 gratefully accepted as it would allow me to visit the Meander Bridge Cafe, an idea aborted after realising there was no wallet.  Thanks to you both.

They had already had their coffee, so we went out separate ways and I was soon parking out front of the Cafe.  Inside Gracie prepared a skinny Latte and chicken burger – I was able to order both items due to a further $2 I found after searching to the bottom of the pannier !

I didn’t die.

But I almost didn’t get the coffee shot again.  Too keen to eat, I polished off the burger while chatting to Gracie and only remembered to take the picture just before polishing off the coffee!

The ride back to Deloraine was interesting as a side-wind had picked up but it didn’t seem to affect speed.  It felt like it was coming in from the front left but I spun along the slight uphill away from Meander as if we had a tailwind.  In fact the legs were warmed up and working well so they made light work of the hills out of the valley and up the Lake Highway to Deloraine.

Another great ride in northern Tasmania.

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I will end this post here but it is not the end of the cycling week so no figures.

On Sunday I am taking part in Sally’s Ride (Community Challenge 2 for the week).  The Ride is a cycling event with all profits going to various local charities.  As a recumbent rider I am allowed to take part in the 45k ride but not the 70k (which I wanted to do) nor the 100k or 160k rides (thank goodness).  Hopefully it will be a tale worthy of a separate post.