Zev and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance

It was all planned perfectly.

A coastal road trip that started with three days in a canoe, followed by stops to snorkel, climb rocks, and explore national parks. We’d drop into Sydney to say hello to some friends and meander our way down to Australia’s capital, Canberra, where the frisbee tournament we’d been training for the past four months was being held.

However, as the familiar story goes, COVID had other plans…

For the past half year, life has been relatively normal here in Brisbane.

The birds once more chirp, live music has strummed its way back to life, and I again spend my days in the cubicle farm (AKA my office).

With free reign inside of Queensland, it’s been a good stretch of time to continue chasing down life goals. One of the big hopes for the year was to get more involved in my hobbies, which is why I happily accepted the offer of both Captain and Treasurer of my Ultimate Frisbee club, Extinction.

Extinction was off to the Australian Ultimate Frisbee Nationals Tournament.

21 of us, ready to run our hearts out to catch every disc that was thrown. We’d be playing the best teams in the country (albeit, in Division 2), and were excited to put our training to the test.

Sadly, a snap lockdown from a case that involved a nurse, a stripper (news story), and a dastardly UK variant quickly dashed our hopes of competing. With an official decision from the Australian Flying Disc Association, we were told all Brisbane teams were unable to participate in the tournament. To add insult to injury, one day later the lockdown was lifted due to fast response from the government, and cooperation from the aforementioned exotic dancer.

While I wallowed in a few days’ worth of misery, I had zero interest wasting my Easter long weekend.

Thinking along similar lines, the road trip crew came up with a Plan C (Plan B, the canoe trip, went south when El Niño brought the worst floods in 50 years to Australia). We would bike 161km along the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, an abandoned rail line that’s turned into a beautiful mountain bike track an hour’s train ride from Brisbane.

Long on my Aussie bucket list, my four friends and I grabbed a few bikes and hopped on the tram, seeking refuge from the city life.

After getting up to the start of the track, the next few days, while wet, were ones of bliss. It’s you, your bike, and the road. No cars, no worries.

A new rustic town every couple hours whose cafés welcome you in with smells of fresh pies and cheese toasties.

Mhmmmm.

Day 1 our plan was to ride 60km to a town called Toogoolawah. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

A late start, combined with a 40 minute wait for French fries, and me popping a tube (shoutout to Margie for helping me out), we barely made it halfway to our goal. With the weather forecast to get rougher, things weren’t looking great.

And so, we hunkered down in the town of Moore, population 296, with its bustling gas station and not-so-bad public bathroom. Bellies full and plans for a 5am start, we rested up for a big day ahead.

Day 2 was where the hustle came out.

Cruising through town after town, earning those toasties, we made it 90kms. More than twice as far as I’d ever ridden a bike, I was happy with our accomplishment, while my knees were upset at their involvement.

The beautiful scenery between the endless paddocks and happy birdlife was an awesome view, accompanied only by the crunch of our tires on gravel.

Eventually pulling into our campsite, we celebrated our long ride and looked forward to the cruisey remainder of the trip, which went by with barely a hitch.

While my physio would probably say otherwise, I could see myself doing a lot more of this bike-packing style of trip. All you need is a bike, some panniers and a bit of knowledge on maintenance (which I’m still very much lacking).

Anybody keen?

Hope all has been well with you. While prevention of COVID has been great here, the rollout of vaccines seems to be completely bungled, with myself excepting to get a jab in October earliest. However, we’ll see how it goes.

Hope you’ve been keeping life interesting in your own way. Would love to hear about what’s been happening.

All the best,

Zev