Category Archives: News

On cyclists, eagles and the essence of the club

News

Article by Edmund West

Cyclists are like a family where, to quote the Eagles, Hotel California, ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’.

It’s important to get back to the very simple essence of the club. The essence of the club is rides and ride leaders, because without ride leaders putting rides on the calendar, the club is nothing.

And the essence of rides with the club is very simple. You meet at a central location, cycle up a trail or road together for the day or a multi day ride then all go home. We encourage ride leaders to focus on the ride that they want to do.

This club is about any member being a ride leader.

If you’re an aspiring new ride leader, contact a friend or even a few friends when you’ve got a plan for a ride, then post your ride on Meetup.

A checklist and more info for ride leaders is on the club website here.

There’s plenty of support out there to help you post your first Meetup ride — talk to the Rides Secretary as a starting point via rides@mbtc.org.au 

MBTC turns 50 – a remarkable reunion

News

A determined sub-committee turned detective to track down past
members for a celebration to remember.

On 18 November, 131 past and current members gathered at the Furlan Club in
Thornbury, including 22 out of 28 Club Presidents.

Thank you to organiser Judy Beswick for this article

It took a lot of work tracking down old members, a lot of emails on the database had changed over the years.

But the word spread and the list grew. Fred Surr, Life Member did us the honour of being
the MC for the day.

We had five speakers –Tony Kyne, Charlie Farren, Gael Reid, Gail Crennan and
Ian Clarke.

All gave wonderful and enlightening speeches about their time and experience at the club, painting a picture of how MBTC has evolved.

Thank you to Christopher for wonderful photography: view photos here. (download link 5281)

We had a number of people who travelled a long way just to be at the 50th. Special mention goes out to Sally Dillon & Peter Hines who came from Brisbane, Natalie Schroeder & Scott Rickard from Canberra, and others who travelled a long way by car.

It truly shows the commitment people have towards the club.

The Furlan Club was a perfect venue, with plenty of room for people to mingle. The food was excellent and we loved the 50th Anniversary cake.

Since the event, we have received a number of praises on how the day went
and how good it was to catch up with old friends.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the sub-committee for all their
hard work with the organisation.

The sub-committee consisted of Peter Signorini, Walter Medenbach, Vera Slota, Chris Woods and myself.

Judy Beswick

Myth: Heat from rim brakes increases tire pressure

News, SpokeNotes

There seems to be a widely held belief that, when using rim brakes on long descents, the heat from the braking can heat the air inside the tire, increasing the pressure to the point of blowing the tire off the rim. As we will see below, this explanation for how such blowouts occur is very implausible; and the advice of releasing air from your tires prior to a descent actually increases the risk of bursting a tire.

Continue reading Myth: Heat from rim brakes increases tire pressure →

Summer 2008/09 – Edge of the World tour

News, SpokeNotes

Photography by Peter Signorini

For many years there has been an informal tradition of doing a longer tour of two or three weeks over the period after Christmas and spanning the new year. The timing is convenient for many people, as it is covered by school holidays and many other people have time off work, so most people are able to go on a longer tour. The only drawback is the hot weather in much of Victoria at that time of year (and interstate tours to New South Wales or South Australia will not evade the summer heat either).

So, for this particular year, Peter Sig decided to try to escape the summer heat by going to Tasmania. As you will see, this strategy proved to be stunningly effective. Continue reading Summer 2008/09 – Edge of the World tour →

BBTA’s Darling River by Bicycle – 2015

News, SpokeNotes

Hebel to Wentworth and Mildura

by Sandie Downs

In August 2015 Peter Damm, Suzanne Mintel, Jenni and Stan Pearce and Sandie Downs rode their august steeds 1,125 km, along the dirt roads traversing either side of the Darling River on a self-supported bicycle tour. New members, Sean Kelly and Denis Weisz, joined us for the first three days to get a taste of outback bicycle touring. Denis drove a support vehicle for these three days.
The vastness of the New South Wales outback sets this area of Australia apart from other corners of the world with great tracts of red sandy earth merging with endless blue skies. The diversity of features is significant, whether fossicking for opals near Lightning Ridge, boiling the billy around a campfire or just bending the elbow in a country pub, the outback has experiences in abundance. Bicycle touring one of Australia’s longest rivers is about the journey and the adventure, experiencing its remoteness and the people who live along its banks, smelling the wildflowers and hearing the different sounds of birds and animals that abound along the meandering roads and waterways. Due to this year’s winter rains outback NSW was green with herbaceous plants and wildflowers for as far as we could see – beautiful country for the duration of our three week ride.

Continue reading BBTA’s Darling River by Bicycle – 2015 →

Post-Easter 2015 – Railway Ballast Tour

News, SpokeNotes

The coronavirus lockdown means that I have more time to look through photos from past rides. This particular ride was done in April 2015, in the week after Easter (and I believe there wasn’t any other club Easter trip that year).

According to Edmund, we didn’t start on Good Friday because my Dad was expressing some interest in coming along, but he wasn’t able to start on Good Friday (I think he had to mark assignments). As it happened, he didn’t end up coming at all. Unfortunately, the result was that only 3 of us were able to go (Edmund, John Harland, and myself); for us, unlike many other club members, we didn’t have any inconvenient commitments like work over the week after Easter (it was a University holiday, lucky me).

The plan that I’d come up with was to start at Euroa, spend the first night at Ruffy, then go to Yea, Molesworth, and Alexandra. After that, the planned route became a tad more adventurous, going via a dot on the map called Rubicon, and across the mountain range via forest roads to get to Warburton. From there it would be an easy run into Lilydale. All up I planned that it would take 5 days.

In many ways, this ride did not go according to plan, although we did at least manage to complete the whole distance, and didn’t run out of time. Edmund has since remarked how sometimes cycle tours can feel like living in a badly written comedy. This was such a tour, and I hope readers appreciate the comedy. Continue reading Post-Easter 2015 – Railway Ballast Tour →

Sunday May 24th Redbeard Bakery ride: 70 to 80 km, hard.

News

The ride will start from Kyneton and head to Trentham for lunch at the Redbeard bakery. The route will follow quiet, mostly unsealed, roads. After lunch, the ride will continue to Woodend, probably through the Wombat State forest; given that the route via the main road isn’t far, and there will be a lot of time. Mathew ran this ride last year, and it turned out to be a very pleasant route with little traffic.