Two days to go

Imagine a Paddy Pallin store after removing all the display units and racks, heaping all their product on the floor, and then inviting 20 kids inside to have a party!

That's our living room right now!

Here's hoping the chaos theory has some merit.

Hilary is in New Zealand
Helen and Rosie are in Hobart
Mat and Kelly are in Perth
Ken is in his living room on his trainer
Shane is at the door receiving goods from yet another courier (roof racks -thanks Thule, sunglasses - thanks City Bike Depot, tyres - thanks Schwalbe)
Tom and Cooper are asleep
Denise is on her deck drinking ros-ay

Somehow this is all going to come together. We'll all end up on the same plane to Broome, and hey! We might even recognise each other at the airport (some of us have met only fleetingly).

The money for Cure Cancer Australia Foundation and WA Police Legacy is tumbling in (over $10,000 now).

And I'm blogging at 3am in the morning. Woke up wondering if I packed the teapot.

How do you avoid butt chafing?

Of all the questions we've received about our revolutionary romp across the desert, this one demands a blogged answer. Thanks P!

As any cyclist knows, a single grain of sand, fleck of grit or other mean morsel of dirt can cause havoc between your cheeks. Such ill intentioned imps can osmose through your nice Nettis, garrulous Giordanas or even salubrious Sugois. Left for even one minute to work their evil, they cause long lasting chafing between even the pertest pair of gluteus maximus.

Reflecting the refrain for our chosen chairty, "Prevention is better than cure!"

Bring out the Aussie butt cream! Or for cheapskates, use your favourite lubricant:

There are many mountain bike tips 'n' trix that are unspoken, learned when earned over many dirty kms of blood, sweat and tears.

Some years ago I completed one of the infamous Polaris Challenges - a stellar 2-day overnight mountain bike race. As my kids were young, I was unable to do the event with my usual partner (husband Shane) and entered instead using the Polaris "find a friend" - we shall call him Gaffa. (Which leads to another tip for another blog.)

On Day 2, my hitherto unknown bike buddie screeched to a halt wearing an alarmingly serious facial expression. Digging deep into his daypack, muttering "Vaseleeeeen" alongside a remote stretch of pine forest, I became fearful for my own safety. Unfettered by pride or decency, and racing for time, Gaffa stuck his fingers into the Vaseline and then rubbed up and down inside the back of his bike nix. Right there on the trail.

Good bike nix + Vaseline = no butt chafing

The road to Gundaroo

Our first (and last!) training ride over corrugations: Shane, Helen, Denise and Cooper take Argie Bargie 75km to Gundaroo return, via the dirt.

A miserable affair. Bitterly cold, strong wind. Our destination - a cafe or pub in Gundaroo for lunch - firmly closed. A miserable huddle over two muesli bars in Gundaroo's cute and quirky Picnic Area, along with 2000 lycra loving mosquitoes. Nothing more than one pair of leg warmers between 8 legs - Cooper wore both of them on his arms until his Dad rescued him at the 45km mark, when Denise and Helen greedily stole them - one jauntily modelled on each wind-facing arm.

"It's like holding a bl**dy jackhammer" Shane complains after 1km of corrugations, another 15km to go. "Whaaaat?" is the common refrain from Seat 3, Shane's voice carried away by the 50kph winds. "I'm COLD!" comes from Seat 4. Zip from Seat 2. We're all having SO much fun.

How's the weather on the Gibb?

Here's the latest from a phone conversation Shane had with one of the event organisers the other day!

Currently, the beginning bit and the end bit are the only parts of the road not actually underwater.
The greater, middle portion is effectively a lake.
The Ord Dam is at 220% capacity, with 9m of water over the top of the dam wall!
A couple of the rivers are currently unpassable.
They had 300-500mm of rain in two days only recently.

If there is no more rain before the event, the water typically recedes quickly.

There is a pretty strong chance that they will organise an alternate route.
If needs be, they are proposing winching vehicles one-by-one to get them over the rivers…

It’ll make for good memories!?

Training rides

Training rides... an opportunity to explore the outer reaches of Canberra..."that looks like a good trail on TOP of that hill"



"That looks like a good cafe"





"That looks like fun!"



(check out the left hand up in the air - good balance!)

Mont 24 hour

A morning of loosely planned fund-raising: lucky dipping approx $7k of gear; donating and auctioning of lights (thanks Nite Lites!); support from Paul, Greg and family (SMSers); first meeting of Kelly and the Canberrans; proud sporting of newly designed home made t-shirts; excited children touting and tin shaking.




Cycled down into rider briefing with crowd parting before us.



Hil and Ken had their first thrilling ride on the bike!


We were all exhausted by day's end: Hil & Ken took Argie Bargie down the coast; Mat & Kelly raced; Denise, Shane, Helen & kids retreated to the south side to drink a remaining bottle from the lucky dip and count the $$$.

$2090 raised!

Guru Wayne

You thought we'd been training on the bike?

When we first talked about doing the Gibb, we talked about riding Argie Bargie each weekend; getting the team used to the bike...and we knew the bike needed some TLC; a threaded bolt in a frame joiner; there was some trouble with the headset; the drum brake never really worked well enough...

If the bike was just-a-bike, we would have been up and going, riding lots. But it ain't just a bike.

The more we use the big bike, the more we are convinced it needs the skills of someone that knows weird bikes; a freaking bike freak. And we found him - out at Gundaroo - Wayne Kotzur.

Wayne was a guru; there's been many phone calls - to Santana, suppliers, distributors; new forks are yet to arrive; the bike's tauter, more corrosion resistant, stronger and safer; the bike's happy - we're happy.

Thanks Wayne.

Gathering bootie

So Helen & Denise headed out to gather some bootie with Rosie (who was, apparently, sick...) and Alex. Denise slung on a low cut top to help the cause...

We gathered:

32 drink bottles - macpac and snowgum
4 magnums of Shiraz - thanks Jim in the bottle shop on Lonsdale St
Rear bike light, and lube - Bike Shed
Pair bike gloves - Lonsdale St cyclery
6 Data dot DNA, 4 pairs handlebar grips & 8 toolbags - thanks Maladjusted
Two wine cooler bags and couple stubby holders and a crap Bundy rum flag!!!
$43 car wash voucher - go Waves!
100 rent one get one free vouchers from Blockbuster video
6 Goodyear chamois
4 $25 vouchers for Debacle, a great cafe in Braddon

All going into the lucky dip at the Mont on the weekend, together with the Coke & Powerade (via Mat & Kelly), and a plethora of items from Ken & Hil, and Verofit's Ice Tea isotonic drink powder - thanks Alex.

Go Stokers!

Argie Bargie tackles single track at the Mont 24 hour

A big win for the team yesterday with approval to perform a fund raising trick at the Mont 24 hour.

The Mont 24 hour is one of Australia's best known and best attended mountain bike events. There are about 4000 competitors plus their entourages - each and every one of them will have a gold coin to throw into our fund raising bucket!

The trick is this: ride, carry or - if push comes to shove - bend our 5m long bike around a lap of the narrow, twisty, heavily forested single track course...OK, so it will be a 'modified' lap, but it's still quite an undertaking.

Our lap will be pre-race, and be timed to end as all those soft people racing 'normal' bikes line up to begin.

Approval came from Alan Vogt who heads up Self Propelled Enterprises and has been organising the Mont 24 hour for a few years. Thanks Alan!

This all came about from a social dinner Hilary had with a bunch of Canberran mountain bikers, including Ben, the MC at the Mont. Be careful who you talk to...

The First Sausage Sizzle

NSW election day competition may have lost us a few customers at the fist fundraising sausage sizzle but the Batemans Bay team still managed to generate some interest by luring people into Bunnings with the 'red rocket' and some handy signage.

There was a lot of interest in the Gibb Challenge and a lot more laughter and amazement that anyone would contemplate taking on the Gibb River Road on a four person tandem!

Thanks to Bunnings Batemans Bay for providing the venue and gear for the BBQ.

Six weeks to go

A flurry of fundraising activities has left us little time to train for five consecutive days of 100km+ riding.

So while the south coast contingent were flipping snags at Batemans Bay Bunnings and rewarding themselves with a 'real' mountain bike race at Tathra, those in the nerve centre of Australia drank lattes and made plans to start training. Soon.

The Type A personalities then approached a popular bike shop in Lyneham for support - which was not forthcoming. Oh, for the support of the wonderful CIty Bike Depot in Sydney!

The dedicated Denise returned home to pursue sponsorship from a well known pharmaceutical company, and Helen was appalled to find that Eagle Boys Pizza haven't yet taken up the opportunity to sponsor the world's longest pizza delivery by four person bike...it seemed like such a good idea!

Where's Argie Bargie

With Argie Bargie undergoing some pre-event TLC his little brother 'the red rocket' makes a miraculous appearance on the coast.

What an inspiration - three days in the shed and voila! The coastal contingent have something to practice on.....

Photo shoot

Aaargh! A photo shoot in 2 hours and only 2 riders available! Thanks to the last minute ring-ins: John Gallant (seat 3) and Mr Craig (seat 4).

Blessed to have a photographer, Mathew Makeham, on the team.

Picking the charity

At least 500 emails have now flown through the ether.

Denise phones a shortlist of charities to suss them out. One stands out from the crowd: Cure Cancer Australia Foundation.

It fits: four of the team have lost parents to cancer; a small amount of money really makes a difference ($7500 funds a month of research); and we're over discussions, it's time for action!

So Cure Cancer will split the funds raised with WA Police Legacy, as required by the event organisers (WA Police).

Picking the team name

Waking up next morning, a little worse for wear, we all thought "What a very, very silly name we chose".

100 emails are exchanged with ideas.

Hilary starts to demonstrate her democratic organisational skills. "Let's put it to the vote!"

Argie Bargie and The Stokers won the vote. (Argie Bargie is the bike's name.)

We enter the team. We book flights. We're in. There's no turning back now.

Which is lucky, because Argie Bargie doesn't turn around very easily...

Picking the team

Send invitations to all likely prospects. Many keen, but no commitments.

"Ken and Hilary!" says Shane.

"Yes!" says Helen.

"Yes!" say Ken and Hilary.

Now we are five. Not enough to relay such long and arduous days on a 4 seated bike.

Drinking vin rose on Denise's deck, the five of us pick a name: Spider on a bike? Gibb River Limo? Ros-ay, Queen of the Dessert? "Yes!"

At that very, very silly moment, Mat & Kelly phone Hilary and say, "Yes!"

Now we are seven. Now we are complete.

The decision to enter

Shane and Helen get itchy feet to go overseas again. Let's find a bike race to enter instead, says Helen, but non-competitive as we don't race any more...Open Mountain Biking Australia. Find Gibb Challenge listed under Events. "Yes" said Shane.

Send email to Denise entitled "A very very silly idea". "Yes" she says. Game on!

Phone Sarge Rimmer who runs the event. Fully subscribed. Bugger.

"Let's do it on the 4 seated tandem, surely they'll have to give us an entry!"

And so it came to pass.