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!