"It’s not a race, it’s fun with a result!"

Meet us at Federation Square at 7:30am on Saturday the 8th of December for the Melbourne fixed org au birthday and xmas puzzlecat. This is a team pairs event where you and your partner will need to navigate your way to controls at which you will find answers to puzzle questions. All controls will be optional, some will be worth more points than others and there will be a strict time limit of two hours.

Teams will be given a clue sheet at the rider briefing and will have 30 minutes to plan a route. They will then have two hours to get as many points as they can before finishing at the final control (aka BBQ). Points will be deducted for late return to the BBQ site.

This is not a fixed-only event so everyone is welcome to attend, just turn up at Fed Square on the morning with your partner – or, if you don’t have anyone to ride with, show up and we’ll pair you up with someone. Fast riding will not be required to get high points.

Free entry, everyone welcome. For more information, please email nathan at undershorts dot org or check the forums

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Good luck to all.

nick

To coincide with stage 13 of this year’s tour, this Saturday’s ride will be an unserious time trial. From Federation Square to Federation Square, via some of our favourite Saturday ride elements. The course is approximately 15km long. Start will be the pedestrian crossing at Flinders St. station.

Starting at the normal time: 7:30am, come along and enjoy a fun individual time trial, where luck and street skills will count as much toward your final time as raw power or speed.

Regroup and casual ride afterward.

For more info, email nathan at undershorts dot org, or check the forums.

Update 18/07: Course Map now available.

This coming Saturday, the Melbourne every Saturday ride will be replaced by an informal track session and gear swap meet. We will be at the Coburg Velodrome ([map], [directions]) from about 8:30am.

The track riding session will include some getting familair with the banks, riding in a paceline, taking turns, then a few short events to get a taste of racing:

• Flying 200m time trials
• Matched pursuits
• 3-up sprints

Then if time permits, we will run some scratch or elimination races. Please see the forum for more details. This session is aimed mostly at those who maybe ride track bikes on the street but would like to try them out racing without having to get a full race license.

Parts swapping will happen in the infield – bring anything you have to sell, swap or giveaway. We will also have tools and (limited) expertise on hand to help out with any un-finished business or tricky fixed problems.

As with any Saturday ride – everyone is welcome to come on down. Hope to see you there!

ndf 2007-06-12

For all those who haven’t ridden the Melburn Saturday ride, here’s a potted account of yesterday’s roll round…

For some, myself included, the 7:30 meet time has always been a bit of a challenge. I inevitably leave lateish, and this morning it meant I had to do a TT-style run down St Kilda Road.

The ’style’ of the ride has changed in the past few weeks, as our sergeant-major ndf has been picking backstreet routes in training for the forthcoming Melburn-Roobaix torture-test.* This morning it was the backstreets of Prahran, Balaclava and Brighton, before we jumped onto Beach Road to have a play with the Saturday morning pelotons.

(*Not really)

Some took it easy, others gave it some stick: the general idea was to regroup at the Black Rock clocktower for coffee and rubbish-talk before punting it back up the beach. We met a guy at the café who was rolling around on a 39-year-old road bike, with full old-skool Campy gear, all original, even the drivetrain! And of course his Brooks saddle was also original.

The run down to Black Rock was quick but as we rolled out of the café to head back, full of croissants and coffee, it became clear why… our tailwind friend was now our headwind foe! Heads down, we slogged back up to St Kilda. A large pack eventually caught us and a female Drapac-Porsche team rider riding with them asked about the ‘baseball cards’ in our rear wheels, which was more than a whole ride worth of male roadies had said to us…

A quick stop in St Kilda to regroup, then we rolled down St Kilda Road into the city, where the ride broke up and a few people headed off to start preparations for the Drags scheduled for the afternoon. A number of us ended up at the GPO cafe for a leisurely coffee/breakfast/lunch stop before riding down though Birrarung Marr to Abbotsford Cycles to tend to some mechanical needs. Abbotsford is one of those wonderful cycle shops that time has forgotten. They have great service and carry all kinds of gear for the more idiosyncratic bicycles of Melbourne – the perfect place for those riding vintage track bikes!

From Abbotsford Cycles, we rode back into the city, through Docklands to the Moonee Ponds creek Drain under Citylink, for the Drags.

...mj

Straight line – 1/8th Mile – Elimination

When

1pm Saturday 19th May 2007

Where

Citylink bike route, Mt. Alexander Rd & Citylink – in the Moonee Ponds creek storm-water overflow. Follow path under citylink into the drain, and along to finish line.

What

A re-run of the washout in March: Elimination by random selection in two categories: Male & Female. All entrants will get at least one run. Turn up, pay your $5 and wait to be called up. Costumes optional.

Shifterbikes 16" minibike drags over a shorter distance.

Prizes from Shifterbikes, Fyxomatosis, and fixed org au will be awarded to participants after racing – all participants will be in the running.

Who

If you ride a bike, you qualify. Come along, bring your friends, talk some crap, meet some other bike nerds, and ride as fast as you can, Whatever speed that may be – and on whatever bike you have.

ndf 20070513