Mick is riding across America on his custom Bobo Bicycles Rohloff Tourer.

You can follow his adventures via http://notsoeasyrider.tumblr.com/ -

Photos of roadside oddities, epic scenery, and epic meals. Check out a selection below..

Off-roading on the Xtracycle!

It’s almost 5 months since I got back on my bike (thanks to Xtracycle’s awesome Free Radical) and from that very first ride I’ve been dreaming up a way to hit the ‘open road’ with the kids and test my bikes ability to go beyond the daily commutes to music class, home-school meets and all the normal life stuff that we achieve on wheels. I wanted something more, something akin to the kind of bike touring that I did pre-kids. A proper cycling adventure, outside of the urban jungle.

Last week the kids and I packed up the car with our camping gear, threw the bike onto the shiny new roof-mounted bike rack (a tandem to accommodate the length) and headed south to try our luck with cycling along a Rail Trail. Well, not quite threw – it’s bloody heavy and not easy for this 5 foot nothing mama, but with the help of a milk crate and sheer determination I can do it. And have put it on and off successfully several times now with little more than a few greasy stains and perhaps a tiny little bit of chipped paint on the car! (Lucky I’m not precious about the car).

We drove for a few days, camping along the way. The weather turned rather foul at one point and we postponed hitting the Rail Trail for a couple of days while snuggled up in a gorgeous warm log cabin outside Marlo, sitting around the wood fire toasting marshmallows between little bush walks and wanderings along the beach nearby. (I’ll post about the non-cycling part of our trip soon).

When the rain finally stopped we drove to Bairnsdale, ditched the car and hit the East Gippsland Rail Trail on the bike for the next 3 days for our first ever almost whole-family (Will stayed home to work poor thing!) out of suburbia cycling trip. It was great. Challenging and hard work, but really great.

We needed to take a detour off the trail for the first night after discovering on-route that our accommodation options in the village we were headed to did not exist, and apart from the rather hairy 2 or so kilometres of cycling along the Princes Highway with enormous high speed logging trucks and way too fast cars in a ‘shoulder’ that consisted of a lot of loose gravel and uneven surface, we cycled the whole way along the peaceful old railway line through farmland and forest. Over rivers and creeks and gully’s. Past a Brown snake, many kangaroos and wallabies, about ten million butterflies and thousands of birds. And even a few other cyclists, though none of them carrying a load or child(ren)!

I just want to do it all again. Hopefully next time we’ll figure out how to carry camping gear as a cycling trip just doesn’t feel right when you’re not pitching a tent each night in my opinion. Oh well, for this trip we were loaded up enough without throwing in the extra weight of camping gear. And being our first time off a sealed road on the Xtracycle I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew. I have found myself day dreaming about acquiring some super dooper ultra lightweight and compact fancy pants camping gear that I imagine must exist… anyone have gear of that description that you want to off-load on us?!

Aaron and Jacqui are hitting the road today, starting their trans-continental global touring odyssey. If you read our site regularly, you’d be familiar with their beautiful photos, beautiful bikes and previous adventures so they go with best wishes from the whole Cheeky family.

We plan to ride our bikes from the west Pacific Ocean to the east Atlantic Ocean. We’ll start on the shores of Jervis Bay, Australia and with a few assisted sea crossings, cycle to the west coast of Ireland via Asia and Europe. Our specific destination is open and the time frame is flexible.

You can follow them on their site.

I’ve (meg) uploaded a bunch of photos from the Shikoku island tour if you fancy seeing a few more. Check ‘em out here.

so i haven’t been blogging much lately but don’t worry you are going to suffer me a bunch from now on. In the last 3 months my bike has not been my friend, i never thought an object of such beauty and a deliverer of such vast, joyful functionality could be such a treacherous fiend.

first a racing accident. a good one, severed tenders in my right hand, my pinky can barely scratch me ear it is such a waste of space. i could try and put that one away to being on the limit and being unfortunate on a tight corner in a race. the truth was i thought just because i had tubular tyres i could run obscene pressures. high pressure on rough road doesn’t work so well. i should’ve known but every last bit of forward momentum i could savor i was chasing.

then 10 weeks later, barely back on the back in earnest about 200 metres from home after a light ride, having a drink, hit a bump, next thing down on the ground groaning and moaning unable to breathe very well and realising that i couldn’t put weight on my right arm because i had a broken collarbone. even after my hand injury i loved riding my bike with an undeserved passion. maybe i should have been more humbled, i did try but i just couldn’t shake the urge to get back training again.

a week after i broke my collarbone i was due to go on a family holiday to france for three weeks to stay with paula’s parents in provence. awesome timing, mont ventoux beckoned but i was unable to oblige. i did drink a lot of great wine and had some lovely fresh produce. a good location to lick my wounds.

so a few pieces of advice: it is probably a good idea to wear gloves when you ride your bicycle (any protection helps), do not exceed 120psi in any type tyre when racing at heffron park or any other poorly surfaced cycling track and be very careful when riding no hands. if you break your collarbone get a few expert opinions on whether to operate or not. i reckon i should have been operated on but wasn’t and now have a significantly overlapped collarbone which will require messing with at some future date.

i am getting to get a kieren racing outfit just to commute with: cushioning and mad hand protection

Paddy finished teaching next tuesday then we are off to france on
Thursday… at last check.

Have finally just bought the radio equipment… heaps excited about that!

John - Adam’s back, but John is off on travels – He’s taking his fixie and messenger bag across Europe with stops at the ECMC’s in Olso and 2007 CMWC’s in Dublin. He’s posting photos on his Flickr as he goes, or hit him up on the Facebook.

Brekkie Ride – The Fixie/Singlespeed Breakfast ride had a real nice roll over to Bradley’s Head and the Zoo on Saturday morning. Bank on it happening every Saturday unless it’s pelting down with rain. If you’re not equipped with an appropriate bike, read on..

SE Lager – We’re really impressed with the SE Lager single speeds that we mentioned back in April. There’s a few in the shop in a range of sizes. They’re pretty unbeatable for $700. Keep your eye out for a custom Cheeky Transport 3 speed version.

L’Eroica – I’m really keen to get a group together to head down to Beechworth in October for L’Eroica Downunder – “A rally for collectors of historic and classic racing bicycles”. The original L’Eroica is held each year in Tuscany. Drop us an email if you’re interested.

Cheers – Nick

My trip to the States was fantastic, but it’s good to be back at work and no matter what Dave says, Barnetts has definitely made me more useful in the workshop.

There’s a big stack of photos on my Flickr – check em out. There’s all of them here, or just the bike related ones here..

In other Flickr news, I’ve started a Flickr group for Inner West bike culture stuff, so feel free to join and add your photos..

One of the best experiences I had in the US was rolling with a Midnight Ridazz in LA – 4 or 500 riders on everything from Huffys to 3Renshos doing loops around Hollywood dressed up like gangs out of The Warriors, yelling and screaming, and then a stack of beers and kick of a soccerball in a park at the end..

Stay tuned, cos I’ve got official sanction to get Midnight Ridazz happening in Sydney.

While I’m on the blog, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the monstrous achievement of Stuart O’Grady in the Paris Roubaix, L’Enfer Du Nord. John is upset that Tommy Boonen didn’t do better, but I think I’ll celebrate by kicking back and watching a movie. (P.S. The race is gonna be on SBS on the 29th at 11am – thanks Phil)