afternoon ramble and unicycle action on the Goat Track

Went for a quick ride this afternoon - playing with my phone and just wanted to clear my head a bit, nothing serious, just a loop of Mount Tamborine.

I've been having problems with my mobile phone and it's data connection dropping out at various times. To try to determine if it's the phone or the tower it is connected to I figured I would visit a few locations near good coverage(funnily enough, most of the lookouts have mobile phone towers right next to them) and at the same time give a new version of Joel Tolberts' most excellent BubblerGPS software a minor workout.

For those that don't know - BubblerGPS is an Android phone app that ties into Spotwalla.com to allow you to create maps of your trips suitable for the folks at home to follow and allows you to send simple updates such as photos. On this short ride I was mainly just exercising the software through tracking updates and submitting photos. Most of the photos below are from the mobile camera, so marginal quality.

First stop was the Hangliders lookout - at this point my phone managed to reboot itself several times, but eventually came good. Looked to be a bit of a fire off to the southwest and it's still early enough that the sunset watchers aren't out in force.....


Next I went down Beacon road, past the distillery and wineries to the lookout next to the "dry" conference centre and church camp(temptation before the Lord perhaps?).

Lots of trees in the pic - it's actually better than this:


Now to the Knoll National Park lookout, but first check on a small friend who isn't home, but I photograph his place anyway:


This is the bower of a Satin Bower bird - elegantly constructed, with room for dancing and tastefully decorated with whatever takes the fancy......the ladies really dig blue apparently.....

The lookout:


Again - the photo doesn't do it justice, but I reckon that big tree in the middle is going to undergo an "accident" one of these days....

No time for photos on the road off the mountain - 54 curves in less than seven kilometers(a shade under four and a half miles). Unfortunately I get behind a car at the top of the hill, so I slow down to give them a headstart before getting into the groove(still managed to catch up before the bottom of the hill).

A quick short-cut to the start of Mundoolin Connection as the sun starts to drop and the sky changes colour:


The Outpost is generally busier, bu a lot of Canungra shuts after five(including the servo):


I headed home via the Goat Track - intending my final photo to be the traffic lights controlling the narrow one-way section, but decided to double back....

This is the Goat Track:


And this is a Unicycle:




Turns out he is a local and he's on his return trip down the hill. If that's not enough, he did the run up to O'Reillys yesterday......madness....

Eventually ended up heading up Henri-Robert drive just as it got properly dark....

Todays trip: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=895f52d5271b0add2

And, if all appropriate deities are in alignment, an embedded map: (apparently not)

Cheers!

That unicycle is crazy!

And BOY, have they widened the road or what?

Only know it as a bumpy single-laner, like the old Bellthorpe (most likely all upgraded now, too)

O'Reillys on a Unicycle? Holy Cow!! :bow:

glitch said:

And BOY, have they widened the road or what?

Only know it as a bumpy single-laner, like the old Bellthorpe (most likely all upgraded now, too)

O'Reillys on a Unicycle? Holy Cow!! :bow:

Click to expand...

They had to do something.

During the last big storm a huge chunk of the hillside fell away. In those pictures you can see a line of closely placed road markers - that is where the main collapse occurred and reduced the road to about half-lane in width, you can just see some of the rock fill on the side of the road.

The road was shut for about 9 months.

Still a fun little road, still takes a bit more talent than some people have(although you can also say that about the M1 freeway).

As for the unicycle - it looks like he's gripping his crotch......there's actually a disk brake on the thing with the lever under the seat - careful light application of the brake reduces the amount of effort needed on the downhill.

Cheers!

penguineer said:

As for the unicycle - it looks like he's gripping his crotch......there's actually a disk brake on the thing with the lever under the seat - careful light application of the brake reduces the amount of effort needed on the downhill.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

He's running a beaut line on that bend, too...high in, tight out

Good stuff!

penguineer said:

As for the unicycle - it looks like he's gripping his crotch......there's actually a disk brake on the thing with the lever under the seat - careful light application of the brake reduces the amount of effort needed on the downhill.....

Click to expand...

"Fixed Wheel" too I suppose. It takes lots of skill and fitness to be able to ride one of these up and down hills like that. Disc brake - very careful, very light application, leaning back at the right angle to compensate - otherwise you'd be on your face very quickly.

These nuts aren't restricted to QLD. In my recent bicycle riding days there were a couple of regular uni-cyclers who would ride from Port Melbourne to Mornington, and even around-the-bay-in-a-day - that's over 200km.

I dips-me-lid to them.

There's a unicyclist I see in the Dandenongs every 3 months or so. He rides a 29"r (big wheel) up and down the Olinda-Monbulk Road , which is around 10% at its steepest.

Yes they're fixed, so to slow down, as well as lightly applying the brake the rider also pushes against the pedals. Much easier said than done, because fixies can generate enough force at high speed for those pedals to ignore your pathetic little pushes and to instead inflict punishment by bouncing you off the seat at each revolution. Once that nastiness starts (& you're using clip-ins), it turns to custard very quickly.

penguineer said:

As for the unicycle - it looks like he's gripping his crotch......

Click to expand...

Don't let go!

penguineer said:

there's actually a disk brake on the thing with the lever under the seat

Click to expand...

Oh. Don't let go!