About Our Club

Our club was formed in 1993 and incorporated in 1995 when mountain biking (MTB) in Australia was in its infancy. Since then the club and the sport have gained popularity through advocacy and participation. The Bushrangers MTB Club is a volunteer based organisation run by enthusiasts, for the benefit of promoting and supporting mountain biking across the region.

We do regular rides all over Sunshine Coast and SEQ from Cooloola to Brisbane, in national parks, state forestries and council parks. Check out this website for more information on events, news, and for places to ride.

Latest News

January 2018

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Parklands MTB Trails Project Update 30/01/2018

Hi Folks,

We’re happy to say that we’re nearing completion of the project. While everyone was distracted with the shiny new green and black trails, Trailworx and QPWS have been busy cutting in the new blue trail, the skills area course and has started on the remediation on some sections of Road Rage.

Whipping through those trees should be pretty awesome.

The new blue trail is shaping up to be a pretty fast track with long straights and streamlined berms. There’s a few surprises in the form of a few skinnies, jumps and some rock features (not gardens). It’s still really soft but a bit of rain and sun will produce that good hardpack surface that the Parkies dirt is great for.

The skills area course will come up pretty schmick with multiple options to tune the difficulty level as you go along. So starts of easy and lets you bail out before hitting the more difficult features. It also offers different options and ramps up towards the end where it meets the end of the new blue trail.

The concept of these trails is skills progression. So they are designed to build up a novice rider to one who can tackle the majority of trails around Parklands and elsewhere. Going along Rookie Road to the start of the skills course and onto the green loop will build basic skills and fitness. Then onto the trickier parts of the skills course and mixing runs of the blue trail, further building skills at speed and fitness from climbing up that fire road. Then it’s onto the black track to further build skills with jumps, rocks and drops.

The skills area course and blue trail have been added to Trailforks but are marked closed.

As for Road Rage the anthill/quarry section is getting a new line while the existing line has largely been left in place. We tried to achieve the balance of fixing up the unsustainable bits and adding a bit of new stuff while still trying to maintain it’s character. After this section has been completed there will be more fixes closer to the car park end on the switchbacks.

Tomorrow the trail care container will be dragged to a new location to make way for seats and mulch around the skills area.

At this stage we’re looking at a mid February practical completion.

Read more for pictures!

The Inaugural Blue, Super Blood Moon Ride!

Put down your salt lamps and lock up your goats because it's time to get our pagan on folks! I just can't believe the Blue, Super, Blood Moon has come around again, that 150 years just flew by. [caption id="attachment_6161" align="alignright" width="300"] A Blood Moon caused by the earth being between the sun and the moon.[/caption] I'll explain this upcoming cosmic event quickly. Wednesday's moon is blue (meaning the full moon has happen twice in one month - not actually blue), it's a blood moon (that means it's red) and it's big (that means it's close). Now all these things happening at once is pretty rare and according to my 30 seconds of dodgy googling the last time was in the USA back in 1866. So pencil the next one on your calendars now folks - sometime around 2168 - I'll ask Toby to lead it. We will be parking at Landsborough near the pub (the railway carpark should be empty). We will...

QPWS Unsanctioned Trails Community Meeting

Hi Folks, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have organised a community engagement session to discuss the recent trail closure within the Mapleton National Park. Could be a great opportunity to clear the air on both sides and show the need for advance level trails on the coast? Details as follows: Time: 3:30PM onwards Date: Friday, 9th February 2018 Location: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Mike Ahern Building, 12 First Avenue, Maroochydore Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/Fk3nqE3LeoE2  ...

Unsanctioned Trail Building in Conservation Areas

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QPWS) have asked us to help get the word out that they will be cracking down on illegal trail building in conservation areas. They have specifically pointed out the continued development of an unsanctioned trail within the Mapleton National Park.

QPWS have already warned against building this track a year ago but work has continued and the features along it have grown in number and size. QPWS will now close the track, remove all structures, and install surveillance cameras. Any continued building will be met with fines and legal action.

However the QPWS are happy to speak to the builders regarding current MTB opportunities they have and about future development in the Mapleton national park. Contact Senior Ranger Nat Smith on Nat.Smith@npsr.qld.gov.au

Stay safe, Keep Riding!

Bush Rangers Committee

The following are a few photos provided to us by QPWS of the unsanctioned trail.

Bayview Ride Summary 21/01/2018

Hi Folks,

This ride was a little different as it was an away ride on what has been traditionally a ‘local’ ride day – normally we do the away rides on Saturdays. Michael organised a rookie ride in Parklands for those not up for a drive south.

With the ride start at 8:15AM everyone could basically leave home at the same time but drive an extra hour or so – this seemed to work out okay so we might continue with it, although it does make the ride a bit warmer but plenty of water fixes that.

Arriving at the German Church Road entrance we instantly impressed with the trail head facilities – bitumen access road, huge sealed car park, large picnic shelters, street lighting, fancy drainage – the Redland Bay council has definitely given this place some loving.

Local rider, James, lead the 16 of us through most of the loop which was great because he showed us a few extra trails that I hadn’t planned to ride and he also took us anti-clockwise around the park which made things quite a bit different to the usual Bayview Blast circuit. In the end I think we rode a good number of the available single track which ended up being 30km and 450m of climbing, a little more than originally planned.

Highlights were:

  • Going down Sock Puppet and You’re Kidding
  • Shooting through Bird Cage and The Maze with their increasingly claustrophobic trees
  • Sneaking a peak at the new Oi trail, it’ll be great once it’s hooked up
  • Finishing up on Sorceress

Afterwards we drove over to the Pelican’s View cafe for lunch and then made our way back north.

All in all a good blat around Bayview. Thanks for the great trails RATS Cycling Club and Redland Bay Council.

Rookie Ride – Parklands – 21/01/2018

While the rest of the club had an away ride down at Bayview. 17 riders came along on a Rookie ride through Parklands. We rode around the green loop, then the gumby loop and with a bonus Ho-chi-ho loop as for the keen ones. Thanks for the ride everyone and thanks to the advanced riders who came along to help us out - I really appreciated it! Michael Johns Club Secretary  [embed]https://youtu.be/qjVg7KGCYAk[/embed]...

Port to Port MTB Race Club Discount Offer

Port to Port MTB - 4 Day Mountain Bike Stage Race - 24-27 May 2018 - Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter Valley   [caption id="attachment_6105" align="alignright" width="300"] Click here to register after you get your club code[/caption] Keen to ride Port to Port MTB 24-27 May and help the club? To celebrate the 5th year, Port to Port MTB is offering 5% discount for you and a 5% cashback for the club. Sign up for the 4 day event before 28 Feb using our club code 'BUSHRANGERS'. Port to Port MTB is 4 days of awesome trails through state forests, wine country, hinterland, national parks, coastline and mountain bike parks in the spectacular Hunter Valley and Newcastle region. There’s nothing too technical but it will keep your attention, with new terrain and scenery every day. It’s achievable for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and MTB skills. At the end of each day kick back and enjoy the excellent food, local beers (or wine)...

Parklands Club and Rookie Ride Summary – 14/01/2018

So how hot was Sunday at your place? It was bloody hot at Parklands! 36°C to be exact. Now most normal people would stay at home in the air conditioning, go to the beach or get some of those handy suppositories you can keep in the freezer. But not us, no way! We went for a bike ride – heat stroke be damned!!

Now it wasn’t just the two groups of Bushrangers keen for a ride this day, the Radar Hill road carpark was overflowing with all the riders hitting the black track early while it was still cooler. The regular club ride started off from the Aitkenson Road side with Alf “Putting the A in ABBA” Cerwen and the rookie ride group started from the Radar Hill Road side led by me.

The Club Ride

Club Ride – Ride map and elevation

Alf lead his 20+ riders on a challenging 20km route up Double Dab then through Cancer Tree and Road Rage. They then rode the new green and black trails and then back across the park to the cars. The heat and humidity definitely made things tougher (“especially for the Europeans” Alf said). But everyone had enough water and kept in the shade. Lou had a tumble off the Hobbit bridge in Cancer Tree but came out fine. Word is some crazy bugger on this ride is training for a 6000km self-supported endurance ride – I’ll find out more and let everyone know the details – sounds pretty interesting.

Thanks for leading the ride Alf and I’m sorry to hear that no-one wanted to listen to your excellent jokes. I’m sure they were comedy gold and politically correct as always.

The Rookie Ride

Rookie Ride – Ride map and elevation

The Rookie ride started with 13 riders (which then grew to 17 as we discovered more riders on our journey). Before we started I gave everyone a brief pep talk with 3 rules – check your bikes, drink water and don’t die. Everyone excelled in these tasks beautifully – nice work Team Rookie!

We rode from the carpark to the beginning of the green loop and everyone road the loop at their own pace for a bit until we regrouped back at the container. We then went down Road Rage and up and around the Gumby Loop. Ended up being a perfect 10km and 2 hrs by the time we got back to the car and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Thanks to John, Dave and Nick for being tail-end charlie for me. I hope everyone had fun and I’ll see you again next weekend for another rookie ride.

Yours truly,

Michael “It’s OK, we have a 10% loss policy on group rides” Johns
Club Secretary

New jerseys are ready to go!

Today is a special day at Bushrangers HQ! The 18-month consultation/design/redesign/redesign/redesign/approval process has finally been completed and we are now ready to sell the new jerseys! There are two styles of jersey available in two unique colours - Culvert Slime Green and Chain Gunk Black. There is the men and women's 'roadie' style jersey with short sleeves, full zip and pockets in the back. There is the unisex 'enduro' style jersey with short, 3/4 and long sleeve options (women may need to use the junior sizes). The order gets processed at the end of each month so jump on and order your's at https://www.blackchrome.com.au/cycling/bushrangers-mtb/ For sizing just follow the instructions on the product page when you order....

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