Clean Up Australia Day 2018
On Sunday March 4th we will be having a big clean up day at Parklands for Clean Up Australia day. Come meet us at the Radar Hill Carpark at 7am, grab a bag and start picking up all the rubbish.
Once we are done we’ll setup the BBQ and everyone can grab some food and head off for a ride if its not too hot.
Newspaper article in the Nambour Weekly
[caption id="attachment_477" align="alignright" width="300"] Bushrangers Annual General Meeting[/caption] Another year has passed and once again it's time for our Annual General Meeting. We will be back at the Arts and Ecology Centre located within the Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Gardens at Tanawha – https://goo.gl/maps/CoXPm2WcWeQ2. 2pm on the 10/03/2018. Ben will probably show us yet another awesome PowerPoint again - AWWWW YEAH!!!!! (that was sarcasm). I will endeavour to try and get some interesting food this time (not Subway again) so if anyone has any ideas let me know. Want to add an item to the agenda? If you have something you want on the agenda then send it through to secretary@bushrangers.org by the 01/03/2018 so I can get it written up and sent out to everyone. Want to have a go in the Committee? I've emailed a link to all members with a nomination form, if you want to be apart of the committee this year. Committee positions and example tasks President (Ride calendar, advocacy, grants, stakeholder management) Vice President (Help's committee...
Hi Folks, Another one of those boring IT updates but this is in relation to an item that came up in the membership survey - the website calendar isn't very mobile friendly with the event details bubble clearing its contents when you try and scroll the screen. The developers have been pestered about it but they're not answering. It's still the best calendar for our purposes so we're kinda stuck with it for now. To make things a little more bearable for mobile users I have set up a script that populates the club's Google My Business (GMB) presence with our calendar events. The GMB posts feature became available in June last year but you could only manually post things. Recently they updated it so now you can programmatically create/edit/delete posts. So now when you search for 'bushrangers mtb' or something similar on Google, you'll see the club's Google My Business box with all the club's information, and now event posts. This shows...
Geoff showing correct body positions
Awesome morning was had with Geoff Foxx from Hit Bikes and some of our GoGIRLS as we started the roll out of 6 coaching sessions funded by Bushrangers through a grant we obtained last year for this purpose. There were smiles all around as we had fun learning new skills in the beautiful and purposefully built graded trails at Parklands, Nambour.
First we warmed up on the green trail that led to the skills area. There we learnt how to position ourselves on our bikes. Sounds basic but experienced riders know this is fundamentally really important. When you get this wrong it can end really badly, possibly with injuries, which leads you to precious time off your bike or a trip to hospital. No one wants that. Maybe you have experienced being too far back or forward on your bike, next minute you’re on the ground because your front wheel has washed out on a berm or some how your steed has thrown you off! There’s a saying, “I went over the hangers” for a reason because plenty of people have done it.
It was a friendly and relaxed learning environment
What I loved about Geoff’s method is I was taught how to work it out myself. I didn’t need anyone saying you’re too high or too far back. So now I can self- check every time I get on my bike whilst I’m riding. That alone felt empowering. After this initial lesson, he put one of us in front to check out all of our riding. Apparently I went too fast but I was enjoying myself so much I forgot we were at a coaching session. But that is very much Geoff’s style. And it fits our club’s motto, “We love to ride”. To my defense, we were on the Big V (well that’s what I’m calling it till it gets its new name) and all the pretty ferns distracted me.
After popping our front wheels over a log a few times, we were more than ready and super keen to ride the recently opened new blue trail. It was so much fun at the end some of us went back for another spin. From the feedback already coming in, everyone came away from these first coaching sessions with Geoff Foxx from Hit Bikes extremely happy and thankful for this Bushrangers initiative. The increased numbers prove that interest in women’s riding is mounting. Last year we filled two groups, (which were postponed due to rain) and this year five sessions were not enough. How exciting is that. Soon you will see bigger numbers of ladies sporting their new GoGIRL jerseys and holding their own in the forest. I for one can’t wait to go back now and practice some of my new skills. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough. See you on the trails.
Susie Hume
Womens Advocate for the Bushrangers MTB Club.
Hi Folks, It's looking like we're up for a pretty warm week so we wanted to remind people to be mindful of things like dehydration and heat stroke when out riding. So please take a look at our earlier post about Riding in the Heat. Here's a severe weather update from the BOM: https://youtu.be/-q2p6b-AVSw Feature Image Article: https://flowmountainbike.com/features/five-days-in-hell/...
[caption id="attachment_6276" align="alignright" width="169"] Stair feature towards top of trail[/caption] Hi Folks, I'm happy to report that the 'blue' trail has been given the okay and is open for riding just in time for the weekend. As with any trail that you haven't ridden before please give a slow roll or two first. Note that the skills area is still closed due to it being too wet so please let it dry. The Road Rage remediation is well underway and we anticipate it to be completed soon if the weather holds off. We'll have a trail opening BBQ next weekend once it's all good to go!...
The new GoGIRLs jersey (and all the other jerseys) are able to be purchased online now, and if ordered by midday this Thursday will still make this month's print run for delivery in early March. Purchase from Blackchrome's online store - https://www.blackchrome.com.au/cycling/bushrangers-mtb/ ...
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 ...
13 riders rocked up to Landsborough to have a night ride and hopefully catch the super moon in all it’s glory. Unfortunately the clouds had other ideas and blocked the view the whole time.
But it wasn’t all bad though – we discovered a new trail, found a dead e-bike and had beer and steak at the Landsborough pub (that’s actually a really nice place in there – super friendly staff).
The following pictures tell the story.
Night ride map and elevation
