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

Author: Bushrangers Admin

Cycling in Queensland – More cycling, more often

[caption id="attachment_3952" align="alignright" width="300"] Best practice design[/caption] Hey everyone, I just received an email from QLD Department of Transport and Main Roads about their Queensland Cycling Strategy which may be of interest to you. The Queensland Cycling Strategy sets the direction for encouraging more cycling, more often throughout Queensland. It is accompanied by an action plan and Queensland State of Cycling Report, which will be updated every two years to help us prioritise our efforts and respond to changes that impact cycling in Queensland. More information about things like upcoming projects, policy, networks and safety can be found on their blog at blog.tmr.qld.gov.au/cycling or the website at http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Travel-and-transport/Cycling They also have a Facebook/Instagram competition where you tag a photo with #IBIKEQLD and you could win a bike. More info here.  ...

Wahoo! Rain Expected During the Week

Our Department of Raindancing, Astrology and Clipless Pedals has just reported that there may be about 2 to 10mm of rain tomorrow. This is GREAT news for the new trails in Parklands as it means all that dust will be packed down and hardened (and we can fix that loose berm along Rookie Road). However if they get ridden, even while slightly wet, we'll end up with a chopped up surface that will need to be scraped smooth and it'll go dusty again - so please, please, please avoid riding the new trails (or any trail for that matter) until they're nice and dry. [caption id="attachment_3946" align="alignright" width="300"] Try to reach your MTB Zen place[/caption] Instead of riding on our awesome trails maybe do some of the following: Service your bike - top up the tyre sealant, clean the chain, grease your bearings, replace that old emergency energy gel in your bag or just simply sit and look at your bike - when was...

Flow, Flats and Fire – Wooroi Ride Summary (20/08/2017)

Ahh Wooroi! just like an amazing woman with it’s flowy curves, smouldering fire, native vegetation, wildlife, challenging rock gardens and good signage and…. actually I think I’ve botched this metaphor up rather badly.

So anyway, 28 riders showed up to our last ride of our winter calendar. If you are new to the club you may have thought that all our rides start at 7:30am but alas this is not the case. Now that the colder weather is over (hopefully) we are now starting earlier – so this Sunday’s big ride from Pomona to Kin Kin leaves at 7am [there’s going to be a shorter ride starting from the same spot for those who don’t want a long ride. Pres.]

The day started with a bit of excitement as a QPWS truck came flying through with 2 rangers on a mission. They tore off into the park leaving us to guess what the rush was. Later on we found out that fires had begun to reignite inside the park. During our ride we were diverted away from the affected areas and now the park has been closed as more fires have started and the risk of falling trees and branches has increased.

We rode to the top of Indy and divided into 2 groups with El Presidente Ben taking the fast group and Toby taking the not-so-fast people at a slightly slower pace. Afterwards another sub-group went off to torture themselves climbing hills on the other side of the Tewantin National Park.

From all reports the rides went well and all trails were open and flowing nicely (but there was a whole heap of sticks around). Apart from some punctures and Neil almost denting his shin with his pedals the rides were relatively incident free as well.

Notable events:

  • Half way through the ride Toby gave me some food and extra water – puppy eyes and nagging works kids!
  • New rider Timmo dragged his old Giant out from the shed and came along. Watching him somehow bash down the trails was both scary and impressive.
  • Kerry’s legs exploded (metaphorically of course) and she had to pull out early. I hope you’re feeling better Kerry!
  • Here is a handy map of the Wooroi trails if, like me, you suck at navigation.
  • Dean and Geoff from Hit Bikes came along for a ride with Dean on a very sexy orange Mondraker Foxy. Sure I may have picked on it initially but my therapist said I was just reflecting anger born from deep seated feelings of jealousy and inadequacy or some crap.

So enough talk – here are some pics.

Yours faithfully.

Michael “That’s me in the cover pic – serious!” Johns
Club Secretary

First Month Trail Counts

Hi Folks,

Around a month ago we installed three counters within the Parklands Conservation Park. The selected trails will be kept secret so as to not influence the statistics, they will be disclosed once the counters have been relocated. Trail 1 is on the east side (Atkinson Rd), and trail two and three are on the west side (Radar Hill Rd).

So far the weekends are the busiest with Wednesday being the popular weekday to ride closely followed by Friday. 9AM and 4PM are the popular hours.

These charts are a work in progress with weekly and monthly charts coming later. After a couple of months we should start to see interesting trends but it will be at least a year before we can account for the seasons. Also I’ll see if I can include weather information to see how that impacts the counts.

Without further ado, here are the numbers:

Two Tonnes of Bushrangers – Parklands Club Ride Summary

Radar Hill Road was full as Bro!

Now I don’t know what the collective noun is for a group of mountain bikers (maybe a cog or spoke?), nor do I know the official unit of measurement of a group of mountain bikers but last Sunday we had so many riders and bikes that I estimated that there was literally 2 metric tonnes of Bushrangers (that’s about 12 medieval sacks for our older readers). It took two of us to count everyone and we had to remove our shoes to do it.

Big hello to our new riders and to our guests from other clubs and another big hello to all the riders who have been away for awhile, it was good to see you again.

With that many people things were a bit hectic at the start but we broke the ride up into 3 groups with the fast guys riding off with Alf, the intermediate group riding off with Toby and the rookies riding off with Ben and myself. From all reports the rides were great albeit a bit dusty so a bit of rain would be appreciated (you’d think any decent club president would have organised that for us – tsk tsk Ben!). After the ride we had coffee and treats at the Bli Bli Bakery.

Some notable points:

  • Nick and Carol were out and about in Parklands. Nice work Carol! Glad to see you back on the bike!
  • Rod was getting some easy kilometres in before he and Graeme Hall go to compete in the Red Back race in Alice Springs – Good luck guys!
  • Only incidents I heard about was Tania had a small fall and young River had a couple of spills but everyone was OK. The thick dust building up on the corners do make things interesting!
  • Chad’s new Commodore ute (made from used Stormtrooper armor) was pretty sweet. You’ll have to get another bike to match it now mate.

Photos and maps below and thanks to Lumir for the some of the pics and the cool video on Facebook and thanks to Alf and Toby for helping lead the rides.

Yours Truly,

Michael “3 cups of dust caught in my beard” Johns
Club Secretary

Local Dam Improvement Works

[caption id="attachment_3882" align="alignright" width="300"] Cooloolabin Dam Development Exclusion Area[/caption] Last month we attended a public consultation session held by the friendly South East Queensland Water staff at the Cooloolabin Hall to talk about the up coming developments for both the Cooloolabin, Wappa, Lake Macdonald, and Ewen Maddock dams. You may have noticed work taking place already at the Cooloolabin and Wappa Dams in the last few years. However these upcoming developments are larger in scale and the Cooloolabin project will impact our usage of the area for a while. Totally fine with me because dam leaks/bursts aren't fun and I think having running tap water is pretty cool. Cooloolabin dam is set to start in September and is expected to go till February. Ewen Maddock works aren't expected to start until 2019. We'll be keeping in touch with SEQ Water about Ewen Maddock Dam to see if there are any opportunities for further developing the recreational facilities during this project. Lake Macdonald is still in...

Trailforks Update

Hi Folks, It has been over six months since we started using the Trailforks Trail Management System in earnest and the stats are trending well with over 95 unique riders submitting ridelogs and trail reports for Parklands. Check out the stats: Parklands: https://www.trailforks.com/region/parklands/ridelogstats/ Ewen Maddock Dam: https://www.trailforks.com/region/ewen-maddock-dam/ridelogstats/ Mapleton: https://www.trailforks.com/region/mapleton-national-park-17097/ridelogstats/ Sunshine Coast (overall): https://www.trailforks.com/region/sunshine-coast-5952/ridelogstats/ We would like to see the number of unique riders increase to improve representation of the wider Parklands user community. You can help by adding your rides to the ridelog system, bulk import your Strava activities then setup an automatic Strava importing. You just need a free Pinkbike account to get started. We will be comparing the counts received by our trail counters against the Trailforks counts to ensure accuracy - the percentages should be similar. Thanks! Ben Johns Club President...

Sugarbag Community Ride Summary 06/08/2017

Hi Folks, This was our first experiment at hosting our monthly community ride at the Sugarbag trails and due to a few reasons I don't think we'll be doing it again and we will instead keep it at Ewan Maddock Dam, Mapleton and also start to utilise the new beginner trails at Parklands. We have some ideas to give more options to the rookies and the veterans so keep an eye on the calendar. [caption id="attachment_3869" align="alignright" width="169"] Lumir with his 'tree-catcher' bar-ends[/caption] We all met up at the Caloundra aquatic centre car park, Michael gave the pre-ride briefing and we set off on time. Big hello to our guests from the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club, Steve from Bendigo MTB Club and Ben, Danen and Jet (I know, cool name eh!) We tried to do the trails consecutively but due to a few minor crashes and confusing link tracks etc we spent a lot of time waiting around to regroup so we didn't...

Trail Care Update 05/08/2017

[caption id="attachment_3696" align="alignright" width="169"] Insert bridge here[/caption] Last Saturday afternoon we finished polishing up the new beginners loop ready for the bridge and rock armouring to go in. The best thing that can happen right now is for a couple of rainy nights to turn the loose dust into a nice, hard surface (but remember don't ride the loop if it's wet - let the water do it's work). Trailworx has now completely cut in the whole loop with only a slight tweak needed where we will add a separate exit a few metres up from the existing one. Ranger Eugene will begin to build a new bridge over the creek crossing this week and will be shifting some of the sandstone around for it. Personally I like coming across bridges along trails - they mix things up and add a professional touch. We've ordered a load of smaller sandstone blocks to be used for trail armouring along the loop - from memory I...

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