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.

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Rides

Mapleton Ride Summary – 03/09/2017

Hey everyone,

My sincerest apologies about the extreme lateness of this ride summary. I’m afraid I’ve only just regained my sight from the brilliant awesomeness of last week’s ride and as I am still in withdrawal I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Mapleton Day Use Area

We had 30 riders in two groups on this ride with the usual group leaving from the township and doing a 30km ride while I took a smaller group on a 15km ride from the Mapleton Day Use Area.

The bigger group went up past Linda Garrett park, through to the first lookout and then off to the bigger Oaky Creek lookout. They then did the Magic Mile trail and then back to the town. The smaller group went to the smaller lookout and then did the whole Magic Mile trail.

The two groups did merge at one point which was surprising when I looked back to check on my 8 riders and saw that I now had 30 riders behind me. It was like that scene in Gremlins when you got them wet.

Apart from a little confusion with some missing riders and new rider Courtney being attacked by a nasty stick, the ride went well and we finished with coffee and cake in Mapleton.

Thanks for the ride everyone and thanks to John, Shelly and Ben for the following photos I stole.

Lots of hugs!

Michael “Speak up if you’re not here!” Johns
Club Secretary

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September 10, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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Introducing Tag-a-long Rides

We've had some input that some of our members can't always get to the Sunday club rides and they are uncomfortable riding on their own so we've heard a good idea that we want to try. [caption id="attachment_1314" align="alignright" width="225"] Learn the trails, get the goss and make new mates![/caption] If anyone does a regular weekly ride and would be happy to have some company tag-a-long (see what we did there), then let us know the details and we'll put it in the ride calendar (which we can then publish to Facebook). Having someone else riding along with you can make your normal ride more enjoyable, safer and even educational. The details we need are: your name and preferred contact details (phone or email or Facebook etc) when you ride (e.g Wednesday's at 4pm) where you ride (e.g. Parklands, Wooroi, Ferny Forest or even if it's a different location each week). the "hardcore-ness" of the ride (Do you ride fast with minimal stopping?) Send...

September 4, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
Informational, Rides
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Pomona to Cooran (or Kin Kin) Ride Summary – Sunday 27/08/2017

21 riders showed up on yet another chilly morning for our Pomona to Kin Kin ride (with a smaller ride to Cooran also available). We broke into two groups, Ben took the first group to Kin Kin and the other group came with Toby and myself to Cooran. Both groups rode around Mt Cooroora and did the trails that run along Jam Pot road before we arrived into Cooran. The first group continued onto Kin Kin while the 2nd group went up Brewers road and down that squiggly bit of singletrack full of off-camber turns and dog poop. The 2nd group also sneaked in some extra singletrack on the way back to Pomona.

Notable points of interest were:

  • New rider Bryan came along on his first club ride. Welcome Bryan, we hope you enjoyed yourself.
  • Di fell off her bike 3 times in the first 20 minutes (she wasn’t hurt so it’s OK to laugh).
  • Jenny came for a ride – long time no see! Good to see you again.
  • I floated the idea of making it a rule that people on e-bikes cannot try to have conversations with you while everyone is climbing a hill.
  • Pete Bigaila did an extra 130km on top of the 36km Pomona to Kin Kin ride.
  • Sexy orange rims!
  • Jalapeno burger from Trail 518 cafe – it’s awesome!

It was a great ride on yet another great day! Thanks everyone.

Photos below.

Michael (Orange rims rock) Johns
Club Secretary

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August 29, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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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

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August 21, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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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

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August 15, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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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...

August 8, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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Go G.I.R.L. Parklands Ride Summary

Times are a- changing…, whilst Ben aka Bushrangers President, took a few Rookies for a ride from the Radar Hill side, we were full house at the Atkinson Rd side entrance of Parklands. This demonstrates women are stepping up and choosing to go to the next level in their riding and what better place to start than our treasured Parklands. Nicci Orr and her girls from Brisbane joined us along with some new and old faces. So after the traditional before the ride photo, 14 of us rode single file to the trailhead.

“Were you sitting down?” “Did you faint?”

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July 25, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
GoGIRLs, Rides, Womens Advocacy
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Pomona to Lake Macdonald Ride Summary – 16/07/2017

Waiting to start the ride

I had to really drag myself to Sunday’s ride because when I woke up it was raining and the idea of a wet, cold, muddy ride just didn’t take my fancy that morning. But by the time I got to Pomona the clouds had cleared, the cold had gone and it was actually going to be a beautiful day for a ride… for some of us anyway.

We had 13 people show up for the ride which was a good turnout considering the rain and that a lot of the club was camping at Toogoom. Most of us drove straight to Pomona but Andrew, Chad and Greg were extra keen and rode in from Cooroy to get some extra km in – apparently that was a bit of an adventure involving scaling fences and surprise railway bridges.

At 7:30am we set off behind ride leader Terry who was on his new sexy black Levo e-bike. Later in the ride I had to tell him to lower the settings to “Mortal” so we could keep up and there was also a fear that his bike could electrocute everyone in a creek crossing.

Unfortunately early in the ride one of us had a big crash and did some serious damage to himself. While travelling at speed he didn’t quite clear a fallen log and was thrown over the bars. Rumor has it that he actually overtook an e-bike while sliding along the dirt on his face/shoulder… pretty impressive. It was obvious that his collarbone was doing something it shouldn’t so the ambulance was called. He managed to limp to the nearby road where the ambo arrived in 15 min and whisked him off to hospital. I’ve spoken to him and he has a displaced collarbone and cracked ribs but he is at home now recuperating and we hope he heals up ASAP! Also a big thanks to the Queensland Ambulance Service for their wonderful service!

We finished the 2.5hr ride without any more events and had coffee and food at the Trail 518 cafe in Pomona – good coffee there!

Regards,

Michael Johns
Club Secretary

Ride map and elevation

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July 18, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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Parklands Ride Summary 09/07/2017

[caption id="attachment_3657" align="alignright" width="169"] The advanced rookie ride was advanced[/caption] Short and sweet summary. Starting off on a cold wintery morning on the eastern side of Parklands we rallied at the start of Phoenix setting off in two groups - one for the advanced rookie ride and the other of the Parklands veterans who soon took off on an extended loop of the park. We rookies then meandered around the meadows and surrounding trails mainly keeping to the eastern side but we ventured over to the centrally located T-Track and Beehive trails. The other group ventured anti-clockwise around the park and through the recently back burned north western parts and found a few interesting smouldering debris and nearly gutted trees which are probably fine with it. Coffee was at the Bli Bli bakery afterwards. [caption id="attachment_3666" align="aligncenter" width="977"] Advanced Rookie Route[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3665" align="aligncenter" width="982"] Veterans Route[/caption]  ...

July 11, 2017
Bushrangers Admin
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