Expert guidance for unforgettable multi-day rides
Transform your cycling adventures with professional preparation, gear optimisation & route planning.
Monday 15th January 2024. 2000hrs watching the sunset at Coolibah Camp at Dulkaninna Station on the Birdsville Track. Coolibah Camp is about 80km from Marree, which has sealed roads the entire way.
Depending on your location, you could be here within a week of reading this caption.
Riding here in summer is tough. The maximum on Monday was 41C. At the time of this photo, the temperature had only dropped one or two degrees. The coolest was low 30s at sunrise. Tuesday was 43C.
Frank, fearless, no bullsh*t advice for your next multi-day ride
Enjoy your multi-day ride more by knowing you have the right preparation, gear and route.
Save hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars by working with me to help get you set up for what you want to do.
Going out on a multi-day or multi-week ride can be a life-changing experience. No trip is perfect, but most people experience difficulty because of poor gear, bad route choices or inadequate preparation. I help you sort all this out so that you don’t have having bags fall off, parts break or getting injured.
Once we’re finished, you’ll only be limited by your imagination, not your gear.
Tuesday 25th January 2022. 1130hrs heading east on Gol Gol Road on Garnpung Lake. Buronga is on the NSW side of the Murray River opposite Mildura. Today will be the second of three hard days out in remote NSW. The 'roads' are soft, there is an ever-present threat of rain and I'm relying on being able to walk into homes and access water. My first multi-day ride was two weeks from Melbourne to Sydney via Mungo National Park in the middle of summer. I look back now and wonder how I ended up here.
I wrote on Strava: "If Day 07 was the emotional roller coaster, today was like being on a treadmill. Except it's the worst treadmill you've been on. I've been thinking, how do I describe how bad these roads are? Everyone thinks they know bad roads, but I think these might be like cycling in a third-world country. I've never been interested in horse riding, but I felt I was kicked for about eight hours today." You can read the complete account of this part of the trip here Part III - Mildura to Hillston.
Every cyclist dreams of somewhere they want to ride 'one day'. Most never start. Let's change that today.
You come up with the idea, and I'll help make this a reality.
We’ll look at your equipment (mainly the bike), where you want to ride and when. I’ll help you assess how ready you are and the chance of success, providing guidance on what you can do.
There are lots of other resources available. There are good bike shops that will sell the gear you need and be able to provide general advice. Unfortunately, many bike shops (and individuals) shouldn't be providing advice but will do so.
There are Facebook groups you can join, and of course, there are books (yes, books).
I'm independent and derive no financial gain from selling you things you don't need. It's worth knowing that shops will often sell you what makes them the most profit, which may not be the right item for you.
I've ridden custom titanium, steel, carbon and alloy bikes. I've ridden Rohloff internal geared hubs, electronic groups and mechanical group sets on multi-week rides. Each has its place. All of them work, and all have their benefits and drawbacks.
I've underbiked and overbiked. I've towed trailers and worn heavy backpacks. I've been out in the hottest part of Australia and blizzards in New Zealand. There are few rides where I can look back and think, 'Wow - everything went to plan'. The list of mistakes is so long, complex and unlikely it deserves its own Wikipedia page.
Saturday 17th December 2022. 1245hrs looking east at Powers lookout towards the Victorian Alps. I'd planned to leave Melbourne a few days earlier, but an unexpected cold front brought snow to the route I was planning to ride. With only a summer sleeping bag and lightweight clothing, I hung out at my girlfriend's parent’s house for four days. Just the three of us.
Power is the bushranger you've never heard of. Harry Power, who taught Ned Kelly, was one of Victoria's most notorious bushrangers. The teenage Ned Kelly partnered with Power on several hold-ups and, as his apprentice, learnt how to escape the police and survive in the bush.
Five ideas to get you started
Think in time, not distance (Facebook, The Hard Way)
Everyone you will meet will ask how far you ride each day. Make up a number and instead ride to time. Set a time goal and stick to that. Distance goals mostly drag you down all day because distance goals are quickly converted to time goals, and you're constantly looking at your average speed.
Join the 1% club (Strava, The Hard Way)
There are two types of 1% clubs. There is the one with limited membership, where you need to displace someone else to get in. The 1% club I care about is spending 1% of your time (days) doing something well beyond what you usually do. That’s three days a year, four if you round up.
Expand your circle (Strava)
All of us can draw a circle around where we live and say, 'I spend most of my time here'. I want to make my circle as big as possible. Not because I want a prize, but because I want the experience. I meet such a diverse range of people. Day-to-day I keep my circle as small as possible. My theory is these decisions free up the mental space to wonder how big your circle could be. My circle is currently about a 150km radius. What's yours?
Try a timed ride (Strava, The Hardway)
That's the metaphor of life. We think we have so much time, we think we get to make the choices, but by the time we realise the fragility and shortness, it's too late. The ride was almost over before I realised I was running out of time, as is often in our lives. A timed ride ends when the clock counts down, it doesn't matter where you are or if you're ready. If you stuff around during the ride you don't get the time back, just as we all know with life.
Understand hardship training (Strava, The Hard Way)
Hardship training is a way of understanding who you are physically and mentally by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and working out how to get out of them. A small component of hardship training is learning how to suffer, or what I’d describe as the negative space. Most hardship training is going somewhere uncomfortable and then working out how to get back to comfortable(ish), being in a positive space. Hardship training is doing the opposite of what you currently do.
These five articles are ~ 14,000 words in length. These will take about an hour to read.
Friday 29 September 2023. 0745hrs looking south on Lyndon Road towards Lake Coleridge which I had ridden up the previous afternoon. The glow of the morning light hides the previous evening.
You can read the full post on Instagram. Here's an excerpt. “As with most forms of prediction, as you refine the space you're interested in it's harder to be accurate. Depending on how you read the colour gradient on Windy, I could be in for as much as half a metre of snow tonight. This is asking a lot of a 'three-season tent'. Realistically the tent will collapse under the weight well before half a metre of snow falls. This is a fun mental exercise to work through. Not the use of my PhD in statistics I imagined.”
I'm still unsure how exactly you can help me - what problem are you solving?
The people who get the best value from me are those who don't have the time to try all the various configurations of their bike setup, packing and route planning. There is little I can offer that you can't work out yourself if you have the time, energy, money and determination. I'm the shortcut saving you somewhere between 100-1,000 hours.
If you're at the point where you're thinking about gear inches, chain lines and q-factors, then you’ve probably already invested enough time in bikes to work through how to pack and route plan. If you're not sure about these, then I'll be able to help you.
Technical details are important once you know what you want to do.
The value I offer that no one else can is to help you dream big enough for your trip. Be warned, I'll probably tell you what you've set out to do is a bit easy.
No one else is going to tell you this. Ever. I'll be nice, I promise.
What you could be capable of is a more interesting question than many people give time to.
My girlfriend's first proper ride was 200km on a flat bar commuter with panniers on a route I'd ridden many times. There was rain most of the day; she had worn out her front brake pads with 50km to go, borrowed most of my clothes and was exhausted when we arrived home after midnight, having left 18 hours earlier. Her longest ride before this was 50km in a day.
While the conditions and her gear were far from ideal, I was able to guide her through the factors that she could control - nutrition, pacing, mental approach, use of clothing - to leverage her underlying fitness and finish the ride. By stepping beyond the comfort of what she thought was achievable, she could change her entire outlook on riding in a single day and see places most people never get to.
This example presents the extreme of what's possible. The solution is not necessarily to ride 200km in one day when your longest ride to date is only 50 km.
Most people never have someone say: 'I think you're more capable than you give yourself credit for; this will be hard, but you'll be fine (by the way, here are some strategies and ideas to help you).'
I'm not advocating you make the ride as hard as you can, but we'll look at your plan and your current level of fitness, and I'll provide a range of options – some of them might be life-changing.
Wednesday 27th September 2023. 1930hrs looking west up the Rakaia River at Glenfalloch Station. The stunning sunset hides the experience that led to this point which I detail on Instagram.
Crossing freezing streams, trying to ride a scree rock field and sleeping in wet clothes to dry these out.
I'm in - what's next?
There's a short form below where you tell me about yourself, providing as much detail as possible.
We'll set up a 15-minute phone call to discuss what you need from me and for us to agree this is worthwhile.
You'll come to my workshop in Sydney for three hours with everything you have, and we'll go through the bike setup, the plan and the changes I recommend.
The cost is $550 (including GST).
Any parts you would like ordered and fitted are in addition (on a per-hour basis).
Monday 13th December 2021. 1545hrs on Yass River Road north of Gunderoo. Driving back from Canberra I decided to go for a short ride around the area as I had the afternoon free.
If you drew a triangle between Goulburn, Yass & Canberra there's great riding out here, on often quiet roads. At times it's hilly and tough going on rough country roads. The scenery is spectacular and the people are wonderful.
Frequently asked questions
I'm interstate - do you do video calls?
I can, but I don't recommend this. Yes, it's a bit of a pain having to fly with your bike, but it's good practice, and I can recommend some riding options for you. If you're from Melbourne, I recommend we have a longer video call, then you can visit and ride home (you'll get more than three hours). Using public transport, you can have this trip as short as 420km (Goulburn to Albury).
This seems expensive - why don't I work this out myself?
I'd prefer you did work all this out yourself. You'd gain more from starting from first principles but be prepared to spend a lot of time researching gear and buying stuff that you don't need or doesn't work for you and then trying to resell this. My fee is easily worthwhile to help you avoid buying things you don't need or will not like. The real value of my time is that I'd estimate the time required to be proficient is 100-1,000 hours. Time and money are a direct trade-off. If you want to save money you'll be doing a lot of research and sifting through conflicting opinions on gear.
I only have a cheap bike, should I come and see you?
Cheap is relative. If the bike is old and needs a major service, then no. Determine if you're willing to pay for the service, then let's speak. If you're wondering whether your $500 flat bar commuter is suitable - this will often be fine (trip dependent). Generally, the parts you buy can be transferred across to a future bike (e.g. dynamo lights), or we'd determine that it's worthwhile to upgrade what you have because you're comfortable on that bike.
I've been riding for many years; is this worth my time and money?
Maybe, I don't know until we speak to each other. This is why we'll have a 15-minute call. If I can help you without you seeing me, that's great. Doing the same style of riding for a long period of time rarely develops capability as you're just repeating what you know.
I'm going on a trip with another person - can we both come along?
Sure, but you'll only get half as much time each and we probably will not finish the work. You're probably better off booking separately.
I want to get my bike set up for bikepack racing - do you do this?
I can provide some assistance, but you're more likely to get better value from reading Touring with a Sense of Urgency. Looking at the way those who are winning set up their bikes would suggest that carrying less is probably the place to start. If you're wondering about taking a specific item, the answer is probably no.
I have a recumbent - can you help me?
Probably not, I've never owned nor ridden one.
Can you fix <insert item>?
Maybe. I have the tools and knowledge to do a reasonable amount of work on bikes, but I'm most inclined to build you bombproof wheels and set up dynamo lights. These are the best two upgrades you can make. I recommend and use k-Lite lights (who sponsor me).
I don't like peanut butter
Hmmm… this might not work out. Try Mayver’s dark-roasted crunchy and get back to me.
Wednesday 28th June 2023. 1415hrs somewhere on the Old Ghost Road (about 10km from Lyell Campground). On one of the shortest days of the year, we attempted one of the longest 'single-day rides' in New Zealand. In sight of the top of a 25km climb, my rack unexpectedly broke. I was looking at a 25km hike down the hill. Through a combination of good luck and being able to solve difficult problems, I worked out how to ride back down the hill with panniers on the handlebars. Read more on Instagram.
The Old Ghost Road is worth riding. There's a 25 minute film - Muscle & Dreams that captures the building of the trail through old gold mining. You can read about my time in the area on Instagram - the Thermette, Reefton & the Town of Light.
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