Its been a while but we at last have another ride coming. Flying with the bikes up to the Gold Coast - riding to Kingscliff, Hopkins Creek, Beaudesert and then up to Brisbane and fly home from there - about a week all up early in July and about 3-400km with some stiff climbs.
We have booked with VirginBlue and paid for 23kg of luggage (an extra $10 on top of a 'carry-on baggage' fare). I'll pack the bikes into the Ground Effect bags (called a 'Body Bag') we've had for a while - these are good because you can easily fit the bikes in (take off front wheel and turn handlebars) and upon reassembly at the airport, the bag folds up into about an A4 size to fit into the pannier ready for next time.
I've also found some narrower tyres to test out for this trip - we used Schwalbe Marathons for Germany and the Snowies and they were fantastic but slow. Tania's bike is going to use Hutchinson Protect Air Top Slick 2 front and back - they're a 26x1.2 and so quite narrow compared to the Marathons at 1.5. They're dearer though at $58 compared to about $45 for the Marathons. My bike is going to have a set of Continentals (Sport Contact) at 26x1.3 - these look pretty good and a bitter wider to carry my fatness! They are also dear at about $65RRP but through CellBikes they are normally on some sort of special at about $48. CellBikes aren't the quickest mail order mob I've dealt with but the price is right.
We arrive in the Gold Coast at about 10pm so we've looked into some lights for this trip as well. Tania went for the Petzl helmet light from Paddy Pallin in Katoomba for about $100 (become a member and get it cheaper) - she has used it for camping and riding so far and found it to be quite OK. She already has a blinking LED rear light. I went the cheap option from KMart for a headlight - its a Huffy brand white LED device that clips to the handlebar with a variety of flashing and still options as well as 'economy' mode. I haven't really given it a test yet so I'll await that before commenting. I also bought a Tioga rear light (Big Eye) and it is very bright and visible from a much wider angle than other plain LED rear lights I've seen. Lots of the rear LED lights I see on the road are best visible only when you are directly behind the light.
Doing some training in SunValley and the Hawkesbury Bends to get some hill work into the legs and looking forward to getting out on the road again. It is such a great feeling being able to use only leg-power to travel hundreds of kilometres.
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