4 December 2008

From sea to summit in a single day

| timgee2007
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This Saturday, Nathan Edwardson (pictured above), and a group of equally determined Canberra cyclists, will ride from Tathra to Mt Kosciuszko in a single day. The ride is one of the toughest events out there, with a 4am start, 230km of hard climbing in often poor conditions and a total vertical distance of over 5km! Of course, that’s just getting to Charlottes Pass…at that point, the riders have to lay down their bikes and run the final 10km to the Summit. The return run almost makes it a half marathon!

The ride is a crazy man’s idea of fun, but it’s for a great cause – the Olivia Lambert Appeal, which is raising money for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. This money will fund research into neuroblastoma, a cancer that is only diagnosed in children. Olivia Lambert is a 4 year old Canberra girl and has just completed her last course of chemotherapy to treat neuroblastoma. Not only have her parents, Kirsty and James, set up the Olivia Lambert Appeal to help increase public awareness of neuroblastoma and raise funds to support the research to fight it, they’ve done so in a completely selfless manner at a horrible time in their lives. Not only does Olivia have Neuroblastoma, Kirsty is battling her own cancer as well!

If you would like to donate, the easiest way to do so (and get an immediate receipt for tax deduction purposes) is through the following website which gives details of this year’s event and a bit more information about Olivia:

www.everydayhero.com.au/c2k4k2008

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I’ve ridden to the summit on a fully-laden touring bike with skinny tires back in the day. This was quite doable, but not even slightly sensible, especially the ‘laden’ part. I’ve also done it on a touring/mtb with fat tires which was a lot more fun. Never had a flat there.

Since then, the road near the summit has deteriorated a lot (partly due to drongoes like me, plus runners etc), so they’ve closed the last section to bikes. Pretty fair call. Stupid place to build a road in the first place, in retrospect.

Beserk Keyboard Warrior4:25 pm 04 Dec 08

I hope someone got permission from Australian Idol to use Andrew Gee’s photo.

> I thought the dirt track from Charlottes to Mt K is now off limits to MTBs due to environmental issues?

Not as far as I know…my wife & I have walked/run it several times recently, there’s always a few MTBs on the track.

However, Charlottes to Rawsons Pass is not your average fireroad- where it’s made up of fist sized rocks and quite eroded in places…

Yes I know.

no 23-35mm width tyre would make it without pinch flatting and probably destroying your rims/wheels let alone stressing the bejesus out of the frame

Not true. I did the Sea to Summit ride in a party of four. Three of us rode to and from Rawsons Pass on 23-25mm road tyres. The other rider had a touring bike with slightly wider tyres and was the only one of us to flat (twice in 200m on the return ride). I continued riding my wheels until they fell apart after two very long overseas cycle tours, and the frame is still going strong today (10y later).

s-s-a said :

but you’d need a moutain bike as it’s only a dirt track

There is no reason you can’t ride a road bike on a dirt track, it’s just not as easy or comfortable as a mountain bike.

I agree, you can ride a road bike so long as you know how to ride and the dirt track is fairly clean and hard-packed. However, Charlottes to Rawsons Pass is not your average fireroad- where it’s made up of fist sized rocks and quite eroded in places… no 23-35mm width tyre would make it without pinch flatting and probably destroying your rims/wheels let alone stressing the bejesus out of the frame.

A cyclocross or touring bike would probably make it there ok with some big rubber and some walking. Much more fun and faster with a MTB.

Felix the Cat8:37 pm 03 Dec 08

justbands said :

> BTW – Can’t they ride from Charlottes Pass to Rawsons Pass (the foot of Kosci)? or is this part of the heinous NSW Parks restrictive laws??

You can ride a mountain bike from Charlottes Pass, over the headwaters of the Snowy & past Semens Hut to the base of Kosciusko…but you’d need a moutain bike as it’s only a dirt track. I’m guessing this lot would be on road bikes.

Good luck to them, that’s quite a ride!

I thought the dirt track from Charlottes to Mt K is now off limits to MTBs due to environmental issues? I rode to Semens Hut a few years ago on my MTB from Charlottes, had to turn around and come back due to snow drifts (in November!). Have ridden from Jindabyne to Charlottes Pass a couple of times on the road bike, quite challenging, though not as much as Sea to Summit!

Good luck Nathan, Ben et al. Top work that lot, sounds like quite a pain in the ring…gear. Don’t stop for brandy snaps at Nimmitabel, they’re not often in season at this time of year. Or something.

> There is no reason you can’t ride a road bike on a dirt track, it’s just not as easy or comfortable as a mountain bike.

Ha! I’d never take my road bike off-road. It’s designed for the road, that’s where it stays. Comfort & ease has nothing to do with it…it’s about the loads of cash spent on said road bike.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy1:22 pm 03 Dec 08

The Bega – Bemboka – Brown Mountain is a really nice drive, too. Especially in a car with enough nuts to overtake up some of the straight hill sections.

PS. This lot are apparently switching to mtbs for a 15km dirt section between Nimmitabel and Dalgety, a crime for which I am mildly tempted to call them wusses.

but you’d need a moutain bike as it’s only a dirt track

There is no reason you can’t ride a road bike on a dirt track, it’s just not as easy or comfortable as a mountain bike.

Plus it’d suck to ride up a 50 metre high hill, then have a bit of a rest while you coast down the other side only to have to ride up another hill to reach the same altitude you had at the top of the first one.

Sounds alot like the road from Bega to Bemboka. And at that hour of the morning (pre-sunrise) the pie shop isn’t even open!

Plus it’d suck to ride up a 50 metre high hill, then have a bit of a rest while you coast down the other side only to have to ride up another hill to reach the same altitude you had at the top of the first one. Doing hard work twice over is not my idea of fun.

A 100m descent followed by a 100m ascent (or the opposite) isn’t as easy as just riding flat for the same distance, so you can’t assume that descents cancel out ascents. The way it’s calculated is a measure of the total amount of uphill riding required, because that’s the hard stuff!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:39 am 03 Dec 08

What about the downhill bits where they don’t have to pedal? Sounds a bit dodgy to me…

5km vertical? Kosciusko is only 2228 metres… An impressive feat nonetheless.

Cyclists calculate the vertical ascent on a ride as the sum of the individual ascents – since the road doesn’t climb smoothly from 0m to 2228m, the sum ends up well over the finishing altitude.

> BTW – Can’t they ride from Charlottes Pass to Rawsons Pass (the foot of Kosci)? or is this part of the heinous NSW Parks restrictive laws??

You can ride a mountain bike from Charlottes Pass, over the headwaters of the Snowy & past Semens Hut to the base of Kosciusko…but you’d need a moutain bike as it’s only a dirt track. I’m guessing this lot would be on road bikes.

Good luck to them, that’s quite a ride!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:25 am 03 Dec 08

5km vertical? Kosciusko is only 2228 metres… An impressive feat nonetheless.

Good luck Nathan and friends.

I achieved this ride in January 1998. It’s hard but enjoyable. In those days we were allowed to ride to Rawsons Pass, and I must say the return from there riding a road bike on a rough track after a long day on the bike was an exercise in pain. It hurt to sit down, or to stand up, to use the brakes or to lift my head and see where I was going.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Would love to do this ride, although in reverse would be much better!

BTW – Can’t they ride from Charlottes Pass to Rawsons Pass (the foot of Kosci)? or is this part of the heinous NSW Parks restrictive laws??

Done. In the process, I found the below info interesting. The website side of things for this fundraising effort is handled by a separate company, which discloses an ethics policy as well as their fee structure. Obviously, collecting money isn’t free or simple. What do people think of their fee rate? Is it reasonable?


How does Everyday Hero get paid?

We take a small 6.5% administration fee from the gross donation made to your charity. We also pass on a credit card processing fee of 1.1% of the gross donation plus 30 cents per transaction.

Following a 3 month free introductory period, we charge partner charities a monthly hosting fee of $30 plus GST.

How much does the charity get?

(Credit/Debit Card)
Total Donation $25.00
Administration fee 6.5% $1.625
GST @ 10% $0.163
Credit card processing fee 1.1% $0.275
Credit card fee per transaction $0.30
Total fees $2.36
Donation to Charity $22.64

The table above shows an example of an Australian domestic credit card transaction. Everyday Hero is charged an additional 1.0% for all international or cross-border cardholder transactions.

[http://www.everydayhero.com.au/blank_window/service_fee]

That sounds like bloody hard work. From sea level to the highest point in the country by non-motorised horseless velocipede.

I’ve been up Mount Kosciuszko under my own power too, it’s beautiful up there. Mind you, I only started from Thredbo, not from 230 friggin kilometres away!!

I shall donate!

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