MGG #6 is approaching

More details here!

Get ready for dirt

Well, after a long break over the xmas holidays, things are slowly starting to come back to life here at MGG headquarters. Local knowledge has been sought, a course has been sketched out, dates have been tabled (but not yet confirmed), and recon rides have been scheduled. The next ride will be based out of Belgrave and will most likely be in late April.

Plenty of time to dial in your ride and get yourself psyched for a good few hours on the back roads with some like-minded folk.

Oh, and don't forget, CX season will be starting up again soon and gravel grinding is great for getting in shape!

MGG #5 Report

Sunrise
Copyright (c) Dave Scarlett

Wow. That was an amazing ride and an amazing turnout. I don’t know how, but we convinced 40 people to meet us at the end of the line at Hurstbridge at 1am in the morning for an 80km ride on dirt roads through the foothills below Kinglake.

Read on for more...

Night Grinding

Not far away now! MGG #5 will roll out in about a week. Riding at night is an awesome experience and even if you know the roads, they'll seem brand new under the cover of darkness. On our final recon ride we saw frogs, wombats, plenty of roos and even had one roo hop along the road just in front of us for a hundred metres or so. Night animals rock!


Updated course

We've updated the course a little after our final recon ride. We've made it a little less hilly in the second half and also allowed for one or two shorrtcuts if you're over it and just want to get back to Hurstbridge. It's a little easier now so everyone should finish with a smile on their face. This doesn't mean it's easy, it just means it's a little easier then it was. Check out the updated course map here.


Special checkpoint

We've locked in our special halfway checkpoint at the top of the Bowden Spur climb! There'll be food, water, coffee, toilets and a warm dry place to sit down and relax for a while. This place is really something special and I'm still in disbelief that they'll be opening their doors to us in the middle of the night. This is the goal that will get you up Bowden Spur - just keep pedalling and repeat "When I get to the top I can have a coffee. When I get to the top I can have a coffee."


Lights

A bright front light for seeing the road is essential. A helmet-mounted light for navigation will serve you very well too. It's very easy to miss signposts (and even whole sidestreets) if your only light is pointing down at the road. A helmet-mounted light is not essential but it will make navigation a lot easier.

A tail-light is essential too but steer clear of bright flashing blinkies - you'll dazzle the rider behind you. A medium brightness solid colour tail-light is ideal.


Tires

Slicks or something with a light tread are fine but the wider you can go the better. Consider going a little wider than usual and a bit lower pressure. This will maximise your contact patch with the road and give you the traction you'll need to get up some of the hills. 23s = doable, 28s = better, 35s = cushy.


Be prepared

There are two water stops and one big water/food/coffee stop at the halfway point. Apart from our special halfway checkpoint, there will be no place to stock up on food. Make sure you bring enough supplies because everything else is going to be shut up for the night.

Watch the weather forecast and be prepared for the worst - it might rain, it might be very cold. Having said that, we completed the last three hours of our final recon ride in driving rain and we were all pretty comfortable. In fact, it was fun as hell! But only because we were prepared.


RSVP

This is not essential but it'd be great if you could drop us a line (melbournegravelgrinders@gmail.com) and tell us if you're planning to come on the ride, just so we get a rough idea of how many people to expect. This being a night ride we've really got no idea how many will turn up.


Ok, that's it for now. Get your gear sorted and we'll see you at Hurstbridge!

MGG #5 is approaching

More details here.

Darkness falls across the land

We're still hammering out the details of MGG #5 but we have a date, time and rough course so, lock it in! :

Date : Friday December 16th
Time : 1:00am  (yes, technically this makes it a Saturday morning start!)
Start : Hurstbridge Train Station
Map : Melbourne Gravel Grinders #5 - ???


Your eyes are not deceiving you! This is a night ride that will coincide (more or less) with the Summer Solstice. Stay up late on Friday night, jump on the train and meet us at Hurstbridge station for a 1:00am rollout. We'll do a grand tour of the area around Hurstbridge under the (almost) full moon and be back at the station in time to meet the early morning trains at 5:00-6:00am.

There are a couple of differences between this ride and previous MGG rides :

• For this ride you will need lights - not little blinky lights for cars to see you, I'm talking proper lights that will light up the dirt road in front of you so you can see where you're going. There are no streetlights where we're going and the moon may be obscured by cloud.
  
  
• There won't be any food stops so you'll need to carry all the food you plan to eat. Much as the little general stores of the area have enjoyed our patronage, I doubt we can convince them to stay open all night.
  
  
• This may end up being more like a group ride. Depending on how many and who turns up, we'll probably group together more so than in previous rides. Wouldn't want to lose anyone!
  
  
• It's at night! This means you'll have to convince your partner, mum/dad, parole officer etc. to let you stay out all night and come home in the morning looking like a sleep-deprived zombie on wheels. Saturday morning's probably going to be a write-off so keep your calendars clear until you can catch up on some sleep.

Right, that's enough info for now. Get your lighting rigs in order, block out the dates in your calendar and we'll be back soon with more info as we finish our course recon and finalise the details.

MGG #4 Report



Photo credit: Fattima

 I love it when a plan comes together. It was a pearler of a day and the titular “winds of pain” played its role to a T. Read on for the full report...