on: January 15th, 2013
Having not much time off over the Christmas break, I wanted to do an overnight tour with my bike and surfboard in tow. I decided to head south from the Gold Coast, Australia and into Northern New South Wales. I also wanted to test my newly acquired surfboard rack that I am hoping to use on many upcoming trips.
Devising a way to carry your board on your bike can be challenging. During our trip across Indonesia we used an extra-wheel trailer to carry our boards, this worked really well. After a few months with the trailers we can see that having this extra equipment can be a bit annoying. The ideal setup would be to have everything on your bike and this surfboard rack seems to work perfectly.
I set off at about 6am and travelling through the busy suburbs of the southern gold coast. There is a southerly head wind that I’m riding into, I can really feel when it’s side onto the surfboard as it pushes me left and right. I am using two front panniers for the first time as well and am impressed with how stable they make the bike.
As I make it over the tweed river I hear the awful sound of surfboard on road and look back to see my board scrapping the ground. The back rack had come loose and slipped back. I tighted the bolts and headed off. 30km done and I’m at Kingscliff, I asked a couple at the campgrounds to watch my stuff while I have a surf and they are happy to do so.
Now I head for the hills where I will be camping. The country roads are amazing and very flat. It’s a hot day about 31 degrees and Im starting to feel it by lunch. At 2.45pm and 70kms down I’m at the base of Mount Warning ready to camp. I’m in bed early at sunset and have a broken sleep due to the campsite next to me.
Up at 450am and am packed and ready to hit the road in 30min. I need to beat the heat and not be cycling between 11am and 3pm as its too hot. I have breakfast at the Murwillumbah subway as they are open early and cruise down next to the tweed river. The road is flat but full of glass and get a flat at about 730am, with that fixed and down to my last tube I make it too Kirra Point where there are a few good waves. I decide to push on home and am back by 930am. 60km.
My overall Km’s were 131Km, 70km the first day and 60km the second.
The surf rack worked great and will definitely be using it on future trips. – Dylan