Assos, Bag Balm, is available in Oz, A+D Ointment, any barrier cream. Feels a bit creepy and for gods sake, don't use ANY CREAM WITH MENTHOL OR LINAMENT IN IT! (Once as a prank, a couple of friends substituted Icy-Hot for the contents of another friends Assos! Thank god he never found out it was us !)

OMG!!!!!

you'd have to have a support crew including a very large bus, GPS, satellite phones, medical staff, and an emergency helicopter, a professional tig welder dued, and 20,000 tyres & tubes!!!

did you know that "Survivor Outback" wasn't really in the outback, but in tropical Nth Queensland (not too far from Cairns)? The REAL outback is nothin' but heat and red dirt

Nth Qld as outback? Yeah, if the outback is all about topless women, rainforests, and tourists. Beware the drop bear...

Yeah, I knew it was desert country. I plan on having a support vehicle as well, although I don't necessarily think I'll need a bus! I also figured on carrying a complete spare bike, by the way, not to mention tubes tires and 4 complete extra wheel sets. I already have GPS, and the Satphone is not a problem either! I know it CAN be done. I'm also aware the roads aren't up to US Standard and know about the Road-trains.

Just do that Croc Challenge race. I mean, if you want to do, at least do it among like-minded souls.

Tom, you could do it however you would need some sort of backup vehicle to carry stuff - there is a LOT of unihabited country on the Darwin-Adelaide road.

Best time of year would be our cooler months (June-September) if you are starting up north because otherwise you have the monsoon season and cyclones (hurricanes) to contend with.

Your biggest hazard on the road will be road trains - these are semi-trailers pulling several trailers and they move at high speeds. They also kick up a hell of a lot of dust. All the road safety advertisements for the Northern Territory advise car drivers to pull over and slow down when road trains pass and wait for the dust to settle. As you can imagine, on a bicycle you will be much more vulnerable to the effects of these mechanical behemoths.

With enough advance notice, you might even get some locals who are crazy enough to join you.

true. you might wanna consider replacing your 23mm tyres with 25mm. pays to avoid pinch flats out there

but seriously, get a rough idea of road conditions by flicking through this massive collection of photos:
https://www.ozoutback.com.au/postcards/nt.htm

on road trains, there was a post in previous incarnations of the Aussie Thread about a retired US police officer who was sucked into the path of a road train on a solo trek between the Alice and Darwin. I'll see if I can dig it up (the article that is!)

yeah that dust takes a while to settle again. I wouldnt do it.
Also take a **** load of water, most days it will be well over 40 degrees celsius, I wouldnt ride in those conditions.

Tom,

just found this link, which is a bit old (2000) and only covers the road between Alice Springs and Adelaide, but it still has some useful general info,

https://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~gloria/stuart.html

Jock, I'm planning on doing it on a "Fat tire" touring bike based on a long chainstay rigid MTB w/ 26 inch wheels. The tires I plan on using are Geax Evolution Kevlar core tires. They're a bit on the heavy side (880 grams) but roll like a narrow tire as far as rolling resistance and are literally bombproof. I'm currently running a set on my Fat tire bike and at 3300 miles, I've just recently worn the mold hairs off the tires. I've run over glass, bolts, and used them on AND off road in various conditions and am really impressed with them! They are good for Macadam, gravel and hardpack as far as surfaces go. The only time they suck is in the mud!

Matagi, great info! Thanks!

That's only 104F! That's not too bad, try Death Valley around Baker, Ca! I've seen 129F (53.8C)

My friend has done some seriously epic rides through central oz. He's done that stretch, the nullabor, even Alice to Broome. You don't need GPS or Sat phones! If you like, e-mail me your details to info@thylacinecycles.com and I'll put you in touch with him.

As long as you understand the distances between towns/roadhouses and carry enough supplies, and don't do it in the middle of Summer, you'll be okay. We're not talking riding sand dunes here, it's paved the entire way.

+1 for the Crocodile Trophy!

I would imagine it would be like riding in a sauna while being sandblasted!
You could always go round the world on a singlespeed instead like that crazy Scottish dude.

Hey Matagi, If your hubby is interested in a MTB, I ride most weekends and 1-2 nights with some guys from LBS. PM me if you're keen but I suspect you're road only (like Dr Jock!).
Although thinking about his OTB skills, jock maybe you should get on the MTB, I seem to have developed the reflexes of a cat and always land on my feet.



NO-ONE call me a *****

*edited*



Moderator's note - Ex says "haha".

I love ebay. I just finished listing stuff, and have bids already.

eBay as opposed to eBay.com.au, which sucks dead dogs.

Ive never understood people bidding early all they are doing is inflating the price for no reason.
Anyone care to explain why my logic is bad

Well, an inflated price is to the seller's advantage and if the buyer has not done his/her homework and pays over the odds for something they could have picked up for half the price at K-Mart, that's their problem.

I think the early bidders are new to Ebay, everyone knows the best way to win something is hit 'em with your bids in the last few seconds.

Of course, if you bid early and bid a little more than anyone else is prepared to pay, then nobody else bids and the item is yours.

So I guess it depends on the item and it's desirability.

I dont know, i think they are just idiots. If they bid early the price at the end of the auction immediately goes up. If they didnt place that bid the price would be lower at the end of the auction. Ive never seen an auction where someone bids at the beginning turn away bidders, to me the bidder is kinda bidding against him/herself (if you get what I mean).

Actually that's not quite true if you accept market forces are at work. People will only bid as much as they are willing to pay, so the timing of the opening bid is irrelevant to the final sale price.

The determinant of the final price is how many people there are bidding at the end and what their budgets are. So sometimes you get items going for the maiden bid which was placed the day the item was listed and other times it's a race between bidders to see who has the faster internet access and can squeeze in the final bid.

The ones that really crack me up are the items that sell for more than you would pay for them if you went down to the shops and bought it. Some people really do not have a clue.

Thanks for the offer Pshaw, hubby does have a MTB - it's an old Apollo Himalaya circa 1984, bad news is he is using it as the basis for an electric bike.

pshaw: thx for the massive vote of confidence aoparently i always land on very expensive helmets. another one bit the dust, although this one lasted more than three weeks thank god/buddha/someone.

picked up a nice deal on a jr race bike. soarer + nice little frame for $500 instead of nearly $800rrp (hush now expat, i know the drill).

guy originally sed $400 and my wallet was out in less than 3 nanoseconds, but then he considered how much trubble he would be in and revised the price. bugger. maybe he didn't expect me to jump at the offer so fast/at all. but $500 ain't too bad given that only 50 bucks less means no brifters