Mark Blythe, Tarrangower Times
Tomorrow (Saturday 2 March) at the Maldon Progress Hall you can attend the third biannual Maldon Classic Bike Show. Attendance is just $5. All proceeds go to the Maldon Hospital and it is a truly worthy cause.
You will be privileged to see possibly the biggest and best display of classic pre-2000 road racing bikes anywhere in Australia. With around 100 bikes expected to be on display, this is a must-attend event for the push bike fraternity (and sorority for that matter). There is no doubt that bike riding for health and fitness has had a major resurgence. Just travel along any sealed country road anywhere around Maldon and you can’t help but realise that an event of this nature was too long coming. So don’t miss it while you have the chance, or you will be waiting around for another two years for the next one.
So how, you may ask, did the most uncoordinated carbon-based life form living in the known universe end up writing about an activity that demands strength, courage, and grace? Well, like how all the best stuff happens in life – “Right place wrong time, that’s how.” ….See below
The call went out, first from the Sloan Ranger (big, big boss). Then the TT’s [Tarrangower Times] enforcer Viv chimes in. Who wants to cover the Maldon classic bike show? New kid on the block Blythe jumps at the chance, great, bikes, I’m in, I love classic bikes. Reality slowly dawns – it is push bikes, not motor bikes.
Smythe and Robinson high five each other and laugh uncontrollably. What are you going to do here, Blythe, how are you going to inject some excitement into this event? Easy, as it turned out, just talking to the three men involved was a great start.
Peter Gray, Michael McCartney and Jim Knight live and breathe classic and vintage road racing bikes, and fortunately for this writer their passion and knowledge is contagious. Well, their passion is anyway – I still can’t tell a derailleur from a side stand. This is essentially a show and shine for state of the art elite road racing machinery pre 2000s – either immaculately kept, or lovingly restored back to pristine concourse condition.
The courage of the men who use these machines for their intended purpose is beyond dispute. Elite riders often reach speeds up 120KMH on downhill sections, perched on 21mm tyres that have been glued to the rim, tyres made of linen with a realistic working life of about an hour. They are visibly disintegrating while you are doing these insane speeds. Death is a constant companion on these hell rides.
To illustrate the point Michael arranged the four of us literally touching shoulder to shoulder. He now explains in his own words: “Imagine that your front wheel is mere inches away from the rear one of the rider in front. Now if they brake or try to avoid something or suffer a mechanical failure, 20 or more riders could hit the road, with no more protective gear than a polystyrene helmet.”
It would be carnage. There simply is no margin for error in an elite peloton that is best described as combative, more than competitive. This may consist of 30 or 40 riders, maybe more. The writer called barley – he was just too traumatised to continue the article.
The writer left in search of strong drink. To his receding back, Mike yells, “We will get you in the saddle yet Mark” to which the writer responded, “In ya dreams, McCartney.”
Go to www.themaldonclassic.org for more information regarding tomorrow’s show.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 1 March 2024.
