Postie bike adventures seem to be the latest rage.
In the wake of various “official” postie bike charity rides, several groups of bikers have decided to organise their own adventures.
Guy Basile, a talented rider and adventure nut, is currently on a private postie bike ride in the snow down south with some lunatic mates and they’re not the only ones deciding to go their own way.
Another group is a band of bikers from North Queensland who decided that if they organised their own charity “Postie Bike Safari” they could do it every year, not just once.
Miner Trent Scott says they chose the RACQ Central Queensland Rescue chopper as their charity “because most of us either come from a small mining town or work in the mines so we rely on the helicopter if something was to happen to us or our family”.
“At the start of the year one of our workmates had a motorbike crash about 3km out of Glenden and had to be air-lifted out but sadly he passed away but if it wasn’t for the helicopter his family would not have had the chance to say there goodbyes.”
So 18 mates bought bikes, modified and painted them to their liking and set off on a seven-day from Brisbane to Cairns to raise some money and give something back to the community.
They averaged about 300km a day, mostly on dirt roads, staying off main roads and sleeping in country pubs each night where they raised more money.
The crew had three support drivers, two utes with trailers, one truck and one spare postie bike.
The youngest rider was 23 and the oldest rider 74 with two female riders along.
It cost the riders $500 to enter, but they got $200 back at the start of the trip, $300 for fuel, and a Postie Bike Safari shirt, hat and stubby cooler. The riders had to pay for their own food, drinks and accommodation along the way.
I met up with the crew at the start of their safari on June 9 at Mt Glorious just west of Brisbane and not long after they had their first crash.
I’ll let Trent tell the story:
“On the first day riding Nudge got a little carried away coming down from “Mt Goriest” just after we saw you guys. He came into a corner a little hot and hit a guard rail and went over the edge. Lucky he didn’t kill himself. He took a bit of skin off and bruised his shoulder pretty bad so he had to take two days off riding.
“The second day after leaving Hivesville pub three all crashed on the same corner, one bad one but he managed to repair his bike and he kept going. The only other bad crash was Alan the 74-year-old. He came a gutser as well. He bruised his body up and split his nose but he got back on his bike the next day.
“We had a few big nights at some of the pubs which made it really hard riding the next day. There were quite a few sore heads.
“We had one bike break in half in-between Ravenswood and Innot hot springs. We tried to fix it but it was too far gone. We had to change out an engine at Hivesville and several flat tyres but all in all the old CT110 are tuff bikes; just couldn’t kill them and we really tried hard. They’re a bit like the Energizer ad; they just keep going and going.”
So far, the crew have raised a commendable $26,000.
“We all had the best time and can’t wait to do it all again,” says Trent. “We already have a lot of people keen for next year as this will become an annual event.”
If you’ve got the nerve and a sense of adventure, contact Trent on 0415675121.
