Blackbutt | Free State of Jen

Recently I rode the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (BVRT) on my fat bike (carbon framed Canyon Dude, which i have named The Can’t Bike because apparentley “you can’t”)

I’ve wanted to do the BVRT for ages and when one of my buddies invited me to a catch up in Toowoomba it was the perfect reason to tack on an epic adventure.

The thoughts of Sarah began early in the ride. I’ve written a lot of short stories and am part way through writing a novel. A while ago I noticed that my female protagonists in these stories and drafts are always named Sarah. I got to thinking about his while I rode out the k’s and in Linville I discovered that my name is not only Jen, but also Sarah.

Can’t Bike at Linville station. A man rode past me in an expensive lycra outfit on an expensive high-end bike as I was taking this photo. He covered one nostril with a finger pressed against it and blew snot straight out of the other nostril. What a fucking pig! His riding companion made a disparaging comment about Can’t, something to do with how big the tyres are and how hard it is to ride as a result. I did wonder why that was a problem for him considering I’m the one riding it. I’ve personally never had a problem riding it. In fact, I fucking love it! 30km/hr on sections of the trail under my own steam (it’s not an e-bike) and almost impossible to fall off due to the huge footprint offered by the fat tyres, which run at 10 psi.

In Linville I stayed at a place called The Rail Trail Refuge. It’s a pretty neat place, set up specifically for cyclists doing the rail trail. I met some awesome dudes here and they kept calling me Sarah. It wasn’t until dinner at the pub that night that I realised they had my name wrong and I said, “my name’s Jen, not Sarah.” But, I did start to wonder. Maybe I am Sarah? I am afterall the hero of my own story.

My mates at Linville: Ceya, Wayne, Brett and Nick. I went out for dinner with them all at Linville pub. I told them it was my 50th birthday in a few days and unbeknownst to me Ceya organised birthday cake with a candle and for the pub singer to sing me happy birthday as the cake arrived, and everyone at the pub joined in the song. It was really cool.

I saw these guys a couple of days later in Esk and as I was about to ride past them at the Brisbane Valley Roasters cafe they all called out, “Sarah-Jen-Sarah.” I stopped in to say hi and they showed me Nick’s handlebar, which had been scraped off on the road. His bike fell off the bike rack on the back of the car and dragged along the road until a passing motorist alerted them.

Nick’s handlebar after getting dragged along the road

I had a really great time on this trip. It was 160km and I took six days to do it because I didn’t want to feel like I was in a rush to GET THERE. I wanted to spend time checking out the cool little towns along the way and I’m glad I did because I met so many cool AF people and also some very, very nice dogs.

Keeper: A nice dog I met in Toogoolawah. He’s a rescued greyhound.

I talked to a man in Blackbutt about Yowies, I talked to a woman I met in a park when I stopped for lunch about naturism. A lady walking down the street helped me find accomodation in Toogoolawah. In Fernvale I met a man who had recently had open heart surgery and I found my Air bnb accomodation because I was able to get help from 3 random Fernvale pedestrians. In Esk I met a lovely man from NZ who camped nearby in the caravan park. Just as the boys in Linville thought I was Sarah, I thought this guy was Andy and I called him that until I discovered the next morning as we caught up for brekky that his name was actually Arny.

I got to tell a lot of people about the greatness of The Can’t Bike. People were really curious about it because mostly people haven’t seen this type of bike anywhere. I had to keep reiterating that it wasn’t an ebike. It looks like it should be because the frame is so large and for some reason it appears to others that my frame bag is a battery, which I don’t get, but whatever. Poeple were most curious about my Steerstopper (it’s a device that locks your handlebars in place, which is great for when you stop the bike and lean it or stand it, or when you have to push it) It was really the first time I’d been able to put it to good use. There were two big hills I couldn’t pedal up, so I locked it in and pushed the bike up the hill, much like you’d push a stalled car. It was so much easier than trying to fight with the steering while avoiding having your right leg chewed out by the pedal.