This is the tale of Red’s big day out, the maiden voyage following its re-imagining as a neo build for everyday use. Red is the Rossin Petermann special of late 80’s vintage with the frame imported from the UK and subsequently built with a Potenza gruppo, Campagnolo wheels, Cinelli cockpit and the Selle SMP lounge chair. You can read more about Red here.
On this particular day Tim and I set out from Ma Ma Creek up the great Dividing Range and on to Clifton and return, about 110km and exactly what you should do to shake down a new build. One of the delights of this ride is barely any traffic at all which means you have the road to yourself for the descents and pretty much the whole ride. Its a gentle climb for about 30km, a sharp climb for about 3km, and then a fast ride across the top of the range and a descent to the highway and on to Clifton. Averaging more than 45 for several km, speeds well over 50 km/h for more than a km and descents around 60km/h in places. It passes through the famous Heifer Creek cutting a significant civil engineering accomplishment back in the day.
The return was hot and into the wind to Hirstglen which marks the beginning of the descent to Ma Ma Creek and a fast technical descent for over 10km with more than 30km of descending in total which makes for a quick return leg. There’s nothing of consequence at Clifton but there is no water on the route either so a visit to Clifton is required to refuel and replenish water.
The map shown gives an idea of the elevation although we started at Ma Ma Creek rather than Gatton at about the 25/125km mark. Its a fine day out and turns out Red still has what it takes to carve up hills and handle fast riding. Epic.
