Huge-Action Monsteur - Wolveurine 650B Toureur (Wolverine)

Please post pretty pics!

That looks amazing! 🤤

Ain't nobody touching my damn wine

Will post up more pictures and a bit of context this evening then

Day -1

Attempts to shoehorn a thicc bike into a box meant for a Fuji Feather ended with a snapped barrel adjuster on the down tube and a minor mental breakdown. Fortunately I had a spare on the other side as I had the Bruce foresight to opt for 1x11. That said I couldn't for the life of me work out the shifting fully after this debacle that so ended up with a not-so-fucking-good 1x9 without the smallest two gears.

Day 1

4am wake up, driven to the airport by my darling girlfriend who was likely still a bit drunk from the night prior. Box weighed in at 23kg (!!!!!) along with carry-on bags. Wasn't quizzed about the tyres which I hadn't deflated to avoid jizzing sealant everywhere and potentially having two shagged wheels on arrival. A quick one hour flight and I was building the bike in a corner of the airport after an hour of grunting, sweating and packing in front of confused travelers I rolled out, right into the pissing sideways rain Hobart had offered as a greeting, in case I'd forgotten I was in Tassie. 30 minutes in I was wetter than a possum's pocket but was stopping in Sorrell just up the road to look for camp stove gas and took the opportunity to bosh my Sealskinz on. It didn't actually rain after that as I moved out of town and along the Arthur Highway for the next 20kms, so the hard shell was removed as my internals turned to microwaveable rice. Rather than take the highway all the way on this leg I opted for what I'd expected to be a nicely groomed gravel track through Wielangta Forest Reserve, which ended up being significantly rougher.

Nasty corrugated road, and a sign I should have paid more attention to.

Moody Maria Bay Lookout.

Ahh yes, now I see the problem... Lifting 24kg of bike over two giant downed logs sounds excellent. Fortunately I made it past or a 60km detour would have been necessary to get to the desired town.

After descending out of the hills I was into the bush/farmland with more pannier bashing corrugation.

A few more kilometers on and I'm greeted with views of Maria Island, which had been my intended destination for the evening, but the last ferry was at 3:30PM and I had little hope of making it.

With that in mind I stopped for a look at Carrickfergus Bay.

Around this time I realised that there may be a slim chance of reaching Triabunna for the island ferry, so I stopped farting about taking photos and put the hammer down. There was a bit of a climb out of Orford which I put some effort into, crested, and pissed down the other side into a headwind for 3PM. This gave me 30 minutes to call to book the boat, get food/water (none of which are available on the island), a bottle of wine, fish and chips and a parks pass...

Bosh!

If Tasmania is a microcosm of the mainland, then Maria is a microcosm of Tasmania. There are far more animals than people (had wombats, paddymelons, tasmanian devils and whatever the fuck else wandering round my tent), there are no motor vehicles and just drop toilets/solar showers that don't work. Heaven after a 90km ride!

more! Looks amazing, commentary also 10/10

Very, very cool! Awesome pictures and sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.

Always wine for one amey..
Jeez

Wow, nice write up and great scenery! Those long gravel roads look like the stuff of dreams.

How was the Wolverine? What did you like most about it? Anything you'd change?

Cheers folks - will put some more pictures up tonight

Had a full-blown bromance with the Wolverine from day one. It's just really capable, and does absolutely everything I wanted it to. I must have had no more than 20psi in the tires on that first day and it still handled amazingly. I know a few people have had some grievances with the Horizons but they're absolutely perfect for what I need/that trip in general. They roll pretty fast on paved roads and float through rough stuff with no problem at all. Converting them to tubeless made a huge difference too. In general the bike was It's rock-steady when fully loaded, and actually very quick once it gets going. I don't think there's actually anything I'd change at this point, which is probably indicative of most builds I do (i.e. takes fucking ages but ends up being what I wanted). Oh and its comfortable as shit!

Day 2

After a murky sky the day before I woke to some sun peeking through the clouds in my dew covered tent (Vango Helium F10 which was brilliant and weighs just 1.2kg.). I'd stashed a bag of food inside my tent but a ninja paddymelon had snuck underneath the outer and grabbed it. Bastard snaffled the lot, but its impossible to be angry when they're so cute. I went for a quick ride around the island before the 10AM ferry which confirmed that I'd be going back in future. It really is a fucking ace island, and you can actually stay in some of the still-standing prison buildings if you book them far enough in advance.

These are the remnants of a hotel which was razed a long time ago. A lot of old ruins tend to have the chimneys remain for some reason.

Here's my smug face on a boat.

As we were cruising back to the mainland I went up to the top deck of the ferry to find some moron using my bike as a hand rail, so I levelled by best death stare at the back of her head. Saw a pod of dolphins which swam along the side of the boat, which is the first time I've ever peeped the things IRL and it made me squeal like a fat toddler.

Back on the mainland I had time to make up thanks to the late landing of the ferry, and got going at about 11:30am after stocking up at the local store.

Made really good time heading toward Bicheno (around 24kph average somehow), taking in some amazing scenery en route to Freycinet National Park where I'd visited in the car previously. Didn't know they made Bundaberg in a Blood Orange Flavour but the shit tastes like unicorn tears and I have myself a new vice.

Rolled into Bicheno to some grey skies, a pizzeria that was in real danger of having it's tits blown clean off, and a bottle shop to stock up on sweet fermented grape nectar cylinders. Camped at a lovely local campsite and was advised I'd be neighbouring an 'older lady who's ridden fuck fucking miles!' said the owner. When I met her she told me she'd done 80km's that day in a reverse direction to my own route. She was 50 years old, had been riding for nine days on a shite giant mountain bike, and had been sleeping under a fucking tarp. As in literally a tarp:

What an absolute boss. Apparently she'd slept on the beach in St Helens the night before in a huge thunderstorm and that was the only time she'd actually gotten soaked. Inspirational shit. Went to see if the penguin march was happening that night, but saw a sum total of zero of the black and white bastards. Lovely place though.

A lot of old ruins tend to have the chimneys remain for some reason.

This is because they were the only brick thing bit of the building, the rest was built from wood, and obviously doesn't last/can be recycled/burnt.

Looks like a freaking sweet trip.

Top reading, thanks!

Amazing read, thank you for this!

That looks the nuts!
Makes you wonder why we sent our convicts there......its fucking idyllic!

😜

Great thread/bike/write-up.

I loved Tasmania, 10/10, one of the best bits of Australia, easily.

New favorite bike thread.

Thank you all! Here's a bit of Day 3:

Popped into town trying not to wake up the human burrito lady, and got myself a delicious Danish then headed to eat it on the beach. There's a famous blow-hole around the corner (oo err), but it was nice enough just watching the mist roll in through the bay. I didn't manage to get a proper picture, but there were some sea lions pissing about on a far off rock.

Suitably sated I went back to pack up and said my goodbyes to HBR then went on my merry way north out of the town. The roads were no-bits peanut butter smooth and awesome clouds were creeping in over the mountains.

From there, pretty much the whole day was either looking out across a crystalline blue bay, or up at lush mountain forestation, which was just fine. That said there was a bastard of a headwind most of the journey.

The latent alcoholic in me had been excited about this particular day, given some legend thought it a good idea to open a brewery at the LOTR-esquely named Iron House Point, imaginatively named Iron House Brewery. The building was a bit new-agey, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you how nice it was pedalling through 25 degree heat down to a bay with ice-cold frothies that aren't Boags or Cascade. Here's my bike sunbathing while I take in the liquid bread.

I asked one of the bar staff what the little beach was like just past the brewery and she shrugged like it wasn't all that, saying 'some people get married down there'.

I don't know what it takes to impress a Tasmanian, but fucking hell come on love. There was a perfect soft patch of grass right behind me as I took this, and it was pretty tempting to just set up shop right there and get leathered for the rest of the day. But in the interest of retaining intrepid status I pushed on through the rolling hills.

It was another 40 or so to St. Helens, passing through Scamander with a bullshit headwind which sapped a fair bit of energy. St. Helens isn't all that beautiful, but it's within day tripper distance of Bay of Fires, and there was a great little bike shop there where I could finally get my gears sorted before the hills started.

Oh and, and for anyone who gives a shit:

play.spotify.com/user/sensom/pla­ylist/7ALPIyBvOsuLBv7xo2StFE

Spat my coffee out at

I don't know what it takes to impress a Tasmanian, but fucking hell come on love.

Great stuff

spotify:user:sensom:playlist:7ALPIyBvOsu­LBv7xo2StFE

https://play.spotify.com/user/sensom/playlist/7ALPIyBvOsuLBv7xo2StFE

FTFY

Thanks!

Day 4

Bit of a rest day spent in and around St. Helens as I needed to pop in to the LBS to get the Wolverine shifting properly. The owner of the bike shop turned out to be a bit of a ledge, and rode a Soma track bike himself. When I'd dropped in the day before he was pretty surly (geddit), but on seeing my exquisite taste in steel bikes became a real chatty Cathy. Wish I'd taken a picture of it but the shop was called Break O' Day Cycles. After going back to pick the bike up I headed for Bay of Fires with my inadequate beach towel (one of those weird tiny sports towels that'll barely dry your junk), and some delicious corn triangles.

The road out was undulating with some pretty pinchy climbs by the sea, and there are tons of turn offs for camping areas. I'd been recommended Sloop Reef and that was the one I was sticking to. After about 25km's I turned off onto a fine white gravel road and rolled toward the coast.

Coast peeking through...

Found a nice little spot to enter the cove which is littered with huge granite rock, stained red by minerals in the Fuckingagesago period, and found a spot to sit down. For two of the four hours spent there I didn't see another person, which was amazing.

Starfish!

Laksa noodles for lunch, and spent some time re-wiring my Igaro D1 which I'd managed to break. Then for the ride back in a bit of a beach haze, drunk on tortilla chips. Sirloin steak for dinner, cuz I'm a classy bitch.

That looks alright