Fixed Gear Australia Circumnavigation Record Attempt

A smidge under 6000km

That is some undertaking!

Would love to watch along with your Instagram stories too, what's your handle there?

@josephxkendrick

Making a dash for the NT border today from Mount Isa.

1 Attachment

Looks like you missed out a bit! Are there any roads up the York Peninsula...?

I believe there’s an out & back dirt track to the cape. It’s a no from me lol

Sorry, been trying to update but signal was very bad. Finally got to the Stuart Highway (the main north-south highway across the middle of Australia). Had a corker of a day. Must’ve been a tailwind or excitement to have made it to a junction or the lure of warmer sleeping temperatures but we ended up clocking 362km by 4am. Now, I’ve found a supermarket with bananas (spotty!!!) and watermelon. Trying to fuel my body healthily lol! I ate peanuts and crisps as fuel for almost 500km. Here’s a photo from yesterday towards the end of the Barkly Highway...

1 Attachment

Bananas aren't vegan in Aus mate!

Absolutely bonkers, I've loved following you on instagram too! For a guy that's doing something as crazy as this you are always so positive and optimistic on your videos!

Last time I tell one of my friends I can't find vegan foods...

Any reason your running the wheel that far back in the dropout?

I assume so there's enough chain to accommodate a 19t sprocket when he gears down.

The precise reason 👌

Fucking wicked

Just arrived in Katherine. 2520km in 10 days. Got a place to crash here and managed to make it to the supermarket with 3 minutes to spare after a 105km TT effort lmao. Got two tubs of vegan Ben & Jerry’s and ate them in one sitting. Will have a quick sleep then I guess make a break for Darwin which is an annoying ~320km. Long enough to be an annoying slog but too short to validate breaking it into 2 days. Will see how I feel in the morning lol!

1 Attachment

To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m out here on my own. Got all the Strava and Insta love. Makes me feel great sharing the journey with everyone. Really helps keep me going! Thanks!

2520km in 10 days...
...too short to validate breaking it into 2 days

Mate. You crack me up.

I'll have a vegan day next week, in solidarity with your epic adventure.

It certainly helps with motivation I’ll give you that!

Me and my sister are both following your journey and have talked in length about our next tour! I think you may have given her the bug!!!!

How busy are you finding the roads, say, compared to the nullarbor?

Epic effort mate, well done.

How many punctures have you had out there? What are you using to prevent them?

Keep the posts coming!

Savannah Way west of Cairns was DEAD. Some caravans during the day but I got into the flow of stuffing my face at roadhouses / servos in the evening then heading out for a few more hours of riding between 9pm and midnight. Some nights I saw maybe 1 or 2 vehicles in that time... and on my last ride I saw precisely ZERO vehicles between 11pm and 7am on the Victoria Highway heading towards the NT/WA border.

During the day there are a lot of caravans and stuff like that, there’s a lot lot less road trains up here. I remember the Nullarbor having them very often, even through the night, although they are much longer up here.

Obviously, the east coast highways were super busy and a lot more just normal cars out there. Very rare to see a ‘car’ on these desert highways!

1 Attachment

I’ve done over 13,000km now and probably had about 4 punctures in that time. The roads out here are pretty great condition tbh. Maybe I’m just lucky! I’m carrying a bunch of tubes and patch kit too. I’ve used various different brands and models of tyres, sometimes you don’t have much choice at the bike shops here!

Ran a 25mm Gatorskin on the front for about 8,000km with no issues apart from a very very slow puncture (held pressure all day). Recently put on a 28mm Maxxis Refuse and a Schwalbe Durano Plus 28mm on the rear.

1 Attachment

Update: Made it back into Western Australia! I have about 3000km to go to Perth. I’ve kinda gone a bit cray recently. I did a 340km ride to Darwin, napped (terribly) then did a 350km ride back (the highway is an out & back for Darwin). Then I took a rest day followed by a 535km 30-hour ride (20 minute nap) across into Western Australia.

Not sure if the big days / big rest structure is better for me. Either way, I found it too comfy to head out again from the place I found to stay just across the border and now I’m gonna try and crush the 1000km to Broome (where I have a WarmShowers host) in 3 days. Apparently it’s even flatter than before and tailwinds so should be ‘easy’.

I’ve been riding 48/16 for the last ~3500km 😂

1 Attachment

Sounds like you're still having fun. The big days might not be the most efficient as you have to catch up on sleep afterwards, but they can be motivational and sometimes that is more important!

The isolation must be hard at times and enjoyable at others. Beautiful pictures.

I can't be the only one wondering what's happened to the updates...hope all is ok