Little Things You Hate

[Haakon]

Hope the pup is doing ok !

An older mate of mine and his missus had a stray cat rock up at their place while they had it up for sale, it hung around for few weeks then one day they found it in a bad way on the back door step, he rushed it to the vets and had a very tricky conversation with his wife whether to pay the $$$ for the anti-venom to save the adopted stray or send it to a certain death.

The cat made a full recovery, then dissappeared, they moved out 2 weeks after the last sighting.

money well spent. Yes, pup is fine - dry strike it seems. $350 spent on an afternoon of observation and blood tests but as it turned out no antivenin needed.

 

[slowmick]

Bike Buller Festival is dead.
Has been on the bucket list for a very long time. not no more

Welcome to Rapid Ascent - Rapid Ascent

Regarded as Australia’s leading Adventure Sports Event Management company, Rapid Ascent organises off-road, adventure and niche sports events across Australia ranging from mass participation adventure races (the world’s largest!) to boutique mountain bike festivals.

bikebuller.rapidascent.com.au

 

[moorey]

Bike Buller Festival is dead.
Has been on the bucket list for a very long time. not no more

Welcome to Rapid Ascent - Rapid Ascent

Regarded as Australia’s leading Adventure Sports Event Management company, Rapid Ascent organises off-road, adventure and niche sports events across Australia ranging from mass participation adventure races (the world’s largest!) to boutique mountain bike festivals.

bikebuller.rapidascent.com.au

Buller has been trying to die for years. Pricks. Great potential, chair lifts, big hill....but zero interest in offering itself as a gravity Mtb destination.
Always loved Bike Buller. It’s been rich picking there for Felix the last 3 year.
Not happy.

 

[Haakon]

What was wrong with the chairlifts..?

 

[wkkie]

What was wrong with the chairlifts..?

I dare say the made up pickup spot, the lack of bike carrying, the lack of safety features. That's what made it all fun and unique.

But like Moorey was saying, resort management haven't seemed interested in mountain biking for a long time. Which is a shame, because it's a great place to visit and had lots of potential.

 

[moorey]

What was wrong with the chairlifts..?

Safety....always has been. You have to nurse your bike on your knee. I've seen a couple of kids face plant with their bikes from 10 foot up trying get on. Also unloading...you have to lift and carry your bike quickly or you get dragged under it.
Easy fix with racks if the WANTED to.....they don't.

 

[sane]

Well they got zero revenue from the snow season this year, you’d think it’d be a no brainer to try something in summer.

 

[Haakon]

Safety....always has been. You have to nurse your bike on your knee. I've seen a couple of kids face plant with their bikes from 10 foot up trying get on. Also unloading...you have to lift and carry your bike quickly or you get dragged under it.
Easy fix with racks if the WANTED to.....they don't.

Oh wow, that does sound a bit sketchy... I've only ever used the Thredbo one, the racks there seemed pretty idiot proof.

 

[Haakon]

And yet they made such a big deal about all the money spent on the Epic Trail and how it was turning Buller into an MTB destination. Odd.

Oh well, Epic Trail is still there and still a bloody great day out.

 

[moorey]

And yet they made such a big deal about all the money spent on the Epic Trail and how it was turning Buller into an MTB destination. Odd.

Oh well, Epic Trail is still there and still a bloody great day out.

Epic is great, but its all pure XC. Buller markets itself as a gravity destination, yet does nothing whatsoever to support this, and has now completely squashed it.

 

[Ackland]

Epic is great, but its all pure XC. Buller markets itself as a gravity destination, yet does nothing whatsoever to support this, and has now completely squashed it.

Their ski run agreement doesn't allow enough trail footprint to be a proper Gravity Destination
Then you add in the crap infrastructure and the fact that the lifts only operated sometimes.

In attending a conference there only 3 years ago, Resort Management had modelled that MTB would easily outstrip their winter offering if the lift operators would get on board and let them upgrade the infrastructure and build more trails.

 

[mike14]

Disappointing about Buller, but they really don't seem like they give a crap about mtbing, or any other summer activities.
Good opportunity for Tassie to keep promoting all their venues and create an event over the same time period that would get Victorians traveling down for a long weekend

 

[moorey]

Their ski run agreement doesn't allow enough trail footprint to be a proper Gravity Destination
Then you add in the crap infrastructure and the fact that the lifts only operated sometimes.

In attending a conference there only 3 years ago, Resort Management had modelled that MTB would easily outstrip their winter offering if the lift operators would get on board and let them upgrade the infrastructure and build more trails.

Existing gravity trails are more than enough at the moment for some great runs, though they could absolutely do a lot more with the terrain (and maybe not dump blue metal all over the International and Abom tracks as their version of 'maintenance'.
Even during the MTB season, you go up there peak time and it's a ghost town, with no assurance you can get a beer, meal or groceries.
I had hoped that the Rona might have encouraged them to work harder to draw riders back once things settled down, but alas.

 

[pink poodle]

Well they got zero revenue from the snow season this year, you’d think it’d be a no brainer to try something in summer.

I heard they were installing a slip and slide from the summit all the way back to the start...

It feels strange to hear of a "bike park" closing down when there is finally a bit of growth in thelis part of the MTB industry. This place must be run by Dunder heads (seems some strong evidence put forward) or they are under too many restrictions rom the land owner to bother.

 

[moorey]

LTIH....PayPal when you have an issue.
They charged me twice for the one purchase from CRC. Messaged them every day for last 3 days, they say they will respond within a few hours...never did.
Rang them, waited ages, they offered a callback service as they were busy. They eventually call back, I explain the situation, they acknowledge they've charged me twice erroneously, and tell me I have to contact my bank. I point out that its a PayPal issue, and the bank won't help me, she keeps saying to contact my bank to resolve it. My inner Karen starts to bubble up, and I ask if there is someone else I can talk to about this?

She hangs up.

 

[DMan]

LTIH....PayPal when you have an issue.
They charged me twice for the one purchase from CRC. Messaged them every day for last 3 days, they say they will respond within a few hours...never did.
Rang them, waited ages, they offered a callback service as they were busy. They eventually call back, I explain the situation, they acknowledge they've charged me twice erroneously, and tell me I have to contact my bank. I point out that its a PayPal issue, and the bank won't help me, she keeps saying to contact my bank to resolve it. My inner Karen starts to bubble up, and I ask if there is someone else I can talk to about this?

She hangs up.

I'm sorry, it's not me it's you.

 

[moorey]

or they are under too many restrictions rom the land owner to bother.

Can't see what restrictions...DH tracks have been there and running since the 80's. They have zero impact on the snow season and infrastructure. Baw Baw is a smaller hill with only the one actual DH track, yet they got their shit together and run their own shuttles over summer.
Mirimbah servo/cafe at the base of Buller used to run private shuttles...they seem to have been pushed out by Blue Dirt, who now seem to not be interested in running a decent shuttle service either (I have some beefs with BD's monopoly aside from Buller). If I've got this wrong, happy to be corrected, but that's how it appears.

 

[pink poodle]

I was thinking more national parks kind of restrictions...you know the kind that make heaps of sense. Like "we know you have bulldozed a 5km long 50m wide run through our pristine young growth once was stopped by logging forest reserve, but no way on hell can you clear a bike trail that weaves within that ski run's existing boundaries...you might hurt the last remaining breeding location of the last 6 megalithic Australian snow fly." Kind of stuff.


A dh track would have more potential to impact a ski run than an xc track. Australian ski fields are cumming in their pants if their base makes it to 1m for one weekend in peak season. That doesn't allow for a lot of cover of some dh trail obstacles. But I reckon that could be a good thing! Some drops, rollers, and jumps scattered across the run would be ace.

 

[Ackland]

Can't see what restrictions...DH tracks have been there and running since the 80's. They have zero impact on the snow season and infrastructure. Baw Baw is a smaller hill with only the one actual DH track, yet they got their shit together and run their own shuttles over summer.
Mirimbah servo/cafe at the base of Buller used to run private shuttles...they seem to have been pushed out by Blue Dirt, who now seem to not be interested in running a decent shuttle service either (I have some beefs with BD's monopoly aside from Buller). If I've got this wrong, happy to be corrected, but that's how it appears.

There are weird arrangements.
Separate entities run the lifts, the ski runs and Bike Buller.

There are ongoing arguments about where the trails cross ski runs (same happens at Thredbo) as the benched areas need deeper snow coverage to run in winter

^As per the pink fella

 

[moorey]

At Buller, (no doubt by design), the DH tracks really don't impact the ski runs. It's through tight tree sections, and where it crosses over the ski runs, its essentially off camber transitions to the other side. At the bottom of international, there's a couple of dirt mounds off the side, used as bike jumps, but I don't even think this part is used as a ski run? Can't be sure, haven't boarded there in 15+ years.

Either way, its a shit situation, and the Mountain is going to die a quick death if its's relying on the snow season to support it.