The forty eighters carrying on the time honored tradition of Queensland riders from decades past — The *forty eighters* carrying on the time honored tradition of Queensland riders from decades past

A Sunday cruise with the crew from Oz BMX Brisbane

Last Sunday I met up with the BMX riders from Oz BMX for their monthly cruise and mini pub crawl.

Along the way the forty eighters (riding for forty eight hours straight) stopped and let us know about their weekend, they were out for an all nighter, on their bikes all day Sunday and then into Monday as long as they could stay awake and pedal. When I heard this I remarked, “carrying on the time honored tradition of Queensland riders from decades past”. I explained about an old friend who was a carpenter. When he was doing his apprenticeship back in the 1950′s, the carpenter used to meet his mates after work on a Friday night at Roma Street station and pedal down to the Gold Coast, about 90k’s. The apprentices would ride overnight and the next morning when the sun came up stop off for a bottle of milk and a hamburger at the Gold Coast. Afterwards making their way back along the dirt road to Brisbane, the whole journey taking about twenty four hours.

The “forty eight hour” crew thought this was a pretty good story about a time out of their experience and decided it would be a good idea to have a crack at it, they chatted about meeting at Roma Street station one Friday night soon then heading off to the Gold Coast, just like Alan and his mates did six decades earlier. Alan passed away last year – I thought it was great that the “forty eight hour” crew believed a re-enactment of sorts was befitting of Alan’s story.

While the "forty eighters" were meandering their way around Brisbane, riders from Oz BMX continued their leisurely cruise. Below are some images from the Oz BMX Brisbane day out in the sunshine.