Postie Bike Challenge rides through Echuca

Postie Bike Challenge event co-ordinator Dan Gridley, who has been involved from the start, said the group would run along the Murray this year as it was a route it had not yet taken in the 22 years of the event.

“The Postie Bike Challenge started as a family affair because the idea came from my father-in-law, who is in his own right a quite grand adventurer,” Mr Gridley said.

“He has done several well-known trips and he and another adventurer were sitting around the dinner table thinking what if we get a bunch of old postie bikes and ride from Brisbane to Darwin for something out of the ordinary?”

Before they knew it, others had heard about the trip and wanted to come, and the Postie Bike Challenge was born.

Mr Gridley’s father-in-law is Australian adventurer Lang Kidby, who is currently re-creating Francis Birtles’ trip from London to Australia in an early vintage vehicle.

Mr Kidby and his wife Bev have re-created many historical events, including vintage air rallies, driven a Dodge to Normandy, the Le Martin Peking to Paris Challenge, as well as travelled around the world in a Fiat 500.

After the first Postie Bike Challenge, the task of running the event fell to Mr Gridley to do in his spare time.

Since 2002, the Postie Bike Challenge has run routes across every state in Australia, including from Brisbane to Perth to Hobart and Cairns.

There is a catch with the Postie Bike Challenge now, as Australia Post stopped buying the bikes into Australia in 2016.

“We’d purchase the bikes from Australia Post, then we would donate them and they would be auctioned off,” Mr Gridley said.

“And that is how a lot of money has gone into community groups.

“Until about 2017, and then we couldn’t do that any longer as I got the call from Australia Post that there will be no more, so don’t keep giving them away, or the event would come to an end.

“Now, we drop in to towns and we bring in community groups and try to inject money into local towns along the way.”

As there are no longer any new postie bikes, the challenge has become about keeping your postie bike going for the whole length of the event.

“The original design of the bikes was in Japan as commuter bikes, just for city travel, and they weren’t designed for long distances,” Mr Gridley said.

“We thought it would be a bit absurd to ride a small bike that is not designed for long-distance travel, long distances.

“We call it a challenge because you sit on a bike for anywhere from four to seven hours, for 10 days or longer, and it is pretty tough.

“The other part of the challenge is that each of the riders has to keep in mind that the little bike isn’t designed to go at high speed.

“They have always got to keep the bike speed below or around 75km/h to stop the engines from overheating, failing or having more mechanical problems than they should.

“They have to pay attention to how they treat the bike to get them to the end.

“We provide everyone with a bike and there is kudos in starting on one and finishing on exactly the same bike because you have been able to keep it going for that full distance without damaging it or abusing it.

“And that is the Postie Bike Challenge.”