Hunt 1000 — A Single-Speed Journey

by Vince Cover - bike rider and co-conspirator at The Dog House Farm Stay

Soon, I’ll be riding my single-speed bike in the 2025 Hunt 1000 — a 1000 km self-supported bikepacking event from Canberra to Melbourne through the Australian High Country. It’s going to be an amazing journey through some areas I know well and others I’ve never seen before.

I’ve been training for this for a year, so I’m feeling well prepared. Honestly, my bike has failed me more than my body — which is a bit ironic considering single-speed is meant to be the nirvana of low maintenance. Still, it’s always the things you don’t know you don’t know that get you.

I’ll be riding a BH Peak frame with a Salsa rigid fork. The bike was given to me after my long-suffering Trek cracked a chainstay earlier in training. I’ll be running 29” wheels with 2.2” tyres — a slightly risky choice, but I don’t get flats very often, and my descending style, while fast, is fairly smooth. For chain tension I’ve gone with a short chain and a simple one-pulley tensioner to take up the slack. At this stage gearing will likely be the less fashionable sibling 32x19, probably too low for the first few days but one I’ll appreciate later, somewhere around Omeo, when the legs are sore and tired.

The setup is about as cheap as I’m willing to risk — solid enough, but not extravagant. After all that training, it would be pretty unfortunate to pull out because of a mechanical.

Some credit goes to the many people who’ve helped along the way — through support, encouragement, or the odd bike part. The frame itself was free and has already had two previous owners among my friends. Other bits have been gifted or sold second-hand over the years, so in many ways it’s a community bike.

This is going to be a challenge, especially now being 45. There aren’t too many people who’ve finished the Hunt on a single-speed, and most of those who have were younger. Still, I feel I’ve done everything I can to give it a proper go. Now it’s just a matter of turning the pedals, eating loads, and sleeping when I can — because everything is possible until it’s not.

Eat. Sleep. Ride. Repeat.