 Strowed at Wilson like lightning gives it the gosh now where's Quinlan out of the lead? Here's a charge you've got this one It will be a prodigious kick Everybody's saying hammer shot, no matter where you are. It'll be the torpedo, will it? No, I think you might use the broc punt It's long, it's now! It's to Bernie Quinlan and here they come in their thousands. Harris directs play towards centre half forward. Quinlan! Quinlan reached the peak of his powers in the twilight of his career winning the 1981 Brownlow medal at the age of 30 finishing runner-up in Fitzroy's best and fairest award over three successive years and leading the club's goal-kicking in every season from 1981 to 1985 How good is that old AFL highlights music? It really brings back some good memories for me Anyway, that was Bernie Quinlan a man that started the most famous Bunch ride here in Melbourne and I'd have to say Australia way back in 1984, which is now called the hell ride In this video, I'm going to share with you a discussion I had with Bernie earlier this week at a Maricycles cafe about the history of the hell ride Now if you're not familiar with Bernie, he is a legend of the VFL slash AFL or Aussie rules He played 366 games. He won a Brownlow medal, which is the best and fairest in the league He won two Colmer medals So he kicked the most goals in the league two years in a row and in 1984 He took up bike riding with two other guys here in Black Rock and started a bunch ride Which is now known as the hell ride I personally went into this discussion really focused and eager to learn more about the history of the hell ride and Bernie certainly goes into that into some depth In fact, the conversation came about from a documentary that we were looking to create at the back end of last year On the bike chaser platform regarding the hell ride and I reached out to the Western Bulldogs and asked for Bernie's contact details Now if you want some details on what happened with the documentary and future content on this Channel about the hell ride consider subscribing But also stick around at the end of the discussion I'm going to go into some details about that topic. However for now regarding my discussion with Bernie I left the Mara Cycles cafe earlier this week inspired by the activity once again of Cycling Bernie explains how he took up bike riding to manage an injury he obtained in the early 80s Not only that and as you saw at the start of the video on the highlights package Bernie had quite a successful twilight period of his career. Some would argue his best and Bike riding as Bernie puts it was a massive factor in prolonging his career an absolute AFL great. I hope you enjoy this discussion. So what I was keen to understand is you Started riding in 1984 When you got an injury and kill his injury. That's correct. That's correct. Yeah, I was getting a bit Coming towards the end of my football in Korea. I played in 81 with a Killies injury. Okay. It was debilitating at the time. So I had an operation at the end of 81 on my right Achilles. So 82 I played senha forward and at the end my left Achilles was playing up I had an operation on my left Achilles, right. So the start of 80 83 That we trained actually out of the old Fitzroy ground in the Brunswick Street ground And my Achilles fled up again after the operation and it took me ages forever to get back playing and that's how he ended up A full forward. I couldn't play senha forward So I went to went to full forward because it wasn't in those days You weren't running up and down the ground as they are these days Yeah, so full forward was an area where I could protect it a little bit better Than what I could have done if I was playing senha forward interesting. So you took up Riding in 84, was it? Yeah, it was. Is that a running for fitness? Yeah, because I was really keen on fitness and I moved to Black Rock And moved just around the corner in Second Street. So I had a Mate who had turned out to be a mate. He's no longer with us He's passed away quite a few years ago a guy named Peter McGeorge And he was a bit of a legend around the Black Rock area. He'd run marathons and He was just into all sorts of sport. So he knocked on the door one day and I got to know him really well And we decided that we'd start Start a bike ride with another fellow Rob Cork So the three of us decided that we'd get a bike and get into the bike riding for fitness So, you know, it was good for me because my Achilles didn't allow me to do all the running. So the bike riding substituted Substituted the bike riding for all the running. So did you do bike riding during footy season or just not pre-season? No, pre-season pre-season. Yeah. So early 84s when you started? Early 84 would have been. Yeah, early 84. And where did you start from when you were riding? We started at the clock tower And early days we probably went down to Around about Seaford Road Yeah But it developed from there and we went up through Mount Eliza to the route that they do these days The full route of the of the hell ride these days On the PN Highway or on? On the PN Highway and we cut off at Moody Ella And we went down Station Street then back on the Moody Ella down at Carram And yeah, it was it was all on the PN Highway mainly Yeah, did it start off as a bit of a race or were you just a bit of a ride? He was a very competitive guy and I played a lot of tennis with him as well Peter McGeorge Oh, okay, right He was a very competitive guy. So any bike ride that we did He would always be pushing the limits and pushing the boundaries He was very keen on making a bit of a contest all the time So early days we would ride back and we might do two minutes at the front The guy would pull over and the next guy would go through So it was a pretty hectic from Seaford all the way back Yeah, okay, was it a race at the end? At the race we used to race to Second Street That was the finishing line Oh, okay I don't know what they do these days No, it's just up here, there's a street sign near the Oh, okay, now we used to finish We used to have the sprint to the Second Street Oh, okay, who used to take out the sprint? Oh, you know, it was varied Was it? I can't remember exactly And so it was just the three of you initially The three of us initially And then when did it start picking up numbers? Well, I just, I can't remember exactly how we Was it used to, someone knew someone And then someone knew someone else And all of a sudden, you know, you'd have 10 or 20 or It's suddenly developed Yeah, right And away it went So you wouldn't have done it during the footy season Not during the footy season So did you come back and do it at the end of the footy season For fitness and to look at it and go, wow, there's more people here? Yeah, yeah, I started again at the end of the football season Yeah And I continued right on, basically, from the end of the footy season Right through until pre-season started with the footy club But I'd still do bike rides occasionally Not continuing on the whole ride all the time Yeah, okay So that's it It wasn't called the whole ride back then, though, was it? Well, you know, we didn't We just turned up as three mates having a ride So it wasn't called anything? So we didn't call it anything Right And we just turned up, had a ride and away we went Yeah, okay Well, probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves If we're starting, you know Yeah Starting to think we're naming a bike ride after ourselves or something like that Yeah, so it was the Franks and Derby before the hell ride Did you know it had a Franks and Derby? No, I didn't, no, I never knew it was the Franks and Derby And so how many years did you do it for? How long? I probably did it, I don't know, it might have been five or six years Oh, okay I reckon it might have been a bit longer Yeah, right It could have been, I'm not sure So post-footy season, or post-footy career? Post-footy career I did, yeah Keep going, yeah, yeah Because a few of the, I did a bit of work with Footscray, with the Bulldogs Yeah And so a couple of their boys came and did, I got them down here to do a bit of pre-season on the bike And one of them, a bloke called Johnny Ballantyne, he's still, he played at Footscray and Collingwood And he's still really keen, he's turning into a really keen bike rider He was doing the hell ride, I don't know what he's still doing, am I? Yeah I haven't spoken to him for a while Oh, over the years it's been quite like Chris Grant Yeah And the Western Bulldogs Well, we started, I started those guys off too Oh, did you? And there was a guy called Glenn Coleman and Danny Delray Yeah And a few of the Fitzroy boys did it as well Michael Roberts, I know Michael Roberts did it, he came to Fitzroy Oh, so when you were fitness coach, you were telling them to come down and do it? Yeah, yeah, you know, it was a bit of a rehab for some of the bikes So they came down and did the bike ride and some of them got really keen Right Yeah What did the club think about them riding their bikes in a fast bunch ride? Back then they didn't care? No, they're quite happy, they're quite happy Very happy for them doing the extra work, it was terrific for them Yeah, interesting And then when you were doing it, when did you see the numbers really, like, what were the numbers? Oh, there were some big numbers at the end, some big numbers And there were some good bike riders, I don't know the names of them But there were some good triathletes turning up and And, oh, it was just a plotter Right But I got pretty fit to doing the bike ride, it was fantastic What was it like back then? Was it like pretty controlled or was it like pretty hectic? It was pretty hectic Yeah It was pretty hectic I mean, it's, you didn't like to be left behind when you got to lights So occasionally a few of the riders might have gone through a little bit late But not, I wouldn't say without taking precautions You wouldn't just get to a red light and race straight through I might be too far down the track to pursue now, as far as the legal manners goes But I think I might have gone through a red light a couple of times I have, I think you get caught in those situations where the bunch is halfway through It goes red And you've got riders behind you, you're going at a certain speed Exactly, that's right One of the many nuances of the hell ride back then, though like The hell ride gets quite criticised today about these things happening And I think there's a lot more focus of the drivers on the road these days And there's a lot more, well, I don't know if there is a lot more The question I've got for you Is there's obviously a lot of anger towards cyclists on the road these days from motorists Was it like that back in the 80s when you were doing? I don't know about anger, but I can't remember really that much anger when I was out on the road But I think the motorists probably get a bit upset when the rider's drifting up too far on the I know we can ride too abreast, but sometimes when it gets a bit keen, they're all over the road That's when, you know, because the competitive urge is amongst all these riders And they want to be, they don't want to be left behind and all that sort of thing But, you know, you can understand the motorists at the time getting a little bit upset when they're Drifting out into the other lane and so forth Yeah, so there was a little bit of that There was a little bit of angst, a little bit But I wouldn't say it was over, it was a massive amount Yeah, okay And what did you enjoy about, you know, how you reflect on the hell ride when you were doing it What did you enjoy most of that? Yeah, look, it was a really, it was a bit of a social event as well You turn up and you'd see your mates that you hadn't seen all week And it was good to see them again and the way you'd go And you know, you got a bit of, you got out there in the fresh air and you're getting exercise And it was competitive and you're gaining terrific fitness out of it Yeah, did you have a coffee afterwards? No, we didn't, no, we didn't in those days I think we were just dispersed Oh, right Okay When collapsed Trying to get those shaky legs working again Yeah, yeah It's interesting that, like, I just thought that you guys would have come up with a name No, no, I mean, there's only three of us You know, but like, when I got bigger No, no, I don't even know how it became the hell ride Yeah I can't remember it all of a sudden becoming the hell ride I don't know how that happened What's your feeling towards now that it's become this big, like, the most renowned bunch ride in Australia It just started, like, in the 80s with three of you Oh, I suppose it's something that's not bad when you look back on That was just three bozos from around here They started it And now it's a pretty big thing Yeah, well now it's, I mean, in the cycling culture in Victoria It really is an institution Yeah And I know a lot of the keen road cyclists in Australia, whenever they come to Melbourne The first thing that they want to do is just go do the hell ride Yeah, that's pretty good That's a pretty good feeling that it's got ground from three, as I say, bozos from around here And all of a sudden it's so well-renowned Yeah, and look, even I know a lot of cyclists who sort of have got young families or whatnot They like the fact that it's their one weekly release Yeah, right They're too busy during the week Yeah, yeah But Saturday morning, they're off the chain Is it still seven o'clock? Seven o'clock Yep Yeah, but sort of out the front of here actually Oh yeah A lot of cyclists come in here Yep Have a pre-ride coffee Yeah, right So the coffee scene is massive in cycling Yeah, yeah, yeah They come in here for a pre-ride coffee, do the hell ride And then they'll go to a cafe once they've finished Have a chat with their mates So it's sort of a social thing as well Oh, yeah And then the real keen ones, they do the hell ride as a warm-up And then they go to the Dan and Oggs Go right out to the Dan That's massive I don't know whether I had that in my legs Yeah So when did you stop riding? Look, when did I stop riding? I did it most of the time I was here in Black Rock Just not all the time the hell ride But all through the 80s, I reckon I probably gave it away maybe early 90s Because I was working at Channel 7 So in a lot of the time you were in the state Doing the footy commentary From 88 onwards, I started When did I start it? Yeah, 88 I started at Channel 7 So then it became pretty awkward to be doing the hell ride When you had to do a lot of footy commentary You'd be knackered You'd be knackered, yeah You'd be going, you'd be falling asleep during the game For your footy career, like towards the end of the season You started doing for fitness How did you find cycling for your AFL fitness? Because obviously AFL is quite short first running Whereas cycling is a bit more endurance based Oh it was great, it was great You know I mean anything you can do I turned up, I reckon I was as fit as I've probably ever been Doing the riding And I played actually my last year it was 86 And I'd been doing the bike riding But we had a new coach that year David Bargen, David And I was really, really fit The body felt fantastic I was coming up 35 But all of a sudden we're doing 10, 400s And 20 hundreds and all this sort of stuff And the Achilles started to play up again So three weeks into the season I was getting quarter zone Shots into the Achilles to get through the year Which was a damn long year So do you think maybe did cycling help prolong your Oh absolutely, yeah Really? Oh yeah for sure Interesting For sure And also you were quite in, if you look at other footballers That sort of peak in their late 20s And then they sort of slide away after they hit 30 You don't get quite a successful career between 30 and 35 You won your brown though at 29 or 30? 30, yeah In 1981 I turned 30 And then two Coleman's And two Coleman's when I was 32 and 33 But I suppose it's the motivation You know whether I had the motivation to keep going And fitness had always been something I really enjoyed So I really, I probably didn't get stuck into the weights Until I was in my 30s properly Yeah okay So the bike riding and the weights really prolonged my career Yeah interesting So that was a discussion with Bernie I hope you enjoyed it And as I mentioned at the start of the video This came about based off a process that I was going through The back end of last year when at Bike Chaser We were looking to create a documentary on the hell ride So for those of you who are interested I thought I'd just go through the details of what actually happened there And what the plans are on this channel for hell ride content moving forward So I think we need to back the bus right up And I also am conscious that 35% of my subscribers actually come from outside of Australia So I'm just going to briefly explain to you what the hell ride is And then talk about what happened with the documentary And some of the content that I'm looking to create Regarding the hell ride on this channel moving forward So as you heard at the start of this video And during the discussion the hell ride is the most renowned bunch ride Here in Melbourne and Victoria and I'd have to say Australia It leaves every Saturday morning from the black rock clock tower Here in Melbourne And it heads down to a suburb called Mount Eliza Goes through a little village and comes back home Now the ride is 62.5 kilometers in length Typically takes about an hour and a half So it goes super quick Speeds can hit well and truly over 50 kilometers an hour And the size of the bunch really depends on the time of the year But during the warmer months it can really swell to well over 100 Maybe 150 some say up to 200 And as a result of those numbers on a road You can imagine that it is some controversy That surrounds the hell ride There is a stigma attached to it Personally I do the hell ride And I think a lot of the reasons why there is a stigma Surrounding it is because it's quite misunderstood And that was one of the driving factors behind why I was personally So interested in creating a 360 degree Comprehensive documentary on the hell ride So this is where myself and bike chaser Received a fair amount of criticism at the back end of last year You see we decided to take it to Kickstarter Because we recognised we needed funding If we were to make a truly compelling documentary I know how to use video equipment But I don't know how to create a compelling documentary And we needed expertise And as a result we needed funding So we started at Kickstarter We took our story to one of the main papers here in Melbourne Called The Herald Sun In a bid to ease tension between motorists and cyclists A documentary is being made About the controversial hell ride along Beach Road Online cycling platform bike chaser Is making a documentary about the hell ride A 78km round trip from Black Rock to Mount Eliza Undertaken by up to 200 riders every Saturday And we want to educate on bunch riding etiquette For the greater good of the cycling community But also other road users Like motorists riders aren't perfect and they make mistakes Lee Turner has taken part in the hell ride for 20 years And says the main issue is respect So by being in the Herald Sun paper We had no idea that our story would be picked up By some of the major television networks Channel 7 and Channel 10 They had segments in their evening news On our documentary and Kickstarter campaign As well as major radio stations 3AW, ABC Radio And some digital online news publications Such as ABC Online So it hit the press massively And we received a lot of heat because of it It appeared to validate people's thoughts That we were either trying to shut the hell ride down Or we were either trying to glorify the hell ride And we were trying to do neither of those things So to cut a long story short We never received funding for the hell ride Our Kickstarter campaign failed miserably However, by being in the press We got some significant exposure And our plan B was to see if we could get funding From a major organization And we had a few that were quite interested One in particular We put all our eggs essentially in one basket And a couple of months ago That major funder fell through as well So right here right now As I'm talking to you There will be no documentary on Bike Chaser On the hell ride However, as I personally have interest in the hell ride I will be running a series of videos On this YouTube channel right here About the hell ride Obviously this is the first one Being the history of the hell ride And I'm thinking a couple more And really the purpose of doing this Is because I think there is a major gap Surrounding education You see, when I started doing the hell ride 10 years ago I had no idea about the hell ride No idea about bunch riding skills No idea about the fitness required Nothing And there was nothing really available for me I've got hours and hours and hours of footage On the hell ride So I think we can really make some compelling videos And help educate people That are thinking about doing the hell ride Or just purely want more information About this Melbourne cycling institution