Nix-Tracks

1. The Vision Thing
2. Declaration of Interests
3. Comments and Interaction
4. Usage Rights
5. Content and Photo Policy
6. Website Technical Details
7. To Contact Me

The Vision Thing

I live in north central Victoria. This area is not currently recognised by many as a cycling destination, including by local government.

I think the extensive grid of local gravel roads are an opportunity for cycling. These roads now get less traffic because of farm consolidation and loss of irrigation water. Particularly when combined with rarely used clay roads, scenic river tracks and tracks through National and State Parks.

Gravel cycling and bikepacking are currently the biggest growth areas in cycling. Northern Victoria is well placed to benefit.

The big advantages of this area are the low vehicle traffic. Most roads are already in good riding condition. There are many small towns nearby to provide food, accommodation, and other services. No big infrastructure spend is necessary, it is rideable now.

Twelve train stations provide easy access from Melbourne and allow many different start and finish points for rides. Many routes are loops. This means riders don’t need to ride back on the same routes (unlike rail trails). The GABCY Network area also has a climate advantage over much of the rest of Victoria in spring and autumn.

I have a vision of a gravel cycling based micro-economy and ecosystem. A network of interconnected day-routes and through-routes across this area. The routes are supported by a network of small towns. Additionally, there are farm stays, farm gate sales, pop-up cafes, and farmers’ markets.

That is what I am working towards, and it is steadily taking shape.

Thought for the day (and any day): Riding on sealed roads is like kissing someone wearing a face mask.

Declaration of Interests

If you are wondering, I don’t make money from this website or from travel or cycling in general.

I don’t have a financial relationship with any local business that provides travel services or amenities (e.g. food, drink, accommodation).

I do provide local authorities and businesses with information and encourage them to offer better services to visiting riders.

Comments and Interaction

Comments are open without requiring logins or registration as this is easiest for readers.  I have no agenda to capture readers’ details or try to sell them things.

However, play nicely!  Any comments that are spam, trolling, offensive, gratuitous advertising, overly confrontational or unrelated to the topics will be removed.  If managing comments becomes a problem for me, I will set up a registration process. This change will be sad.  Anyway, we will see how it goes.

Usage Rights

My content and the gpx files on these pages are available for public use by individual riders. My aim is to continue to add more routes. I want to update and improve the existing routes and gpx files. I also plan to continue to make these freely available to riders.

However, my content and gpx files should not be redistributed. The files should not be uploaded behind subscription paywalls or anywhere else. People who upload gpx files to subscription based websites are supporting a business model that restricts supply of routes. At the same time, these uploaders are harming this website which provides routes for free to riders.

Similarly, the content and gpx files should not be taken by consultants, intermediaries, or public authorities. These bodies should not promote themselves by redistributing my content. Nor should they pass my content off as their own work.

The routes on this website will continue to be freely available to riders. They will be well supported with information and updates on this site. There is no reason to distribute my content to another location. The content won’t be updated in the new locations.

Referring another person or entity to the routes, gpx files, or supporting information on this site is easy. The appropriate way is to share a link to the relevant webpage on this site.

Content and Photo Policy

If anyone believes I have used their images or content without proper authorisation or acknowledgement please contact me.

Website Technical Details

This website was upgraded in July 2022. The major changes were to the back end. Readers will not notice much difference to the interface and pages you see. These are some changes you may notice:

• New name and URL. The website is now Nix-Tracks.com which is much simpler and easier to remember. All pages will include this in their URL.
  • However, don’t worry if you have saved or bookmarked old links that include the previous URL prefix (nixtrader.wordpress.com), these will still work forever and be redirected to the pages with new URLs.
• No more ads! If you do not use an adblocker, you would have seen advertising in the body of posts and pages. This was nothing to do with me, the ads were inserted by WordPress. However, with the upgrade to a different website plan, there will be no more external advertising to interfere with reading! Yay!

To Contact Me

Thanks for reading and your interest!

The fastest way to contact me and get a response is to make Comments here. I get a personal message email whenever anyone posts a Comment here and I try to respond quickly. Access to the comment section is set so anyone can use it. You don’t have to login or give any personal details. Just type your thoughts.

You could send me an email using this email address (nixtrader AT yahoo DOT com DOT au). However, this email address is rarely used and I don’t monitor it frequently.

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