Marx Garage

Scratch & sniff, its new bike time.

2012-01-26T19:37:00.003+11:00

The daily commute does take it’s toll on a bike, & after 3 years the Jamis Exile (MTB single speed 42/16 with slick tyres) was coming across little dog eared. Even though the intrinsic connection a rider gets when riding a single speed can be intoxicating at times, my weathered frame has been feeling the climbs as time has passed and I began to look on with a degree of envy as the rider alongside me simply snicked down to a more suitable ratio & powered on. The attraction of levelling out the terrain while on the go with science was the catalyst for me to turn my back on new parts & an open tool boxto neaten up the Jamis, for a chat with my local bike shop salesperson & web searching bike manufacturer product ranges.

For me, it was something of ‘Back to the future’ moment where my head was turned once again to the weirdness that is winter in Europe – the cyclocross bike. These fall into two broad groups of product, the hardcore cyclocross racer with a low(ish) ratio double up front, or what can be considered a touring bike – a drop ‘bar roadie with nod to MTBs with disk brakes & a triple crankset.

Oddly, my short list of just 2x bikes were either the Spcialized Tricross Comp (2012) – solely on the strength of how cool it looked in anodized black & red bits, as well as the Boardman Pro from Wiggle, because, again it was black, but ran disks (albeit cable Avid7s) and priced very keenly.

The hot-shoe amongst the various bike outlets in Melbourne revealed the supply of Specialized Tricross Comps not due until June 2012 (we’re in January) & CX bikes in various shades of unsuitability – yes in the end it was basically all about what they looked liked… So, I reverted to the information superhighway to rescue me from my vanity & doubled clicked onto the Boardman CX Pro .

So now that anxious wait for that big box from that smelly man in the courier van.

Garmin 24hour MTB XC.

2012-01-26T19:27:00.003+11:00

Entered in a four man team, open category.

Oh man, that mud wreaked my head. If someone asked me to give up on MTBing when I came through transition at 10:30pm Sat night I would have gladly discarded my 50kg mud laden Specialized Epic for a badminton racket.

That combination of mud, constant rain & drizzle with those rocky & off-camber section made much of my nights laps virtually un-ride able. Even going pig slow filled the tyres & jammed up the wheels & drivetrain. Any opportunity for some speed to shed the mud had me into the bushes in the most unflattering of angles.

Although Sunday morning, really was like night & day. We headed out for our 2nd team lap & it was a gas. I reckon there was even dust in the “S for Snozza” section. Although unfortunately for me, virtually all my laps except the 2nd team lap was ridden in inclement weather (and mood).

2011 Around the Bay in a day (organised road ride- 210kms)

2011-11-06T19:55:00.001+11:00

Wow, piece of cake.

I started from the actual start at Alexander Gardens at the end of Swan St/City Rd.

The Melb>Sorrento>Queenscliff>Melb 210km entry I bought off this other bloke had the slowest average time (20/24kms) so I was right down the back ‘with everyone else’.

Heaps of riders, thousands I would hazard a guess even.

Official start was 6am, but they staggered the riders out in groups of a 30x odd, I didn’t roll under the start cute & register my start time electronically until 7am.

It was pretty ordered from the start & not that crowded, no stacks that I saw. By the time we rolled past Kerford Rd it was pretty much like every other weekend morning down Beach Rd.

It was cool with a slight tail wind to Frankston. I was overdressed from the start so I took off a layer (I had 2x thermal top ‘cos I thought it was going to be really cold) & packed the vest away for the hills after Frankston down to Dromana.

It was fun to smash it up Oliver’s hill. Funny, but I saw a lot of riders still in the big ring going up there, even the steep bit which was really weird. I couldn’t see the sense is trashing my legs at only after the first 50kms so picked the ratio that carried me up with just the slightest consternation.

Throughout this little section from Frankston to Dromana I saved myself for the Mt Martha climb because it always seems longer than it looks, so by the time I got there I was OK up that. I didn’t stop at the top but changed up & towed the big gear down the start of the other side down the descent down the other side, jumping out onto the car lane to clear the other riders coasting down. Funny that I didn’t see anyone in front of me bombing down going hard towing the bog gear to max out before the bottom, but I looked behind & saw heaps!

Into Dromana the head winds started as well as some rain, but it was coming off the south west so the peninsula was shielding us most of the time. It was getting cold so I put the vest on, but the wind was really blustery & pushed some riders out onto the middle of the road.

I tried to sit on whoever’s wheel was in front on me & I didn’t take a turn (not in that weather!). We all rode in the small chainwheel out from here to Sorrento.

Got to Sorrento at about 10:30. They kept the riders off the pier because of the cold wind so the queue started just as you got your food-bag. Most riders went over to the grass to eat, but I stood in the queue & got on the very next ferry 11am.

Ferry was crowded but I found a spot I could actually lie down & I noticed lots of riders with bloody knees, shins & elbows. Which showed that some had a far more colourful ride down from Melbourne to the Sorrento ferry.

At Queenscliff I rolled out of the ferry at the other end at 12:30 approx. It was really crowded just as I got off with my ‘ferry group’, but after going for a slash & getting myself worked out, everyone had already gone, so there weren’t many riders to follow for the ride out of Queenscliff to Geelong..

I found that I had a head wind all the way to Geelong. Doing a dog leg route to Ocean Grove we got a side wind & then a head wind, but it all seemed really heavy going. A lot of riders were suffering in this bit, I just tried to jump onto the back of the next best group that came by. i had to stop at the Leopold & Geelong rest stops to fill the biddons & have a jelly baby.

The ride from Geelong back to Melbourne: New roadworks with the freeway & around the Laverton/Altona meant that a lot of those really crappy zig-zagging roads from previous years route was dropped & the roads were flat, fast & smooth.

But the best bit was: tailwind! 45kms/hr tailwind all the way back to Melbourne from Geelong. Most of the route was along the main freeway, but the shoulder was now at least 5metres across. I was in top gear & riding along on the ‘tops’ (of the handlebars) sitting on about 43kms/hr. I skipped the Little River rest stop (which was the freeway servo).Even though my back & arse was kinda sore I kept going all the way to Werribee for a Powerbar.

From Werribee into town & onto the bridge seemed like it only was a few kms. New smooth roads & a tailwind made it all feel real easy.

There didn’t seem to be many riders around me at the finish & as I crossed the finish line at 5pm , back at Alexander Garden, there weren’t many riders about.

We got a little medal & a bottle of water instead of a showbag with a newspaper in it, but everyone got a medal, even those doing the 50km, so that took away some of the kudos off the memento for the riders doing the whole lap of the bay (210/250kms).

I hung around & ate all that was left of my munches & then rode home really carefully straight up Swanston St in the CBD (a first for me this year even though I ride into work everyday. I always try to avoid one of the most notorious bike strips in town whenever I can).

At the end of the day, it felt like the easiest Bay ride I ever did. Nest year I’m doing the same thing: wait until a fortnight from the event & bay someone else’s discount entry as they can’t make it on the day. Although I would love to do it on something less suitable, like a single-speed or fixie to spice it up a bit.

Ride stats:

It’s official (as my alias on the day Alex Edwards) I got a total elapsed time of : 8 hours, 31minutes & 50seconds. Average speed of 24:62kms/hr.

http://tiktok.biz/aroundthebay/2011/21321/

Split times were:

Melb>Sorrento: 3hrs 45mins 5sec (avg 27.99kms/hr)

Ferry: 1 hour, 22mins

Queenscliff>Melb: 4hrs 46min 44 sec (avg 21.97kms/hr)

*Includes stopping for wee & munchies.

Bay ride build up.

2011-10-14T21:24:00.000+11:00

On a whim I picked up an entry to the ‘Bay ride for this year (210kms organised road ride around Port Phillip Bay). More for the fact that 2011 has not been a big year for me on the bike & this event was essentially what got the ball rolling for me when it came to taking on bike riding as an adult for fun & profit.

With the hindsight of previous rides at this event, I knew that any sort of meaningful training matter less to my average speed & finishing time than the prevailing winds on the day. So I opted to just rely heavily on the scant few kms commuting to/from work as the groundwork to taking on the big day. Everyone else I know is sitting this one out so any motivation I get during the ride will be for within. Hoping for the best, planning for the worst – it’ll fall in there somewhere between the two no doubt.

The Commute: Bike maintenance counts: A well washed & freshly lubed bike doesn’t mean squat if you’re faced with your first emergency stop of the year & your brakes fail in a shriek of grinding metal & a white knuckle close shave.

Apparently my recent rainy commutes had taken their toll on my Avid Juicy 3 disk brakes & the rear pads had precious little material left. The frantic dive onto the anchors last Tuesday night chewed what remaining pad material off the backing plate & took the pad’s retaining clip with it, mashing it in a ball & lodging between the calliper body & disk. This meant my rear braking force instantly evaporated, although thankfully my front brake was still there & bit down hard hauling me just short of the lurching yellow panels & green/white decals of a wayward Silvertop.

I dismantled the rear brake for the balance of the commute, with resisting the urge my left hand had to engage the lever being a bigger struggle than I would have imagined.

Ironically without spare brake pads for my commuter, I mounted the MTB for the ride in today for the annual ‘Ride to work day’. Big effort for all those at the workplace & I, for once, didn’t mind so much losing my regular spot on the workplace bike rack. Being late for work, I had no time to indulge in festivities en-route.

In other news, daylight savings has arrived, so MTB (FGP) dirt crits at Westgate is now run in daylight. For me, this is a negative, as pretty much everyone in my category (B grade) had disappeared over the horizon as I turned the first few corners of singletrack. It looks like I might have to delve into my pot of good fortune & start to run my corners deeper while attempting to stay off the anchors for longer, if I’m to claw back the massive deficits I’m losing out on the open stuff. Perhaps the fact that the top 3 places in my category went to riders less than half my age is a good indication that some hobbies are not as suitable to people over 40yrs as I had thought. In any case I wasn’t last, so there was still something to keep me coming back.

Motorbikes: Back in the day when my hands were always oil stained, I carried about a constant whiff of petrol & didn’t have a girlfriend, I spent a lot of time with a Ducati 748 (1997 model) Bi-posto Strada, which I only had eyes for. It wasn’t perfect, & as the day long sojourns into the twisty roads of the high country & track days became a little staid, I drew up a list in my head of the things I would have loved to modify on my 748 to make it the perfect motorbike for me. Now in 2012 Ducati will be releasing such a bike. Streetfighter 848.

I haven’t considered sporty motorbikes much of late, what with vitriol & contempt motorcyclists are generally treated with ( in Melbourne anyway) & how every single piece of ‘happy road’ in Victoria has been sanitized & policed into submission. But this bike seems like too much of a good thing to pass up. It’ll still be at least 6 months before they fill the dealership floors & I definitely want to test ride one before I sign my life off to the devil ( in me), but the prospect of going back to straddle one of Italy’s most iconic engined motorcycles is very tempting indeed.

Hoon.

2011-09-19T14:26:00.003+10:00

Perhaps it’s the slight ambiguity that my cycling garb offers me on my commutes, or that added rush of adrenaline I get as I grind away at the crank, but for a time now I feel like my behaviour has been reverting me back to my adolescence while out on my daily roll into work & back. I try to stay on the right side of being a totally revolting, angst riddled teenager by abiding the ‘main’ traffic rules - red lights & being on the correct side of the road for example – but it’s all those grey areas where the more civic minded may yield or peg it back a little where I’ve been showing my horns.

This has come to a fore in the last week or so, as I’ve noticed that those little indiscretions are getting responses from those people around me – pedestrians & motorists - and none too polite either. With the most recent having a stoutly fellow be so inclined as to take pursuit on foot ,with only the good grace of a light sequence in my favour saving me from a curse word & a servere bump on the head.

So now I have turned over a new leaf. I’ve delved back into the past, to those early days where a little bit of fear & paranoia used to factor in everything I did on the bike. I’m taking the easy-going road, I’m coasting more often & on the brakes earlier, I’m slowing up & staying in between the lines. I’m the model citizen on two wheels….. and boy am I getting it from everyone.

Cut off, pushed out & ignored. Riders are getting queued up behind & pedestrians are frustrated in wasting time yielding for me. Cars are squeezing me out of lanes or turning in ahead of me. Even dogs are rushing out of driveways to nip at my feet.

With everything worthwhile comes a cost, but to lose the buzz & still get razzed, well I can’t see any good in that…… “RIDER UP!!!”

Some one-on-one with my Wilier.

2011-09-04T15:20:00.002+10:00

Endomondo Cycling Workout: was out cycling 48.68 km in 1h:57m:21s using Endomondo.

Some easy rolling out with my Wilier Laverado.

Avoiding the flat bayside wheel-sucking bumfight to Franga & back that Beach Rd can be, I’ve delved into the recommendations from others who enjoy the feel of the burn & headed out into lumpy roads of the eastern ‘burbs. Although, unavoidably the cantankerous nature of many Melbourne’s motorists distils into it’s worst on a Saturday afternoon out here in the eastern suburbs, but to rant is to say nothing new.

Nice ride, the profile was good although spoiled by traffic lights all in the wrong places, which actually did make for good workout having to grind out of those incline starts. Whatever, the roll back home being mostly downhill was oh so nice, just what I needed to spin out the tiredness in my feeble legs.

Red hot racerboy…

2011-08-26T13:20:00.000+10:00

Another all too rare [of late], hit out at the FGP dirt crits last Thursday night. Still dark so needed the Nite Lightning helmet mounted light. Squeezing in a mad bike commute home to change bikes & ride out to the stinky park (Westgate), I got there real late, just as everyone was lined up for the start. Paid, numbered bike & rolled off way after all of the field completed the prologue loop & started into the first bit of singletrack.

All the grades started at the same time so it was a congested start, which I thankfully missed being so far back from the off.

Course was dry & real fast, the tyres tracked true through everything, never giving an inch regardless of how cavalier I was getting with line selection & brazenly storming into corners with way too much on song.

Organisers ran tags on the bikes & electronic timing which seemed to work (I heard mine beep with each lap).

I had a clear run on my first lap because I was late & was able to easily pass some of the other riders as the field had spread out by the time I came across the first bloke. It was so refreshing to be able to put riders away one at a time like that, that it meant that I was way too distracted & kept motivated enough during the race to stay on the rivet while not realising how tired I was actually getting until the last lap (of 6) where I hit the wall.

Lots of fun, I should do this more often.

My ride stat Endomondo

I have a biggie lined up later in the year, teaming up for ‘Jeep’ 24 hour MTB at Redesdale in late November, so I had better start ‘tapering’. I should drag the roadie out for a bay side roll Saturday morning & throw some weights around, although sleep is still a very important part of a good training regime.

My Mountain Challenge 5Hour MTB XC – Wombat Dam.

2011-06-21T22:00:00.000+10:00

http://www.link2trail.com.au/index.php

A world of mud, for me the worst I’ve ridden in (apparently similar to the muddy Otway Odessy - which I didn’t ride). Entered solo mens 40+.

The cold morning kickoff in the drizzling drizzle at 10am had a relatively small field of about 100 riders depart a short prologue gravel road section (which was muddy) of 300mts before entering the singletrack of the Wombat dam loop. Course lap was about 9.6kms & pretty much all the Wombat Dam loop to the west & south west of the dam, lots of singletrack & even the small amount of two-track was so muddy that it was difficult to ride more than one line for passing. No one seemed to be in much of a hurry at the start, but I must admit I was in amongst the solo riders from the off.
Letting things settle in for the first lap & rode a lazy pace to suss the flow of the course & pick on bits where I could later let momentum carry me through to save on my feeble legs. The mud became a factor from the first lap, where going too easy would fill your tyres (I ran Maxxis Ignitors) & picking up the pace had you off into the bushes. By the 2nd lap the short climbs would have 2 spins of the rear wheel for ever one of the front . Some off camber singletrack exposed ultra greasy tree roots that spat your front wheel out from under you forcing you to unclip, & it was difficult to slam down descents without having to deal with a bike with a mind of it’s own at the bottom.
I pitted each lap after the first 2 for a splash of Endura & some rock hard (it was that cold) Powerbar. I found that for most of the event I circulated on my own and if it wasn’t for the tyre-tread filled boggy quagmire I was piloting myself through, would have felt that I might have been lost. I suffered chain suck each time I bailed to my granny, & on my last lap (of 5 I managed) my rear tyre jammed with mud & leaves leaving me poking my bike with a stick trackside in the drizzle (yes it hadn’t really stopped yet).
I must admit that in amongst this anguish there were those moments that made life on a bike worthwhile, when a length of singletrack opened up ahead of you with a brilliant flow & rhythm , out of the saddlle & pumping away, railing the corners, flicking between the trees. As the course was inundated, you got a handle on the conditions and were able to make the best of the opportunities for speed & momentum as they came up.

With 15mins to go to the end of the event I topped that annoying little switchback climb just before the dam start/finish & tapped out for the day. I rolled straight to the car & piled all the mud that looked like it belonged to me into the boot & strapped the 30kgs mudcake by Specialized onto the rack & roared off to the nearest shower.
My result wasn’t too stella in the over 40s, but I must admit that due to recent form to be rolling close to the finish of a 5hour (shy 15mins) I chalked this up as a worthwhile day out on the bike & have undertaken to inflict myself with more of this sort of stuff soon.
Off to the shop for some brake pads…

Ride log: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/gpbls16XRiA

...more please.

2011-06-14T15:02:00.002+10:00

Bam! My rotors haven’t even cooled off from the last MTB enduro & here I am signing up for another one. Still very much in the ‘room for improvement’ phase of my training for this sort of ‘white hot heat of MTB racing’ I nevertheless am convinced that the best way to shock myself out of this loungeroom funk is to cart my bike out onto the startline of these things & get those cranks turning.

So next Sunday’s (June 19th) Mountain Challenge MTB Enduro 5hour held in the Wombat State Forest near Woodend will be graced with my presence in the 40+ solo ole’farts category. I’ll tick this one off as a successful day out if I can keep rolling for the duration. Sure there’ll be times that I will hate Gary Fisher & his friends for all they’ve done for cycling, but in amongst the pain & hate I am sure to find those gems that make life on a bike worth living.

Thankfully the Specialized Epic is still set up from the last hit out at the Forest 6hour so prep will be a squirt of lube on the chain and a fresh biddon. A scan of my MTB compatriots have them all somewhere else on the day so I’ll be trucking out there on my lonesome for some me & ‘it’ time.

9to5.

2011-06-14T15:00:00.002+10:00

The monthly wash & lube of the Commuter bike over the weekend made for totally silent ride apart from the freewheel (White Industries XC ENO s/s freewheel - that extra dog makes for a cool freewheel groove).
I’ve now got a 'Controlshield’ BBB jacket (in black/black) for the commutes & honestly I really can’t wear anything substantial under this thing without getting too hot. This morning in the 4degree winter June morning air it was just a cotton Tshirt I had on underneith & it still came off a little too damp.

In the work supplied changerooms (which is pretty comprehensive where I work now) - one fellow bike commuter was saying to another fellow bike commuter - that he did over 300kms on the weekend. This may have sounded impressive, but he then added that it was over the 3 days. To be honest, I feel that no claim to bike mileage is allowed unless it is ether done on the one ride, or that it is precluded by the span of days first before any mention of ‘big mileage’ is quoted so to put it all into its proper perspective.

Forest 6hr MTB race:

2011-06-06T11:24:00.001+10:00

http://www.forrest6hour.com.au/

Cold day, some very cold gusts, clear skies, the 9.6km course bedded down & became really nice – no dust, no mud – and had a wonderful raceline that flowed really well. Riders loved the event & very few didn’t see it out the full 6hours. A lot of bikes were still clean @ the 5hour30min mark.

Entered in Men’s Pairs to fly the Goombah flag although neither of us had much motivation going into the race - with no training apart from the commute & occasionally running around the block beforehand. But once we both had a lap under us I think we realised why where there in the first place. I personally had a lot of trouble with the climbs (comparatively speaking) due to fitness issues so I resigned myself to spin out the ascents, but I really got into the descents & some techie sections where I was able to capitalise of the momentum /flow, going all elbows out & out of the saddle flicking about between the trees.

We alternated laps throughout the day, sometimes 6hrs really flies by & there isn’t much of an opportunity for someone to do a double lap without feeling that the other fella is missing out.

The result was a nice fuzzy feeling, with our team smack bang in the middle of the field.

Rain held off until 4pm (race end funny enough) when it totally dumped down & washed some villages away.

You would have to go back to November 2010 before I could remember a MTB event that wasn’t really muddy.

Blown cobwebs.

2011-06-03T11:50:00.001+10:00

Phoar, a rare hit out at FGP Dirt Crits at Westgate. Dead last in a stella field of Bgraders (does that make me a bad B grade sort of rider?) , but I put it down to new singletrack – a first in a million years – and a recent habit of eating one too many pies. Nevertheless, it was hoot & would recommend falling about in the mud & dark to anybody, as I did toss myself off the bike en-route to the finish a few times that evening.

Sticking to a commitment I made at the start of the year I’m teaming up with a mate in Men’s Pairs for this weekend’s Forrest 6 hour MTB, which should prove a fun & worthwhile day out on the bike.

Tomi spice to the work shuffle.

2011-05-28T23:49:00.002+10:00

New to young families, I didn’t realise they would demand on my time so heavily immediately before & after work, which was previously my little piece of ‘me time’ clocking up some interesting bike kms in & around the various meanders of Melbourne’s byways as I rolled along my daily commute.

But yes, now it’s a straight burn to & from work, no time to waste, and no interesting diversions, the commute now has the clock ticking.

This has brought me onto the more direct on-road bike routes, amongst the traffic lights & the forever LEDs flashing, panniered , mudguard ensconced 700c Schwalbe Marathon tyres of hub-geared hybrids & the ‘bar-end shifters of the steel framed grey beards.

Jamis Exile 2009 s/s 42/16.

This is a world where disposable shopping bags are deployed as wet weather gear & florescence mixes with wool & work slacks. Where the red glow of traffic lights are a place of close, intimate groupings & the change to the green light begins the slow motion wiggle con-go as most set off in a way too tall a gear & try to find their opposing pedal as if it’s their first time.

I’m still riding my Jamis Exile: a MTB single speed (freewheel) running 42/16 (don’t ask me, I don’t ‘do’ gear inches). This was a real nice fit for my previous rollings through the riverside bike paths & byways I used to do in the past, but in this new environment I was left a little wanting.

Being Melbourne there are obviously the dappled menagerie of fixed geared bicycles ridden by all sorts of people; from the reclaimed ‘70s roadracers, to next years carbon Olympians & also girls on colour coordinated handbag accessories. The concerted, & in some people’s eyes – conceited - effort the average Melbournian with a laptop & Twitter account go to in their quest to have the right sort of bike to prop against their outdoor café table while having their macchiato alfresco is almost stupefying. But alas, I look & am enticed.

Oh sure, I’m way to tight to drop more than a few lobsters on anything of late, especially on a lifestyle that which may offer: “that intrinsic symbiosis of man & machine as one” , but comes with one of the biggest prices that can be paid in bicycledom - that brakeless car bonnet somersault & bitumen faceplant with the added bonus of taking your knees to an early grave in the lead up.

But I still wanted to try it. I wanted the easy cheap option. OK, the 2nd cheapest option (a local Velodrome offers track bike hire/try/ride) was to pick up one of these Tomi-Cogs.

You see, I have single speed, but it’s a MTBer. I can’t [really] get a regular fixed cog for it (in place of the single freewheel cog), but these Tomi-Cogs bolt onto the disk brake rotor mounts. It just means that I’ll be running my rear wheel swapped around & I will also lose a rear brake.

I’ve got the cog, but I haven’t tried it yet. Waiting on the accidental misplacement of the ‘husband To-Do list’, & a bright starry night when all the kiddies are safe in bed before I let the devil loose...

The long commute.

2011-05-01T15:31:00.000+10:00

Amazing it’s been about 20 years this month since I started cycling to/from work.

1991 – Lashed out on some razor thin slicks for my 1989 Apollo Everest, pumped to their max & rode out from St Albans into the CBD. I pre-rode the route the weekend before & opted to avoid Ballarat Rd, taking the back streets: Furlong Rd> Berkshire Rd> Duke St> Cranwell St> Mitchell St> Gordon St> Farnsworth Ave to the river side path , over to Dynon Rd into the city.
Oddly I never recalled having problems with traffic aggro back then, cars mostly either gave me a real wide berth and as the route I used missed most of the traffic snarls I suppose I wasn’t dealing with grumpy motorists anyway. My biggest issue was darkness & the feeble lighting I used to run. There weren’t as many traffic lights on the route back then so the few I encountered gave me a breather I needed. The Maribyrnong river path south to Sims St was the only bike related infrastructure I encountered on my route (or that I knew of).

No shower/locker or bike storage facilities at work back then, but it was OK to bring the rig up into my worksite/office. It was a bit of a novelty with some of my work colleagues, my bike thing. Lots of encouraging words, not like nowadays where bicycle riding seems to be regarded as dangerous activity most warn of fear & misadventure.
I was doing fun runs & racing offroad motorcycles – MX & XC - at the time so the commute supplemented my training.
But after many years, different bikes, jobs & worksites later & it’s only a dark rainy day that takes me away from grunt & freewheel of the acoustic motorbike

Cone head.

2011-03-24T20:06:00.001+11:00

As common as much, Shimano’s ongoing stoicism with holding onto their ancient wheel hub bearing setup of cup & cones have been a real bugbear of mine. Every time I go near them the result is either binding or play in the hub. I can’t see why they can’t progress like the rest of the world has onto sealed bearings which simplify everything.
My Specialised Stumpjumper’s (circa 2009) rear wheel which was a Shimano derivative and it suddenly would not freewheel ‘freely’, it was the bearings. Since I got the bike I haven’t touched them yet so this sad story was forced upon me as apart from being the result of my own folly. So I reluctantly embarked on a solution with a slow steady hand & a dim outlook. Removing the rear wheel & cassette assembly revealed that there was still enough grease for lubricant to not be the issue. On inspection the cup & cone on the drive side had worked loose from the locknut & the cone being loose, had binded up against the bearings on that side. The fix was to loosen the opposing locknut & cone on the other side to provide me the additional length of axel on the drive side to bring out the cone enough to secure it with a tool , then tighten the locknut hard up against it. This is because the freewheel body on the drive side concealed access to the cone to fix a tool to it. I repeated the process on the brake disk side which didn’t have the cone access problems. While I had things loosened I applied additional grease like I do whenever I have this sort of stuff apart.
Cassette back on & refitted the wheel, I discovered I had a small degree of play, so I repeated the process. Times this last step 3 more times due to either play or binding in the wheel to understand how the rest of that evening went for me.
If I ever manage to taco these hoops, I wouldn’t be too disappointed in checking out what Chain Reaction Cycles have for me in a Mavic or equivalent wheelset.

River path raider.

2011-02-12T14:14:00.007+11:00

Casual ride with the Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail up Maribynong river trail to the Western Ring road, then across & back home down the Moonee Ponds creek path.

The Maribynong river path upstream from Canning Street to Brimbank Park was pretty chopped up due to the recent heavy rain & flooding. With heavy ruts on the path, some sections had the sand cover washed away exposing large & jaggered rocks, also the flood water had accumulated deep soft sand in some low sections. Riding the MTB with dirt tyres (Specialized Roll-X @ 40psi) didn’t pose too much of a problem, a head of speed & momentum took care of any irregular surface.
Climbing out from the River under Whitten bridge brought me onto the Western Ring Road path which, even on it’s best day isn’t very inspiring. I got lost at a fork in the path near the Sydney/Melb train line & Calder Fwy, initially taking the correct path, but then doubt encouraged me to double back & take the wrong one. It worked out in the end. Later on at Gowanbrae I again couldn’t fathom the best route down to meet the Moonee Ponds creek path.
I have a unique problem with the Avid Elixir R-SL rear brake on this Stumpjumper – when applied it howls & severely vibrates through the bike. Only on the rear, the front brake is OK. I have tired different pads (first stintherd metal, then ‘organic’ ), I have ran a different rotor ( Tektro) & recently have also added grooves to the pads to try & avoid this problem. On discussing this with a few mates they suggested I place rubber straps or bands on the ‘stays near the rear brake to ‘subdue’ this vibration, this did nothing whatsoever.
This is more than just noise, the vibration tingles my hands through the ‘bars & I feel it through my feet in the SPDs. Today I noticed that this vibration actually adversely affected braking performance on a long smooth downhill (bitumen surface). My last option is to try a different brake calliper set up, the only option I have is the Shimano XTs on the Epic. Problem is the Epic runs dual-controllers so I have to faff about with the gear cable as well.

Route details (Endomondo): http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/gdqI5a12c20

Easy roll

2011-02-11T14:26:00.002+11:00

Easygoing roll along City Circle path with the Jamis single speed yesterday. Path blocked with debris at Dights Falls from recent heavy rains, took Trenerry Cres in Abbotsford detour to later join the river path a little further downstream. A collection of rowboats from Fairfield park boathouse dotted the river edges & bridge pylons as well as the usual debris from river floodings, branches, household rubbish etc. Accumulation of mud on the path in places & up against the river edges carried a heavy dank sink to it.
If I get time on Satuday morning I might head upstream Maribynong River to the Ring road & back down Moonee Ponds creek to see what recent rains had been up to. (I’m avoiding riding the roadie at the mo as the gear cables are snagging & causing very 2nd hand shifting which can be embarrassing amongst the choreographed echelons along Beach Rd ).

Route : http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/ifUxDwFbN1U

A ride of something different: Gravel Grinders, Kinglake area.

2011-02-07T15:08:00.002+11:00

I’ve done organised road rides & various MTB races & social rides, but this popped up which was something different – riding on gravel back roads in/around Hurstbridge/Whittlesea/St Andrews. Organised by Melbourne Gravel Grinders it was 80km of mostly dirt roads, start/finish at Hurstbridge railway station.
Map : Click for map http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Prop-grinder-1
Deal was, meet at Hurstbridge train station car park, register, get a cue/route sheet & roll out @ 11am. 3x checkpoints along the way where you buy something from the local store which you get a receipt which is time/date stamped to show you have been there. Not strictly a race, this totally self-supported ride was a grand tour of the beautiful countryside nestled just below the Kinglake Ranges. The route was about 80% dirt roads with corrugations, potholes and loose gravel sections. The country around here was mostly hilly with many short climbs followed by fast flowing descents.

On the day there were 50 starters, a great ride, and good weather apart from an early shower.
Course had lots of climbs & descents. Apart from the small amount of paved road sections there didn’t seem much in the way of flat riding. Perhaps due to the recent weather , there was little dust & most of the gravel roads seemed hardpacked. There were a few creek crossing were you could see how the rain water had bought debris onto the roadway or accumulated gravel in the low points.
Heaps of fun though, way more adventurous than a straight road ride, but none of the bike abuse offroad MTBing can dish out. In the out & back bit near Whittlesea I could the faster guys were smashing it, but at each checkpoint it felt more like a social ride than anything else. A perfect way for me to break this bike riding hiatus I seemed to have been on of late. Although the latter climbs did bite & I did revert to the granny when the other riders were not in sight. I actually skipped the last bit of gravel rd from St Andrews back to the start to make it back to Hurstbridge station for the 4:47pm train home.

My ride stats, nothing too exciting:
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/vSKkwQU4xZY

Apparently the next one may involve lights?
Also these rides will start/finish from a koo-wee of a Met station to ease access for riders.

Other rides of this type found here:
http://therewillbedirt.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, back at the workshop..

2010-10-24T21:00:00.002+11:00

Replaced the fork seals on my Rockshox SID Team (circa 2006) MTB forks which are fitted to the Jamis Exile, the ones with 28mm diameter stanchions.
Replaced them with Enduro fork seals .Apart from what is outlined in the Rockshox SID Team forks service pdf manual, I found the following:
• Enduro aftermarket fork seals are slightly different in configuration to the original standard Rockshox fork seal. The original standard fork seal is a combined dust & oil seal – that’s what you see on the top – with a foam ring underneath that, & then the upper bush. The Enduro seal set, is a separate dust seal (in blue), with a separate oil seal (in black) underneath. There is no space to run a foam ring like the original set up once the Enduro seals are in place.
• Replacing the dust/oil seal is pretty easy if you have a socket set with a 29mm socket (for my particular 28mm diameter forks) to drive the replacement seals into place in the fork lowers.
• When driving the new seals into place, first apply grease ( I purchased & used Enduros’ Superslick grease) onto the fork lowers surfaces that will be contacting the seal & only lightly tap the seal into place.
• Removing the original Rockshox seals can be done by prying it out with a broad flathead screwdriver. This will damage the old seal, but if you place a cloth where the screwdriver contacts the fork outer for leverage, it would not damage any other part.
• Placing the seals in a plastic bag & placing them in a freezer for a while, assisted with driving the seal into the top of the fork lowers. (This works with wheel/headset bearings to an extent, so I tried it with rubber seals).
• I was surprised how much grit gets into the fork internals. I previously serviced a pair of Rockshox Pilot SLs & found the same thing. There’s no surprise that I thorough cleaned the internals prior to reassembly.
• Doing the oil/dust seals does not require the disassembly of the damping rods - which are the most complicated part of the fork - located within the fork uppers or stanchions. This makes the job so much easier as it’s only the oil in the fork lowers, in my case 10cc/ml of 15wt fork oil in each leg, which needs to be replaced & then the fork stanchions reinserted into the fork lowers – then fastened, on reassembly.
• Fork oil is fork oil, as long as the weight is correct (for example 15wt or 5wt), then you can purchase fork oil from motorcycle dealers if your Local Bicycle Shop cannot help you.

New bike, with a dash of mud.

2010-10-14T21:43:00.005+11:00

Old legs & the prospect of a child seat on a bike, the decision made was to trade the single Speed – Jamis Exile – for a multispeed MTB to do the commute & other rides. Cruised the bike shops & on-line dealers, traders & eBay. Picked up a 2nd hand Specialized Stumperjumper hardtail from 2009, it’s the bottom rung model with a alloy frame, SRAM X7/X9, Shimano SLX components, Avid Elixir disk brakes & Fox RLC80 forks. Looked like it was very underused.

After adjusting the bike fit I put the child seat on for a roll up/down the alleyway with Mr Moo on board. Discovered that rear weight bias certainly dominates the ride & I’ve come to the conclusion that it’ll be strictly used as a leisurely Sunday afternoon roll to a fully catered picnic blanket somewhere picturesque.

That was a Wednesday evening when I picked it up. Come Thursday I was faffing around with it (while attending to Mr Moo’s outdoor activities) & I thought it was only right to do my first real ride on the ‘new MTB’ at the Thursday evening MTB dirt crits at Westgate. [ http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/Dirt-Crits/dirt-crits ]

Had to wait for my lovely significant-other to return from work before I could free myself for the ride out to the venue. It was a pretty frantic ride there to make it by the 6:30pm or thereabouts, start time.
Arrived just in time to ‘enter’ & strap a number to the front of the new rig. It’s been 2 months since my last circulation around there, and I forgot about all that rain we had 2 days ago. So the track was ‘fast’ but really slick boggy puddles in places kept things very interesting. My race in B grade was pretty much the usual for me: Frantic start, usually in a good place but as the 6 laps ticked by I slowly faded into the rear of the field. I did have a doof into the bushes on the 4th lap, the combination of a wet rock on a tight corner & SDP cleats which were heaps tighter than I am normally have on my other bikes (I didn’t back off the tension bolt beforehand) sent me gracefully off the track & onto my head at a blistering 5kms/hr….
My last lap was a frantic battle for [not being in] last place which didn’t end well for me.
Still, it’s racing, which is far & away better to come last in a race than be at home keeping the TV or PC company.

There is now a bit of work before I can sell the Jamis as the RockShox SID Team forks still need those new oil seals installed, & then be refitted to the bike. I’m running Mosso rigid carbon-wrapped forks on the Jamis Exile at the moment to bring it under 8kgs. I also want to swap the tyres so I can keep the Schwalbe Kojaks for the new Stumpjumer when its time to do the work commute again.

The daily roll.

2010-09-08T20:52:00.002+10:00

Long way into work tdy (23kms) – clockwise City Circle path from Moonee Ponds creek path, through Rushall station, hooking up with the Merri Creek & Yarra path, onto the CBD. Many diversions/detours, water over path downstream just after Dights Falls. Saw a rider roll through it, but it almost looked like he got wet socks so I chicken out for the back streets of Abbotsford. I opted for the south side of the river coming into the CBD, taking the Grange Rd bridge over, as I wasn’t sure about taking on the tight corners of the current detour on the north side with the commuter traffic of the morning. As a sign of the wet winter we’ve had this year, my Avid 3s on the Jamis Exile roll through their 2nd set of brake pads for the year. The front brake lever almost hitting the grip before the pads contact (aren’t hydraulic brakes suppose to self-modulate the lever as the pads wear??).The climb from under Heidelberg Rd heading downsteam still stings alittle without anything to shift to apart from getting out of the saddle (single speed).This weekend was the start of spring for me, as even though it was alittle rainy, it was warm enough not to layer up like the Michelin man, before heading out. 3 weeks to go before I cast off this yoke of employment for the task of ‘stay-at-home’ dad for 5 months. Was considering an inclusion of a cargobike but being brutally honest with myself a kiddieseat might be more logical. Although I’m not sure how I place a child into a kiddie seat on a bike with no sidestand??

The Jamis Exile I commute on had since got a new drivechain & cogs, kept the 42/16 ratio, but went for a White Industries 16t freewheel in the XC type, not the trials type. The Trials White Industries freewheel is the one to get because it has extra dogs in it & sounds mad when freewheeling, but it only goes down to 20 or 18 tooth which didn’t fit the ratio I wanted (already had a new 42t chainwheel). So I got the XC type White Industries freewheel which is still great, but has one less dog than the Trials.
Also picked up 2nd hand rigid forks [suspension corrected] to replace the Rock Shock SID Teams I was running. They’re tricky carbon-wrap forks & might sound like the low-tech option for the front end of a MTB, but in a commuter application I really dig the preciseness they offer over the sprung. Track standing at the lights is way easier now too.

Entered the Dirtworks 100 in November 7th, in the 40yrs mens. Something to plan for, like getting out & actually doing some serious kms. Apart from the 'Jeep" (previously the Kona) 24hr in Forest later this year, it's my only other biggie in this pretty light-on for MTB action year for me.

Doof

2010-07-14T22:29:00.002+10:00

Wow. I got the rare opportunity to leave work early today, while it was still daylight so I headed home riding along my ‘summer’ routé taking in the City Circle path anticlockwise upstream from the Yarra, to the Merri Creek path, then across heading west past the zoo to home in Fleming-town.

But I didn’t get too far.

Just north of the South Eastern expressway, concluding a nature break had me remounting & traversing parkland to rejoin the path, my front wheel of the Jamis Exile found a MTB wheel sized hole that catapulted me straight over the ‘bars & onto my back [pack]. Somehow I smashed my saddle distorting the saddle rails against the seatpost clamp at a 30deress angle sloping to the right hand side.
I didn’t hurt myself, wearing so many layers as we do this time of year & perfecting the stuntman roll in primary school, just saw me take the doof through my backpack. Right elbow stings a bit though.
Mightily peeved about the destruction of my much loved saddle which has out lived two other of my commuter bikes.
I didn’t complete the intended route & jumped on the madness of the roads to take me straight to home the quickest way.
Sure it was then peak hour, but I still don’t know how sane cycle-commuting through this sort of heavily trafficked roads can be for those who do it. Perhaps it was my moment earlier but to me it seemed that the motor traffic was darting about in unexpected ways & kind of closing out a lot passing opportunities for me as they sat in the gridlock. Even with marked cycle lanes I was detouring to the right of some cars to make my way through.

I have a spare saddle, the Fizik Gobi I bought last year, but I remember it being a little firm in in the wrong places.
Don’t get me wrong, I love those madly thin saddles with apparently hardly any padding, as it’s amazing the comfort a correctly shaped firm saddle can be. Oh well, at least I have the option of the Gobi.

Reminds me that the drivetrain on the Jamis Exile is screaming for a replacment, I can lift the chain clear of over half a tooth on the single speed's chainwheel. But time, I wish I could purchase some time, some spanner time. Taking it to a shop is off the agenda. I can't afford to be dissapointed twice again.

Turning Pro.

2010-06-04T15:46:00.001+10:00

“When you are racing, there is nothing else”. (Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel))

There comes a time in some MTB racer’s careers when the opportunity to race for a living presents itself. The chance to give up your normal life & commit yourself 100% to a sport that you love. A chance to live the dream & make a go at climbing into that rarefied stratosphere of the Pro-circuit, the world elite, where your racing is your craft, where you get paid to race.
For me, last night, was about as close as I would ever get to that – bagging 2nd place overall with a handsome bootie of $15 for my troubles. Dirt Crits at Westgate last night was a ‘teams’ event, where the fastest rider is matched to the slowest rider & so on, based on the race times of previous races.
I was matched to, umm, a fast dude who probably doesn’t pay [full price] for his bike or gear – which tells you how gun a rider he must be. Being 7 laps, obviously he bags the lion share of 4 laps & wanted to go first to race with some other dudes who don’t pay for their bikes either, which I was cool with.

As each team was pairs, it meant at least 50% of the riders who fronted that evening where sitting on the start line, which made for a pretty crowded first lap. After the ensuing mêlée of the start dissipated, it was a peaceful 4 minutes before AJ basted through with a healthy margin over the next tight group that had my fella in it - he was hauling. Those 4 laps flew past & it was time to get pumped to slam out my 3 laps. It was only one other rider who rolled out ahead of me before my bloke came through for the hand over & I head off.

The course was damp but fast & I suddenly realised how cold it was as I smashed the big ring out from the start into the darkness. I couldn’t see anyone in front of me at all & rode pretty much the first kilometre out of the saddle until I slid into the start of the first set of tight corners. Half way around, over the railline I caught that one rider, a lady probably going half my pace, but as the singletrack was tight I sat behind until we both came out onto the only sealed, open section of the course where I overtook with gentile politeness (we don’t get many ladies racing MTB events, so it pays to be a gentleman I feel), my first of 3 laps down & I reckon we’re in the leading!

Out from start/finish the course ahead of me is clear of other riders, it looks like this will be mine to lose so even though I’m out riding on my own, I change up & smash it to an inch of my life on the open part of the course, railing the first tight section, elbows & feet dragging through the bushes as I make the corners as straight as I can. The second half of my 2nd lap, as I twist through singletrack as it folds back on itself I catch a glimpse of the large bunch of bobbing headlights streaming through the singletrack behind me. It looked like the race was catching me up. Again out on the open part of the course I’m out of the saddle, grinding the big ring into the start/finish chute to kick off my last lap.

In the darkness on the periphery of my headlight beam I could see the flicker of headlights hitting the bushes & trees around from the riders behind me. I’m grunting through my breathing & I can feel my legs slowing turning to water. In the tight singletrack I try to ride the momentum through the corners, my front tyre running the lip of the track, the bike bounces & leaps from one bump to another as the suspension cushions the blows & grunts through its strokes.

But in a flash I have someone on my rear wheel, carrying heaps more speed, but we’re in singletrack so there is no room to pass. I know as soon as we bust out onto the last bit of open course he’ll ride out from under me. As we emerge I roll the tight 90degree left corner onto the sealed section of the course as fast as I can but that makes me go wide. I hear our tyres roar on the bitumen as they grip the corner. From out on the inside he grinds a massive gear past me out ahead. I grunt something long the lines of “There goes fucking first”. I attempt to respond but changing to the higher gear my legs just stall on the pedals, leaving me heaving feebly in a vain pursuit.

Behind me there are lights but they’re distant & look like they’re embroiled in their own battles. I truck on & roll over the start/finish, pooped.

grump.

2010-04-22T11:49:00.002+10:00

Frustrated, harbouring an old mans backs which the regular visits to my osteo is only providing temporary relief, I’ve been cutting all activity back including the bike. Worst bit is the constantly disturbed sleep, so I’m a grumpy zombie to boot – headbutting door frames & knocking over kitchen crockery in the morning.
Still commute to work on the Jamis, but have lifted the saddle up 50mm, which makes grinding climbs on the s/s bearable, even though I am hunched over more to my ‘bars. But my hips don’t rock while pedalling – which is supposed to be the big sign of mal-adjusted saddles. I also threw on the ultra-slick Schwalbe Kojaks again in an attempt to go easy on myself. Hope it doesn’t rain though.
All this issue with my back is making me very quick to temper. At work, where I’m usually able to work around unpredictable setbacks with a measure of mechanical steadfastness, I’ve already sprayed 2x groups which I work closely with. At the time my thought pattern was that their initial failing could not possibly be outdone – perhaps even wantonly in an attempt to retort against my abusive rant – to result in a worse situation than what they had already placed me in. Therefore, I did let fly .
Also, I have absolutely no motivation to proceed with any of the large number of ‘work around the house’ duties that living in a 100yr old house entails. I spend my evenings coalescing on the couch or early to bed (regardless of how hopeless the prospect is right now). Lil Mr Moo is a shining light though & I have not baulked at picking him up even though it does involve a combination of, his efforts in trying to stand up, any surround furniture or walls to provide me leverage & all the might in my legs to go from completely squatting to standing. Grunts are heard by all. My significant other is a rock though, so there isn’t any reason for me to complain, but in this fog of disquiet I’m in, everything is tainted.

Skinny tyres in the Otways

2010-03-28T17:03:00.001+11:00

Rode the Otway Classic 145km non-competitive road ride with a few mates. We all drove up to the Torquay start together & rolled out with the 3000 other riders. It was a nice ride, good route out the back way to Deans Marsh, then over the Otways down to Lorne, then along the Great Ocean Road back to Torquay.
We didn’t train or prepare at all for this event, as previous years hadn’t left us left wanting. Must admit the little climb out of Deans March, even though it actually had a few flat spots along the climb, left me quite glad to see the throng that masses at the top before the roll down. As with previous years it was the little climbs out of Angelsea & Fairhaven that got that little sting in the legs.
No incidents for us, although there was a lady down just before the turnoff for Deans Marsh, she looked pretty still face-down on the road as we rolled past the gathering (riders & medical staff in attendance).
We rolled off pretty much in the middle of the field so we were always in amongst the riders for the whole route. We split up for the roll down to Lorne, but the banana & apple stop there got us back together for the GOR ride back.
The Wilier Laverado was fuss free, but while in the big chainwheel up front it didn’t like the low cassette cogs. Hmm maintenance on a roadbike, that’s somewhere I haven’t been in while.

True grit.

2010-03-28T17:00:00.001+11:00

Winners do it easy. They have support, the natural talent & the crowd cheering for them, slapping them on the back all the time. They get awards, trophies & prizes just about every time they throw a leg over a bike.
But me, I’m rolling through when people are packing up. When I look at results I always start at the bottom & work my way up. No one to cheer me on, or pass me a biddon. I have to lay my bike on the ground in the pits & rummage through my stuff when I need something doing. I get the dirt in my face & I cop all the ruts. I take the B line & have to walk the tricky bits when course is blocked with riders. I have to pick up after myself & pack it all away at the end of the day. I know every km of the drive back from Mt Beauty & Forrest after a long, long ride. I wash my bike, my gear, clean out the camping gear & vacuum the car so my wife can use the car the next morning. I know how much brake pads & cassettes cost , I know & how long it takes to fit them. My hands are always dirty. When I get caught in the rain, I have to ride home in the rain. In winter I ride at night because I have to do everything else during the day.

The Jamis into battle.

2010-03-24T22:54:00.005+11:00

A new ‘Specialized’ branded rear shock (with ‘Brain’) for the Epic MTB was provided as a warrantee replacement for my leaky unit I turned into the dealer. Standard settings are:
Air pressure: 90psi, Rebound 15 clicks out from [-], ‘Brain’ set at 16 clicks out from Soft.
I increased air pressure to 120psi. My weight is 74kgs in jocks. Will fit & try out at FGP Dirt crits 25 March evening.

Last week raced the Jamis Exile, in ‘commuter’ setup at the dirt crits. Ironically I found what I thought would be my biggest drawback – the relitively tall for MTB one ratio 42/16 – actually caused me to be dropped on the 2x open flat & fast section of the track, instead of the tighter singletrack. With that gear I found that I was out of the saddle pretty much the whole time grinding that gear, but it was still trucking along nicey, doing my best to keep that momentum going. On those open bits was the problem, where everyone else just changed up to the big chainwheel & loped away.

Also found that I was striking the pedals to the ground in the tight stuff, on reflection it may have been from my paranoia of losing the feeble drive I putting out at the lower speeds & dared not coast to keep my inside pedal up while cornering. The Jamis Exile runs your standard 172.5cm length cranks like all MTBs, so I could not pin it on the bike spec.
I think I almost came last from B grade, but as there was someone behind me at the finish in my class I can put it down as a roaring success & a job well done.
It was still a good thing & will not have a second thought to call on the Jamis again for some more dirt crit action in the future. I ran my Schwalbe Marathon Extreme 2.0 tyres at their lowest rated pressure – 30psi – but they still felt kinda wooden, as if there wasn’t enough volume or plusheness that you would normally feel from your regular dirt knobbie like Schwalbe’s Racing Ralph or Hutchinson’s Barracuda.

On the ride home the headset bearing got all notchy, so I fiddled with them that evening only to realize I needed to replace them.

Full circle.

2010-03-17T21:03:00.004+11:00

I’ve been rolling the pavements & byways of Melbourne, commuting by bike to & from work since 1992. Starting with a slick shod 18-speed MTB, then to 3x other 27speed MTBs, a converted single speed MTB, then to a single speed roadie & now the Jamis Exile – a slick-shod single speed MTB. But now that single speed uniqueness has just started to wear a little thin.With the recent boom in new riders into the bike commute into work & it’s getting a bit hectic keeping my head above it all on the single speed. Also I have been recently been heading out into the weird & wonderful in a quest to spice up the daily commute with new, longer & more 'entertaining' routes, into something more like a scene out of the Italian Job or Bourne movies, but getting caught out on uncovered pinch climbs or slow techie bits is dulled by the only ratio I have on the Jamis Exile. So now I’m entertaining thoughts of going back to that ole chestnut: the multispeed slick-shod (hardtail) MTB.Hmm, yes they come in carbon nowadays too……

My Specialized Epic’s rear shock (the one with the ‘Brain’) has been weeping oil for a few weeks now, even though it’s action has been OK, damping nicely, but I begrungingly have been avoiding having to go through a 'warrantee cliam' experience. I bit the bullet this week & took the shock in for the ‘fix’. I actually removed the shock off the frame & took it in on it’s own quoting the bikes frame number to the dealer. I did this as I didn't want to leave the whole bike with them, as last time I was charged to have a warrantee part refitted to the bike, so I wanted to dodge that overhead. 2 days later I got the call that a replacement had arrived. Problem is I can’t get out there until the weekend, so I may being in the use of the Jamis for the dirt crit on Thursday. 42/16 may be a bit high for offroad singletrack racing, but it’ll be a gag to roll about on the commuter & I reckon I can smash that gear with good effect. Might even wear that tea-towel pattern jersey I recently picked up to bring home the backyard slacker werks look.

White bikes. Not so much just white framed bicycles, but the trend of colour matched ‘bars, grips/bartape, wheels, tyres & seat – the whole lot in white is kinda spooky. Just says ‘ghost bike’ to me & that can never be a good thing. Bad foreboding maybe? Like getting your path crossed by a black cat or black crows hanging about. seems like bad karma to me.

Racing: more or less.

2010-02-21T12:06:00.005+11:00

1st round of the Vic Enduro Series at You Yangs run by the Geelong MTB club, was held at the Kurrajong area, a course which was flat, dry & superfast. A good turnout & an odd demonstration of a ‘Madison style’ team transition during briefing kicked things off. The start/finish pit area had pits along either side of the course which was handy for track access/changeover.
My race was a sham. Entered Mens solo 40+. I’ve got the excuses lined up, but I can’t dodge the result which was last in the category with only 3hours ridden, 60kms distance, 5 laps. Booked an osteo appointment for the following Tuesday (sic). Round 2 is Mt Beauty which is too far to fit in, needing a full weekend/stayover. Maybe next year.

Dirt crits:
Westgate dirt crits is different now. Half the park gone & looping the rat run south of the bridge a million times, you can see the despondency in everyone’s faces. Talk of FGP starting up Weds cirts at Lysty is an ominous sign.
Although it’s good for a mid week hit out, breaks the trundle to/from work & helps gauge how much of a badarse I am with the Epic [not much].

YouTube vid of a lap of 'A' grade on this evening (17th Feb 2010):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-r0MDll2-A

The commute:
The Jamis has developed a loose metal noise within the frame somewhere. I’ve gone over every component on the bike, but it sounds like something inside the frame tubing, down near the BB. Doesn’t effect the ride, but I get odd looks from the laden commuters I pass by who are expecting me to drop a component.

...while back in the real world:
Mr Moo is a way cool tike. Seems to take everything with a giggle & only cracks the sads when things are definitely wrong. Sleeps heaps, even though he had discovered rolling over on his belly which is not a good thing in the cot after we put him down. My significant other who’s driving the baby experience has taken to wrapping 2 tied together wraps around his middle & tucking the ends under the mattress. Not tight, but it does stop that turning over, and he doesn’t seem to mind, as it still lets him put his toes in his mouth, so all is well.

Oh, and my back, my back ! At a certain age, it’s almost impossible to bounce back from even a slight injury. For someone who never could understand the need for medical insurance (doctors & hospitals are just for when you fall off something aren't they?), I’ve certainly padded out my wallet with business cards from the medical fraternity.

Thanks to S Rowe & Tim Harrison for use of the pix here.

Adelaide - Tour Down Under Jan 22-24th.

2010-01-29T23:20:00.005+11:00

Stobie poles, rubbish tap water & the Rundle Mall Balls .
Friday night, three blokes & three bikes were headed west to Adelaide for the last 2 days of the Tour Downunder.

Plan was: Wilunga stage Saturday, hit Rundle St Saturday night, with Breaky out at North Adelaide & the city stage in Adelaide city afterwards. Then the burn back to our significant others Sunday evening.
Taking the (road) bikes was a boon. We could cover a few laps of Wilunga Hill, watch the boys climb, then roll into town for the finish in no time. Meant we could park the car under any tree & beam ourselves right into the action where ever it was happening.
Sunday’s city circuit was choice, with a good hill in it to boot. Some corners were kinda tricky too – as far as these sorts of city circuit go. We got to squeeze a lap in before Mr I-got-TDU Tshirt-and-a-walkie-talkie shooed us away.
Huge turn out, just like the real thing, the buzz. Sorry the ‘Rush’. As it was a sprint finish sort of stage, the whoosh of the peloton at speed through some corners was something to behold. It also gave all us Aussies a chance to see Cadel fang about in the UCI champ strip before Aussies cycling overseas falls into another 20 year hiatus.
In all this time I could not spot that lanky yank once.

Highlights were the Beers at Wilunga pub, pretty dresses on Rundle St Sat evening, breaky Sunday and of course, the ‘Rush’ Sunday afternoon.
The drive up & back was in my recently purchased (2nd Hand) Commodore family truckster. The wagon had 2 bikes up on the roofrack & another – my Wilier – in the back with its front wheel off to fit. Heaps of room for 3x boofheads, bikes & toiletries. Waiting 30mins for the steak sandwiches at the Bordertown roadhouse didn’t sit too well with the men. Nearly ran out fuel on the return just before Ballarat – who would have thought there were so few petrol stations open between 1am – 3am on the Western Hway.

Top weekend, would recommend it. Bring your empties to cash in when you get over the border (10cents per stubbie).

First dirt in earnest for 2010.

2010-01-21T22:41:00.001+11:00

Bang, I’m out circulating around another drit crit race under the Westgate. It’s January, it’s hot ,it’s dusty & I think I’m in last place again (in B grade).
With the bridge works the park’s been cut in half & we’re left with the south side of the park (accessed by the end of Lorimar St ) which is OK, but the track length is lucky to crack 1.8kms long.
There has been a new section added, over a small mound of dirt that’s pretty loose & caused a few riders to clip out, but by the 3rd lap around ( B graders were up for 6 laps) most had sussed the breezy line through.
Was a good ride for me, keeping up with where the action was for a large slice of the distance. Got a little pooped by the 4th lap, but I knuckled down & tried to bop about just at my threshold level – that stage where 95% of the effort is going into the pedals & jamming the groove – leaving not much in reserve to fend off hard chargers from the rear or unexpected course altercations like stacks or getting caught out into the wrong line.

Rolled through at the end somewhere at the back, but satisfied that I gave it a good go & didn’t feel as trashed as I had been after one of these things.
Had to rack off home quicksmart, so I downed a Solo & grabbed my backpack, to put out a ITT back home.
Got a weird front flat half way home. It went down to about 15psi, the Hutchinson Cobra Air Light 2.0 tyre up front rolls really well with low pressure, so I only discovered the deflating tyre as I turned off the road at speed into Docklands & the sidewall distorted pushing the front way out. I pulled over & couldn’t hear a hiss, it seemed to hold the remaining pressure so I pumped it up to what I thought was 40psi & got home. The valve was found to be buggered. so it’s a new tube (yes like all luddites I still run tubes).

Heading to Adelaide with the fellas & the [road]bikes for the final 2 days of Tour Downunder. Staying at Paulies folks & driving back just as the finish line is crossed on Sunday afternoon. Should be good. Not sure if I’m in the bad books for leaving my significant other & child back home. I’ve got Monday & Aust Day off for 100% family QT though.

Gravity 12 Hour, 7th November 2009.

2009-11-10T10:39:00.002+11:00

The Gravity for 2009 was tip top. In a team of 3x for this year. Was impressed with the lap time & progressive leader table times displayed on the monitors throughout the event. As well as the km distance markers along the course – every km. Showers powered on into the night & the little water trailers & Hammer people providing ‘samples’ made for a fuss free event for me.Even though the dry-ish conditions brought the power dust corners & chopped out braking bumps you would expect, and one or two of the little [two-plank] bridges went adrift, I thought the course held up well throughout the event.
Those little pinch climbs weren’t much fun in that mid afternoon heat as I slowly melted onto my toptube & stem.

Those new Hutchinson Cobra tyres (non-tubeless) worked really well in this sort of dry, hardpacked track with power dust corners. The sidewall quotes 29psi standard, which I thought was kinda low for a non-tubeless tyre, but it seemed to work well. I actually dropped the front tyre down to 25psi halfway through the event to get more purchase on the deteriating parts of the track. I didn’t get a chance for a night/dust lap with the lights.Roll on Kona 24hour.

Roll..

2009-11-06T13:23:00.000+11:00

Clipped in for a bash at the Dirt Crits at Westgate yesterday. More to sort the Epic out for the Gravity 12hour on the weekend.
It was a shorten course because of the Bridge works, using only the park to the north of the Bridge. It was pretty flat & fast. Just about all open two-track, dry & fast. I reckon I came last in 5 laps of B grade, but I didn’t care. It’s not I’m not in any physical condition, just lucky to be able to do up my laces without getting short of breath.
Anyway, was concerned that the rear of the Epic was kinda squishy even though I set it right 3 months earlier for the last round of Chase the Sun in July – last time I raced. A check of the pressure back home showed 150psi out back, so I topped it up to 170psi & hope for the best.
Got new tyres too - Hutchinson Cobras. Supposedly good dry XC tyres. Will see how they go.
Tomorrow’s Gravity starts wit a drive out from Melbourne – 3.5hours to Happy Valley, mount & ride from 9am to 9pm.
Butterflys.

..on new Aussie developed Chinese made motorcycle

2009-10-29T21:46:00.000+11:00

http://www.ptsmotors.com/5.html

Don't understand why some shed in Australia can't turn out a few hundred of these sort of things. Borrow most of the complicated stuff from other manufacturers & do the numty stuff like frames & bodywork out the back.
Sure they wont be the cheapest, but it'll get the ball rolling & some patriots amongst us might mortgage the wife for one.
Everyone else would want a sit if nothing else.
Filling shipping containers with 'price sensitive' Chinese pig iron nobody would really be interested in holding onto past a first rego renewal is just adding to hard rubbish collection days & dragging the whole motorcycle industry down in a race to the bottom.

faux fixie.

2009-10-25T15:52:00.000+11:00

You know who you are, riding about on your single speed roadie or flat ‘bar, running only the front rim brake. But there’s no hiding that freewheel when you come to a stop or bomb down that decent.
Not sure how cool the front stopper is in those awkward moments of rain and Melbourne tramways though.
Excuse the sniggers at the lights…

New model, no manual.

2009-10-25T15:27:00.000+11:00

Woah, having a brand new baby come into my life certainly changes the priorities. Doing nappies & getting’ up at ‘god knows what time’ isn’t as bad as I originally thought.
Although all of a sudden I have too many toys & not enough time to play with them.
Not sure of future prospects, but whether it’s entering father/son category for Chase the Sun or rocking up to cello recitals, it’s all good.
I’ll hold off on the gush that new fathers are renowned for & just say that even though I’m forever sleepy, not riding anywhere near as much as I used to & might soon have to make the hard decision on what’s left in my toy box, I’m over the moon.

Forest 6Hour MTB XC.

2009-07-24T19:10:00.005+10:00

Forest MTB 6hour Championships.
5th July 2009
XC race. Entered Solo mens 40+.
Drove up with Paulie from Melb, that Geelong by-pass save at least 30mins to Forrest I reckon.
Cold day, rain prior to the day & a few showers during the event kept mud as a big factor in some parts of the course.
This was the first big event that I have attended staged by the Forest MTB club. The pit area had the course run the bikes straight through the middle of it before you rode through start/finish. I thought that was a good setup. The start had the solos (like myself) roll off first, with not much of a prologue there was the usually bottleneck in the first section of singletrack. I took this lap real easy & let all the anxious riders out ahead. I found the 10kms (approx) course pretty straight forward, the singletrack wasn’t too tech & it did include the famous or infamous Yaungher berms which I dig. There wasn’t any real hard climbs & the fact that there were a few single speeds around made me think that the S/S brigade had a say in the layout.
It wasn’t until the end of the 2nd lap that the course was clearing out and I had the opportunity to really ‘ride’ the course.

Me running Specialized Roll-X ‘dry’ tyres on the Epic made some of the muddier sections kinda awkward, with me just pedaling & following where ever my bike was slipping & sliding to, but it seemed to work. By the rd lap I was into a rhythm & found I was running less on my brakes & carrying more momentum through the tighter sections. I wasn’t gaining speed, but it felt easier to keep the pace I had without too much more input into the pedals. It was good.
I good an extended break after my 5th lap, but this proved to be a bad idea, as I rolled out for my 6th lap I got a barrage of leg cramps. I reckon this was brought on by the lengthy stop off my bike ( about 25mins) & the cold of the day dropped my body temp to the extent that I was shivering pretty bad before I mounted up again. Alias it was difficult to dodge these cramps which hit me throughout that 6th lap, this was just enough to dilute any enthusiasm for a 7th lap & I pulled in to sit out the dieing stages of the event.
In the end I was glad that I was able to find a rhythm at a point where I would normally stop for a break, which is a good thing for the next few endurance events coming up this year.

Bike Swap meet.

2009-06-14T18:48:00.007+10:00

Collingwood. 14th June 2009.

This was first go as a seller in a 2ndhand market. After the Epic build, there was left a large assortment of bike bits from my various forays over the years. It was time to offer it up to someone out there who could use it all. I basically got all my bike parts I didn’t need which weren’t seriously worn, so this left out any old group-sets I had - chains, chainwheels & cassettes which had seen a fruitful life on any one of my rigs. Although I did have 2x chainwheels with very little kms – the 34t off the Wilier & the 33t off the Jamis, both replaced pretty much first up before I did any kms on them.

The Bike Swap happens about 2-3 times a year, I think organized by someone involved with Fiximatosis, but I’m not entirely sure. I thought that being bike related, it might get a lot of the kinda people I am targeting with my stuff & would be a successful morning.

The deal was, as a seller, to rock up before 10am, pay $5, set up your stuff in your area –I used a picnic blanket, & off you go. It seemed pretty casual. Some things I did which many other guys didn’t was mark a price on each item & I brought all my spare change, just in case I got lots of big notes in sales. This bike swap seemed to be mostly roadies & the fixie brigade , so my mostly MTB related horde was not a major player. In the I end I sold 1x Selle Italia saddle (offthe Wilier roadie) & a pair of used SPD pedals. $50 total.

I might still rock up next time, although I now do have another place to check out if ever I do a s/s ‘roadie’ commuter build.

Good experience overall, might rock up to the next one.

In other news, I have the Anthem1 up for sale. I’ve got a few interested, one looks definite, but I’ll chalk it up when there’s an empty space in the shed & cash in my hand.

Chase the Sun #2. 5 hour MTB XC.

2009-05-31T20:02:00.001+10:00

Last moment entry in Solo. Loading up the car on the morning of the event it was if I was just setting out on a casual ride, the difference being the stocked esky, running a seat bag with tube/levers/multi-tool mounting a small pump to the frame. I was bringing the hydration pack, but really felt that biddons would be the better alternative, so I brought both.
It was a clear, but cool morning, heaps of fog on the drive up. The start/finish was up at Trailmix next to the lake. The ‘pit area’ for solo was actually along the course at the top of the carpark near the park’s entry point.
The 9:30-ish start was, as what I seem to find, a disorganized FGP affair. Sure the start/prologue may only be a small part of the event, but as it’s the ‘off’, all the riders are anxious & would really like to make the best of the start. We all gather behind the dam wall, then off we went, back to wards the carpark area & then back around behind the dam wall into the course proper.
The course was pretty straight forward & a joy for first timers & many in the solo. The climbs were all do-able & there was a lot of pretty fast & smooth singletrack to blow out any tiredness a rider may be feeling after a few hours of slog.
But the first lap was pretty much a conga-line for me as I rolled out in the back half, hoping not to blow myself out tying for a blistering first lap. 13kms, it felt flowy for me & I was happy to hold back on the climbs & awkward stuff because I could make time on the singletrack & some techy stuff.
I ticked off 3x laps & rolled in for a 20minute banana just after 12pm. Funny thing was when I roll off again for me on my fourth lap I start to cramp up on just about every climb. Sure I change my cadence, I try spinning & then grinding & nothing really works. It was getting worse & I stop to walk a climb on at the last 3rd of the course & I cramp up even worse. By the time I’m approaching the solo pit area I’m all down about it & pull in & go home.
Alot of this sort of thing going on lately, but hey: There is fun & then there is success. Sometimes they're mutially exclusive.

BMC100 2009

2009-04-19T17:46:00.000+10:00

DNF @ the 54km mark. (Entered 100kms)
Stomach arched up, which has never happened before, nausea, stabbing pains. Stop out on course for a nature break (hoping it’ll cure things), felt dizzy & kinda stumbled about abit (???).
At the 32km water/rest stop I wolfed down some watermelon & a ‘nana, took a few minutes out. Rolling off I was back to 100%, but that only lasted until the pines section @ 40kms. So when the singletrack near Wombat dam turned left onto the gravel road, I turned right & headed back to the Start/Finish where I spent a good half hour of portaloo time.

Cool, drizzly start. It was actually delayed 30mins – to 7:30am for the 100kms Elites – because of the log jam of cars still trying to get in/park, they should sort that out for next year – alternate entrance for cars into the car park maybe.
The start was: first Elites @ 7:30am, then Age categories for those riding for a podium, then Age categories for those who finish mid field & then everyone else ‘out for a ride’. I actually got caught up chatting with a few riders & ended up starting in this last group for the 100kms.
It was still drizzling as we rolled off down the gravel road east towards the Wombat dam area. There was a fair amount of open gravel road to spread the field, but getting into the first bit of long tight singletrack – the Pines at Wombat dam, it was a congo line as far as I could see. This pine section was damp from the drizzle & I found the exposed roots at right angles really slippery & I just found myself just riding out of the saddle & letting the bike do its own thing under me. With the traffic it was difficult to ride through/over the bumps/roots as I had to trail the brake so I would not connect with the rider ahead.
There were some open gravel road climbs that actually got me into the granny in this section too.
Out of the pines & into regular bush, this is when I started feeling – not the best. But there were some good singletrack sections here & we were all bopping having a good ole time.
The first rest/water stop @ about the 32kms I hung about to pull myself together, while I was there I ran into J9 & Tim MTB (from BV forum) as well as a few blokes I know from the Westgate dirt crits.
Off again with more of the same, a fast decent followed by some climbing, repeat. Short gravel road sections between singletrack. I could feel that my kms where numbered as my nausea wasn’t being offset by my motivation, which was waning, to keep going. I started to look for reasons to stop, on 2x occasions stopping to lend assistance with tools etc to riders attempting repairs.
I rolled through the Wombat dam singletack & then hit the gravel road back.

Sitting here now I’m regretting it all, pulling out like that. Piking. Choking. Going soft. I could have just stopped for a bit & probably gone good & had a great afternoon.
But it just means that I’ll be hungry to get out there ASAP & get one down to put this one behind me.

Points of interest:
Seemed like a big turn out.
Car parking problem needs solving.
I like the ‘timing chip’ set-up that each rider has with them.
Thought I saw a camera & flash set up out on the early Pines section singletrack that was automatically taking photos of riders as they go by.
I think there were lots of singletrack for the kind of event it was.

Something old, something new….

2009-04-12T19:31:00.003+10:00

Splashed out on a new frame – Specialized Epic Marathon. The idea is firstly to bring the bike count down by building up this bike from the Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail & the Anthem, then sell off whatever is left over leaving me with my choice set up. In truth it was only the Shimano XT Deore wheels set, the Shimano XT SPD pedals & seat that the Anthem gave up, the rest came off the Hardtail.
I needed to buy a new front derailleur – Shimano XT Deore - to clear the Epics rear suspension links.

First roll out was out to Yarra Flats, it’s so cool that I have this sort of singletrack only 20mins ride out – just enough to warm the legs before the elbows come out.
The rear derailleur felt like it wanted some tuning, but I found that after about 30mins riding the rear mech just settled down & worked well without any adjustment, sometimes you just have to let new stuff bed in I suppose. Although I was concerned that on the Epic, the rear gear cable runs the full length in an outer, & at the end the 180degree bend (into the rear mech) is tight.
Seeing as the Epic still feels new to me I’ll be riding it throughout the week commuting & maybe dirt crits on Thursday night. I figured by the BMC100 next Sunday I should have it locked down.

MAD ride. MTB 65kms, non-competitive. 5th April.

2009-04-05T17:31:00.000+10:00

61kms, 3hours 28mins, averaged 17.30kms/hr.
Signed up on this one to get some kms in & around the Wombat state forest where the BMC100 will be staged in a few weeks & sus out what shape I was in for it. I knew the course wasn’t too technical & it’s profile – [available from their site: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/MAD-Ride-MTB-route ] didn’t seem too much of one thing or another. No real heartbreaking climbs or large chunks of descending.
It was just lil ole me on this one, so being a non-competitive event I casually rolled out of the Riddles Creek start about 20mins after the official start time of 8am & settled down to a nice pace for myself.
Riding the Giant Anthem, the rear suspension set on Pro-Pedal, I ran the Specialized Fast Trak LK tyres, running pressures Fr40psi Rr45psi. With so much open gravel road said to make up the course & not a lot of rain over the last week I figured the smoother dry terrain, fast rolling tyres was the ticket. I carried 1 liter of straight water in my (Fluid) hydration pack & an electrolyte mix in my bidden. Had a saddle bag with 2x tubes, multitool & tyre levers & in the hydration pack also carried a wind-vest, lollies & Gu’s.
Even though it was a cool start I didn’t wear my wind-vest or arm-warmers because I knew it’ll heat up come the first bit of singletrack or climb. It was 11degrees at start time. I wore my full fingered gloves & jersey, with bib-knicks & a ‘lite’ thermal top underneath.
The MTB route began with a few kms of bitumen to take out of town, then turned onto gravel roads into the Wombat state forest, with the first bit of singletrack at the 6km mark. This didn’t last long & back onto gravel roads. Most of the riding was either gravel roads or offroad two-track. Biggest obstacles ended up being choosing a good line through muddy and water filled 4wd furrows at the bottom of gullies etc.
The rest stops were catered well & saved me digging into my reserves of lollies & gels with the fruit & drinks on offer. First main stop being at 25kms in at Firth Park & then another later on at about 40km mark.
Somewhere in the tracks there was a Pajero beached at a 45degree angle on some water filled 4wd ruts, with a wait ahead of him for help the old fella was just sitting in his fold out camping chair watching the bikes go by.
Even though they don’t seem to show up on the ride profile, there were 2x climbs that got me working, the first was on a open gravel road at about 30kms in, & then another real mean offroad two-track track which got me off & walking up when I failed on the granny at one stage. This track had debris & small rock ledges which really destroyed well earned momentum climbing up it.
I rode with the distance displayed on my bike comp so I could get a feel of where I was at. Doing a MTB event for the first time it can real easy to cash in too early and not have something left in the tank.
Even so rolling back into Riddles Creek just before lunch I was feeling pretty fresh. Grabbed a sang, debriefed with some random stranger, had a drink, loaded up the Astra & headed home.

Australia day weekend – Tour Downunder Adelaide.

2009-02-07T16:14:00.000+11:00

Friday after work, me BC & Paulie drove across arriving in Adelaide town sometime around 2-ish in the morning. Crashed at Paulie olds.
Saturday we caught the penultimate round of the Tour Downunder @ Walunga & then the last round at the 5km circuit in Adelaide.
Top stuff, Satuday night hit the Rundle street party-beer scene & woke up not recalling much.
Next time the bikes are coming too (roadies) & we’ll be padding it out a few extra days to roll around the hills & happens of that city of churches.

2009 off with a “Boof”.

2009-02-07T13:45:00.000+11:00

Dodgey start to 2009 for racing: first time back after the new year @ Westgate Dirt Crits I ploughed through a dusty corner on the first lap, graze my right elbow & spend the rest of the race rolling about in the midst the valiant C graders (I started out in the B grade field). Even though I did get almost a whole lap down before my off ,it wasn’t a stella pace & my remount followed a comprehensive roll in the dust after a good sweat (29degree evening) so I was a sight to behold.
Rode the Anthem. Looking at going from the 2x MTBs to just one , a dually. Getting a nice new frame & putting all my good bits on that & selling the Anthem with whatever is left over.
Seemed like a big turnout, but the results showed a lot of DNFs. Mine came from the decision to call it after only 3 laps (not 4).
Big events coming up for me are the Otway Challenge 29th March http://www.supersprint.com.au/events/great-ocean--otway-classic-ride.aspx & the BMC100 19th April http://www.maxadventure.com.au/bmcclassic/ . With Chase the Sun starting up on the 26th April at Lysterfield with an 8 hour http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/cts.html .

Kona 24hour @ Forrest.

2008-12-07T12:08:00.000+11:00

The 24hour was a good one for us, we had 4x entries, 2 teams in mens fours, a men’s threes team & a solo. Came out with a 3rd in the fours & threes which is tip top.

Apart from Marriners Run Sunday day loop I think the trails were run in reverse direction from last year, I hated that first climb outa transition – I think I made it once without bailing – and the tail end of the night lap with the road section, sitting out in the big chainwheel really brought home the chill in the night air.
A high was, as with many others – Marriners run. Mostly because it was a blast to carry so much speed through stuff without having to crank it out too much on tired legs.
Alex’s nudie lap & Rhys’s Lap kitted in full leathers & fighter pilot helmet was a gas.
I think we all had a ball… some others had two though….

Gravity 12hour.

2008-11-19T21:36:00.001+11:00

Magnificent event. Friday rain made for an almost perfect course come race day Saturday. Entered in Mens threes team, 18th I think. Only off was my first lap, just after the bolt across the open field, the first bit of climbing singletrack I connected with the rear wheel of the rider in front while in the granny & came down real awkward like. Was used as a foot hold for riders clambering up behind me, lost a million places, but it was a good lap in the end.
Paulie & Phil in our team were punching out real consistent lap times, we managed 6 laps each by the end of the day.
End of the day, a few beers by the bon fire & A great sleep in Sunday morning with a lazy drive home.

Best event so far in my books, would recommend to anyone.
http://www.gravity12hour.com/

(Pic of me in action: ID: JUPE7046 on http://www.ontrackimages.com.au/MTB/galleries/08Grav12_300/index.htm )

Growing young legs

2008-10-26T20:26:00.000+11:00

Always loved grinding the big gear out of the saddle, grunting away at a slow cadence. But my legs aren’t as young as they used to be, so in an attempt to rein back some sort of bankable form out on the various MTB event courses I’ve succumbed to the spin. For the spin is the only real way I can get back the sort of reliable wattage I need from my body to fill the gap where a deft hand in the tech sections is not enough to bring in the sort of result I can be happy with.
The ‘Bay ride last week I used the Spin in the climbs & to bridge gaps & it worked well. Finishing the 217kms kms fresh enough for just a light meal & a spot of gardening in the evening.

North East training - road.

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

This weekend I thought it best to turn my back on the Beach rd lemming express & head north into the hills. I rode a north/east route a year ago to Warrandyte & back, which I remember had a good mix of climbs, with the tail end of the ride full of descents & tapered rolls to home. I rode out on my own pretty late – 10am – and encountered a lot of traffic, on roads like Doncster Rd & Diamond Creek Rd which I really didn’t enjoy very much at all, the low-light of the trip. It was along way across town to go for me, & probably not the best route for any Western suburban riders, but it’s what I knew & figured I’ll put this one down today & try something else next opportunity. 80-odd kms. Felt pretty tired with the amount of climbing & descending. Oh yes, I did the spinning thing – stayed in the low gears on the climbs, seated & spun. Worked well, kept the cadence over 90 as much as I could. Almost got the knack of it.

Westgate dirt crits 23rd October was a hoot, dry, kinda hot & a big turn out. Log-jam early on the first lap, but I was able to make passes throughout the laps. Even though I’m still last third of the B grade field, I looked back on it as a good effort & worth the roll out there after work.

Big MTB events coming up, the Gravity 12hour 8th -9th November & the 24hour @ Forest on the weekend of the 29th-30th November. The Anthem is prepped with a fresh groupset – cogs/chain/cables. I’m feeling good too, so it should pan out well.

One in the cast of thousands.

2008-10-19T20:15:00.003+11:00

19Th October 2007
Another ‘Bay ride down. http://www.bv.com.au/great-rides/20005/
Well, not exactly. Myself along with 2 other mates met up at Kerford Rd & rode out to Portsea @ back – 216kms. We didn’t actually enter the ‘Bay ride as such, we just joined along with the masses & rode together in the spirit of camaraderie that all cyclists share. The 5:30am roll out of Kerford rd anticlockwise down to Sorrento was pretty much when the bulk of the field had set off from the official start @ Alexandra gardens in the city, so we had no end of peletons & groups to latch onto for the tow down the coast. Funny thing was the way it turned out we found ourselves leading a few groups for a majority of the way down.
A warm morning soon changed to a cool southerly with a few drizzling periods as we hit Sorrento for out U-turn back. The cooler southern really didn’t start up until late morning which coincided perfectly for our return run, the wind at our backs.
With so many riders out it was kind of a blessing in disguise. Sure there were some questionable maneuvers which meant riding in groups was a pretty stressful situation, but the volume of riders did allow us to hop from one group to another without spending too much time out on our own.
A stop @ Maccas at Mornington on the return & later a coffee stop At Portabellas @ Kerford rd, I don’t really thing I had the opportunity to shed much weight, blowing at least $50 on food along the way. Still, it’s the way to do it though.
We stopped heaps & didn’t really go-the-rivet on any one stage, so we finished up pretty fresh, probably the freshest I’ve ever felt after 210-odd kms. This with no real training looks like it wasn’t my training regime I had a problem with, but my approach to the ride. The riding time overall (less the periods we stopped) was almost the same as all my other ‘balls to the wall’ efforts in the past. You see, I leant something today, so it wasn’t a complete waste of a day.

Some big races coming up, it’s that time of year for them: The Gravity 12hour & the 24hr @ Forrest. Time to get serious with the time on the bike & watch those chocolate biscuits.

Groovin’ along.

2008-09-27T18:50:00.001+10:00

27th Sept 2008.
Hawthorn just won the grand final. I’m not a fan, but I think it’s a good thing for football. When you see the under-dog do good, it gives blokes like me encouragement to front up to MTB event after event completely out of my depth but still prepared to have a go. Blokes like me make the fast riders look good, their success comes from passing & beating blokes like me. Because of that I think I’ve had a hand in a lot of victories.

The ‘Bay ride is coming up, so I rolled out to Frankston & back (100kms) to revisit that “sore arse & numb fingers” feeling I get skirting the pond. As I couldn’t scare up any other takers I broke out before 6am to make it there/back before 9:30am. Lot of bikes out, although with my early start I spent the trip down pretty much on my own, but that was fine by me, a relatively warm still clear day dawned - the hotair balloons drifted overhead - a sure sign of a good start to the day for riding. Hooked a U-turn at the top of Olivers Hill & rode home.

The ride back I came across heaps of groups, some were scooting along over 45kms/hr – I averaged 34kms/hr on my own – but others kind of almost matched my average & it was hard not to sit in them & bum a tow home. Prob is with hooking up with the odd group you get along Beach Rd is that a lot of them have a creative interpretation of peleton etiquette & it takes a few kms to gel with the groove. After Mordialoc I came across a bunch of ‘seniors’ (being 40yrs old means that I now regard anyone else slightly older than me as a senior) sitting on my pace who were dragging along quite a few opportunists. I filter up to the front of the group to find a few on them loved to frequently call out stuff, like “car back” & “bike”, & other things I thought was coming across almost as being quite theatrical. I didn’t join in fun, & tried to ride out the front. But, as with all these sorts of things all I seem to do was drag everyone else along for the ride, not much fun pounding away in the ‘drops’ only to hear riders just behind you freewheeling. We motored past other groups sitting at lower speeds so the motivation to hang with my new bros held out until the group dissipated after passing through St Kilda. Ride home from there was a nice little pootle & left me feeling pretty fresh for the rest of the morning.

I’ve been ticking off the weekly dirt crits at Westgate over the last couple of months. Never really developing beyond the tail end of B grade, but it’s all good fun. It’s slowing getting warmer & brighter later into the evening, so the end of racing by lights will be over for another year sooner than later. Just been riding the Stumpjumper as the Anthem is still in dire need of fresh chain/cogs. Should sort that out before the Gravity 12hour in early November. The 24hour @ Forest is up in December too, so no time to lose.

The commuter – my Jamis MTB signle speed – is set for a change. I’m replacing the rear disk brake wheel with a coaster brake hub, just for laughs. The coaster hub is cheap as, but building a wheel is the stinger. will photo & report when sorted.

My much ignored Honda Hornet has had a few outings of late. Even though I have already replaced the stock handlebars with lower Renthal ‘low rise’ ‘bars, I’m wanting something more. Thoughts of the Aces handlebars or ‘clubman’ ‘bars I had on the Kawasaki zephyr are coming to me. Prob is they’re kinda hard to locate nowadays. I suppose if people want to go ‘sports’ with flatbar road bikes, they trade to a sportsbike with clip-ons. But not me, longterm musings on my Hornet are ‘clubman’ ‘bars & maybe some low slung exhausts with slash-cut silencers. Hmm…..

Being slow

2008-08-01T14:06:00.005+10:00

Arh, sometimes I wonder why I’m out there, getting dirty, tired & in everyone else’s way. Dirt crits last night wasn’t the moment in history I was hoping. Cold with a few muddy puddles & a pretty small field I hung on the coat-tails for the first lap around to spend the rest of the 4 lap, 3km course riding around on my lonesome like some rambler. I could see the lights of C grade behind me early on, as they start 20 secs after B grade, but I was never really set apon by them so I should take something from that. Legs were real tired, no power, no spirit - seems like one half of me wanted to be somewhere else. Must admit I kinda liked the course, muddy in places but a lot of corners offered grip & was nice to rail around the singletrack there. Riding the Anthem’s dual suspension does make it easy work compared to the hardtail though, even with the Anthem set on Pro-pedal out back.
Result: Last in a field of 10-ish in B grade.
My changing opinion of Cadel’s result at this years Tour: After watching the Individual time trial again (recorded it) it was clear that he wasn’t in the best shape. Also, the fact hat he finished 2nd last year automatically made him the marked man throughout the event which showed on him, how the other teams/riders rode in relation to him & how the media responded to him. It was almost like there was the expectation that Cadel would dominate as Lance did in previous years. I think the Tour has been, in recent years, an event decided in the mountains. The kind of time a rider on top of their form can gain in the Alps and the Pyrenees can make it a decider. Cadels fall earlier in the event left him nursing his position when he could otherwise be looking at attack opportunities. Still, there’s always next year, and the year after that.
So yeah, I was rash, they were rash & I think we all should take a good hard look at ourselves & what our expectations are of others who get out there & have a go in the brutal arena that is the Tour.

New addition to the family – Jamis Exile –single speed MTB. Bought 2nd hand & looking at using it for the commute. Originally came with a 33/16 ratio for offroad, I upped it to 42/16 & pumped up the Hutchinson Piranas to their max (approx 70psi). I'm still considering running some semi-slicks I have from my old Apollo MTB commuting days (Specialized Hiemsphere 2.0), but I'll try out the Piranas this weekend on the pavement for the hell of it. The Jamis came with Manitou Axel Air forks which, on arrival home & after a short ride about, developed a lot of oil loss through the forks seals. So, for the interm I’ll raid the Stumpjumper’s Rock Shox SIDs for a spell.

Chase the Sun #3, 7hour MTB XC.

2008-07-27T21:31:00.003+10:00

(Photo: Steven Rowe. http://mtb-images.ser.id.au/ )
It's rare for me to dread the sound of rain during the night as I slept, but not last night though. There was enough fear-n-loathing to share come Sunday morning as it dawned to a thick pall of rain over everything.
To be honest, if I was doing solo & not part of a team I would have just rolled back over & slept right through this morning. But, alas my team mate Paulie was due soon so it was time to fall outa bed, hang my head in the shower & throw lots of bike related stuff into the back of the Astra. When he rocked up he wasn’t to motivated either as he stood in the alleyway transferring his bike stuff into my car as he winced under the light rain shower in the cold dark morning.
We both blamed it all on Cadel Evans for his pitiful individual time trial effort overnight that we both stayed up to see him lose, & reflected on how many lost opportunities were squandered in the preceding stages only to save his best to what he was supposed to be good at. In the end I suppose the best person did win the TDF 2008, but it seemed like all the time & effort Cadel put into this year’s event actually in the end, was just banking on that one day – the final time trial – to give him the victory. It was too fine a margin to call, & we all drank in the hype. Lets hope we all learn from this.
Anyway, we have our own mountains to climb, & ours were located to the north east of Melbourne in the bushland around Lake Lysterfield. It drizzled & rained on the drive up & there was mud everywhere when we got there. ‘Goombah Village’ was set up at the tail end of the solo area just before the course ducked back into the bush. We did our transistion there. The Goombahs were represented with 3x solo entries, & 2x pairs entries. Dave & Stu punched out massive laps in solo, Bonar returning to form got 3 laps down, & the pairs teams of Amy/Melanie & myself/Paulie returned some healthy circumnavigations.
With my first lap out took me into familiar trails of Lysterfield, some part were actually pretty grippy & I was really able to rail the corners. But then the mud was a factor in certain stretches. This was good though, as I haven’t really been a very confident mud rider & this was my chance to face my brown slimy demon out there. Out on my 2nd lap, just after another rain, the mud got real slick & my bike developed a mind of it’s own, I just had to spin those pedals to keep everything motoring along. My cassette & front derailuer clogged badly halfway through this lap giving my no end of chain skipping, missed shifts & ghost shifting. Squirting the total contents on my biddon’s Gatorade onto the rear mech gave me about a 1/3 of a laps grace before it played up again.
After my transition I went to town hosing water on the drivesystem to wash the mud out in an attempt to stop this schizophrenic shifting. It worked , kinda.
My last lap out, the organizers changed the course to avoid the worst of the muddy sections, but introduced part of the Comms Games course & filled the bits in between with open gravel road & two-track.
In the end I called it quits after this 3rd lap. Being moody as a menstrual dairy cow of late, I have developed a short discomfort threshold for MTBing & have used the excuse of “I’m not enjoying myself” as solid defense for the defenseless withdrawal from the activities.
The drive home was accompanied with more rain & I have now definitely used my quotient of City West’s water residental allocation, bringing flood & Lysterfield mud to my backyard.
Till next time, but….

The One to rule them all.

2008-07-25T15:14:00.000+10:00

With the demise of the Langster to the lust for cash, I threw on the Specialized Hemisphere 2.0 tyres on the Stumpjumper hardtail to fill the gap for the commute. Fitted the handlebar mounted Pop-lock fork lock-out on it as well, but I’ve found that as I’m running the Rock Shox SID Team forks pretty firm for my weight, the bob when grinding outa the saddle isn’t that much of a problem. In fact running the forks locked out on the tarmac almost feels too firm & my palms develop a dull ache through the ride by the end. Funny.
The shop continues: There is a 2nd hand Jamis Exile 26”wheels, OK condition, but not sure about the Manitou Axel Platinum forks. Thing I have to bear in mind is that as I’m looking at this Single Speed I want to buy as a commuter, I have to factor in cost for a ratio change & other stuff, even if I buy new. Sure there are flat ‘bar roadies about, but I wanna hang with a MTB layout & easy option for offroad S/Sing by lifting tyres (etc) off the Anthem & Stumpjumper.
New bikes I’m looking at include the Avanti KISS (26er), which runs an acentric Bottom Bracket & regular vertical drop outs & brake tabs, so it should make changing tyres/tubes/flats easier. But I’ve heard that these acentric B/Bs can squeak & sometimes slip a little. Test rode one & found it a lardy barge. Felt heavy overall. Not sure if changes like rigid forks & lighter seat would make a big enough difference. And I am comparing all these to my old Apollo Everest from 1989 which was a great s/s MTB commuter, apart from those times it tried to kill me whenever the chain got thrown, so did I – dodgy backyard s/s convert.
There is another option – buy a ‘good’ s/s specific frame & thieve parts off the Stumpjumper, leaving the Anthem for all the offroad multi-speed work. Hmm…. Just what I need, another option.

The Dark side.

2008-07-11T13:45:00.001+10:00

July. This is that time of year when I spend most of my time riding in darkness. The morning commute begins before the dawn & the return is in amongst the headlights & street lights of inner city Melbourne. Always dark and always cold, I layered up, still sweat underneath, but I never feel my fingers or toes until the end of my hot showers. My gear spends more time in front of the heater than I do - drying.

The cool autumn days lead into that constant cold & wet dampness of July & August that really ages a MTB. Brake pads wear & groupsets are reduced to lifetimes measured in days. At Thursday night dirt crits the numbers drop & coming in last still means finishing in the top ten.

There’s been a new section of singletrack opened up on the course, but I’m not a big fan. Mostly because it was cut by just placing some arrows through long grass & assorted debris, then letting the run of MTB tyres wear a groove into the under growth. It’s been 3 weeks now since this new bit was opened up & I’m still getting lost it in all when I don’t have a wheel to follow – and this on a 3kms course! Jumping on the ‘bus’ (after dirt crits, a grouppetto of MTBs usually heads to the city down Lorimar St Pt Melb), you can see grass in just about everyone’s cassette & derailers, even the s/s don’t miss out on taking something home.

I don’t want to go on about my form of late, as there doesn’t seem to be much to speak of , but I have been able to manage an over-the-‘bars effort 2 out of the 3 races out there. I’m blaming this on the odd set up on my Stumpjumper, where the Rock Shox SID team forks I recently bought for it seem to ride quite low (unable to change the ride height). This steepens my geometry & it kinda feels like it wants to tuck in on corners & fastish going. Standing out of the saddle & powering places me way over the front of the front axel. Fox RLC 100 forks on the Anthem seem to ride much higher & actually the ride on that bike comes across as much nicer. I’ll scout out 2nd hand forks & see if I can buy/sell 2nd hand & manage a change over for less than $100 to reduce that nervous feeling the front end has on that Stumpjumper.

Old man back.

2008-07-11T12:56:00.001+10:00

Must be that age. That milestone. When bouncing back from a hit doesn’t have that spring it once had. 2 months now I’ve been dealing with a sore back, mostly early morning, mostly happens when I’m laying down. Funny thing is as soon as I get some movement into it, the better it gets.
Sticking to a regime of floor exercises & free weights first up in the mornings & just before I hit the sack goes a long way nowadays, but it’s still there, in the background, just when I need that extra 10% on a climb or snapping out of the saddle for that lunge. It’s getting the point where some riding isn’t as fun as it once was.
I got a few bikes & this problem is at it’s worst on my roadie-commuter. Loaded with over 5kgs of work wear & necessities, stuck with the one ratio while running my drop ‘bars pretty low on the steerer all comes together at the end of the commute with the old man back. I’ve tried running the ‘bars higher, dropping the seat, offloading the backpack, but it doesn’t seem to make a big a dent into the problem as I have been hoping.
There is something else.
Getting the Langster as a commuter was more me ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ of the latest craze – Single-speed &/or fixed geared bikes than anything else. It was fun, the one ratio isn’t the handicap you would think it is & it’s so metro-cool bike-chic, just one step away from a track bike. But fixed was one step too far. So there I was, last week standing in the garage looking at my bikes, thinking about my back & the Langster, & all the other bikes. Maybe I just had the wrong kind of single-speed.
Before the Langster I was commuting on my old slick-shod ’89 Apollo Everest MTB, converted to 48/18 with a chain tensioner. It worked, but only just. Each time the chain got thrown – so did I. So banished to the back on my parents garage it was. But maybe the new breed of production single-speed-frame specific MTBs is what I need? Most aren’t that expencive, & I’ve never ultimately lost money on commuters, because – hey, at least it’s not going to petrol or train tickets. So I tested the waters & posted the Langy for sale on some on-line forumsat a cost similar to how it entered my life. And Lo, it was snapped up in a few days.
Looks like it’s time to go shopping…..

Chase the Sun enduro, round 2. 1st June.

2008-06-05T22:47:00.003+10:00

Oops , missed reporting on this one.
Cold foggy start. 6 hours this time. Great grippy track, different 14.5km course to last time. No stacks or mechanicals, but the usual fitness issues from zero training outside of ‘getting to work on time’ .
We (Paulie & I ) finished 24th out of a lot more in ‘Just Good Friends’ in the male pairs category.

Picture courtesy of David Bailey photography.
http://www.dcb-photo.com/MTB%20sample%20page.htm

Over and over.

2008-06-05T22:24:00.003+10:00

Dirt crits is never boring. Rock up each week, do the same laps but roll home with something different each time. This week the highlight was my graceful over the ‘bars effort halfway through the first lap in B grade.
Had a good start, mid pack & filed into the singletrack heading west alongside the Westgate Bridge, wheel on wheel amongst the other B graders. I was sitting in a taller gear than usual at this pace & was grinding out of the saddle just off the wheel in front of me. We roll into a little decent where the track weaves between some pallets, then off a little timber ramp up to switchback between some trees.
Been through here a million times without a thought in the world, but tonight in a little brain fade moment I rolled just to the right off the little timber ramp & my front wheel finds a hole & something solid to stop up against. Being out of the saddle at this point, leaning way forward ready for the little climb just after the ramp, the sudden stop was a big surprise. In one graceful, almost poetic arc pivoting on the front axle I continued with my bike as it pitched forward, still clipped in, still with both hands on the ‘bars, I pass that point where you might’ve had that chance to fight the forces of nature & instinct with the attempt to right things, I tuck my head in as I roll right over on my back. Coming to a rest pointing back towards the oncoming riders.
I had rolled to one side of the track so most of the B graders behind me were filing through by the time I jumped immediately to my feet. No damage, the Specialized Stumpjumper was still OK ,but being so early in the race the whole field had to pass before I could continue. I actually spent a bit of extra time checking myself out before remounting because I didn’t want to discover any nasties after the adrenalin passed.
Paulie was actually right on my wheel at the time so I really screwed up his place, having to stop & ask if I was OK as the field went through.
I rolled off way after the last rider’s lights disappeared into the trees.
The rest of my race was a solo affair, but I kinda felt good to put in some time doing this MTB caper on my own, being able to rail the corners & pick some tasty lines. I caught & passed some riders but it was hard to tell if they were B graders or one of the other grades. I passed Paulie later on that first lap with a broken chain – sucks.
All in all it was a OK sorta evening out MTBing. There’s always next week…

http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/dirtcrits.html

Chase the Sun enduro series, Round 1. 11th May 2008

2008-05-16T08:59:00.005+10:00

Lysterfield turned on a great day & fabulous track, no dust & no mud, the 10kms course took in some singletrack through the bushland there as well as sections of the Comm Games track. There was a fair amount of open two-track & gravel road used to join the various singletrack. There was a good turn out & what seemed to be a fair amount of new guys to MTB racing.
For this enduro series Paul & I signed up in Men pairs, in the ‘just good friends’ category. It was a 5hour event & the plan was to get in 10 laps. Paul rode out from the gun & we alternated every lap. It was a pretty uneventful race for the both of us, we punched out our laps in the general casual intensity they we bring to these events, but in the end only brought home 9 laps, I just got 4 in which I was real dark on. But I knew that zero preparation & no training (I shouldn’t regard commuting as training) is what affected my result from what I wanted to achieve & what I actually achieved. Sure this can lead to all sort of soul searching &personal reflection, but it’s usually best to let things settle before making any radical plans for change.
The next one is in 3 weeks – June 1st – so I have this window to make a concerted effort & try to make some valuable improvement.

Dumb Ideas

2008-05-16T08:57:00.003+10:00

Everyone has them, some more often than others. I’ve had mine & here’s a couple:

Dirt crits 1st May 2008:
First bad idea: rocking up to dirt crits after a spell of rain & cold weather expecting that the track would soak it all up & it’ll be business as usual. Waiting on new parts to replace the worn sprockets & chain on the Specialized Stumpjumper which is what I would have normally taken to a wet event but took the Giant Anthem in it’s place to crits. In the past the Anthem seemed to be the hot ticket to an easy time of punching out fast, consistent laps with a strong finish, so I was blasé & confident. Problem was, the course was a deluge & fitted with Hutchinson Pirana tyres & an eternity since my last muddy ride I rolled out hopelessly unprepared for what lay ahead. First lap I was dead last but managed some nice passes. But then the mud started to play havoc with my forward momentum, I was having real basic problems of just being able to ride in a straight line, let alone the corners. Not sure if it was the tyres or the fact that I was so tence, but the bike would just step out from under me when I least expected it. I was having problems in sections of the track I would normally fly or coast over. Slowing down was worse, the tyres just filled in & would just spin & slide. After coming to a sliding halt against a tree for the 20th time I just got the shits & pulled out after the 2nd lap.
Watching all the other riders go through start/finish I immediately realised that it was a bad idea to pull out as, but there you go. Getting digs for DNFing without a mech just put the icing on the cake. I hung about for the finish – didn’t think it was good just to rack off half way through like that – which is when I found out I didn’t pack my rain jacket, just a light wind vest which was another bad idea.
Ride home was a chilly affair, & having to hose the bike & myself down after a muddy ride in the dark with the garden hose wasn’t the best fun I’ve ever had. Still had to wash the bike properly as rolling it into the shed after the hose down you could still hear the gridin the disks & drivetrain.

Bike carries bike:
I’ve been toying with rigging up a rack on the Hornet to carry the MTB & gear to events, but it’s not all that easy. The initial idea is to run a single skid on one side, fixing the MTB by removing the front wheel & using the Quick Release & strapping the rear wheel down. Also looking at a side pannier on the opposite side to carry gear/food etc & hopefully balance up the weight. I was looking at having the load effect the handling as little as possible. I’ll trial some rough racks & go from there. I’ll post pix as it happens .

New commute:
New hoops for the Langster commute: Continental Ultra Gators. Opted for 25mm instead of the standard 23mm, I thought the slight width difference might make the commuter ride, umm ,I dunno better. These Conti Gators are springing up on everyones commuters nowadays so I figured I’ll go with the masses & give them a try. Been through a million bike tyres in my time, but never got 2 sets that same, seems the ‘next new thing’ is always popping up.
Used the opportunity of working on the Langster to wash it, really don’t like working on dirty bikes. Looks 100% now but wouldn’t you know it, it’s developed a clicking noise in the Bottom Bracket. Might just need the BB cups tightened which is hard to tell, but there is no discernable play or binding in the BB, so I wont think about replacing/servicing the BB until it becomes obvious there is work to be done. I’ll just run my headphones a little louder on the commute…

Stumpjumer money pit.
After dropping a bomb on brakes/shifters on the Stumpjumper, the drive chain & sprockets become shagged & needed an update. Shopped around locally but nothing could come close to what was offered on-line, so 4 days later & Chain Reaction (http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/?PartnerID=1002&gclid=CPz1nOmdopMCFSahiQodaWcIow )
supplied a Shim XT 9spd chain, XT cassette & 2x LX chainwheels (the granny gear wasn’t replaced).

BMC100, Crits & new brakes.

2008-04-24T23:23:00.008+10:00

The Stumpy goes hydraulic! 24th April 2008.
Bit the bullet & lashed out on XT dual control hydraulic brake/gear combo set up to replace the cable V-brakes & shifters on the Specialized Stumpjumper. A nice price from Cambira Bike Centre (http://www.cambriabike.com/ ) & good exchange rate sweetened the deal. Already had a set of disk wheels left over from the Anthem (which now has Shimano XT disk wheels). Rushed the fitting the night before Dirt Crits so the gear changing wasn’t ideal & I swapping the brake hoses over between the levers( I like the moto set up - rear brake left, front brake right - but from the US they weren’t that way) might have got a small amount of air in the lines giving a slightly spongy feel which needed bleeding – which I didn’t do.
Still, the commute into work in the morning was OK so it was looking good for the evening's crit.
The race itself was a so so – dead last from the off, I missed shift left me way way behind with work ahead of me. But, buoyed by last weeks 7th place I got to it & strung together some tidy lines. While I was doing this I noticed gear shifting wasn’t the best with delayed upshifts & some ghost shifting in the rough stuff. Regardless I soldiered on & actually made a few passes. I tried to keep my gear changes to a minimum & found a handful of gears that worked well, although there were a few occuations that crunching the gears lost me some pace & spooked me into holding a too low or high gear in places instead of changing which effected my pace. All this resulted in a 10th in a B grade field of 13.
Closer inspection after the ride home from Westgate revealed some very worn cassette cogs & sideways kinks in the drivechain. Well that looks a whole drivetrain how ever you look at it: Chainwheels, cassette & chain.

BMC100 – Wombat State forrest April 20th 2008.
http://www.maxadventure.com.au/bmcclassic/TheCourse.htm
Tried, legs feel like they’re 100yrs old, but feeling happy about how it all went.
I originally headed off wearing bib-nicks, jersey, arm warmers, MTB gloves, helmet, sunnies & vest. Had my hydration pack with straight water (as a drink mix in the hydration pack stinks up the bladder for future use) with bars/goos/lollies & 1x biddon with a Staminade drink mix. Had 2x tubes, tyre levers, [instant] patch kit & multi-tool in a saddle bag on the bike.
Clear but very cold morning dawned as a field of about 900 starters set off from 7am in clusters a few minutes apart. Using transponders strapped to your ankle it really didn’t matter when you actually started, as the clock began as soon as you rolled over the startline. Rolling out in a group with Paulie, we settled into just cruisy ride to enjoy the trails & make it home in good time. With about 40 guys rolling out in our bunch the first part of singletrack wasn’t really that crowded. As we sorted ourselves out it was catching slower riders from the previous group that began a kongo line through the singeltrack. We weren’t in a hurry & only made passes when the opportunity came up, calling out "passing on your left/right" but we still kept a good pace.
The water/rest-stations, about 5 throughout the day, was stocked with water, energy drinks , watermelon, bananas & lollies. I stopped at each one & went to town on the fruit which left me not touching the bars/goos/lollies I took with me from the start.
Just before the 2nd water stoop, Paul copped a flat, but he told me to roll on. I stopped at the next water stop & waited for 15mins but he hadn’t come in, so I continued on.
Within the next lot of singletrack there were some ramps & bridges which were kinda spooky, on one bridge I remember was only a foot wide over a pretty deep gully (no railing at all), I rolled into it at a funny angle with a bit of speed & nearly didn’t clear it, rolling off to the side right at it's end.

There was a fair bit of open gravel road connecting the various bits of singletrack, at the time I thought that it was alittle too much open going , but in hindsight the breaks rolling along these roads were appreciated between the singletrack sections.
By about the 2nd hour into it, I removed my arm warmers & vest & crammed it all into my jersey pockets (no room in the pack). Even though I had my bike computer I didn’t have my ‘distance traveled’ showing because there were times early in the event, at some pinch climbs & technical sections that me knowing I still had more than 50kms to go might work against me. I just left my average speed displayed & tried to keep that at 16kms/hr where I could.
At the 68km rest point just after a switchback pinch climb of the 'Wombat MTB trail loop' (used the granny gear extensively but didn’t walk it) there was a section of singletrack in the ‘pines’ which I knew about from the previous week's State XC round I did so I was saving myself for the choppy sections there & tried to make the most of it, but it all caught up with me as I exited the pines & followed the route on some open gravel roads back where I kinda hit the wall & had to pull over for some jelly-snakes, Gu & whatever was left of the Staminade in my biddon.

Just after that the route looped back to the previous rest stop & knew I only had 8kms to go so I didn't hang around,just filled the biddon & shot off. There was still some singletrack & at this stage I was feeling pretty weak & just stayed in the saddle & spun a high cadence in a low gear to get me through this bit as efficently as I could. I was getting dozey too, missing great lines in the singletrack & losing momentum, just plain riding sloppy really. But luckily up ahead & just behind me were other riders all in exactly the same situation as me, so we all just silently got on with the last few kms.
The finish was back onto the main access road to the Convention centre where the start/finish was, but then we were directed to ride around a lake they had there which looped right around to the back – so close but yet so far. Across the finish line and a little girl gives me a beer in a stubbie holder. Time to find a piece of grass & polish this beer off.
Offical time: 7hrs 16mins. (Riding time was 6hrs 15mins, but this does not include the time spent at the rest stops during the event). 245th place overall (600 finishers approx, 92nd place in Vetrans (30yrs-39yrs).
No major stacks or mechanicals & I got a great opportunity to enjoy the trails instead of riding along with a head full of red mist & race fury.

Smashing it.

2008-04-17T22:06:00.003+10:00

Westgate weekly Dirt Crits.
Persistence pays off. Out of the blue I find myself mid pack in B grade on the first lap. It’s cool & dark, we’re all jamming away wheel on wheel, nowhere to pass. Up ahead the field slows & we all bunch up, then it spreads out as we open out onto some open two-track, for some reason I’m making a pass on guys who would normal leave me for dead. The Giant Anthem beneath me is set to pro-pedal, plush on the big hits but still solid when I’m out of the saddle grinding that too tall a gear. Through on the first lap I look behind me and see a trail of spot-lights from the other riders, it looks crowded back there but I’ve got a break on them & the rider just ahead is making good progress & slowly slips out from my view. I keep my head down & jam away at the pedals, stay off the brakes in the corners. It’s loose in places but there are tuffs of grass & firm ground in places to help me rail some corners.
Riding out on my own like this can be a blessing because you ride your own pace, but that double-edge sword of getting dosy & loosing pace can bring the field back down on you. I was also stressing about how I usually fade on the tailend of these crit races so I tried to keep the heavy breathing going, spin & hold onto that momentum, sometimes taking wider lines & smashing through the rough stuff at speed – grounding the pedals in places. Had to keep on it, had to smash it.
7th in B grade, in a grade of 22 approx riders.
Worth bottling.

Sunday 13th April, State XC series, Wombat dam.
Entered this event on a whim, Sport A 4 laps of a 6kms course. This event actually took in some trails in the pines near Wombat Dam which I’ve never ridden. Got the chance for a slight lap & was mightily impressed with the singletrack they were using. The race itself was less enthralling. I rolled out with a group of riders who were in a different league, and about half way around I was well & truly dropped, circulated on my own.
Suffered a stomach bug the week before – dropping 3kgs in 4 days - & I had not ridden a bike for all of that week, so what felt good on the sight lap quickly degenerated into a suffer-fest. Only completed 3 laps before the fun ran out and thought that was enough. Next time, better prepared & Sport B.

Great Ocean & Otway Classic ride.

2008-03-16T11:48:00.005+11:00

Organised road ride, 145kms, Torquay> Moriac > Deans Marsh > Lorne > Angelsea > Torquay.
Early kick off from Torquay @ 7:30am, Paulie, BC & I rolled out for our first go at this ride. Main draw card for us was that it took in the Great Ocean Rd & part of the Otways, on roads we normally would not ride because of the traffic, but in an organized event like this, the weight of numbers & signage gave us more precedence.
30degree with light winds, we weren’t sure what to expect, except for a 10km climb @ the 83km mark up from Deans Marsh through the Otways, so we took it easy, leaving something in the bank for that.
The first few hours rolling through the countryside to Moriac was almost picture postcard perfect riding. Even though they did stagger the start, the usual bunching occured, riders traveling 4 abreast & large packs meant that you found yourself braking for no apparent reason, so you needed you wits about you. Between Moraic & Deans Marsh is all sorted itself out & we rolled along from one little bunch to another.
The rest stop at Dean Marsh wasn’t too well catered for, almost running out of water while we were there. The climb out of Deans Marsh was pretty hard going, being gradual for the whole of the 10kms, but there were parts where it flatted out to spin-out the legs or go up a few cogs to take a breather. I did spend some time in the lowest 36/ 25 that my Campy Centur groupset, although I rode the whole climb in the saddle, just working on keeping the cadence up, which was easier on my aging legs. Stopped at the top to regroup & then we flung ourselves down the other side all the way to Lorne. BC & Paulie both broke away from me on the corners of the decent, but I put it down to their extra 20kgs they had over me.
We regrouped at the Lorne rest stop. The ride out to Angelsea along the Great Ocean Road was great, the car traffic wasn’t the problem that I thought it would be, but there were a few climbs I didn’t count on, like just going out of Angelsea & Fairhaven.
Again we separated at the climbs, but as we rolling across the finish we were only a couple of minutes apart.
I rate this ride better than the Bay Ride, & would highly recommend this one for anyone thinking of taking up 100kms bike rides.
Along the way I came across another rider on a Wilier who said: "5 wiliers!, only the fifth one I've seen!"
(Pic taken @ Lorne rest stop, BC left, me right, Paulie's Avanti Giro bottom).
http://www.supersprint.com.au/Default.aspx?Menu=442&Content=3065&Template=16

FGP dirt crits.

2008-03-14T12:50:00.006+11:00

37degrees, dry & it was a handicap ‘pairs’ event (where the fastest rider is matched with the slowest, then the next fastest with the next slowest etc). I’m not the biggest fan of these because it turns out I end up doing less laps (riding) & the starts are usually later because of the extra organisation etc. Total laps is 5 , usually the fastest rider does the 3 leaving the 2 for the slower of the team, I did 2x laps.
Mass start, my fella was out first to punch out his 3x laps (a top 10 placing B grader). The track has been developing a lot of loose sandy corners & straights with all this dry summer racing . My Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail runs RockShox SID Team forks with 80mm travel, this set up seems to result in a lower overall front-end ride height compared to my Giant Anthem that runs Fox FL100 (100mm travel) forks. This in turn tightens up the steering (rake?) & some of the tighter corners with loose sandy berms the Stumpjumper tends to want to tuck-in. It’s great on hardpacked technical corners, it feels real sharp, but it sometimes catches me out on the loose stuff. Holding the ‘bars tight & showing it who’s boss seems to help the tuck-in thing.
As Dan came ‘round on his 3rd to hand over, we had to switch the race number between the bikes which was lots of fumbling. I just stuffed it under my jersey & elected to flash it as I rode past the start/finish. Out on the course it was great to ride straight-up without the argy bargy of your usual dirt crit start. These handicap races can be good at the end as you near the final lap the riders start to bunch up again, catching the slower riders & faster guns coming up on your wheel.
In the end, not sure how we placed but for me it was a good run.
Seems that there was a motorbike out on course, tearing up some of the trail during the tail end of the race, Snozza & some others took chase, Snoz copped a rock intentionally thrown by the m’cycle rider & this bloke also played ‘chicken’ with another MTBer who was in pursuit. Got away in the end though.
Ride home: jumped on the ‘bus’ for the tow into Docklands.

MTB ride, Wombat MTB loop.

2008-03-13T11:06:00.001+11:00

Entered the BMC 100kms on 20th April, so I figured it’ll be a good idea to get some kms doing some of the trails to be used for the event. I printed up a copy of the route sheet – showing all 100kms of the BMC trails. Rolled up with Paulie & Stu near the Wombat MTB loop on the Monday Labour day holiday. I once did a Fat Tyre Flyers XC event there a year ago & this MTB loop off Fingerpost Rd is used for a number of MTB events throughout the year. Not my fav course but it has all you need to encounter to prep for any XC event. A hot day we started out @ 9:30am to in a lap or 2 of the 20kms course before heading home. It’s got a real nice flow to it, but I always seem to have problems with the log roll overs, illustrated by Paulie doing an over-the-‘bars on a pretty innocent looking example. Stu was firing as he usually does & we left him to punch out an extra 2x laps or so while Paul & I circulated at our, more tentative pace.
We ended up with 2x laps which was about 40kms of singletrack.
http://www.maxadventure.com.au/bmcclassic/default.htm

Chain breaker. FGP weekly dirt crits.

2008-03-08T12:56:00.005+11:00

A good solid mid pack start in B grade, then a dodgy gear change on the first lap crunched a link in the chain. The furore that is crit racing in the early stages, I had no idea & labored through some pretty 2nd hand gear changes & dismissed the incessant chain jumping & crunching as dirt in the cassette that’ll eventually clear out. Start of the 2nd lap I couldn’t hold the large chainwheel & the amount of ghost shifting happening out on the cassette had me free spinning more than drive. After the penny dropped as well as the rest of the field, I coasted to a stop to suss it out.

Yep, one of the plates on a chain link has totally given out , holding on by the remnants of the distorted link. I coasted back to the start/finish & waiting for the race to finish before I fished around for a chain breaker off someone to drop the stuffed link & run a SRAM tool-less link.
Jumped onto the ‘Bus’ for the ride home, there were about 15 of us headed towards the city from Westgate. At the Waterfront @ Docklands an area was fenced off for a launch event for the new Mini Clubman, but as we rolled along the water’s edge along the ‘boards’ we pretty much rode straight through it all in a pack, which was kinda funny & irresponsible ,but hey, it’s a public space…..

Saturday 8th March, wife & I rode out to Healesville on the Hornet for breaky with the family. Noticed a tappety noise on a stone cold engine & also a little bit under load below 3500rpm, might need to do the clearances. After doing the clearances on the Ducati Desmo system, everything else seems almost pedestrian. Might Goggle it & see how straight forward it is. Only difference between me & a shop mechanic doing it is that the mechanic has the tools & the ‘feel’ which comes from experience. Well, it’s never too late to pick up something new, we’ll see how I go

Mad cow disease.

2008-03-03T21:42:00.002+11:00

Hit with a stomach lurgy after Bushy Park crit which I put down to the cow patties, I rode the porcelain bus for 4 days. Missed Westgate crits, cut short farewelling a MTB mate who’s off Stateside & dented my hopes to catch the World Superbikes @ Phillip Island that Sunday. Without Foxtel I got a mate to record the WSBK round which I haven’t watched yet.
Sunday, feeling better after a massive sleep-in I noticed a classic car show @ Flemington Racecourse which I caught that afternoon & it was a pearler. 1964 Merc 230SL, very nice & almost in budget too, maybe when there’s room for more toys.

Commuted in on the Langy, legs felt almost refreshed after the layoff.

Bushy Park Dirt Crits.

2008-02-29T17:15:00.003+11:00

On Wednesday (27/02/08) I had the day off work, so I figured I could fit in a ride over the other side of the city at the Bushy Park Dirt Crits @ Croydon.
http://www.knobbysports.org/
I expected a similar set up to the FGP Westgate dirt crits , but I understood that this week was a ‘championship final’ round where there may be a problem for a newbie like me, so I dropped an email to the organizer & it came back with an all clear.
I fronted with the Specialized Stumpjumper in place of the Anthem as I wanted to spend more training kms on the hardtail & leave the Anthem dually for the big races. Besides I wasn’t expecting a too heavy going as the races seem to go for 30mins & the hardtail is great for those short fast events like this.

Held in an open field with cow patties to boot, it wasn’t a very technical track. Most of the course was fast hardpacked dirt surface that criss-crossed the field between what trees there are there & various obstacles. I signed up, well paid my $6 & strapped the number they gave me to the front of the bike, then set off for a sighting lap with maybe the only other person I knew there Tim R. The layout of the course started at the top of the hill & wound it’s way to the bottom of the paddock then climbed straight up to the top of the paddock along a fence line. Most of all the climbing was done on this last bit. There was a little drop off near the start/finish off a dam wall which was fun, but I only cleared it once racing on the first lap.
That evening there were 2x races, first one, which I was in was the kids & over 40’s, 30mins plus a lap. The following race was everyone else - 16 to 39yr olds.
It true Oz MTB fashion the off was a casual send off which conveyed nothing of the tension some riders in the field were feeling. I slotted into a nice spot 4th along & everyone was really behaving themselves, no elbowing or rough stuff. Through the course of the first couple of laps I settled into the groove & found the corners fun, grippy surface, lots of time to set yourself up & great visibility out of them, so I was all out of the saddle & elbows out, true 4cross form. Although I did find the climb a problem & got caught there a few times.
Mindful of the other racers, the regulars that, for them, this race was going towards some end of season points tally so I didn’t want to foul, or slow them up. There were really only 2x riders that came up to pass me & I swung off the track & coasted to let them by.
Was having a ball & smiling for the camera (a MTB race-face sneer actually).
6 laps later I passed through the start-finish to the sounds of a cow bell, suppose that’s one lap to go then.
It wasn’t a very big finish I was pretty pooped by the end. It was cool that they had pizza there, but after watching the 2nd race & having a bit of hawaian I couldn’t hang around too long because it was getting real cold & with only my sweat soaked Goombah jersey to keep me warm I racked the Stumpy onto the car & headed for home. Finished 7th in over 40s, even though I’m technically not really….

http://dcb-photo.com/images/Bushy%20Park%2027-2-08/DSC_9476.JPG

Hard Day At the Office MTB XC & crits

2008-02-22T17:03:00.005+11:00

After the anticipation, comes the event itself. The Hard Day At The Office, 8 hour MTB XC event @ Eildon was looking to shape up to be a hot dusty one if last years swealter-fest was anything to go by. A short 7kms course in/around Eildon sounds too-easy but with virtually no flats, just climbs & descents it was a slog & a half. Entered in mens’ pairs both Paulie & I approached the kick off with much caution, him for coming out arse up at a MTB ride @ Toolangi 2 weeks before with a sore back & busted helmet, & me with my “just don’t feel like turning the pedals in anger today” headspace.
I had major performance anxiety issues with the climbs, bailing on the 2x biggies & walking up every lap. Sure, as with any self respecting racer I tried to make up time on the descents but boy did they chop out through the day & made slamming down them feel like you were on the edge of breaking the bike in two.
As the day rolled on, we both sat out a lap – think it was mine – were I chose to sit down & eat my pasta. Still that last laps I did @ 3:30 was a fun one & I came across all racer-boy like with my elbows out & constantly out of the saddle ready for anything, past a few people too.
Apart from that the other Goombah Vipers entries that day were in mens pairs, Bonar/Stu & Dave/Huw who rocked the lap sheet with top 6 placing in a field of 27. We managed a 20th, but lets not dwell on yesterday, when there's always tomorrow.

Dirt cirts the following Thursday evening (21/02/08) saw some long overdue improvement for this little black duck. Even though it was a 14th place, it was a race full of place changing & balls to the wall MTB crit racing just like the good ole days in C grade. I was astride the Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail as the Anthem was still in last-lap trim from the HDATO weekend. I flipped the stem on the Stumpjumper to bring the ride posie lower at the ‘bars to place more weight over the front, seems to work, placed me more in a ‘attack mode’. Also ran my tyres pressures @ 35psi. The introduction of some bunted track through loose dirt was not a crowd pleaser, but it did make things intresting - I made a real neat pass there on one lap. I faded again through the 2nd half of the race but my consitancy is building.

This coming weekend is the Otway Odyssey – 100km MTB point-to-point event starting @ Apollo Bay to Forrest in the Otways. I haven’t entered, but I was looking at riding up there on the Hornet for the town's main street start & catch up with a few blokes I know riding it. Saturday night is a cocktail benefit for Motor Neuron @ St Kilda & Sunday it’s the Sydney Rd festival where we’ve got a friend on a belly dance show we had looking at catching up on.

HDATO build up

2008-02-16T21:21:00.002+11:00

A bit excited here, first of the biggies – Hard Day At the Office, MTB XC Event @ Eildon. The day before, stocking up on supplies, you’ld think it’ll be a bounty of natures’ goodness, but venturing into the goodie hamper you’ll find BBQ shapes, jelly babies & Coca Cola amongst the bananas, Saminaide & diced fruit. It’s a 2 man entry this time around, 8hours, hot 30 degrees+ & dusty bitch climbs. Fun.

Last Thursday’s dirt crit (14th Feb) was a good run, mixing it in amoungst the bottom third of the B grade field. Got spooked by a suddenly loss of power in the legs on the 2nd lap, but then seeing the next fellow up ahead spending some time in his own living hell I got up on the rivet & punched out another two laps that defied my recent form.
Kudos.

Motorcycle – Hornet 900. Oil change.

2008-02-09T16:13:00.000+11:00

Oil change @ 4200kms. Very straightforward, just like a car. The spin-on oil filter to the front of the engine behind the exhaust extractors was done up too tight to remove without a tool, which I didn’t have. So I just replaced the oil with Shell synthetic fortified 10w/40. I’ll do the oil filter with the next oil change in next 6 months/5000kms. Air filter was clean. Which reminds me I haven’t removed the vacuum hose which closes an aperture at a higher rpm for [noise] emission standards, but robs a little power – must fix that.
Lubed the chain. I propped the rear wheel off the ground by placing a car stand under the right footpeg mount with the bike still on it’s sidestand (I don’t have a centrestand) & then holding the ‘bars I leant the bike over to it’s right (keeping the front brake on) & using a free foot slid the 2nd car stand under the left footpeg mount & then returned the bike back from leaning to the right to vertical– rear wheel now full suspended off the ground. (the Hornet weighs 220kms with fuel).
The chain was tightened a little bit, this can be awkward as the swingarm with the rear wheel unloaded has it’s chainline shorter than loaded (while riding). So with a little guesswork to leave the right amount of chain slack – about 5cm slack either way.

Great working on a near new bike, all the bolts 100%, no 'surprises' & al lthe other bit & pieces like coolant & other fluids & spot on.

FGP Westgate weekly Dirt Crits.

2008-02-02T11:04:00.000+11:00

Oh dear. It might be best not to go into too many details. Last in B grade by a considerable margin. No power in the legs, no technique in the bends & no motivation to chase. Sometimes staying at home is the best option. 2nd lap I was considering pulling out due to abject uselessness, but C grade wasn’t bearing down on me ( they start 30secs after B grade) & I could see some tail enders in B slowing up on that last lap which held me out there for the duration.
Always next week.

Westgate FGP weekly dirt crits.

2008-01-25T20:23:00.000+11:00

Felt like a better ride in the 4 laps of B grade than last week but the results don’t really reflect it. Sure it was good to circulate & feel like I was putting in some good work into those pedals, it didn’t feel like I was just out there getting dirty & tired for nothing.
With a pretty flat, short 3km loop & 50 odd riders out circulating, the dirt crit format doesn’t leave much time to worry about bike squeaks & tiredness you might be feel, it’s just head down & punch out those laps.

Getting a good momentum & staying off those brakes is the business, with the tight laps you get the opportunity to nail the corners & really jump onto that love-train of rhythm & groove.
Still fading badly but, the legs aren’t there in the end, or more correctly after the 2nd lap which isn’t that much - just 6kms & about 20 minutes of balls-out MTB jiving. Looks like extending my daily commutes from 10kms to 25kms isn’t the nice, neat little answer to MTB stardom I was fooling myself it would be.
Got to get the kays up, got to get some cross training - running maybe? Got to get some form & direction with meaningful goals and, well…. it starting to sound like a lot like hard work.
There’s always tomorrow….pizza sounds nice.

http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/dirtcrits.html

Product review - Thule Euroway bike carrier.

2008-01-19T19:32:00.000+11:00

Tow bar mounted, it’s a pretty heavy thing & kinda awkward to fit. But I like the way the bikes sit on their wheels & it can tilt to access the boot (wagon tailgate as well) with the bikes still on there.
Some assembly required & it’s not the cheapest bike carrier going.
Yet to trial it , to & from an event so I’ll make a mention when I do.

Training – Road ride.

2008-01-19T19:15:00.000+11:00

Beach Road – Port Melourne to Mordialloc, & return.
Just a quiet roll out with a couple of the fellas, a relatively late meet-up of 7:30am @ Kerford Rd from our various abodes. About 80kms return approx. Light shower in the morning & a humid day left the roads mostly wet. We sat on an average of about 30kms/hr & hooked up with bunches along the way, as you do along this stretch, what with the popularity with Melbourne cyclists on weekend mornings.
Finished off with a light breaky & then ride back home for 2nd breaky.

Oh, and it seems that I wasn’t last after all at last Thursday’s Dirt crits, after reviewing the results.

FGP Weekly evening Dirt Crits, Westgate Park.

2008-01-17T21:51:00.000+11:00

A result of last place in B grade usually comes with it’s share of excuses, & this time I had a few.
Starting with a rear flat tyre a couple of minutes before the off in B grade, I opted to use an instant patch instead of removing the whole tube which would have involved taking the rear wheel off the bike etc. Reflecting on my recent lack of training I rolled off the rear of B grade as we circulated clockwise around the Westgate Dirt Crit course in the usual traffic of the first lap.

Recent dry weather left a few of the corners in soft drifts of loose sand/dirt, leaving the front tyre to plough through & sometimes wide when traveling with less than full gusto.

As we filed through for the 2nd lap I was feeling that tiredness in the legs. On the 3rd lap, as the field spaced out I used the clear track ahead of me to up the rhythm & run the corners faster, keeping off the brakes. In the worst of the loose sandy corners out the back of the course a sharp banked left that turned back on itself followed by a equally tight right was my undoing as the front pushed out so I crank some more speed into it only to have the front fold on me & I speared off into the dirt. It was an awkward head first dump that left me breathless & disoriented, which allowed the few reaming B grade riders through. Covered in dirt from the tumble I carried on to tick off the remaining 2 laps (4 laps of a 3.5kms course for B grade).

The last lap I came across a little green snake crossing the a tight bit of singletrack which left me taking to the grassy verge to miss it, leaving me bogged down in thigh high grass searching for a way out in a totally too higher a gear. Back onto the track I noticed my front tyre was slowly going down so I got on with it & rode it to the finish. Problem is, these 2.0 MTB tyres get all floppy when they go flat & I had an interesting time navigating some pretty flat & open two-track to the finish on my front rim with a flopping dead tyre.
And that was that.

The ride home was interesting though, hooking up on the tail of about 20 other MTBers heading back into the city from the event it was fun to get the tow & ride in the group of fat tyre flyers.

Solo motorcycle ride.

2008-01-16T23:15:00.000+11:00

Melbourne, Whittlesea, Yea, Eildon, Jasmison, Mt Buller & return. 400kms approx.
My first opportunity for decent blat on the Hornet 900 since I first bought it 2nd hand in April 07.I wanted to get some ‘getting to know you’ time on some familiar roads, which is best done on my own.

Even though I did replace the mufflers with Madaz ‘cans’ & replaced the handlebars for Renthal ‘low rise’ road ‘bars, I wanted to sort myself out on the Hornet. I actually went for the Hornet 900 over more full-on bikes like the Aprilia Tuono & the KTM Superduke because I knew that I would be spending less time doing track & ‘fast’ rides out & more A to B sort of stuff. The Honda 900 was a far more flexible bike for that sort of thing. Also being a naked, sitting on ‘demerit point’ speeds (over 110kms/hr) wasn’t the most comfortable experience what with the wind blast. Still , I must admit, this detuned 900 Fireblade engine still knows how to pick up it’s skirt for overtaking, going from 80kms/hr to 160kms/hr in a few seconds with a simple roll-on in top gear (gotta watch that).

Best day for a ride, took the freeways out of Melbourne out north to Whittlesea. From there it was north/east through Kinglake West, Flowerdale & Yea. This road is gold for anyone who’s new to motorcycles & looking for a pretty straightforward, but interesting country run. Nice open flowing corners around here, good road surface & low traffic. You can top it off with a loop back through Strath Creek & back to Flowerdale which has some wide open corners which see some pretty big numbers on your dials.

I continued on east out of Yea along the Goulburn Valley h’way, it’s good to keep the speed in check here as there have been camera cars seen lurking about. Into Molesworth I hook a right into a small side road which takes you alongside some farmland. Just at the start of this road there is a very deceptive left hand corner as you chest a rise, that comes up on you tighter then you think. Your bike goes light up over on this corner & it has an off camber that just brings you over to the wrong side of the road – or worse. But after this it is a great balls-to-the-wall run with open sweeping corners. Just as long as there aren’t any ‘Stock crossing’ .

Into Alexandra I juice up as I couldn’t remember if I could make Mt Buller with what I had left after clocking 150kms (my reserve lights up @ about 250kms). From here it’s the back way into Eildon through Fraser Park & then Jamison. The road long Fraser park skirts the high rim of Lake Eildon with some massive views, but it’s also the sight of one of my fews offs where I lowsided the Ducati 748 on gravel strewn across the road. The road surface here is OK, but they used light colour hotmix that is difficult to distinguish if there is actually loose dirt or gravel on the road – take it easy the first time, open her up on return I would recommend.

The road south of Lake Eildon through the National park is sealed for about 70% of it, with a bit in the middle of graded gravel. It’s usually pretty good along here, the surface is OK & there are a lot of corners to keep you honest. Although there is no centerline-marking which leaves things open to the imagination for oncoming campers. This time round this road was littered with leaves & small branches as if no one had been down here in a month, which really bought the speed down. Top it off the gravel section was real dry & loose, which had my knees clamped to the sides of the tank & my elbows out, tense as a hen is a foxhole. The front felt real skitterish on this sort of loose gravel, it was a relief to roll onto the bitumen at the Jamison end.

The road through Howqua & Piries was a ball, then a right turn towards Mt Buller.
I always look forward to riding the road up Mt Buller. As soon at the road markings turn from white to yellow & the road pegs go to orange it engrosses you to push on, corner after corner. Steadily it builds to tighter corners & greater gradients, it’s almost like a video game that gradually gets harder as you through the ‘stages’.
You do have to pick the time of year to best enjoy this road, too late into autumn or too soon after winter & its covered in damp rubbish & dirt. January is the best time, summer the best season.
Coming up to the top at the Village, I ride up through onto the little dirt road to leads right up to the carpark near the summit. It’s a great place to chill right up top near the Fire wardens watch-post. 360degree views are worth bottling.
Ride back was through Mansfield, Yea, Strath Creek & then the Hume H’way home.

I found the Hornet had a real easy to get along with, bouncy sort of ride. I don’t think I ever felt out of control, it just swallowed the harshness that would otherwise be there on a more narrowly focused sportsbike. Although I didn’t have ‘more’ confidence on gravel than a sportsbike. Up Buller & back through Strath Creek when I was really laying into the corners, the front did want to push out & I flet like I was a million miles away from what the front tyre was doing. I might lower the forks in the triple clamps a couple of mm’s & try that again. I don’t want to firm up the forks – preload or heavier oil – just yet. Might be too drastic.
Power was spot on, nice fat midrange, roll-on overtaking from 110kms/hr in top gear was a 2 second affair. Down low it was very manageable, even on the loose gravel roads.

Bikely route : http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Motorcycle-solo

Product review: Sony Ericsson MMR-60 FM Music transmitter.

2008-01-06T19:41:00.000+11:00

I just gotta say something about this.
Just coughed up for a new mobile phone with MP3, radio & ‘good’ digi camera/video – Sony Ericsson W810i.
The phone is great, but this accessory:

Sony Ericsson MMR-60 FM Music transmitter K750i/W810i

What it does is transmit what you may be playing in the mobile’s MP3 palyer on a FM frequency (of your choice between 88mhz & 108mhz) which you can then simply tune into with the car (or other) radio, wirelessly. Seemed like a good accessory to have which can be easily adapted to any vehicle fitted with a FM radio.
But it didn’t live up to my expectations, which is that the sound quality would be the same as any of the FM radio stations. It isn’t.

Even though I have followed the instructions of setting my phone on ‘Normal’ on the equalizer & the volume to 80%, the sound quality as it comes out of the car radio sounds almost mono & pretty muffled. You can’t really enjoy the richness in the sound qualities of your MP3s as there isn’t any when played. Sure you can hear something, but that hollow, tinny sound of a ‘70’s stereo comes flooding out.
2 thumbs down.

Better option is to fit a MP3 compatible car radio or one fitted with a USB/phones jack where you can connect the phone directly to the car’s audio.

July – December 2007. A summary

2007-12-29T12:35:00.000+11:00

A year of 2 halves, from February & June it was basically recovering from my stack @ the Westgate dirt crits & subsequent hospital stay & recovery.

The second half was the long road seeing out a time before regaining my form. Competing in various ‘major’ MTB events during this time, my major problem was not developing my form & fitness throughout the year. Some compounding issues @ work & the loss of motivation while I waited out my recovery saw me rolling through a lot of these MTB events without any progress in my results. This was highlighted in the various Thursday evening dirt crits @ Westagate ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/dirtcrits.html ) that saw me bringing home the rear end of B grade throughout this year.
But there were highlights & a few firsts for my MTBing this year; running a solid consistant race in the big one for 2007, the Kona 24 hour @ Forrest in threesomes ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/24hour.html ). Making the drive up to Happy valley north of Myrtleford for the Gravity 12 hour MTB event ( http://www.gravitysport.com/chaingang/12hour.html ), which had a magnificent course. As well as competing in the FGP 12 Hour @ Werribee ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/12hour.html ) & various ‘Chase the Sun’ events at Lysterfield (http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/cts.html).

On the equipment side of things, it was a big year for me in 2007.
Early on I picked up a 2nd hand Specialized Langster (http://shop.devercycles.co.uk/images/prod_2035.jpg ) in May for the commute to/from work. The only real mod I did was to go from the standard freewheel 48/16 to a larger rear freewheel 46/18. This made any of the climbs encounted on the commute doable (with a 5kg+ backpack) in any conditions, but left me spinning abit out on the flats & tailwinds. The standard tyres (Specialized Mondo 700x23) didn’t last long, copping quite a few punctures in the first real batch of wet weather riding I encounted, so I opted for Michelin Pro Race from Torpedo 7 (http://www.torpedo7.com.au/) .

Motorcycles: I bit the bullet & sold the Ducati 748 (http://marx.garage.tripod.com/ ) in January because of a bad spat of funny offs & close calls I was having. The 748 was well sorted for me but I felt like I wanted to be in a different ‘place’ with m’cycles at that time, so I put in on the market. I would have kept it, if I had the space to keep it under covers, letting the rego lapse, until another time for me in the future when I could dust it off & relive the ‘World Superbike Champ’ I was in the past on those stellar rides days @ Phillip Island & Winton racetracks.
I picked up a Honda Hornet 900, from the Trading Post. It’s a low milage 2nd hand bike in immaculate condition. The truth be known I haven’t put more that 300kms on it between April & December 2007. I went for the Hornet as it was the best comprise for an all rounder & I have a thing for ‘modern’ retro-nakeds like my previous Kawasaki Zephyr 750. The Hornet, was a similar sort of thing but with more power & has a great option to spec up (using Honda CBR 600/900 parts) if the desire came over me.

October 2007, I picked up a 2nd hand Giant Anthem XC MTB. This was solely based on my experience during the FGP 12 Hour MTB event earlier in September 2007, where the rough rocky going was really bashing me around on my hardtail – Specialized Stumpjumper (2003). I saw during that event that riders on dual suspension XC bikes, like the Giant Anthem had such an easier time of it than I had. This Anthem I bought was the quickest & cheapest trade into the world of dual suspension XC bikes for me @ that time. Using it in the 2007 Kona 24 hour @ Forrest really brought home for me the advantages the dual suspension XC bike can offer when the body gets weary & the mind can get dozy.

2007-06-24T18:16:00.000+10:00

FTF MTB XC Wandong. Me & Paulie made the scoot up. Even though we’ve been riding for ages neither of us has actually completed a FTF XC event before (Paulie out @ Ballarat 06 with a collarbone & me @ officer 06 with mech & mud) so we signed up Sport B 2 laps just to make sure we would get this one behind us.

Cold & damp in the early morning but after the 2nd lap the trail was getting really nicely bedding in with good lines & tacky(er) mud. A couple of pinch climbs which I fuffed when I couldn’t get onto granny at the base of 2, still no real shame in hot shoeing it. One climb at the last third of the course I couldn’t ride up at all, even though the experts etc looked like they were riding up it at a different gradient than I was walking it up in. I took a real bad line into the deepest of two-track puddles which left me with unpleasant icy damp toes for 2nd lap.

Even though I may have led the charge in sport B off the start I was to bring it home from behind at the end. It was a good course that I reckon would have been more fun another extra lap around as it improved through the day.

Still coming back from my ambulance ride in Feb I was constantly on the brakes, to the point that I was losing a lot of precious momentum in key areas. But every muddy, bumpy, dusty km under my wheels is an extra km further along the trail from that.

I’m not sure if I need to wash my bike, the drivetrain & chain is OK, some mud built up around the front derailleur, but I reckon if I let it dry & flick off the lumpy stuff tomorrow it should be OK, the mud wasn’t sloppy & its thrown up on the bike in chucks. Sometimes washing a bike after each ride may not be the best thing for it [methinx].

26 Jan 2007. MTB group ride Yarra Flats. (BV).

2007-01-28T12:57:00.000+11:00

I tagged along to a social MTB ride around the Yarra Flats organized through Bicycle Vic (http://www.bv.com.au/forums/ ). Meet was @ 7am at the Fairfield Boathouse (Melways 30 J12), I convinced Paulie to come on his Giant Trance as well. So we drove up to the meeting point in Paulie car, my Specialized on my rack & Paul’s Trance inside the Hyundai.
I haven’t ridden with this group b4 so I wasn’t sure what to expect. One on them races – competitively – as apart from blokes like myself who race ‘less competitively’, & I had no idea about the others.
There were about 9 starters at the car park, one of the riders was Johnny from Thursday night dirt crits, it seemed a mixed bunch but as we headed off the pace overall was OK with me. Tim – the faster one from our group lead us out over the pipebridge & the looped under the bridge & followed a trail upstream. The pace was good, I was just behind him but I couldn’t effective bring in the 8 meters he had on me without putting in an disernable effort. I hadn’t ridden this part of the trail before, which I later realized why as we emerged under the Chandler Hway bridge that it was signed ‘no bicycles’. Very nice piece of track it was though, hugging the steep gully alongside the river with a sheer drop off on the left, rock wall on the right & parts of shale rock & & sharp pot holes in the middle to keep your eye busy.
At a short time for a regroup Tim headed us further upsteam, hugging the river on the singletrack on a trail I’ve ridden heaps of times before. It was dead-dry & hardpacked in places so it easy to get a good clip going backing into the sweeping corners like a motorcycle. From there we crossed the main Yarra trail (sealed) & rode the singletrack hugging the slope up to the freeway. From there we joined the main path to for a short climb until we dropped into the singletrack longside the Kew golf cource boundary fence. This singletrack weaved in & out of the bushes & trees which didn’t give you much space but genrally it was a steraight run down until it stopped, leaving up to hoist our bikes over the log fence onto the main path again.
From there it was up on the fenceline again, down the steep drop onto the main path & then after crossing the bridge over the river near the Eaglemont tennis club, Tim took us for a lap of the ‘Tuesday night’ Delux club dirt crits course. This was followed by the trails of the Yarra Flats area.
At Banksia St Tim, his wife & another Victor headed for home, as the rest of us continued to Bonds street.
One of the riders Steve had as GPS/data tracker thing on his bike that logged our progress, details of the ride are at: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/1963865

It was a good ride, the pace went well with everyone, although Victor came off a few times. I’ve been down these trails a few times on my own but having other there certainly add the extra dimension to it all. Made going for a short road ride the following morning seem like a real bore, almost.

6th January 2007, Amy's Ride non-competitive cycle road ride.

2007-01-10T17:56:00.000+11:00

Amy’s Ride.
http://www.amygillett.org.au/index.php/amy_s_ride_2007
Organized 120kms road ride from Geelong & the Bellerine peninsular.
Me & Paulie drove down to Geelong from Melbourne for the start at the Botanical gardens @ 8:30am. The Amy’s ride start was also the location of a round of the Bay Classic – a road criterium race series which visits various locations around the bay area.
The weather was forcsted to change from the near 40degree heat of the previous day to a thundery change .We were all hoping that it’s rolling in on the tail end of our ride, with a cloud layer during the ride to take the sun out & a cool southerly to push us home on the return leg. The course traveled clockwise taking in Geelong, St Leonard, Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove, Barwon heads & 13th Beach.
Brendan & Sully were still motoring to the event from Melb when we called them after we parked the car in Geelong near the start, so we let them know where we were & they parked nearby. Both Brendan & Sully had not turned a wheel since the ‘Bay ride’ in Oct ’06, with Robin (Sully’s) bike comp still displaying the 252kms trip distance of that event. As this ride wasn’t over 150kms none of us were taking it too seriously, just a leisurely roll around which is most likely why both Brendan & Sully didn’t get any riding in leading up to it. Paul & I had been riding to/from work, we did the 24hour MTB event at Redesdale in Dec ’06 so we ourselves weren’t too fussed about a 120km road ride.
Amy’s ride had stressed the aspect of abiding by the road rules, sticking to the ‘two rider abreast’ & highlighting the ‘courteously’ aspect of the ride. But as you would have it, even though the roll out at the 8:30am start split the all the riders into small groups let out about 30secs a time, the first 40kms had riders bunching & spreading right across the road in some places – 3-4 abreast & and everyone riding as if the road was ‘closed’ to all other traffic. This meant some cars did get caught up with riders during some climbs & a few beeps of the horn etc were heard.
Us four rode out together, me on my Crosslight (road bike), Paul on his Avanti Giro, Sully on his Merida ’something’ & Brendan riding his Gitane. We took an easy pace & spent a lot of time just gasbaggin. We came across a few other riders we knew along the way too.
The was a problem, even though it was easy going, the hot northerly was sapping all the fluids out of me & I was going through both biddons I was carrying in the first 30kms arriving at Portalington.
From Portalington to St Leonards the going was easy, we turned south for Point Lonsdale & then we began to feel the strong hot cross wind of the changing westerly. This run down the south coast spread us out & Me & Paulie dropped Brendan & Sully. From Point Lonsdale to Ocean Grove & Barwon heads we rode along the road across the coast, with sand drifts of the dunes & a real strong cross wind to deal with. This seemed hard going, I was taking swigs of the biddons every now & again but the buffeting crosswind would send me onto the shoulder of the road sometimes.
At Barwon heads, just after crossing the bridge Paul & I stopped to wait for Sully & Brendan. This gave us an opportunity to watch the traveling side show that these sort of cycling events draw. Recumbent, aero-bodied recumbents, tandems & a hot pink quad-dem with booming stereo.
As Brendan & Sully rolled in, we filled our biddons at a shop (buying to obligatory drink as a ‘thanks’) & set off. As we were rolling back towards the west at this point, the heat & strong westerly was taking it’s toll. There were more riders on the side of the road taking breaks or flat out under trees etc. At one point half way up a gentle climb one rider ahead of us actually dived off their bike while still riding, as we rolled by offering assistance he said he was suffering a leg cramp, and there wasn’t anything we could do.
The final part of the ride around the open roads near 13th beach & back towards Geelong had the wind pick up even more & it was just head down & pedal time. The riders had really spread out, me & Paulie were on our own how dropping Brendan & Sully a while back & we took turns leading into the wind.
with less than 25kms to go I ran out of water again ,but luckily enough there was a bloke on the side of the road with a hose near a dip & turn in the road across a creek, filling riders biddons & a spray on the head every now & again. We both pulled over & joined the end on a short queue out here in the middle of nowhere to fill up. While we were there a rider we know from Dirt Crits – Mik – rode by so we both hollered out to him, he returned a wave looking back but didn’t realize he was drifting off to the wrong side of the road around a blind right corner & wouldn’t you know it there came an oncoming car. No worried though as he corrected just before anything bad happened, but we both stood there feeling a little guilty in almost causing a cyclists to get hit by a car on the Amy ride no less. Oh dear.
Made it back OK, the hot wind which was still blowing made it hard but we did get rained on twice over that last 20kms . The start/finish area was gearing up for the criterion race @ 4:30pm., the racers were circulating the short 2kms loop course warming up. Brendan & Sully were still to finish but that was OK as with no riding leading up to this ride it wasn’t surprising that these hot & windy conditions would slow them up. Paulie & I filled up on free apples & muesli bars on offer so hanging around wasn’t a problem.
I picked up an Amy’s Ride jersey for the event. It’s a top made by Uno. Half way through the ride my nipples were sore from the fabric funny enough. Not that the top was unusually tight or anything.
Riding into such a hot headwind like we experienced this day would normally really do my head in & most likely would have had me considering pulling out. But watching all the riders around me suffering & cutting their pace down, especially at the tail end of the ride, put all my suffering in perspective & allowed me to concentrate on a considered, measured pace that brought me home in OK shape.

4th January 2007: MTB dirt crits Westgate Melbourne.

2007-01-10T17:41:00.000+11:00

Heat & windy do not make for much fun on a MTB. Working to 6pm with a 6:30pm start @ Dirt crits ,meant that I couldn’t really take an easy pace riding from the CBD to Westgate park. Coppin’ a hot hot head wind made for more fun-times down Lorimer Street too. I rolled in to sign up just as A grade rode off on their first lap. That gave me up to 9 mins to sign up, fix the race number to the bike, drop a few psi out of the tyres (pumped hard for the bitumen commute) & drop the backpack full of workgear to start.

As the A graders rolled through on their first lap us B graders lined up for our 4 lap (3km course) start. I didn’t get a chance for a sighting lap but Bonar & Al said there weren’t any new changes to the course apart from a dicky tight climb around a concrete structure on real loose , soft dust.

Leaving a good 4minute break from the departing A graders, us B graders were set off out across the open grass paddock to U-turn around a picnic bench & return to the start/finish where we would head off up the two-track course ‘proper’.
The C graders were then sent off a few minutes behind us for their 3 laps.
These dirt crit races are pretty short really, so the pace is always intence from the get-go. The first part of the course is open two-track so were all bunched together looking for that gap. The 90degree right hand turn over the disused rail line was kinda awkward first time round, being at the tail end of the field I dismounted & hopped over the rail line jumping back on rolling off the siding on the other side. Some riders came down so the field broke up into the sandy tight singletrack straight afterwards. It was pretty good going for the rest of the 1st lap, but the 2nd lap is when heat played a prt. I was struggling & I cut my pace right down out on the open going, riders got past me, I tried to take a easier gear & hold off abit waiting to get back some extra omph. By mid 3rd lap I was runing a taller gear in places & picking off riders ahead. I was still well down in B grade, maybe the last 3rd of the B grade field, back with all the other riders making a difficult job of it.
The new section next to the concrete bridge section near the start/finish had a tight right turn at the base & the very top, with a lot of loose dust right through it, but I found that going to a real low gear would be enough to clear spin through it, keeping low on the bike to stop the front coming up but also enough to load the rear tyre so it bites instead of spins. Luckily it was a real short section with a good opportunity to set up for it.
Roling over the finish I was glad to notch this one down, there were tiems early that I was really considering pulling out because of the heat, but it goes to show you that if you feel like DNFing, just hold out for a bit, maybe take it down a pace & you’ll get a 2nd wind soon enough.

Marx Garage

2006-10-23T20:43:00.000+10:00

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