Blogs

Thanks to all for a great ride and the legs are feeling it tonight. Just remember that every bit of pain we feel now is a little less we have to feel on the Dirtworks. I kept myself that as I continuously watched Steve and others disappear out of sight. Cheers Lincoln

Couldn't make the Anderson's and Oaks ride so did the Dam instead in the afternoon. Awesome fun. Finally conquered all the steps after the golf course including the one after the boardwalk going uphill towards Wakehurst Parkway.

Absolutely loving the new bike. It just soaks up everything...but then again anything would be better than the 100mm of travel I had with those Rock Shock Darts!

Did 3 laps and felt good.

Someone (I think it was that Fat Cyclist dude) once wrote about how to explain the love of riding to your friends. He reasoned with them like this... imagine you have an incredible sports car... and imagine a breathtaking piece of road to drive it on... then imagine being able to drive that road flat out, as fast as you like without fear of hurting anyone else or being pulled over by the cops. I'm sure you get the metaphors... mountain biking is this rush!

Well, sadly this morning I had other things to attend to (yes, sorry, aside from the trail day which had to be binned), but this arvo got out on a ride in Royal National Park and had one of those moments. Well, actually, it was more like 6 minutes of pure bliss that encapsulates the above theory and more.

I can now officially say that the Thredbo DH course has a big tick beside it. Blackbettysdad and I ducked up their for a days riding yesterday.

So today was a training exercise for the Dirtworks 100Km race. Although it was a blast think it showed there's a lot of work to do. And while you can clock up 50Km plus rather easily around Terrey Hills/Cascades/etc. there's nothing much like a trip to GNR/Womerah to remind us what real hills are!

We rode part of the course from around the 70Km stage forward first, then looped about a bit to ride in reverse from 65Km-ish out and back-ish.

Well after a paticulary fun single track training ride last Friday night I got home and had decided to order the bike I'd been considering for the last couple of months, I started strong saying I have 4 bikes that's really enough, but as Gaz will agree, it can be hard to resist with the bike just slowly wearing you down, nagging to be brought, Anyhow it was starting to get like my unhealthy attraction for Dido (Definitely no L) so ordered it right then. Hope I like a 29er hardtail. Keen to here thoughts on 29ers.

Disaster 1:
Arriving with what I thought was plenty of time to spare, we parked at 8:20 with 10 minutes to get ready. What's this? Are there no riders here already? Looking around, Caro and I spot no familiar faces hanging around. Damn! There are the cars for people we know, but they are nowhere to be seen. A quick call by Caro to our lifesaver Nate, and it is that sinking feeling we are 20 minutes late. Double damn! The ride started at 8:00.

So, it's 4:23pm and I've been up since 6:30am, and all that has happened is:

- Have breakie, shower, dress, go for a ride.
- Come home, very quick snack.
- Strip & clean bike. It was filthy, even though it got a good soaking with clean water after the ride you could hardly tell.
- Rotate tires. Damn! These UST just won't reseal without a decent compressor if they aren't new... involved a trip to the servo.
- Shower & change again. Ahhh... human at last!

More for my own records than anything else I thought I'd keep a record of goings on on my commute. Not very interesting but from a few months back I've ridden in as often as possible, for about 17k each way on a 46-16 fixie. It struck me that it might be interesting (to nobody but me... ;-}) to keep a record of times, punctures, near misses etc, so here goes.

Up to today:

Many thanks to Alex for organising the day and the van for the shuttle.I never knew just how many bikes and grown men can be shoe horned into a van. The sun was shining and the track was dry and in good nick and I really like the course.I thoroughly enjoy downhill riding as a style and discipline and I find that I can apply skills learnt to regular trail riding.