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Two weeks after The Mont and back we go to another field full of tents for some more race fun. Here's how the 2007 Fling went for Rob...

Aside from not getting a decent nights sleep (due to roasting hot sleeping bag inside chilly tent - too hard to get the temperature 'just so') everything ran smoothly on Saturday and Sunday morning. Seemed to be timing things just right, from arriving, setting up and giving the bike a once over to rolling up at the start with 10 mins to go.

As some of you will know I was lucky enough to receive the gift of a Thompson Masterpiece seatpost recently.

Fitted it today - and very swish it is too. Am impressed with the adjustment (tilt especially) mechanism and overall looks a quality product.

The old one (a Ritchey Comp) had a tendency to slip sometimes despite cranking up the clamp silly-like. Am hoping the slight, 'ribbed for your pleasure', feeling of the Thompson will stop that.

The Masterpiece is also a whopping 110g lighter[1] than the Ritchey it replaces - niiiice!

Thanks all!

[1] As measured by myself - the claimed weights are 305g 'v' 193g.

I got my self a Norco Atomic and gave it a Proton energy Pill.

The result

Frame: Norco Atomic
Shock - Fox DHX 3 coil 500lb
Forks - Manitou Travis instrinsic Ti
Cranks - Saint 40t 175mm
Guide - Race Face Diabolus
Brakes - Avid juicy 7
Shifter - SRAM X9
Deraileur - SRAM X9
Seat - WTB Pure V 9probably change it for an old Tioga Nicho special
Post - Truvativ XR
Rims - Syncros DPS 32s
Hubs - Hadley DH
Bars - Syncros BULk
Stem - Manitou Travis DM
Pedals - Crank Bro Mallet
Tyres - Maxxis Minion 2.5 2ply with Maxxis DH tubes!
Weight - ? I don't really care

A few months back there were two teams from Nobmob going to the Mont. Greg was looking to make a third team and roped me in. I was a bit tentative as I have never done any form of MTB race and I was pretty new to the sport to be honest. I first got my bike around September 2006 from memory. Soon after I then broke my arm falling of my new bike so that put me out for the rest of 2006. So around came 2007 and I got back on the bike and was having great fun. However I never trained too much with perhaps a ride or two a week. This got worse in winter as I did not have lights for night riding.

Let's start by saying first off that the Mont experience was a blast, and I'm definitely up for another 24 hour race next year.

Why it's necessary to start that way is that my report isn't a glowing rave about the weekend, but that's only because a number of rather silly episodes meant the cherry topped icing was missing from my Mont cake. Still, a tasty cake it was, so let's quickly summarise then zap through the events of the weekend (from a rather Rob'd slant - see Mont 24 Hour Wrap for more angles).

Summary

So here's how NoBMoB-ish teams managed:

MONT-y Python, 34 laps, 32nd/68 in Open Six Male
NoBMoB Monties, 31 laps, 47th/68 in Open Six Male
Team UFO, 17 laps, 66th/68 in Open Six Male

NoBMoB, 36 laps, 11th/47 in Open Six Mixed
NobMob Soft Shocks, 27 laps, 42nd/47 in Open Six Mixed

Wow! Just now I have managed to replace the Crossmark UST tires on the Rush. Shockingly easily too! In fact, I'd go so far as to say changing the GF's (tubed) nobbies for slicks on the weekend was harder!

When I last rotated them just couldn't get a re-seal and had to resort to visiting local servo to use their compressor powered line.

This evening the new tires sealed like a dream with only a slight amount of over-exertion on the floor standing pump - top stuff. Perhaps the newness (I rotated front to/from rear last time) - which I'd left un-folded for a day or two beforehand helped?

Vid 1 6meg
Vid 2 16 meg

I went on my first night ride on Sunday night. After mucking about with the bits and pieces, and getting my bike all set up, I found this totally alien to the normal bike riding I am used to during the day. I only rode the out and back at Terrey Hills, as I wanted to keep the first ride simple. Some observations I made about night riding:

Hi, just thought I would introduce myself. Firstly my name is Mark and I started riding casully about two years ago in the last 10 months or so I have gone from the odd ride on my hardtail to riding every weekend on my dualie. Riding is just awesome, I look forward to catching up for a ride. Cheers Mark

Belrose Bicycles are now stocking Cannondale and have a fair few in already for those who live local