Blogs

What with not being able to ride this weekend thought it was good chance to catch up on some bike maintenance.

The Yeti got it's first good clean in a long time yesterday. Just now it received new shifter cables - both inner and outer. Pretty nice Goodridge outers (in 'carbon') with plain old XT inners. I have to say... what a pain in the @ss it is to get the cable into an X0 shifter (rear only - luckily the front is easy peasy).

Another thing to note is that Yeti recommend routing the rear shifter over the BB non-drive side and then behind and across to below to the rear stay on the drive side. I didn't do that when building the bike and reckon it would be pretty much impossible with this Goodridge stuff given how stiff it is!

Anyhow, easy enough to route under the BB and this cable change was well overdue - looks like it's the first time since Yeti was born!

While packing up thought to check chain wear and... lucky... it's time for a new one. So a new CN-7701 is soaking in degreaser and will go on later. Yes, yes... that sticky stuff chains come in is very good grease, but I like to use wax lube on the MTB so it has to come off before fitting. Looks like the last time Yeti got a chain was in Jan '09. A long time, but according to my Garmin Connect stats only just over 700km ago. The Yeti is my 'fun' bike... looks like I haven't been having enough fun in the last 18 months[1]!

[1] Something to do with a cracked rib at Appin in January followed by too much riding on the road

P.S. Note to self. Yeti needs 168cm outer for the rear and around 50cm for the front.

Better late than never, I though I'd best add an entry for my first MTB event.

After being convinced to enter Capital Punishment in a rush of group testosterone at work it dawned on me that I'd never ridden a MTB in anger and that my rigid Giant Boulder commuter (hereafter known as The Shitter) might be out of its depth for this event. Fortunately my mate Deon offered to lend me his bike and he would ride his SS for the event.

Hard at night when you have rubbish lights.

Great race this weekend. Come on Gazza, the championship's yours to loose now.

Last Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to a bit of a shindig at the LBS (you know - Local Bike Shop).

Up until now my LBS was probably Cranks in North Sydney (Alfred St) which was a short trundle away. Now however, I'm lucky enough to have a branch of King of the Mountain Cyclery all of a few hundred metres from the front door. Excellent!

As this is their second store (the first being in Cremorne), it's known as KOM2. Very nice place it is too. Honest... the free beer and food has not clouded my judgement!

Anyhow - despite being frequented by a few too many <cough>road riders</cough> it was a nice little gathering to have a nosy at the place and talk... erm... shop?

Cunningly it turns out that the top two riders on the Manly Dam Hot Laps board both work for KOM now. I'll bet that makes for some interesting in-shop banter!

I wish you guys well, now to get some trails built on the oval the other block over and life will be complete

P.S. Some pictures of said store and stuff attached. The workshop was built in part by Gary Harwood - Carpenter Deluxe, very nice!

I wanted to get a big ride in before the Angry Doctor so I set out with Jon (loki) to do just that. This was a chance to test food, salt and water intake and fitness. This was going to be my biggest mountain bike training ride.

Nice stuff today. After a dull looking start the sun came out and things were looking great. We could have gone under 2 hours despite the tiredness of yesterday if it weren't for...

1. Logan crying about his legs

2. Buck and Tien both choosing the same line on the same fire trail. I mean, who crashes on a firetrail... at Terrey Hills!?

As I said on Trev's thread...

Top day for a ride and good to meet some new people. The pace wasn't as fast as I feared it might of been but gave me a good workout. (lucky for me I didn't scum it for 90 odd ks yesterday) Special thanks to Tien and Buck for a leg relaxing break while we waited for the ambo. Hope all is ok Tien. See you all next weekend?

Depending on the way you view them (love or hate?) it's always sad for a 'cult' of any kind of once trendy fashion - the day your average punter takes what was once an icon of cool and makes of mockery of it.

The cult of SS (single speed) that has been growing in popularity really crossed that line for me today.

perfect weather to spend a day in the awsome bush of coffs ,I was entered in over 50's 100 km had a great ride with only 1 small crash but didn't loose much time,the last 25 k's were tough with a fair bit of granny action but I made it to the finish happy with my result