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Manly hot laps
I was just interested in peoples thoughts about the speed of Manly. I've been riding it for years and it feels to me lately that I guess because of the high traffic and slowly developing ruts and bumps underfoot( or underwheel that may well read!) that it actually runs a bit slower. It's certainly not a complaint - and it could well be because I am riding with a lighter more responsive bike or just that I'm 5 years older but I find when I'm doing a hot lap that the parts you crank up on I find the juddering seems to prohiibit me from getting to the speed that I used to. I could be dreaming - just wondered peoples thoughts?
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Is a proper OTB job if you get it wrong... Very badly rutted there.
It does seem to be the most evolving, changing, morphing trail out there. 4 years ago the trail seemed quite technical. Then 2.5 years ago the powers that be widened, flattened, smoothed some of the fire trails and single track. At that point many people thought the trail had been dumbed down (made too easy) and there where comments bantered around that it helped take at least a minute off the hot lap times.
Now, after probably 1000 rider laps per week, wear and tear, natural and unatural erosion, the track really has become "bumpy" again. Parts that were smooth are now "jittery" as you say - especially the bits leading down to the labs from the 19th hole.
I myself dont mind (130mm of F&R travel makes it all smooth...)
But back to your point - yes i think the loop may have gained a few seconds in time. But - the more you ride it, the better and eventually the fitter and faster you get. Im just happy we are still able to ride it.
I started riding the Dam 13 years ago. In those days it was a tight, narrow, technically difficult track with significant obstacles and very few sections where you could get into the middle ring - and there were *no* places you would try for the big ring, not even the downhill from Wakehurst Parkway. Back then a lap would take well over an hour, many people took 2 hours; it was a big ride.
I remember when Andrew's Gully was named - after a now prominent Balgowlah Real Estate Agent disappeared into it - now there's a wooden bridge where once you had to jump 2m across and 0.5m up to the far bank. How many of you remember heartbreak hill before it was graded - the two switchbacks, the smooth boulder climbs, the sand pit, the tree trunk across the track? Who remembers those two crossed trees with boulders just after golf course rock?
Since then the downhill and its continuation up to Allambie became a designated life saving fire road and it has been maintained several times into a wide straight smooth all weather road that no longer even requires 4WD to drive. And the rest of the track has been maintained, smoothed, widened, de-obstacled and "upgraded" in line with its "multi-use" classification.
That's when people started doing Hot Laps.
A few years ago 45 minutes was unimaginable. Now people are pushing 30 minutes. With the recent tree trimming the track is even wider and straighter and people are going faster still - some even with the 'flu.
So now we have to do 3 or 4 laps in order to still get a 2 hour ride - 4 times the traffic (not counting increased participation) and *of course* the track gets a couple of ruts in a few places.
O.K. so I'm an annoying old fart
But my point is donk, if you think the track is getting a wee bit rough and you can't go fast like you used to, then maybe it is you who is becoming the old fart. You need to train more and work on your technique and HTFU.
Embrace the ever changing tracks that we ride on , and hopefully they are never dumbed down. Its good to be kept on our toes (or pedals) . And i wish that all these "b" lines would never appear.Learn to ride 'em, or walk it till you can . Mountain biking is such a great sport isnt it ?
I've literally just got back from a lap (my bet ever in fact) and on the way around I was thinking to myself that it seems to be getting easier over the last 3-4 months. There are a few spots where you can duck around obstacles that you used to have to ride over (mostly in the single track heading to the top of the parkway) which cumulatively would shave 10-20 secs of a fast lap. Having said that there are also some areas that are definately a bit harder. I ended up concluding that it was most likely that it just seems smoother because you're riding smoother with a bit more experience under the belt.
Personally I like the fact that it's always changing. I would love to have seen it when it really was a goat track
Cambowambo like I mentioned in the first post it wasn't a complaint. Lighten up buddy. The dam is a great ride in any condition. I was just interested to see whether other people doing hot laps have noticed on the flatter parts whether it is slower , or as I said, just me. I'm also interested to see where the points are where you can pick up time - obviously the 19th hole if you take the left lilne. I would imagine smashing it up heartbreak could cut off seconds but if it means you are recovering over the top for too long you may lose even more. Just stuff like that - no complaints.
Some bits, like the climb up Heartbreak Hill, with a clear and well-defined hardpack line are definitely getting easier. Similarly the berms that have formed in places on the descent from Wakehurst Parkway.
But there are also more "gotcha" bits, like the very bottom of 19th Hole mentioned, and the washouts at the bottom of most of the other moderately tech descents like the Hydro Lab (if you're too slow coming off the boards), and the two on the Golf Course singletrack. The Allambie descent is also getting rougher and more interesting.
Overall I think it's gotten faster/easier over the last year, although some of that is perhaps improving fitness on my part.
I re-read my post and agree it could be seen as being a tad personal: not my intention.
1. My real objection is "Hot Laps" per se:
I think too many people concentrate on speed and beating their PB times, and then complain that the track is making life hard for them when in fact the track overall is getting faster and faster (although I call it "dumbed down").
Nowadays more and more riders are going faster and faster around Manly Dam - and it sounds like some are asking for the track to be faster (dumber) still - which eventually leads to a smooth straight surface where some people can go very fast indeed.
My feeling is if you want that then you should be road riding.
I love the technical riding more than any other - I loved Bantry Bay now closed, Oxford falls tecchy trails now closed, Garigal single track now closed. So Manly is a great ride but definitely less technical - sometimes in order to test yourself if the technical challenge isnt there you try something different. In this case a hot lap. Attempting a hot lap while there's traffic on the track wouldn't work anyway when you trying to shave seconds off - so I have the odd one on my Wednesday afternoon rides. I doubt I would put anyone in danger when doing these laps. As for road riding. Don't own a road bike. Don't want to.
...to what donkerr said.
My personal goal is to get my time down 'round the dam. I don't want it dumbed down so I can get a better time; I want to improve my performance! I'm guessing there's be more than a few who think as I do.
In fact, I'd be quite happy for them to lift the bitumen, re-route the track or at least put in some technical speed humps.
Last time i came out to my car on Wakehurst i saw a couple of riders cross the road and disappear into the undergrowth, are there more tracks across the road from the dam track???
but most of them are now illegal
I just thought there was a beat over there or something
There is a fire trial there - safer than riding along w /hurst. Although only marginally after I stood on a Brownie
There is a firetrail that runs back down to Bantry Bay road which a lot of people use who cycle to the Dam. You can go the other way up to the Oval too.
Hi, sorry, thats usually myself and mates that disappear to the Bantry Bay side. BUT - only to turn immediately right to ride the fire trail to Bantry Bay Rd. If you turn left the fire road goes for another km or so before it ends up at the Wakehurst Pkwy again. There is an optional track direct to the seaforth oval car park - technical in parts. Im pretty sure it's legal. But damn hard to ride in parts.
That's how I get to/from the dam. Makes for a nice warm-up riding over there from home.
If you cross and turn left it makes for a good min-loop when you link it with the golf course single track.
If I don't feel like 2 laps I'll often ride back down the fire trail on the western side to about where the possum crossing is, then zip along the parkway and back towards the bowling club to rejoin the circuit. I'm 99.9999999% sure if you stay within coo-ee of the parkway you're not in the National Park, and hence entirely legal on the western side.
Have to go along there with a GPS and a topo map sometime to find where the actual boundary is.