The best and worst of 2009

Well, all the newspaper columnists are writing them so I guess it is my turn to do a best & worst blog, although this time focusing on my own bike experiences for 2009. Interestingly, as I sit to write this, my mind goes completely blank – I am sure I am going to miss lots of interesting things but

Best of:

Race moment: Crossing the line only seconds ahead of a fired up Danbot at the Awaba GP. 4 hours in the saddle comes down to 4 seconds at the line.

Race achievement: Completing the scott 24 as a solo and qualifying for the world 24 solo champs as an age group competitor.

Off bike achievement: Completing the oxfam trail walker after a monster 33 hours straight of hiking.

Finish to a recreational ride: Finding a reformed acid tripping hippy with a ute who was willing to ferry us back to the car from the middle of no-where.

Post race beers – bumping into Craig and Graham after finishing the fling and debriefing over a beer in the afternoon sunshine.

Worst of:

Tactical race decisions: What the hell was I thinking when i saw Dan about 2 minutes behind me at hour 3 of a 4 hour race and decided you yell out to him? Has there ever been a larger and redder flag waved at a bull?

Race finishes: Port Maquarie 12 hour as a solo. My first race longer than an hour. I don’t remember a lot about the finish, although I do recall battling to hold back tears as I ‘confessed’ to the wifey that I had pulled the plug at 9.5 hours. Confessed? She didn’t care, but at the time, it felt like the end of the world – funny what lack of sleep will do to you.

Laps at awaba: 3 crashes in a single lap! Yep that is averaging 2.5 K’s per crash.

MTB Recreational rides: The wifey and I discovering we were lightyears from the car in the failing light in the middle of no-where.

Recreational road rides: The ride started at 6am. I had zero cold weather gear and the temp was a brisk 6 or 7 degrees. The ride started ok and i expected I would warm as i exerted myself but it just didn’t happen. Way out around the back of the lake somewhere, Dan got his first flat. At the bottom of a gully in the shade. I was shivering after a couple of minutes. This began the greatest run of flat tyres I have ever witnessed. Six flat tyres in under 40 k’s. After 3 tubes we ran out of spares and were relying on my dodgy old patch kit. Around flat #4, Dan used his enormous guns to crush my poor little telescopic pump like a tin can. After that, we were reliant upon Dans pump which was no bigger than a lipstick container. To finish off a very long trip around the lake, I suffered the mother of all bonks with about 20k’s to home and had to cling to Dan’s wheel for dear life as I wobbled my way home.

Race weather: 40 degree temps for the sydney fat tyre festival – ridiculous.

Races I missed: Gee the Vestal looked like a lot of fun. Next year for sure!

Well, that is all I can think of at this point in time. There are many, many great memories from this year – they just don’t fit the best/worst format. Here’s to many more for the 2010 season.

New trail name at awaba

How exciting, my very own section of trail named after me and I didn’t even have to make the sign. And it is a clever name aswell. Thanks guys!

Awaba to Killi and back – almost

Today didn’t quite end up the way I thought it would. I thought I might do a couple of k’s on the bike, perhaps a lap of awaba or two. In the end, I did do a lap of awaba… it was just a really big and really wide one. I even managed to rope in Danbot to join my enterprise.

You see, I started looking at prospective routes to link up some of my favourite single track areas on google earth. After about 3 minutes looking, I grabbed the phone and teed up Dan for a a ride. I even rummaged around the house and found a toppo map that covered about a third of the proposed route.

We started off on Mt Faulk road and straight into a very tough climb. Without knowing exactly from GPS data, the google maps data indicates it climbs 350m in 3.5kms. Around these parts, that is a pretty tough climb. I distracted myself from the burning legs by trying to take photos of myself on the bike with Dan in the background. Try as I may, my arms just weren’t long enough to manage it.

After 6 k’s of climbing through slippery mud and clay, we made our first turn off and we descended down to an amazing lookout that I never knew existed! Click for a larger version.

The view from the top

Shortly after the lookout, the map indicated the road turned into a leg of “the great north walk”. The great north hike a bike more like it! Completely un-rideable and difficult to even walk down, let alone man handle a bike through. I got a little brave and attempted to ride a section that was clearly un-rideable… the end result was inevitable – a hole in my nicks and skin missing off my leg.

who picked this route anyway?

Me trying to keep everything together.

When we re-mounted, the rest of the descent to the roadway was a screamer. My brakes were howling, my arms pumped from hanging on and my eyes as big as dinner plates as I hung on for grim death down the rutted and seemingly vertical trail. Dan estimated he had between 1.3 & 2.7% control down the hill but somehow we both kept it upright.

We rode through the town of Brunkerville, took a right and headed up Lieberts lane looking for a connecting fire trail called Brunkerville trail. From google maps, I knew it went right past the boundary of a house, and as we searched for the trail, it got confusing as every side road had a post box on it. We gambled that 48 looked like it might turn into a firetrail however we quickly found it was just a driveway that was jealously guarded by a BIG dog. Dan had to hussle to make it out in one piece!

It turned out that 52 was the right post box to turn at and thus began the second mother of a hillclimb for the day. I knew from looking at the topo lines on that road that it was going to be steep but I wasn’t quite prepared for what was to follow. The road would climb and then go over a small crest giving the false impression of the summit, then as you cleared it, you realized the next section was steeper again. This happened over and over again until I was in the granny ring and struggling for momentum and stalled…. IN THE GRANNY RING! So there were a few sections that had to be walked but we eventually dragged ourselves to the top of the hill.

Dan in the pain cave

By now, we were off the edge of my map. I was going by memory at the maze of interconnecting roads I had seen on google earth and knew the chances of me picking the right road were slim. So we chose the road that went downhill rather than uphill. Wrong choice. It was sign posted to Wakefield which we knew was in the ball park but after we descended for several kilometers (with my fork locked out – oops) we came to a locked gate and a dead end. Dan and I were now smoked and we hadn’t even done 25k’s yet. We evaluated whether we would climb back out and re-try for the correct path but Dan’s knee was suspect and I was running very low on fluids, so we pulled the pin and limped back to the car via the road.

Freeman’s waterhole milk bar was a god send. We devoured food and fluids and continued our slog back to the car. We took the back entrance into Awaba and were silly enough to attempt to ride the murderhorn. The uncompacted mud surface after 4 days of rain made it impossible although Dan made it about a meter further than I did.

Striking a pose outside our little oasis

Dan was now cramping like a cramp thing. He was completely leg locked but managed to hobble his way around all the way back to the car. He then reminded me he had ridden twice in the last 4 months and I suddenly felt a twinge of guilt about his re-initiation to the saddle. Then he mentioned he was starting to remember how much fun it can be to be in pain and I couldn’t agree more. It had hurt like hell yet it was still a good ride. Nearly 4 hours in total and about 50k’s all up. The hardest 50k’s I have done in a long time!

The most interesting thing about the whole day is the quality riding available in my backyard. There are thousands of kilometers of trails that I haven’t explored and no good reasons as to why I shouldn’t ride them all. Bring on the summer of exploration (and just a little bit of pain 🙂 ).

Our Route looked something like this. We nearly got to Killi but took a wrong turn somewhere near Albuquerque

Interesting new website

http://www.theberm.com.au/

Looks like a good source of news for all things Canberra and MTB. I will keep an eye on it as I am planning a Canberra run sometime in the next few weeks for no other reason than ‘because I can’!

Puddle bashing…

On the third day of rain, I couldn’t take it any more. All this time off and nothing to do but sit around and daydream waiting for the weather to clear, so taking a leaf from the UK cyclists handbook, I hardened the F.U and went riding regardless of the weather.

Riding Glenrock was immediately ruled out. It doesn’t handle the rain very well and cyclists are having enough concerns regarding trail access without clowns on bikes chopping it to pieces in wet weather. So initially I was planning on a simple loop of the fernleigh bike path and home. Around 20km and a sedate mornings ride, however I then remembered all the odd pieces of trail I had seen off to the side of the new fernleigh extension and a mornings exploring was planned.

Since I still have my old XTC complete with clapped our parts, it was the obvious choice to be the drive train donor in the clay soils.

There were quite a few fire trails of interest through the scattering of bushland with some extremely slippery climbs as the clay soil has now turned into some sort of frictionless scientific marvel. Since I am now fat, slow and out of shape courtesy of xmas festivities combined with the off season, I suffered quite a bit on these climbs and didn’t mind having to dab a few times to get to the top provided it gave me a rest.

I then rejoined the fernleigh near the former train-station and followed it to the end of the asphalt…. then kept going. The gravel road was great fun to tear along and smash through puddles, or bunny hop them, or manual them or generally be a child again.

I then linked it up with a sandy fire road from hell, a couple of back streets and popped out on the pacific hwy.. WTF? Anywho, a quick jaunt along the side of the road and I was back on the bike path and home again in no time. Probably 30k’s of riding – not much, but a good way to ease the legs back into riding again.

DIY tyre sealant update

A while ago i blogged about some DIY tyre sealant I was cooking up. It turns out that was nearly 4 months ago and I have been completely problem free up unto this point.

As a refresher, I have been running Mavic 819 rims (UST ready) with 2.25 Racing Ralphs in UST with a small amount of sealant (about 60 mls per end) to prevent leaks and increase puncture resistance.

I have put about 1000km’s onto this combo and haven’t had to perform any maintenance whatsoever.

Lately, the front tyre has developed a slow leak so that it will be flat when left overnight. There was no weep through so I guessed the sealant had probably gone off. I am still seeing weep through on the rear tyre so I know that sealant is still liquid, although I might top it up just to be on the safe side.

I dismounted the front tyre to see how things were looking in there – bone dry. Not really a surprise. There were obvious green balls of sealant all over the place which you can see in the pic, but there was also an almost invisible fine layer of latex coating the entirety of the inside of the tyre – the camera doesn’t really show it.

So i cleaned up the dreggs, added another 60 mls of sealant and re-inflated the tyre. Getting the Ralph to seat and inflate with nothing more than a track pump is a bit of an art form. The trick is to tilt and rotate the rims so that a swirl of sealant contacts the beads. This helps to prevent the air escaping while you go crazy with the pump. This proved quite successful and as soon as the full length of the bead was wet on both sides, it inflated quite easily.

Interestingly, the batch of sealant that I had made 4 months ago and stored in a milk bottle was still as fresh as the day it was made. I have noticed it tends to seperate into layers if you leave it standing – I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing? It goes back into suspension readily as soon as it is shaken however.

Now that I have a tyre with a known leak, it will be an actual test for the sealant. Before this, running UST tyres, it might not have been doing anything at all! The tyres should be airtight anyway so all it might have been doing is adding weight.

I will report back in a week or so when I see whether the leaking tyre is cured.

Dry DIY sealant

All the best for the season

Well, That is Xmas all done for another year. Given the number of bike purchased in our household this year, the wifey and i decided to forego the usual present giving. Although, a new roadie is on the cards for me fairly shortly (just as soon as I can track down a nice second hand frame).

I have eaten way too much and can’t even ride any of it off given the rainy weather.

I may or may not get some trail building done next tuesday depending upon how accessible the fire trails are via car. If I can get in there, expect more photos as usual…. and possibly a ride report as the Danbot has ideas on riding the new trail section.

Until then, all the best to you and your family for the holiday season!

Big wheel building blog

I’ve linked this blog before, but some of his videos and photography are amazing. If this video doesn’t get you psyched to try new stuff, you should probably check to see if you still have a pulse

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Taming the ‘Murderhorn’

A couple of hours work this morning and the Murderhorn is almost rideable.

It wasn’t what I had set out to do initially, but I had a quick rummage through the build materials at the trail head and found some treated pine sleepers I hadn’t noticed before. So I quickly changed plans for the morning and loaded up the car with wood – only to realize i had left all my tie down straps at home – DOH!

So a long slow drive saw me get to the top of S-bend road where I then had to carry all the wood in – thank god that is over and done with.

So the retaining wall now stretches 70% of the required distance (I didn’t bring along enough timber) and has been benched into a flat, easily rideable section about the width of a mattock handle. When i say easily rideable, what i mean is – there is no off camber gradient across the trail. It is still a punchy and steep climb that is going to be really brutal in a race.

Anyway, pictures or it didn’t happen….

Retaining wall in but no benching done yet

Full length shot pre benching

Post benching. It doesn’t quite reach all the way to the top yet

Post benching

I’m a lumberjack and that’s OK.

Removing stumps and trees was the main aim of today’s digging session. Fortunately (?), there were lots and lots and lots of them to keep us busy.

Danbot and I became intimately acquainted with our mattocks as we re-directed a section to increase the length of the ‘bowl’ ride and ploughed ahead down a ridgeline to almost reach the bridge site. There is some decision making to be done at this point about where the trail will go so we left it for the minute and continued removing stumps and roots all the way through to the re-connection with the main trail.

I hadn’t realized, but someone else has been hard at work finishing the return leg to frogmouth road. Massive effort whoever it was and thumbs up. So the return leg is almost entirely cut through. It needs lots of loving with rakes to clean it up, a couple of sections need benching, but almost all the back breaking work is done.  A single build day should see it finished off.

Speaking of which, book in the 10th of January as the first official club  build day of the year. Dallas, Wayne and Dean have set the date and with a good turnout, we can hopefully race this section for the first club round.

It looks like we also have a source of more blocks for finishing the chute and the plan is to get them out there before the new year.

Here are a few photos from today’s digging. I was too buggered to take many photos and the light was bad anyway.

Soon to be a log ride over the creek bed

The bridge will parallel the log with two lines available depending on how brave you are feeling

Looking up the ‘Murderhorn’. We will be riding up this once it is cut in a little better.

Another shot looking up the ‘Murderhorn’

Looking down the ‘Murderhorn’ with Danbot at the bottom for scale. Should be an interesting little climb at hour 10 of the next Vestral