There must have been some swell

The whole dune has been undercut - pretty awesome

Redhead – Swansea and back. A quick swim mid way. Great morning

 

 

Happiness is a sandy drivetrain

Since this afternoon was the first day it hasn’t rained in a week, it seemed the perfect opportunity to take the moonlander for a pedal along the beach since every trail in the Hunter Valley is better suited for a canoe than a bicycle at the moment.

I was curious to see how the tractor tyres would go on harder sand than the diabolically soft stuff I rode on Stockton a week ago. With all the rain and an impending low tide, the beach was never going to be firmer than now. What a revelation. I’m sure I could have ridden my regular bike along most of the beach but the occasional soft patches were overcome with ease and the whole ride was practically effortless.

I headed from Mereweather baths south across the rock shelf to Burwood beach. I rode all the way through to Leggy point (and got my feet pretty wet crossing several newly formed creek mouths). From there, I persisted by stumblerf*cking around the head land to Dudley beach where I rode as far as I could around the next headland before calling it a day. From there, I bypassed a repeat stumblerf*ck by riding the road out of dudley and re-joining the beach via fire road through Glenrock.

It has left me wondering how on earth I am going to keep a geared drive line running on any long multi day beach rides. It was already starting to rust after a couple of hours in the salty environment so a couple of weeks is going to be a colossal challenge. Perhaps the key will be a pressurised degreaser and copious amounts of lube. Use the degreaser to blow all the sand and grit from the driveline and re-lube every couple of hours when needed. I suspect some experimenting is going to be needed.

I got a little wet crossing the lagoon entrance

Beach gives way to rocks. Still rideable with a bit of dabbing though

Little rocks give way to big rocks. No choice but to shoulder the bike from here

Big rocks give way to scrabbling through greenery.

Rock shelves are fun to ride across.

Mad Skidz

Lay the BFL over any further than this and you start riding on the sidewall. There aint no grip on them there sidewalls.

Some of the lumps and bumps to pay around on. I spent quite a bit of time sessioning a rock shelf like this one trying to find unusual lines.

Epic?

Since Sunday i’ve been grappling with the concept of whether a 30 km ride can be epic. Normally i’d say no, normally i’d say you have to be in triple figures before you even start thinking about throwing the phrase ‘epic’ around. Normally I’d say that you have to have ridden right off the edge of the map and returned against all odds to describe a ride as epic.

Yet when I go searching for an adjective to describe last Sunday’s ride, epic seems to be the most natural fit. Everything about that ride was bigger and better than any ride I have done for quite some time.

The heat: It was hot. Baking hot. There was a breeze but it was seemingly hotter than the direct sunlight. It didn’t matter how far I unzipped my jersey, there was no additional cooling to be had. It was so bad that we had stopped at a tap about 5 k’s into the ride to cool off under and fill bottles. I already knew that 3 litres in my camelback just wasn’t going to be enough.

The trail: I think it was mostly GNW although I’m not 100% clear on that one. Some of it was rideable, some of it was distinclty hike-a-bike, yet the shouldering of the bike always seemed to be met with some kind of immediate reward – brilliant flowing single track at the bottom, a swimming hole, waterfalls and all manner of views and experiences. This included the bushwhack from hell (there are photos in my last post from some of the more ‘open’ spots). I won’t even attempt to describe how insanely bad that bit of trail is except to say that it was the point the laughter stopped. I was chuckling away at the sheer absurdity of the trail but as time went by, the laughter stopped and the pushing continued. Just as I was mentally ready to vito this bit from the Big HuRT, we pop out onto single track and I start to think of it less as a terrible trail and more as an “experience”. It couldn’t have been more than 500m of pushing but it felt like forever and it was both soul crushing and rewarding in some kind of masochistic way. It is exactly what the HuRT is all about, gritting your teeth and getting through the crap bits because you know the payoff will be more than worth it.

After cooling off in a swimming hole with my mind fumbling that we had only ridden 9 k’s. I was soon faced with one of the best climbs I have ever done. It went on for several k’s and never got steeper than about 10% yet it was so lumpy and technical that you couldn’t lose focus for even a second or you’d be dabbing. It suits how I like to climb – being distracted from the actual climbing by all the obstacles trying to trip you up. I can’t wait to ride that bit again!

The finish: Arriving back at Ourimbah train station, I was amused at the sheer number of leeches crawling over everything I owned. They were on my handlebars, my backpack, my shoes and in my socks. Somehow, I was only bitten a couple of times but if you are bivvying along this bit of track – make sure it is zipped up tight otherwise your going to be someones dinner.

The Bike: This was only the second time I have had the moonlander on single track. There were rocks. There were lots and lots of rocks. I struggled at first. There isn’t really a way to finesse a moonlander through the chunky stuff. The rear end is so heavy that you can’t unweight the rear tyre and pop it around rocks, you just wind up hitting them anyway. I felt like a roadie closing their eyes and hoping in anything technical. It was awkward and the 10psi pressures weren’t helping things. With some practice and dropping the tyre pressure closer to 6psi, it got a whole lot easier. Soon I was riding all manner of chunky drops and climbs on auto pilot. It’s just a different style of riding that took a little practice.

On the flowing leafy corners, the moonlander was almost like surfing. Just carving from rail to rail and  floating off the top of bermed sections. I can’t describe the feeling except to say that it was different to any of my other bikes and a whole bag full of fun.

The moonlander certainly isn’t the most capable single track bike on the market, but it is probably the most  versatile all round bike. If I am heading off on a colossal ride into the depths of god knows where and speed is a secondary concern to enjoyment, the moonlander will be the go to bike. There are a few such trips floating around in the back of my mind that may eventuate sooner rather than later.

Note from the Mrs: If you are buying a new bike – perhaps telling her before buying it might be a good idea. Someone in this household is perilously close to the n+1=s-1 rule. (The perfect number of bikes is one more than you already own and one less than the trigger for your wife leaving you).

Pictures of fat biking off the beaten track

Here are some photos from Sundays ride. Words to follow shortly suffice to say it was amazing

er, le, 

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A big fat ride

I took the moonlander offroad for the first time today. It was decidedly entertaining and there was much bike swapping going on as everyone was keen to throw a leg over it. 

When the tyres fill up with mud, it is a like being in the centre of mortar fire when you hit a descent. The amount of crap they can throw at you is phenomenal. 

Compared to a normal 2.3 mountain bike tyre, this thing just devours sand. Stu and I hit a boggy soft sand section while descending at speed. Stu came to a complete hault and almost had to walk. I didn’t even slow down – I just bombed through it laughing my head off. 

The thumbshifters are interesting. I don’t know whether it is a setup problem, however whenever the wheels get in the air, the jolt on landing causes the thumbshifter to drop a few gears. I figured I had bumped the shifters the first few times it happened but it persisted and despite actively noting that my hands weren’t anywhere near the shifters, the problem continued. I will need to investigate and see if the amount of friction in shifter can be increased. 

There is nothing more hilarious than switching from the moonlander to a 26 inch dually. They are the twitchiest, squishiest most unroadworthy bikes in the world after the moonlander. 

10psi is a pretty good pressure to run for mixed road/ offroad riding. I put the track pump on them to add air after letting quite a bit out while beach riding and it didn’t even register on the pressure gauge and took quite a few strokes to get to 2 PSI. I was probably running no more than 2psi on the beach. 

The BFL’s have very little in the way of side knobs. If you are really leaning the bike into a corner, it isn’t long before things get interesting and two wheel drifts become de rigour. Carving big corners on long descents feels pretty natural but really laying the bike into tight corners is the BFL’s achiles heel. They really aren’t made for that style of riding. 

Riding a fat bike up hill on asphalt sucks. It just hurts. 

The redhead sand track was a breeze. The loose sand wasn’t even noticeable. The moonlander was in its element. 

I haven’t had it in chunky rocky terrain yet but I’m thinking it is going to require some finesse to ride. The ‘rebound’ on the big tyres is really quick so it is a bit like a pin ball when you hit chunky stuff. I’m guessing I’ll find out a lot more about this style of riding tomorrow when I hit up some central coast trails with B-rad. It will also be interesting to get a side by side comparison with a pugsley to see how much extra float the 100mm rims and BFL’s actually generate. 

 

 

 

The cartoon bike

I feel like a kid all over again. There are thousands of possibilites laid out before me that weren’t within reach when I got out of bed this morning. The number of places to ride and explore has just increased by an order of magnitude and the adventures that await are more numerous that I can imagine. B-rad has been talking up his fat bike for a long time and I confess that when he first got it, my initial reaction was “what the hell does he want that for?”. I just didn’t get it.

It really took watching MC and Co getting way, way, way off the beaten track in Alaska for me to finally get what fat bikes were all about. They aren’t about cutting a fast race lap. They aren’t about having the lightest bike with the trickest components in whole street. They are about having fun, feeling like a kid again and exploring areas that you’d never even thought about before.

I got to embark upon my maiden voyage on mine today. Through blind luck and some happy accidents, it appears that I probably have the first Surly Moonlander in Aus. Long before they are due to  be released and long before Chad (who has one on pre-order too), who has thrown every imaginable insult in my direction as a result.

I first sterilised the top tube (there are rumours of some tea bagging photos circulating in emails – if you have a copy of that photo, i don’t want it!), then I headed to the beach for a pedal to see just what it is capable of.

I have a million thoughts on this topic that I will address in a follow up post at some point, however, in the mean time – satisfy yourself with some pictures as I battled with a howling southerly change to try and get a camera to hold still for self portraits. Amusing stuff.

 

For Chad….

All hail the Gribbler

I did the Fling a couple of years ago. It was an absolute grovel from start to finish after backing up from the Scott 24. I hadn’t recovered and somewhere around the 30 k mark it became clear that I was a LONG way from home.

I pushed with everything I had and was stoked to beat the 6 hour mark by a couple of minutes. I was elated with that performance – it was my first 100 k race and I had no real idea what to expect.

Having been through all that, I can’t help but be truly inspired but the Gribbler’s ride yesterday. 4 hours 37 minutes is on another planet. I can’t fathom how quick he was moving to pull that off. Top effort mate, your flying at the moment. I can’t wait to get some legs on and start trying to hold your wheel. Whhhheeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Watagans

I managed a 3 hour ride today with AK and Timmy. We took an alternate climb up slippery rock road to get to the Boarding House Dam turnoff and link across to the pines. It was very very uppity. I was riding the single speed and there was quite a bit of walking involved while the other two made it look easy on their gearies. The first 200 odd meters of climbing is chunky then the trail flattens out and follows a countour for ages before climbing the last 50 meters to meet watagan forrest road. While it is fire road riding, the plateau section has grown over to almost single track again. It was a great addition to the loop rather than riding up Dead Mans on the asphalt.

I felt a little sympathy for the HuRTers as we then rode the Sawmill into rocklobster and Keith’s on the descent. I was blown by the end and started making lots of mistakes pinging off rocks and riding like a muppet. It didn’t stop it from being outstanding fun however. It would have to be my favourite loop in the Hunter and is so chunky that I started to have second thoughts about the rigid.

Now it is nap time on the lounge and a quiet evening

Millfield (?) downhill track

Oh God i’m unfit. I think I am officially the heaviest and slowest I have ever been. I am also riding like an 8 year old girl. The slightest technical feature sends  me into fits of hysteria and then I cry for mummy.

With that in mind, I decided to ride one of the biggest hills on one of the hottest days of spring and then try coming down a gnarly downhill track on a rigid bike. The results were predictable.

I was looking at a bit of trail that B-rad though might be a nice link in the Big HuRT. The downhill track brought carnage on the BFO so we were looking for something a little more gentle for fatigued people on loaded bikes to tackle.  There was a lot of suffering on the way up the fire road, there was certainly more walking than riding and there were a few rest breaks to try and get my heart rate below 700. On the way down I somehow avoided killing myself but not through lack of trying. This was classic fall line trail with huge rocks everywhere and a slippery covering of leaves meaning it was impossible to slow once you had any sort of momentum and it was merely dumb luck that I kept it upright most of the time.

I eventually found the link I was looking for and what do you know. It climbs all the way back to the top of the hill again. So I dutifully pushed all the way back to the top to try and figure out where it comes out… It turns out B-rad was actually nosing down the start of this trail on the BFO a couple of weeks back. After plottings its origin, I turned around and tried to ride back down it. It gets real ugly in places… probably just as ugly as the downhill track. It doesn’t have the 6 foot drops that the downhill track has, instead it as copious moto ruts – 5 or 6 different lines of moto ruts. They were so bad and steep and deep that the sensible thing to do is get off and walk/slide your way to the bottom.

I’ve never been sensible and it resulted in me getting totally out of control, choosing to lay the bike over rather than gather any more speed, narrowly missing the tree stump with my head and watching the bike cartwheel to the bottom of the hill. Lesson learnt.

I headed for home but I still had a little of the downhill track to ride. Of course, I rolled the front tyre right off the rim on yet another rock drop and so had to tube it (thank god i purchased one of those this morning) for the roll back to the car. All up, it was around 30 k’s of riding and about 800m of vertical.

Will it be in the Big HuRT? Probably, there doesn’t seem to be another way off that ridge but there is still plenty of exploring to do before we make any final calls. The single track that the rutted moto links to at the bottom is just beautiful so there is some pay back for being scared half to death on the way down.

The HuRT is over :(

What a freaking rad weekend! I was gutted that I couldn’t ride but geez blue dot stalking makes for a sensational spectator sport. I couldn’t be more inspired by the riders who took to the start. Brad and Matt raced had for 40 hours and it came down to the wire while there was a collective facebook breath hold to see who would get there first.

Kim and Craig were the real dark horses. They mused that they were out for a tour and yet they were sunning themselves at the beach early on the third day. It would be a site to behold if they actually decided to race.

Tomorrow I start riding again. I NEED to ride this route and I NEED to find some legs and loose some Kg’s before I give it a go. So excited, so relieved, so rewarding!