Getting Dust On New Tyres

Well I finally got the new bike out for a roll this morning. It has been hanging on the wall for over 2 weeks now, waiting for it's new wheelset to arrive.

These arrived Monday and I set straight to making them operational for tubeless running. This involves running Stan's yellow rim tape around the rim, fitting a tubeless valve then adding some Stan's Sealant then crossing one's fingers that you can get the bead to seat. 

Happily, it went silky smooth for me!

The maiden voyage was to be the Regular Wednesday Morning Ride in Daisy Hill Forest. Today was meant to the the coldest morning of the year so far at 9C (48F). Brrr. Well it is Winter!

It actually didn't feel that cold. Perhaps it was the inner warmth from riding a new bike that kept me from feeling the chill today?

I managed to catch Dean0 mid-chew and Chris contemplating riding his fat tyres back up that steep hill.

After a few laughs and some fun trails the guys peeled of to go back to the real world (work) and I, being at a loose end, headed back for breakfast, but not before taking in some more sweet single track goodness.

Burning? Yep, burning up the trails!

The verdict? The Merida feels very stiff and light climbing but the handling took some getting used to as the front end is so low. A result of it's race geometry. A new brand of tyre had me taking it quite gingerly as well but by the time I hit the down on Wallum Froglet, I was used to the slightly sketchier feel of the Racing Ralphs.

Happy?

Hell Yeah!!

First Second Half Spin.....

Freshly back from Un Zed I had a text from Dean0 asking what I was doing. My answer, "going for a ride" was soon replied to with a "see you soon". Excellent!

My first ride this Financial Year and the first in just over a week. Last week was a total loss with massive days at work and me just trying to stay rested enough to cope with those long, demanding days after my weekend away, so no time for the usual gym spin sessions.

Getting out also gave me a chance to try out my new winter gloves. Winter gloves here in the sub tropics simply mean full fingers. My old full finger dirt bike gloves are showing signs of severe index digit wear (too much nose picking?!?) after about 7 years of service. Some sweet Pearl Izumis from Wellington fit the bill.

There is never an easy ride here in Cornubia but the climb up Wallum Froglet is certainly a pleasant way to warm up. Meeting Dean0 coming the other way we threw together a couple of laps of Cornubia and a few climbs of the hill.

Dean0 was smokin'.

All of that secret training he has been cramming in is certainly paying off.

Some seriously fun climbing(suprisingly, that is NOT an oxymoron) and chewing the fat ensued with more plans being laid for upcoming bike packing trips. Time to break out the maps and start planning the details.

IceBreaker comfort. Gotta love the Merino.....but not literally....!

How We Rolled

It has been four days now and I can still feel it in my legs.

Compressing the thousands of photos and hours of video into a mere seven minutes feels wrong but I am confident that these seven minutes capture the essence of our weekend.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.





I am trying the Youtube version here and have added the Vimeo version to the original post. I am on an iPad at the moment which is definitely favoring the Vimeo version, quality wise, but I have been told that on a PC the Youtube version is better. I used the Vimeo tutorial to set the best compression parameters as opposed to loading it "as is" to Youtube. Your thoughts on the best quality version would be appreciated.

Mountain Biking: What Is It?

I really have not had much to post about lately.

The building work here at home has taken up a lot of my spare time, work also makes it presence felt with a bit too much of this..

(yeah, I am sure they saw us too at 36 000' ???)

 ...and the weather simply has NOT been sympathetic toward MTBing since about November last year. However, we have just had three, yes count them, three glorious day of sunshine. I let the first two days go through to the keeper. Actually, I went for a road ride on day two but that doesn't really count! After these two trail drying days, for day three I organised a MTB and catch up ride at Gap Creek with Dean0.

The plan was to meet at his place in West End and ride up over Mt Cootha to Gap Creek. Sounds simple enough. I have wanted to ride over Mt Cootha for a while now and had considered doing it on my road bike as it is a sealed road but after almost not having a low enough gear on my MTB I have new found respect for all the roadies that ride this hill regularly.

We dropped of the sealed road into Kokoda, thinking that it would lead us nicely into the Gap Creek trails. Wrong! It was almost straight bloody down. I am comfortable enough with my sexuality to admit that a portion of this trail was walked down! It was a certain blood loss award for anyone that tried to ride it on our bikes and I haven't tasted gravel in about a year, so no need to start today!

The first bit of single track we hit was on the right just off Beilby Rd. I think it is called Cubberla Creek Trail, but I am not sure. It is a nice little sinewy length of flowy single track that is looking particularly green and lush at the moment. I had Dean0 riding behind me and was thinking that I need to keep the pace up so I do not hold him up too much. It is just the Kind,Understanding,Nice Type of guy I am.....Anyway, pushing fast..ish on a trail that I don't really know after not riding single track for literally months is only going to end one way. To have some honor I almost wish it had happened at a reasonable clip! Unfortunately I was almost stopped, negotiating a tight right bend around a tree with my weight too far forward.............




The end result was many laughs had by my riding "colleague" and no damage to myself, but some strange shifting from my Trek. On closer inspection we noticed that the derailuer hanger was a bit bent. While a slight inconvenience, it posed no major issue as I dug into my Camelbak for the hanger that I had carried around for the last three years, waiting for just such an occurrence. My impeccable upbringing stopped me from uttering what I was thinking as I fitted the hanger only to find that the thread on the end of it was different!! Who would have thought that the same model bike, just a different series (Trek Fuel EX 8 and 9) would have different derailuer hangers????????? Bugger!! On to plan "B" then. Just don't shift down to granny gear or the spokes will eat the derailuer.

And that is how we rolled on. The hills were a bit of a slog, but the downhill was just as much fun. We covered all of the Gap Creek trails that were open and then headed back to West End for brunch.

On the ride back toward food, chatting with Dean0, it hit me what I have been missing this year. It has been the regular rides with the guys that are fun to be around. It is the social aspect that I have been missing. There have been almost no "Regular Wednesday Morning Daisy Hill Rides" due to the rain turning the Daisy Hill trails to slop. I thought I was missing the riding and was wondering why it has been so hard to get up in the early mornings and do a solo ride. The answer was suddenly so obvious! While I love the riding in the bush for all of the enjoyment and de-stressing that it brings, I also enjoy the banter, jokes, tech talk and laughter (especially crash induced) immensely and have missed it these last four months or so.

So, at the risk of offending the rain gods and returning to seven years of drought, I sincerely wish this rain would P#$$ off for a while so that the southside regulars can catch up for a few weeks and do what we really enjoy doing....living the Mountain Biking Life.