Re-Igniting That Spark

For the last year or so I have found it pretty difficult to push myself hard on a bikecycle. I don't think I have entered more than a single race since this little race last June as the motivation simply has not been there. I guess if I am totally honest, I have been lounging on my laurels for a while and didn't feel a burning need to prove anything to myself.

This, however, is a bit of a self defeating outlook. People (well, me) need a challenge in life. This challenge recently presented itself as a MTB race down in Grafton, NSW. The G Bom 9 hour race is hosted by the Grafton Cycle Club and features a 6 hour race for the kids. The kids did this race last year and were extremely keen to have another go this year. This led to us Dads figuring that as we were taking the kids down to the race, we may as well have a pedal around to fill in our time. Highly motivated race desire right there!

My race prep started 4 days before the race when I retrieved my trusty, if neglected, single speed from it's hanging space in the roof of the shed. It needed a bleed of the brakes and a change in gearing before it was ready to race. I bled the brakes...........but the gearing wasn't too bad.......was it........?

One lap of Cornubia later and I pronounced the bike ready to race. I, on the other hand, was a wheezing ball of sweat.

 No problem I thought. Bom Bom forest is as flat as a shit carter's hat.

Training? Check!

Home off a red-eye flight, some sleep then throw the kids and bikes in the car. Drive 3.5 hours and set up tent in empty paddock. Pre-race prep? Check!

Luckily for us a large group of fellow RATS had made the trip down to race as well. These well organised souls were kind enough to make space under a RATS shelter for our motley crew. Much support equipment was lugged into said shelter then we were ready to rumble.

The forecast for the weekend was for a little rain but race morning started cool and a little overcast. Nothing too ominous though. The race start time was a very civilised 11am.

The kids were pumped.

11am came and went though with no sign of proceedings getting under way. Not to worry, as soon after we were marshalled down a fire road for the mass start. I was leading off for the Dads and young Angus was kicking it off for the kids.

Chatting to some other racers on the start line and I find I am chatting to a mate of Mick Eyb from Taree! (Mick was in the room next to me at "The Y" in Banff last year and raced the TD on a Single Speed) Soon enough we were off, powering up the fire road for a few kilometres to help spread the field. I was soon spun out on my 32-18 gearing and puffing like the wheezy fat kid with the half time oranges. But I was having fun! The lap went quite quickly with several riders being passed while the red mist had descended. A quick change over with Chris and I settled down with the kids for a 30 minute break.

 Gus soon handed over to Lucy for her first lap. It would prove to be the fastest of the day......out of all of us!

 All too soon I was out again for a fun, traffic free lap. Coming back in I spied William waiting for his turn. He was looking psyched!

A 9 Hour race sounds like a long time but the reality is that swapping laps with a team mate makes the time absolutely fly by. Before we knew it we were heading toward the 5 hour mark. Then the  gentlest of rain began to fall. Just enough to cool us down.

The rain continued to fall lightly. My next lap was interesting as the trail had altered completely. The grippy line was now the slippy line and the loose stuff was where the grip was. Interesting.

Around now the second of the 2 Race Track format was opened up, meaning we headed off on a completely unsighted track. The rain was starting to tip down now and the largely clay soil was beginning to really stick to the bike. I was glad I was running single speed because the people with gears were starting to have all sorts of problems.

After a lap that seemed it was never going to end I popped out onto the finish straight, heading to transition. People lining the track were telling me that the race was cancelled and this would be it. What? Yeah, sure it was shitty riding in this muck but isn't that what mountain bike racing is about? I don't like not finishing something I start so I was actually a bit pissed off to have the race stopped. Even when my chain came off about 50m from the line! Yeah, it was muddy!

Lucy was out on the night lap (2nd track) as well and I must admit I was a bit worried for her safety after all the dramas I had witnessed with other geared riders on that track. I need not have worried though as she came through about 15 minutes later to finish her team's race. I sensed she was a bit miffed that the race was called as well. Sometimes I fear she is too much like me!

Anyway, we all had a good weekend. The tracks in Bom Bom State Forest are flat and pedally, but they are still fun. To cap things off, the kids came in 2nd in the Under 15 Team of 4 category.

Unfortunately Lauren was still in the shower and missed the podium

The Dad's also fared well, placing 2nd in the Mens Team of 2 category. Not bad for two old blokes on single speeds!

The light soon faded and many pizzas were eaten, much chocolate milk drunk and 4 tired kids didn't take too much convincing to go to bed. Come to think of it, the dads weren't exactly night owls either.

Thanks to Bom Bom Racing for putting the event on and to our fellow Rats for letting us muscle in under the shelter and be a part of the Rat Pack.

That was fun. Maybe a spark of interest has finally been reignited?

Cheers.

Island Hopping

With a few days off last week we headed across Moreton Bay to spend a bit of time on North Stradbroke Island. Having only visited once before in the ten or so years of living in Brisbane, I thought it might be time to take the kids over for a look.

The ferry ride is only a short 40 minutes from Cleveland to Dunwich. The kids explored pretty much every section of the ferry in that time.

The main activity for the weekend was to be sitting around doing pretty much nothing, with the odd walk down to the beach for a swim.

Teaching the kids how to cast a line was also one of the activities. I was surprised how quickly they picked this up with confident casts on the second attempt.

I also managed to bring a bike along for a bit of beach combing. It also happened that the BSMC social ride was to be on North Straddie as well, so I pedalled the 20km (13mi) across the island to meet the guys and girls as they came off the ferry.

I arrived with enough time to scoff a bacon and egg roll while sitting under a massive old Moreton Bay fig tree taking in the view.

The ferry was pretty much on time and we were quickly on the road to Amity Point.

We cruised along the beach at a good pace with a low tide and great tailwind.

The gearing on my single speed was a tad low for this section and I was spinning like crazy to keep up. Thats the good thing about a SS I guess. You get a great workout on the hills and the flat.

It was a great day for a ride and a very pleasant weekend in all.

Cheers.

The Regular Wednesday Morning Daisy Hill Ride

I have only been riding mountain bikes for about four years now, but it is interesting to see how the cycle (please excuse the pun) goes around. After lurking in the background on www.mtbdirt.com.au for about six months, I finally worked up the courage to meet with a seasoned group of mountain bikers that rode in Daisy Hill at 6am on Wednesday mornings.

I can still remember that first morning ride, a bit like a first date with a girl you really wanted to impress. There I was wheezing along behind the group, feeling way out of my league and making vague, unintelligent comments when I felt it appropriate, not necessarily when it was appropriate. Some may say not much has changed at all.......but the point I am getting around to making is that back then in 2007/8, there were a lot of keen individuals organising group rides, online, all over south east Queensland. These were a great way to meet other MTBers and find out where the good trails were. I am so glad I made the plunge, way out of my comfort zone, back then. I met some great blokes who became friends and learnt a lot about this sport.

For the next year or so these group rides seemed to dry up. Some organisers got bitten by the popularity of their rides. Unprepared riders turned up, then blamed these volunteer organisers when things went pear shaped for the newbie, which made these few key players withdraw from organising these rides. Some organisers were just attacked by "angry middle aged white men" as is wont to happen on forums across the interwebs, and they unfortunately took a step back as well.

I am therefore very pleased to see that a few hardy individuals are organising group rides again. These rides are being very well attended by experienced, well prepared riders that are having a great time out in the bush. The next ride, which I helped pre-ride, appears to be being organised with a large degree of common sense and thought for various contingencies. It will be a challenging ride for most of us punters and I hope the attendees see it for what it is, a tough little test of one's intestinal fortitude, overlaid with a big smear of self deprecating Aussie humour. All followed up with the "Pump Daddy" pump track challenge. Bring it on!

So, with this renewed enthusiasm for interweb organised dirty fun, it wasn't surprising to see a huge group out for the Regular Wednesday Morning Daisy Hill Ride last wednesday. Luckily I happened to have the GoPro along for the morning. Unfortunately I have been uber busy this last week to get around to editing it and posting the result up, but a few hours presented themselves and I grabbed them by the short and curlies. The result is.....not more "crotch cam"(I know you love it, no really, you do), but some "bottom bracket cam".

Karingal 4 Hour

Well, the good folk from Brisbane South Mountain Bike Club have put on another great mornings racing with the staging of their annual Karingal 4 Hour on Sunday.

The setup featured a new, spacious race base with plenty of room for setting up your tent, shelter or home away from home. Great prizes like Garmin 705s and new bikes were on offer thanks to major sponsor For The Riders. 

Another new feature this year was a dry track! No more mud and carnage as displayed last year. No sir, it was going to be fast and flowing so I thought I would take it down a notch by attacking the race on my trusty fully rigid single speed. Just to make sure I took the sting out of myself, I was saddled with the wrong gearing for this undulating little track. 32/18 is not the ratio for me to push here. FedEx wasn't going to have the 32/20 freewheel here in time and two teeth on the rear doesn't sound like much difference, but it is so much more forgiving on my pipe cleaner legs.

Undaunted, I lined up somewhere near the back so as not to hold anyone up when I blew up on the first hill! It was a very leisurely start with a 500 or so metre roll along the fire road to help sort everyone out before dropping into the singletrack. On said first hill, having only one speed, I could not entertain the speeds being showcased by my fellow back markers simply because my legs would not turn a 32/18 ratio that slowly on such a steep climb, so the only solution was to smash it! So I did for a while, then backed off for sustainability reasons. This was after all a 4 hour ride er....race. And that was how I paced myself for the day. A new toy helped with the pacing. As I completed each lap I pitted under our shelter, changed camera angles, grabbed a fresh water, a bite to eat and had a chat to Chris. All very civilized!

My goal was six laps and I must admit that on my third lap I was thinking to myself, as the morning warmed up, that there is no way I can double the number of laps in the time left. Just then, Shane, the eventual winner of Open mens, flew past me into a corner and gave me a little inspiration. Although there was no way I would be backing it in like he was! Really impressive to watch a seriously fast rider racing, if only briefly.

I continued to roll around, chat and generally enjoy myself for the remainder of the allotted time. In the end I pushed out six laps in about 4:20 with a moving time of 3:30. Obviously taking it pretty easy, but the legs were toast by the last lap.

Please bear with me a little as I attempt to figure out how to use the new camera. I promise I will change the mounting location in the future (unless I receive requests for more ;) ). In the mean time, I present...um... "scrote's-eye-view"! Look away if easily offended.



A huge thanks to all from BSMC that pitched in and helped out with the set up, running and of course the pack up after the event. Many club members choose not to race so as to provide everyone else with a great day out and I am selfishly in the riding group, so without mentioning names, this core group of volunteers always puts on a race day that equals professionally run mountain bike events. Take a bow ladies and gents. Top effort.

Karingal 4 Hour

Sunday morning dawned cloudy and cold. Well, cold for this time of the year here in Queensland. A quick look outside confirmed what I had been hoping against for several days now. Rain. Lots of it. Bugger. I continued to drag myself around the house, eating some breakfast and thinking that I did not really want to ride around in this weather for four hours. Bloody bugger. I couldn't not turn up either. Being a member of the club and knowing the massive amount of effort the other members had put into track preparation and setup, I HAD to go! "Oh well" I told myself. I am only in the social category today so I will just trundle around and have FUN. The bike that best suited these conditions was my Kona Unit single speed. The words Single Speed and Karingal 4 hour were not to be used in the same sentence as far as I was concerned, but the weather had tipped my hand and out of bicycle preservation I HAD to ride Stanley.

Getting the bike out of the car it proceeded to bucket down again. I still felt like I was moving in slow motion.  Not really wanting to do it. Once down in the start area the other guys from the wednesday morning ride crew were set up under a shelter kindly supplied by Chris. This was very civilized and proved to be the first bright point in the day. Hellos were exchanged and I had dawdled for so long that it was race time already. The rain held off for the pre race brief and all that I heard was that social riders were to start at the rear of the field. No problems. I can do that. So I did. I made sure I was absolutely dead last away. Climbing the first hill I couldn't help myself and passed about twenty riders. They must have been saving themselves for later.

Early on when you could make out the colour of my kit. This didn't last long.

I continued to cruise around chatting to Deano and Chris at varying points. It was very wet but the Maxxis Ignitor on the front wheel was gripping the drowned earth with aplomb and giving oodles of confidence. What wasn't giving quite as much confidence were the brakes. They were fading to nothing, being ground away by the mud. Luckily the BB7s are simple and easy to adjust which I did until the pads were no more.

At least I had some brakes. Chris had lost all rear brakes and had decided to call it quits as Karingal is a track that demands at least a rear brake in these conditions. So Dean0 and I continued to circulate and chat and generally laugh at this absurd situation. That was until I was climbing a steep pinch, standing and putting in the big ones when my chain gave up the ghost, went "ping" and I duly kneed the handlebars about as hard as I could!! Some choice words escaped my lips but luckily no one was around to hear. Shortly after this Dean0 turned up, laughed and commiserated me on "losing" in the Daisy Hill Wednesday Morning Crew bragging rights challenge. Oh well, I was in second place after Chris's retirement, Rich's locking his keys in his car and Dr Geoff and Coaster pulling the pin early that morning. I decided I was going to finish the lap and scootered the flat bits, coasted the downhills and pushed up the climbs. I messed with some other riders minds by pushing up behind them as they struggled to grind away up the hills. I had a chat with Outdoorgaz while he shot photos of the race for our club. Most of these shots here are courtesy of Gaz, so thanks again mate for putting up with the wet to document our stupidity!

The end result was a Nightmare on Elm St scenario for our respective washing machines........yet we were still smiling?

Stanley hates me, but I think he secretly had fun too despite throwing his chain. I gave him a spruce up today with a new front axle, front brake pads, bottom bracket and with a new rear wheel to build as well as new rear brake pads to install.Oh, and a chain! Most of these maintenance items were due anyway, apart from the brake pads.

Thanks to BSMC and For the Riders for a great day out and and awesome prize pack just for turning up!

Single Speeding Slick Singletrack is Soul Soothing

Introducing Stanley.

He is a very unassuming, low maintenance sort of single speed. His technical name is Kona Unit 2 and he is modded with some White Brothers Rock Solid carbon forks.

He and I are just getting acquainted. Last weekend for our very first ride we decided to get to know each other fairly intimately and take on the Eastern Escarpment. Great first ride on a single speed, as by the end of it you will know if it is meant to be or if you want to murder your steed with an angle grinder and blowtorch, then hide the remains in several neighbours wheelie bins! I am happy to report that Stanley and I survived our introductory ride with the seeds for a healthy mutual respect being sown.

Yesterday morning dawned with passing rain showers. Perfect Stanley weather!

We planned a quick scoot over to Daisy Hill and back before soccer duties. Trails were perfect here in Cornubia with a little rain to damp the dust down and dry trails in Daisy. It never ceases to amaze me how localised showers can be at times. On the way home via Stupidly Happy we sampled some Super Sweet Single track Serenity.

The rain was clearing, yet the belly of the cloud was still dragging itself over the Cornubia Escarpment letting through random shafts of golden sunlight to highlight the trail.

This is going to be an interesting relationship................

By the way, I survived the addition of another steed to the stable. It is poor Stanley who lost out and lives in the garden shed. N+1......