Now That All The Rain Has Gone

Just a day after we received about 150mm (6 inches) of rain, I thought I would head out and see how the trails had held up...........

Move along please.  Nothing to see here..........

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......

Wednesday morning wheeling

Well it is wednesday again and when I am not working that can only mean one thing.

Daisy Hill.

6am.

Bloody cold.

Be there.

Some weren't.

I was.

I met Jim(CFSM) just around the corner from home and we proceeded to wind our way through the Cornubia singletrack to keep speeds down and warmth up. It worked, as I was dripping with sweat by the time we got to the top of the escarpment.

In Daisy we met up with a somewhat smaller group of three others, no doubt in part due to the chilly weather (it is all relative.10 degrees celcius is cold in a sub tropical climate!) and in part the school holidays.

The decision was made to keep moving to stay warm. It seemed to work...

Stonehenge.

......until it began to rain. Just lightly, but the gathering darkness was not a good sign as I had about 10 kilometres to ride home if it did decide to really tip down. Hurried goodbyes and thanks were exchanged as we exited Ripley's and I headed for home.

As I got closer to home the rain seemed to ease, so I decided to take the opportunity to ride the single track again and proceeded down Stupidly Happy, where it looked as if there had been no rain.

Now, as I am sure many people know, I am a slow learner. I bragged about not having the flu all year and pow, sick all last week. I was expounding the virtues of tubeless tyres to Jim this morning. "I have never had a puncture since going tubeless". POW! On a rocky 'G out' I staked the rear tyre on a sharp rock.

Luckily it was only about one kilometre from home so rather than throw a tube in, I walked and scootered down Resurrection into my backyard, wet but happy.

15 minutes early for babysitting duties too!

I will keep my mouth shut in future.

Enjoying the Simple things in life.

Sick of moping around the house, I decided to take the kids on a bush walk within a one kilometre radius of home. We are lucky to live where we do. I felt better right away.

  

I usually ride this trail so it was very interesting to walk it with the kids and take in some amazing sights. This bees nest was high in an old dead gum, right above the trail and would be about one metre (3 feet) across, fifty feet up in the air.

Interesting bark damage on this tree.