So, there really hasn’t been much to report in the last few weeks, hence the lack of posts.
I’ve been out and got riding, but nothing significant. My lack of commuting miles is a mixed bag; the legs are fresh when I do go out and ride, but I lack some punch at times because of the low mileage too.
Also, the lack of commute is going to mean that my loose goal of 7200 km for the calendar year is looking like it won’t be met. I’m slightly frustrated by this, but I know also that I was on track to quite comfortably meet this until work finished. I could still make it, but with temps rising as summer comes, combined with my folks coming over for Christmas, it is getting difficult to see where I can slot the time in, in order to get the miles up. Festive 500 looks like it won’t be a possibility for these reasons either, which would probably be key right now if I do want to make it. But, you never know, so fingers crossed…
However, I have managed to stay on top of my loose goal of 104,000 m climbed this calendar year (2000m/week). The climbing challenge earlier in the year, then Rapha Rising, with another one one as I type, I hope to make this goal yet. TBH, if I get over 100k, then I’ll still have upped last years total by about half, so I’ll be going pretty well. Would be nice to get it though – and I am desperate to try and do so. I also realise that there is a fair chance I won’t be able to touch the bike between Xmas eve and New Years, so I have to make it a week sooner!
Overall, one thing I realise looking back though, is that although a year is long time, I need to be on it from the gun next year. I climbed little and had low mileage in Jan/early Feb which meant I was playing catch-up until Rapha Rising in July! Now, Jan was a ridiculously hot month, but it still hurt. Another, 50-100 km then, along with another 1-2,000 m climbing and I’d be closer to those goals. I’d also not have to push so hard for so many weeks after, just to get on terms. It’d probably have let itself to actually be able to push harder when I wanted, rather than because I had little choice but to.
(And ironically, I type that up as I sit in front of the computer, cos it is 38C outside and too hot to ride, when I really could do with getting the miles in! Maybe tonight, if the mooted change does come through in time)
However… one thing that is reportable I guess, is that in my looking for a new bike, I have narrowed down the options. After nearly 6 years, thousands of kilometres and lots sweat later, it has come time to retire my Commencal. It’s been a great bike and has been more than adequate for my riding to date, but it is just getting to the point where “spending money on it to keep it running smoothly” vs. “spending money on a new bike” has tipped over to the “new bike” side of things.
Now, I’ve been oogling over a fatbike for about the last year… but that isn’t what I will be getting. A Fatbike is a definite N+1 bike (probably the N+2 bike, really…) but not the only/default bike. Hopefully in about 12 months time it will be something I start looking for though… 😀
No, for the default bike, I want full suspension – but only short travel. I’ve got used to having it and for the riding I do, I can’t see a reason to not have it. The body gets less beaten up than on a hardtail and I can ride up and down a few bits more readily than I could on a HT, too. That compensates for the small weight penalty for me. Therefore, I’ve been looking at things between 100 and 120mm.
A lot of the 100mm bikes are just a bit too racy and weight weenie for my liking; lightweight is good to a point, but for everyday riding, SLX/XT type gear is the go. However, I don’t want a 70 degree head angle and super quick steering; I like to go downhill, I like to take some speed into the chunky sections and I like to be able to switch off a little when I’m 80km into a ride, without having any of those things hurt me. I’ll be honest, I don’t have the skills or fitness to allow that to happen with a race bike. Also, most short travel bikes like this are 29ers. 29ers are fine… but I’m short. I find it hard to get comfy on one, so 650b is more the go, for me.
Over 120mm and I start getting extra weight which can be felt after 50km. In some ways the extra cushioning is nice and I can let the bike work for me on the down… but I don’t get help going up. I’m not racing EWS, so I don’t need that extra travel and beef in that type of bike.
So after looking around it’s between 3 bikes; Scott Spark, Giant Anthem SX and Trek Fuel EX.
The Scott seems expensive for what it is here. The Trek and Giant look nice, the Trek has an arguably nicer wheelset, the Giant is a bit tighter perhaps, being 120mm up front, 100mm out back.
Next week, I take out the Giant for a demo ride, so I guess, I’ll find out and see then.
A proper “all day” ride, not a “family” all day ride, either.
The initial thought was to make sure it was over 100km. Been riding plenty of 50km+ rides, but with a wife at (now just finished…yay for everyone!) Uni, two kids under 5, being out for much more than 4-5 hours (inc. faff and tea breaks) is hard to juggle.
Not so this weekend. Time to make the most of it. It’s spring, the temps and weather looked prime, it had to be done. A bit of thought, followed with a bit of plotting on the Strava Route Builder, showed just over 140km and a bit over 3600m of climbing. That would also add a ‘super special’ *ahem* Strava digital badge for ticking off the Grand Fondo distance too. Hmmmm…
I knew no-one else would ride the whole thing with me, but decided to put it out there, to see if anyone fancied a ride. Adam was the only one who could, but there was no way he was going to ride 40km, let alone 140. However, it sure would be nice to have some company rather than spend the entire day alone, however fun of a ride I had planned out.
I was also aware that Adam wouldn’t keep to my pacing of a ride, but actually having a bit of an imposed slow down in pace after the first 40km and 1200m of climbing, with heaps more to come, was probably a good way of not blowing up, whilst still moving. So it was that I arranged a time and place to meet up and have a bit of a social cruise, mid ride.
With gear laid out the night before, and then re-packed to cut some excess weight out (too much so, as will be seen…), the total climbing started to make me think. The 140km wasn’t too off putting, but with my recent redundancy, I haven’t been getting the ‘free’ commuting miles that I did. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep the legs ticking over with the climbing involved.
As I set an alarm for an early start – even earlier as the clocks went forward, losing an hour of sleep! – I was still pondering the climbing. The first 25km-ish was a loop that included about 600m of climbing (and consequently, descending too), before I took the climb up again, but this time headed the other way along the ridge. I decided to see how I felt in the morning.
Perhaps because of my uncertainty, I had a crap sleep. Combined with the lost hour, I canned the first loop. With the lack of miles in my legs, I knew that it was the right thing to do. Getting up in the dark when in a warm bed is always hard, anyway. The extra hour of ‘rest’ zipped by and it really was time to get up and going. Gear was out and ready, breakfast things on the kitchen bench ready to go to, it was a case of flicking on the coffee machine and putting the porridge in the microwave as I got dressed. The clocks might’ve changed, but it is still spring and not yet summer, so vest and arm warmers were on too. Garmin powered on (always seems to take forever if you are waiting for it to boot up otherwise) and bike out of the garage and by the door, I made up a bottle and finished breakfast. Locked the door and off I went, knowing it would be a long time until my return.
It’d been a good call on the vest and arm warmers; a cool, stiff breeze was blowing straight down the hill and clouds lingered up top. Looking back, patches of blue were appearing out over the Gulf, so it seemed that the forecast for a warm and sunny day wasn’t totally off, but still, the morning air was cool. By the time I got to the trailhead, after the first 5km on the road, it was time for the vest to come off, ready for the punchy section of singletrail that starts the ride. By the time I was overlooking the Quarry, the arm warmers were shoved down to my wrists. It was too much longer, on the way up the steep fire road that follows, that the were off and into the camelbak, although not for too long as it turned out.
As I got the plateau were the trail splits, northward taking you to a fun section of descending single trail, and forming part of the first loop that I’d opted to can earlier, some moisture started to make itself known to exposed skin. The wind started to pick up as I wound on up to the ridge too, and looking across the gully, I was looking through the low cloud. Time for the warmers to make a reappearance already.
Cloud socked it in up on Ridge Road: damp and cool… Armwarmers and vest back on!
A short spin over to the Cleland boundary got me to a fun fire road descent before turning 180 degrees and beginning the climb back up and in to the park along Wine Shanty. Out of the cloud a bit and with the tree cover here providing a bit more shelter from the breeze, I made decent time along the trail and soon encountered the first wildlife of the day – a couple of Roo’s. The cloud and damp had kept things pretty quiet on this front so far, but these two hopped up hill a short way before stopping to watch me pass. Next up were the first two walkers of the day – again, not to be the last as I was now one of Adelaide’s busiest parks.
As I started to descend down to Chambers Gully, the walker’s started to appear in greater numbers. It was still early enough though, so I was able to hold a fair amount of speed and have a good blast down the trail, with a quick G’Day as our paths crossed. By the time I hit the road at the bottom, I was 15 mins earlier than my planned meet up with Adam and so sat on the grass, had a nana and called the family to check in.
Adam ended up running a few mins behind and by the time he was ready, I’d been off the bike for a half hour. Still, I knew this part of the ride was going to be the social part and expected no less. The sun and wind had moved all the cloud off now and with the grind up Winters to Long Ridge underway in the sunshine, it wasn’t long until the warmers were off and in the bag, where they’d stay, apart for my lunch stop later on.
As I headed up slowly, waiting here and there for Adam, it was another round of G’days with quite a few of the walkers and runners I’d passed earlier now coming down Winters, completing their loop in the other direction. The sun was making it’s presence felt a bit more now and with no real cover on the climb it was getting warm for sure.
Adam pedalling in the sun, Adelaide warming up down the hill behind him.
Progress wasn’t going too bad, all things considered. More G’days to more walkers, some tree cover to keep the sun off, more elevation gained. As I waited for Adam to join me at the start of the Chinamans descent, I could see a couple of other riders coming the other way. As they approached the gate, I was greeted with some sort of profanity or insult, quickly realising it was Erik, who’d I’d not seen in a good while. He was dragging Ollie around on the singlespeed. Fair play, as when I looked when I got home later, they’d toughed out some other good, solid climbs before Chinamans, too. After a bit of a chat we went our separate ways and Adam and I headed down the hill. After we crossed the freeway that is the Lofty Trail, it was a great, quick descent to the creek below. We then wound our way up alongside, skirting the sink holes that have emerged over winter, before spinning pleasantly along the Mireen Track, watching the creek fall away below us. Soon, we were to part ways, as I headed on up Beela and towards Crafers and lunch, Adam down to Adelaide with a Colombian Birthday to attend.
With a much longer than desired lunch break (the deli was busy unfortunately), I used the time to make up another bottle, apply some sunscreen and stretch a bit as I was off the bike. With lunch consumed, I hopped back on the pedals, knowing that with more descending than climbing between me and Mylor, lunch would settle itself without too much trouble.
I always enjoy the ride through Mt George – the tall gums and fun trail just make it a nice section to pass through. No pics here, after lunch taking longer than hoped for, I decided to keep it rolling now, as I didn’t want to get towards the end of the ride and have to cut short due to a lack of time. With this in mind, I decided to use the road to get across to the trail down to Mylor rather than bushwack along the Heysen Trail out the back of the Footy Club. A couple of weeks ago, it was starting to get a bit overgrown after showers and sun; I presumed it would be even more so by now.
Running at my own pace again, I made short work of the single trail down to Mylor; not encountering anyone else the whole way down certainly helped with that too. It’s a great section of trail, easy to see why so many folks love it, but there have been a few ‘manicured’ bits over the last couple of years, although subtle. Hopefully there are not more coming. Time will tell.
Getting to Mylor, I again kept pushing on; refueling on the bike as I headed up the first section of Bandicoot Trail, before it crosses the road to become single trail. Pretty narrow, picky and tight, the Bandicoot is never really a fast trail on a bike, but I kept the pedals turning and opted to skip the creek section and instead shortcutted up the road before picking it up again after the creek. The creek section is even more techy and for me at least, has a several sections of pushing, that whilst short, do interrupt the rhythm of the ride, so the bypass didn’t impinge on the ride, really.
As I passed through the cemetery to get back to the road, I realised I should eat something solid again, but also that I could make a bit of an unplanned detour to check out a section that I’d not ridden before, but knew would link in well, taking me towards Belair, my next section. I found some shade to stop in, opened a nana and had a quick look at Google Maps on my phone. I opted to eat an apple too, as I looked at my phone a little more. Why not?
I headed back to the road I’d pulled off and span along easily, passing the school, then through Aldgate before turning off and following the rail line. A bit more phone use to confirm I was in the right direction and I found the reserve, and trails, I was looking for. Not knowing what to expect, I used the info board maps and navigated a few of the trails. Lots of steps uphill didn’t make for the easiest of riding in parts, but some fun although short sections of single trail elsewhere. I’ll have to ride this bit again another time to get a better idea of the best way to link the trails and get the most out of them.
Hitting the road again, I was pushing on, knowing the hill was coming. A quick look to see if a water fountain was easily reached at the school netted nothing, but I had enough to get to Belair anyway, despite taking plenty on as the sun was still out and warm. The hill was there to spin up, but didn’t seem as bad as I recalled it being; maybe the lower gear on the MTB made it seem easier than last time, maybe I was “in the zone”, maybe it was just all in my head. Any which way, Ayers Hill was done and on to Belair it was.
Coming in via the uppermost gate, it was straight into the single trail that parallels the road, then crosses it and goes over the train line tunnel. This is the section that burnt in a bush fire late last summer and had folk real worried for a while. The Fireys did a real good job – as they so often do – and got it under control; looking at it now as the green shoots and colourful blooms return, it looks very different to the charcoal it was. Longterm, it was probably a good thing; it is such a tight gully in there and the burn has cleared a lot of fuel for a while at least.
Popping out of the trail near the Sequoia’s, I headed down to the pavillion and oval area, expecting it to be busy in this weather, during school holidays and a long weekend, too. I wasn’t wrong. A quick stop in the bathroom and a refill of water, it was onwards to keep away from the crowds. Soon enough they faded as I made my way up to the fun single trail that runs along the boundary and heads toward the golf course. Once again, it was over too soon, as a lack of trail traffic allowed me to stay off the brakes.
Heading back up towards the top gate again, I encountered another Roo – this time though a mother with joey in pouch. It’s always cool to see, the joey’s feet and face poking out, looking at you along with the mother. Before I could get a pic they bounced off into the bush. Shame, the kids would’ve loved to have seen the picture. Continuing on up the hill, I stopped briefly to make another bottle to help get a bit of the newly acquired water off of my back and to re-apply sunscreen. Longer days are great, but the sun here can be brutal, too. Up and out of the gate I’d entered earlier, I hugged the boundary fence and stayed between it and the road. This bit of trail is pretty fun, although being unofficial, it is rutted and worn in places with deep puddles after rain, but was running fast and fairly smooth in the Spring warmth.
After hopping the fence to use the fire trail in the park again to avoid the steepest and therefore most rutted sections, I turned off for Pony Ridge. At just under 90km done for the day, I knew my goal of 100km would be met – whether I’d have the time, energy or inclination to push on for the 130km mark and an online badge, was another story. Pondering this was interrupted with a sudden hiss of air escaping tyre. Puncture.
I half smiled and thought how I’d actually done pretty well to get this far without having had anything go wrong. This seemed to help, as the tyre was easily off, the spare in quickly and re-inflated. However… realising you have no patches when you are putting in the spare tube, you can see into the future. When I’d cut back some weight the night before whilst organising my gear, I’d taken out cards and money, removing the need for the rest of the wallet. Less weight was good, but I forgot to take the patches out of it and put those in with the other bits. I knew I was now on thin ice, as it seemed only too likely that another puncture would occur. It’s Murphy’s Law.
I headed down Pony Ridge, passing a women jogging up the tight switch backs. I wondered if the Brown Snake that often seems to be there and get very territorial most summers was going to put in an appearance, but fortunately I didn’t see it. Getting to the last switchback, at the handrail, I had to dab. I bloody hate that last turn, it always seems to ruin an other wise dab-free ride down!
I cruised down Brownhill Creek, and realised that I could indeed fit in the last planned climb and descent without running out of daylight – and quite easily, too. Pushing on since parting ways with Adam had allowed that. I wove through the back streets, back on the fringes of the City, glad I hadn’t cooked myself and had to bail sooner. I headed through the back gate of Carrick Hill and onto the Yurrebilla Trail. Most folks love it as a descent and it certainly does deliver in that direction. But I think I actually prefer it going up. It has a few tricky pinches and is quite unrelenting, what with enough techy rock sections, but I reckon once you get into it, it is the best single trail climb in Adelaide.
However, best climb or not, the inevitable happened. Crossing the creek, I took a poor line and hisssssssssss… I’d pinch flatted the tube. I looked at the sky, sighed, and started to think. No patches. No tube. Wife and car 300km away. Ok… I had to turn around and get back to the ‘burbs. If I stashed the bike and came back the next day, I still had to get the bus or a taxi as it was 10km home still. If I could improvise, it was 10kms home on the road, if the improvisation could last that long.
I had gel wrappers which could work as a boot, but that was not the problem. I had bandaids in my first aid kit or duct tape wrapped around my pump. I decided to try the duct tape, but first to find the puncture. Fortunately, this was easy. Some luck at least. I pulled off a piece of tape and stuck it over the hole, then another for the opposite one. It held some air, but pump too much and it pushed the tape off and leaked. A 3rd piece over both patches and around the tube… it held more air, but the tube had an obviously abnormal shape to it now. Best I could do in the circumstances! I tried to ride it – had about 10psi! – not great. Sort of do or die now, so I decided to use the CO2 canister. The tape was holding some air and now inside the tyre, that tape had something to push against and so might not come away as easily as when I’d first tried it to see if it’d even work at all. I pumped a bit more first, then dumped half the canister in… It held! I could ride a bit! Not knowing how long for, I quickly rode the trail and got back to the bitumen.
Duct tape patches… awww yeah! Bush mechanics to the rescue!
I got to the road and then along and down a few more, standing up and putting the weight into the front wheel to try and hold it off of the patched rear. But I was losing pressure. I dumped the rest of the CO2 in and pressed on, figuring that I’d stop and hand pump every couple of kms if need be. This time the pressure held longer, but I had to put more air in, so got out the pump. I was now only about 5km from home, so I’d done pretty well. I inflated the tyre as solidly as I could, being on the road now, firmer was better anyway, and again pushed on. It worked. The tyre held all the way home with no more pumping. I’d made it and I’d clocked the 100km ride that I’d wanted. In fact later that night, it was still holding good pressure, though by the next morning it had gone flat.
I was a bit disappointed to not have made that last climb and descent, as finishing off with more trail would’ve been great. I’d have clocked about 115-120km too, I think. Still, being able to think my way out of trouble after pedaling all day in the sun, rather than lose it and call a cab was satisfying in a different way. And I learnt something I wouldn’t have too – triple check you’ve packed right and don’t forget patches!
These challenges are the kind of thing that intrigue and inspire me. I’m sure that there is fun in XC racing, or 24 Solo or Gravity Enduro and the other forms of MTB, but this type of thing is what catches my eye.
This list may well expand over time as new challenges emerge or are stumbled upon; other things will almost certainly be done as shakedowns and/or training for the ‘goal’ events. But the following are a few things that catch my eye…
And so there it is. A couple of serious rides up top. Lots of other maybe, could, might type of more manageable rides down the bottom. Basically Just need to start to ride a bunch more. Easy as…
This is more of a personal log for riding related stuff. Not really sure what will or won’t end up on here, but just feel that I will probably make better on my ‘goals’ if I actually have them written down somewhere. Here seems as good as any.
As of right now, there are a few on going and a few that are forming. And one ticked off!
Ongoing are total climbing and total distance for the year. I’m tracking them on Strava, as it’s just the easiest way I reckon.
VM = 2,000m/week = 104,000m/year
Distance = 600km/month = 7,200km/year
Stats so far this year…
So far, these are on track, although the lack of a daily commute is starting to impact a little. Fortunately, I was a bit ahead before work finished a few weeks back, mostly due to having achieved one off my other Strava goals for the year, the Rapha Rising Challenge.
The other goal I would like to tick off this year is to complete the Rapha Festive 500… but with my folks over from the UK for Xmas, Alfie’s birthday being on Christmas day, and the fact that we are therefore, going to be over at Yorkes rather than home, it’s gonna be a massive ask to fit it all in. We’ll have to see about that…
not long langy... 