YouYangs DH'ing- Easter Monday '06

Nothing like a ride!
ok, first where is it? You Yangs National Park, has specific mountain biking (both XC and DH) tracks. It's located West of Melbourne, about a 65km drive from North Melbourne. You take Old Geelong Road and get off at Little River offramp, just after Werribee, and head North. The service station there was surprisingly cheap! Cost of items were same as cost of items in the City. Advice: by a bag of $2 mixed lollies, cos you'll need them for the walk back up. I ate 2 GU's only!!!

There were jus three of us today, Adrian, Tom, and I. Adrian's mate, Troy, pulled out. And here we are setting up:
In the foreground is Tom, in the background is Adrian and his STP Zero, and that grey lot is my bike and gear.

And me kitted up... check out the reflection in my helmet.

On to the riding...

There are like 3+ tracks, we rode the race track, and another XC track downhill once. I don't have any pics of the XC track, but there's a easy wall/rock ride at the start and continues very quickly, no big drops just lots of low boulders to speed-roll over. Terrain was "boudlery" and surrounded by very loose silt/sand/pebbles, my front wheel kept washing out, although I wasn't the only one. Damn buggered by the end of it... felt like my chest was gonna explode, but damn fun!

Ok, onto the DH section. Was very rocky, a little like Buller, but a little less dusty. The run goes for about 3-4minutes without sessioning, and a 10-15minute walk back up. The first run was rough as guts, luckily we had Adrian with over a years experience to show us the lines! The walk up was agonising and reminded me of why I ride, and not walk. My calves were burning and the muscle pump meant they were as stiff as wood... fortunately it only got better. Subsequent runs were smooth and without any hassle, except the second last one where I had to bail and landed hard on my right heel. But 3 neurofens made the pain go away :thumbsup: (gotta love painkillers!). All up we did about 4/5 (i have bad memory) complete runs, and we did the hard/most technical sections again and again... cos we like pain!

Unfortunately I couldn't take as many photos as I'd like... well we were just too lazy, so found two sections for photo shoots.
so onto the photos:

first up...








Two angles of the drop. On the run we rolls down these, but out of sheer amusement we decided to huck this on camera. BTW, all pics and videos in today's blog is from my phone!

and now the actions shots!

First up Adrian:




and now me:




And now the best bit... got videos but here are the pics. Now, we had to roll off the big boulder behind me in the picture first, but it just happens the 4 shot burst mode only got me doing the step down that links in after it. But it turned out sweet. I did it about 8 or 9 times, and stacked about 4 times >_<






I can't seem to get the videos to work... but here's the link to my photobucket...
http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/iUDEX_nCr/
It'll be under the You Yangs Easter Monday folder.

They don't work for everyone though.

and finally... the most graphic of my injuries. Please note, that the full size version is rather...detailed! My phone camera has a macro mode (I mean WTF?!).


Hope my ankle/heel heals up before my next ride which will hopefully be Thursday!!!

until next time~ smile lots, eat chocolate, and ride hard!

My New ride!

Ok, first my old bike... A 2005 Norco Rampage, seriously tweaked. Had new Azonic hotseat saddle, after demolishing the old Berserkr saddle, new LX chain and cassette. oh I had just put some new High Rollers on the rear, converted to homemade tubeless, new RH rocket shifter which was dialled perfectly in with my low normal XTR rear derailleur... and it was stolen! gah! but so here a pic for old times sake... before the final additions, oh and I had a pair of Diabolous cranks on order which I had to cancel... why steal?!!!
The "Chocolate Fondue" At state library, thanks to my best friend Nathan for his pro photos... unfortunately I've edited them a little and lost some resolution.

and here's the new beast, a 2005 Norco Torrent. Yet to be named.
taken with a real camera, cheers to my housemate Tom.

and then I got a new phone... the pics are fairly decent...
Oh, yeah you can see my old XC bike too. Resolution isn't that good, looks better small.

So far, I've only changed the saddle and added the rocket shifter...
Upclose shot of the rocket shifter... so positive...
ah, yeah, planning to go YouYangs Sunday and next Thursday, hopefully we'll get some nice pictures!

Downhilling on Australia Day

Backdate: 26th January 2006

Australia Day 2006... went Downhilling at Mt Buller with the crew from work, however since my bike was stolen, Jas (Monee Ponds Store Manager) lent me his Lopes Signature =D. Such a sweet ride, 130mm fox vanillas up front, mavic crossmax/crossland wheelset (can't remember exactly, but tubeless XC wheelset, LOL), deore hydros. It had been really hot the past few weeks, with temperatures at 30+ degrees and near extreme to extreme fire warnings in the air. On the way up we passed charred pastures on one side of the road, and lush green pastures on teh other side... on, and I had to duke of hazard style into Adrian's car (Camberwell, and my, store manager). Uh, dun have picture of the crew, cos I didn't have a camera(phone). So all the pics are from Jas's camera. So without anymore delays...


The Road train. Lead by Adrian, myself, Hobbit, Matt (Monee Ass Manager), ah... Hobbit's brother, and Matt (our, Camby, mechanic).

There were two tracks, A-Bomb which was a fast downhill track... not that much fun with a hardtail to be honest, as it was rather rocky so keeping my feet on the pedals caused some strife... and serious loss of speed. Whilst the International track was awesome, some technical sections, lots of fun bits, and we sessioned it to begin with... I regret not having any photos of the ski jump, but I will get them next year! or later this year!

Me riding one of the earlier sections on international.

Me, just before I cased it, too used to hucking in the city, forget I'm dropping to effective tranny, not flat >_<... hehe, Buller rules are no full face=no ride! always wear your helmet!

but yeah, had great fun! for like... $38 (i can't remember anymore) you get unlimited runs all day and lift pass... first time on a ski lift. It's like *rattle rattle, slam, skid, rattle rattle* all the way down, and then on the ski lift it's complete silence. Can't wait to take my own kit down!

And so it begins...

Hihi,

so like, this blog thing seems so complicated... I mean more complicated than it needs to be... but as long as i can attach photos, then it's ok.

So i'll begin posting my adventures soon.