OK, so we finally did Manly Dam. It was always going to be tough, but after a nutter weekend on the booze, it was going to be even tougher. Jing came and got me at 9am, my eyes were stinging from severe lack of sleep. We got throught the traffic AOK and even riding from the car to the trail was burning my legs!
The trail starts off through peoples back yards, which feels pretty strange, but then you enter some very tight single trail, and it gets pretty damn technical in places. The 11km trail just got better and better, and more and more challenging as you go along. It’s a super diverse trail with everything you can want. Technical uphill, downhill, fast flowing downhill with jumps, drops, general flatter XC… the works.
Everyone we came across was super friendly. There were also a few volunteer bike riders fixing parts of the trail which I was super impressed with. It’s such an awesome trail. I’d be more than happy to help out.
Jing and I got to ride each others bikes too. I’m pretty sure I made the right purchase with the Reign. It chomped up all the tech downhill and fast downhill stuff. It’s not great at climbing though, which is abit of a bummer. Climbing on the Reign means staying in your seat (no power!) and trying as hard as you can to keep the front from lifting. Jing’s Scott was amazing at out of seat climbing and great in tight technical stuff, just not great on the faster downhill stuff where your wrists would ache and the rear would just jump around a hell of a lot. Having said that, the Scott did manage to do everything the Reign did, albeit a little more un-comfortably.
Photos here. Awesome trail, great ride. Will be back for plenty more, please.