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Whilst the pilgrims were busy at mass. Jing. Felix, Timmy, Clifton and I did Loftus again today. Young Timmy and Clifton pushed us last time and I was determined to try a few things this time that I hadn’t tried before. It’s awesome how everything that looks hard, isn’t once you give it a good go. I had a bit of a stack (lol) going over some rocks, the camera’s broken (kinda cool as I’ve always wanted to upgrade to a Canon IXUS) and my pride’s a bit dented but Jing pushed me to give it another go, and I did, and got it, so all’s great :)

PS: The TLD jersey I was wearing (looks like a soccer Jersey to me) kept me warm in the cold, but cool when I got hot too, highly recommend them. The 661 knee and shin pads were awesome, very happy.

Me.

Timmy never dissapoints with his XC gear lol.

Jing on his bling thing.

Clifton.

Felix.

Timmy demonstrating to me what happened before I flew over the handlebars.

Had to try it again, got it the 2nd time!

OK I finally got to do the Dam today (thanks again Jing for lending me your Reign!) to test out my new Met Parachute helmet + 661 chicken elbows + knee pads. I should have worn my 661 knee/shin pads as those fucking nasty pedals got my shins again today. I was super dissapointed with the pads I did wear though, not that they move much but they really dig into my skin and feel uncomfortable. I hope they get more comfy with more use.

The Met Parachute on the other hand was awesome. It’s light, airy, easy to get my Camelbak drink straw in there and I feel more confident with it on. Massive thumbs up from me.

The Reign’s frame shape straps on to the Thule rack really well, sooo sturdy. Thanks Shimano for the free stickers, more than happy to RPRSNT!

Charlie and his STP + matchig shoes. Kids these days… (lol).

Nailed this nasty little uphill today on my 2nd attempt, got it now… I’m chuffed.

Charlie loves the jumps on the DH section but the Reign’s just so awesome here, overtaking him on a different line felt too easy (felt like cheating). I’m dedicating myself and leaning into corners a lot more now, pretty happy with that and generally happy with how I went today as I cleared a few sections I hadn’t done before (even the nasty climb out of the bottom which was massively satisfying).

Richie and Brad and his sexy little Mazda 2.

Sunday, no traffic? Must be dreaming.

Registering was a breeze.

MWG the machine.

Jing’s Reign got me home.

Today I participated in the Woodford to Glenbrook Classic. I did it in 1:20:40 and our team the pixel pushies came in 3rd! 25km of true pain. Well I made it to the finish line at least (lol). Whilst I had a rad day I’m super disappointed in my lack of endurance strength.

I didn’t have any of my bikes ready, so Jing very kindly lent me his Giant Reign for the day. I set her up last night and was a bit excited, but did manage to get a fair few hours sleep in. I got up at 5.30AM, had a bite and headed off to pick up Richie (my sisters husband). We got to Brad’s place at 7AM, chucked the bikes on his cool Thule roofrack on the back of his sexy orange Mazda 2 and we were off.

Sunday, no traffic. Amazing! We got to the mountains damn quick (1 hour flat) and registered. Perfect weather, we were excited. The catch up with Brad was awesome. I hadn’t seen the guy in forever, we met up with Matt (MWG) at the start line, Jing sent me an SMS to say he just got up, that really pissed me off, but the gun went off and away we went. Richie and I dropped back whilst everyone fought for position. I passed Matt as he was on the side of the road fixing a flat (lol). I caned a few rough downhill sections overtaking quite a few people only to have most of them overtake me back on the uphills. Richie passed me at some stage too and by the time I finally got to the crazy 10km downhill at the end I was exhausted (dead pretty much) which was a real shame as I imagined making up many positions down there.

In the end of the day the only people I overtook were the ones with flats on the side of the road. A guy with his baby son attached to the back of his bike overtaking me hurt a lot… then I was overtaken by a 13yr old girl who was making a lot of noise and complaining to me about a stitch whilst she overtook me. My ego/legs were gone at that stage and I just was happy to get to the finish line.

The massive grass hill and corner into the finish gate was awesome, the crowd cheering, the vibe. All smiles. Matt did a n utter time, Brad kicked it. Turns out Richie stopped for a piss break at some stage and I did beat him to the finish, Felix rocked up and we chilled for a bit before doing the most hardcore nasty road climb back out of the valley up to the station to get to our car back at Woodford. PAIN, Maccas on the way home (shhh), Sydney traffic, wash broken bike (shifter broke in trasnport, bum poo fuck), glass of wine, blog.

Did 25km’s of Loftus this last weekend on the single speed. A couple of kids from Farkin showed us all the great bits, the trains we’re working on the day so these guys rode to meet Jing and I in the carpark, for me, that ride alone would have killed me.

From the first few minutes into the ride it was already evident that these 18yr old kids had boundless energy. Keeping up was pretty hard but all in all I had a great day and really appreciate the guys showing Jing and I all the different trails at Loftus, not to mention pushing us to ride for a shitload longer and further than we usually would.

The single speed was shit. I was clipped in all day, which wasn’t so confidence inspiring, and on the rocky downhill stuff the front end was so bumpy that I’d just understeer off the line (no suspension will do that to you I suppose?). I walked up a fair few hills on the 2nd part of the ride, lol. Pretty embarassing.

All in all it was a great day and the single speed was different but I’ve decided the single speed’s best for the road/around the block bashy.

Pics here.

Whoo hoo, my photoshopped Jessica Alba image just got plugged on hkfixed, my fave bicycle blog out there.

Long story short, but Jing was sending me images of ugly girls on ugly bikes, so I mocked this up and sent him an image of a hot girl on his hot bike, easy (lol).

Yes I fell in the mud.

Yes my brand new Van Bucky Lasek’s are fucked.

Yes I flew over the handlebars.

A lot of alcohol had been built up in my system from a week at Sandon, then B’day drinks and last night’s belated Mothers Day dinner and drinks. I had to burn it all off and what better a way than re-visiting the Dam.

Jing came around at about 10am and off we went. There’s no doubt about it that we pushed harder this time around than last. I even did one of the early drop offs instead of going around it like most people do. Sometimes too cocky isn’t that great though and I had a couple of falls. One in the mud, one over the handlebars near the big 6ft drop (which I doubt I’ll ever do).

All in all, a lot of fun, it’s a great trail! More pics here.

Went for a freezing cold midnight ride with Felix and Jing last night. I’m supper happy with the 16 tooth cog on the rear of the single speed. It’s perfect. I do spin out at 30km/hr but I’m fine with that. Funny, but I’ve never bunny hopped over a gutter before, on our way down Maroubra road I tried it over an island and it just felt natural so I’m happy with that too. I’m still unable to do long wheelies/manuals though. Something I’ll nail soon with more practise I’m sure. The pic above was taken by Felix, he’s got an awesome camera set-up (he took pics of my old Mitsubishi EVO TME too). Check Felix’s site here and a very high res version of the image above here.

Jing bought a Reign this weekend so we went out to Loftus to test it out. We did the awesome little single track a couple of times, stopping to do the technical little climb (near the stream). We both had a fair bit of trouble getting up it without putting a foot to the ground (my shins copped a beating), but practise makes perfect. A thunderstorm ended our little session but we were satisfied to call it a day. We get better each time we go out, it’s awesome. More pics here

Felt great, the furthest the single speed’s been from home! (I didn’t eat that shit of-course, Jing did though lol).

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.