Your ride today, yesterday....

[mrleisure]

Yes I see what you mean . I thought it was a hard shoulder but it just looks like compacted road base . I had a similar thing happen to me this afternoon coming back down Hawkesbury Rd at Winmalee . The same sort of truck , I heard him coming but as he got close he beeped his horn , it made me jump a bit .

Hz , once you start riding up the hills it becomes addictive

[Crowella]

I was hoping today to push myself to around 25km but rain looked imminent. Sure enough, before I leave town, it rains, so I diverted my cycling to the roads around town just incase it got torrential and I had to turn back in a hurry. It was getting too much so I only made it 11km

Dodging ducks and puddles was good fun though, I must admit.

[w00dsy]

had my first ride today in about 3 weeks since i got sick. haven't felt very good physically but felt pretty good today. I didn't do my normal 33km's but instead did about 25, and had a decent average speed of just over 25kph which was nice considering my tyres were half flat. They were down to 40 psi compared to the 80 i normally run. Now i've got some catching up to do to get my green line and red triangle to be besties again.

[Hz-Lab]

That catch up is a bitch. I only rode Downhill in February and it put me behind shitloads. Finally caught up now though, the sooner you get into it, the sooner you'll be ahead. Good to hear your back to feeling a bit better anyway.

[DarrenM]

Stoopid rain. I was going to ride today no matter what the weather was, but I managed to get one in without getting wet despite localized showers going on around the place.

Decided to ride the M7 up to the closure again, but there was a second detour at Rooty Hill which just sent me in a loop back to the first detour

Had a ride around Rooty Hill before heading back and about 7km from home it had been pissing down and was nice and cool which refreshed me so I did an extra cycle path to make up the lost distance. When I got to my street I was at 59km and I couldn't leave it there so I did a couple extra streets and finished at 63.7km in 2h 50 mins

[norbs]

Stoopid rain. I was going to ride today no matter what the weather was, but I managed to get one in without getting wet despite localized showers going on around the place.

Decided to ride the M7 up to the closure again, but there was a second detour at Rooty Hill which just sent me in a loop back to the first detour

Had a ride around Rooty Hill before heading back and about 7km from home it had been pissing down and was nice and cool which refreshed me so I did an extra cycle path to make up the lost distance. When I got to my street I was at 59km and I couldn't leave it there so I did a couple extra streets and finished at 63.7km in 2h 50 mins

Excellent effort that Darren. Doesnt seem to long ago that you were worried about 30km rides. Well done mate.

[mrleisure]

Nice work Darren . I was too soft to go out for a ride today , thought I may get wet . I will be going out tomorrow though , getting a bit edgy from not riding since Thursday

[Duke]

Well we did our Baw Baw Classic Race Recon ride yesterday, it's 3 weeks until the race so we do a reccy to scope the course & see how our form is going before the big day. Start @ Noojee then ascend Baw Baw before returning back to Noojee, around 100k's on a road that is never flat but in some of the most picturesque areas you can ride in VIC. We had a sensational day as you can see from the pics.

Here is a short vid taken on an iPhone of how hard this sucker is, this was one of my temmates first attempt of The Baw. You see lots of ppl having to ride like this to finish the race. Beware: Foul Language
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A highlight for me was a new PB of 36min flat, 40secs faster than last yrs recon ride.
Lowlight was crashing on the descent of Baw Baw, read here: viewtopic.php?p=285136#p285136" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Garmin Connect Data for the data freaks, Lap 2 is my Baw Baw ascent: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73965876" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep its steep!!!


What a View!!!

[DarrenM]

82kph

Doesnt seem to long ago that you were worried about 30km rides. Well done mate.

53km last month, 63km this month. Might try this at Easter. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain as usual.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&sour ... 6&t=p&z=11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There's about 20km of dirt though which could be a bit ordinary. An extra spare tube and some padded knicks I guess.

[Crowella]

That is an immense ride and climb Shame about the little lowlight but at least it wasn't too much. Didn't look like your day would be too affected by that anyway

I did a rather unsual 12km today. Stayed up at the girlfriends overnight and took her family mountain bike along Wisemans Ferry Rd in the pouring rain. I didn't want to go too far as I had a few close calls with traffic and was having issues seeing but most just slowed down and smiled as they drove past me as I was soaked and having fun.

Turns out I was riding a segment of the Mt Penang Century Challenge. Great fun with roads that were good aside the puddle dodging on the edge Averaged a lot quicker too but I feel the GPS was a bit out of whack up on the mountain so I'm a little skeptical. Was also the first real hills I have gone up and down too. and did so successfully if very slowly.

Also... 82kph (Edit: got beaten to it.)

[mrleisure]

That's hard out Flinty Well done on the pb . I've heard a lot about that climb , would love to have a go at it Good luck in the race

[norbs]

I think a Baw Baw ride for ARSE would be great.

[Duke]

norbs, I'd be more than happy to host it.
I suggest we go from Tanjil Bren, it's a relatively easy 23k's to the base of Baw Baw, but be prepared as it's not a hill you can just rock up & climb.

Mr Lesuire, yep she's a beast but talking on Sun we think it may now have a rival. Apparently the back side of Falls Ck (from Omeo) could be harder. Avg's 10% for 10km's with one 400mtr section @ 19% now that's territory.

[CLP]

Avg's 10% for 10km's with one 400mtr section @ 19% now that's territory.

ouch.

Checker Hill here has a 600m section at some insane gradient (average gradient for the whole climb is 14%) .. had to walk the last 300m in the last Challenge tour Will have to revisit that now that i have some compact cranks i love hill climbing, i just wish i didn't suck at it so badly. Probably dropping a few kg would help a bit too

[Duke]

Avg's 10% for 10km's with one 400mtr section @ 19% now that's territory.

ouch.

Checker Hill here has a 600m section at some insane gradient (average gradient for the whole climb is 14%) .. had to walk the last 300m in the last Challenge tour Will have to revisit that now that i have some compact cranks i love hill climbing, i just wish i didn't suck at it so badly. Probably dropping a few kg would help a bit too

CLP, how long is Checker overall, from my understanding its only that steep in the last 1km or so...
Yep Compacts FTW when you get up to gradients above 10% imho, I did Baw Baw on a 34/28T setup & it allows you to keep seated up to 15-16%.

[CLP]

Avg's 10% for 10km's with one 400mtr section @ 19% now that's territory.

ouch.

Checker Hill here has a 600m section at some insane gradient (average gradient for the whole climb is 14%) .. had to walk the last 300m in the last Challenge tour Will have to revisit that now that i have some compact cranks i love hill climbing, i just wish i didn't suck at it so badly. Probably dropping a few kg would help a bit too

CLP, how long is Checker overall, from my understanding its only that steep in the last 1km or so...
Yep Compacts FTW when you get up to gradients above 10% imho, I did Baw Baw on a 34/28T setup & it allows you to keep seated up to 15-16%.

Checker is pretty short.. i think about 2-3 km. the last 600m is the really steep part. I'm yet to try anything really steep on the compact since installing it, so i should try that at some point.. just need to choose a hill i guess.. Checker, corkscrew, Fox Creek.. too many to choose

[Duke]

Thought some of you might like to see this from our Baw Baw ride Sun
My mate (the one from that vid) is an ex-rally driver & a mad-arse on any descent.
He redeemed himself from his shocking climb and bombed down The Baw in 7mins.
Have read of his analysis of that below;

For those techno-philes...(and those interested in descending).

6.5km
Average speed 54.6kph
Exceeded 70kph on 8 occasions
Exceeded 75kph on 5 occasions
Touched 81 as a max
15 brake applications with some of the larger ones being:

76 - 24kph in 7 seconds
72 - 30kph in 8 seconds
77 - 46kph in 2 seconds (Actually I remember that one, I swear the rear wheel lifted)
81 - 60kph in 4 seconds

Some of the accelerations are pretty awesome too:

45 - 77kph in 7 seconds
48 - 77kph in 6 seconds

And lastly some of the faster sections
Range of 70-81kph for 9 seconds
70kph for 10 seconds (slight speed variances as cornering)
60 - 70kph for 15 seconds

All in all - depending on weight of course - I don't see this as being a descent that's hard on the bike.  15 brake applications in 7 mins is only averaging 1 every 28 seconds with most being in the 2-5 second range.  That leaves around 23-26 seconds of brake recovery - a huge amount considering the temperature efficiency of such a large braking surface.

I did also clean my front pads up with a rough bastard file before the ride and inspection of the rims subsequently shows no excessive rim wear.

If you have read this far and are interested, I minimise brake wear in the same way I would in a rally car:
Short, explosive efforts on the brakes.  There is an enormous amount of initial 'bite' in bike brakes.  Trail braking will only lead to overheating brakes - it is inefficient and ineffective.  Plus it will further reduce your confidence in descending as the brakes WILL heat up more.

Finally, I do want to say I descended Baw Baw without taking any risks.  There are many blind corners and the surface is not ideal.  Given a firmer grasp of the route and the knowledge that no one is coming, I would say a 6.15 is feasible.

[Hz-Lab]

Awesome. Fast descents can get well Hairy. I hit just under 70kph the other night on the bitty, Rather hair raising. I think i've hit mid 60's on dirt before, at Eagle mountain bike park if I recall down a Fire Track. Now that was sketchy, you kind of have to loosen your grip and absorb what you can when your mind is telling you to tighten up. It's not natural..lol

[CLP]

I think i'm a relatively quick descender, though i think that might be a function of me being a shortARSE and being able to get down pretty low on the bike. I have no fancy data to show you though

This mornings ride into work was awful.. rain, wind.. bleh . had the MTB though, so i got to try out the effectiveness of disk brakes in the wet pretty impressive.
Looking at BOM isn't making things look promising for the trip home either

[mrleisure]

Very nice weather in Sydney for riding today I headed west to Woodford in the mountains via Hawksebury Rd and Springwood , I had planned on going to Katoomba and maybe Blackheath but there were too many roadworks happening west of Woodford so I thought it was safer to turn around and head home . 148.8klms round trip .
Edit /I think Woodford is around 610 metres above sea level so some nice climbing

[norbs]

Nice ride MR leisure.

I rode to and from work today and both times had to contend with winds. Westerly going in, and South Westerly coming home. Im shagged now.

[Duke]

I think a Baw Baw ride for ARSE would be great.

I had a thought norbs,
Maybe look at doing this before tackling Baw Baw itself, but then if your coming all the way to VIC you may just want to see what all the hype of that hill is about.
http://www.challengeseries.com.au/defau ... 0343/41057" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.challengeseries.com.au/defau ... 43%2F41057" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[norbs]

I think a Baw Baw ride for ARSE would be great.

I had a thought norbs,
Maybe look at doing this before tackling Baw Baw itself, but then if your coming all the way to VIC you may just want to see what all the hype of that hill is about.
http://www.challengeseries.com.au/defau ... 0343/41057" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.challengeseries.com.au/defau ... 43%2F41057" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2 problems. It is too close to organise the time to get there. And it doesn't climb Baw Baw!

Im thinking of trying to sort out a 2 week trip in maybe Sept, and heading down there to do some riding in Victoria. Maybe one weekend we could do a big ride to prepare for the Around the Bay ride.

[CLP]

had some fun at the expense of some self absorbed teenagers

i've been riding the MTB the last week due to unpleasant weather. so riding home last night along the Linear park shared path I come to my exit and start heading in that direction.

A couple of teen girls had thoughtfully seated their plump arses in the middle of the path at the point where the path meets the road, effectively blocking off one side of the exit to me due to the alignment of the path. Thoughtfully, the fatter of the 2 had placed a pair of somewhat pristine shoes in the middle of the other side of the path.

said self absorbed teens saw me heading their way, and made no effort to move. getting closer.. still no effort to get either themselves or their shoes off the path. Realising that i was on Pitchy my MTB, i figured i could just roll over said shoes. Suspension and fat tyres are a wonderful thing sometimes When it finally dawned on these mental giants that i wasn't stopping, the mad scramble to move their treasured shoes before i put tyre tracks all over them was hilarious

[mrleisure]

That would have been funny to see CLP . I've had a few close calls on the shared paths also , some people just don't want to share