I figure it’s my turn to write up a YPR ride. I haven’t done one before. I’ve even made the effort to use CAPITAL LETTERS, to make it easier to read.

HY, HP, Al and myself all rocked up to the Lysterfield car park at roughly 2pm. HY and I got there first. I spent the time drooling over HY’s new bling bike parts - his new brakes and wheels which cost more than my entire mountain bike. We then had a random conversation with “S-Works dual-suspension” guy. Or rather HY and S-Works guy continued to talk about their super-expensive bikes and I sat there, staring at my own rather cheap-looking bike, in comparison.

Eventually, the 4 of us rolled out. We started along the Blair Witch trail. The super-fast toboggan-style track was gone. They’ve built a new super-twisty track which is not as fun. It hasn’t worn-in yet. Hopefully it will be better in a few months. Also, the BMX-style jumps are gone. The big hole in the ground has been filled in. Not that I would have done them anyway. The last time I tried to perform a jump, I did a 2 metre endo on the landing. Luckily I survived that one.

Next came the Buckle Trail. I love the signs they have there - it has picture of a bicycle, and beneath it, a picture of a walking stick-man, but with a cross through it. I tried to rollover the first big pile of tree logs, but ran out of momentum near the top. I didn’t fall because the pile was quite well-built and stable. Of course, the first stack of the day belongs to HP. As usual, another static fall. He attempted to rollover a pile of logs. Somehow, he picked a diagonal line over it. As you’d expect, he got stuck halfway over it with nowhere to go (except backwards, perhaps). And then, like the Titanic, the front of his bike lifts up… and up, and he proceeds to fall backwards.

The Buckle Track links up with the Comm Games track. Here, we encounter the Rock Garden - and it’s called the “Rock Garden” for a reason! As we watched some of the pros roll through it as if they were cruising on Beach Rd, Al decided that it couldn’t be that difficult. However, despite my encouragement, I couldn’t get Al to tackle the double black-diamond run. He mentioned something about the consequences of falling off your bike, and the abundance of boulders to cushion your fall.

Finally, the infamous Churchill climb. It’s short but not very sweet. I like to call it the lactic acidosis hill. It’s a steep singletrack climb that requires a lot of concentration and spinning. HP blasted past me at the start. However, he had misjudged the length of the climb and blew up soon after. I kept my tortoise-pace going, kept spinning and retook the lead over the puffing HP.

We finished the rest of the Comm Games track. Tackled the berms which is always fun (when they’re in good condition, that is) and headed back to the car park.

A great day and weather for riding. Lysterfield is still a great park, even though we always complain that we’re bored of it.

Well, the TYP expansion plan is in place! I’m sure venture capitalists will be looking to invest in new uniforms for us very shortly…

Hay, Steve T (from high school for those of you who remember), and I headed out for a cruise today on a lovely London autumn day. It got off to a bad start when on the way down in the elevator a dude pointed out to me that I had a bit of a flat tyre. Hmmm… not good. Gave it a quick press and it wasn’t totally flat so pumped it up with the Pocket Rocket before rolling out. I was guessing a slow leak but I figure I could at least get to Hay’s place where I could use the floor pump to test it properly. I get to Hay’s, pumped up the tyre some more, and sure enough the hissing became louder. I found the leak was from where I had my last puncture. That section of the tyre had a pretty bad/deep cut hence I’m thinking that I’ll need to replace it ASAP.

Nonetheless, changed the tube (in under 5 mins!) then rolled out to Steve’s place around 20 mins behind schedule. Steve lives in SW London (we’re in the NW) so we had to go through the posher suburbs (i.e. Chelsea) to get there. I think I saw no less than 5 Ferraris.

We get to Steve’s and the sun was actually peeking through still (*shock*) so we rolled on through to Richmond Park. The original back up plan was to go to Hyde Park if Hay’s knee was playing up or if it started raining, but it was all good.

About another 20 mins later on the London roads, we arrived at Richmond Park. Although it was busy with traffic, I could see how early on a Sat/Sun morning it could be a popular course for cyclists. There were still quite a few roadies doing laps on this ~10km course and there were even these things called ‘hills’ that really made me huff and puff (I’m going to struggle with Beach Rd when I get back…). Anyway, Steve managed to pull away on the hills every time on the Wilier but on the flats I was still sucking strong like a Hoover.

Was definitely the best ride I’ve been on to date. Will have to go back next week (weather pending).

^Picture of Richmond Park: Yes, be sure to be out by 8pm as they have to cull DEERS. I did see a few little ones on the side of the road which I thought was pretty cool. Poor bambi…

Guys, the boss and I will be home for three weeks during the Xmas break. Who’s down for some Yum Cha on Boxing Day??

Let me know and I’ll try to suss something outm thanks.

Happy birthday, Dude.

(Short and sweet)

Conversation I had with a Tesco (it’s like Coles Express) checkout dude today.

Me: (Hands dude 4 pack of Coroners Coronas)
Him: (Scans) How old are you?
Me: You’ve got to be kidding right, I’m (insert age).
Him: Can you show me some ID please?
Me: (Hands him my drivers license with a grin) The age is there on the bottom right.
Him: (Checks)
Me: How old are you?
Him: I’m 22. (Hands me back ID)
Me: (Walk out with beer and ID trying very hard not to crack up)

Funny thing is, I actually did start using some moisturiser (and hair gel ) recently as I felt I looked like a fossil after seeing pics like this and this, but surely that Nivea stuff couldn’t have worked THAT well to shave 10 years off…

Wow… new WP 2.0 editor. Cool.

After forking out more pounds for some Shimano M520 SPD pedals and Specialized BG Sport MTB shoes (I have now almost officially spent more money on gear than the bike itself), Hay, Pete and I were going to meet up Sat morning to go for a bit of a cruise. Pete didn’t end up coming down to Hay’s place (the meeting point) in the morning and because he had the pedal wrench, we rode to his house instead which was about 3-4km away. Pete had to change his pedals as well as he’d just recently purchased clipless too. When we got to Pete’s, I gave it a shot at changing the pedals but given that me and pedal wrenches never seem to get along (I can never figure out which way to turn them), we ended up riding to a local bike store to get it changed. This actually ended up being a good thing as until now I have only been shopping at the big chain stores and it was a welcoming change to see a (cheaper) mum and dad type store stocking a half decent range. Anyway, they lent us their pedal wrench (I’ve gotta say the Park Tools are just so much better and easier to use) and after telling me which way to turn, it was a piece of cake. We changed Pete’s pedals there as well but given that he hasn’t used clipless before, he continued riding with his sneakers. It felt so good to be clipped in again and not bouncing around… (felt so much safer too).

Anyway, our next destination was a street market as I had to do a bit of grocery shopping. The fruit and veggies were not only cheaper than the supermarkets as expected, but it was a lot fresher too. Special thanks to Tara and James for recommending this place to me (who else would know more about where to get the best and cheapest foods!). We also ended up having a kebab there. And it was a HUGE kebab too. Pete went to order and he asked for 3 kebabs but when the guy put 3 skewers of meat on one, Pete tried to correct the guy by telling him that he wanted 3 separate kebabs only to have the guy tell him ‘yes, I know, this is just one’.

After scoffing down lunch we went back to my place to dump the groceries, and Pete headed off home. Hay and I did a couple more lazy laps of Regent’s Park before we both headed home. I must admit I quite enjoy these cruises through the city… it’s an excellent way to see London without having to worry about where/when to catch the bus or tube. Gives you complete freedom to ride through those dodgy neighbourhoods if you want to..

Oh yer, getting better at my ‘track stands’ too, although I still can’t quite fully do it cos I haven’t mastered rolling backwards. I tend to creep forward bit by bit still.

Ride stats:
Dist - 29.03 km
Avg - 17 km/h

I figured I’d finally get around to upgrading Wordpress on this website to version 2. The upgrade has broken a few things so I’ve reverted to the standard theme. In the meantime, you can use this post for your random chats.

Keith and I headed out to Ruffey Lake Park this evening for some MTBing. Usually not worthy of a post, except for a minor achievement - after a year of MTBing, I managed to conquer that tricky downhill bit! The last time we were at Ruffey Lake, it had been raining the day before. I had one try at it on that day but I was struggling with a very slippery track and didn’t manage to make all the way to the bottom without putting a foot down. I decided that today was going to be the day I would conquer it.

First attempt, I nearly took a tumble because of a bad line so I spent a few minutes walking the first few turns working out where to go. Back to the top and lined up for another approach with Keith watching from the top. This time I made it safely through the first turn where I had put my foot down on the first attempt. Then came the next little tricky bit and before I knew it, I’d ridden it without even thinking about it. Another sharp left-hander followed by some very slippery tree roots and before I knew it, I’d reached the bottom. Finally I’d ridden it without one of those Alan cartwheels!

Anyway, we did three more laps after that and I managed to nail this section each time. The last lap I managed do the entire loop without putting a foot down. Reasonably happy with the effort today.

HYG and I headed out for a first look at Wombat State Forest Mountain Bike Park. We headed out from my place at 7am to avoid the traffic. There was a little trouble finding the trailhead but we made it eventually. For future reference, the trailhead is 4.1km down Finger Post Road after turning off from Old Calder Highway. Map here. Hmmm… was it cold? Let’s just say there wasn’t going to be any mooning from me on this ride.

Although there has been some recent rain making the track a little tricky, it’s a great course. Tight tricky singletrack but mostly ridable. Worth going back except that’s it’s so far away.

On the way home, we came across this:

On another note, I’m disabling photo uploads to qweop. I’m pretty sure everyone has access to some sort of photo sharing service, whether it’s Yahoo! Photos, Flickr or Photobucket.

Here are a handful of photos from our recent North America trip.