As is usual around this time of year, we managed to get in a couple of rides. Saturday morning saw three of us – me, HYG and Andrew L – head out to Marysville for the ride up to the top of Lake Mountain.

We made it to Marysville ready to roll just before 9am. The climbing began straight away as soon as we rolled out of town without any warm-up. The first 20 minutes was the most painful part of the climb. I did have to stop a few times, including twice in a row within 200m. Once the first few kilometers of grinding was over and my legs and joints had loosened up, the rest was just steady plugging away. It was a solo ride for the next hour and a bit as I had dropped off from the other two.

blah blah blah [more later if I can be bothered]

Where: Yarra Trails. Burke Rd to Westerfolds
Distance: 33km
Who: Keith, HP, HY, Kev, Andrew L and another Andrew (noob)

Woohoo. It’s great now that Bastian is a little older, M has given me a bit more freedom to go riding. So instead of my usual 5am road ride, I was able to do a more civilized 8am mtb ride.

Good turnout for a fairly last minute group text message. HP and I did a bike switcheroo for the return leg. Everyone stood around bored while we stuffed around swapping our pedals. I was quite impressed with the Yeti. HP had the suspension setup quite to my liking. Still quite firm and not squishy like Andrew’s i-Drives. There wasn’t too much suspension bob, so was still able lay the power down through the fast singletrack. The corners was where I really noticed the difference between my hardtail and the duallie. The rear wheel tracked smoothly and just kept gripping. I don’t think there’s any doubt. An XC duallie is definitely gonna be potentially faster than an XC hardtail.

It wouldn’t be a TYP ride without someone falling over. Today it was HP. Somehow he managed to fall going UPHILL. Similar to HY’s achievement a few weeks ago. Apparently, he was doing a sprint climb on my bike, and didn’t realise how twitchy the steering is on it. He steered too sharply and went crashing down. Very stylish.

… or really stupid… I’ve yet to figure out which.

Bell lap. This time around I fully committed to a break so I headed straight to the front, and then beyond. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, after last season’s dismal single attempt at the Imperial Winter Series (coming last on the flat bar because of a puncture), I thought I’d sign up again and give racing a proper go for a season. The series runs from this Saturday through to early Feb, and I’ve actually signed up for a British Cycling license so I can earn points and move up the grades if I do well.

Read the rest of this entry »