Posting this up as a suggested ride, I’m not sure when I’ll be up for getting out there again. Its a great ride because:
its kind of hard to get lost (Keep the lake on the right, generally turn right whenever at a crossroads)
its good for all kinds of riders, and felt like good training. Firetrail, so you dont need wicked shredding skills, but its incredibly steep for a lot of the time, so the ups and downs are challenging to stay on and keep on truckin.
Heaps of the climbs I was busting it trying to keep moving in my lowest gear (32:34 29er), one of the descents had me so far off the back o the saddle that I thought I was going to tear a hole in my knicks, and there are waterbars and 90deg+ turns that you really need to keep an eye out for at warp speed. Its loose. I would really like to see how a fat bike would go up those climbs with all of that traction and low gearing.
Stats:
48k, 1600m climbing (though prob 1500m of that is in the first 35k)
99% (of time) dirt, bit of bitumen at the start.
Only a few big (150m or so) climbs, but a heap of shorter ones that wear you down. There is zero flat riding until 2.5hours, and there is water available at that point.
It might be a while before I get back out there. Maybe sometime in October? I guess you guys will have already been out there before then. I will taking gears off on July 8th, I think, and not putting em back on til start of Oct.
And yep, Ezy, my idea of “anything is possible on SS” has been tamed by this ride, it would be possible, but so is running it all.
I am free on October 27th! Should be fitter than I am now.
The bad thing is I am getting a fair bit of pain behind the knee on the stumpy from longer rides. It is usually the day after a ride that it starts to feel a bit tender. I was thinking it was the seat height and am playing around with that at the moment. Hopefully that is sorted by then.
I hated my bike on the weekend! Not even 2 minutes into the 24 hour and I lost all of my gears. I will have to take it into the shop to get it looked at, I think I may have stretched the cable for the front derailleur.
But yes - bike shopping has started. I don’t/can’t spend too much though as I can’t afford the bike I want. I am talking to the Whyte dealers now about one of these.
Sean - I can pick you up on the way out (we can all meet in the city for a pre ride coffee?).
Thats a pretty nice “not the bike i want”!!! Looks awesome i kind of hoped to meld the ride into a whisky session too, and/or the smoque thing? Could be a fairly big ask on fam time, but might work if i start talking it up weeks in advance
I’m keen to get in on this and meet you all but will hit you all up another weekend. I have the Fitz’s challenge on that weekend so will try to get through that.
I’m sure your knee will be A O K by then!