good to hear you pulled up relatively ok, given the circumstances.
That could easily have been my front wheel / cracked helmet.
From my POV:
Had a blast flying down singletrail, pushing the limit on a cx bike, pumping around adrenaline instead of blood. Then we got to this very steep and long grassy hill and figured i’d just fly straight down. Stupid decision. There was an audience, i got cocky.
Flew down the hill through the tall grass, no braking, 50 km/h easily. At this point i wondered whether there might be hidden stuff in the tall grass… Got a bit worried, saw a line of plants coming, in a flash decided to slam on the disks and took off a bit of speed. Plenty speed left when i hit the gutter that the plants were growing in… Almost binned it, rear wheel up in the air, went over a bit of a rise, hit a second hidden gutter on the other side, almost lost control. More luck than skill involved.
Stopped at bottom of hill, happy to be alive. Turned around figuring i should warn Trigger and McKenny not to take that line but saw Trigger lying in the grass 50m behind me. Expected broken bones and was very surprised he was not badly hurt.
Trigger’s Stans 340 rims in a low spoke count wheel apparently do not like frontal impact like that. My front wheel is a 32h Blunt SL 29er rim. That and the fact i could take off speed quickly (discs vs canti) probably prevented me from crashing.
Trigger got home safe and I took the trails a fair bit slower on the way back to Lilydale. Lessons were learned by all.
Oh and aside of this stack, awesome day out. Two bad-ass climbs and a lot of fun trails. Props to Angry/Blakey!
PS does anyone have a DH bike i can borrow for the next Gravel Grinders?
Report’s up :
Melbourne Gravel Grinders: MGG #8 Report
Thanks everyone who came out! More rides next year!
Thanks for a good day out - and reminding me I should ride more.
The hot chips as we rolled into Lilydale station were fantastic!