Powerful owl TT

I've just discovered round 2 of the Powerful Owl time trial at Bruce's loop is on tomorrow night. I think that will be the first hit out for the Yeti in a race.
Better fit the candles on then ay....

Molto grazie! Spoke(n)

I'd like to sincerely thank the Spoke(n) crew for their support and supply of my new ride, nice work and it's greatly appreciated. And if you want to experience the joy of a Yeti ride, trust me and put your current ride on ebay or bike exchange or sumfink get your ass into the shop and get one.
It's as easy as that!

Gush, gush, gush...

The Yeti ASRc was rolled out for a 4 hour ride out to Hans' loop yesterday and if the body wasn't telling me to turn and head home to eat, I'd probably still be out there now!
It quite simply must be the greatest MTB riding experience I've ever had, possibly an unfair advantage over those without one or, sex on wheels.
As previous reviews from others who have experienced the ASR, I can confirm it begs to be ridden FAST!!! Feels like it's on rails and all that gush, gush, gush...

My initial concerns about passing up the highend xc hardtail race experience were quickly put to rest. I am happy to carry the extra 1kg or so extra bike weight to bang around on the plushness of a quality dually that the ASR is. The slacker head angle is great and I'm happy to adjust to it from the twitchier set up I was running previously.
I was able to hunt down other riders on the trails with stealth as the bike is, as we all dream of, quiet. No chain slap, no squeaks, no knocks.... love it!!!
But, bikes don't ride themselves (good one), so I'll just have to get myself up to top speed to ride it to it's full potential.

The Yeti ASRcarbon is a 5 star ride (if not better).

I'm like a kid at Crissy at the mo' and all week I'll be dreaming of hitting the Yangers on Sunday to enjoy the great and varied riding out there.

The new ride...

Drum roll please...........
Introducing the Yeti ASRcarbon with Pro kit set-up!
No time to discuss now but will blab on about it after the weekend.
Off to ride now......
There's a pic near the end of this blog, take a deep breath and scroll below.

Melbourne to Ballarat Classic

All signed up for this 99 year old race (yes it's as old as the Giro pretty much).
It's a handicap and I'll be riding off 16mins (mid way in the field).
Strong northerlies predicted and I'll be doing my best to conserve, conserve, conserve energy, as us smaller blokes must do in the wind.
93 kms of uphill and flat to Ballarat.
Result posted next week.
I'll be telling myself "It's all good training!" and "ya gotta suffer for success" and all sorts of weird and wonderful things en route.
Look'n forward to it.

New Yeti not far away now... WOOHOO!!!

.....and back again.

Big things have happened since last posting to say the least (blogging not being a grand priority. No really.) What with moving house, renovating, blending families harmoniously, falling pregnant, work trips, etc..... WHAT? PREGNANT??? How did that happen? Let's not worry 'bout that then ay. I am extremely excited to be having a baby with the wonderful "Baroness of Pizza", but this is not the place to gush my excitement so I shant.
Also I'm stoked to be now riding for Spoke(n) after a generous offer to jump ship from MBC. I sincerely thank Warren at Melbourne Bicycle Centre for his support over the last 15 months or so, it is greatly appreciated and I still recommend them if your looking for a new ride (with wheels I mean).
The Spoke(n) relationship means the Scott Scale LTD has gone to a new home:-( but a new Yeti ASR Carbon is on the way, hip horray. Can't wait and I will be giving my humble critique when I've given it a good ol' fashioned thrashing!
Training pretty hard at the mo' and feeeeling good after 6-8 weeks off the bike.
Melbourne to Ballarat is in my sights on 18 July, so I'll soon find out just how I'm track'n.

Got that itch goin.....

Itch'n to race.

The Mont 24 wrap up

What a crack'n weekend of racing and laughs!
The trip up took in such high (and low) lights as The Holbrook Settler, the noisiest motel ever (so no sleep there) and the Coffee at Niagra Cafe in Gundagai (2x *%#'n strong coffee, off me chops was I).
Straight out to the track Friday with a coupla bonding practice laps with 5/6ths of the motley crew that was the 'Optical Illusion' (sans Chris H). The course was seriously the greatest enduro track ever (especially if you don't like the climbing bits of MTBing). At 18km's long our reasonably paced laps took around 55mins, ish. Lighly undulating, well routed, smooth pine forrest floor mostly but not much tech, unless travelling at top speeds.
Blah, blah, blah, Friday night pizza and beer with much bike/race verbal crapola flowing (love it!)
Rain overnight.
Arrival at the track on Saturday was met with a bit of dampness underfoot but a warm-up roll around revealled perfect track conditions.
Tim had a crack'n first lap (including run) and put us right up there and we never looked back. Great to see Malachi back on the fat tyres, let's hope to see more of his experience & smoooth lines on the dirt.
Bruce Dickey was solid and consistent as ever. Cam Wells and Chris Haydon both in great form.
Many laughs were had, many fast laps on an ideal course (the best ever enduro course in my opinion) and the result we were after, finishing a full 3 laps ahead of the competition.
We also would have finished 6th or 7th in open which is a fair effort for a team with an average age of 48. Blah, blah, blah.

I am in for next year.... no doubt at all.

Looking forward to the BMC 100k marathon at Woodend on the 19th April.

Keep peddling! (and breathing)

Ay Up! for the Mont

Just ordered some neu Ay Up! lights for the upcoming Canberra experience. After a bit of tossing around options, the Ay Ups seemed to be the best balance of reliability, function, economy, light weight (for the weight weenie I am) and fuck me, they're 'Astrayan made!!! Ridgey didge, dinky di.
More winter MTB? You bet!

1 week 'til the Mont bus leaves... woohoo!!!

Change of plan

It was decided by the 'Neenan Eckbo Confederacy' members that a 4.30am rise, 7hrs of driving and a return time of around 9pm for 2hrs of racing per rider was, well...... not on.

So the alternative was a crack'n urban epic Mullum Mullum loop. I had only riden parts of it in the past so following B.Dickey and C.Wells for the route was the call for the day. 80k's of pretty good riding with some excellent flowing sections and a few climbs. Gee the older bloke in the group can hook into that single track better than most, not bad at 58. Post ride, the legs were feeling it (not that good at only 40, harden the fuck up !!!). An bike unrelated highlight was Bruce's spotting of a couple of powerful owls near Heidleberg, them is big intense look'n birds them is.

I'll be out there again to try and retrace the tricky route (since it does come very close to work and the other end is home) but a GPS or Mullum loop experienced rider would help as there is quite a few track switches.

The team is looking strong for Canberra in 2 weeks as I got to ride with 4 of the other 5 riders over the weekend. (even if one M.Moxon is now a roady)

Get out there, the trails are great after a bit of precipitation over the last coupla weeks.

Mt Beauty 6 hour enduro

2 weeks off the bike??? hardly a break after over-training, but more a result of too many other stuffs going on. Anyway, with an invite to join the star studded (Cam Wells & Bruce Dickey) 'Neenan-Eckbo Confederacy' team for this coming weekends race, I will be turning the legs over again this week in an effort to help propel our mighty team to victory!!! Hopefully.
I always love racing at Mt Beauty and don't mind making the 3.5 hr trip to do so.
My erratic Summer of racing with little training continues.
So I think I'll go out on the fat tyres tonight for a bit of fun and skills honing.

Yay! the Mont is coming up in 3 weeks and our 'ol' fellas' team should be up there to back up our victory in the Scott. Which will prove nothing and only inflate our already healthy egos (wankers).

Roll on...

Golden Plains - festival of munters

Back in the real world (or is it?) after a fine, leisurely weekend spent with 'the First Lady of Pizza' . Firstly down the coast for a surf and then off to Meredith for tunes n beers.
Saturday night, Black Mountain kicked it off for us and set the bar high, early with their 70's inspired prog rock noise, and harmony. A consistently good You am I show also.
Sunday's highlight for us was The Old Crow Medicine Show, great country/bluegrass fun. The Drones, who I reckon should write a more appropriate 'Astrayan' national anthem, were also rock'n. Gary Numan? well, hmmm, gee Woody, don't know about that one, but it's all about variety I suppose. Good to have a few slurred words (and drinks) late with a couple of blokes who do it best (Max & Wayno, cheeers!).
A slow exit on Monday for an epic car journey to retrieve 'Pickle', getting home way too late.
Back to work...

Golden Shower Festival?

No, I don't think so. It is looking like it will be fine for the 3rd Golden Plains Music Festival, unlike last Decembers MMF which was a mud bath (glad I skipped that one).

Looking forward to soaking up the sounds with the Baroness of Northcote by my side, yeah!!!
With a few must see acts i.e. Mogwai, The Drones, Old Crow Medicine Show, Brant Bjork, You Am I, The Church, Tony Allen, Gary Numan??? and the band I'm bust'n to see live, Black Mountain from Canada, oh joy!!! No doubt there will be some great surprises, as there always is, with the lesser known acts (to me anyway).

So it's a bike free weekend (WHAT!!!) with a surf Saturday morn'n and music n beers for the rest. Looking forward to catching up with many munted mates that I don't get to see that often (what with being bike obsessed, parenting young Pickle and work).

If you're off to Golden Plains, Black Mountain'd be my pick I reckons.

HHCCC - another great event!!!

Firstly, thanks to Bruce and Steve for another slick event!
Great, well supported route and the weather was ideal (perhaps a lil' smokey but whadaya want?).
I may be actually learning to ride a little more cleverly by not getting sucked into the wrong surges or breaks (I know it's an event, not a race, but seriously, everyone at the pointy end is racing).
Taking it easy and riding tempo for the first 58k stage was the plan and was adhered to, great warm up.
12.30pm saw the start to the Mansfield to Mt Buller stage and the lead bunch rolled out to Merrijig relatively slowly (excellent). The surges and breaks came from there on in. A break of 4 was let go first, then the Sram boys (Rob and Dan) went. I had a crack at Pinacle Valley with no takers and by Changue Rd decided it was pointless and sat back in the bunch. Mirimbah servo was time to go and 3 of us chased. I settled into solid climbing tempo and felt pretty good, catching the Sram boys about half way up. There was no looking back now, no cramps, no dehydration, I crossed the line in 5th place. Gez Mc Hugh apparently not to far behind, and the strong riding Tim Ross also up there, top work chaps.
A quick massage, chat a few buddies, load up with new biddons and back down the mountain at a rate of knots (much to a few riders surprise on their way up) into a bit of a smokey head wind back to Mansfield.
Unfortunately no staying on the mountain this year to ham it up and no Sunday stage as Coco was waiting for her Dad in Melbourne (thanks Nanny Dee).

Again, an event not to be missed!

A no-bike weekend coming up as Golden Plains is next weekend and probably a few waves on Saturday as there should be a pretty solid swell on the way.

Lets hope all goes well and there are no more lives or property loss due to the predicted extreme weather tonight/tomoz. Shit! I'm flying to Sydney in the morning...