Today I did something I haven’t done in years.  I took a totally inappropriate bike to ride a section of track and crashed.

This morning I had an appointment to meet a rider to show them some plans for a dirt jump project.  Turns out that he was meeting a group of locals to do some runs prior to a downhill race tomorrow.  ”Hey, come up to the track and check it out.”  ”Sure…”  So, we all trudged up the hill, to one of the highest sections of the forest that I haven’t set foot in ever, and started climbing up the track…

Now some DH tracks are technical, full of rock gardens with rocks the size of milk crates and drop offs that have an alarming similarity to the edge of railway platforms.  This was, fortunately, not one of those tracks, it was simply corners carved into the side of a steep hill.  As we trudged upwards, for some reason I stopped thinking about this as a DH track and started pondering coming back down.  I hadn’t been invited out to hit up the DH track, they just asked me to take a look.  There was no pressure or expectation that I should try, no-one to impress (no matter what, I was going to look like an utter gumbie attempting to negotiate this on my XC bike).  Still, for some reason I really wanted to give it a shot.

In a way, this kind of riding takes me back to my MTB roots.  Back in 99 or thereabouts, on a steel XC hardtail with a cheap 20mm travel fork I went with friends to the Nationals DH track out of Canberra at Blue Range and we gingerly and unimpressively picked our way down to the bottom looking like utter novices who had no idea, no skills and no place being there.  I recall feeling scared, out of my depth and not having much fun.  Today was different for some reason.

So, there I was this morning, out on a muddy hillside on my XC singlespeed with it’s skinny, shallow-tread, low rolling-resistance tyres, saddle (Brooks) dropped nearly as far as it would go trying to make it down the track.  It doesn’t take much slope or mud to overcome the grip limits of many XC tryes and this was certainly the case for me, so I picked my way down, mostly with the rear wheel locked up, front wheel on the verge of doing the same and trying to stay mainly vertical and not dabbing a foot.  Until, (as was inevitable), the back end let go during a traverse and I fell over on my side.

All I did was laugh, grin and start riding again.  Minor graze, some mud on my leg and having a blast of a time looking like an idiot.  The lower sections of the track were great, less steep, more rocks and of the type that most folks can ride down, it’s simply hard to do it fast.  I had a hoot the whole way down and we left the DH folks behind to do their training and sort out their lines and returned to noodling around the XC singletrack…

I’m generally fairly risk averse, I don’t enjoy crashing and I have a mortgage to pay, family to help support and all that jazz, so I don’t hit up dangerous stuff at all.  Today wasn’t dangerous, it was just not suited to what I was riding, and so, I crashed and looked stupid doing it.  I haven’t had so much fun on a bike as I had in those 5 minutes in years.

Why do we grow up?

G’day fellow MTB net heads, I have been thinking over the last few weeks about the amount of coverage our sport gets in mainstream media. Sure you may see a small snippet of some poor sod taking a big digger at an event either here or around the world, tucked conveniently before an ad break on Sports Tonight. Better still, we copped a few half-hour sessions on SBS late last year/ early this year as apart of their Cycling Show. But gee, in a year (last one) where Australian Mountain Bikers stepped up and took names internationally you’d think we could have raised more than the whisper that was 2002. Read the rest of this entry »

I was thinking about the post “Mountain Bikers Care About Wild Places” in conjunction with the recent “….tap, tap, tap …..” forum post regarding the aging mountain biking demographics as I rode along yesterday.

I mountain bike because its fun, challenging and it puts me out in the bush in differing conditions regularly (and my family like me better if I have got out and thought and spun).

My appreciation of the sport grows as I get older. I think it is one of the few sports that a person can do for life and that the people who enjoy mountain biking average in their 30’s is not surprising as to enjoy the sport is not generally a cheap one nor is it one that can be learned overnight. Read the rest of this entry »

Introductory Downhilling, Near Healesville and Marysville, Victoria

By Tim Paton

After untold numbers of cocktails at Rich’s cocktail party on Friday night, a gentle start to the weekend was planned. Believing that it was public day at the bike show, Rich and I decided to go and shuffle around, grunting at the occasional bike, and hopefully meeting up with the Dirtworks boys and the elusive Ms Ferrari. It turned out that public day was not until Sunday, so we hired a sailing boat and floated around Albert Park Lake for an hour instead, before buying some Tim Tams and heading to my place to make some coffee. Read the rest of this entry »

Ups and downs – we all go through them.

Climbing/descending, fit/unfit, day/night�it’s everywhere. Some of the most dramatic ups and downs don’t come at the local DH course. They’re emotional. As simple as good/bad. Witness the early morning winter ride.

It starts the night before – you can’t set that alarm without being pretty bummed – especially when it’s for 5 am! Then you’ve really gotta work really hard on ignoring the reality of doona-suck – more so if you wake up at 2, 3 and 4am, staring at the leds! (Tip from a former breakfast radio presenter – if you’re ‘core about it, put the alarm clock on the other side of the room.) Read the rest of this entry »