29/06/07

Brrrr, it's cold out there!!!

Hi there all and welcome to another dribble. There's been a fair bit on over the past few weeks.

A few weeks ago, I finally made the change over from being a Shimano Boy to a new and improved SRAM Boy. That's right. I pulled all the Shimano XT stuff off Elle and replaced it with new SRAM X9 ders and shifters. I must say, i'm really liking the feel of the SRAM stuff. The major difference between Shimano and SRAM shifters is that the pulling ratio, from the shifter to the der, is a 1:1 ratio. This means that if you pull 1mm at the shifter, the der will move 1mm, unlike the Shimano shifters, which has a far different feel. The rear der pulling spring is much stiffer, which means that the impact of cable friction on shifting is really reduced. Also, the shifters have 2 nifty thumb shifters, which makes shifting a whole lot easier. There is a bit more noise in the rear mech, where the chain meets the rear cassette, but i'm sure it'll just take a few rides to settle in. I won't be going back to Shimano in a hurry.

A few weeks ago Dee, Di and I took a group of their clients, from Studio 404, out for a mountain bike ride up at the You Yangs. We have just got a load of brand spankin new hire MTBs, for the shop, to they hired all the bikes and gave them a good hammer. The group was a pretty mixed bunch, with some not ever ridden a MTB, to others who have just bought new MTBs and wanted to test them out. The aim of the ride was to introduce them all to the world of MTBing and to spread some of the MTB love round.

The ride was a total success. It was a bit cold at the start, but after a short road ride, to the trailhead, our hearts were pumpin. The ride was a nice casual affair, with us stopping every so-often to session different obstacles. Halfway round the trail is a "Skills Park" where we session bridges, roll overs and Teeter-Totters, until everyone was pretty confident. I was so proud of everyone's attitude. They were all willing to give anything a go. Even the Teeter-Totters!!

By the end of the ride, we were all pretty satisfied by the ride, so we headed to the picnic area, for a well earned lunch.

Sunday was the final race in the winter Tri X Series. Again, team '2 Nuts and a Beaver' (Carli and I) entered, complete with Tutus flying. This race was held out at Lysterfield Park, with a 6.5km run, 20km MTB ride and then a 3.5km run to finish with. Arriving, 8am last Sunday, was the last place I wanted to be. It was freakin freeeezing!! I was told it was 1deg. WAY too cold to be out of bed. Still, 160 competitors dragged their silly asses out there to race. I was riding my trusty 1995 Trek Y11 singlespeed, with a spiffy new Fox FloatR rear shock I'd just put on, cause the old SID had shat itself during the Chase the Sun 6hr a few weeks ago.

Carli's first run was a punnisher. The cold air was making it hard to breath, so that run was pretty tough. Still, she came into transition in a very respectable 48th overall. Next was my turn to shred up Lysterfield. I've ridden out at Lysterfield a fair bit, so i knew most of the trails. The main issue was that there had been a fair bit of rain over the last week, so the trails were pretty slushy in parts. The other main issue was the amount of people on the trail and the rider skill factor. Cause most of the riders were Tri/Roadie people, their off road skills weren't all that crash hot. But, everyone was really nice and would happily move to the side to let a pink Tutu blur flash past!!

I pulled into transition in 10th overall, with 3rd fastest rider time, and then Carli set off for the final run. After the 29th fastest run time, Carli brought the team home in 2nd place in the teams and 11th overall.

Dee was also racing. She had a pretty good race also. She was second female, after the first run, behind Lisa. Lisa had a 60 second jump on her, so she had to push hard. Dee managed to catch Lisa on the ride and put some time on her, but then Lisa unleashed her fury and overtook Dee towards the end of the ride leg. She managed to hold off Dee through to the end and crossed the line just over 2 mins in front of Dee. Dee's getting really good at the technical side of MTBing, we just need to work on her climbing and descending skills.

They are planning on running a Spring Tri X Series. I'm pretty keen on racing that, though Carli's "I soooo f*$@ing hate running" quote has got me second guessing weather i'll ask her to partner me!!!

 

Later Dudes.