So the first full commute is done.
As if to welcome me back, Melbourne threw at me a bit of everything. It was dark, there was a bit of drizzle, some crosswinds and to top it all off, I punctured about 1.5km home.
But you know what?
I didn’t really suffer as much as I was expecting.
Despite all of the best intentions to hit the hotel gym exercise bikes while I was away, I didn’t manage to do it once.
There were excuses.
Lots of them.
It’s too hot. It’s too humid and I’ll sweat myself dry. I just ate – being in SE Asia, this was something I was constantly doing. I need to sleep early tonight for tomorrow’s work then flight, which could have accounted for approximately half of the evenings of my trip.
Blah blah blah.
All just excuses. However, I know that the fact is, the reason that I don’t do it is because… it’s just no fun. Honestly, there’s nothing that bores me more than the thought of sitting on the spot, drowning in my own sweat and going nowhere.
So you’d think that on arriving back in Melbourne, I’d be back on the bike in a flash.
Wellllll, no. I’m actually dreading the first commute.
It’s going to be cold – somewhere between five and ten degrees celcius, after my body had adjusted to two weeks of somewhere around the 30 degrees celcius mark. I’m going to be disorganised – for me, riding to work involves being very organised to make sure I don’t forget anything. Most of all, I’m going to be unfit and that just makes me unhappy.
But I’m going to suck it up and do it anyway tomorrow…
So I’ll be off the bike for a few weeks.
That’s quite annoying.
To be more precise, it’s not actually being off the bike that annoys me. It’s actually getting back on the bike that annoys me. In recent times, I’ve actually had some really good form on the bike. Commutes have been really comfortable, despite the weather. I’ve been hooking up corners well on the MTB. Road rides have just ticked over easily.
I know that after having a break, I will suck.
And that’s annoying.
Planning on a lunch time jaunt on one of the Melbourne Bike Share bikes today. With helmet laws, it has actually taken some planning to make sure that I actually have my helmet with me today. With lunch time many hours away still, some thoughts cross my mind…
No lycra
While I don’t always ride in lycra, I do end up doing so more often than not. My commute’s just too long, with a few too many hills to consider otherwise. Either way, I intend to ride in my work clothes today, which given the full chain guard and comfortable geometry of the bikes, shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, not having my usual lycra kit means that people will probably be able to recognise me. I’m not sure if that bothers me…
Breaking a sweat
I’ll admit that I am a naturally sweaty individual. This is actually cause for serious concern because along the route that I plan on taking today, there is at least one serious hill. While I’m not actually worried about the weight of the bike (my commuter is only marginally lighter) or the gearing (it’s not THAT big a hill), I am concerned that I will actually break a sweat and show up to lunch looking like I’ve just stepped out of a sauna.
Roads
While I’m not exactly concerned about riding on the roads on any of my bikes, I am mildly concerned about it on a bike that I’m unfamiliar with. The fact is, I don’t know how this bike pulls away at the lights, if it will fit between two cars or how effective the brakes are.
This should be an interesting lunch time break.
| Route | Mount Donna Buang loop via O’shannassy Aqueduct and Don Road (GPS Log) |
| Elapsed time | 5:14:41 |
| Ride time | |
| Total distance | 57.01 km |
| Max speed | 55.7 km/hr |
| Average riding speed | 15.4 km/hr |
| Weather | Cool and snowing… perfect! |
| Bike | Jamis |
| Who | Me, Harng, Andrew, Andrew, Victor, Victor, Martin, Wendy, Matt, Doug, Scott, Errol, Ro(h? w?)an, Rod |
What started out as a crazy idea between a bunch of friends of going riding up in the snow appears to have gone all mainstream and stuff. Not that I’m complaining, because I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of folks to be riding with.
With all of the planning that had gone into this year’s edition of the snow ride, Melbourne weather also decide to play nice and actually snow leading up to the event. To top it off, it then become warm(er) and dry a few days before. In fact, aside from some rain early in the morning, we actually had a dry ride this year, which made all of the difference (to most of us… except Victor who decided to roll out of the house at 3am and ride to the start!).
With Victor’s super, super early start, he arrived at the start point around 7:00am for the 8:00am meet up. The rest of the group arrived in dribs and drabs up until about 8:15am. All up, 14 people… What a crowd! Andrew L decided that such a tough ride warranted busting out the Xizang titanium race bike. We were also joined by another Andrew, who turned out to be one of the guys we used to race with at Bushy Park. Wendy decided that this ride would be the best way to break in her new Baum. One of Scott’s friend’s Errol, who came along for the start of last year’s ride came again… this time with a rain jacket (although it didn’t rain this year).
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| Wendy’s shiny new ride. |
As ride director, I felt inclined to say a few words, but I remember thinking that I didn’t actually have anything meaningful to say, so I think it came out something like “umm okay then… well.. let’s go”. Which… we did. I must remember to prepare something insightful to say next time.
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| Victor riding up front, after having ridden to the start. |
Stage 1 – O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail
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The best part about this section of the ride is that I was meant to lead the group and I only had a vague idea of where I was going. This year’s route was slightly different from previous years in that we took O’shannassy Aqueduct, rather than the Warby Trail. In doing my recon ride of the trail a few weeks ago, I’d actually ridden the the aqueduct trail from Don Road and turned around before hitting Warburton itself. Thankfully, some well placed signs along the road climb ponted us in the right direction and we set off… and straight into a 17% gradient climb. I was immediately put into trouble from overheating. The balmy 8 degree weather, combined with the fact that I was dressed for the top of the mountain, not the bottom, meant that I went from the front of the pack, into the granny ring and getting passed by everyone.
Thankfully the climb wasn’t too long and we found ourselves at the gate to the aqueduct trail. Which, as it turns out, was actually the gate at which I’d turned around at during my recon ride. Anyway, the pacelines formed up and we settled into a nice, comfortable warm up along the flat aqueduct trail. I’ve decided that this is a much more civilized way of starting this ride, because it gives you a good 10km flat section where you can get warmed up and comfortable on your bike. I sat right at the back at Wendy and we had a nice cruise along and chat, while I admired her new Baum bike. We were soon joined by Martin and the three of us cruised along comfortably to meet up with the rest of the bunch for the Don Road climb.
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| First regroup point. |
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| Martin’s Masi CX bike was in its element here. |
I have to say that I really love this part of the trail. Except for a few funny climbs and descents near the road crossings, this trail is for the most part, dead flat, making for some really comfortable riding. With the towering mountain on one side and gaps in the trees providing some pretty decent views of the valley, it’s a really nice place to be. I must make an effort to get out there and ride this entire trail at some point.
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| The Don Road regroup point |
Stage 2 – Don Road to the gates of the national park
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As we turned up Don Road, I decided to move up towards the front of the group, where I found this…
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| Why would you wear white??? |
Now I know it’s very Euro-pro to have a white jersey, shoes, knicks, saddle and bar tape, but it’s very un-pro to actually get any of them dirty. I mean really, why would you wear an uncovered white jersey on a ride where you are guaranteed to get wet and muddy. Not only that, Harng actually turned down my offer of a rear mud guard earlier that morning.
Anyway, as the road turned upward, the group splintered and we each settled into our own pace. For the most part, the chatter died down and was only punctuated by the odd call of “Car up!”. At this point, I started to realise again that the saddle on my mountain bike is very, very hard. This is not actually the only time that I’ve realised this. In fact, it’s on this very ride every year when I realise the same thing. Of course, that’s never actually a problem when I’m out on the trails, since I hardly ever sit down, but for a ride like this… ouch! Of course, I will promptly forget this in a week’s time and remember again during next year’s ride.
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| Le peleton rolls out from Don Road |
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| Victor and Harng pushing the pace |
The climb in this section is pretty comfortable, with nothing too steep and the road surface quite easy to manage, so it wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the end of Don Road, ready to cross into the national park. The road signs here were the cause of a bit of confusion. Is it…
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| 14km to go? |
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| Or 16km to go? |
Stage 3 – Behind the gates of the national park
To me, this is always the best and worst part of the ride. The closed gates means that we can ride anywhere we like on the road. At this point, the weather always starts to close in and eventually the bitumen road gives way to gravel and in this year’s case – mud. One important thing to note about this part of the ride was the fog.
Very… very… dense fog.
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| That’s the flash being reflected by the fog |
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| More of Mr Poopy Pants |
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| Spirits were still high |
As we pushed on up the hill, the group started to get well and truly broken up along this section, with the lead group containing the two Andrews, the two Victors, Harng and Martin up the road. My mid-pace group with Rod, Matt and Doug, generally riding alone. While not far behind was the group of the floral lei containing Scott, Rohan, Errol and Wendy were all a bit more chatty. I have to say that the forest at this point is absolutely stunning. Massive trees on both sides, shrouded in fog, with streams of snow melt trickling along most of the gullies.
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| Lovely scenery… the trees, not Matt & Rod. |
However, during this part of the ride your body gets the real test. You’re starting to get tired. Hunger will kick in if you haven’t had enough to eat. Your mind starts to get annoyed about the fact that you’ve been constantly pedalling with no respite. The cold starts to seep through your gloves. The muddy trail makes smooth riding hard. PLUS, the snow starts.
Except this year, the snow didn’t start.
Actually… I was getting kind of worried. We pushed on and on and yet, there was no snow to be seen. I was actually getting kind of worried that the elements had conspired against me and the previous day’s 10cms of snow had become nothing more than mush overnight. We pushed on and on, yet there was no snow. Past the point when I was blown into a ditch two years prior. Past the ski jump.
Nothing.
I was honestly quite worried that there would be 13 disappointed riders who didn’t get any snow.
Then, we hit the snowline! Whew!
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| Woohoo! Snow! |
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| Last one up the hill |
The road also turned to bitumen which I knew meant that the gates wouldn’t be far… and the end of stage 3.
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Stage 4 – Homeward bound… almost
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| Just a little bit of fog. |
With the bulk of the climbing out of the way, it was a matter of a formality to do the final ascent. Everyone was quite tired, but we all knew that the end was in sight. Unlike last year, we actually took it a bit further and rode all the way to the top, which involved dodging peds along the final section of ungraded road. Thankfully no one fell on top of any stray kids on toboggans.
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| Where’s that foot going? |
At the top, I attempted to get some folks to try riding across the snow, but no one seemed interested, so it was on with all of the ski gear that we’d lugged up to the summit and it was time to bomb the descent. For the first time ever I was totally comfortable on this descent. More than that, I was actually warm. Wow. What a difference it makes. Unfortunately high speed descending doesn’t make for good opportunity to take photos, so there aren’t any, however we all made it down safely and back to the cars, some, a lot slower than others.
As we rolled into the carpark, I started to feel an huge feeling of satisfaction. I’d actually managed to plan a snow ride one month out, had a huge turnout and not only finished, but finished quite strongly. I was quite pleased with that outcome. Also, no one spat the dummy this year and there were no concerns about freezing or broken teeth.
Makes me want to ramp it up even further next year. :)
Links
It’s only a couple of days until our annual snow ride and at this point, I couldn’t be more pleased with the weather. Aside from a good initial dump of snow a few weeks ago, the often brief Mount Donna Buang snow season was shaping up to be a fizzler. There was good precipitation throughout June, however the weather was generally quite warm and snow was not looking likely.
Heck… about a week ago, I was even starting to wonder if I’d actually missed my chance 2010.
But no.
This is Melbourne.
And nothing is certain with Melbourne weather.
So today, I was quite pleased to find the following.
And even more pleased to see this.
Honestly. What more could I ask for?
For years, I’ve been reading articles about how 29ers handle differently, roll over obstacles, absorb bumps and grip better, but haven’t actually had a real opportunity to try one out.
So I’ve now finally had my first real ride on a 29er.
And not just any old 29er. A rigid, steel, singlespeed 29er… a proper one. Previously, my only experience with large wheels off road was my hack job rigid singlespeed conversion of an Avanti Blade flat bar road bike with CX. That bike was incredibly stiff, over geared and a real struggle with relatively skinny 35mm tyres.
This time, it was a proper setup. 2.1″ tyres. ~50 gear inches. Proper steel mountain bike.
Initial thoughts?
I’m impressed.
Or maybe I had expectations of it being really hard work and I should say that it wasn’t as tough as I was expecting?
Traction – Mud plus Crossmarks makes for a very slippery affair. Hard to say if there was more traction, since there was generally no traction. Although I dd manage to catch myself during slides easier. Does that count as more traction?
Comfort – Comfort a bit difficult to measure given that I was riding a fully rigid. There’s nothing really comfortable about this endeavour normally, so I guess you could say it was more comfortable (than what, I’m not sure – maybe sleeping on a bed of nails?).
Roll-over-obstacles-ability – Sure, it rolled over obstacles just fine. Primarily limited by my general inability because for me lofting my front wheel over obstacles involved some preloading of the suspension. In the absence of suspension, this proved to be a bit more of a tricky process and more often than not it was a bit more of a case of crashing into obstacles and kind of rolling through them. That said… it did this very well.
So… thinking about going 29er? Rigid? Do I recommend it? I think I do…
(More later when I’ve had a chance to ride this bike again in conditions I’m more familiar with)
One and a half weeks out from our annual snow ride and we’re facing a problem. That being the general absence of much snow on the bigger mountains, let alone forecasts for proper snow falls.
Cmon Melbourne weather!
Don’t let me down!
(A doomed plea I know)
I’ve delayed writing this posts because it feels like someone has beaten my wrists into a pulp using cobblestones… probably because someone has…
With a new date for the 2010 Melburn-Roobaix, there was a lot of talk in the lead up about having to prep your bike for wet weather because cobblestones were slippery in the wet. I wasn’t entirely convinced. Given that I’m a bit of an old hand at this cobblestones thing and having been drenched in Albert Park a few years back, I stuck to my standard setup. My slightly too-big-for-me Rossin road bike fixie, running ~60 gear inches, lots of spokes and 23mm tyres. My only concession to the potentially wet weather was to ditch the cotton this year in favour of lycra.
Kicking off from HPG’s place, we detoured via Victoria Street for a quick dose of salmonella rolls to fuel up. At this point I realised that I’d forgotten my registration email and turned back to grab it. On the way back I couldn’t help but notice the sheer number of bikes headed to the meeting point. Before long I was back on track and headed towards the meeting point. Interestingly before the ride had even started, I found myself in my usual position from previous M-Rs – sitting up at the front of a pack of hipsters, leading out the pack.
How is it that I always find myself in the navigator’s seat?
Anyway at the meeting point, a few of the usual suspects started to trickle in, including Martin, who for once wasn’t late and wasn’t riding retro steel. In fact, he’d ditched the whole road bike thing totally and brought out his On One 29er on fat slicks. Pfft. Slack. This year Andrew also joined us and this was to be our group for the day – HPG, Andrew, Martin and myself. The thing that I noticed about this year’s ride is that there was a lot less bling out and about. Prior years have brought some serious bling in both retro and modern road bikes and conversions. Sure, there was still the usual, although somewhat smaller, contingent of hipsters on their fixies, sporting brightly coloured deep Vs, but for the most part, it seemed that most people had brought something very practical. Maybe the forecast for rain had scared off the nice bikes…
But there was some nice stuff…
Before long directeur sportif Andy White stepped up with the megaphone and this year, without too much fanfare or so much as a race briefly, he got the ride underway. It was such a sudden start that I found myself still faffing about, getting my GPS logger started and putting away my camera when half the field was away. Heck, I hadn’t even looked at the map yet! Definitely a less exciting start than previous years. Thankfully there was a big climb out from the starting point breaking the field up a bit and allowing the four of us to start threading our way through the masses.
Unlike prior editions, it was basically straight into the cobbles and we found ourselves in a bit of a traffic jam. Absolute chaos through sector #1. Pretty scary stuff in this section because there was really no space to move around and it was really riding wheel to wheel at far too low a speed to glide over the bumps. In amongst all of the chaos, despite waiting for quite some time, we lost Andrew, but figured that he’d just follow the masses. Heading south from Hawthorn to Burnley it was still pretty congested and the second sector of cobbles was again a bit chaotic. This was compounded by the fact that someone had parked his ute in the middle of one of the alleyways and we had to walk our bikes past in single file. Sector #3 was more of the same crowds, taking us up to the break at Supreme Coffee just off Victoria Street in Abbotsford.
Despite having only just gotten started it was already time for a coffee break where Andrew managed to catch up with us and fueled by caffeine, we hit the road again. Of course, when I say road, I mean dirt. The next section started almost immediately, which progressed from a gentle dirt trail into a soggy mess, with soft, inch-deep mud which caused my wheels to slide all over the place. This was the only place where I had to put a foot down, primarily due to the older gent on his road bike in front of me who had to keep getting off his bike.
At this point, the obligatory lunatic on the unicycle went past…
There’s always one…
Sector #4 out of the way, we found ourselves climbing then descending on Yarra Boulevard in Kew where we were able to really open up the pace a bit. The crowds had cleared a bit by this point and the open road, plus a break at Hoddle Street gave me some time to study the map. As we wound our way through Collingwood (sector #5) and Carlton North (sector #6 and 7), our group hardly stopped and we blasted out of some of the cobbled sectors straight towards the next section. Martin took advantage of his massive tyres in these cobbled sections, blasting straight past us, through all of the bumps. Andrew was showing us some of his foot down DH MTB styles through some of the narrower twisty sectors. All good fun. Sector #8 presented an interesting navigation problem, being right on the crease of the map and involving a bit of tricky navigation involving the bike path and a bit of doubling back. This turned out to be an excellent section though – a flat and even cobbled section (with speed bumps!) where you could really get the speed up.
We continued to wind our way through the inner north past the zoo and on to sector #9 (?) – the dreaded Koppenberg. I remember this section of the ride last year, where I was introduced to some of the cobbled climbs of the inner north west. My form was a bit average that year and I really suffered through some of these climbs as my cadence dropped, so I knew that I had to hit this climb hard and keep the speed up. Maybe a bit quick this year though because I smashed into the start of the climb so hard and fast that I almost ran straight into the back of a bunch of people who’d decided to walk the Koppenberg from the beginning. I was well set up though with my hands out nice and wide to get lots of leverage and kept up a steady pace up this climb. Andrew cruised up next to me spinning a comfortable gear and we scaled the climb together with Martin and HPG not far behind.
It was now the homeward stretch and we found ourselves back on the bike path, winding our way along the freeway bike path towards sector #10. Andrew decided to mix it up a bit and dropped down into the drain next to the bike path for a bit of urban mountain biking and for a minute, we thought that he might not be able to get back out. There was a little unmarked sector along this section, as we climbed out of the bike path along a small, steep, rutted dirt road and through the grass to get back to the bitumen. Sector #10 was another nasty climb but we continued to pass people through here and just kept on rolling at the top on to the nearby sector #11 and #12. We really hit these two sectors running and before we knew it, we were angling towards the final cobbled laneway marked sector #13. At this point, we realised that we hadn’t stopped for our usual café stop and with less tham 1km to go until the pub, we pulled up to one of the marked Supreme coffee stops… which turned out to serve Grinders.
Some time later, fueled with more caffeine, sugar, baked goods and… beef soup (*looks at Andrew*), we were on the road again and smashing through sector #13 to the back of the Lomond. We realised at this point that we’d skipped the velodrome and saddled up again to do our required lap of the boards (or cement as it is in the case of Brunswick). I was determined this time to not let Martin drop in over the top of me and really hit the velodrome flying this time. Thankfully I managed to hold everyone off and cruise over the line comfortably ahead of the other three.
Another Melburn-Roobaix in the bag. Aside from losing each other at the start, there were no real dramas this time – no flats or mechanicals as we’ve had in previous years. Another really good fun day smashing through the back lane ways of Melbourne. In fact, we may have even convinced Andrew about road riding on this one, given the relatively technical nature of this riding. Enough typing for now – it’s made my already sore wrists even more sore…
It’s almost time for one of the most important races rides of the year – The Melburn-Roobaix.
Despite the fact that people ride all sorts of different bikes on this ride, to me, it remains one for my fixie. The wheels on my road bike have fewer spokes than I’d be comfortable with. Plus I don’t have a spare set of wheels for that bike in the event of something disasterous. The mountain bike would be just too slow and the folder… let’s not go there. So that leaves the fixie. Lots of spokes, steel frame, road geometry (no twitchy track geo for me, thank-you-very-much) and nothing much that can go wrong (short of a broken chain).
The first year I did this ride, I was right into riding fixed and actually commuted on my fixie. ~50km several times a week through the hilly eastern suburbs on a fixie really builds up your strength. As such, I found the first few editions of this ride verrrry easy.
As time has progressed, and I’ve gotten more and more into mountain biking, I’ve ridden my fixie less and less. In fact, I’m actually struggling to think of when I last rode my fixie. So with very little recent experience continuously turning the legs and mashing up big hills, I wonder how I’ll go this weekend. Hopefully I won’t suffer too much.
Not that it matters of course because it’s not a race… it’s a ride.
Right?
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