mwg

jared should take this 

so i picked up a chain on thursday last week and installed it on saturday afternoon. being the worst mechanic in the world i basically just threw the chain on and road down the drive up the hill a bit then back home. the gears were dodgy then and i kinda knew what was wrong but chose to ignore it, and spend the rest of the afternoon evening working on the RMM site so i can get the cash to buy “carbi” [a.k.a. scott scale 30].

i got up earlyish sunday morning, jumped into my riding gear and headed down the hill to yellomundee with the intention of doing possibly two laps then up the hill back to home. it was such a good feeling having the MTB rolling again. once i made it to the track i started off on the same route as last weekend, and again when climbing the firetrail, the issues began.

it is my fault because i knew it was wrong, but the gears were pretty much cactus. the new chain was about 5 links to long so it was just horrible and could not withstand any pressure on the down stroke what-so-ever, not to mention the fact that when the chain was on granny ring at the front and little back the rear derailer was almost collapsing into the rear sprocket. i am such an idiot.

i managed to find a reasonably safe/comfortable gear that didn’t slip and decided to climb the hill instead. i went up pretty much without a hitch so i decided i would do the hill again but this time with some training bursts. 5 min rest, 1 min push xtra hard, 5 min rest, 1 min push etc. that way i was getting some kind of work out.

i reached the top the second time and decided to call it a day and head home, to shorten the chain. lachlan and i did so on the bottom deck. i just hope all is fine for this weekends race in canberra. i didn’t really get a chance to test the new chain length out.

i am really starting to learn so much more mechanically about bikes, which i must admit i am really enjoying. i also set-up the full tool kit with grandpa’s inherited tool box and all my bike bits. its quiet a good little set-up now. all ready for the 8hr this weekend… come on canberra, i am pumped.

again i have a change of plan, but this one is a serious sticker.

i went down to blackmans today, with a price in my head. after discussions with chris, who i know quiet well now, we went through everything. i, for once had time, and the shop wasn’t overly busy so we really focused on my goals, and needs [lol needs]

after i explained my plan we discussed the whole alloy over carbon issue. chris is young but smart and understood completely that i was more concerned about longevity of a carbon bike over alloy. we grabbed the warranty book and confirmed the frames carbon or alloy had a 5 year warranty. now that was comforting and did tend to add a tilt toward carbon.

next we discussed the whole alloy bend and carbon give attributes. he did again re-affirm that carbon, even as a hardtail, has quiet a large amount of flex. much less HARD than the alloy.

we discussed the “man it up” about dualies and hardtails and again agreed, dualies are for pussies [lol] or all mountain riders which i am far from being. weight was another long discussion and i am really focussing on a very very light XC hardtail so carbon was really starting to take center stage.

forks have also been a bit of a focus, mainly due to weight, because any upgrade to my judy 1’s would be like heaven x 10,000.

then the money came into the equation. which realistically is the bottom line after everything. but… i was totally blow away when i/we worked out it isn’t out of my range at all to pick up this:

a full carbon scale with not so bad wheels, excellent forks, juicy 5 brakes etc. but the most exciting part is the fact that it is only
10.50kg
that, as a package, is realistically beyond my wildest dreams.

i will absolutely fly on that fucker!

UCI MTB World Cup #6 Canberra

is awesome