mwg

ha, hahhahahhaha, cracks me up.

tells you jack shit about the brakes, but what awesome trails.

there’s no doubt i live in one of the best spots in NSW. it is miles from my work but thats the price you pay when you have this at your door step… well a 3-4km ride up the roadcarbo meets blue gum swamp


i had a few chores to do today but i had completed most of them by around 3.30pm so when karen returned from doing the shopping i decided to go for a short ride. i was planning on a roadie ride to springwood but i just found it impossible to not turn right onto whitecross and head around blue gum swamp.

i originally thought i would hammer through and time myself. the best time i have made i through is around 29 mins. so i checked the time on my mobile and took off. i hit the first turn, which really is quiet slight at breakneck speed but was not aware of the speed i was traveling at, shit, i was hitting the apex late and wide, holding to much speed, on a 3k bike and i was heading for the shrubs… i could only think “this is not looking good”. on scottie i would have sorted it out with a complete lock-up followed by a slide to stop, but the juicy 5’s were different. the modulation was so much more than what i expected and i was on the brakes with enough time to halt just before damage.

a big breath and a quick regather and i was off again. easy does it … its the first run … this thing is wrong … its deceiving.
if fucken fly’s! sorry did i say that right IT FUCKEN FLY’S and i still haven’t completed the training course for my cape yet.

i rounded a bend then started the first climb. i was in top dog and before i knew it i was climbing in top dog and still capable of keeping my pace. now the bloody thing was climbing like a siberian goat




meet scott - the siberian goat



now i am starting to understand the whole 3k thing. this bike is proving why it cost this amount of money. the gears were just butter like, never even going close to missing a beat. i had to stop 3-4 times because i thought the back tire was flat, it was not even close, the carbon rear stays were absorbing the bumps in a far more superior fashion to scottie’s harsh alloy frame and the ride was plush and comfortable.

it was also becoming apparent why fox forks were almost virus like at the recent BMC 8hr race. they were everywhere and for good reason. i was so astounded by the plush absorption of any rough terrain. they just sucked up everything and spat out the back wheel without any second thought as it passed under the bike. before i knew it i was at the decent and this would be the biggest test of all.

i just continued on, no regather or pause, pedaling and picking my lines but realised it wasn’t really that difficult. carbo was in a totally different league to what i was used to. i almost over cooked it again on a small bend but the bike just tracked exactly where i pointed the front and felt stable and controlled.

the first hairpin came and my pace was almost twice as fast as any previous ride, realising this i again called upon the juicy’s and they reacted in the same was as the first over zealous moment. i was using 1 finger braking for the first time in my life, which made it so re-assuring having 4 fingers on the grips. there was a moment of panic as i realised the back wheel was locking up and skipping over the terrain, but a shift of my weight over the back wheel quickly gave me the grip i needed to pull him up, round the bend and grin like a bastard.

it was on… oh boy, it IS on

carbo is the shit, and i now own it



the swamp base is soft and plush - begging for big dog



after the decent, the swamp is a soft pack, wide path that undulates and screams for top dog. there i powered for a while but decided the 29 min challenge wasn’t worth it, i was going to kill it np and i really wanted to stop and grab some images of carbo on his first run. i pulled over took the hero image [the first of the post] and decided to take the next 1/2 of the ride at a slower pace and take some panda images




the last section of the ride is a climb, slight but still a climb and again the siberian goat arrived and pushed me up. i was climbing in a much higher gear than ever before and still just powering. it was again, extraordinary.

as an overall the bike is too hard to describe, i am so looking forward to tomorrows morning ride at yellomundee. i am also really looking forward to the next XC race there. i will be pushing for 1st place in D class, and there is an off chance i might just get it… ha!

a few other notes: as i rode over the water traps the bike would launch skyward without any effort what so ever due to its incredible weight, or lack there of. i still need to set the forks up. they were amazing but i know i have to invest the time to set the sag up, as well as the rebound.

with all the good there is some bad? if you can say that

the grips feel great but really suck, they move along the bars which isn’t good. i will need to invest in some lock-ons

i had a lot of issues with the seat post. it kept on dropping. i think i may now have it tightened correctly and it did seem to be stationary for the last section of the ride. i’m shit scared of over tightening the clamp on the carbon

i am a little unsure on the tires. they seem good but more hours in the saddle will determine their true quality

on a good final note: the spd’s are great. i am happy with them so they will stay… for now. i have set them up to the correct loseness.

scott scale 30 carbon fibre suicide machine.

pics are a comin’ in the usual location



fuck yeah!

i love bikes. REALLY. oh yes. lots. and i am getting edgy about carbo arriving. because he isn’t here, i seem to alway question if it is all real. will he arrive? will it all come through? i know it will but i always have this doubt in the back of my mind, well i should say front because every day that goes by and i don’t have carbo, the doubt pulses bigger and bigger.

anyway, even though i don’t have carbo yet i am thinking upgrades and being a designer the look is a priority for me. i loved the scale 50 with its white seat. it’s so wrong for a race MTB to have a ivory flavoured butt pad, but it looks the biz, off-setting the white of the tora forks, and the white rear hanger areas. carbo has these same features but a black saddle. so i did some tests to see what a white seat could look like.


photoshopped white seat example


then that would mean new grips?
charge sponge grips with brown locking clamps.


now the brown would almost suite the gold decal highlights of the scale. or would it?


then there is the option of the charge spoon saddle. its a leatherette seat that surprisingly looks sophisticated when poised atop a carbon seat post on a MTB bike….. see


i really don’t mind the look of it on the Specialized.


now on carbo… could work, maybe, if not i would look great on tarini
photoshopped with spoon leatherette.


unfortunately the image of the spoon seat on their website isn’t the best. the light has caught the top of the leatherette and made the seat look quiet curvaceous which it really isn’t as seen the specialized.