My Commute

I have a few ways in which I get to work by bike.  I like the idea that I can take a different route every day.  It certainly keeps things varied and interesting and by doing so I can do certain types of ‘training’.  If I want to do some hills I’ll take a hillier route to work, or if I’m feeling lazy I’ll take a shorter route.

Living in the Blue Mountains but working in Chatswood on the North Shore of Sydney allows me to choose a large number of routes but in almost all circumstances it also involves using some public transport.  I’ll say upfront that I am no fan of CityRail.  The Sydney rail network is slow, expensive, not entirely clean and invariably has at least one crazy idiot per journey.  However, the saving grace is that there is, for the Blue Mountains trains at least, bike hooks to hang your bike up on.  This allows me to sit down and have a snooze without having to worry about moving the bike around to accommodate people getting on and off the train.  I always sit within line of sight of my bike so I can keep an eye on things, but in all my time using the trains with my bike I’ve never had an issue.

I use the train stations as a jump on/off point for my commute to work.  Because the trains I catch are express services I have a smaller choice, but that’s fine, I work around it and even embrace it.

My favourite commuting trips start or finish at either Westmead, Parramatta, Lewisham or Central Stations.   I can also ride to/from Blacktown and Strathfield, but I don’t enjoy them as much.  They are an option though.  Like a Datsun 180B.

Of course, I can always ride from home too.  That’s a bit longer, in distance and in time, but it’s not a bad ride when I’m in the mood for it.  Funnily, it actually takes a shorter amount of time to ride all the way to work – approximately 70km and 2.5 hours – than to walk and catch the train all the way from the Blue Mountains to Chatswood, which is roughly 2.75 hours.  Go figure…

I love riding through the city.  I guess that’s why I love riding from Central and Lewisham stations.  There are clearly defined cycleways and paths, decent signage and I get to ride with a multitude of different types of riders, from fully decked out roadies to fixie hipsters to tradies on old beaters.  I don’t care what they ride, as long as they’re riding (my thoughts on that are for another blog)…  One of the nicest parts of riding through the city is riding over the Harbour Bridge.  I don’t get sick of riding the coat hanger.  Rain, hail or shine its still fun and watching the sun rise as I cross it is beautiful.  Conversely, heading back through the city of an evening is gorgeous too as the city lights up.  It’s very pretty.  Riding from Lewisham is really just an extension of riding from Central.  It’s only an extra 5km or so but I get in an extra bridge (ANZAC Bridge) during my trip.  Overall too, it only adds an extra 15 minutes to my journey time.  The only hassle with this is that I have to change trains at Strathfield for a connecting one to Lewisham, but this is minor.

Riding from or to Westmead or Parramatta stations is also enjoyable.  There’s a few ways I can go from these stations.  I can ride up and parallel to the M2 Motorway (the M2 WAS a good ride but that’s also for another rant/blog) or I can follow the various bike paths and roads along the Parramatta River all the way to Rhodes before cutting across through Putney and Ryde to Chatswood.  This is a nice (almost) stress free ride and quite pretty as well, although for different reasons than riding over the Harbour Bridge.  I also enjoy racing the River Cat depending on the ferry’s timetable.  There are some drawbacks to going this way though.  As the paths are shared paths, I will invariably come across a dog owner walking their pooch off the lead.  As anyone who has watched footage of the Tour de France, dogs and bikes DON’T mix well.  Dogs are just too unpredictable and I’ve had the occasional run in with dog owners as I point out that their dogs should be on a lead and that they are liable for any damage their mutt causes.

There are also a myriad of other routes that I haven’t explored yet but those will come in time.  I have recently tried to put together a ride from Central to Chatswood via the ‘Three Bridges’ – ANZAC, Iron Cove and Gladesville, with not much success.  I got lost a few times and once over the Gladesville Bridge signage and paths were pretty much nonexistent, detracting from the overall experience.  But, based on previous experience, a new route takes a little while to hone and get down to be enjoyable so I won’t be giving up on it just yet.  There’s potential there for a good ride, I just need to figure it out.  Now, back to Google Maps… J

Halo Headband

I like my Specialized Decibel helmet.  I even did a review of it on MTBR.  Even though the fit was great I felt that the minimal padding was a distinct disadvantage, especially during hotter weather (and my Australian friends know how hot summers here can get).  I had a couple of options to try and remedy this.  Buy another helmet, or look for something that would either wick or divert sweat away.  As much as I would've liked to pony up for a new helmet, the budget wouldn't stretch that far, so I went with plan B.


I had been looking around for sometime for some sort of headband.  I did see the Gutr but that didn't appeal but found the Halo headband (www.haloheadband.com) which I felt would be a better bet.  I found they were reasonably priced too so bought the Halo II Pullover version in a plain old black. Mind you they come in other colours too if that floats your boat.


The Halo is made with a fabric called Dryline which according to Halo is a "high performance material that quickly evaporates moisture so you stay dry and comfortable".  It's also "lightweight, durable, and abrasion resistant which will not lose shape".  Dryline also includes something called Visaendurance which is a polyester fabric embedded into the Dryline fabric to prevent your headband turning into a science experiment.  The thing that really sets this band apart from others is the Sweat Block technology.  Basically, this is a water tight seal that runs from temple to temple on your forehead that channels sweat away and stops it from getting in your eyes.  Nice!


I've been using the headband for nearly 3 months now.  I picked up the band in late Summer so unfortunately haven't really had the chance to test in the height of the Summer heat.  However, I do tend to sweat pretty heavily, enough to leave the Camelbak pack I use for commuting pretty crusty after a hot day's commuting.  


The fit was very good.  It was instantly comfortable and with no elastic to make things overly tight and give you a headache, I was a happy rider.  This is the first time I have ever worn any type of headwear under my helmet so to not notice it whilst I was riding was also a good sign.  Since using it I've never had sweat stinging my eyes so the headband does what it claims to do, which is great.  No muss, no fuss.  Just the way I like it.  The only negative, and really, I am seriously nitpicking here, is that I have to readjust my helmet retention device each time I put my helmet on when I use it.  Seriously though, it's no biggie.


Overall I'd give it 4.5 out of 5.  It does everything it claims with the minimum of fuss.  Happy days...

94.6

Kilometres?  Miles?  Speed?  No… weight, unfortunately.  After a week’s holiday with the family where the most intense activity I did was splash around in the water with the kids, and where I indulged a bit much I came home to find the scales flashing those numbers at me.  To be honest I thought, and felt, I would be a few kilos heavier than that so I guess it was a bit of a bonus to come in under what I expected.  


The fun is over now and it’s now time to knuckle down and indulge in some hard work instead.  I’ve now got two-and-a-bit months to be in some semblance of shape for the DirtWorks 100 at St Albans.  I last did this race in 2008.  I have both good and bad memories of this race.  The good was finishing my first 100km race, on a fully rigid 29er no less.  The bad?  Being beaten to a pulp, especially on that rocky descent down to the MacDonald River at around the 60km mark.  Hitting the wall in a massive way around the 80km mark, and landing in hospital two days later with an acute case of tonsillitis, fever and dehydration…


I have a couple of goals this time around for the DW100.  The first is to beat 8 hours.  The second is to be better prepared…  If I nail the second goal, then I will also reach my first goal.  In '08 I came in in 8 hours 4 minutes, so it's certainly acheivable.  In fact if I can lop another 30 minutes on top of that I would be stoked.  I think I have the mechanisms in place now to achieve it.  Now all I have to do is put in the hard work and the results will come...

My First Four Hour

I've been keen for awhile now to do a four hour race, mainly because I thought it would a soft introduction into the world of solo racing.  So with a little trepidation I signed up for the Western Sydney MTB Club (www.wsmtb.com) 4 Hour Race, presented by Stans No Tubes and Jet Black.  My LBS, Blackmans Bicycles (www.blackmanbicycles.com.au), were also in attendance providing tech support.


The way I approached this race was that if I can ride for 6 hours with friends, then I should be able to ride for 4 hours.  I was under no illusion that I wouldn't be racing at the pointy end of the field so I had some relatively simple goals… Ride and finish…


The day of the race provided an absolutely perfect day for racing.  It would end up pretty hot by races end but at least it wasn’t cold and muddy!  I arrived at Yarramundi to find rego in full swing, albeit with a few computer glitches, but it was a pain free affair.  With that sorted, I picked out a nice little spot for myself, got myself organised and went for a bit of ride to reacquaint myself with the Yarramundi singletrack.  I also popped by the Blackmans tent to say hello to Chris, Ben and Roger and quick chinwag then it was over for the riders briefing before rolling down to the start.


The start was an interesting one.  Immediately uphill on the fire road to spread the riders out before a right hand turn into the carpark then onto the trail proper.  I decided to start near the back of the pack as I didn’t feel I wanted to be run over by other riders.


The first lap was an interesting one.  There was the usual bottlenecks on the Yarramundi course associated with 300 odd riders, but I probably did a silly thing the day before by switching out my Racing Ralph’s for a new set of Geax Aka’s I picked up recently.  I was desperate to try them out though.  In hindsight I think that it was a bad move.  The loose over hardpack as well as the loose gravel and sand in some parts made steering pretty skittish, and in the corner just before the gate at the moto track I put the bike down.  This made me a bit tentative from then on in, but at least I got a pretty good insight into the Aka’s adhesion limits… 


Things were going pretty well until I got to the trotting track.  It was here I made a wrong turn and turned right as I normally would when riding Yarramundi.  Auto pilot had kicked in.  Apparently the bunting had been removed and we should have gone left.  I wasn’t the only one as a few others went the same way.  I was thinking to myself, ‘man this is overgrown I can barely see the track!’.  Another rider following me struck up a conversation and we decided we had indeed gone the wrong way.  We ended back at the trotting track to have our thoughts confirmed by one of the Western Sydney committee members.  Bummer…


The next lap I actually went the right way, and I started getting passed by the faster solo guys including Craig Gordon from the Rockstar Racing team.  I spent most of the rest of the race being passed by faster riders and was used to it by race end.  There were a few riders I knew that offered words of encouragement along the way which was great.  That’s one of the great things about MTB racing, the camaraderie and easy going nature of others and willingness to help out.  I did have a bit of an off in one of the rockgarden sections just after the bridge in the southern section of the course.  I remember thinking that I was more concerned that, a) my bike may have a scratch or dent (no dent just scratches) and b) getting the bike out of the way of oncoming riders.  Luckily, there was none.


By the third and fourth laps things were getting really warm but I was into a bit of a rhythm.  I remember one rider coming past and commenting "Anyone out here bored yet?".  On reflection, I may have been as the course length was only about 6.5km long but I wasn't really thinking about it when he said it.  Not long after I heard another voice behind me, "Hey mate, why have you only half a fork?"...  "It's a Cannnondale Lefty mate" I said in between the heavy breathing.  Then he says "Hey mate, why are your wheels so big?".  I was about to reply and then thought "What the?", before realising I know that voice...  A quick glimpse behind confirmed my suspicions.  It was Chris, manager at Blackmans Penrith, giving me a hard time.  "Haven't you crashed yet?" was my reply.  We both laughed at each other before hitting the next bit of singletrack where he proceeded to skip away off toward the trotting track...


I stopped for awhile after the fifth lap, pretty much toasted.  I sat around on my esky, trying to recover enough to go out for another couple of laps.  I had eaten as much as I could stomach (which wasn't much) before finally climbing on the bike again to give it another crack.  I could only manage another lap before deciding to call it quits at about 3 hours 35 minutes.  That last lap was pretty slow, and any technical sections were tentatively walked but I finished it and was happy to call it a day...


In the end I was 59th out of 73 solo riders.  The winner did 13 laps to my measly 6 but I thought it wasn't bad for a first up effort.  It's also difficult to compare yourself to a former 24 Hour Solo World Champ as well...  I did take some learnings from it all, which I hope to apply at the next race.  My mind is already thinking about it...

Osprey Hydraulics Raptor 10 - My Take...

I had been looking around for a new hydration pack for some time.  I wanted something to replace my ancient Camelbak MULE.  It really wasn't cutting it anymore.  Don't get me wrong it's been a good and faithful servant to me but it just wasn't able to haul enough stuff for really long epics and marathon races.  The fact that the bladder would leak (on the most inopportune occasions) was also painful.  Yeah I know, I could just buy a new bladder, but when replacements cost half or more of the price of a completely new hydration pack, it made no sense.

I certainly had some ideas about what I wanted in a pack.  I wanted a minimum 3 litre water capacity and something that was comfortable that I could use on epic rides and marathon races.  I wanted smart use of storage space for food and spares and something I could essentially throw everything I needed for a ride, ranging from a short 1 hour ride, my commute to work (when I didn't need to carry clothes and food) right up to marathon races where I could be in the saddle for up to 9 hours (yeah I really am that slow...).

So I started the hunt.  I checked out my local bike store as well as outdoors stores but couldn't find anything suitable. There seemed to be too many compromises. I read a favourable review of the Osprey Manta on MTBR.  I hadn't heard of Osprey packs before so decided to hit the WWW and have a look to see if they might have something I was after.  The Raptor looked promising so I found a store here in Australia that sells them and luckily enough there was a store that stocked them near where I work.

So I went and checked it out, opened every zip, and poured all over the bag. I went home, checked out the site again, measured my back to see what size I needed and then laid down the cash on the M/L version of the Raptor 10. Best decision I made.

The Raptor 10, ready for its first outing

Right away this pack felt comfortable. The fit was perfect. I was worried the waist belt would ride up my stomach like my Deuter Superbike L but those fears were unfounded. It didn't take long to get the fit sorted out and I was in business.

The following day I joined some mates for a 6 hour epic and the pack performed flawlessly. I did have the waist belt a bit loose to begin with, which caused a bit of movement on the downhills, but a little tightening and the issue disappeared. I was able to pack a stack of food, spares, arm warmers, phone, wallet, money and other bits and bobs and it swallowed the lot no problem. There is a ton of storage and compartments for things like your pump, key holder etc. There's also a non-scratch compartment for your sunnies which is nice touch. I found during my ride that as the load got lighter and thinned the bag I was able to use the compression straps to tighten everything back up and stop movement in the pack.

The reservoir is an ingenious design to stop barrelling, and the spine and large opening made refilling with your beverage of choice a breeze. Also, getting to, and reinstalling the reservoir was an absolute cinch and took all of two seconds.  It has it's own section and is designed to fit like a glove to stop the water sloshing around.  Undo two clips, unzip the zipper and you're done.  I imagine this will come in handy and save some time during marathon races when topping up water supplies.

I have to say I was a very happy little vegemite after the initial test.  I felt the pack performed flawlessly.  However, I noticed a few potential weaknesses, minor quibbles really. The mouthpiece makes the water feel a bit rubbery. I expect that this will disappear over time as it is still fairly new. We have to wait a bit and see. The waist belt clip also looks a little flimsy and could easily be broken in the hands of a ham-fisted rider, but again time will tell how this holds up. Also, I'm not too keen on the lack of zippers on the waist belt pockets and I could expect items stowed there to go missing, especially on bumpy descents. I don't normally use them so no big deal there but if you use them to stow some energy gels just be aware.

Overall I think this pack is very well thought out and has lots of excellent ways and ideas to stow all your gear for your next epic ride.  I think the reservoir is also well thought out and is designed to work as a system with the pack.  It might seem a little pricey compared to similar competition but I think this pack stands head and shoulders above them.
 

If you're looking for a pack for those epic rides or even to use during 100K/100Mi races, this pack should be the top of your list.

Highly recommended...
 
http://www.ospreypacks.com/