Sam Bach Invitational 2007
Satturday was the inaugural Sam Bach Invitational, and it saw a talented gaggle of riders assemble at the You Yangs Stockyards Mountain bike park for a early season death march. Well more of a Saturday morning hoon around the park, but we had high hopes...!
National 24 hour solo champ Andy Bell was chauffeur for the day, and we loaded up our rides and hit the highway. Turns out that my bike actually is more of a bike than the stringbean Bellie, barely fitting in the back of the Delica.
The rides namesake turned up tardy, resplendent in the latest Body Geometry Uggies. Clipping in is apparently not a drama, but they lack a bit of support for the bunch kicks... Nice boots Sam!
All geared up in a sea of pink sadly, Jack and myself rockin the Felt gear all day, with Jack setting a heady pace all morning, as well as leading the bunch of merry souls around the park. A few crashes are inevitable, and we had 4 beauties, and a running dismount from Bellie that defied belief. Matt L had a beaut over-the-bars right in front of me, and was lucky not to have a strip of Barracuda tyre all the way over him! Fortunately everyone survived with a little bark missing, to be expected early in the year.
Check the elevation at this place... Pack your granny ring....!! Or not... But by god it hurts when the pace is cracked open. 10/10ths around this place is always painful, and oh so much fun. We had a big conga line though the trees, which looked hilarious, and as the oxygen debt settled in, people started to hit the trees!
Ivan Kallur, victim of the jumping tree, claiming a saddle in the process. Nothing some zip ties won't fix, dispensed from the massive pack of McGyver!
Zip ties - the modern day gaffa tape, which don't get me wrong, still has its place! ;)
Tree 1, Saddle 1, Ivan 0. And a corkie to go with it!
Do people know there is a fun 'north shore' section of trails out there at the Flat Track??
Andy Bell (24 Hour solo champ) in early season training for the Solo Worlds later in the year. And look out, he's on a mission. Good enough for Gordo, good enough for Bellie, so start lobbying TAB for some odds and lay out some Arthur Ashe...!!
Big Joel Read put the hurt in the Flat Track, then *braaap* opened it *braaaaaaaap* up on the downhill *braaAAAAAAaapp* course and had a wicked day all day! The man has some serious strength and always a smile a mile wide!
Jack had it wired all day as well, charging the climbs, the flats and then the descents at the end of the day. Testing the Barracudas today, we were killing ourselves laugh at how much grip there was- the riders behind us were actually giving us hell for amount of dirt being kicked up! But more on the tires on a separate post real soon.
Matt L elected discretion on the downhill course, baulking at the top then psyching himself out. Whilst they may have bouncy bits at both ends, we certainly ain't riding downhill bikes, but the rest of the downhill course was a blast, with huge bermed corners, drops, steps and other natural looking 'obstacles'. They've done some great work out here!
Rohin from SportRecovery and (some other team), wasn't fazed by the drops, and was killing the downhills. Coming off an early season break (think rum, beach, Thailand), the pace of the climbs later in the day wasn't appreciated by him, but he stuck to it and had a great day with us.
And that was the Sam Bach Invitational. Hopefully we can make something like that a regular event. Our Virtue bikes, whilst they haven't been seen much in this post, due to the fact that its bloody hard to get riders to stop so you can shoot pics and I'm the one shooting them, were awesome. The bob whilst riding up the downhill course (!) was non existent, opening the bike's pro pedal feature on the Fox RP23 shock and setting the forks to full travel, turned the bike into the closest thing to a downhill bike yet, and it just railed. Out on the flat track, with Pro Pedal active, the Virtue gets up and hammers out of the corners after predictably diving into the corner under brakes and holding its line through the corner. In all, the bike was a true pleasure to ride for 4 hours of hard, flat out enduro riding!
And the Barracudas below will get a full post and review shortly. But damn me they have some grip, and weren't noticeably slower than anything else ridden yesterday! Looking good!!
National 24 hour solo champ Andy Bell was chauffeur for the day, and we loaded up our rides and hit the highway. Turns out that my bike actually is more of a bike than the stringbean Bellie, barely fitting in the back of the Delica.
The rides namesake turned up tardy, resplendent in the latest Body Geometry Uggies. Clipping in is apparently not a drama, but they lack a bit of support for the bunch kicks... Nice boots Sam!
All geared up in a sea of pink sadly, Jack and myself rockin the Felt gear all day, with Jack setting a heady pace all morning, as well as leading the bunch of merry souls around the park. A few crashes are inevitable, and we had 4 beauties, and a running dismount from Bellie that defied belief. Matt L had a beaut over-the-bars right in front of me, and was lucky not to have a strip of Barracuda tyre all the way over him! Fortunately everyone survived with a little bark missing, to be expected early in the year.
Check the elevation at this place... Pack your granny ring....!! Or not... But by god it hurts when the pace is cracked open. 10/10ths around this place is always painful, and oh so much fun. We had a big conga line though the trees, which looked hilarious, and as the oxygen debt settled in, people started to hit the trees!
Ivan Kallur, victim of the jumping tree, claiming a saddle in the process. Nothing some zip ties won't fix, dispensed from the massive pack of McGyver!
Zip ties - the modern day gaffa tape, which don't get me wrong, still has its place! ;)
Tree 1, Saddle 1, Ivan 0. And a corkie to go with it!Do people know there is a fun 'north shore' section of trails out there at the Flat Track??
Andy Bell (24 Hour solo champ) in early season training for the Solo Worlds later in the year. And look out, he's on a mission. Good enough for Gordo, good enough for Bellie, so start lobbying TAB for some odds and lay out some Arthur Ashe...!!
Big Joel Read put the hurt in the Flat Track, then *braaap* opened it *braaaaaaaap* up on the downhill *braaAAAAAAaapp* course and had a wicked day all day! The man has some serious strength and always a smile a mile wide!
Jack had it wired all day as well, charging the climbs, the flats and then the descents at the end of the day. Testing the Barracudas today, we were killing ourselves laugh at how much grip there was- the riders behind us were actually giving us hell for amount of dirt being kicked up! But more on the tires on a separate post real soon.
Matt L elected discretion on the downhill course, baulking at the top then psyching himself out. Whilst they may have bouncy bits at both ends, we certainly ain't riding downhill bikes, but the rest of the downhill course was a blast, with huge bermed corners, drops, steps and other natural looking 'obstacles'. They've done some great work out here!
Rohin from SportRecovery and (some other team), wasn't fazed by the drops, and was killing the downhills. Coming off an early season break (think rum, beach, Thailand), the pace of the climbs later in the day wasn't appreciated by him, but he stuck to it and had a great day with us.
And that was the Sam Bach Invitational. Hopefully we can make something like that a regular event. Our Virtue bikes, whilst they haven't been seen much in this post, due to the fact that its bloody hard to get riders to stop so you can shoot pics and I'm the one shooting them, were awesome. The bob whilst riding up the downhill course (!) was non existent, opening the bike's pro pedal feature on the Fox RP23 shock and setting the forks to full travel, turned the bike into the closest thing to a downhill bike yet, and it just railed. Out on the flat track, with Pro Pedal active, the Virtue gets up and hammers out of the corners after predictably diving into the corner under brakes and holding its line through the corner. In all, the bike was a true pleasure to ride for 4 hours of hard, flat out enduro riding!
And the Barracudas below will get a full post and review shortly. But damn me they have some grip, and weren't noticeably slower than anything else ridden yesterday! Looking good!!
posted by Ash Thomas at 8:18 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home