Panel Damage vs. walking home...

Off to Toolangi and Vic Range track today... Its been a long weekend, so I'l post some captions tommorrow.

Enjoy.

Rolling in towards Lilydale, the road was deserted at 7am meaning that I could kill some time and take amusing happy snaps. I was certain that I could hear Matt's exhaust from in front of him, a repair that incorporated coke can and hose clamps having an unfortunate little incident resulting in the sound of a Masey Ferguson tractor for the rest of the day. Although he was a little down on power ("the turbo is at home in a box...!") the gearbox allowed the pristine black truck to soldier on.

In the first puddles we found, we were feeling all tough and macho! Matty getting it in deep, or so we thought.

A nice look at the trees in the Toolangi State forest.

This could be called the beginning of the end, this track here saw us detained for a few hours. The main problem was the we were stuck in the wheel tracks, like really stuck. We tried all the limited tricks in our books before being forced to take on the big puddle, which ended badly, and resulted in a lucky recovery involving plenty of right boot and healthy dash of luck. The path to the right was the chicken track (1 hour of sticking, building and revving) and straight ahead was the deep puddle way (30mins of self recovery) and so we elected to *turn around*- the joke was on us, there was no chance of that, and then midway through our exercise, 15 trucks turned up and wanted to get through...

This is Matt midway through the reverse snatch strap recovery that goes a fair way to explaining the condition of his truck now... If you notice that the rear quarter is resting on a tree, the left front is in a large hole and the whole car is really quite stuck. After overheating the first car that was helping us recover the trucks, it took a fresh truck, a great deal of tyresmoke and heavy welly to get the black beast up out of the hole and dragged up the hill to safety.



This was our eventual saviour having a play in the puddle. With a great deal of repeated gusto, he managed to make a hell of a mess, clear most of the water out, and roast his truck, but still didn't make it out the other end. I've got a great video of it too...!!


And this was the broken truck looking a bit sad on it. You can see how slippery it really wasm as thats just slick clay all through there. The Red Baron was part of a 3 car recovery where 2 cars got linked together and pulled out as one, by one other truck.

As much of a shit fight that this few hours was, and it really was, I reckon I learnt 5 times more than what I would if it went right, and with plenty of knowledgable people around, its proably the best place to jump right in... Pity about the corners of both our trucks, they are a little more rounded now ;)

Don't you hate it when....

Rolling out the door at 6.30am isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but you gots to do what you gots to do...! It was a touch chilly this morning, I'm not sure how warm it was, but judging by the ice, not terrible warm.

Updates to follow tommorrow.



Is that snow? Nope, just mist and a little ice!

I don't feel particulary warm at the mo, I think thats about as many clothes as I own.
Icy gloves anyone, the camera wasn't really liking life, but rocking out to the days of the new got me out the highway to hook up with the boys.
Rolling out with Winny and Rob, at least I have now some people to suffer with.

How crazy is this giant chair, its huge and at the top of Mt Dandenong.

Winny, kickin the new SRAM Force groupset along, on our second trip around the mountain for the day.

Climbing up onto the mountain saw us leave the cloud and break into the sunshine. And about time, the ice was still melting off!
Rob, the SRAM man kickin the new SRAM goodness.
Into the clouds....
And look, new shiny stuff!!




And don't you hate it when you drop your vanilla slice that you've been craving for the past 6 hours......


The Force stuff sits perfectly flat with the bar, making it a great fit and feel. The shifters swing in a great ergonomic arc towards the bar, and they can do this great thing where you can pull the shifters to the bar when you sprint and just twitch your wrist to change gears. A super cool gimic at the least! The brakes are super light and responsive and it all works in synch together fantastically. It certainly does not feel like a rushed-into-the-marketplace job. Its well thought out and executed.
I know its not the greatest photo, but check out the chops on Winny! His latest aim and goal is a true bush mullet, so stay tuned!

More fun than TV

Thursday nights mean off the the Full Gas Promotions Dirt Crits for a hoon around in the park, and being close to winter also means that the vicious power HID lights have to come out as well. Last night was another good one for me, putting up the big W for another episode, but with the triple point handcap next week, we get 'em where we can...!



Darkness, they say you get used to it, I'm not so sure... Rolling Beach Road on the way up to the site. All the commuters think I'm crazy heading in to the city with all my gear on- bet I'llhave more fun than them tho!!


Looking a little weary on the way home, although it does look like I've busted the pipes out and had a session with the locals... Getting home makes it 4.5 hours of riding for the day.




The FGP boys hard at work- like, actually doing something!


Light speed- Its amazing how fast a ride goes when you have something to play with like a camera!



Reverse "guns"- mine are just at the other end of my body.

45 Starters in the dark, in a random park in the middle of an insustrial wasteland. Nothing wrong with mountainbiking at the moment, thats ace. Every week is just about the same in terms of numbers, making it a great intro into racing.

These new Pirahnas are awesome from Hutchinson. They are faster than they look and have a bit more bite than the Pythons, so they are perfect for power slides in the tacky mud at Westgate. Fast, aggressive, light and low pressure are the words for these tyres!


Imagine that, have to clean my bike. Again....

When you can't say it better yourself.... steal it!

On 5/24/06, Nathan.Fenton@barclayscapital.com wrote:

"One of the many reasons I don't understand homosexuality..."

Hotham To Buller offroad.

Had another spin on the dirt, this time we had a hoon from Mt Hotham, via the dirt to Mt Buller. A great little trip, but 10 hours behind the wheel made for a long sunday... Here's some more beautiful pics of the High Country. And the awesome weather we lucked out with!

For carbon's sake!!

This morning was a roll with the boys up in the hills, good tempo for a few hours, all in good fun, covering a fair chunk of eastern melbourne and the Dandenongs.






Then out came the carbon for a bit of a tech touch to the old truck...

It started as this,



And ended as this.

nutcases.

whilst I raced Ballan today and thought that was pretty silly, there are people doing far more stupid things that that.... Check this out - David Blaine the illusionist is at it again, this time trying to drown, instead of falling from a great height, or dying of boredom.

Council style.

Seems whatever country that you end up in, the council workers are all the same. This tip was supposed to be open at 6am today. So when I was greeted by this at 7am and a sign that says they won't open till 8 (contrary to every other source of info) I was a little bit annoyed.

At least someone was having fun up there, even if they were flying over the tip, dodging the seagulls, although when have you ever seen a balloon dodge something?






And as for the clay. It took me a better part of an hour to shovel it out of a standard trailer. I think that there is more clay on the bottom of the shovel than the top. Such a piss off, and then when it sticks to everything like boots, cars etc. Its a nightmare, but its done now, so stump holes to go and its all good!


And then I dropped my phone in the back of a container at work... Bugger.