as well as Nick's Pink Giro tribute bike

bikes part of the State of Design Festival Made to Measure Exhibition in Melbourne this weekend and Sydney the next. Drop in and have a look for some fantastic examples of innovative design as well as a glimpse of an almost radioactive orange Jared laid down on the mountain bike.

On the radio, Triple J listeners would be familiar with a 'Love Week' running on their Hack half hour. One of their segments was about 'strange loves' with our very own Nick being invited in to the ABC studio to be interviewed on his love for his bicycle. If you missed it you can Podcast or stream it it from the Triple J website and can rest assured that the only thing Nick loves more than his bike is helping customers with the love they have for theirs!

Location: Nail Can Hill Albury

0955  Lined up at the start line knowing I have not done enough training.  Did not even warm up.  Figured I should save my reserves for the race.  Goal is to ride non stop, so I will start slow.

1000  Gun goes and we are off.  Heaps of people pass me as we ride up the fire road.

1115  Two laps in and I am getting the hang of the track.  Some rocky sections where there is no clear line are rough on the bike.  Feeling fine.

1230  Issue with gears.  I had a miss shift on the front and stomped on it in frustration.  Rear cable slipped a bit through the clamp screw.  While riding, planned the fix back at the pits.

1245  Coming into pits I yell for a torx and allen key.  Roll into pits and fix problem in about 30 seconds.  Of again and shifting is perfect.

1300  Gentle cramping starting in my quads

1425  My mates in the race village, who are racing a triple, yell that I am in 5th place and 4th is 3 minutes in front (in 40+).  Not as good as I hoped.  3 laps to go so making up 1 min per lap will get me to 4th.

1500  More cramping – quads and sometimes hamstring, adductor and even triceps.

1510   Last lap was good – pushed a bit harder.  Brain fade at the start of this lap.  Have to get my head back in it. 

1535  One lap to go.  Mates yell out I am in 3rd with 4th a minute behind me.

1545  Leader of 40+ category laps me.  We have a chat before he rides off.

1617  300m to go.  One rider close behind and one close in front.

1618  150m to go.  Pushing up the hill to pass the guy in front and stay away from the guy behind.

1620  The track funnels into single track with 30m to go.  Jump on the pedals flat out and jam it into the single track in front of the guy in front.  Both quads cramping hard with every pedal stroke as I sprint flat out to the finish

1622  I find out that the pass I made with 30m to go scored me 2nd place!

 That was the only time I did not ride this bit.  Rear tyre slipped on a root.  Really.

The first laps felt good.  At around lap 3, Jodie, who works in the Baum office and was racing in mixed pairs with husband Steve, called out that I was leading with a 4 second gap to second place.  I worked out who my competition was and had a quick chat, letting him know we were in the lead  and finding out he was called Damien.  For the next 3 laps we were within seconds of each other each time through transition, neither of us stopping, just grabbing a bottle as we pedalled past our tent.  Our strategies were clear – Damien rode consistently while I rode harder, getting ahead a bit then either crashing, stepping off the bike or having a mechanical to put us back within seconds again.

At about half race distance I started to really struggle.  My easiest gear was getting plenty of use.  Then I punctured.  I sat down to have a rest and fix my puncture.  By the time I got going again I was feeling a little better.  Then I punctured again just before transition.  I ran through to our tent and Jodie changed the tube for me.  I was feeling pretty hammered by then and went to check my positon on the timing screens.  If I kept going I could possibly get third.  Back on the bike….struggle up the hill…..just keep pedalling up the hill ….. concentrating down the hill to avoid crashing.

Next stop in transition Jodie said only an hour to go, that's two laps.  Really don't want to go again, but off I go.  Not fast, just get the lap done.

Okay final lap.  I am in third, but fourth is right behind me and he may have even passed me while I was looking at the timing screens.  I have to do another lap, and fast!  So I head off knowing this is the last lap and I can push.  I don't know who the guy in fourth is, so when I finish the lap, I don't know if I am third or fourth.  As I roll across the line there is no one saying "time's up" so I ask around – there is 3 minutes to go!  Oh no, I have to do another lap.  Fourth could be right on my tail so to secure third I go out again.  As I approached the end of the lap I was closing on another solo rider.  I was not sure whether he was in 40+ or not so we ended up sprinting the last 200m and he beat me by half a wheel.  As it turned out he was not in 40+.

After the race I went to chat to Damien and soon found out that I had kept in front of the fourth place getter.  I also found out that the guy coming second had decided to stop riding with 15 minutes to go, expecting or hoping that I would not make it back in time to do another lap. So I ended up second.  I guess the moral is to just keep riding and don't give up.  Easy to say now, but not when you are in the middle of it.

David Rusden

Cycling Tips: The Geometry of Bike Handling

Rain the night before promised mud on the course, and that promise was definitely fulfilled!  After asphalt and dirt roads for the first hour, we turned off to Mount Sabine and straight into water and mud.  The next hour saw plenty of steep 4WD tracks that overnight had turned to slippery, muddy, wheel clogging hills.  Lack of traction meant lots of pushing the bike.

A great feature of mountain biking events such as this is that all riders race together.  So the average chick off the street, or singletrack in this case, can compare herself to the best riders in the country.  We all ride along side each other, at least for the first few kilometres and can compare split times over different sections of the course.  In my case I found myself, late in the race, covered in mud, pushing my filthy bike up the muddy, slippery sledgehammer, fighting off cramping quads alongside a legend of Australian cycling, Phil Anderson, who was also covered in mud and pushing his filthy bike up the muddy, slippery sledgehammer, fighting off cramping.  How cool is that!

Ryan Moody (on right) who finished in under 5:30 on his Baum rigid singlespeed.  Neil Robinson was the other Baum team member who raced.

David

The design brief stated that the frame had to be nearly all white which had technical challenges but also gave the boys plenty of headaches.  The challenge was to come up with a white main frame colour and design colour that had the appearance of all white and still provided enough contrast to make the design visible.

After painstakingly deciding on the scheme that would be the most appropriate the quest to find the best balance began.  After much deliberation, the boy’s nearly putting the wide flag up, until a Frankie magazine magically appeared at Baum HQ solving the mystery for color.  It provided the solution for the white on white we had been looking for.

Jared the painter can find inspiration for both color and design in the most unusual of places to say the least. He openly admits he is not claiming this one though!

Finished in pantone white and light grey in the GTR scheme and topped off with matt clear we are delighted with the end result.  Very understated indeed.

Speaking of matt clear, we are able to offer this on all of our painted frames as an option.  The matt product is brand new from PPG and if you are fortunate enough to own a Lamborghini ( we certainly aren’t!) it is the same material used on their own cars.

You can see more on our flickr photostream.

I set off this morning from Moriac for what promised to be a solid ride and turned into an enjoyable epic.  As I rolled out of Moriac bound for Forest Rd and Anglesea, the clouds were hanging low and there was mist and drizzle.  I did not see many other riders on the road to Lorne and spent some of my time debating whether to ride up to Erskine Falls first or Benwerrin.  Erskine Falls got the nod so up I went after a quick water refill in Lorne.  As I headed up the Otway Range, the fog descended and misty rain came down.  It was actually quite pleasant, and perfect weather to see the rainforests of the Otways.  I reached the high point before the descent into the Erskine Falls car park and took a photo of the road down to the car park.

The sign is hard to read – it says Steep Descent.  I was not planning to ride down there, but I could not really post this photo and not ride down there.  It is a steep, nasty climb out of there!  500 watts, cadence of about 35rpm in the 39-23.  A real quad buster.

The drizzling rain and fog in the rainforest was great.  I headed back to Lorne and did a couple of reps of Benwerrin.  On the second rep the fog and clouds started clearing and by the time I got to Deans Marsh the sun was out.  I stopped at Martian's Cafe in Deans Marsh for a quick snack and more water.  They had a band on so I enjoyed that while I ate my apricot crumble.

This is the sign I love to see!  The top of Benwerrin.

I left Deans Marsh for the 40km finishing leg back to Moriac.  I would describe the terrain as undulating and undulating never felt so hard!  I kept reminding myself  "don't let it be junk miles", "push a bit more each pedal stroke" and "every bit extra I do now will make me faster at the Otway Odyssey".  I have a whole range of mental tricks I use to motivate myself.  That last 40km was hard work – everything was aching and legs were hammered.

It was a long, hard ride with beautiful scenery and variable and beautiful weather.

See you on the road…

David

Our roving rider, Nick, has been on holidays in South Australia for the Tour Down Under.  Here is his report on the week so far:

Hi guys!

Here are some pics that Greg (Shimano) and I took of the Corretto on the Shimano stand.

As well as looking at the stands at the show and watching some great racing, the past three days has me clocking up nearly 400km and nearly 4000m of climbing! Honestly, back home is a pancake compared to Adelaide. And unless you want to head along the coast you have no choice but to climb up and over the hills to get out of the city. Which, given it normally starts within 10kms of heading out your front door, makes for interesting times when the legs are feeling a bit cooked!

I also had the pleasure of riding on Monday and Tuesday with Henk Vogels snr and Bob O'Grady (Stuey's uncle) – both ex National champs and both in excellent shape. In fact, I turned my head to see who was on my wheel as we were bombing down Norton Summit only to see Henk come around me as smoothly as you like at 70km/h on Henk junior’s 2001 steel Mercury bike. He certainly proved that class is permanent and even with a 42 inner ring that he climbs very, very well for anyone, let alone a man recovering from cancer!

Checker Hill was ticked off yesterday, what fun that was. Why, why, why did anyone think a road straight up that thing was a great idea?? Either way, straight up it was the order of the day – get the pain over and done with as quickly as possible.
Checker followed The Corkscrew on Monday, which had some great Euro style switchbacks. Only thing is that they come on a 15%+ gradient so getting back up it was pain, Euro style!

All in all though has been a top week so far with mint weather – hoping it carries on this way for rest of my time here.

Oh and Matty Goss for the overall win.

Nick