: W2G flex day ride

By: g | No Comments » |

Aaaahhhhhhh!

To have a Monday away from work; free from the meaningless banter of cretins who failed their shoelace tying lessons at five years of age, free from the babble of predictable obstructive dialogue from those staff types and client people who couldn’t recognise a well formed single track if they tripped over it. Yes finally, to see a day of real life poking it’s way out of the usual miserable working day week, like the shy sun peeking out from behind the clouds on a winter’s day……….

Actually, life *is* usually pretty good, although the last few years have had their ups and downs, which have interferred rather rudely with our limited chances to spin away on the treadlies. Today was one of those days where simple pleasures came back to us and made us smile with the realisation that our load may be gradually easing.

We had a great ride down the Oaks today – a crystal clear, ambient autumn day. Helen was strong on all the climbs and looked really happy in herself. Her smile said it all as she rode beside me along various parts of the track: sharing the simple pleasure of spinning away together on an old favourite ride that is alive with great memories.

On the track by ourselves, we weren’t bothered by anyone – we could pick our pace and line and felt totally immersed in each other’s company. We marvelled at the new views that came across our gaze, courtesy of the recent fires, and saw trackside rock formations that were once hidden by a wall of tangled greenery. Peering up from under our helmet visors, we saw not a single cloud obscuring the blue atmosphere.

Our pace was better than usual, with no stops at the Circles, the forgotten hill after Toby’s Glen, nor the hill climb after Redwire. I walked a couple of steep sections that I can normally ride and will adapt to again with the return of bike fitness. While I *should* curse the six inches of travel at play on the AC2, as it bobs and sucks my energy on each pedal stroke up any hill, today the down hills made up for it.

I got loose on the entry to the BMX downhill, with my rear end slapping away under way too soft damping, but got hooting into the revised geometry of the sandy left hander at the bottom just the same. Redwire Saddle was just awesome today! After dabbling with the preload and a quick turn of the compression damping, the AC2 was back in fine form and gave a ride down Redwire that seemed to just shred, staying off brakes and keeping perfectly on the chosen line.

Getting down the long hill to the Oaks gate was a blast. The entry onto the hump has definitely washed out but is handled easily with a short tug upwards on the bar just at entry. A moment of compression from the rear and the bike springs forward out and over the hump like a startled racehorse, jumping from the gates. We were then off and racing along the fast curves into the left hander of Hodgie’s (Nearly) Elbow, the site of a nasty but frantically recovered front end slide one fast night, braking earlier this time to try a different drive out from the corner.

The spin along the rest of the way to the gate gets us up to our old top speeds. Legs pumping away in 27th cog, pushing maximal heart rate as lungs squish air in and out in unison with the long travel Psylo’s. Punching just that little bit extra and staying off the brakes the whole way down to the Oaks gate is all that is needed for that Cheshire cat grin to make it’s way back onto work hardened faces.

The new sections of single track are something that may need getting used to though. We found the last section that now bypasses the bitumen, joining up with the big dropoff on Little Moab was a mixed thing – neither good, nor really that bad, although the short technical climb just before the new track meets old could be easily diverted to make the detour more flowing. My knee slammed into the bars as I lost speed in too big a gear just at the top of the short rise, bringing a squirt of blood to remind me of appropriate gear selections in future!

A sublime day just being out there. Not so yesterday – the Ranger we saw at the gate told us that 238 riders passed him by at the Glenbrook exit yesterday. 166, says the Ranger, was the previous record. Ahhhh, you could jst love this place to death.

Hodgie

 

Tags:blue mountains


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