The MTB Thread
When I lived on the east coast i hated mountains when walking to the bus stop or train station but loved all the tracks for mtb's..i lived in a very hilly area without much traffic so could skate and bomb steep long hills at night coming home from work, straight through round a bouts without traffic coming. But moving here everything's flat pretty much...no such thing as mountain bike tracks in much of coastal WA. Maybe there is in the hilly areas inland but nothing near the coast.
Anyway its something i miss now.
WA has good weather for mountain biking, its sunny ninety percent of the time.
Spicy run out after the drop, hey Mitch?
Dirt looks good, like a clay tennis court. Way different to what we get here.
I've been building an uptrack when the surf is flat on weekends. Not much excitement or allure in building up tracks but it's gotta be done as the current ones are old downhill tracks and are straight lines and rutted out, crying out for rehab. So I've been benching and back filling the climbs, building switchbacks, and linking nice parts of bushland, a cabbage palm here, a large moss-covered rock there.
Drove past these the other day and pulled over to grab them. Not sure what I can use them on but it's good to have a stockpile. Fully treated, 100mm dia, three or so metres long. Ended up with three car loads.
Pretty sure those posts are over $20 each at Bunnings.
Nice score.
Reminds me of Rodney Rude describing his love of doing stock take at his work. He used to take a fuck of a load of stock!
Uphill track rehab= only for the true believers. How long before a track or section of is named after you?
What would be your preferred name for the track?
Nettle’s descent?
Stuart’s shoot?
Fuck…just realised that I’m talking about MTB like my non surfer friends talk about surfing ie want to be interested in my passion but no real understanding.
“Did you have a nice swim today ?” It’s not swimming mate, it’s surfing.
Anyway….Fo you MTB riders have “handles” like the pilots at Top Gun?
Do you become a bunch of Mavericks and Icemen when you hit the mountain?
Do crew get unknowingly gifted nicknames like in surfing where crew don’t realise that they’re known amongst others in the lineup by names such as Punching Bag, Sea Hag and Criminal?
Do you critique each other’s styles and courage?
Not really. But then most of the guys I ride with are, like me, of limited ability.
Spose it's like the playground, you find the kids of equal social standing and hang with them.
No nicknames either, though our group does have an informal nickname that relates more to drinking than riding. There's another crew around here, a bit older, some gun riders too, and they also have an informal nickname that relates to their crotchety and curmugeonly countenance.
Haha yeah there's more group nicknames than anything. But yeah those posts might be good water bars for the DH tracks. Cut some grooves in for traction. Water is the biggest problem up here, not Smithfield but not far from there. I've given up on proper drainage right now. I'm just gonna let the river (water rut) flow and make sure it ends up in the creek at the bottom, not on the road. But yeah I try and build a few crucial features like catch berms and water diversions, then leave the rest pretty raw. Even though we have amazing soil and annual rainfall, it's hard to rely just on the rain to make proper dirt jumps and high walled berms, etc. Fine drizzle has a very fine line between being not enough to soak freshly dug up dirt, to quickly oversaturating the mud and not having it stick or pack.
The awesome thing about sand tracks though Stu is they get better in the wet! I'd be careful of building a climb across/ up a descent. It only takes a few riders to ride the decent again and rip a big line down your benches.
Oh and GS. WA is going nuts with good, new MTB parks
Deck pulled off an Austinmer reno and straight into a new wall ride. Not my work, and I haven't ridden it yet either, though it looks very inviting. It's on a brand new, almost-finished trail, that's fast and tight and black all the way - doesn't even have B lines built into it.
that looks epic. Wall rides are kinda all or nothing.. need speed..
I attempted the newish - downhill line at Nerang - Taipan, and tried to pull up on one of the drops to berm, but couldn't in time and slowly, went over the bars, and crashed into the berm then slid down all the way to the bottom. to the joy of two 15 groms watching.. Stoked. at least it was muddy... ...
After six weeks off the bike - three weeks in Indo, three weeks insurance buffer beforehand - I've been getting dirty again. Lots of kms in the saddle on the small days, and swinging the tools on the weekends.
What was going to be a B-line for the last jump on Screaming Trees instantly turned into an A-line. A big hip with a perfect tranny, blind lander, smooth in every way, just spectacularly bootable for everyone from hacker dads (and mums) to precocious groms.
The lander led down into a hollow that deserved just one more gap, which it got, however the OH&S officer in me could foresee danger with crew coming back across the Scott Morrisson Memorial Bridge heading for the up trail, via the blind lander.
So, a new diversion had to be built. Wood got sourced, lugged, cut, and nailed...and two weekends later we have a boardwalk.
Kicker for the new hip (steeper and higher than it looks)
Shallow gap to clear on the hip - though it can be rolled too - heading down towards the new gap
Next two shots: Run up into the new gap, or peel off to the boardwalk
Though the trail features end you can continue on to the Scott Morrisson Memorial Bridge.
Heading back for the up trail. Edges of the boardwalk still need to be cleaned up. After that I'm gonna down tools and just ride for a while.
Surely the Scott Morrison Memorial Bridge would be better placed as a plank running out into thin air at the edge of the escarpment. Preferably just past the big hipped tranny so she can give him a kick in the arse as he goes over
Quick Crankworx update. They're building a half pipe which runs parallel to the course direction, snowboard style. They'll hip into and out of it, from left or right. Should be sick! Also, the scale of building is pretty scary. They're being pretty thrifty with the bush they're cutting down and elevation used. But the way they just open it up and make it really wide and smooth, you could easily roll down towards the whip off jump at 40ks I reckon. I've been to GV and seen the big line there. But only in poor condition and grassy, looks so much more intimidating having the run in come straight out of the rainforest and freshly built. Oh and it doesn't look like they're building a straight pump track either which is good. Kinda defeats the purpose I reckon, not being able to pump out of corners.
There's been a lot of tree trimming and raking going on lately too. If anyone comes up and is planning to ride there might be quite a lot of pirate trails and jumps running.
Love this, it’s actually a thing out of Wanaka, the last time I was there only had 7 shops in town that would sell you a mtb!
https://www.lakewanaka.co.nz/things-to-do/mountain-biking-road-cycling/…
GuySmiley wrote:
Love this, it’s actually a thing out of Wanaka, the last time I was there only had 7 shops in town that would sell you a mtb!
https://www.lakewanaka.co.nz/things-to-do/mountain-biking-road-cycling/…
That was a giggle, thanks Guy. I reckon the hare was the real winner anyway, nice lunch and a bit of a nap. Was kinda hoping for the fox to reappear at the end..
The view from a trailhead to be:
That's Sandon Point down there, and Peggies just to the south of it. My house is down there somewhere too.
The elevation is 360m and once all the work is done it'll link to an existing trail at 210m, which then links onto another that ends at 20m above sea level. 340m vertical descent. For comparison, Thredbo is 500m.
A smidge over 4kms of tech descents, flow, and a full km of non-stop park features at the bottom - or it can be extended out a few more kms with some additional XC loops.
Shuttle back to the top and repeat, or pop your dropper and hit the granny gear for a long grind back up Bulli Pass.
Geez Stu, you could do that for a living. You ever thought of getting a syndicate of like minded crew and buying a steep and cheap block of land and opening a MTB park?
Where do you get all your materials? There’s enough timber to build a couple of houses. I understand if you scab around for old decking but what about all the bugle head screws ? They’re expensive!
I'd love to. The area we mainly build in is a 35ha stand of bush just north of here. I did some research and found that in 2017 it sold for $425K.
It's riddled with mines, topped with flammable coalwash, so can never be built on, but fuck it'd be a great MTB park. Two mins from my joint, two mins from the beach, 150m vertical descent.
As it is, we just go ahead and build in there. I called the main trail Screaming Trees, made up a sign ('inspired' by Santa Cruz Skateboards) and have recently made up a few shirts to sell to local riders. $15 profit from each shirt goes back into tools and trail upkeep. Lot of the wood comes from mates who are tradies.
Screaming Trees has a lot of wooden features but the new trail up top will be natural. Just rock and soil. We may have to use wood on occasion: retaining walls etc. But we'll try and hide them.
Going out for a MTB ride with the son at the local park/trail this arvo.
he digs it, I'm making up the numbers and trying not to wrap myself around a tree.
it's a nice piece of remnant big scrub rainforest.
hahaha, I'll try.
The ride up and back will be spent with my son laying out the case as to why he needs to spend 5 grand on a bike.
Now.
Say it’s ten blokes involved and you get it for $700K. That’s $70Kish each over a 25 year loan. What’s that with interest …$60/week? It’s not just two minutes from the surf and two minutes from your place, it’s also thirty minutes from millions of entertainment hungry Sydneysiders.
Sell out and make a motza doing what you love!
And sell me a shirt ya bugger.
Serious about the shirt.
Good stuff, Stu. Looks beautiful.
Reminds me of a running/mtb track back in Wellington - The Tip Track. 3.7km and 490m drop. Ex world mountain running champ Jonathan Wyatt holds the uphill record with 16min something. Beast! (My pb is a much more modest 28min).
Mtb guys struggle to get enough grip and climb slower.
Shuttle back to the top and repeat, or pop your dropper and hit the granny gear for a long grind back up Bulli Pass.…. How are emtbs going in that neck of the woods? Seems ideal terrain
Island Bay wrote:
Good stuff, Stu. Looks beautiful.
Reminds me of a running/mtb track back in Wellington - The Tip Track. 3.7km and 490m drop. Ex world mountain running champ Jonathan Wyatt holds the uphill record with 16min something. Beast! (My pb is a much more modest 28min).
Mtb guys struggle to get enough grip and climb slower.
Good lord, how do you do 3.7km with 490m vert in 16min??
Thredbo just announced three new trails for the season opening, with two more opening towards the end of the season. All of them on the Merritts/Cruiser side of the mountain.
They're also going to start running the Cruiser Chairlift in summer, taking the total to four lifts.
More options on the north side of the mountain now, as opposed to the trad runs of Cannonball and Kozzy Flow on the south side.
From the top of Cruiser, Paparazzi into Grasshopper into Sidewinder into Home Run equals 7kms of flow trail with just over 500m of fall.
Abc news
Tassie heads
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-28/west-coast-tasmania-heemskirk-mo…
Wow.
Those Tassie trails look insane.
Gone are the days when we were chased by the NP Rangers.
MTB specific trails everywhere these days.
Sorry Stu yes been digging again. Had my fill of trail riding over the past 5 months, averaging 15hrs a month and getting a bit of everything in.
I put a standard filter on the photos to override the variations in colour from daylight and moisture. Makes gradual progress more noticeable, the photo below is normal.
The last feature worked too well, getting shot out of that berm like a cannon. This one will be a bit more catch as there's no need to carry the speed. I essentially just see berms as straight walls to push against to redirect yourself. Not arcs. I do dig the inside of the corner out though so you're tipped into it. Berms on flat ground are different but regardless the aim is to get horizontal if not sideways!
It was a fun off camber corner to practice controlled drifts on, but I'm trying to make this the main line. So hopefully after this corner is built you can bomb straight down with confidence, or drag your brakes the whole way with confidence too.
I'm pretty methodical when I dig. Start by opening up the line of sight from corner to corner to corner. Choose one big feature and leave the rest raw. Dig outline. Then bench in deep from the bottom and work upwards. Makes it easier to see progress when you only do a 1.5 hrs at a time. Each dig you've extended the berm by another foot rather than added 1% volume overall or gone 1% deeper or something.
udo's vid from other thread,
a bit heavier than a sprint to the shops;).
The eldest needed an mtb upgrade, won't stop growing, so rather than take out a second mortgage I decided to play it shrewd.
Found a guy in Sydney selling a Canyon Spectral with a busted frame at the right price - read: fucking cheap.
Then bought a Nukeproof Mega frame kit for 50% off. Same frame size, wheel size, shock size, and boost spacing. I envisioned spending half an arvo swapping parts from one to the other.
The best laid plans etc etc...
A hugely frustrating week later it was finally finished, and that was after calling in help from a number of mates. Shock mounting problems, derailleur problems, BB problems, brake problems.
Anyway, despite that, he's got himself a kitted out Nukeproof Mega for an Aldi centre aisle price.
Thredbo here we come...
The bike looks the goods Stu.
Yeah those full parts swaps from frame to frame are never as easy as you might think.
I've done a few.
Craig wrote:
Ha!
Mind if I test how 'Nuke Proof' it is ;p
Did you find that missing capsule Craig?
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/dangerous-radioactive-ca…
Hey Stu I’m riding Wollo this Saturday, something steep loose and rocky apparently. Say gday if you see one of those fluoro red Commencal Metas sideways in a bush
mitchvg wrote:
Hey Stu I’m riding Wollo this Saturday, something steep loose and rocky apparently. Say gday if you see one of those fluoro red Commencal Metas sideways in a bush
Which network, Mitch? Kembla, Keira, Possums, or the undisputed crown of the Gong, Red Sands at Thirroul?
My son and his mates have built a few big dirt jumps in the top paddock- hoots and hollers until dark last night, hopefully no sirens for a while.
freeride76 wrote:
My son and his mates have built a few big dirt jumps in the top paddock- hoots and hollers until dark last night, hopefully no sirens for a while.
Have the pythons muscled in on them yet? :-)
FWIW Mitch: Wollongong - specifically the northern suburbs - just had over 100mm since my last comment. Currently on 115mm since 9am. If Ross Williams were a MTBer he'd call the trails a little spicy right now.
Not sure what will be doable on Saturday.
My backyard half an hour ago (yeah, the shed flooded):
Just behind my office, next to Thirroul beach park:
I've been meaning to start a mountain biking thread for a while and now is as good a time as any.