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Cannonball Run
Mr Bloot, how was your Cannonball Run? Any mishaps / adventures of note, or did you just smash out a dozen runs a day without a sweat, then retire to the bar in your sponsor's cap to talk up your deeds over a strong beverage, little downhill groupies gazing up at you in adoration...
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Where are they when you need them?
Well, it's a long story as to why I used this set-up
But rigid soled XC shoes and weeny little XT clipless pedals
is not the best idea for ones maiden voyages down the hill
I got some odd looks and some tongue in cheek bravery comments at initiation
It wasn't too bad once I got going
But the stop/ start initiation was absolute frustration as it takes me a few feet to get clipped in
As a group ride, there was a lot of stopping before the tech sections
I just took off thinking I'd be right, couldn't get clipped in in time but be committed
My feet slipped off and a nice slam into rock was the result
After this it was a matter of pushing the monster up the hill every unscheduled stop
Past the others to find a good spot to clip in (eventually I was last for this reason)
Bloody tiring and hardly ideal
The rest of the runs on our own were without incident except for a beautiful OTB where I faffed a rock drop and rolled a couple of times down the hill
But it was all good, but without doubt will be using flats next time
The weather was absolutely sensational the whole time we were there
Unbelievable as the week before, and the week just gone were all rain
Glad to hear you made it back in one piece, although why you decided to ignore some sage advice about flats and stealth rubber is beyond me.
But at least you were on a downhill bike - I ignored some sage advice and did the damned thing on my Spark...
Andy has his other disasters with his nice new bike too to deal with.... that's another story as well.
Come on Andy put that one up as some "sage advice" as well!
...any pics from the weekend too you could put up?
Well well, do tell, c'mon master Andrew!...on another note, i had a monster stack at grose head on the weekend, massive grazing down the right side of my body, it happened going around a bend doing about walking pace just as i am finishing the ride, took one hand off handle bar to adjust i-pod in back pocket, front wheel then hits little rock and washes out and ejects me onto the ground, bike landed in soft bush( no damage ), but dopey here is left sprawled on the ground blaming everybody and everything except the real culprit(me), result, lots of damage!
Todd I think you are still sacrificing yourself for the bike... that Evo is just too handsome a beast.
Why I ignored that advice is beyond me as well
But goes something like this
Wanted to have a bit of time on flats as I haven't ridden on them since I was a noob
I changed the pedals on my bike to flats and didn't do them up tight as it was only for a day
Unfortunately, this stripped the thread on the crank after about an hours riding
As we were riding Crackenback we asked the guy there where we should go
He suggested sacred ride in Jindy
The guy there had a hangover and put in the helicoil thingy but couldn't get the pedal to go on
Eventually he and I gave up
Took the bike to South east MTB at Thredders
They wouldn't touch it as the other guy botched it so I had to leave it there, looking like this guy ruined my XT cranks (leading to all sorts of problems for replacement etc)
I saw some bikes (I assumed were hire bikes) there with the DX downhill clipless pedals
I asked about them and they said they could change the pedals on the DH hire bikes no problem
I was preoccupied about my bike and stupidly assumed without checking that they had suitable pedals and clipless shoes as well
The next day just before initiation they told me there was a misunderstanding. They can swap over to my own pedals (which they had as they had my bike) and my shoes
I didn't have my other shoes with me (back at the flat) so I was committed
Twas all a bit of a cock up really
I meant to get it all sorted before I left, but work got in the way
To make matters worse, my (new) bike fell off the back of the car on the first day there as well
My mate has this stupid rack that's no good for bikes with shocks running along the top tube
As we weren't going far I didn't put the required time into securing it properly
Anyhoo, the next day we took the bike back to Sacred Ride
Another mechanic was there and found the helicoil was put in the wrong way
And had it fixed in about 15 minutes
"...and didn't...as it was only for a day..."
"As we weren't going far, I didn't..."
Anyone spot the common theme here?
But the theme wasn't 'she'll be right' at all
it was a chaotic 'fuck I've got to get it done'
Because that's how it was for the couple of months beforehand
I was so stressed out from work
And I was going away with my boss!
He's also my friend, but boss none the less
In some ways it's a lot worse having a friend as your boss
Anyway, I was absolutely manic for the first few days
Plus we imbibe every substance known to man when we go away
So my mind was a scrambled mess as well
I was doing 10 things at once without being able to concentrate on any one thing
All the chaos happened in the first 3 days
it took me 3 days to relax - I was fine after that
And we had a great time
Love to see some photos big fella, i would love to go down there for a weekend, did you hurt the Stumpy?..am i reading it right?
Not of the Cannonball anyway
Was all a bit preoccupied to bother with a camera
Plenty of nice scenics on the bushwalks we did though
Lots of snow and water and great weather
Re the bike - we were driving along and my mate screams out 'fark'
I wondered what the hell had happened
He screams 'your bikes fallen off'
I jumped out of the car and couldn't see my bike
I had visions of it about a k down the road in a mangled heap
I got to the back of the car and it was luckily lying in a heap there
I was shaking like a leaf
There was damage, but could have been a lot worse
A chunk of paint down to the metal on the downtube and a few scratches
Will have to get some touch up paint for it
Bit of a shame it didn't get it's first scratch riding
In fact on this trip I estimate
1 hour riding my bike
1 hour pushing my bike after i stripped the thread
4 hours putting it on and taking it off the car
As my mate said - it's getting to know a new bike
I had my old bike sorted on his racks
And while it was a bit of a pain, nothing like trying to get my new bike on
Anyhoo, them's the breaks - shit happens etc
Was an awesome trip overall and you'd love the C'ball, Todd
I'm feeling for ya mate, i have allready changed my grips and seat, white esi grips and white spec phenom seat, looks pretty wicked now, are you doing the 4 hour on saturday night?
Yeah, I love the C'ball - for a couple of days anyway
Doing one run for more than 3 days got a bit boring!
I'm probably going to try and head down in March or April next year for an extended weekend of riding!
Thats painful Andy ... but I like your point of view ... at least you eventually pulled it all together and got the important things, like your crank fixed.
remember its only paint.
I'm heading to thredders on the 10th / 11th ... or maybe a little earlier
Can't wait, and I'll also have the new rig so .. fingers crossed I don't have the same kind of stories