ANACONDA ENDURO
...and you thought the normal ceramic bearings were good!!! These new models are named zero's for a very good reason.
Something has to be said for cranks that turn with next to no resitence whatsoever. This stuff from Duncan at DIYMTB is pure hidden Bling! and in my book, well worth every cent in maintainence & the energy it saves over long distances.
MATRIX 6 hour - weekend warrior festival
1st solo mens, Prue - 1st solo womens
I felt like a pinball through all those rocky sections on this brand new track. And like any XC race, not even the downhill sections gave much respite. It's very obvious that Bill & his track team from TWP has put in a huge amount of work getting these tracks going though. Time, some new flowy additions & a bit of rain will hopefully see the track bed in & be a bit more enduro like. Getting through & over that rocky stuff is energy sapping at the best of times, 6 hours of it made for a really challenging day.
And how's this...Prue & I got through without any major mechanicals or any such zucchini slice adventure. Yep, things went really well for both of us. We pushed our support crew to the limits once again. Kaz & Ratty were absolutley awesome providing food, drink, good cheer and underneath it all was that unquestionable expectation that we would stay on our bikes. As always it was really encouraging to see a lot of new riders at this event. I'm sure many would be pleased to know that they were introduced to mountain biking on one of the most rigorous tracks around.
I used some AY-UP Luxeon lights for the first time at the world 24 hour in California last year. They were really light weight, with a simple robust design and a perfect bar mounted light. That was then....they've got better...
I'm fortunate enough to have the newest high power version which I've been running on my helmet since April. Andrew from AY-UP tells me that the new switchable battery (making lights capable of 4-40 hours burntime!!) will have this high power capacity. I ran HID lights as soon as they were available because they provided superior lighting to everything else on the market at the time but they have traditionally been heavy. The latest AY-UP LED's (CREE Q5's) provide a broad centre brightness without the washout that sometimes happened with HID's. At a third of the weight & price for the same burntime, it's an easy choice.
We are fortunate to have this innovative company in Brisbane leading the way in lighting systems for mountain biking and road cycling internationally. AY-UP have been supporting races locally & abroad allowing riders to borrow sets of lights for events. They will also be at the 24 hour world's in Canada and I look forward to being part of the team showcasing this brilliant Australian product.
click here for an interview with Andrew from AY-UP
AY-UP at sea otter....
This was my third 24 Hour Solo Race. I was using it as preparation in the lead up to the 24 hour World's in Canada at the end of July. I wanted to learn and I wanted to deepen my experience in solo 24 hour racing. It's difficult to predict what might go wrong in such long events & for both rider and support it is crucial that they can be managed.
The Merida 24 hour certainly provided the unexpected. For 15 hours I was reaping the rewards of the previous months training and I was really happy with how it was going. I was on the new Superlight Felt RXC Hardtail paired with a cushy 2.25 rear tyre & a carbon seatpost. I felt like I was at home: the bike was light, comfortable, responsive. My body felt good, my support were faultless and nutrition & hydration were spot on...well so it seemed. I'd added home cooked zucchini slice at the last minute to my nutrition arsenal and it was going down a treat.
The "unexpected" arrived at about the 16 hour mark: cold sweats and blurred vision forced me into the pit. Things got worse very quickly and when I could keep anything down it was off to Beaudesert Hospital. I recovered in a few hours still confused by what had gone wrong. The mystery unravelled itself that afternoon when three hours after the race and after knawing on some zucchini slice, Prue found herself in a similar mess. Back to Beaudesert Hospital it was for us!
It's so often the simple things that are completely overlooked. The zucchini slice had travelled with us from Mooloolaba, it spent most of its life in the esky but certainily not all of its life there. Overlooking things like this in race situations can quickly become dangerous as our body's are already under stress.
