Shut Up and Ride

21 October 2011 - Garrigal (Castle Cove etc)

2011-10-21T10:19:00.000+11:00

Chris and Stephe ducked out early on a Friday afternoon for a short ride...

Not early enough, as it turns out - we abandoned the car halfway to Castle Cove and did a semi-urban ride.

Was fun, albeit nothing to write home about...

Track is here.

25 September 2011 - Old Great North Road - Whisperer's farewell ride

2011-09-25T08:53:00.000+10:00

Whisperer's farewell ride was going to be huge, but the weather had other ideas...

It was cold, sad and miserable.

We almost pulled the pin before we got started (having adjourned to a local coffee spot following the abandonment of the initial start), but some quick Doug pep-talking managed to get the crew into a better state of mind, and we returned to kick off.

Whisperer, Stephe, [Pete?], Dylan, Brian and Donal (not in photo) and Doug (not in photo) headed off.

Got very wet.

Retired halfway (with at least the partial excuse that we broke Brian's bike)...

At least we had fun!

Full set of photos here. And track (such as it was) here.

18 September 2011 - Yarramundi

2011-09-18T08:44:00.000+10:00

NicMcVic and Stephe managed to get a couple of laps in at Yarramundi, which was - of course - excellent.

Unfortunately, this post prepared some time after the event, and recollections now hazy!

But, did capture Nic in action:

Track here...

10 September 2011 - Mooney

2011-09-10T15:27:00.000+10:00

Mooney is unreal.

A truly pleasurable experience dropping by - both on those days when the Gods are with you, but also even when things do not go like clockwork.

The smells, the sounds, the sights - all add up to a really enjoyable time on the bike, with lots of challenges thrown in for good measure.

Doug and Stephe were up early for a return trip, 'testing the water' to see if Mooney was still as it used to be... turns out, it was even better!

Some work had been done on the lower reaches of the track, for example, this is what smartarse creek now looks like (not much scope for being caught out trying to be a bit cheeky here now...):

But, pretty much all the other challenges remain, for example, Stephe getting the crossing wrong:

The dam was full and nice to see the water flowing, and the track remained quite wet further up - but still great. Some quick shots:

We also shot some Contour footage, which will get up on YouTube and post here shortly.

A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

4 September 2011 - Appin (again!)

2011-09-04T15:08:00.000+10:00

Cooper decided it would be a very nice thing indeed to take Stephe out to Appin for Father's Day, and we were fortunate enough to be joined by Bob.

It was great - perfect conditions, and much fun.

Cooper continues to improve his skills, and is a 'natural' on the bike...

No photos, but two tracks (of each of the laps that we finished, before running out of time and heading home) are here: Lap One, and Lap Two.

2 September 2011 - Appin

2011-09-02T15:47:00.000+10:00

Donal, Doug and Stephe nipped out for a quick couple of Appin laps.

Much fun had by all - although with time constraints Stephe was only able to get two laps in, leaving Donal and Doug to contemplate just how long they could keep meandering about!

Written too long after the event to recall just how Doug injured himself, and became cautious for a little while - but I do recall we were very sympathetic indeed... (!)

A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

Here is a quick video of Doug proving that he can be cautious and sure footed on a bike when he wants to be:

28 August 2011 - Redhill and Oxford Falls

2011-08-28T15:42:00.000+10:00

Chris, Little Guy and Stephe saw that the sun was going to shine and figured a cheeky little Redhill run would be good for us. So, bright and early Sunday morning we set off for Redhill...

Turns out the place was quite wet from recent rains, even though the day itself was entirely fine. So, lots of claggy mud, and we had to be particularly careful to avoid creating any further erosion damage.

In any case, was fun and a healthy little blast (being careful, of course, to walk the bikes through any restricted access areas along the way).

Quick view of Little Guy during and after...

A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

15 May 2011 - Yarramundi

2011-05-15T19:29:00.001+10:00

Matt, John and Stephe meandered out to Yarramundi for a quick lap or two, before a Sydney shop held their new bike day...

Was fun, but demonstrated an ongoing lack of fitness from at least one of the crew (who shall remain nameless!).

Matt and John at the halfway point:

A few photos here... and our .kmz track here.

And, proving an ongoing lack of skill with a camera, Stephe's attempt at two still shots of Matt and John::

17 April 2011 - Old Great North Road

2011-04-17T16:55:00.009+10:00

Ah, we went back to the spiritual home of mountain bike riding, and the weather gods were good to us (as always). No rain, but there was lots of water about.

Doug, Matt, Brian, Joe and Stephe started off around 7.40am at Mangrove Mountain, and then kicked off. Some of the 'older' folk were assuming Joe would find the going tough at some point, and planned around having a break sooner rather than later. Turns out that Joe was the only one that was fresh as a daisy at the end... with Stephe definitely bringing up the rear, with a sad and slow ride up the last 500m hill...

In any case, limited photos until we got to Devine's Hill for a break:

Doug's bike during ride, and at the end (ooops, wasn't supposed to get any dirt on it(!)):

Some riding snaps:

And, Joe in particular:

Full set of photos here... and our .kmz track here.

Doug also took some great video, but it's huuuuge, so not yet entirely certain how to put it all up, but one excerpt of our final leg home loaded on to YouTube here:

10 April 2011 - Tathra

2011-04-10T23:44:00.019+10:00

Ben, CJ, Cooper, Imo and Stephe at various points had a chance to play around on the fantastic single track created at Tathra.

It was so enjoyable, that we collected no photos, other than two of the younger folk when we got back to the accommodation.

There are some excellent links on the web to the Tathra single track, and our .kmz tracks are here (the first little explore), the second one (where we got lost) and the third (where we just did the intro downhill and return).

A quick snapshot of Cooper and Imo:

And a bit of footage of Cooper rolling down the driveway for amusement (click on the image for the movie, it's a biggish file, so wait a while!):

Need to get back down there again, and do a few circuits of the full track!

temporary hiatus

2010-12-28T09:01:00.000+11:00

mountain bike riding off the agenda for stephe for a brief while (6 - 12 weeks).

Foolishly entertaining other forms of go fast activity, stephe crashed a go kart into a tire wall, with fractures to lumbar verterbrae 1 and 3. Out of hospital, all stable, prognosis good, but not much activity for some weeks...

12 December 2010 - Coba Point and Smuggler's Ridge

2010-12-12T08:58:00.001+11:00

After a couple of alternative ideas were floated, Bob and Stephe finally settled on a relatively short local ride out to Coba Point.

Eschewing the more usual out and back to the view first, we headed off straight for Smugglers Ridge. Was excellent, as ever. Great flowers out, we were a bit wussy on anything with a slightly technical bent, but that just leaves plenty of improvement for the next visit, eh!

Some quick snaps (the whole, limited, set is here):

Great ride down the ridge, loooong ride back up the hills. But fun.

The track (which is embarrassingly short!) is here.

4 December 2010 - Ingar Creek

2010-12-04T13:28:00.020+11:00

After a bit of a debacle on the camping front (the weather was less than fully kind to us), Brian, Joe, Gus, Hugo and Stephe, Cooper and Ethan thought we should try to at least check out the proposed camping ground at Ingar Creek.

So, we parked the cars at the top of the fire trail, and rode down the 10kms to the bottom (pedaling maybe twice along the way!).

It proved to be a very cool camping ground, and quite possibly worth a future visit.

It was not at all clear how to get to the nearby fire trail that connected with Andersons, although the NPWS summary was hopeful "This camping ground is set among scribbly gums. The dam on Ingar Creek is suitable for paddling and swimming, and you can also walk or ride your mountain bike to Bedford Creek, via Murphy's Fire Trail."

In any case, given the fact that we had to ride back out in the cold and wet, up an entirely vertical climb, we decided to give exploration a miss to another day...

At least we had plenty of food to amuse us when we made it back to the top:

All in all, was good, but might be more fun in good weather and starting from the bottom!

My .kmz of the downhill track is here, and some more photos here.

28 November 2010 - Old Great North Road

2010-11-28T12:27:00.046+11:00

It continues to amaze, how you can turn up to an Old North Road ride and re-discover what an excellent place it is each time. Surely, eventually, the message will stick, and we'll simply ride here every weekend!

Paul R joined Akis (yes, he's back!), Mark S, John S, Whisperer, Peter and Stephe at the Mangrove Mountain entrance to the ride at 7.45am.

Group photo of the gang - from left to right - Mark S, John S, Stephe, Peter, Akis, Paul R (Whisperer taking the photo):

Weather was perfect - slightly overcast, but spots of blue sky, and just the right amount of spitting rain occasionally along the ride when we needed to be cooled down.

Much amusement along the way, some reasonable pace at points (Paul R did get 'out of the gate' aggressively, and was probably regretting that on the way home, although did his best not to show it). Fair to say that the slog up the bitumen road to the cars at the end seemed a long one to a few of us...

We also tried our skills at climbing up a *massive* rock wall - about 5-25m in vertical climb, honest injun - although, peculiarly, in this video it looks somewhat more tame... (and, yes, we really did make that many lame attempts... ah well!):

And, while I'm on an embedding roll... here is Whisperer's garmin page of the ride:

A couple of additional photos here.

All in all, a fantastic day out, may there be very many more in the future!

13 October 2010 - Manly Dam

2010-10-13T08:18:00.000+11:00

John S and Stephe took the opportunity for a quick blast around the dam.

It was excellent.

John discovered that his trusted hard tail 29'er actually seems to do a better job of many sections of the dam than the more apparently well qualified Cannondale leftie... ain't it good that life continues to be full of surprises.

Just in case, the .kmz of the track is here, and the photo album here.

Sunday 26 September 2010 - Menai

2010-09-26T21:35:00.001+10:00

Time to get back in the saddle, and Helena and Stephe picked a great day for it. Unfortunately, not quite the 'run the legs around' gentle reintroduction we had originally planned (which was based on a first visit to Awaba, except that we discovered they were having a club race about when we would have arrived).

Turns out that Menai has become increasingly technical over time.

In any case, weather was beautiful, ride was good, and environment was fantastic.

Love the Waratahs (and the numerous goannas).

Some photos:

The rest of the pictures are here. And the .kmz is here.

Sunday 25 July 2010 - Oxford Falls and Redhill

2010-07-25T11:09:00.038+10:00

Although the weather had been threatening for a while, Sunday dawned clear and even a little warm.

Bob, Whisperer and Stephe left at the very civil hour of 7.30am, and met Mark S at the Morgan Road car park for a morning "investigation ride" - during which, of course, we walked all 'non riding' or closed areas.

While we were waiting for Mark to actually turn up (!), Stephe and Bob had a quick look at the remnants of the Lizard Rock playground - it appears that the downhill stuff on the other side of the road has completely superseded this area, as it was fairly overgrown. The roll off over the big rock still looks just as 'do-able' as ever, but equally just as unlikely to ever be done(!).

Then, it was time for the ride. After a quick road stage to warm up, Whisperer showed us an excellent track into the Oxford Falls bush - and much fun was had by all. We joined back up with Oxford Falls fire trail, where the views, as ever, were spectacular (and only minutes from the city - pretty cool, I reckon).

We then took a reverse loop from the Oxford Falls aerodrome fire trail, with some mild technical playing on the way... (honest, this video activity is *really* scary, and only looks tame because of the incredible skill and talent shown... you should see us on rocks bigger than 10cm!).

[click for very slow loading video!]

Then down past the satellite earth stations, had another road transit, and then dropped into Redhill from the Lady Penryhn car park, but without having to go all the way around (excellent!). A bit of playing about on some tracks in there, and then it occurred to us that we were going to be running out of time... so, we completed the Rim Track, through the Academy of Sport, along the Parkway for a bit, and then back up Deep Creek. Unfortunately, given the time constraints, it was then straight up the fire trail and back to the cars, rather than any further adventure.

A truly great day with lots of larfs!

Photos are up here, with the .kmz here. Mark has a cute interactive map here, and Whisperer's summary page of the ride is below:

Sunday 18 July 2010 - Yarramundi / Yellowmundee

2010-07-18T23:04:00.001+10:00

An absolute hoot - perfect conditions, great company.

Matt, Egon, Shov and Stephe - with Egon being the designated international guest of the day...

The track could not have been in better condition - and, despite the fact that there were quite a few cars in the car park, we saw very few people along the way (perhaps it's a much bigger place than we normally give it credit for...).

Egon proved to be an athletic legend, and Matt amused as ever with his trials activity.

Stephe and Shov were content to just have a really excellent time!

Friday 16 July 2010 - The Oaks

2010-07-16T10:58:00.007+10:00

A little social ride down the Oaks trail, with Margie, Ruby, Grace, Cooper, Ethan and Stephe.

Was much fun, and very impressive work from the younger members of the tribe (perhaps, even, some credit to the 'less young' members of the tribe who were not mountain bike regulars, eh!).

The best news of the day was, once safely back at the cars after the big climb into Glenbrook National Park entrance (up from the causeway), the younger folk were heard to suggest that it had been 'unreal' and they would one day come back.

The negative news of the day is that Stephe has still not learned that stopping by the Glenbrook Bakery and eating the big cream bun and milkshake etc never really lives up to prior expectation, and the ingested calories are approximately 18x the number burnt off in the previous effort... ah well.

No photos, no track (slack, eh!)

Sunday 23 May 2010 - The Oaks

2010-05-23T18:30:00.009+10:00

Today's ride report brought to you by Mark:

The usual challenging logistics of getting everyone in the same place at the same time but eventually Stephe, Shov, Donal, Steve and Mark got away in convoy to Glenbrook. Just to prove the previous week's rain was coastal, it cleared by Blacktown and Glenbrook was sunny, cold and crisp.

[Donal, Shov, Steve, Mark, Stephe]

They say the fitter you, are the longer it takes to warm up and on that basis Stephe will shortly be lodging his entry for the Nationals [ed: harsh! Stephe was just 'smelling the roses', something the athletes at the front have obviously forgotten to do!].

It was certainly cold, although not wet, and looked like there had been no rain for a while.

We started the long steady ride up the hill that doesn't seem like a hill [ed: seemed like a hill to me!], until we reached The Pig. It was at the top that photographic evidence of the various levels of suffering was gathered, although it may have been more entertaining to have an audio recording of each rider's reasons why the Pig had won. But we would win on the way back...

The good weather had brought out the hard core and the recreational riders so it was important to stay left, although someone before us appeared to take that too literally and left an ominous skid mark off into the scrub on one descent. Otherwise it was all downhill on the way back and we regrouped for the single track, which was done at speed. A small OTB from Mark at the end when his bars clipped a shrub, and after that his iPhone was slightly mashed..... but it looked worse than it was, and a little eBaying for parts later had it fixed for a princely $40.

An efficiently executed plan, and Stephe made it back for the 12 o'clock ballgame.

The profile is a joy to behold:

The full set of photos (prior to the iPhone carking it) are here. And the usual .kmz is here (51kms).

Friday 7 May 2010 - Manly Dam

2010-05-07T23:10:00.005+10:00

Time for a cheeky lap or two of Manly Dam, before the day's real work got properly underway...

Shov and Stephe met NicMcVic as we rode up to the primary school, and got a lap underway. It was glorious - weather was perfect, company was superb, the track was in great nick, and we were riding well.

All in all, very jolly good indeed.

Some pathetic snaps (please Doug, come back riding) - the only one we have of Nic, not showing her best riding...

And, then Shov, looking like the mean machine he really is:

The full set are up here. And a .kmz of our laps here.

Wednesday 21 April 2010 - Hunters Hill

2010-04-21T18:28:00.005+10:00

Cooper and Stephe went out for a little blat from Middle Cove to Hunters Hill and back.

Was excellent fun (including a truly enjoyable pink iced donut at the half way mark!).

Track is here as a .kmz, and as a .gpx here.

28 March 2010 - Appin

2010-03-28T10:49:00.017+11:00

Shov, Mark S. and Stephe took off on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, for a visit to Appin.

This was the final instalment for Shov of the introduction to Sydney's big circuits (North / Ourimbah; West / Yarramundi; and now South / Appin).

Not much to say really - it was unbelievably fantastic.

For a variety of not good reasons, we had lef the start quite late and left before getting in a few more laps - but it was still just plain great. Perfect conditions, and much fun. Life good!

Some of the photos:

Full set of photos are up here; and track (.kmz) here.

19 March 2010 - The Oaks

2010-03-19T22:09:00.002+11:00

NicMcVic and Stephe managed a cheeky week day ride up at The Oaks trail, and it was pretty well perfect.

Conditions were ideal - a beautiful autumn blue sky, enough warmth in the sun to keep the blood flowing without overcooking on the climbs, and so much fresh air it nearly killed us! Trail conditions were excellent, the climbs were fun, the descents were even more fun, and the single trail at the end rocked.

We also checked out the sign at the end of the fire trail section, and something like this needs to go up at Manly Dam and everywhere else real soon - it sets out a very simple and clear 'code of conduct' for riding in the bush, but - more importantly - has good 'reasons' for each suggested conduct. Very straightforward, but hopefully powerful to folks reading it. It was also at that point that Stephe discovered (from the altitude graph on display) just how much downhill the trail is (which perhaps explains why the 26km were disposed of fairly readily!).

Some of the photos from the day below, including some cute flowers, a Very Big Ant Indeed (with apologies to him or her, for very poor photography), and a really beautiful red bellied black snake that we interrupted from a lovely snooze in the sun...

An excellent days riding, and yet another ride that we must remember is out there!
The limited photos are here; and a .kmz of the ride from the car park is here; the train trip from Glenbrook to Woodford is here, and the actual trail (albeit with some wacky numbers in it) here.

Sunday 14 March 2010 - Yarramundi

2010-03-14T22:49:00.004+11:00

As part of the ongoing guided tour of Sydney rides, Shov, Darcey, Cooper, Ethan and Stephe all ventured West to Yarramundi, quite late on a Sunday afternoon.

A couple of early falls set the pace, and caused some grief (including a DNF from Ethan - hence, sadly missing from the late in the lap photo).

But, the rest of the ride was a pleasure, followed by a 'hot lap' by Shov and Stephe (well, if you look closely at the .kmz file, you'll perhaps see that 'hot lap' might be a little optimistic!).

Was fun, and the track was in great condition. Looking forward to the rest of the 'series'!

Photos here, .kmz file of the track here.