Nightrider

Night riding in Queensland is much cooler ..... so now that the rain has stopped, the wind has died down and the mud has dried, it was time to get out for a spin around Daisy. A great way to end a day and start the week.

Rolling again.

The injured shoulder is well on its way to full recovery so given the green light to get out there, I've wasted no time using it to get rolling again .... both in the kayak and on the mountain bike.

Dean0 and I took the shoulder out for a test run at Daisy for an easy Sunday afternoon cruise.

.... it was then onto a koala spotting night ride through Daisy. Glad to see that there really are koalas out there in the Koala Forests.

Always great to get out with mates to test the fitness and catch up on the latest.

Sandy boats and muddy bikes

With only a few days before my much anticipated shoulder surgery, I got out for a paddle and took photos of my muddy mates at a mountain bike event. All great fun.

More muddy bike photos can be found here.

New bike

Unfortunately, I didn't get a new bike but Dave did ... and we all looked on in awe as he stood out from the crowd. ;-)  Good ride this morning with a good crew, good chat and good trails. There were still a few muddy spots but finally Daisy has started to dry out after all the rain.

Signed up for the Epic later this year so something to get motivated about and out on the dirt again. Floody signed up as well and can't wait for his new Epic jersey ... no white to turn a lighter shade of brown.

Bicycle race

 

It was bicycle week this week and there were people on bikes everywhere. This morning there was the Mt Cootha Challenge but there was also the Daisy Hill Summer Series where hardman Dean0 was racing and so were Dave and daughter. Everyone was a winner.

Wed ride turns four

 

The Wednesday morning ride at Daisy turned four today with about a dozen riders out enjoying the fine but hot and humid morning. Its a testament to the riders who frequent the forest on Wednesday morning that the ride has lasted for as long as it has with  no more organisation than "see you there". A great bunch of guys/gals to spend a few hours on the singletrack with each week. 

2010 - Year of the Bike

The first mountain bike ride for the year today in this, the year of the bike (well, for me at least). With my goals of completing both the Noosa Enduro 100km and Epic 100km this year, I need to put in a lot of time on the bike to have the fitness required.

Karawatha revisited.

Although I was there yesterday, I went there again today with a couple of mates to ride mountain bikes again. Some very nice spots in the forest.

We rode about 26km and climbed almost 500m so it was a good workout in the showery weather.

The Daisy Hill crew on YouTube

It's that time of year again when we look back at what happened this year. For the crew of the Daisy Hill Wednesday morning ride it was more great times out there in the forest ... and we ventured away from Daisy as well. I hope your year on the bike was as good as ours.

And have a great 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmQdJz2kvw

Mates in a mag.

If you walk, ride, ski or paddle with me there is every chance that you will find youself looking out from the pages of a magazine (with your permission of course). It is good to see some of my mates from the regular Daisy Hill Wed morning crew have made the pages of Australian Mountain Bike over Christmas. At least one of them is available for magazine signings if you like (LOL).

Have a great Christmas.

Flat out Wednesday

Although the sign says that it was sunny, the first half hour was light rain which was good in settling the dust.

The flats started out as I took the bike out of the car only to find it had a flat rear tyre which I changed before the ride with an audience of a dozen riders watching me looking at their watches. Simon had a rear flat halfway through the ride which Neil and Jaman helped with after the rest of the crew took off. Rich had the third on 2nd Cummin and Max watch him change that ;-)

The fouth flat was not a flat tyre but rather someone charging down the gravelly fire track doing a big slide and skid towards the barbed wire fenced and then proceeded to over-balance, unable to unclip and ended up on their back like a stunned turtle while the onlookers laughed (a lot). So really the fourth flat was a rider flat - namely me - so no photos 'cause I had the camera.

Chickendrinker helps Simon change a flat. Its good to have mates.

A Sunday with the Wednesday crew

Spent the day racing with many of the Wednesday morning crew at the Karingal 4hr mountain bike race. It was great fun but pretty hot. Below is a bit of the action I captured as I stopped around the track .... a lot of familiar faces can be seen including cameo appearances by Rhino, Jaman, Dean0, chickendrinker, Floody, Token Kid, Rich the Stich, nitronic and many more.

Tall stories and pink lights

(click on image for larger version)

Great morning again for the Wednesday morning ride with a good turn out ... the diggers would have been proud of the mateship displayed .... which also means ragging each other. Speaking of taking the piss .... who had the pink ayups on their bike this morning?????

... and we were all entertained by Jaman's stories of the Crocodile Trophy mtb race in North Qld recently.

Bike, planes and a lot of bull.

Sometimes bikes are a work of art.

But they still get ridden and the old ones can only watch on.

Flyboy gave us a lesson about planes ...

.. and then about riding rocks ...

... but there was also a lot of bull out at Old Hidden Vale.

Halfway up the EE

A perfect morning for an attack on the EE.

...... but I am still waiting for Wezzy.

Great morning at Daisy

Its Wednesday morning and that means mountain biking at Daisy Hill. Always good to get out with the regular crew before work.

Another view of the same spot.

Bayview

Its great to ride a place like Bayview with a couple of mates ... the tracks are raw and there is no-one else around. Only 35 minutes from the city, but still a world away. Plenty of offs ... mainly by me ... and plenty of laughs.

Far too wet to ride

Its far too wet to ride a mtb anywhere in SE Qld this morning so I
posted up this video that I prepared earlier

... last weekend in fact. It was a lot drier and dustier then.

Click here to see the mtbing video.

Mt Nebo beckons

(click on image for larger version)

Heart rate at 186 bpm within a kilometre of starting .... this is going to hurt. With the motivation of the 2009 Noosa Enduro to push me, I (and a group of fellow mtbers) headed up the standard Gap Ck - Mt Nebo route which is approx 50km and 1,500m of climbing for a training ride. A beautiful morning for it, with a great crew.  

It did hurt .... but after reviewing the gps data, I equalled my best moving average for the route at a lower heart rate than 12 months ago (which was also the last time I did this ride).  No wonder I feel a bit spent. 

Daisy at dawn

(click on images for larger version)

With a crew of 14 regulars on a cold, clear morning the tracks were perfect, the crew was great and the riding was excellent.















Did anyone else see this guy on the ride?