Melbourne hail storm video part 2

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Posted March 7, 2010

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Melbourne hail storm video

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Posted March 7, 2010

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Jetblack 24hr video

Nicely put together video of the 2010 Jetblack 24hr from Rocky Trail Entertainment

Your's truly is featured at about the 1minute mark for 0.5 of a second.

Posted February 24, 2010

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Qualifying for 2010 World Solo 24Hr MTB Championships

Dear Alistair,

This email is to advise you that you have qualified for the 2010 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo 24Hr Mountain Bike Championships, to be held in Canberra on 9/10 October 2010, as a result of your performance in the 2010 Jetblack Sydney 24Hr last weekend.

We have added some extra qualifiers to take account of the weather conditions in Sydney, and how some riders would have placed in other categories.

You have qualified for the World Championships in the Elite category.

In the attached FAQ document, you need to complete step 1 on the top of page 5. After you have done that, you will be able to then enter the world champs via Step 2.

Please read the entire FAQ document, as it contains some good info on the event and how you can enter other categories.

You can also find out more about the event from the 24 Hours of Adrenalin website at:

http://www.24hoursofadrenalin.com

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Russ Baker

for 2010 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo 24Hr Mountain Bike Championships

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Posted February 10, 2010

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LunarC 8hr race report

I'm still recovering from writing my epic race report from the Pitchblack 12hr so I'm going to do us all a favour & keep this report in bulletpoint form.

Sporting my new good luck jersey

It's hard to look pro eating a jam sandwich, look mum no hands

Executive summary (don't read if you are not an executive)

Great event & an awesome race for me, felt strong most of the night.

No dramas except for getting a flat 2 minutes in & restarting from dead last.

I'm less in love with my rigid fork but still loving racing singlespeed, really unsure if I'd go faster with gears?

Result

2nd in Singlespeed Solo
5th in Solo overall
13 laps = 139km

Good bits

First race for 2010
Finally a dry race at Slickers (Kurwongbah)
Newly cut bits of track were great fun, if a tad bumpy
Passed 106 riders in 1 lap (that's a lot of calling 'track left')
95 solos, 14 singlespeedsters, 38 teams of 2, 17 teams of 3, 222 riders all up & plenty of spectators
Great result for me

Not so good bits

Spiked my rear tyre 2 minutes into the race, lost about 5 minutes fixing that and waiting for passing opportunities
Maybe front suspension would have been a good idea
Gearing was a bit tall, I didn't have to walk any sections but sometimes riding was slower than walking

Bike setup

on-one Ti inbred frame with on-one rigid carbon fork
singlespeed 32/19T gearing

Nutrition

7 bananas
4 jam sandwiches
5.5 litres of gatorade
1 litre of water

Event details

Approx 10km cross country course with plenty of climbing
12pm start, 8am finish
see more at event details link below

Thanks to

in2adventure for putting on another great event
Coach Jeff for the motivation & MCing
Simon at RaceElements for the legs
The Constantinoples crew (Antz, Ben, Andy, Ewan + entourages) for great company

Links

Filed under // 29er events mtb singlespeed

Posted January 16, 2010

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Just refound this pic, my Mt Ventoux climb time.

Back in July on my hired bike I didn't have a gps or hrm so used the stopwatch on my iPhone.

I started recording from the coach park outside Bedoin & hit stop after I dismounted at the summit.

I'd heard so many different stories & tactics about how to do the climb I decided my plan was to have no plan, other than get my eating & drinking right & keep pushing until the top. I think it worked pretty well.

FWIW I dropped about 2 mins off my Cootha p.b. about a week later, purely from knowing it's an easy climb in comparisson.

Filed under // TDF2009

Posted December 12, 2009

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The Lefty returns + 2x9 XX setup

Got the lefty back from warantee with a new lower & internals. Super happy with the FTR & Cannondale service, unfortunately it has not totally cured the wheel alignment woes. Going to try my other front wheel, after that it must be frame warantee time? :-(

I'm keen to try the lefty on my on-one frame so maybe that will shed some light on where the problem is.

While the fork was away the XX crank arrived so I fitted that up with a new 10sp chain & XT cassette. The front shifter is a 12+ year old LX, chosen because it was about 30g lighter than the OEM SLX. As it turns out it doesn't have enough return spring to drop the chain under load so it will make way for an XX front soon.

The X0 grip shifters work fine with only 2 rings up front, my love for them is going make going XX rear harder.

I enjoyed the 50km test ride with the 2x9, but truthfully I think I was a bit too miffed at the dodgy steering to notice.

Along with the crank swap & a few other changes the bike is now down to 10.3kg ready to ride, my goal is sub 10kg, but at this stage I'm happy.

Filed under // 29er mtb workshop

Posted December 6, 2009

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