A year of 2 halves, from February & June it was basically recovering from my stack @ the Westgate dirt crits & subsequent hospital stay & recovery.
The second half was the long road seeing out a time before regaining my form. Competing in various ‘major’ MTB events during this time, my major problem was not developing my form & fitness throughout the year. Some compounding issues @ work & the loss of motivation while I waited out my recovery saw me rolling through a lot of these MTB events without any progress in my results. This was highlighted in the various Thursday evening dirt crits @ Westagate ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/dirtcrits.html ) that saw me bringing home the rear end of B grade throughout this year.
But there were highlights & a few firsts for my MTBing this year; running a solid consistant race in the big one for 2007, the Kona 24 hour @ Forrest in threesomes ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/24hour.html ). Making the drive up to Happy valley north of Myrtleford for the Gravity 12 hour MTB event ( http://www.gravitysport.com/chaingang/12hour.html ), which had a magnificent course. As well as competing in the FGP 12 Hour @ Werribee ( http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/12hour.html ) & various ‘Chase the Sun’ events at Lysterfield (http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/cts.html).
On the equipment side of things, it was a big year for me in 2007.
Early on I picked up a 2nd hand Specialized Langster (http://shop.devercycles.co.uk/images/prod_2035.jpg ) in May for the commute to/from work. The only real mod I did was to go from the standard freewheel 48/16 to a larger rear freewheel 46/18. This made any of the climbs encounted on the commute doable (with a 5kg+ backpack) in any conditions, but left me spinning abit out on the flats & tailwinds. The standard tyres (Specialized Mondo 700x23) didn’t last long, copping quite a few punctures in the first real batch of wet weather riding I encounted, so I opted for Michelin Pro Race from Torpedo 7 (http://www.torpedo7.com.au/) .
Motorcycles: I bit the bullet & sold the Ducati 748 (http://marx.garage.tripod.com/ ) in January because of a bad spat of funny offs & close calls I was having. The 748 was well sorted for me but I felt like I wanted to be in a different ‘place’ with m’cycles at that time, so I put in on the market. I would have kept it, if I had the space to keep it under covers, letting the rego lapse, until another time for me in the future when I could dust it off & relive the ‘World Superbike Champ’ I was in the past on those stellar rides days @ Phillip Island & Winton racetracks.
I picked up a Honda Hornet 900, from the Trading Post. It’s a low milage 2nd hand bike in immaculate condition. The truth be known I haven’t put more that 300kms on it between April & December 2007. I went for the Hornet as it was the best comprise for an all rounder & I have a thing for ‘modern’ retro-nakeds like my previous Kawasaki Zephyr 750. The Hornet, was a similar sort of thing but with more power & has a great option to spec up (using Honda CBR 600/900 parts) if the desire came over me.
October 2007, I picked up a 2nd hand Giant Anthem XC MTB. This was solely based on my experience during the FGP 12 Hour MTB event earlier in September 2007, where the rough rocky going was really bashing me around on my hardtail – Specialized Stumpjumper (2003). I saw during that event that riders on dual suspension XC bikes, like the Giant Anthem had such an easier time of it than I had. This Anthem I bought was the quickest & cheapest trade into the world of dual suspension XC bikes for me @ that time. Using it in the 2007 Kona 24 hour @ Forrest really brought home for me the advantages the dual suspension XC bike can offer when the body gets weary & the mind can get dozy. 
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