Hawthorn just won the grand final. I’m not a fan, but I think it’s a good thing for football. When you see the under-dog do good, it gives blokes like me encouragement to front up to MTB event after event completely out of my depth but still prepared to have a go. Blokes like me make the fast riders look good, their success comes from passing & beating blokes like me. Because of that I think I’ve had a hand in a lot of victories.
The ‘Bay ride is coming up, so I rolled out to Frankston & back (100kms) to revisit that “sore arse & numb fingers” feeling I get skirting the pond. As I couldn’t scare up any other takers I broke out before 6am to make it there/back before 9:30am. Lot of bikes out, although with my early start I spent the trip down pretty much on my own, but that was fine by me, a relatively warm still clear day dawned - the hotair balloons drifted overhead - a sure sign of a good start to the day for riding. Hooked a U-turn at the top of Olivers Hill & rode home.
The ride back I came across heaps of groups, some were scooting along over 45kms/hr – I averaged 34kms/hr on my own – but others kind of almost matched my average & it was hard not to sit in them & bum a tow home. Prob is with hooking up with the odd group you get along Beach Rd is that a lot of them have a creative interpretation of peleton etiquette & it takes a few kms to gel with the groove. After Mordialoc I came across a bunch of ‘seniors’ (being 40yrs old means that I now regard anyone else slightly older than me as a senior) sitting on my pace who were dragging along quite a few opportunists. I filter up to the front of the group to find a few on them loved to frequently call out stuff, like “car back” & “bike”, & other things I thought was coming across almost as being quite theatrical. I didn’t join in fun, & tried to ride out the front. But, as with all these sorts of things all I seem to do was drag everyone else along for the ride, not much fun pounding away in the ‘drops’ only to hear riders just behind you freewheeling. We motored past other groups sitting at lower speeds so the motivation to hang with my new bros held out until the group dissipated after passing through St Kilda. Ride home from there was a nice little pootle & left me feeling pretty fresh for the rest of the morning.
I’ve been ticking off the weekly dirt crits at Westgate over the last couple of months. Never really developing beyond the tail end of B grade, but it’s all good fun. It’s slowing getting warmer & brighter later into the evening, so the end of racing by lights will be over for another year sooner than later. Just been riding the Stumpjumper as the Anthem is still in dire need of fresh chain/cogs. Should sort that out before the Gravity 12hour in early November. The 24hour @ Forest is up in December too, so no time to lose.
The commuter – my Jamis MTB signle speed – is set for a change. I’m replacing the rear disk brake wheel with a coaster brake hub, just for laughs. The coaster hub is cheap as, but building a wheel is the stinger. will photo & report when sorted.
My much ignored Honda Hornet has had a few outings of late. Even though I have already replaced the stock handlebars with lower Renthal ‘low rise’ ‘bars, I’m wanting something more. Thoughts of the Aces handlebars or ‘clubman’ ‘bars I had on the Kawasaki zephyr are coming to me. Prob is they’re kinda hard to locate nowadays. I suppose if people want to go ‘sports’ with flatbar road bikes, they trade to a sportsbike with clip-ons. But not me, longterm musings on my Hornet are ‘clubman’ ‘bars & maybe some low slung exhausts with slash-cut silencers. Hmm…..
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