River path raider.

Casual ride with the Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail up Maribynong river trail to the Western Ring road, then across & back home down the Moonee Ponds creek path.

The Maribynong river path upstream from Canning Street to Brimbank Park was pretty chopped up due to the recent heavy rain & flooding. With heavy ruts on the path, some sections had the sand cover washed away exposing large & jaggered rocks, also the flood water had accumulated deep soft sand in some low sections. Riding the MTB with dirt tyres (Specialized Roll-X @ 40psi) didn’t pose too much of a problem, a head of speed & momentum took care of any irregular surface.
Climbing out from the River under Whitten bridge brought me onto the Western Ring Road path which, even on it’s best day isn’t very inspiring. I got lost at a fork in the path near the Sydney/Melb train line & Calder Fwy, initially taking the correct path, but then doubt encouraged me to double back & take the wrong one. It worked out in the end. Later on at Gowanbrae I again couldn’t fathom the best route down to meet the Moonee Ponds creek path.
I have a unique problem with the Avid Elixir R-SL rear brake on this Stumpjumper – when applied it howls & severely vibrates through the bike. Only on the rear, the front brake is OK. I have tired different pads (first stintherd metal, then ‘organic’ ), I have ran a different rotor ( Tektro) & recently have also added grooves to the pads to try & avoid this problem. On discussing this with a few mates they suggested I place rubber straps or bands on the ‘stays near the rear brake to ‘subdue’ this vibration, this did nothing whatsoever.
This is more than just noise, the vibration tingles my hands through the ‘bars & I feel it through my feet in the SPDs. Today I noticed that this vibration actually adversely affected braking performance on a long smooth downhill (bitumen surface). My last option is to try a different brake calliper set up, the only option I have is the Shimano XTs on the Epic. Problem is the Epic runs dual-controllers so I have to faff about with the gear cable as well.

Route details (Endomondo): http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/gdqI5a12c20