Category Archives: Fitness

Sunday morning I went on a group ride from Brisbane over Mount Cootha and around Gap Creek. I managed to get very sunburnt but had a great time. I felt sorry for a girl behind the group who fell off the singletrack whilst clipped into her pedals but she made a loud and dramatic high pitched “eeeeep” as she fell that I couldn’t help laughing. (She was fine)… After watching some friends practice a climb out of a creekbed (steep rise over a root) I waited for them to go home and had another two attempts on a dare from Bridget. The first of which was completely hopeless and the second attempt I tried to be clever using a different technique but lost momentum at the critical moment and fell heavily on my back across a large rocky ridge knocking … Continue reading →

My previous car had a towball so I had the option of fitting my bike onto a towball mounted bike rack or folding down the rear seat and putting it into the car. Unfortunately my new car doesn’t have a towbar and whilst I can still fit one bike (and sometimes two) into the back with the rear seats down, a third really starts to push things. The other issue with putting a bike into the back of the car is that after an endurance race the bikes are typically wet and/or covered in mud. Enter the strap-on rack. My riding partner bought a strap on rack from a local bike store which strapped underneath the car, the top of the bootlid and to the sides. And the bikes rested on a plastic lug that sat on a pole fastened … Continue reading →

An aspect of mountain biking that I am currently finding most challenging is the mounting of a log on an uphill slope. Typically because the trails I ride have a build up of dirt on the uphill side making them quite easy to roll over on the downhill journey but have most of the dirt washed away from them on the bottom of the step. Usually when climbing the hill I have my body weighted low over the bars and I’m pedalling at a constant pace to maintain traction but when faced with the log I attempt to unweight the bars which causes the front wheel to lift which either has one of two results. 1) I lift the front of the bike too fast and too far leaving me in a situation where I have to quickly unclip from … Continue reading →