Greetings, My girlfriend and I just spent the weekend (3
days actually) mountain biking around the Agnes Water/1770
area here in Queensland and I have to say, I'm completely
hooked :-) We did a 28km trip through the Eurimbula National
Park, which included about 17kms of very rough, rocky track,
7kms of sand that was bloody hard to pedal through and 4kms
of nice, smooth track. Then we did a trip from the Captain
Cook caravan park to the Headland at 1770, via the bush
track behind the caravan park, returning via the roadway
(the bush is Taipan country and we chickened out of the
return trip......). We managed to ride all the way to the
top lookout at the Headland though, which got us some
surprized/puzzled looks from the backpackers and walkers who
had made the trek on foot :-) Not sure how far it was, but
I'd estimate around 15kms or so return. The rest of the
riding was mainly around the caravan park area, which has a
fun little downhill bit behind it to the beach access. Very
rocky though!!
We learned a couple of things........
1. A Malvern Star Vertigo mountain bike (read: cheap and
nasty) is *not* cut out for 'real' offroad riding. The
downhill rocky stuff was, frankly, damned scary to say
the least! Everything on it shakes, flexes, wobbles or
just plain gives up eventually.....including the
brakes......
2. Gloves would have been a fantastic idea. By the end of
the Eurimbula ride, my hands were numb and felt like they
were going to blister, but thankfully they didn't.
3. Much more comfortable seats (or padded pants) would have
also been a great idea. My bum was *also* numb by the end
of the Eurimbula ride. I did the last 6kms standing up.
Note to self.....don't ever ride that far in just plain
old board shorts again......
4. The aforementioned cheapo MTB is *not* suitable for
jumping......at all..... On the downhill side of a
reasonably good hill, there were large 'humps' in the
road, approx 60cm or so high and maybe twice as wide at
the base. I was travelling quite fast by the time I
encountered the first of them (fast enough that, in the
highest of my 21 gears, I couldn't pedal any faster), so
I thought "Why the hell not....I'm gonna get air off
this....", which I promptly did. Bad idea.....I seriously
thought the bike was going to come apart. The amount of
noise it made when I landed was ridiculous :-)
My girlfriend is riding a reasonably good quality Trek, so
didn't have any of the mechanical problems that I did. If my
bike wasn't making so much noise, I'm sure I could have
heard her laughing as I was crashing back to earth after
'getting some air'......... She *did* still get the numb
hands and bum though.
All in all though, it was a fantastic weekend. I can't wait
to get my new bike......we're going to pack the car, strap
the bikes to the carrier and head off exploring at every
opportunity :-)
MrBonk www.mrbonk.com