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