Hi,
Last weekend Australia held it's National Single Speed champs. I wrote the
following report for a local mailing list I'm on but thought I've add
footnotes and pics and post it here as it was such a great event, much more
fun than the SS Worlds.
Here goes:
It was a bit of an investment taking Friday off to drive all day to get
there[1]. It must've done something weird to us as I've never enjoyed VB[2]
as
much as I did when we arrived. After a few relaxed drinks, registration and
watching Seany stumble about we pottered off to bed.
[1] Melbourne To Majors Creek 9.5 hours.
[2] A terrible Melbourne beer
We woke up Saturday with some nice sun but a freezing wind. It snowed
briefly. The morning social ride was touted as a hardcore downhill fire
trail, I opted out as I was riding fixed but then opted back in as common
sense was not welcome at this event. The trail turned out to be hardcore
mainly in steepness and sliperyness which took out Seany very early on
breaking his hand. I spun my little legs off and have never been so eager
to see flat ground. After a beer in the Valley 400 metres vertically below
Damo, DT and I continued to shun common sense and declined the offer of the
shuttle back to the top. That hurt. Lots.
The next event was the egg and spoon race. Not very well thought out as we
rode in teams and were supposed to pass the egg back and forth. I teamed up
with Rocco and DT and we were one of two teams that didn't cheat. I'll
blame my rigid forks for making me drop the egg on my first lap. However we
were encouraged to run interference for the rest of the race but the others
were cheating so much the eggs remained firmly on the spoon. Ze Germans
took out the moral (and ultimatly official) victory about ten minutes after
everyone had moved on.
Next up came the 'Fox hunt' a kind of alley cat with checkpoints and tasks.
We used the same teams as before and Rocco stormed off to an early lead
dragging me a DT behind him (guess who hadn't climbed the mountain earlier
on). We dominated the first few checkpoints but arrived before the last one
was setup and went on an impromptu tour of some crown land.
Someone picked the wrong bike for the fox hunt:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106163931-M.jpg
By far the most entertaining event was the 16" 4X. It ended up more of a
downhill slalom with four very differently abled steeds. There may be
nothing funnier than fully grown men on tiny bikes crashing their way down a
steep grassy slope. I got off to an early lead winning my heat on the
vastly superior GT 16 incher but felt sorry for Geoff Veitz's Huffy coming
dead last every time so took it upon myself to give it some support. I
think a crash helped me through to the next heat giving the huffy it's best
non cheating result. Next thing I know I'm in the final against the clearly
superior 4Xers Damo, Ewen and I think Beggsy(?). Thanks to an early stack
from Ewen I managed not to come last. I have many many cuts on my body from
that event.
Me trying to tame the huffy:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106501367-M.jpg
and coming unstuck:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106503428-M.jpg
16inch final:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106502902-M.jpg
Lots of milling around in the lovely weather having a BBQ and drinking beer
eventualy migrated to the pub for the skid comp. I'd been in not so secret
training for this one as local messenger 'slick rick' had inspired me to
skid my heart out. The skid range was just out the front of the pub and I
got off to an early lead with some no handed skids which ended up hitting
the fence at the t-intersection further down the road. It may have been my
saviour but I'd totally forgotten how many skid patches a 2:1 gear had and I
blew my tyre. Local legends the beggsy brothers went on to skid brilliantly
with quite some flair then Damo took his tyre off for some fireworks but
somehow I still snatched the prize.
(no skid pics available yet...)
The next moring provided ample time to mill about, drink coffee, eat
pancakes and prepare for the race ahead. Events missed from the previous
day were thrown together. Ugly as expected took out the Huffy toss, I shot
putted it close and may've pipped him if only the bike bounced or slid... I
abstained from the bunny hop comp firstly because it's nigh on impossible
fixed and secondly I'm [censored] at it. Rowan Lamont showed some early good form
but Damo and Ewen made it much further with some awesome hops. In the end
the only one to get over the final bar was a young guy on a bike that looked
made for that sort of thing.
The 'huffy' toss:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106512783-M.jpg
Beggsy bunny hopping on his downhill cruiser (a story in itself):
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106523703-M.jpg
Bunny hop winner (I think):
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106524912-M.jpg
Bunny hop casualty:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106524565-M.jpg
Eventualy the main event began. Costumes were donned, the mood was set
brilliantly by Damo arriving in a white number on a stereo equipped cruiser
playing Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Quite possibly a highlight of
the weekend.
Elaborate costume:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106528627-M.jpg
Sound system/Tequila bar cruiser:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106498537-M.jpg
The race itself was fairly standard fare, six laps of a course cut into
Beggsy's farm. Apart from the steep corners it wasn't too fixie unfriendly
and was able to pull off a fifth place overall behind Rocco, DT would've
done well if not for a big stack. Unfortunatly no fixed category or any
other fixed competitors this year.
The mexicans[3] were all keen to hit the road so we moved on to
presentations
ASAP. This was quite possibly the most fun presentations ever. Costume
prizes were first sorted by audience reaction then came down to
rock/paper/scissors. The winner getting a surly 1x1 frame. Ugly had hinted
I should hang around for presentation as I was nominated for best and
fairest against Aido from up North. The original plan was a sculling
competition but the beer had just ran out. A spur of the moment suggestion
was to wrestle for it so that's what we did. I hadn't wrestled since
primary school so had no idea where to start. I grabbed Aido and the next
thing I knew I had him hoisted above my shoulders. I don't know how I got
him to the ground but with the rocks around I hope I didn't hurt him too
much. People seemed reluctant to count him out which only resulted in more
and more scratches on the rocks, finaly he was counted out leaving me the
very happy winner of a GT 'peace' steel single speed bike.
[3] Northerners name for Melbournites
Wrestling for best and fairest:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106500467-M.jpg
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106500647-M.jpg
Just before we left we held the overlooked track stand comp. Not really
fair with me being the only one on a fixie but I was happy to take another
engraved glass to put on the shelf :-)
One hand one foot track stand:
http://singlespeed.smugmug.com/photos/106501170-M.jpg
I still can't wipe the smile off my face from such a great weekend.
Cheers,
Duncan.