Video – Rear View

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Sunday night Captain Slow and I headed out for a spin around the local. The mountain biking gods decided it wasn’t our day. We managed 3 punctures between the 2 of us and a few minor offs for the Slow man. Was probably the slowest ride I have done for a long time.

I threw the GoPro on my seat post rear facing thinking the result wouldn’t be awesome, but to my surprise it turned out great. These cameras are just awesome.

The first part of this footage is on a no name trail that I call “Parallel Single” and managed a huge pinch flat off a rock half way down (not that you can tell in the video). The second part of the footage is half of “No More Secrets”.

Excuse the occasional shorts flapping over the lens (again), I need to buy some lycra when cutting video, not! For some reason it seems to be regulation to give the thumbs up when switching the camera on

Video – Shelob’s Revenge (PIP)

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Grimo recently bought a Oregon ATC5K helmet cam so we thought we’d try some dual camera picture in picture shenanigans. This is our first attempt up a short single trail called “Shelob’s Revenge”, it’s a blast to bomb down but equally enjoyable to climb.

(iMovie only allows the same aspect ratio of the smaller video as the main video when doing picture in picture. Hence it chopped off the top section of the ATC5K’s 4:3 footage)

Video – Terminated

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Here’s another video for y’all. I thought I would have a crack with the GoPro mounted on the helmet. It certainly gives it a different perspective than that when mounted to the frame. This is our local trail called “Terminated”. As you can tell from the camera movement it’s pretty rocky and rough with a number of fun off camber sections.

I’m already plotting my next angle, if I can pull it off it will be be wicked. I hope.

Video – No More Secrets

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This is a start to finish cam vid of our local downhill track “No More Secrets”. This is the original line which has since been modified a little to take out the pedally section at the top. The Stumpy is currently getting packaged up to be sent for the first SJTC tour in the US so time to bring out the Enduro and have a crack. It had been raining heavily for 3 days so I held back a lot not knowing what was rutted out and I hadn’t ridden the trail for a while. The cool change and rain was a lovely change from the dry heat and dusty trails, you can feel the very start of Autumn coming. The days are already getting shorter and before you know it we will be night riding under lights. Hey AYUP feel free to sling me some lights

I know this camera angle mounted on the seat post blocks most of the trail but I absolutely love this angle, can’t get enough of it. Oh and please excuse my occasional leg and crotch shots!

(Full HD 1080P 30fps video, 12 hours uploading to YouTube another 12 hours of YouTube processing)

Video – Piss Fartin’ Around

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Grimo and I headed out yesterday for some fun with our cams. I managed to get what I call “the JohnF angle” so you can see the fork suspension doing their job and the trail at the same time. It’s a little hard to ride properly with a camera hanging off the bike where your leg normally goes. I thought I would have a crack at uploading a full HD 1080P video. It was only a 1.1Gb upload for a 4min video

Day in the life on Nail Can

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Here’s my first crack at the GoPro helmet cam. I had it mounted on my handle bars rather than my helmet as there is too much movement on top. I think I put a fingerprint smudgy on the lens as it’s a bit washed out in the top half of frame. I don’t have the JohnF awesome frame angle happening yet, I’m still working on that one!

This shows a small part of the trails I usually ride on weekdays after work around Nail Can Hill in Albury, NSW, Australia. These trails are legal and are actively maintained by the Albury-Wodonga Mountain Bikers Club.

For the geeks: the footage was taken in full HD 1080P on the GoPro Hero HD and edited in iMovie on a quad core h@kintosh and uploaded via iMovie to YouTube in HD 720P. I will be recording in 720P from now on as you can’t upload to YouTube at 1080P (that I can find).

Video editing is SO time consuming. I had so much more footage and it’s hard cutting it down into bite sized (song length) video – I wish I didn’t have OCD and could just upload unedited footage straight off the camera, it would save a whole lot of time

GoPro HD

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Specialized and GoPro have teamed up and supplied the Trail Crew with GoPro HD cams. Thanks so much guys these are gonna be an absolute blast. Stay tuned for some sweet trail cam action!

2010 Stumpjumper BRAIN, FSR and Travel Adjust Technology Video

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An awesome video showing the technology in the 2010 Stumpjumper suspension. I still have to pinch myself to make sure I really have one of these things. It’s an incredible bike.

MAC10 3 Hour Enduro

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Coming off the Otway the weekend before, the MAC10 3 Hour Enduro wasn’t on my radar at all. This showed on Sunday morning when all I had was an esky, water, a few gels and no breakfast. Totally unprepared! I stopped off at the local petrol station/convenience store and grabbed some energy drinks and breakfast bars. Cruised around & picked up Grimo then off to Hudsons Coffee to see Jas (another MTBer) to grab my usual triple shot latte to get me going.

We arrived at our local trails and set up camp at transition ready to roll. This was my first official solo enduro race and I didn’t have a plan at all, just ride for 3 hours straight We lined up and bang we were off. The course was approximately 7kms (4.5miles) long with about 120 metres climbing. Not long or high, but it is 95% technical, rocky single trail so mentally you had to be on the ball the whole time. These were our local trails which we ride literally every other day so we knew every lump and bump on the course.

I totally blew myself up on the first 2 laps caught up in the whole race thang – bleh. I prefer marathons over loop based enduro events like this, they just don’t feel as competitive because you are not in each others pockets for the whole race.

On the 3rd lap I managed to get some space and pulled myself back to my own rhythm and felt a whole lot better. I stopped at transition once to refill and briefly on the course a couple of times for a gel and a slurp on the camelbak.

In the end I managed 6 laps, 42km, 680m climbing, 13km/hr avg speed, 178bps avg HR in 3hrs and 5 mins. I also manged to place mid pack in the open male solo category (11/20 + DNF’s) which is a great improvement. I normally hang in the 75%-95% range

Full race data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25693794

Thanks to The Albury-Wodonga Mountain Bikers Club for another great event.

Next Event: The 4Hr Brake Burner Enduro at Mt Buller in 2 weeks. Think of a gravity fed, chair lift assisted enduro. Gonna be a hoot!

Another weekend and not ready for another race

My good mate and riding buddy Grimo

Base camp ready along the transition straight

Self seeded at the back of the pack as always

Obligatory action shot (thanks to PaulB for the photos)

The Otway Odyssey

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I’m extremely happy to report that I finished the 100km (60mile) Otway Odyssey marathon last Saturday. It might have taken 10 hours and 36 minutes but I did it!

To be honest I went into this race with not a lot of confidence. My aim was to complete an 80km training ride prior which didn’t happen. The longest was 60km with 1600m (5250ft) altitude gain and the race was 100km with 3000m (9850ft) of climbing. So it was almost double of both distance and climbing.

This race is known to be one of the tougher ones and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It starts at the beach at Apollo Bay and works it’s way inland to Forrest nestled in and around natural rain forest. You can check out the course description and map here.

The first 15km was a consistent steepish climb on the road with winds literally blowing riders from one side of the road to the other. I had never ridden in winds like that before so that was a quick learning curve. Then onto the dirt for 25km of super tough climbs, there was so much climbing and it was so steep that it was ride a little, walk a lot, ride a little, walk a lot, rest, rinse and repeat. This section seemed to go forever and really smashed my calves as they were not used to walking up hills.

The middle section had the best single trail I have ever ridden. The course total consisted of 35% single trail so there was heaps of it. It flowed, had berms, very little pedaling and was an absolute joy to ride. I was not totally wiped at this stage so I could still enjoy it and finished that section with everyone commenting on how awesome it was.

There was a transition through the main event centre at the 67km mark. My concern leading up to it was that it would be very easy to bail out of the race at the transition points at the 67km and 87km mark. At the first one the body felt tired but it wasn’t falling apart yet. I stopped and had a quick bite to eat, clean and lube of the chain and off again.

The next 20km was pure undulating single trail. This is the point where I basically “went out to lunch”. I started to get very tired and sore, the brain wasn’t working and it felt like it went forever. I fell off the bike into the bushes twice at low speeds because I had lost concentration. I went into robot mode: pedal, pedal, steer, eat, drink and managed to make it back into transition.

This time my mate Captain Slow (who did the 50km race and had finished) was there to give me a hand. I ate and drank while he cleaned up the Stumpy and gave me some words of encouragement. I could have easily pulled out of the race at this stage but the thought of “just” another 13km to go forced me out for the final stint.

I had been warned by everyone that the last 13km is a killer, with a section called the Sledgehammer (seriously). Whoever designed the last 13km of this 100km race needs a good slappin’. Long gradual climbs that never ended with false plateaus started making me angry and at this point I was walking sections I should have been riding. My calves started cramping from all the walking previously. I stumbled through it then finally hit some sweet downhill single that dumped out into a small stream into the Sledgehammer. I had been told you will just know it when you see it, yep, a hill that went straight up for a few hundred metres. It didn’t look possible to ride up it under normal conditions let alone at the end of a 100km race. I was walking while crouched down to try and stop the cramps in my calves. Finally made it to the top then a had a nice long cruise downhill for a couple of km into transition for the last time.

The finish line, I made it! Captain Slow, Antman and a few others had waited around for me and cheered me into the finish line. It was such a great feeling after such a massive day. I am so incredibly proud.

Russ looking cool, me shaking with nervous energy

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line…

Feel the serenity (and wind)

50km refuel stop – half way baby!

67km transition and have looked better.
Why don’t I have my family and a pretty girl at transition?

Stumpy at 67km coated in mud and sounding crust-a-rific

Out to lunch at this stage on auto pilot. Took me to 80km to remember that it was my birthday

Captain Slow helping me out at the 87km transition

Trying to get pumped for the last 13km

The Stumpy was a trooper, done and dusted after 10.5 hours work

Success – if I could only get this 10kg bike above my head