Counter Steering and Cornering

Hey Team.

Ive attached a You Tube clip - link [below] to a great 5minute video on YouTube. It will help to explain how we turn - steer a bike. The video is mostly done with a motorbike, but the principle is much the same. Disclaimer, this video is from a post that Cycling Tips did a while back. 

I continually refer back to this YouTube video as it gets the information across well with the aid of slow motion camera and a handy explanation. I often talk about counter steering in our Skills Sessions as it is an integral part of cornering, riding more efficiently and confidently.

The video will explain the basics of how you already turn your bike and then assist you to take your cornering to the next level with a better understanding and awareness.

The production quality is budget but the content is great.

You Tube link for CounterSteering - Cornering

Enjoy

Coach PaT

 

 

29'er Test

Over the past couple of years the 29'er has become much more than just a MTB fad. A couple of weeks back I took delivery of one of the big wheeled chariots, and I've been putting it through it paces.

There's a lot of talk around the cycling paddock about our large girth wheeled bikes. In the next few posts we will look at the Pro's and Cons of the 29'er bikes. We'll also go into how we the rider needs to evolve our skills, style and techniques to get the most out of these fast rolling beasts.

Have you had a ride on one yet? Are you going to get one? Let us know where your at and what you've found.

Ciao Big Wheels 

 

 

Corsica & Sardinia

Island hopping and seafood feasts has been the order of the past few days. 

The south of Corsica had been fairly unremarkable when compared to the stunning north and north west. Although I think it probably unfair to call it unremarkable, as if we had started our trip in the south we would have probably found it stunning, but the north was gobsmackingly beautiful. So the bike stayed stowed in the car and we clocked up a few fast km's. We drove via Ajjacio and arrived at the port of Bonifacio where we planned to bid farewell to Corsica.  

We arrived with no expectation other than to find a bed and depart for Sardinia the next day. Those of you who dabble in a bit of James Bond motor boating may know of this port, but to those not in the know [like me], it's a beautiful natural deep sea port and a mecca for all things floating that cost a trillion dollars 

We on the other hand boarded our not so James Bond looking ferry and headed toward Sardinia. Upon arrival we bought a map and spotted the archipelago of Maddalena. We inquired about ferries and accommodation and were told. Lots of Hotels, lots of beaches and tarmac roads! Great all the bases were covered for a few days of biking and beaches.

I indulged for my birthday and set out to conquer this great island mass by bike using my GPS. Upon arriving back at our B&B I had clocked up a massive 30km circumnavigation with a 150m Col thrown in which crested the most northerly point of the island.

We then settled in for a Seafood lunch, Gelati and Espresso extravaganza that only an island could provide.

Back out to do the same for dinner, gotta spoil ones self on ones bday eh!

Ciao

Corsica Part3

Officially we love Corsica. After my ride along the coast yesterday, there was part of me that was a little sad because I thought that the best riding and scenery were behind me. 

I love being wrong in instances like this. No sooner had I pedalled out of our hotel in Calvi and the blue ocean appeared and the cliff edge riding started. It was rivers of chocolate for the first part of the ride and although warm, the sea breeze and exciting roads had me buzzing.

Riding through what looked like a Mexican western movie for a few km's, I then started the climb up the Col de Parmarella. This is where the wheels started to fall off my little red wagon, I started to feel light headed, the headache rolled in and my body temperature soared. I couldn't understand what was going on, I had taken lunch 30mins prior, I had been drinking plenty of fluid, I just couldn't work out what was going on, so I selected spin gear and toddled up the road.

After about 5mins I started to feel better and my body temp was coming down. It was then that I remembered that the Garmin 800 has a temperature feature. The temperature gauge hit 39 degrees, at least now I knew what was going on. So with that Information I continued to spin up the road. At about three quarters of the way up the Col I felt like the buzzards were starting to circle, I felt terrible and was starting to wobble on the road.

I actually quite enjoy these ocassions when your body wants to give up and your head over rides the feelings and you can push on, albeit slowly. Riding by yourself on quiet roads, in a foreign place following only your GPS when going into the twighlight zone is a pretty cool feeling, especially once I reached the top of the Col and the Ocean views started again. The temperature dropped a couple of degrees and I came good.

The final section of my ride to Porto was beautiful. The lovely Grace caught up to me in the car and I was pleased to join her and drive. The final part of the day was completely off the charts, the road and scenery was like nothing either of us had ever seen before.

We made a bee line for Ajaccio Corsica's biggest town/city and found a hotel right on the sandy beach, our room window looked onto the beach and I layed down after dinner completely smashed from a big day. I am excited of what lays ahead for today, the last few days have been exceptional.
If you haven't been to Corsica better go book yourself a flight.

Bellissimo

Corsica Pt2 The Ride

When I pedalled out of Maccinagio this morning, I had no expectation or idea of what the road ahead had instal for me. I love that about pedalling in a new place and my ride across the top of Corsica over the col in the middle of the island and down the west coast was one of the most incredible day rides I have done on the planet.

The days ride had everything and words cannot desrcibe how beautiful and varied the terroir was. Around every corner I would think wow thats amazing, after doing that about 100 times, I started to laugh out loud like a mad man at how jaw droppingly beautiful Corsica is.

The downhills were rough and bumpy and I loved it, it was like downhilling on a tarmac single track and for a while it felt as though I were on the MTB. I was double jumping and bunny hopping bumps and humps in the road at speed.

Oh and there were plenty of coffee stops enroute.

Corsica is cycling paradise and I love it

 

Corsica

This morning we arrived by ferry in the Corsican port of Bastia. We took the opportunity to explore Bastia while we waited for the post ferry traffic jam to subside and it has set the scene for us in Corsica. After only 12hrs of being here we love it.

Over lunch at Macinaggio the most northern town of Corsica, I took a few minutes to reflect and chuckled about how crazy my last few days have been.

It went some thing like this:
Friday, drive 9 hrs from Mazamet to Paris to pick up my errant bike which was at the Bercy Novotel. Transfer from Gare d Lyon by bus to Charles d Gaulle airport with bike in tow. Arrive at 9pm and enjoyed the comforts of diner at the airport hotel. I then readied myself for a 4.30am wake up call to catch a flight back to Toulouse/Mazamet.

Saturday, Charles DG arrive at check in at 5.15am so as not to get stung by tight arse airways flight. Land in Toulouse 9.30am, pick up hire car and drive back to Mazamet by 11am. Pick up Grace and all our luggage and bid our favourite little French home town and hosts goodbye. We hit the road bound for Nice for our 10pm ferry to Corsica. 

Enroute we recieve a message. Ferry cancelled and our new one to leave from Toulon hmmm. Not too much trouble as Toulon was closer and dropped us at better location in north Corsica - Bastia. Arrive ferry terminal at 7pm, ferry was late to arrive, we departed at 11.30pm bound for Corsica. We found the fancy dining room and settled in for late supper of Menu d Jour. We chose to Sleep on the floor below our allocated lay back seats as it was more comfortable than the measily lay back position the seats offered.

Sunday, 8am Arrive in Corsica mooch about Bastia and take a few photos of the very beautiful port town. We drove like a duck and headed north on the twisting, winding ocean side road up to Macinaggio. We paused here and sourced a lovely restaurant by the water and indulged in some Corsican specialities from the sea and land.

After a couple of glasses of the Corsican Rose I started to quickly implode, so we inquired about a hotel so I could get some sleep. After I woke from my slumber I couldn't handle the symptoms and longer and made my way to the Pharmaceria and got some pills to go to work on this nasty little sucker that had made its home in my stomach.
 
All the madness over the last 3 days when I have been feeling awful from some sort of stomach bug, that I could only compare to having Giardia previously. A real pitty as I had been to some fantastic places and when your feeling ill, the pleasure of traveling diminishes significantly.

We were fortunate to hit the jackpot with our Hotel, it is right on the marina and overlooks the small town, brilliant last minute accom.

So far so good in Corsica and all going well I will have some Corsican ride photos for you all tomorrow morning.

 

Tour de France 2011

 Thankfully the post TdF hanger over is all but gone and I have had some time to put together a post race pictorial for you.

With a few days up our sleeve to reflect. I have to say the 2011 TdF was the most exciting Grand Tour I have personally witnessed. Already I think half of Australia is planning to be in France July next year.

This years script had everything. From the first week crashes, to the hard charging Kamakazi antics of Frances own Thomas Voekler [and my pick for best on Tour]. To the brilliant and patient effort of Cadel Evans. This years tour had it all.

Our TdFrance tour group were a great bunch of people, they enjoyed everything France and the TdFrance could throw at them. Chasing the race and riding everyday for 2weeks is tiring business for everyone, including our team of guides eveyone represented themselves with honour.

Speaking of our team of guides, I cant thank them enough for the passion and hard work they brought to the tour. 

Big thanks to our Guides who made all the hard work and long days seem easy.

Gentleman Jim Hawkridge [nz/uk]
Simon Garmin Hevey [aus]
Sam Sand Pit Whittam [dubai/aus]
Chris the French girls love me Cameron [nz]

I highly reccommend clicking the option to view the photos in full screen and watch as a slideshow. The resolution and clarity is much better than the small images. Enjoy.

 

Swiss MTB Day2 video

Some helmet cam from Day2 Swiss MTB

SwissaFranc Day 2 video

Will keep it short as we are about to go out and do more of the same.

Enjoy, 

Les Gets / Morzine French Alps

This morning we 3. Petra Wilchire [current world masters DH champ and SwissaFranc guide extrordinair] , Ching Soo [Singapore enduro rider} and I rolled out of Morzine in fairly bleak conditions on a mission to ride Les Gets mountain Bike Park and reach the outer limit of the park to the chapel of Jacqui Ramond.

What started out as a pretty miserable day turned in a lovely sunny day with great riding on some super tech trails. Our GPS was telling us at somepoints in the ride it were 6degrees and with the wind chill riding down hill it were freezing.

If you are one of the lucky ones to be coming out here next week to ride the Pass Porte du Soleil VTT event, I strongly reccommend bringing your winter riding kit. Hopefully the winter gear will stay in the bag unused, but on days like we have had recently you'll need every bit of water proofing and warm gear you can muster.

Hopefully where ever your rides were this weekend they involved a little malarky in the mud.

 

Canadian MTB

I was just sent this fantastic MTB clip from Canada. Enjoy.

Brilliant MTB video clip

Hope your day takes you to some special like this.

Ride well 

Singapore MTB Carnival 12 Hr night race - Enduro: Race Strategy - Hydration and Nutrition.

 

Giro d'Italia 2011 - Pt3 The Finale

What an amazing few weeks it's been on the Giro d Italia.

The last 2 stages were spectacular and for very different reasons. The stage over the Colle delle Finestre with 9km of the last 19km being dirt was brilliant. It was the best day I have ever had on a bike at a Grand Tour. The crowd was huge and very very vocal. The ride up the Colle was stunning and the weather was perfect especially compared to the days ride previous, when we had ridden in some very cold windy Alps conditions to Sestriere 

The Grand Finale into Milano and particulary the last half an hour is how I will remember this Giro. The crowd built rapidly and converged onto the Duomo and the atmosphere was brilliant. I senced the riders seemed pleased and relieved to just finish the day and make it to the end of a brutal Giro tour.

Yesterdays finish in Milano was better than the Tour d France finish's I have experienced in Paris. Having the crowd congregate for Contador's finish in the Duomo square and the buidings as a backdrop made for an electric finale.

We've chased the race around Italy from the coast, to the Dolimites, to the great lakes to the Alps. I am already looking forward to experiencing the Giro again.

I love Italy and the Giro.

 

 

Giro d'Italia 2011 - Pt2

The Giro d Italia rolls on.

We are covering some great landscapes chasing the race as it heads south.

The bikestyle group are enjoying every aspect of the race and Italy, especially when they are getting reports back from Australia that it is freezing cold and we are all working on our tan.

Ciao Ciao

Giro d'Italia 2011

The Giro d'Italia is underway, we have been to the stage start for both day1 Team Time Trial TTT and Day 2 stage start in Alba.

The vivacious BikeStyle group are enjoying the riding, food, vino, caffe & race. Bellissimo places, today we went out for mother's day lunch in the Piemonte region near Alba and had a 7 course meal and wine to match. It was spectacular.

Rumour has it that the race start in Alba today was shifted to start in front of the Ferrero Rocher factory in honour of Italy's richest man Pietro Rocher, who at 47yrs old passed away recently from a heart attack while cycling in South Africa. Very nice touch.

Enjoy the pics.

Ciao Ciao

 

Bike Packing Tips.

Bike Packing wether its for a road bike or MTB it's the same. It'ss an art learnt and it's tricky to get the correct formula to save weight, provide adequate protection for your pride and joy and ease of transporting the package between planes, trains and automobiles.

Many of you may be heading to Europe2011 for the summer of cycling , these tips should assist in your choices and the "how to" of packing. 

The big question for most people is what is the best vessel for my bike: A hard case? A bike box? A soft bag / case? One with wheels, without wheels? the list goes on and on.

Each bike vessel has it own merrits and draw backs. Its a personal choice and really depends on what you are comfortable with and how much money you want to spend.

But for me, a soft padded light weight bike bag with no wheels ticks all the boxs. I have been using one for years. I have found it fits the bill perfectly for many reasons. They only weigh a couple of Kg's, protection is good, I find airlines are more gentle with soft flexible bags than hard heavy cases, they pack down/ roll down for easy transport after bike is out, less bulky, they are relatively cheap 2-3hundred bucks.

Next choice for me is the trusty old bike box available from you LBShop for much the same reasons as above, can be flat packed once bike is out and best of all they are free! 

Here's how I do it: [check the images for visuals].

If you have a bike stand use it, it saves your back. If you dont have any of the items mentioned below head into you LBshop and ask them for some, they are generally more than happy to provide you with much of the following for free, it saves them from duping them as all new bikes come with oodles of protection material that generally goes straight into the dumpster after they are unpacked.

Place tubular packing foam on every part of the frame and fork you can get it onto.

Remove the front wheel only, Place a plastic fork brace in the fork legs. It stops the forks from being compressed in transport.

Remove handle bars and head stem roatate them under the frame and in front of the head tube.

Leave the rear wheel on, Leave rear deraliuer on, pack compressed eggshell foam behind the spokes and the derailiuer.

Use light weight padded wheel bags and wrap the back wheel half inside wheel bag, it will also protect the frame. Use thick egg shell packing material inside the wheel bag on either side of your front hub, its stops the hub outers banging into your frame and damaging it.

Seat / Seat post out, wrap post with foam tube place in bottom of bag or box.

Put your cycling kit in 2 soft bags inside your bike bag for extra protection/padding. 1 in front of the head tube between the handle bars and head tube, protects the shifter brake levers and head tube. 1 under the down tube and behind the forks.

You will notice that on either side of the bike on the outerside, are 2 orange extra pieces of padding. These are blow up 3/4 length ThermoRest camping mats. They are super light weight and provide full length air filled protection.

We also use the ThermRest mats when travelling if we get stuck a night without accomodation we can blow them up and sleep in our van / vehicle if we are on the move. 

Leaving the bike partially assembled makes for quicker rebuilding time at the other end, it isn't neccesarily any quicker to pack it this way but much quicker to rebuild.

Pack your cycling shoes in another softbag and stuff them with bike spares, ie tubes or tyre and front wheel sqewer etc, pack under down tube/ bottom of bag /box.

Place a piece of compressed foam under the chainrings to stop chain ring damage or cutting through bag.

Pedals can stay on our off in soft bag, same same. Box they must come off.

I trust these tips and tricks we use to pack our bikes may give you a few ideas for your travels or for the next time you pack your bike.

We have attached a few images of our first day in Dubai, it a pretty amazing place and we are staying right across from the worlds tallest building, its soooo big it is hard to get a photo of its full length in portrait mode, impossible to capture in landscape. its 800m tall. Amazing

Happy travels, more from Italy later in the week.

 

One of the best roads to cycle in the world - Gorges du Tarn, Adventure Travel France TdF2010

This week we prepare ourselves for our annual pilgrimidge across the other side of the world for the Euro2011 summer of cycling tours.

The bikes are being prepaired, the itnineraries are being set and the bodies are coming into fitness. In our part of the world the days are getting shorter and colder as we head into winter, we're already looking forward to basking in the European summer ahead.

The 88million dollar question for riders going to Europe is what gearing should we use?

There is no easy answer for this. But, unless you are a A grade racer or very very competitive B grade rider, then have as many gears as you possibly can have on your bike. eg compact crank set 50/34 and 25-28tooth rear casette.

What do I use i hear you ask? Compact cranks 50/34 rear cassette 11-28t.

Installing and using easier gears requires you to check your ego and your bike mechanics ego at the door. Riding your bike in the mountains in Europe day after day is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced before, and having gears to spin up the mountains keeps us fresher for longer and allows us to ride day after day without sustaining any straint injuries.

[Post Giro Note]: Some of the Pro's were seen using SRAM 34t MTB cassettes and conventional cranks at the 2011 Giro

Next most frequently asked pre tour question! What tyres are best?

Continental GP4000's - Light weight, good traction in wet&dry & most importantly remarkable puncture resistance. 

If your local bike shop [LBS] doesn't have the new rear cassettes or tyres in stock then shoot my good friend Ian Kelly a mail at Virtual Cycles he will post them out to you pronto. If you don't see what you are after on the site shoot Ian an email he may have it in stock but not up on the site. Let him know Pat sent you, he'll look after you.

This Easter long weekend just gone has been magnificent weather in Melbourne. Todays public holiday In Australia and New Zealand marked ANZAC day - Remembrance day for the wars. So to all our Australian & New Zealand friends we say a big hello and "Lest We Forget" for all those who have gone before us.

Below is a short helmet cam video from last years Adventure Travel TdFrance tour riding one of the most spectacular pieces of road on the planet - The Gorges du Tarn - Central Massive South France.

Hope this help to inspire you to keep riding in the cold, stay tuned for more tips for Euro2011

Ciao Ciao

PaT

Cannondale

I'm sure most of you bike people, at one time or another, would have gone all mushy over a bike or brand that you would have given your left ear lobe to own. But, the bike may never have materialised.

Given the opportunity. Most of us, even years after the bikes have become superseeded, would still love to own that very piece of cycling our heart so desired. 

Well, for me that bike was the blue and yellow Volvo Cannodale's. They graced the glossy pages of the magazines and were ridden by many a great rider. It was something about that colour combination that got my juices flowing and stirred the cockles of my heart. I just had to own one someday, and guess what!

After a series of interesting coincidences, Now I do! 

If you look closely on the photo of the top tube the faded signature in black permanent marker is non other than the great Cadel Evan's.

I believe things like this find their way to our doors and when opportunity knocks we must walk through the ajar door. Unbeknowns to me my good friend owned this bike and had it sitting in another state at his good friends place. When he said he'd been to Sydney and had ridden his old bike and that it wasn't as great as his new bikes, I enquired what the bike was, he described the Cannondale and the rest is history.

What was, or is the bike that does it for you????

 

 

Nutrition & Injury Recovery

It's been a while since the last post. Recovery from back surgery has been an interesting journey of self, prioritising, learning and patience.

My initial feeling was that a lenghty period of time off the bike would result in putting on a few kg's of puppy fat! Enter Philip Maffetones book on training and racing. I started reading this book prior to going into my meeting with my surgeon and treated this period like the lead up to a big race and focused all my energy on being in the best possible shape as I could be in, menatlly and physically.

I followed the priciples outlined in the book fairly ridgidly for the weeks prior. I stopped eating complex carbohydrates, packaged / procesed foods including sugar and hi GI foods. I increased good fats and oils including avocado's, olive oil, almonds, cashews. I increased low GI fruit and vegetable intake and low GI foods where possible, reduced tea, coffee and coco to one cup a day.

Amazingly after near on 8 weeks of complete inactivity I have lost 4 kgs [although much of that would be muscle] I am impressed that changing what I consume has seen me loose weight and feel better, physically and mentally.

Now, it will be interesting with my new improved lifestyle to see if my power to weight ratio improves.

Taking time out from any physical regime wether by choice or injury can be introspective times. Once you get over the initial shock and disbelief that your fitness is going to go down the drain, you have to collect yourself and move forward. 

Stepping away from your regime offers time to be "normal" again and enjoy everything in life that happens outside of your fitness regime. I've been spending plenty of time at my Favourite Melbourne cafe Salford Lads Club and caught up on plenty of dvd's.

Stepping away from cycling - MTB&Road has been brilliant and it has invigorated my passion, although fitness has declined I feel my health has improved dramatically.

Today was D day, I swung a leg over the road bike on the stationary trainer for a massive 8 minute spin session. I'm happy to report everything went well and I will be back on board tomorrow for a 15min session on the trainer. Now that I am exercising again I will be following the training advice from Maffetone's book.

Hope you are all well.

God speed

 

 

 

 

 

MicroDiscEctamy

 

 

Until 2 days ago I'd never heard the word Micro-Disc-Ectamy and I am guessing neither have you. In short it means you've ruptured a disc in your spine, and the paste / gel that is contained inside the disc protrudes and pushes on your nerves in your back /spine.

In my case over the past few weeks, it has meant incredible pain down my Sciatic Nerve all the way down into my left foot. It has had me hobbling around like a 90 year old as the symptoms worsened.

 

2011 Shimano XTR brakes

8 weeks back I installed the new 2011 XTR groupset onto the RockMountain Element. I promised to review the groupset after putting it through it's paces.

Last post in this series, I went over the benefits of the new Brake Levers and Shifters. In this post we'll go over the XTR brakes and find out why they are so damn good.

Prior to getting the groupset, I was torn between going with my sentimental favourite brakes Hope out of the UK or the new XTR's. 

I ordered the XTR's with 180mm disc rotors for extra braking power, mostly for the big downhills we encounter on the Ride International MTB holidays. The polished look of the brakes is a nice touch, but it's the incredible performance that has really grabbed my attention.

The amazing performance of these brakes comes through the disc rotors, they are constructed using a new Shimano technology called ICE-TECH. This new method of construction uses two outside layers of Stainless steel and sandwiches an aluminium core for increased heat dissipation.

The graphs below show how effective the new disc rotors are and that the fancy name Ice-Tech is not just a marketing slogan. I rather think it is an engineering leap forward in MTB braking systems.

 

What these graphs are trying to say is that with correct brake lever position for one finger braking, the brakes have incredible stopping power and they dont fade after long periods of use. 

The Ice-Tech discs aluminium core drops temperature at the disc by around 100 degrees. Not only is this a significant drop in opperating temperature, but it increases brake pad life, reduces brake fade and unwanted noisy brakes on long descents.

Down side of the brakes is that the disc rotors are center lock only at this point ie no 6 bolt rotors are available yet. Lets hope this changes.

The other downside, is that these XTR brakes are so damn strong that they will take a little bit of getting used to over your current brakes. But, I suspect  you'll be prepared to accept the challenge head on in the pursuit of better braking.

Next post on the XTR groupset will be Deralliuers, Casette and Chain.

Until then I hope you are getting out on the bike wearing out your groupset