Anyone up for a ride tomorrow morning ?

[eckstar]

I'm keen for a morning session somewhere. Preference is for manly dam/bantry bay loop , but will happily contemplate loftus or menai ( neither of which I have ridden ).

[Justin Fox]

I'm out as I'll be here (http://www.bikesmoveus.com.au/showthread.php?t=341).

[eckstar]

Well so ends a pretty ordinary ride today. Headed over to manly dam this morning. Nice to see Sydney traffic back to normal, I left at 8.30 am , 46 minutes later I pull into the water lab carpark, thats precisely 2 mins/per km travelled. Headed out for the loop , all good concentrating on line choice and staying off the brakes in the single track section ( which is so dry now it has sand traps on quite a few corners ready to catch out the unsuspecting) , down the steps across the rock and back up the steps to the short pinch climb on the ladder. Lesson 1 begins here , always carry speed into the climb so you don't end up stalling , slowly toppling over then land on your knee and into the bush. I dusted myself off then proceeded to clean the section albeit with the ego a little bruised. Through the last bit of sniggle and head left into the bantry bay loop. Instead of the usual fireroad grind I have done with Justin and Felix I headed stright left into the sniggle where the real good stuff is. Some nice single track before lotsa tech ledges with multiple lines , as I said good stuff that you could easily spend an hour exploring. So it was one of these said ledges that caught me out.
Lesson 2 , read lesson 1 but change it from climb to descent. I managed to bail relatively well land on my feet only to turn around and see my bike come crashing toward me. I picked it up straightened the bars on the steerer then saw that my front ( rear gear) shifter was smashed to bits , I gaffa taped that to the handlebars and decided to limp home with only 36/22 x 34 gearing. Back to the car then straight to the lbs to try and get some sram x9 , nope none in stock , maybe a chance to order them in by friday, hmmmm no thanks. Back in the car off to another lbs/mechanic , guess what none in stock , same i can order it in for you routine. Atleast they had x7's in stock ( same to what broke ) so I ended up paying full freight for those plus wrench time as I want to be riding again by this friday.
Funny that I could have had my pick of shimano from deore through to xtr no hassles, but a lousy pair of x9 shifters nope. If lbs's wonder why they might struggle, here is the lesson for you , carry a broad range , I hate how shops have a certain brand affiliation , that's why they lose sales to web based retailers.

Oh did I mention it was hot as well , like having a running tap under your helmet. Rant over.

[felixR]

whoa damm..

the lack of range (compared to the HK shops :p) is definitely ftl