North West Mountainbikers - Gravity Enduro

A dozen riders from around the North West region and beyond to join in a morning of shuttles at Mt Borah, near Manilla, 50km north of Tamworth.

Attending were a number of junior riders from our local club Tamworth Mountanbikers, these kids have spent some of this year attending SuperFlow and other Enduro style events from the mid-north coast to Newcastle, and beyond.

It was our first visit to these trails and geared up with protection from 661, we felt this could be a good technical challenge. The Borah trails are strewn with jutting rocks and with the current dry weather a super loose top surface.

Photo: Ben Marsh

The Borah trails also have a number of drops, gaps and tabletops, all with B-lines. Rolling these trails can be slow and laborious, racing these trails, a technical nightmare of choices.

We managed to roll through the three trails North West Mountainbikers had put on offer. There were a plenty of sections that you could spend hours perfecting, but we were keen to put some timed runs together, to compare with the other riders.

Photo: Ben Marsh

After a “race” run on each trail, we felt there was still room for improvement, we headed back up to Stage 1 and 2. We put together smoother runs for both stages and reduced our times by 10 seconds on each stage.

Not resting on our laurels we rode back up to the top to get Stage 1 just a little better. Almost at the end of the run we lost some speed in a double drop biting the dirt on completion of the drops. Pushing our bike past the gate, bars bent and with dusty knees, we had managed to drop the race time by another 3 seconds.

Photo: The Broken Spoke Tamworth

In the wash-up we placed 2nd on Stage 1, 3rd on Stage 2 and 3rd on Stage 3 for a win by 8 seconds.

Full results here.

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SuperFlow Stomlo

We were excited to return to gravity based racing this year. 2012-13 were both successful years for us with a Series win followed by a Series fifth place in what was becoming the most fun timed style event for everyone!

Race write-ups - 2012 Del Rio, 2012 Stromlo, 2013 Ourimbah, 2013 Thredbo.

Stromlo still holds a special place in our mountain biking destination list. Our first solo 24 probably set it all off, now we were returning for RockyTrail Entertainment's SuperFlow Series. The series has gone through a few name changes but has been drawing an ever-increasing crowd of followers since its inception.

We were on the Hume early, a pickup along the way, fellow JetBlack MTB racer Kurt. At Stromlo the crew met the rest of the team, then a whole heap of other riders we knew from our variety of riding. Yep, SuperFlow is for everyone!

A quick rego for number plates, GU and a bottle, then race director, Martin, was on the mic delivering his pre-race brief to the 400 odd riders in attendance. We had a couple of hours to chill and sus the trails for today's timed sections, so it was on bike and for a spin up the hill.

We weren’t at Stromlo for the climbing though, the SuperFlow's aim: to bomb down the timed sections, in the shortest time possible. We sessioned the more-fun flowing trails first, then the short-rocky-to-open-sprint trail, to finish.

A clear sky had brought a cool start to the day but with the sun now high in the sky it warmed up fast, seriously fast, and racing was due to start at 11am sharp. With fresh and full RTE bottles we headed up the mountain to join fellow racers for the short social wait to get the first race run underway.

Race runs were in the following order, Stan’s (Double D, Pork Barrell). This trail is one of our favourite combinations having ridden it recently on a Pivot 5.5. Bringing our hardtail this time sure set a challenge for us!

Then it was onto Fox (Skyline, Luge), a bottle refill, then back to Stan’s. Who doesn't love these trails! Finally we headed over to JetBlack (Little Seymour). On completion of this it was pretty hot, well over thirty degrees, time for another break. Lunch. Food. Rest. Recovery. More fluids. Sunscreen!

Given the run we had on JetBlack, there was probably more to be had, time to be lost. We went out for one more run at it. A good thing too, a better run resulted in a shorter time, whoop! Nailed it. Now it was time to rest.

Turns out local elite rider James Downing had brought some of his clan to race too, bulking out the category. It was fun to find a fellow hardtail rider out zipping along the trails. James took the win easily while we nudged out the competition, taking 2nd. Pretty chuffed with the result and a whole heap of fun was had.

This 2018 season is a huge six round series plus a championships, so there is plenty of SuperFlow still to come and we might see you there!

JetBlack MTB Racing continues to be partnered with The Odd Spoke, Natural Balance, Rocky Trail Entertainment and AMB. Which allows us to ride how we like! You'll see us at another event shortly!

Full results here.

Round 1 of Rocky Trail's FLOW Rollercoaster - Gravity Enduro Series

Well over 200 riders took part in Rocky Trail's Gravity Enduro series at Ourimbah on Monday of the Australia Day long weekend. The highly popular format brings together riders from the different MTB dissiplines for what is essentially a gravity based race against the clock, or your mates, with some slight hills or flat sections to keep the DH rigs to a minimum.

Two trails were selected and it was the total time across both gave you your finishing time. With shuttle runs to the top of the first track it was all downhill shredding, rollers, berms and rocks. The fastest riders would smoothly link the sections, clear the obstacles and generally be in owe of most watching. The trails were dry and the dust hardly had time to settle before another rider stirred it up, riders were usually separated by a minute at the start gates.

From the bottom of the first run it was a un-timed push or ride to the top of the second run. This run was a little more tame than the previous DH run with more XC style trails selected but still challenging in its own right.

When we arrived at Ourimbah it was already packed with cars, people and bikes. Rego was like... a line to the toilets at a music festival. But the trails were open and with a preview trail and a place to practice the use of the timing chips, riders were already making their way down to base camp, where both race runs finished. Time to get in some practice laps of the race trails and use the sweet shuttles to the top of the DH trail.

Race runs were fun, sketchy but fun still. On the DH trail I held it till my chain jumped and twisted around the rear derailier at the lower end of the trail, not a good thing when there is a pedaly section to finish. And on the All-mountain run, everything is hard when your attempting to sprint and maintain control at the same time, the body screaming "you have hit VO2! There is no where else to go!"

The Gravity Enduro style of event looks to be an even bigger hit again this year with its friendly atmosphere and mixture of trails to just about suit everyone. Grab your bike and we might see you at one!

Kempsey Golf Course Trail Re-visit

Now that Kempsey township has been bypassed by the Highway the trail is 3km from the southern turn-off for Kempsey. These trails are regularly used by the local MTB community, KMORC the local club and in June some of these trails will feature in the Flow Rollercoaster All-Mountain Series.

Gloves off on Grips

We selected five grips we have used in the last few years to give you our thoughts on them, and ffter riding on them hard you to see how well they have lasted. As with many things in cycling, grips can be a very personal choice and they can change the way a bike feels.

ODI Ruffian Lock-on. With over 5,000km on these grips we have become quite familiar with their characteristics. In the dry these thin profile grips are comfortable with or without gloves but in the wet the Ruffians can become slippery when not wearing gloves. We found they suited rides up to four or so hours.

ODI Yeti Chunky Lock-on. Another grip we have spent plenty of time with, ride with these and it is like having your hands massaged throughout the ride. They offer a ton of grip with their raised Yeti lettering, brilliant in all conditions.

Serfas Silicon. These grips may look new but have already been through the torture test of a 24hr solo. Their chunkiness forms slightly to your hand and provides suitable shock absorption throughout a ride. We also found that they remain grippy in the wet and without gloves.

JetBlack Lock-on "Scott 24 Edition". We gave these grips a fair shot but after numerous rides and races they just didn't offer what we wanted. Having said that these lock-ons could be suitable for your trail or casual rides.

ESI Chunky. Originally we tested the ESI Races-edge grips but found their lightweight nature not suitable for the riding we were doing. Moving to the Chunky versions we found the grips very comfortable even during extended rides. While they may wear with use and can tear easily the ESI Chunkys are a popular choice as they are light and secure without to much of a fuss.

Fox Incline Gloves

In 2010 we reviewed Fox's Incline Glove, here were our thoughts.  "After riding on Troy Lee Designs XC gloves for a couple of years it was time to try out the latest in XC gloves from Fox. The Incline glove is full finger and lightweight, we were immediately skeptical about the durability as the glove didn’t feature a two ply palm. The use of high quality synthetic leather on the palm continues not to shown any wear, it has remained supple and flexible with its suede like texture. Like many other gloves the Inclines feature neat silicon pads on the fingers but the finger panels join right at the fingertip reducing dexterity severely for those fiddly trailside tasks. The best feature of the gloves has to be the soft Terry-Toweling section along the thumb, it is great for soaking sweat from the brow or in my case a runny nose. 3/4 the weight of the tried and true TLD XC, these comfy gloves are mostly suited to XC race and light trail riding."

Move forward to 2013 and we are again wrapping our hands in an Incline Glove. Much like the previous versions the Incline retains its full-finger lightweight nature. A comfortable and flexible back of hand section with the palm moving to two ply. It does seem though that the material in use in this version of the gloves palm is of a lower quality as they are showing some wear over our previous versions.

The Incline glove did feature a silicon print on the fingertips but they quickly wore off through our rigorous use. But the soft absorbent section along the thumb continues to be a hit and we have found that these comfy gloves can handle just about any sort of riding. 

While we have been a little skeptical over the durability of the palm, the gloves have held together through all our riding and are still going well today. The Fox Incline continues to be a nice glove, now lets get out and ride!

Rollercoaster Stromlo Video

Bringing some of the fun had, more downhill and plenty of it! Enjoy.