Rocky Trail Shimano Grand Prix at Ourimbah

The trails of Ourimbah hit our top 10 fun list, with plenty of flow and a good selection of technical challenges, it makes a great ride on just about any bike. Add a round of Rocky Trails GP to the mix and you can have over 300 riders of mixed abilities all wanting a piece of the action.

Photo: Belinda Althaus, BMC

We cut straight to the action at two and a half hours after the obligatory sighting and conga first lap, and a solid three following laps, reminiscent of our previous racing. It finally dawned on my body that this was the most riding I had done in quite a few months I hit the wall, shifted for granny-gear and sucked the chain behind the cluster.

With my legs protesting I mustered the strength to focus on completing the four hours, pulled the chain from behind the cluster, tweaked the stop screw and got back on the saddle. From here I found the great thing about riding at more of a social pace was I now shared time on the trail with those I usually hardly saw. We could hoot down the descents and cruise through the climbs having a good gasbag along the way.

Photo: Belinda Althaus, BMC

The choice of trails saw some riders say “no thank you” during a pre-race reconnaissance ride, some mid first lap, but the majority accepted what we think was the toughest GP course ever set, to test many aspects of themselves and their bikes. Massive shout to my JetBlack Racing team-mates who collected some great results across the categories and whose support and encouragement, both on and off the trail is much appreciated.

The next endurance race from Rocky Trail is the JetBlack 12hr hosted by James Estate. Bring on the fun times and we see you there.

Photo: Sonter, JetBlack Racing.

Xeccon First Look

Received this nice looking lighting package from MTB Revolution during the week. But before we put it through the ringer we gave it to the work experience kid to see what the first impressions would be. Turns out we may have to employ this kid, great report Steve.

For my second ever night ride on single track, I managed to get my hands on a Xeccon Spiker 1211 helmet light and a Sogun 1100 handle bar light to play with for a couple of days. Marketed as a set on MTB Revolution’s website as ‘Xeccon D2D Lite - Performance Racing’ at a comfortable $169 it seemed like a pretty reasonable set up for a casual single-track novice like me. First impressions are that the lights and batteries are well made – small, but solid.

The straps for the helmet mounting system were a bit awkward, although it would depend on each different kind of helmet as to what would work best. I played around a bit and some of my choices allowed the light to flop around. I did manage to mount the battery on my lid as well, but it does add a bit of extra weight and is quite a task to do. Running the cable through the helmet would have prevented most of the cable flap that annoyed me on the first night ride, and it’s definitely better with the extra weight in a pocket or backpack than up top.

Sogun’s handle bar clamp system is good – although it does not open up very far to get onto the the bars and I did need a handle bar packer. (The packer would not have been an issue on my road bike’s handle bar, or most modern tapered bars). With both lights the neoprene battery pouches lacked sufficient Velcro and length to easily secure the batteries to anything but the smallest diameter tubes. My Trek 4300D has a largish, oval cross-section down tube and while not particularly massive the Sogun’s battery pouch barely made the distance. With cables on the top tube and a Garmin on the head stem, there was not much option. Even without adding length to the straps, a bit more Velcro would have made all the difference.

As for light output – I was pretty impressed. You could almost get away with low beam, but the brighter levels were really good. I had no problem seeing where I needed to go, wether it was on my own or in the middle of a bunch. The Spiker was everything I needed it to be – except for some rapid flashing for a second or so at random times. With a better mounting system it could be close to perfect. The Sogun did a good job too, but its light is not a much of a flood as I would like. If I was going to buy  my own set, I would probably fork out the extra coin for the Spiker 1210 – not so much for the extra light, but it looks like it would be more of a flood light. For a commuter and sometimes-single track light the Sogun is excellent value, but I don’t think it would suit a serious XC racer. 

She Rides

We all didn’t start on a bike and not all of us have had that moment when everything clicks together and you go, "yeah riding my bike rocks". Queue She Rides, a twelve-session program custom built to suit their participants, those in need of on-bike confidence and who want to have fun and connect with other women.

Lindy Turnbull, along with Michael Crummy were selected to develop this Cycling Australia pilot riding initiative for mountain biking in their local area with the support of WSMTB.

Week One of She Rides – MTB Western Sydney/Lower Blue Mountains was launched with inspirational words by Member for Blue Mountains Roza Sage and WSMTB Committee Member Ray Rice. Kath Bicknell from Flow Mountain Bike Magazine dropped by emanating encouragement and enthusiasm for all women on bikes and with everyone rolling away from week one with huge smiles it is a positive sign of things to come.

Blackman Bicycles joined the team for Week Two with everyone getting their hands dirty removing wheels, putting on dropped chains and learning how to fix a flat tyre amongst their She Rides – MTB friends.

From what we have seen so far the participants are enjoying the positive and supportive environment in which the She Rides – MTB Western Sydney/Lower Blue Mountains team are delivering their program. With ten more weeks to deliver there looks to be plenty more fun to be had and hopefully soon that connection will be make where nothing makes her feel like riding does.

SCUM XC Round 2

Words by: Belinda Althaus

Dawn light in Nowra. Photo: Bel Althaus

SCUM put on another day full of mountain biking fun, holding round 2 of the XC series this time at Butterfly track. 57 competitors all up contended the tight and twisty track, and with perfect weather, the racing was bound to be fast and furious.

Elite men and Elite women started the race first along with other categories completing 4 laps, with the novice and junior categories following. Seven men contended the elite men’s race of 5 laps, however only 4 finished. Callum Carson made great lap times finishing the total race in 1:32:50 sec, however he was chased right to the end with Glen Sinnot coming in only 15 seconds later. Two other riders followed in what were still very respectful times.

The Elite women’s race was held over 4 laps, and started with 3 women. Belinda Althaus came back for the challenge after the 3hr Enduro which was held in March and took out the women’s elite race with consistent lap times. She finished the race in 1 hr 31min 1 sec. Unfortunately the other two elite women pulled out after three laps.

Womans Elite star Bel Althaus. Photo: CrummyMTB

The Expert Men’s race was hotly contested with a line-up of 15 riders. These guys raced furiously over four laps as well, and skilled local Kane Barrett showed some of the younger guys how to race, finishing the race in 1:17:11secs, 29secs ahead of local teenager Liam Dooley. David Bell and Andrew Mein followed in 1:18min, and 1:22min respectively. Great race guys!

Local riders Nicole Fellows and Jennifer Thompson raced for the Expert women’s race over 3 laps, however Jennifer succumbed to a minor fall in the last lap and with other previous injuries couldn’t make up the time against Nicole. Both women raced well, and it’s good to see women out having a go. Masters Males also contended three laps, with Nicholas Smee, Brad stein and David Stuart taking the podium spots, with local fat bike rider Greg Lewis following not far behind. Not bad times for these guys either. 


Super Masters Males had a great turnout with 11 riders, and the racing was tight with little time between finishes. Ross Winley and Anthony Rigney battled it out, with Anthony missing out on first place by 1 sec!! Michael Smith came in third in just under 1 min after the leaders. These guys could give many a run for their money…

Some of the SCUM XC Rnd 2 racers. Photo: SCUM

A few juniors contested the under 13, under 15 and under 17 races. Alastair Urquhart was the only rider in the Under 13 but still did a great job. The Under 15’s completed two laps and the under 17’s completed 3. These young ones had some great times, and it will be interesting to see their development in a few years.
Natalie Sleeman was the only veteran female, but raced well over three laps, and William Brook, Russell Rodrigues and Glen Aldridge raced Veterans men’s over three laps too with impressive lap times that would have contested many of the expert men’s times.
All up it was a superb turnout from the riders on what is a challenging track with plenty of climbing that creeps up on you ever so slowly. A great effort from the team at SCUM, and the race was friendly and fun. Finally the mud-flickers did what the kids do, having fun racing against each other and just getting out there and having a go, great to see!
Next round of the XC series is a youth orientated event, however is open to all ages. This will be held on the 22 June at Coondoo track. Rego from 7.45am with racing starting from 8.45 am for the mud-flickers and 9.15am for all other age groups. Hope to see you there!

Fly6 Review

There has been heaps of chatter about the Fly6 over the last few months and we were keen to check one out. So when a friend received his production model we were upfront and asked to put it through its paces.

With small, light HD video cameras becoming more popular and cheaper, we are increasingly recording our rides. The Fly6 offers features including; HD 720 looping video recording, Nanotechnology water resistance all in a neat tail-light and that is just the start of it. But basically the Fly6 is a rear light for your bicycle with an integrated video camera.

Some of the Features

The Fly6 is a POV camera, the HD 720 resolution and 130 degree wide angle lens works well for general daylight usage, capturing suitable details in most situations. The looping video feature ensures the Micro SD card is being updated with the latest footage. A single two-second hold of the on/off button turns the unit on; the camera begins taking footage straight away.

Nanotechnology surface science has been applied to the Fly6 but you’ll probably just have to take their word for it. Essentially nanotech is applied at molecular level and in this case the internal and external surfaces have been treated with hydrophobic film, so that it repels water. In testing we rode on wet surfaces and through misty conditions with minimal adverse effects.

The majority of the face of the Fly6 resembles a rear light with plenty of LEDs outputting an acceptable claimed 15 Lumens. Don’t look directly at the Fly6 when it is on though as it is blinding at short range. You can cycle through the two flashing options and four dimming settings using one of the two simple buttons. When turning the product on it defaults to an undimmed light setting, which we used most of the time, cycling it through to the minimum setting, just the circling LEDs around the camera, if others were riding close.

We found the Fly6 had a user-friendly setup and USB recharging. We added it to all our rides and why not, it was simple to fit and so easy to operate. Just set and forget, of course if you want some of the footage copy it off the card before your next ride. And the incident protection function is designed to turn the Fly6 off after an hour, saving the your footage.

Initially we stumbled with the .AVI files the footage is saved as, but we new this might be a problem after reading the nifty little instruction booklet. Then the camera struggled both low light and high contrast conditions, often when a taillight becomes an absolute a necessity. And at night, it isn’t effective as a camera and the LEDs flare significantly in the image. But many cameras find these conditions difficult. 

We can see the Fly6 as part of any club, shop or social bunch ride leaders essential equipment. We can also see it used by those who train or commute regularly on road, or for those looking to capture any action behind them without the bulkiness of other POV cameras.

Realistically the Fly6 does everything that it claims, and does it all with negligible fuss. It is a smart looking package that is easy to operate, producing decent quality footage and to what we think is a reasonable price bracket. Simply put, the Fly6 is your buddy who is always looking out for you.