The Oaks single track and Pisgah Rock

Summary:

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Getting there:






















Review:

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Map:

Google maps did another update and is stuffed again - yay

View 2011-12-02 14:36 in a larger map

Riding in the wet and cleaning your bike

After a solid week of relentless rain, I was finally able to get out for a ride again the last couple of days. I completed Linden Ridge for the first time yesterday, and rode Winmalee this morning. My fitness is undoubtedly improving - and I have lost 6kg in the last month! I am extremely happy with my progress and fitness and healthy lifestyle improvements, and it motivates me to go further and faster!

This morning was the first time I have been able to finish the Winmalee loop non stop, including the steep pinch along Shaw's Ridge and the hill out at the end. To achieve this after backing up a 17.6km ride yesterday, and on a very wet track was a great achievement for me. I know this is a pretty easy track, but ease is a relative term.

For the first half of the track I actually felt my speed was limited more by the terrain and my skill and technique, rather than by my fitness. This is a great place to be getting to , as it allows me to focus more on my technique, and just enjoy the ride and environment.

One thing that the last couple of days has shown me is that riding on these wet sandy tracks is very hard on the bike, and harder on the rider too. On parts of Winmalee this morning I was pedalling with my feet under water, not to mention covering myself in sand and mud. By the end of Linden Ridge yesterday, the bike sounded like I was riding a pepper grinder.

If you are going to ride in the wet on the sandy tracks in the Blue Mountains - I believe it is essential to clean your bike after every ride. The wet sand that gathers in the disc brakes, around the cassette, rear derailleur and the idler pulley make the bike sound awful and harder to ride. I am sure riding with all that sand gunking everything up will cause components to wear much faster and run rougher.

So I called the friendly gents at BikeMinded, who are always very helpful with advice and did some google searching to work out what was the best and safest way to clean my bike without damaging anything.

Cleaning Technique:

1. All you will need is a basic plastic bristle brush, a bucket and some kitchen detergent.
2. Detergent with lemon seems to work well to cut through the gunk. Fill the bucket with warm water and detergent.
3. DO NOT use petrol, Degreaser, WD40 or any other type of solvent you may usually use for other mechanical cleaning purposes. This is not good for the chain, gears and bearings.
4. I find it easier to take the front wheel and seat off the bike before cleaning. If your seat is quick release you may want to remove the clamp as well to clean it - as this tends to get quite gunked up.
5. I also find it easiest to sit the bike upside down on a flat surface, so you can pedal the rear wheel with your hand.
6. Wet the bike down first. DO NOT use a high pressure hose to blast all of the sand and grit away. This could force water into bearings and other places you don't want it. A gentle mist or shower is best.
7. Once the bike is wet, scrub away all the grit with the brush and detergent. Don't be too rough, I find it best to scrub in one direction so you are flicking all the sand out.
8. You can pedal the rear wheel a bit as you clean the cassette and rear disc brake, but don't go overboard. Just enough to get around all of the cogs and idler pulley until everything is running smooth again.
9. Use the same process on the front wheel and seat.
10. Hose the bike off with a mist or gentle shower to remove all of the detergent.
11. leave to dry - all done!

Linden Ridge

Summary:
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Review:

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Map:

View 2011-11-26 15:48 in a larger map

What to carry with you?

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Wedge Pack(Always carry)

Backpack (Longer Rides)

MTB maintenance and repairs

I purchased a second MTB off eBay the other day for $80, so that when my brothers in law visit in a month or so I can take them on a couple of rides. I looked into hiring bikes but at ~$40 a day I thought buying a second hand bike would be a better bet. I got a Cell dual suspension MTB in pretty reasonable condition given the price.

After a quick ride and a look over the bike - I noticed a few things might need attention before I took it off road for any serious distance. I am pretty mechanically minded, and service my own car and do minor repairs often. I have a decent set of tools, so I thought it was about time to learn a little more about MTB maintenance and repair. An $80 bike of eBay is the perfect place to learn, rather than risk stuffing up my nice new bike which is still under warranty.

So the list of repairs this bike will need to be deemed safe enough to put another family member on consists of:

• Pedals (it has none!)
• Rear wheel has play in it, probably need to tighten the bearings up.
• Broken spoke in front wheel needs to be replaced.
• V-brake brake pads are not aligned to the rims properly
• Rear brake pads are stuffed, need replacing
• Brakes don't seem to be releasing evenly on both sides, resulting in one pad continuing to rub the rim after release.
• The wheels are not straight - I believe my multi tool has something called a 'spoke wrench' and I assume I can somehow use this to straighten the wheels up

So the first thing I need to do is acquire any parts I need. As I don't want to spend too much on this bike, I measured up the wheel to work out the spoke length I needed, and hit that trusty source of cheap parts we all know and love - eBay.

I acquired 10 spokes and nipples for $2.63 and a set of brake pads for $7.50. A friend from work was putting in an order with Cell Bikes so I added a $7 pair of basic pedals to his order, and once everything arrived I was all set.

Now it is time to hit Google and work out what I am doing, and exactly how to fix each of these relatively common and simple problems. Below is a brief summary of what I learned and how I fixed each problem:

Attaching Pedals: Very simple, all you need is the correct size open end spanner or even a shifting wrench will do. The only trick is to know that both pedals are not the same, and will be marked left and right - so make sure you put the correct one on each side. The non drive side pedal (left) is reverse threaded. You may also want to smear a little grease on the thread to make it easier to remove the pedals if you want to upgrade in the future.

Adjusting Bearings: By 'play in the wheel' I mean that the wheel will have movement from side to side on the axle. The cause of this is either ruined bearings, or simply that bearings need adjusting because they are not tight enough. Riding a bike without properly adjusted bearings will cause earlier wear and the bike will be less stable.

The first step here was to confirm the type of bearings mostly used in a MTB. As I suspected a relatively simple 'cup and cone' type hub system is used in the vast majority of bikes. Here is a good link that has some pictures.

So with a shifter and one open end spanner - I loosened the lock nut and tightened the cone until all play was gone from the wheel. You need to be careful here - you want the cone just tight enough to remove play, but not too tight to compress the bearing so that it doesn't rotate freely. Spin the wheel once you have it right, and if it doesn't spin freely, it is too tight. Back it off a bit until it spins freely, but if there is play on the axle again you have gone too far. With some trial and error I got it right.

Broken spoke and truing wheels: Replacing the broken spoke was simple. First remove the broken spoke - the section still attached to the wheel rim just slid out, and I unscrewed the part attached to the rim from the 'nipple'. The nipples are the little metal components the spokes screw into, and are inserted from inside the rim. If you need to replace the nipple as well, you would have to deflate the tyre and remove it at least partially.

I didn't need to replace the nipple, so I just threaded the new spoke through the hub and screwed the nipple onto it at the rim with my spoke wrench. Pay attention to how the other spokes are threaded and follow the same pattern. Tighten at the nipple until the spoke feels roughly as tight as the other's.

One trick to remember when tightening spokes is that you are turning the nipple, not the spoke, so you rotate in the opposite direction than you usually would to tighten something. Just remember that you are turning the nipple, and not the spoke and this is easy enough, even though it may feel counter intuitive.

Once the spoke looks right - I had to 'true the wheel'. Now truing wheels is a little more complicated to explain, but basically you want the spokes on each side of the wheel to all be even so that the wheel spin's perfectly straight. You will know your wheel is not true if you spin it with the brake pad compressed to be almost toughing the rim, and one section of the rim touches the pad as it passes. My bike was so out of true after replacing the spoke that you could not spin the wheel with the brakes connected up. 

The below video will make this clearer, and using this as a guide, and a bit of time and patience, I was able to successfully get both wheels in a pretty good state :

Brake Issues: V brakes are quite simple in the way they function, and easy to adjust. The below diagram illustrates the key components:

To replace pads you just remove the pad assembly with the correct size allen key, and fit the new pads. Pay attention to how the spacers and the assembly need to be installed as you are removing the old one.

Once I installed the new pads, I had to align all 4 of the pads to the rims. It is common sense that the pads need to contact the flat surface of the rim evenly. Simply loosen the pad with the allen key, apply the brake and position correctly, and then tighten into position. I found the pads often moved a little as I was tightening, so I had to take care to tighten slowly and to hold the pads firmly in place with my other hand. Remember you need to get 3 things right: 

1. The vertical position on the arm so that the pad is in centre of the flat edge of the wheel rim
2. Flat on the vertical plane, so that the top or bottom of the pad is not contacting the rim first.
3. Flat on the horizontal plane, although from what I read some people prefer to have the leading edge of the brake tough the rim slightly earlier, I would go with dead flat

The last thing I had to adjust was the brake arm centring. You want both pads to contact each side of the rim at the same time when you apply the brake, and release evenly when you release the brake. This is adjusted with the spring tension centring screws on each side (pictured above). Simply tighten the side you want to have more tension in the spring (or loosen the other). For example - if the left pad is contacting early, and not releasing from the rim - tighten this side.

That is about it - the bike is good to ride now - I am very happy with it for $80 plus about another $20 in parts, and I learned a lot fixing it up.

Falconbridge Point

Summary:

I would have to say Falconbridge Point is the easiest Blue Mountains ride for beginners. It is longer than Winmalee at a minimum of 13.5 km return (depending on where you park), but faster flowing and generally easier. While the views along the way and the terrain are not fantastic, the Falconbridge Point lookout at the end is the highlight and make this a great track to ride. If your fitness is still a work in progress like mine was the first time I rode this track don't worry, I got out and back in just on 1 hour riding time and took a good 20 minutes at the end to take a breather and admire the view.

Great view at Falconbridge Point

Getting there:

Follow the Great Western Highway to Falconbridge, and coming from Sydney turn right into Grose Road. Keep following Grose Rd for a few km, you will pass a sign that tells you Falconbridge Point is 8km from this point. You can park here and make a 16km return ride of it, or as long as gravel road and a few potholes don't scare you - continue pretty much all the way to the park gate at the trail head.

The return ride from the park gate is 13.5km. Please be careful if you drive all the way to the park gate as the road is a little narrow and riders and walkers use it too.

Review:
Starting from the gate, you will see this is a pretty fast flowing and well maintained fire trail. You just follow the trail straight to the lookout at Falconbridge Point, there is no way you can get lost so just enjoy the ride!

The trail is sandy and rocky in a few places so be a little careful, but it is generally smooth and fast flowing. Even with my limited experience and skills I managed to ride a few sections at a good 40km/h which was great fun. I have ridden this trail a few times now and ride out and back in under an hour quite comfortably. I would say that the track difficulty is about the same in both directions, possible slightly easier on the return.

There is nothing spectacular about the ride, no single track or significant variation in the scenery. It is the fast flowing ride and the spectacular view at the end that keep me coming back here, I really do enjoy the ride. About 1.5km from the end the track the scenery opens out a bit and you ride over some large flat rocks, and then there is a bit of rocky uphill that is more overgrown than the rest of the trail. I find this section interesting, and fun to fly down on the return.

Overall, a relatively easy ride with one of the best view's I have seen in the Blue Mountains at the end. I highly recommend this as your first track as a beginner, and if you are a more advanced rider I would suggest you have to do this ride at least once just to see the awesome view at Falconbridge Point.

Map:

This map shows the ride from the date out and back. If you look at the stats and the elevation chart you will see that the elevation only varies by about 30m across this trail, which is one factor that makes it a relatively easy ride and suited to beginners.

View 2011-11-06 15:47 in a larger map

Video:
A short video of the view from the Falconbridge point lookout.

MTB Accessoris - what do and don't I need?

Now that I have have started riding a couple of decent tracks and am slowly getting fitter, I figured I might start setting up my bike a little to suit me. So I spoke to a few friends, and spent a little Google time to work out what accessories I do and don't need on the bike.

I won't cover what I actually plan to carry with me riding - just what I will attach to the bike or buy to have at home for maintenance. This is only a basic list for starting out so don't expect it to be exhaustive.

Don't:

• Kickstand: a rattling, unreliable death-trap. The first scratch on my bike was due to the wind blowing it over while it was resting on the kickstand. This rattles around on rocky terrain, and I can imaging a big enough jolt would flip it down and throw you off the bike. Take it off!
• Bell: was kind of in the way where I wanted to mount my smart phone holder (below) - and realistically I won't use it. I find riding on the road boring so I don't really care if my bike isn't street legal. If I want to ride to the shops I can put them back on in 5 mins.
• For the same reasons as above - I removed all of the reflectors as well. The rear one was in the way when attaching the wedge pack (below) so I just got rid of them all. Same as the bell - easy to put back on if I need it.

Do:

• Lock and cable. Won't exactly stop master thieves - but at least I can leave the bike in the rack at work or not worry about someone running off with it if I need to be away from it for a minute for any reason when I am out and about.
• Wedge Pack. A very convenient way to carry essentials when riding. Mine contains a bike multi tool, puncture kit and mini pump, spare tube as well as a few other goodies which I will cover in a later post as I figure out what I will carry with me on longer rides. You will want a water proof wedge pack, especially if you do not have a rear mud guard. I also got one that expands to a larger size if desired.
• Smartphone holder. This is pretty neat, it has a pivot mount you can attach to the handlebars, and it is waterproof. You can operate the touch screen through the front cover, and it is easy to remove if not needed. I Use my phone to record all my rides and stats like time and distance. I also intend to use the gps to navigate if needed, although all of the trails I have ridden so far are simple to follow.

That's about it for now - I am sure I will acquire and discard various accessories as I learn more about this wonderful sport in the future, and that is just part of the fun.