Mel smashes the Otway

Crew Member Mel Hall rode the Otway Shorty last week and powered her way around in 3hrs 17mins and finished in 7th place in the Open Ladies section. What a great effort. I just hope she will wait for us on the track next time we go riding with her.

Hopefully we can get a full race report off Mel to post on the blog in the near future

Mel on a recent training ride

Steve's Crossing

Continuing our tradition of naming parts of the tracks that we ride let me introduce you to Steve's Crossing. On a recent ride Steve unfortunately reminded us all that it only takes a split second lack of concentration to send you over the bars.  We all thought that the approach to this causeway over the Coliban Channel was the dangerous bit but all the recent rain has made the drop off the other end a bit steeper than it used to be. It should be noted that that this particular section of track has already claimed one victim from the SMC. A few months back Tony took a tumble as he tried to blow his nose as he made his approach. However we couldnt name it Tony's Crossing as we already have one of those so the honour goes to Steve.

The near end is Steve's and Tony's is the far one

Floating Rock

Our ride today was a bit of an extreme adventure. Parts of our normal tracks have been badly affected by the recent heavy rain. In particular the fastways sections has been subject to some extreme washouts which have changed the tracks forever. However before we made it to the fastways Tony took us on a detour to some new tracks he had found. Unfortunatley this area was still very wet so the tracks Tony had ridden  a few weeks ago were not passable but you could see the potential for a nice addition to our normal rides once it dries out a bit.

Tony's new section of track. Note Phil on his new Specialized

One section of the fastways which is  famous for Rod's front wheel taco episode now has a large channel carved through it. Riding through the channel was no big deal but the exit on the other side was covered in very fine silt which had the consistency of quicksand. I managed to plant my front wheel in it and come to an abrupt halt with the back wheel high in the air.

I didnt know it at the time but I would experience an even more extreme case of stuck wheel in the very near future. It happpened as we were making our way back along the water race road when we came to a section of track which had been covered in some bulky crushed rock. There were two wheel tracks and I made the ill fated decision to take the one on the left which had a smallish puddle about half way along. As I rode into the puddle my front wheel disappeared up to the hub and once again my back wheel ended up high in the air. This time my wheel was so stuck I could dismount and leave the back standing on its own.




This bike isnt going anywhere soon


Even though my bike was able to stand up no worries it wasnt quite as easy for those of us with two legs. The whole area of rock was moving as the rock appeared to be floating in a slurry of gravel and water. It reminded me of something Bear Grylls would show you how to escape from with just some reeds and a handy tree nearby.

The bike is free, now to get to dry ground.

After some happy snaps of my bike I managed to remove it from the sludge. The front wheel was covered with smelly mud so I took advantage of the nearby water race to give my bike a quick wash.

Nice and clean again.

We managed to make it home without any further quicksand events but we did manage 3 punctures due to the exposed rock on the eroded tracks which delayed our progress.

Ride Time: 2 Hrs 24 mins
Distance: 40.1 kms