245/365 – Liz had an accident with her fettuccine.

Posted by Jarod, September 2, 2010 at 6:19 pm       no comments

Oops!

I jinxed myself

Posted by Jarod, September 2, 2010 at 2:29 pm       no comments

The evening after I do a blog post wrapping up how lovely it’s been riding Greeny through local mountain bike trails… all hell breaks loose at Loftus. Lets run through the damage.

Pinch flat.
I pinch flatted on a boring, non-technical downhill section. Somewhat my own fault as I noticed the rear tyre pressure was a little low. No matter. Tube changed with a minimal of fuss.

Broken tyre levers.
In amongst the tube change, I managed to break three (of the ever patient Andy‘s) tyre levers. Sure they were just cheap Torpedo7 levers, but that’s not the point. The SB8 eventually stretched over the edge of the Velocity Blunt and we were back on our way.

Loose MRP 1.x Chain Guide.
No matter, it’s just the top bolt come loose. I’ll just tighten it up. *Tighten*. Whoops, that’s a bit low and is hitting on the chainring. That’s okay, I’ll just loosen it and move it up. *Strips the bolt head*. Ugh.

It was about this time I noticed the lower bolt of the chain guide was missing and made a mental note I’d need to find a replacement bolt. Then on closer inspection I realised the bolt was missing cause half the inner plastic plate was missing where it locates the nut. Ugh!

Now, I know it’s a bad way to drown my sorrows, but I currently have a large order ready to be placed at CRC. A fraction of that is the replacement MRP 1.x Chain Guide and the rest is either stuff I’ve needed for a while or stuff I’ve lusted after for a while.

I guess the moral of the story is that when bike karma gets the better of you… spend your way out of it.

More Mountain Biking

Posted by Jarod, September 1, 2010 at 9:42 am       no comments

In the last few weeks I’ve done an 180 degree about turn. Now I’ve got vastly more mountain biking in my bike riding diet… and damn it’s fun!

It all started two weeks ago when I did 50kms in 5 laps of Appin during the Appin 400 (Lap 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Before that I’d barely ridden Greeny and was quietly concerned the 5 laps would destroy me. Happily, it was great fun with great people at a great track with a great atmosphere. Appin is one of those tracks that really hurts your upper body with it’s massive boulders everywhere, so I was glad that my next ride was a sedate night lap of Loftus with Andy.

About this time I decided to chuck the Kona P2′s back on Greeny. Going back to rigid forks after so long on the Fox F29′s definitely had a learning curve. Mostly in that I had to concentrate on my line lest I hit a tiny rock and perform somersaults over the handlebars. Still though, it’s super rewarding and the bike positively flies up hills.

Last week I did a bit of exploration of Heathcote Pipeline. I used Grant’s directions on Trailflix (and must have a dig at him for not mentioning the epic hills of doom) and predictably found myself at Woronora Dam. I was fairly tired at this point and thought it’d be easier to head back via the road. Sadly this wasn’t the case and it added significant distance to my already suffering legs. Next time, there and back via the Pipeline.

Then most recently I’ve done a night lap of Loftus and three laps of Appin. All good kilometres to have in the legs as summer begins to roll around. Sadly, on the last lap of Appin, the spokes on Greeny’s rear wheel started to come loose in a massive way. I took a few shortcuts and generally limped back to the car. It’s really not a nice feeling having your rear wheel wobble underneath you.

So all in all I’ve been riding Greeny far more than the Salsa and that’s what this post was about.

Welcome to Spring

Posted by Jarod, August 31, 2010 at 5:25 pm       5 comments

JarodandLiz.com is rolling into warmer weather with a new theme, no less than the ninth version we’ve created. Wow. Double digits are next. Who said Liz and I are indecisive and restless when it comes to the layout of this blog? If you’re still viewing this in your reader, please do click through to the website. If you’re already here, well, you already know how good it looks.

We’re back to three columns, as well as orange/blue featured in the popular 5th version of the site. Train’s tweets are in the right most column along with icky ads (which you should definitely click) and the nav is still down the bottom.

As always, if you notice graphical glitches please do let us know what you’re seeing. It’s very likely we’ll call it a feature and ridicule you’re choice of browser/screen resolution, but don’t let that deter you!