Manly Dam with the Bikes Move Us Guys
Posted by: Jarod at 7:46 pm, January 12th, 2009
I woke up yesterday and chucked Liz’s Maxxis High Rollers onto the single speed in preparation for my first ride with the BMU guys. We all rocked up to Manly Dam and after a slightly delayed start, we were on our way and I was about to learn how much the Dam had changed.
Damn. The dam has changed a lot! It’s all still roughly what it was, just a whole bunch more refined. The technical stuff is all still there, possibly even more so than it was a few years ago. I’m still a big fan of being given a myriad of lines on a technical ascents/descents and being forced to choose the right one. Can’t say I got it right all that often yesterday, but hey, that’s what multiple laps are for.
Not so keen on what they’ve done to the back end. I like the flowing, slightly downhill single track, I don’t like the water gutters that seem to be strewn every 50-100 metres on it. It makes it difficult to get and keep speed through that section. You’re either flat out pedalling to jump and clear the gutters, or on the brakes to slow down and roll through them. Thankfully I chose the latter 100% of the time.
I didn’t overly like the sand and loose dirt on most of the corners either. Even with 2.1″ High Rollers, I was still washing out at speeds which I thought would be perfectly acceptable. I had a fair bit of pressure in my front tyre though, so perhaps that was the cause.
The only other slight niggle was the 50 odd metre section of rock garden. I mean, c’mon guys. That stuff hurts on a hard tail!
It was great. The single speed got well dirty from the dust kicked up by the other guys. A few notes about it’s performance are as follows.
I couldn’t be happier with the Manitou R7’s. I didn’t notice them until they bailed me out of trouble a few times. Either by soaking up a drop off I took the way wrong line on, or by having the steering response to miss a rock when I thought I was going to plough into it. I think that’s the best form of compliment I can give them.
The gearing I was running (32/16) was just right for a few of the uphills. Sadly it was slightly heavy for most of the ride. A 32/17 or 32/18 would be far better suited to Manly. But my golly… when I’ve got the legs to turn the pedals… and the gradient is accommodating… the single speed is a wickedly fast climbing bike.
A bit more of a disappointment were the Avid Codes. I’m putting it down to them not being quite bedded in yet, but they’re still squeaking/shuddering despite my best efforts to shut them up. They’re also fairly heavy on the fingers, but I guess that’s the trade off to having the stopping power (which they have oodles and oodles of).
Overall, despite my not liking sections of the track and the avid codes being a little temperamental… I had an absolute blast. Riding yesterday was heaps of fun and reminded me of the good old days were I wouldn’t ride to train for an event, but rather for the sheer enjoyment of it. Definitely looking to get out and hit the dirt more often!
August 30th, 2009 at 8:08 am
[...] I rode Manly Dam for the first time since January. Man it’s easy to forget how technical that trail [...]