Mountain bike Bash around Olympic course in Lysterfield (Narre Warren)

[stradlater]

I want to head out to Lysterfield park over the xmas break, to hammer around the olympic mountain bike riding course that is there.

There's a bunch of different courses there, which each varying in difficulty.

Anyone else keen? Hen, here's looking at you!

The place is located off the Belgrave-Hallam Road in Lysterfield.

Maps are here:

http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources05/05_1413.pdf

http://www1.dvc.vic.gov.au/ocgc/building/SMBC_Map.pdf

[haison]

Damnit! I just sold my xc bike.. I've tried riding around lysterfield on my DH bike before.. not fun. Plus they've closed down all the fun tracks

[stradlater]

What the devil is the difference between a DH bike and an XC bike?

[ed]

one goes DownHill (goes hell fast down summer ski runs, and looks like an engineless moto bike)
the other one goes XrossCountry (and is ridden by geeks in lycra)

[stradlater]

I gathered their purposes..... I'm not that stupid.

The question was, what's the physical difference. IE XC has gears, DH doesn't? Or something similar? Are the frames/suspension/brakes different? Why would there be a problem riding DH on an XC track?

[ed]

ok - imagine and engineless motorX bike....

now imagine trying to pedal it UP a hill....

[ed]

VS

[stradlater]

So the top one is DH yeah?

[ed]

ie
male


VS

ghey

[stradlater]

yeah, yeah, alright, enough.

Just answer the question.

[ed]

So the top one is DH yeah?

correct...

[stradlater]

and, judging by the images, the DH is markedly more expensive than the XC.

[ed]

generally speaking, yeah, a lot of technology has been drowned into the DH market in the last 10 years. that said, if you wanted to spend 10k on an XC bike, you could do it in a heart beat.

dh bikes are good for 1 thing... gravity runs. the suspension, the brakes, the steering geometry, the weight, the way the gears and chain work, the strength of the components etc etc is all very use specific - this makes it one SUPER pain in the asshole to get UP a hill without a chairlift

that, and DH boys are generally less interested in going for 'rides' and going 'uphill' slowly... so you generally never see a DH bike on an XC course. even your younger sister on her 24" sisssy bar kitted toy bike could beat me around fairfiled if i was rinding my bear

[stradlater]

so, in that case, I'll stick to XC for the time being, as Iwouldn't even know WHERE to go DH riding.

[ed]

mt buller, mt baw baw, falls creek.... man you vic guys have some of the best tracks in the country

ahhhh mt buller... i wish i didnt have a responsible job...

[YLD-16L]

that, and DH boys are generally less interested in going for 'rides' and going 'uphill' slowly

Maybe back in the day that was the case, but the last 100km+ race a couple of months back up in the Southern Highlands had a few of the top DH riders on the line on their XC bikes in lycra

The top DH guys do road K's, front up to XC's and short track racing on a regular basis - phark some even rocked up to a hillclimb last night

The divide between XC and DH is little at the pointy end of things and vast at the chopper end of things. The top DH guys are fit and know what they need to do to be on top. The choppers are all about image and attitude Any National Round DH after party is a testament to this

So strad, looks like your going on your own at this stage everyone is too lazy.

Ed, I assume you know Bear if you ride a Bear. I heard he was given the arse from DW a while ago - not sure on the reason nor would I believe anything said in the industry

[ed]

man, i havent raced nationals since nov 2000 (1996-2000)

at that time (the early millsy/rennie/rando/kovarik etc era) we used to just ass about, drink a LOT of beer, have massive race week parties, and just ride fast

i remember when the DH races used to be run on the sat, we'd have the afterparty on sat night (and piss the XC guys off who were trying to sleep), then sit on the balcony and pity the poor SOB's whimper around the place on sun.

CA got the shits with it and switched our races to the sun so at least we would be sober for the XC events.

i remember in 2001 the AIS decided to actually take the DH guys seriously and rennie and a few other mates went dow for some testing. nathan jumped on one of the trainers with his vans on (no spd's etc) and instantly broke the output record... hehehe...

i imagine its gotten a bit more serious since i bailed out (tracks were getting sillier - i went to hospital for 5 days, later went back to uni) and its funny to hear you say the DH guys are doing SO much x-training...

[ed]

oh, as for mark leaving DW - no idea. i know trevor has been working there for a while - i assume the two worked together for a bit - ill ask trev next time i see him. mark actually started after i left DW. i used to be their white bros and hayes tech guy. kinda cool as for a while there theyd pay me to go to the races, and inbetween practice runs id just do the tuning richard promptly got the shits with this, but meh!

i sold my bear about 4 years ago, and REALLY wish i hadnt. the monkey who bought it pulled an insurance job on it, and got my paint job resprayed, that really pissed me off. im trying to find it again and buy it back at present...

[YLD-16L]

We might have raced each other at a DH round or two Ed, I raced two full seasons of DH when I was sidelined from XC (DH is definitely more "fun" and more social) but my passion lies in XC so that's what I went back to when able.

You'd be amused to hear that Millsy and my brother (also a DH'er) have done the odd endurance race as a team for training. Amiel is probably the most commonly seen at XC's in the off season and him and some of the other guys from Wollongong do the enduro stuff for fun/training as well.

Rando trains pretty seriously these days, not unusual to see him out doing the solo road K's.

You'd probably remember Phil Catton?? The original bad boy of DH hahaha , he was my manager last year for XC, he's settled down a lot and just does road and XC now.

We've got a big boxing day ride planned to burn off the beer and food, it'll be about a 50/50 mix of DH/XC riders, things are always pretty laid back until it hits the singletrack

Oh and Ed, the new DH crew just think the DH is held on a Sunday so they get Saturday to practice, not due to the exploits of the old DH days

Strad, if you head out to Lysterfield the Olympic course is probaly one of the least fun tracks to ride out there. Check out one of the maps in the car parks out there and do the trails that go around that lake/dam thing and ride the trails near the XC course, they are all much more interesting.

[ed]

LOL - phil catton... yeah, good times! if you run into him, see if he remembers one year at mt baw baw - a particular 'fire extinguisher in the chalet' trick i swear it was his finger on the trigger, not mine! we both got our asses kicked over it though, and had to clean this massive chalet top to bottom of all this crappy dry-chemical extinguisher residue

probably did race with you. years as above. usually hung out with rennie, robbie mcnaughton (ah emma!), some of the newy croud, a few other randoms (remember the UTS dirt pigs?!) and the other bear guys obviously. i was with DW in 2000 (and did the on site tech stuff mid 2000 as well as the racing) and was at AMB mag end of 2000/2001 so carried a camera around quite a bit (including the olympics coverage at fairfield)