The Epic 13 Feed

M1Cycles at the Cycle Epic: feed."

It's THE Epic Weekend. Don't forget to tag your photos and posts with #M1CyclesEpic to add them to this feed.
Good Luck to all riding. Forecast is for some hot racing and hot weather. EPIC!!

The Double Take

If you are ever in Brisbane and get the chance, you have got to do the Gateway Bridge ride.

The Timbertowns Escape Marathon

First it was a race, at 100km and 50km, then it was shortened to 90km and 38km, then it became an organised off-road ride. Now it has been CANCELLED.

Info here and here.

The Brisbane Forest

Hef had a 'sneaky' trip to Brissie on the weekend. "Best riding and trails since Rotorua," straight from the horses mouth.

Read more...

Over the hills...
...that would be Mt Coot-tha, after conquering the Powerful Owl uphill; which aint a walk (ride) in the park. And into Gap Creek mtb singletrack heaven. About an hour riding only some of what is on offer to the mtb'er in this part of the world.
We were keeping it real on this ride, the 3 of us, and Hef proved it by staying true to form and attempting to take out a Gap Creek tree (a dead one this time). Seeing it was already dead and laying on the ground the 'tree-cutter from Byfield' thought he'd just lay there a while, do a systems check and milk sympathy from other passing riders.
Back on the trail we had to go, and picked up a 4th member to our small posse. Sam, the Navigator, guided us through some more brilliant trails before we hit South Boundary Road, and he headed in the opposite direction.
And far away..

The decision was made to head up to Mt Nebo for pancakes and a brew. This ride is an undulating climb up into the BFP proper, a classic that has to be ridden to be experienced.

Then Dan has two 'offs' in within a few hundred metres of each other. He was running at the back so we didn't even know 'til he told us. Over the Bars too, and we missed it.

Mt Nebo and the Bombana Cafe were a hive of activity and it took a while to get our orders and smash every pancake in sight. Then it was time to head for home.

It always seems like there is more up than down on the downhill trip from Mt Nebo, but lots of high speed running and good fun. We couldn't help ourselves, we took in a couple more singletrack trails once back at Gap Creek. 

We made sure he went for a roll through the dead centre of town .

The Spoilt One

Ahh Sneaky Pete comes to town and gets spoilt by the ladies at our local hangout Craig's. What's the G.O!!!!!!

The Project One -Sneaky Pete cracks a ton on a Project One

Wiktionary definition:

Trek
   A slow or difficult journey.

Hmmm, we'll have to see about that....

Goods Received I took delivery of my Trek Project One merely hours before riding it.
Set up Strapped on a Garmin, dropped a couple of bottles in the cages: that's it:
then rode it 160+ kilometres through the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Never
before had I, or would I have, considered doing somehthing like this; no
preparation, no adjustment, just ride.
Jump in The 2012 Noosa Century Ride has it all, the perfect opportunity to get
acquainted with Trek's Flagship, equipped with SRAM Red and Aeolus 6.5
Wheelset. Hills and flats; rough and smooth; group riding and smashing a
headwind; brain-numbing straights and twisting descents; even a bit of
dirt, some gravel, and a few potholes.
The Ride If I had to sum the experience up in one word I would say, "compliant".
There's a reason why Levi Leipheimer reckons it's the most comfortable bike
he's ridden. And it's the same reason that during the ride and after, there
was no back pain or fatigue associated with dealing with the hammering Queensland road surfaces give you on a bike, despite the front end being 'slammed'.
Looks But this Trek Project One, is more than that...
One thing is, it gets noticed, "Nice Bike," as they pass by.
Leggy It's fast, even standing still. Just rolling along you notice it's speed. The
effort required to keep it at speed is less; it's gotta be - at least it
feels that way. I imagine the wheels and tyres help out here too. But climbing and accelerating is where you really notice it's speed. Power transfer sneaks up on you; pressure on the pedals converts
directly to forward motion almost unnoticed. A glance at the speedo and you know you're hooking along.
Handling is just short of twitchy, and yet it is unnerving at how sure-footed it is. It's got to be because of it's compliance; not only with the road surface, but under high steering loads too. Riding mass rides, with thousands of others, with some, not so experienced riders, calls for attentiveness and sometimes quick changes in direction. I've never experienced a bike that steers like this. Actually in situations like this it won't be the bike that lets you down, it'll be the riders skill and experience and ability to read what's going on. Sweeping descents are like on rails, no loss of speed or feeling of insecurity, and massive grin factor.
Components This bike doesn't feel like the sum of it's components, it feel like one unit. It just feels like you're riding a bike, it simply works. Except for SRAM Red, if you're coming from a Shimano Dura Ace/Di2 past, it takes a bit of swearing and some getting used to. And I don't think I'll ever come to terms with what I call the "Over-Under-shift", especially when climbing. You go to grab an extra gear as the grade increases upwards and if you're already in the smallest gear, it penalises your lack of attention by shiftin up a gear. Ta, thanks for that.

Trek have spent a lot of time and money on refining and producing this bike and it's long palmares shows this. Trek may very well have made the best multi day stage race bike in the world, but it's for this reason it's also a bike for the weekend warrior on a mission. You can cover a lot of k's in a short amount of time, without fuss and fatigue; day after day. A pretty good combination to have under you, I reckon.
Maybe we need to get Wiktionary to change their definition for 'Trek'?

Schlick Schleck and Co.

Here's some pics of a 'Well-oiled Machine': Team launch in Luxembourg RADIOSHACK NISSAN TREK

BEWARE: the innocuous chunk of house brick - Brisbane Cyclist

BEWARE: the innocuous chunk of house brick - Brisbane Cyclist