We’ve seen the news, we’ve seen Facebook, we’ve seen the videos on YouTube. This is real. The only way to fight it is to hide, it will effect you at some point whether directly or someone close to you. Everyone is apart of this and I have my parts.
I am a front-line health practitioner, and I am a mountain biker. One of these things will help hundreds to thousands of other people, the other will benefit my mental and physical health. One involves the risk of being exposed, the other involves the risk of ending up in hospital like anyone else. For that reason things need to change in order for myself and everyone around me to be safe.
As of the 29th of March when I am writing this, Australia and in particular my region within Victoria is enforcing social/physical distancing. So we are still able to leave our homes for essential shopping like food and medication, and we can go for walks, runs or rides an hour a day provided we adhere to social distancing and only do so with members of our household. Many mountain biking communities and Mountain Biking Australia are advising you do not drive to mountain bike trails and if you can get to a trail system by bike, only participate in low risk trails to ensure you don’t end up in hospital. Even before they introduced these measures, I was more or less doing this because I feared what was about to come. And as they days go by, the measures get stricter and I adhere to them and I encourage my friends and family to as well. So where does this leave things?
My main priority is to serve the health care system and to help those regardless of circumstance. People will still break bones, car accidents will happen, and cancer will not be taking a holiday; so I will need to keep doing my job regardless of whether COVID gets better or worse any time soon. For a while I have thought about what would have happened if I followed the path of engineering, but in these times it almost feels like I was meant to be doing this. With everything that has been happening, I am sure this is what I was meant to do.
TNBC is separated, but in these circumstances it is a good thing. We all have families, other friends, and jobs. With my line of work, I would be the most likely to transmit it to them, and that is something I never want to happen. The Skunkworks Enduro was meant to be a way to bring us together and get us to push harder and improve, but that idea will have to wait until another day at this stage. But no matter how small the community, we must distance ourselves now and speed up the recovery process.
There will be some blog pieces releasing in April and into May, these were ridden and written before this all started. They were written before the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled, and even before the first cases were confirmed outside of China. Goes to show how long some of these posts take to compose and edit? I am quite happy with these pieces, and I hope they bring you some entertainment during these times. But with the resources I have and trying to minimise my risk, I will try to generate new content to keep our heads above water.
I will be helping out on the Seth’s Bike Hacks Facebook group during this period. The admin team and frequent content contributors have been a lifeline for me when Facebook is piling news articles about the current pandemic and most of them are fear-mongering trash that whip people into a frenzy. I prefer looking at pristine enduro bikes with sweet details than another Dr Google-Approved “expert” tell me any one under the age of 60 is safe so why bother isolating? Yep, mountain bikes are my remedy. There are members that are following my train of thought that by minimising risk and staying inside (some are indoor training, others are learning bike maintenance), we will get out of this sooner and more safely. There are some members that are outright ignoring their local and national rules (now becoming laws) and the group is beginning to ignore them or starting to remove them. The mountain biking community is taking a stand so they can get back to riding the best trails around the world. So to Jody Bennett and Edward Sweet (and the many other admins and main community members), thank you for all that you are doing!
The other issues in the background have been my bikes. Titan is still for sale and has been tested a few times by potential buyers. Warpath still have a destroyed rear wheel, and some of the parts are only now being finalised so it can be rebuilt. Kaiju being the sole survivor is now forced into being a 32-18 drive train since the Surly Snugnut is bent and permanently stuck in position. I will need to buy a new tensioner if I want to convert back to a 20 or a 22 tooth on the rear. Nighthawk needs to be protected since it is my work bike and what I will be using most until we go into forced quarantine where we cannot leave our homes. I hope it never comes to that, but at least I can still ride to work and keep some normality. So while the pandemic occurs, I will be working with my local bike shop to get the fleet up and running for when social measures are normalised.
The world will be a very different place. Tomorrow, next week, in July, and after this pandemic is over. It will be good once this has lessened, but be prepared for what will be the cost of that. I know this send of sounds grim, but if we maintain social isolation, only head outside for essential shopping, and to exercise in a safe and isolated way, we will get through this. Until then, keep safe and stay awesome!
In a world where mountain bike manufacturers push head lines of “longer, lower and slacker” or “the best _____ bike of 2019”, sometimes you wonder how old bikes fair? Sure some of my friends are running carbon dual suspension bikes with groupsets and brakes engineered to thousandths of a millimetre for the ultimate performance, but what about the iron horses of old? In what feels like a year anniversary of the Bitza Bike review (I said it was a great frame, the brakes and fork were terrible), the King once again offered another one of his bikes for me to test and review. And with the start of the year not being swell because of bushfires, floods, destroying the back wheel on Warpath, and being sick for 3 weeks; it was nice to be out on a pleasant Saturday morning with friends and casually review another retro bike. So this is Benny!
Benny the 2010 Niner Jet 9 with customised parts. Being a 100mm travel cross country dual suspension, it isn’t outdated necessarily despite being 10 years old. Front end includes Fox 32 Float with 100mm of travel and Kashima coating, (still not overly sure of the brand) 29 inch alloy rims, Maxxis Ardent 29×2.4 inch EXO compound set up tubeless, Avid Elixer 2 piston brakes and a 160mm rotor. Nukeproof Horizon 780mm handlebars, Ritchey 70mm 10 degree rise stem, Cane Creek headset, Bontrager XR Endurance lock on grips, Avid Elixer hydraulic disc brake levers, and a Shimano Deore 10 speed shifter round out the cockpit set up. Fox Float shock powers the 100mm travel rear swing arm, 30 tooth chain ring, 170mm Shimano XT cranks, and the monsterous 3 bar linkage system of the Jet 9. Love the red accenting of the pivots. (Still not sure of the brand) 29 inch alloy rims with Maxxis Ardent 29×2.4 inch EXO tubeless tyres, Shimano Deore 10 speed cassette and shifter, Avid Elixer 2 piston hydraulic brake, 180mm rotor, and rubber chain stay protector since the Deore 10 speed is clutchless. Nukeproof saddle with 125 mm Fox Transfer dropper with Kashima coating and externally routed mechanism. Unfortunately since I am shorter than the King, it functioned more like a 40mm dropper…
Benny is a 2010 Niner Jet 9 with some extensive modifications, similar to any other King family bike. The frame, fork, shock and wheel set are surprisingly stock with everything else swapped out due to war of attrition or to actually improve the bike. We’ll get to that in a bit… Otherwise, this 29er cross country bike seemed to be outdated and outclassed by everything out that day including the King on the 2020 Trek Top Fuel 9.8, but actually riding the bike proved my prejudices wrong.
Wait, Haven’t We Been Here Before?
The handling characteristics are very reminiscent of another bike I have tested from the King and subsequently built one myself. The Jet 9 with its 2010’s cross country geometry handles remarkably like the Surly Karate Monkey in a good way and is improved by having a functional fork and rear linkage. In low speed technical sections, the front end was nimble and the rear wheel didn’t feel like it was lagging ten miles behind. It did have some flex on high speed corners and berms, but for a dual suspension trail bike that was built in 2010 and has been ridden by the King, this is pretty good. The 29 inch wheels and the wheel base did give it the stability and momentum of the Karate Monkey, only the addition of the fork and shock make rock gardens and drops bearable this time. And while these statements seem obvious because I am riding a cross country bike from 2010 and “all 29ers feel the same”, it’s gratifying to me that this dual suspension bike can handle in a similar way to a hard tail of the same era and be better still. Dual suspension bikes haven’t been the clean cut, precise handling machines that we know today like the Specialized Epic or Giant Trance but instead rear end flex, poor linkage design, and chain stay lengths were teething problems for some companies.
The Niner Jet 9 handles and feels great for a bike that is 10 years older than anything I have ridden recently. The head angle is steeper than Titan or 2020 Trek Fuel EX 8, but with the 780mm wide handlebars and 70mm stem it turns predictably and aggressively which is something you want for gruelling switchback climbs or tech lines. The bottom bracket stands high off the ground compared to the fatbike and the rear suspension linkage does wrap around the bottom reducing the effective height, but it hops over logs and rocks better because of it and the long wheel base improves stability and handling to a degree. Some aspects of this dualie remind me of the best parts of other cross country bikes and considering it is 10 years old, I find that admirable. But as with most things concerned with the mythical creature that is the King, modifications are either out of necessity or cannibalising other bikes.
Scrambled Jet
In an earlier video, TNBC went for a night ride and it was one of the first times that the King had ridden anything other than Purple People Eater the singlespeeder. On a sketchy trail with narrow tree gaps, he wrecked and did a decent job of the tyre. Soon after he killed a few chains and a front derailleur. These were Benny’s first few rides after spending years in the shed as just a mere frame, and these rides were almost putting it back in the shed into retirement.
But after Cyclescape put some love and care into it, Benny has re-emerged in its current form. The 1×10 while being left overs from the older 2×10 actually works exceptionally for this bike. Wanting to remove the complexity, weight, and chain snapping potential of a front mech, this bodge 1×10 system is one of the best things going on this stealthy ride. Having a 30T chain ring and an 11-40T cassette works better in the context of cross country than on the Giant Reign I tested 2 years ago. The Maxxis Ardents are a bit cross country, a bit trail and for that reason they work brilliantly in Bendigo. A few months ago the King found the front brake was burning up too quickly on descents and didn’t modulate too well, so in a stroke of genius or stupidity he swapped the 180mm rotor from the front to the rear and now a 160mm rotor stops the front. Honestly I didn’t notice or care that the front end had a 160mm since it stopped and modulated like an XC bike should. Was wondering why the rear end could drop a skid so well, so that explains that? The 780mm bars while perhaps contributing to the infamous crash on video, they colour coordinate with the Kashima parts and improve the handling immensely. Speaking of the Kashima coated parts, the Jet 9 was an era before droppers and this 125mm Kashima coated Fox Transfer dropper post with external routing was appropriated from his son’s race bike in order to modernise the Jet and pimp it up a bit. Benny might not have cutting edge parts across the board, but what is in use works great. All that parts that have either been left stock or appropriated due to destruction or want of an upgrade have made this a fun bike.
Going Mach 5!
If you have the controls to a Jet, you might as well go fast? And boy can this 10 year old fighter fly! In a strictly flat setting such as the Pump It! segment that features in the review video, it maintains speed well thanks to the 29 inch wheels, but the rear wheel transmits power incredibly provided you are going straight. On some of the rockier downhill segments like Go For It the best way to descend is to do so quickly and try to float on the rocks. There isn’t a large volume tyre to save you and grip is not at a premium like a modern enduro bike, and the few times that I did slow down for rock gardens I found the front end didn’t push through the rocks and it just slowed down more. Climbing ability is on par with a modern XC bike except for the weight, where putting a fair bit of power through the pedals resulted in instant acceleration and altitude gain. So straight and flat is pretty fast, down and rocky is hair raising but fun, and climbing is exhilarating. What can’t this Jet do?
A modern fighter jet like the Eurofighter Typhoon is designed to be unstable during flight and is instead kept in the air by sophisticated computer algorithms that make thousands of calculations per second. The Niner Jet 9 is twitchy as all hell and if you are not thinking about riding, it can throw you off. This is due to the steep head tube angle for sure, but the rear end is surprisingly short for a bike from 10 years ago with dual suspension and 29 inch wheels. This translates to a nippy turner at low speeds and when taking on tight hairpins, but also makes it prone to snap under-steer at speed. Another interesting point of random handling comes from the rear end linkage.
If you look at the under bottom bracket link and the long rocker arm, this does allow for the strong pedalling platform I described earlier, but it also creates two flex points than can cause the rear end to flick out on high speed turns. Whether intentional or by sheer madness, the King has remedied this by using the 780mm wide handlebars and the long stem. The wide bars means a greater leverage ratio for precise turning at low speeds and increases stability when riding fast in a straight line or when bombing a downhill. The 70mm stem also stretches the rider out front and reduces the torsional load to the rear end. Luckily Niner didn’t design the Jet with a four bar linkage, otherwise the rear end might flex and flick like a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Man!
Despite the rear end flex, this bike is fast and if you know how to counteract the steering characteristics it can be a lot of fun. Would I use it for enduro? No. But for cross country riding around Bendigo and Yackandandah, this would be brilliant! And this brought out the next question.
Linkages and Obsolescence?
Every year we are told that the new model has improved handling or the new swing-arm design has reduced pedal bob by 23%. Review groups claim that certain suspension designs are perfect while dismissing others because of some discernible handling characteristic. Orange’s single pivot swing arm versus Santa Cruz’s four bar VPP. Specialized Enduro versus Specialized Stumpjumper. And in the end, it’s best to consider what suspension you actually like.
Before I really started testing bikes, I was lead to believe that Maestro link was the one and true rear suspension linkage design. When I bought Titan, the salesman still insisted that Flex Point would be a cheap imitation of Maestro and I’d wish I bought a Trance. But I don’t mind the Flex Point linkage, and I appreciate the Maestro link on the Reign and Trance. I love the Active Braking Pivot and the Full Floater worked but I also think moving forward it needed to be “engineered away”. And with this Jet 9, it proves that suspension linkage designs can feel great or perform well despite the age of the bike.
When you look at the rear end, the see saw rocker linkage and chain stay link make it look long, awkward, and slow. But when you’re on the trails giving the pedals hell, it accelerates quickly and holds traction under heavy braking. While it might flex a bit, considering this frame is 10 years old and had to put up with the King and some pretty extreme escapades, you can cut it some slack for having flex when a 2020 Giant Trance 3 might develop the same amount of flex at its decade mark? What really makes linkages obsolete is whether or not they are maintained and the parts are still obtainable to keep it going. If you neglect bushings, forget to tension the joints with a torque wrench, and don’t replace parts within due time; any bike will handle poorly.
The other thing is as riders we would like our bikes to handle in a certain way. On the Seth’s Bike Hacks Facebook group, a lot of enthusiast level riders want to upgrade to bikes like the Stumpjumper Comp, Giant Trance, or Scott Gambler. There will be hecklers tell them to buy a certain bike “because it handles the best and the other two are rotten” (replace the last word, not allowed to swear here). And to that I say, ride the bikes you are interested in and buy the own that works the best for you? If you gave a rider two frames with no brand names on it and essentially the same components, they would decide based on how the bike rode correct? Same logic should apply if you are considering a few bikes and want to choose one aside from which one is the lowest price and does the most? And with this Jet 9 frame, it climbs and accelerates in such a way that I have fun and I love that. Other people might prefer another dual suspension bike from 2010 because of other reasons, and that’s okay. People might say that it handles poorly compared to modern XC bikes, but depending on the purpose of whether it’s racing on the pro stage or a bike to pedal around the bush, does it matter if you ride this or the 2020 Top Fuel 9.8? And for those reasons, I don’t think that older linkage designs are obsolete, because how they handle is definitely different to modern dual suspension bikes, but they can be equally as fun for different reasons.
Conclusion
It was nice to ride one of the King’s bikes and not have it actively trying to kill me like the Bitza Bike with the brakes and fork. Is the Jet my favourite of his fleet? I gravitate more towards the Niner Ros 9 since that steel hardtail with the 130mm fork was insane. But as a dual suspension from a decade ago, this was a fun ride and something that I will enjoy, remember and reflect on for a while. It is a machine that has survived battles with trees, rocks, and mis-shifts. It has bombed the downhills and devoured hills around Bendigo for many years. It has has 3 chain rings and 1 chain ring, a rigid seat post and a dropper seat post, and a few different tyre compounds or widths in between. It is a bike to be respected for sure, and one that shows that bikes from decades past can still be as fun and fast as any bike rolling off the shop floor today. And that is the true review of this retro bike, not to go out and buy this 10 year old frame but rather appreciate the bike you have and realise you’re probably still riding it because you like the way it handles and forgive its quirks?
If you are reading this, you have been invited (or at least know of) to the Tuesday Night Beer Club’s Skunkworks Enduro! This will be a test for later events that will feature the same format but with a larger race group and potentially more segments to compete on. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the rules have been modified to allow competition but minimise risk.
Aim: casual enduro format lasting a month to promote riding in winter months.
Dates: 01/04/2020 to 30/04/2020
Participants: members of TNBC Strava group. This allows for easier monitoring of segment times and scoring.
Segments: Due to IMBA and AMBA regulations, riders must not drive to trail heads and can use mountain bike trails provided they have low risk and can be ridden to. For this reason, Epsom, Strathdale, and Spring Gully are the only networks apart of this prototype enduro. Segments are:
Epsom: Five Dollar Shake, Road to Nowhere, Mummy’s Track A, Storey Time, and Birthday Track.
Spring Gully: Koolamurt Bridge Up, Sidewinder Shortie, Green Light, Dam Wall Jumps and Drops, and Bunyip Descent.
Strathdale: Power Pole Dancer, Wubba Lubba Dub Dub, Reverse of the Beaten Track, Strath Switchbacks, and Dip in the Creek
Scoring: In order to score points and win the Skunkworks Enduro, participants must do the following:
Ride once a day (regardless of MTB or trail network where segments are monitored) = 1 point
Ride one of the networks per day = 1 point (1 point maximum per day to prevent riders from driving to other networks)
Ride a segment within the enduro = 1 point each segment per day (riding a segment multiple times will not net additional points)
Gold, Silver or Bronze time on a designated segment within the enduro per day = 1 point (earning multiple medals will not net additional points)
The Moistener = 3 bonus points for riding in the wet (rain has to have fallen during the day)
Secret Segment (one of the five segments is worth a bonus) = 2 points per day
Prize: Six pack of Beechworth Pale Ale (or equivalent price) from The Hop Supply Co.
Hints:
This modified version is about safety, preserving mental and physical health, and to keep riding. This will be won by riding everyday and not wrecking during these trying times.
Don’t over session a segment. If you get three medals in the one day, remember you only get 1 point for doing the segment.
Do not ride as a group, but encourage each other to get out. We’re in this together and we need to focus on something other than the news?
When getting into mountain biking, my first region I explored was Wagga Wagga since it was where I attended university and the trails there developed my skills from fire road cruiser into something of a cross country rider. Afterwards, the Albury/Wodonga region became my home as I explored two of the key networks and a new up and coming trail system. Since then, what I consider to be the “meta” of mountain biking in the region has changed and now there are four distinct systems you can ride. So with some Go-Pro footage of each ride, it’s time to see what’s happening in the Borderland!
Nail Can Hill (Albury)
Considered by locals to be the first and proper mountain bike trail system, Nail Can Hill is in North/West Albury and is an 8 minute drive from Albury’s main street or 20 minute ride to the main trail head at Range Road. Within Nail Can Hill there are two sub-networks consisting of the Range Road trails including Dirt Luge, Roxy’s Ramble, Terminated, Schweppes, and Intestines; and Centaur Road which has Paper Plate, Lightning Strike, Mine Your Line, Red Jumps, and Penguin. Neither sub-network has public toilets, rubbish bins, or bike repair facilities. And only the Range Road trails have a trail map to assist riders if they don’t have a printed map or a mobile app for navigation. But for the lack of facilities, Nail Can Hill makes up for it in challenges and the flexibility in creating your own route.
Map provided by Trailforks, left side is the Centaur Road trails while the bottom right is the Range Road trails.
Right from the car park at Range Road, you can enter onto Brown Snake Flats (which is a small skill loop of sorts), Lower Goat Track, or start pedalling up the fire road if you want to get straight into Terminated and Dirt Luge. My favourite loop is Lower Goat Track > Roxy’s Ramble > Low Range > Intestines > (Range Road Fire Road) > Horse > Dirt Luge > Shelob’s Revenge > Hard Up > Twister seeing as this loop has the best mix of everything and is blue grade accessible. Rock rollers, progressive switchback climbs, some tricky tech climbs (Low Range has the best/worst), flow runs and technical descents are all including in this easy to navigate loop and should take less than 40 minutes for a competent blue grade cross country rider.
To get to the Centaur Road trails, you need to pedal up and along the Ridge Trail which sucks. That’s right, no cushioning the blow on how steep, boring, and generally unpleasant this fire road is. Whether you put your bike into the lowest gear or walk it, during the summer there is very little shade and the clay heats up underneath you whilst during the winter you are exposed to the sheer cold winds. In the end, the trails range from “meh” to “great”. I’m a fan of Mine Your Line since it has a few rocks and narrow trees to force a challenge while it carves between abandoned open cut mines. Daybreak and Lightning Strikes are also pretty good for cross country adventuring. The Guy’s Trail fire road climb sucks and the Jumps Track is short lived.
Overall, I rate this trail system fairly well just for the Range Road trails with the ability to easily link segments together and accessible downhill runs like Dirt Luge, Terminated, Schweppes, and No More Secrets. If I wasn’t running the fatbike I might have taken on some of the harder downhill trails, but fun times can be had on Dirt Luge with a hard tail.
Yackandandah
The second most recent addition of the four and being the greatest in my opinion, Yackandandah (or Yack Tracks from now) possesses the best cross country loops in the border region and possibly Victoria. So what’s so great about these four loops?
This is the map you see at the trail head, on the website, in paper form, and on Trailforks. And once you know the trail you want to ride, there’s no need to look at the map since the trails are so well marked out!
Being a short drive from the town of Yackandandah, the only facilities out there are a drop pit toilet and some fixed tables and fire pits. There is a decent car park for a small rural trail network, but on a race day this would fill quickly. At the trail head, you have a small hut with the trail map printed large and clear so you can make out small details and decide which adventure to go on first. Coloured arrows point the way, and will indicate the junctions where loops split or where optional segments (such as Carcass Canyon) begin. With over 65km of trails here, it is all easily navigated and the only way you can get lost is by actively ignoring the arrows. With this in mind, what are the four/five loops?
Shack Track is the easiest of the loops and acts as the starting point for the Kokoda (purple) and Diggers (red) loops as you take on switchback climbs to reach the peak height of this trail. At the highest point, there is the four way junction to go onto Kokoda, Diggers, Carcass Canyon or continue along Shack Track. The descent on Shack Track is a moderately easy flow run with some nicely carved berms and some A-line/B-line choices which can elevate the trail to blue grade. With the base trail 3.3km long, this is a great warm up for the day or a sensational loop to lap. This trail is great, and it only gets better from here!
Carcass Canyon (or Valley of Shadows is what I’ve called it) is the black arrow that comes off the four way and is my preferred method for descending. Less than 100m from the junction, you drop down the Carcass Canyon which is a 30m long crevasse that drops around 5 metres, with only a few centimetres either side of your bars. Cutting into a 90 degree blind right hander, you climb up some techy rocks and hairpins until you reach a 50m long trench run. Requiring a straight line and some well timed pedals, the trench run makes you feel like Darth Vader is after you and your Y-Wings. Shortly after and a few turns later, you reach what I call “the Hot Wheels track” which is made of orange baked clay berms and sheer drop turns as you snake down and around the canyon like the old Hot Wheels tracks. The trail soon goes into some undergrowth where you duck underneath low branches and float over off camber roots. Finally, a blind left leads to a pinch climb that takes you back to the ending of Shack Track. Some argue this trail is black due to the sheer drops and how narrow the Carcass Canyon is, others claim it’s only a blue grade. Regardless, this is my highlight of the network since it can be used to warm up before the other trails or as a party lap to finish the day.
Diggers is the red loop and is the most flowing and “cross country” of the three large loops. Beginning with the Shack Track climb, it continues along the contours of the mountain and early on you ride along a ridge overlooking the valley below. Most of the climbing utilises progressive switchbacks that won’t ratchet up the difficulty too much, the most challenging aspect being continual climbing for 6km without much descending. Upon reaching the top, you are greeted by around 5km of flowing descents with berms, off camber corners, log rolls, rock gardens and fantastic views. The remaining 7km doesn’t have extensive climbs or descents, but winds between valleys and trees with a few technical sections to bring you home. Of the three large loops, this is my favourite since most of the climbing is dealt with early on and the hairpin under the fallen tree is memorable. This loop is easily enjoyed on hard tails and dualies alike.
Ground Effect is the yellow loop and what I consider to be the “adventure trail” since it has the best views of the three and involves some of the grind-iest climbs of the three. This loop is far removed from the other three and takes you along the fire road toward Yackandandah before crawling up the mountain side overlooking the lush bush land. Narrow trees, dense forest sections, rocky climbs, and tight hairpins all feature on this loop, giving the eyes and bike something to feast on. The back part of the extended loop does flatten out a bit and becomes a fairly plain affair with long straights coming to a shallow turn before sprinting off again; but the initial climb and final descent make this a tough but fair adventure. Slightly harder than Diggers, it’s best to enjoy the views and atmosphere of this roller coaster of a trail but is also a workout challenge for those wanting to improve their fitness before a cross country race.
Kokoda is the purple loop and what I consider to be the “enduro trail” with an elongated climb that ramps up near the summit before you rip down the mountain taking on berms, drop offs, log rolls, and rock gardens. You begin with the Shack Track climb, but as of recently, you actually continue up some of the Diggers climb in order to avoid climbing the fire road that previous lead from the lower single track to the upper portion of the loop’s single track. After a few kilometres of switchback climbing, you have the option of short-cutting and dropping into the right to start the descent down, or continuing up the steeper part of the singletrack climb in order to reach the summit and go for the full enduro descent. Depending on if you want to ride the other loops and how much time you have on your hands, you choose because the last part of the descent is still worth it. The final part of the Kokoda loop involves an absolute roller coaster piece of single track including rock armouring and some creek splashes before rejoining at the four way junction where you can go Shack Track descent, Carcass Canyon, or continue into the Diggers Loop. While accomplished on a trail hard tail, this track benefits dualies the most of the three major loops and has that flexibility of extending into Diggers, Carcass Canyon or Shack Track for the final run.
Part of the four way junction that indicates Shack Track descent (and the remainder of Kokoda and pink loop) along with the bypass into Carcass Canyon (black arrow) hence the ram’s skull on the tree.
The final consensus is that if you love single track in the bush, ride here. If you love adventures of different flavours, ride here. If you have a hard tail and want to follow the bread crumbs on some of the best single track in the region/state, definitely ride here! From the videos, there is no mistaking how much I enjoy these trails and how they rate so highly amongst locals and mountain bike travellers. There is the edition of the “pink loop” which uses parts of Shack Track and the extension of Shack Track into Diggers to take you back into town, but I am yet to do this since I’d rather use it for commuting than end up riding into town then double back on a hot summer’s day.
Charles Sturt University Skills Loop (Thurgoona)
The newest edition to the Borderland mountain bike scene and honestly a hidden gem above all else, this simple skills loop packs a lot of fun into its 1.3km trail length. Is this for the rowdy downhiller? No. Is it for an all day enduro ride? Definitely not. But if you want to take your significant other or friend that’s new to MTB on a fairly straight forward loop that has plenty of progression challenges in a safe environment, then look no further than this!
The base track is a no thrills loose on hard pack cross country loop with little to no elevation change, 3/4 open field and 1/4 stringy bark tree coverage, and track that is essentially hand cut and machine assisted in order to provide a maintainable and sustainable trail surface that can take punishment from young riders skidding their wheels or numerous riders doing a crit race on it. But on some parts of the track there are optional A-lines which ramp up the difficulty to blue and black difficulty in a fair way.
The photo pretty much shows how flat this place is and the map of the circuit.
First “black diamond” is a step up to flat that doesn’t do much aside from getting kids airbourne. The second “black diamond” is another step up to flat but with a bit more of a boost. The third black diamond is where things kick off since it is a rock slab roller where poor balancing and fear will cause riders to buck off or drop off the side. The challenges get a bit more techy after the sweeping corners in between the stringy barks where a right turn onto a light rock garden leads to a wooden skinny that angles up at a shallow angle but drops down quite soon. Shortly after that, what I consider to be the hardest obstacle is out in the open on the left where a rock slab ramps you blindly onto a log ride with minimal latitude before you come back down to earth. The final optional A-line black diamond is another wooden skinny that angles up slightly and sharply dives down. The remaining trail is a series of hard-pack switchbacks which meander up the hill until you reach some eucalyptus saplings and fledgling trees, shortly after there is a series of rollers that you can pump or jump before arriving back at the start.
I think this skills loop functions better than the one we have in Bendigo and is on par with Five Mile’s skills park in Moama. Having the 1.3km length means that there is plenty of space between obstacles for a breather, but it also means riders can do lap after lap to practice gear shifting and braking which is a skill undervalued in the mountain bike world. Rather than a short, sharp and steep loop like we have in Bendigo where the features come at you one after the other, the CSU Loop allows you to pace out and view the obstacles from afar. Plus the difficulty on some of these obstacles outweighs what Bendigo can offer aside from the lack of a drop off.
Is this necessary for a Borderland trip? Not really, but to muck around on and have an easy afternoon after smashing Yackandandah or Nail Can Hill if you’re out that way, it’s worth a go. And it’s great to see Australian universities investing money into the developing international sport that is mountain biking.
Hunchback (Wodonga)
At some point the trip was going to end, and at some point Warpath would be pushed beyond its limits. Unfortunately it all came to a head on Rock N’ Roller at Hunchback.
The end of Warpath?
So to begin, Hunchback is located 10-15 minutes outside of the Wodonga city centre and has no nearby toilets, rubbish bins, bike maintenance facilities, shade shelters and reception within the valley can range from one bar 4G to SOS only. Entry to the bike park is done through a spring loaded gate where you need to hike your bike onto its back wheel and pray the exposed metal doesn’t scrap or crack your pride and joy. There is a small map stuck to the entry gate on Felltimber Creek Road, but best navigate using Trailforks since the map is pretty comprehensive in terms of trails and fire roads.
This is raw, untamed single track where the builders aren’t afraid to make you heave on the pedals and get your wheels over some tricky rocks. There are small rocks in just the right places that you can spin a wheel or stall, causing you to smash into the ground with your face or shoulder. Do not under-estimate what they consider green or blue here.
While the network looks massive in scale, car park to the top of Coyle’s 4WD is barely 2.5km long with the twisty single track. The top of Coyle’s looking down into Rock N’ Roller. The last photo of Warpath before disaster…
Having previously ridden Loose Goose and a few of the Unnamed trails nearest to the car park, my experiences were mixed. My brother had gone OTB on Black Down after he accidentally rode the track (was poorly signed 4 years back), Scooby Doo and Quartz practically leads to no where, and most of the trails felt slow. So the mission was to ride up the easiest way possibly, bomb Rock N’ Roller since that is “the best trail”, and finally whip through Loose Goose before heading home. Done and done before it reached 43 degrees that day. And with my previous experiences as an indicator, things were disappointing.
The Doodlebug climb is a bit technical but doesn’t go above and beyond. Some of the views looking down into the gully getting towards Coyle’s Road are okay I suppose? But for a “fire road climb” that has an “light fitness”, the 4WD track sucks. There is no shade, no protection from the wind, in some parts you question if it’s easier to crank on the pedals and strain a calf or attempt to push your bike up, and you have to wheel your bike through the spring loaded gates every 200m or so. Everything leading up to the start of Rock N’ Roller is less than exhilarating.
The descent reminds me of Mount Major or Mount Tarrengower in Maldon where it’s dusty and open for the most part, but the deep berms are rough as a cheese grater. With a smattering of doubles, gnarly rock gardens, bermed switchbacks, and skinny bridges with A-line and B-lines marked out well in advance and with fair gradings, this is a really great downhill trail. And then the back tyre on Warpath exploded and could not be salvaged trail-side. That was the end of that, and the walk down was shameful.
Rock N’ Roller was doing the most to change my mind about Hunchback, and for some people they crave the raw and rugged building style this network offers. But being from Bendigo where networks are either continuous loops that you can drop the hammer and not worry about navigation (like Yack Tracks) or a network with plenty of variety so choosing your own adventure is easy (like Nail Can Hill), Hunchback is an awkward jumble of trails that can sometimes be hard to follow or gauge what style the segment will be. If they run shuttle days here to the top of Rock N’ Roller, I would recommend doing that above all else. But Hunchback is not the premiere mountain bike destination for the Borderland.
The Battle is Over, Warpath is Done
Taking Warpath back to Bendigo and trying to fix it myself, the stem was spraying sealant everywhere and I noticed a significant dent in the rim. Dynaplugs and sealant refills later, I resigned and believed I just needed a new tyre to get it going? Cyclescape advised me otherwise saying the rim dent was beyond the point of hammering back out and the tyre would not seal. With 6 plugs now in the tyre, the Minion FBR had been brought back from the dead enough and would need replacing. So the final consensus was a new rim (or entire wheel), tubeless system, and a new Maxxis Minion FBR. A demise indeed. Crash autopsy might say the dent was caused by one of the rock gardens at Hunchback, maybe it was from filming the edit at Yackandandah, or perhaps jumping the fat bike at Harcourt with Karma Rider had set me up for this? No matter the cause, I had been pushing this fat bike beyond its limits for years and this was the final result.
As I write this lamenting the failure that was a fat bike tyre that was pushed too far, I wonder what I might do next? I’m hoping to get a Top Fuel to review, I would also like to try other brands like Specialized and Giant. I have accepted a new position within my department which is exciting, and will hopefully see me out riding more often during the evenings and weekends. But with Warpath in the shop for a long time and Titan no longer available, it’s down to Kaiju and I to hit the trails. About time we had some quality time together. Until next time, keep riding and stay awesome!
Through an amateur's eyes 