www.thylacinecycles.com

Well we’ve just got back from an awesome weekend of riding, racing, and spectating at the Canberra World Cup round. It was a pretty crazy adventure, with pretty much everything.

2 flat tyres in the support XCO.
1 fast lap that scraped me in to qualify for the short track race.
30 odd super fast riders including a stack of european pros on the STXC start line next to me.
20 minutes + 3 laps (less for me) of mud filled, noisy, painful, spectator crowded, awesome racing.
3rd placed Australian, behind Chris Jongewaard and Laclan Norris. Woo.

So yeah, awesome weekend. We need more World Cup events down under!

Having your bike blow off the roof on the Craigeburn bypass is not the best start to the weekend. Bend the rack back into shape and we’re all good to go again!

The drive went fairly quickly and we arrived in Canberra with no further drama. Team Thylacine spares no expense when it comes to rider accommodation, as shown by our $7/night choice for the weekend. 5 star all the way!

We headed out to the course Friday to see what we were in for. The course had some rather gnarly sections, as shown above. I lined up for the sport support race a little scared, although once out there I managed OK. Maybe because I took all the B Lines! To give you an idea, this is the B line option for the A line in the above photo:

Unfortunately it turns out the pressure that works in Victoria is no good on the fast rocky Canberra course, and I pinch flatted both front and rear before my first lap of just three was done. My chances of winning had vanished, but with XCC selection based on fastest lap time the day wasn’t over yet. I recomposed myself and worked my guts out moving through the traffic to put in the quickest I could managed. It turned out to be good enough to give me the 8th of 10 places available, and also to my surprise second in that race.

Sweet, world cup podium! The sport support race, but I’ll take it anyway.

Saturday was spent watching the XCO world cup races, with a seriously good field making the course look easy. It was something else watching names you’ve read about and faces you’ve seen on TV hammering away just feet away from you. The atmosphere on course was great too with stacks of spectators.

We even found some time to watch the downhill seeding runs. They’re definitely a bit nuts.

It rained overnight and through the morning ensuring a total mud bath for the XCC races, as this photo of Tory Thomas shows. With the women out of the way it was our turn to line up for 20 minutes + 3 laps of pain.

Hmm, American and European pros… and me?!? Oh fark.

The weather didn’t deter the spectators, the course was totally packed and the noise was incredible.

The gun went off and I struggled on the opening straight and got cut off on the first corner, finding myself in last place. My legs felt good though, and I sprinted, climbed, slid, and railed my way forward through the field. It was pretty amazing to be riding with such a crowd, and so much noise.

Eventually the commissaries waved me off the course, and I took my leave. I knew I’d passed a few people, but it took me a bit by surprise when I heard over the loudspeaker than there were just two Aussies left on course. That meant I’d finished 3rd out of Australians ahead of a host of big names and in the money. Totally stoked! No trophy or podium, but the cashola is always good.

Taking the inside line on the berm.

Rather than rushing straight back to Melbourne we took an extra day and went exploring in Albury. They’ve got some seriously sweet trails right in town. They’re in great condition too. If you’re in the area they are well worth a ride.

So that was our long weekend adventure. 5 days of living and breathing mountain biking, and it was pretty darn awesome. I can’t wait to do it again sometime.

If so, give this a try some time. The bureau’s warning:

Hazards include snowfalls down to 400 metres affecting roads that rarely
experience snow. Black ice across roads. Dangerously cold conditions for both
livestock and people in the bush or outdoors. Squally winds in the west of the
State with gusts around 85 km/h.

The actual conditions at Sassafras were -0.5 degrees, with heavy snow falling. How do I know? We spent three hours on the MTBs up there. I’d show you photos to prove it, but my fingers were so frozen I physically couldn’t get it out of my camelbak. Coming back up the singletrack to Sassafras after deciding to call it a day and finding the ground covered in a layer of snow, with the long cold descent still to come, was not the best feeling. We got so cold on the way down just grabbing the brake lever was an exercise in the impossible. Carson decided the service station at the bottom was the end of his ride, and a taxi was called. Semi-coherent and unable to stand it was a fair call. The harder (or perhaps just better dressed) amongst the group put our hands complete with gloves under the hot tap in the toilets to get the feeling back, then jumped on the bikes and tackled the hour ride home in the rain. Brrrrrr.

Anyway it was an experience, and next time I’m feeling miserable in a race I’ll just need to be thankful that it’s A) not below freezing and B) not snowing.

Here’s a couple of sneak-peek photos of a new model we’re doing for 2009, the Thylacine Tephra XCR. Although it does to the untrained eye look like Titanium, it is in fact Columbus’ new XCR stainless steel.

We’re pretty excited about this for a couple of reasons. The first is the quality of the material and finish which is fantastic. XCR is actually a grade of stainless called APX4S which is a relatively well known material outside the bike industry, and welding wire is readily available. It also welds well to 17-4 stainless which things like dropouts are commonly made from. Another bonus is that the tubeset welds up into a 1400-1600g frame (depending on size) despite being ’somewhat’ oversize.

Actually now that I read this back I’m sounding a bit convoluted. What I’m trying to say is that this stuff is a potential Ti killer!

It’s as light as Ti, stronger than Ti, with the same corrosion resistance and as an added bonus it’s ‘not just another Ti frame’. (In fact, as far as I know it’s us and Pegoretti using the stuff, so we’re punching well above our weight again there). The tube diameters are super-oversize so it should be stiffer than an average Ti frame too, with ø24 ROR chainstays and a ø38 downtube.

Okay, so what’s the second reason we like this stuff? (Although there already looks like there’s about seven reasons). Because come October you’ll be able to see what those boffins over at RIDE magazine think about reviewing something that doesn’t cost 10 grand and isn’t carbon.

Thats right - 6 years on and this is our first ever magazine test.

Wish us luck!

-W

Well we headed out to Lysterfield for the 3rd AES round yesterday, with no idea what we were in for. With a bit of a mess up, someone sleeping in, and some bad directions from me, we arrived rather late and rushed through a warm up. Far too soon I found myself on the start line, taking up a position at the high end. For the first time in the series I managed a decent start, and found myself in the lead group going onto Blair Witch trail. The ground was really nice and tacky, with barely a puddle to be seen, and I was feeling good. We came out the bottom and the group had split, with Paulie and Jimmy gapping the rest of us off the front. I put an effort in and moved from last up to be sitting up on Paul’s wheel… and it all went to shit. We hit Buckle trail and a complete mud fest, and my legs went on strike and totally refused to put anymore power out.

Brett promptly went out and made me look like the gumby I am, coming in two minutes faster. So the day continued, I did a rather wet and miserable double before Snozza took pity on us and changed the course to remove the most disgusting sections. My enthusiasm slowly returned and I finally got a lap time I wasn’t too embarrassed about, although Brett had the indecency to storm out the 3rd fastest lap of the day before hand so I still came out looking slow. We finished up the day in 5th place, a minute behind Yeti. I might have to abandon my serious training program and switch to Brett’s diet of beer and two short rides a week, it seems to work a lot better! One round to go, maybe I can redeem myself and see if we can sneak in at least one podium finish.

Alrighty, the Team gear has now all landed all neatly cryogenically sealed in it’s plastic bags.

If you ordered one, it’s on it’s way over the next couple of days while I struggle to remember who ordered what.

For those that didn’t, we have very limited left-over stock that was ordered for this very reason - to accomodate the stragglers and tyre-kickers. Here are the prices and stock levels :

• Short Sleeve Jerseys - AUD89 ( X1 Small, X1 Large, X5 Medium, all Club Cut)
• Sleeveless Jerseys - AUD79 ( X1 Medium Club )
• Windproof Vest - AUD79 ( Special Order )
• Winter Jacket - AUD179 ( Special Order )
• Shorts -AUD99 ( x1 Medium )
• Bib Shorts - AUD120 ( Special Order )

If you don’t see what you want there, email us and we’ll special order it for you. They need to be pre-paid and have a 6 week wait, but at least this way you can have whatever you like.

On the other hand, if you see your size there and you want to snap one up and could do without waiting 6 weeks, again, drop us an email and we’ll sort you out. First come, first served an all that.

It’s been a pretty relaxed weekend this time around, with an easy spin down beach road and a short race at the You Yangs. I headed out on Saturday morning only slightly hung over from a friends going away the night before. The trip down to Mordy felt far too easy, and I found out why riding back into a headwind that felt more like a brick wall.

Waking to pouring rain on Sunday wasn’t a good sign. However the You Yangs didn’t fail us with the sandy soil soaking it all up. There was barely a puddle to be seen. The race started easily along the flat singletrack of Kurrajong. That didn’t stop me stacking (on a straight of all places!) and losing a few positions. Fortunately I moved back up to the lead group before we started climbing the steep technical link track. This sorted the men from the boys, with me and Murray Spink going clear. We rode together for most of the loop of Stockyards, with Murray getting a small gap on me before we climbed out. He held a 5 second gap as we zoomed down Great Circle Drive at over 70kph, and as I spun my 1×9 gearing like crazy on the lower slopes. Eventually my legs could spin no more and he pulled away, taking it out by a minute.

With the race over we dug into the free soup and did our best to stay warm before Simon, Murray, Sarah, and I headed out for another lap. The club asked us to keep an eye out for a rider who had failed to return. We found him with a busted derailleur several Ks from the finish, and called his friend to arrange a pick up. With sweeping duties complete we continued on and hit up some of the fun tracks in stockyards before taking the link track back down into Kurrajong and back to the car.

All up it was a fun four hour day, and a nice warm up for the big race next weekend. Hopefully my legs come to the party this time and I can improve on the mediocre performance of last round.

Just for giggles yesterday I dropped our very first customer an e-mail to see how after 6 years his Thylacines are travelling. I say ‘Thylacines’ (plural) because not only was he our first customer, he was the first person aside from myself to have more than one.

I’m super happy to report that both his frames are still going strong!

“Both of my Thylacines are doing great. XC is running like a dream, and the trials bike is holding up beautifully after many years of abuse. Only problem is I need new hangers for the trials rig. I’m also thinking about replacing my road rig so I’ll keep you in mind when that day comes. Titanium, eh?”

Yep, you read that right. He’s still riding his Thylacine X-Trials SIX YEARS after it was built. No, that’s not a misprint. While most trials frames last little more than 6 months under a strong and adventurous Trials rider, Marks’ frame is still kicking. This is great validation for us and testament to how good design makes all the difference. Our X-Trials frames were built from what would be viewed as ‘undersize’ tubing these days, but instead of focussing on diameter, we focussed on wall thickness to make the frames more impact resistant. We also media blasted and Electrode-less Nickel Plated the frames which we believe made a big difference to the toughness of the frames.

Anyway, all of my pix of Mark’s bikes are on an archive disc somewhere, but you can see photos of the ubiquitous X-Trials still on his website.

I’d like to personally and publicly thank him for being an ‘early adopter’ and having such amazing faith in a small crazy start-up (or is that up-start?) custom bike frame company trying to do things a little differently. I think it’s testament that hopefully in our case, ‘different’ also means ‘better’.

Simon and I headed up to Lancefield today for my first road race. I choose a rather laid back northern combine scratch race, and when we arrived an hour before the start the race site was deserted. No matter, we headed in to town for refreshments.

Mmm, snot block. Suitably fed we headed back to the race to register in what were rather chilly conditions. A little more standing around and a short warm up, and we were rolling out with the A grade bunch. Starting a race and not going full gas felt a bit strange, but I managed to hold myself back and stay in the bunch. We hit the first climb and surged a bit, then backed it off, then surged… etc.

The course was heavy in rolling hills and had a nasty crosswind on some parts. It was also quite rough which made me feel right at home. It wasn’t long before the bunch split, with one guy making a break and several others going out the back. Another rider punctured and I found myself in a group of four riders who would stay together for most of the race. No one really seemed interested in chasing down the guy who broke away, and the roady laziness extended to the point that we were eventually caught by three of the riders we had dropped early on. We repeated the middle section for a total of 95km, so it was just as well I stocked up on bars beforehand:

What, they were on special OK!

So anyway, I downed a bar and got ready for my big move on climb 6. The bunch was taking it easier on the lower ’slopes’, so I snuck to the front then attacked. No one responded for a bit, and I felt so pro… for about 5 seconds, at which point my legs turned to jelly. Fortunately everyone else seemed to be hurting a bit too, and I made it to the top with only two riders near me. I let them jump on, only to realise they were roadies and were going to completely refuse to work. Oh well. I got trounced in the sprint but finished up 4th in my first road race. Got to be happy with that.

It’s off to officer tomorrow for more racing, hopefully I can back it up OK.

Ah, the joys of the recovery week. A few short rides, plenty of time to laze around and watch movies. And party. Not sure that really helps with the recovery, but hey, it was fun!

We did do some work though, heading up to Woodend on Sunday for a cruisey 2.5 hour spin. Riding it backwards for the second lap was interesting. There is actually some tough technical climbing in the first few Ks. Nice for a change, although the mud wasn’t so much fun. When did it rain anyway?

Wow, that was a big week. North east hills twice, out to the Youies, and a few hours on the Yarra Trails thrown in for good measure. Riding the new Kurrajong section at the Youies was awesome fun, especially the long flowing link track between the sections.

How’s that for a view.

Simon riding the rollercoaster boardwalk at the end of the link track. Great fun until a gust of wind blows you off the side. No kidding.

The problem with riding Yarra Trails on a Saturday afternoon is that everyone else is too. We stopped four times for a bit of a chat with different people, and Alex joined us with his rather shiny looking Yeti hardtail for a while too.

So that was my week. 5800 meters of climbing all up - take that you beach road specialists!