After untold numbers of cocktails at Rich's cocktail party on Friday night, a gentle start to the weekend was planned. Believing that it was public day at the bike show, Rich and I decided to go and shuffle around, grunting at the occasional bike, and hopefully meeting up with the Dirtworks boys and the illusive Ms Ferrari. It turned out that public day was not until Sunday, so we hired a sailing boat and floated around Albert Park Lake for an hour instead, before buying some Tim Tams and heading to my place to make some coffee.

Sunday was planned to be a lazy day of speed runs down Mt St Leonard, just north of Healesville, which is sometimes known as the Red Hot Rim Run. Three of us (Rich, Duncan and I) piled into Rich's trusty and much abused Hyundai, planning to meet another group in Healesville. After half an hour waiting in Healesville, an irresponsible plan was hatched to ride UP the mountain, assuming the others would pass us on their way down and we would all continue as planned from there. These are the kind of plans often hatched by Duncan (a closet roadie - his road bike and dualie both live in the hall closet) and Rich (who always says yes...or so I've been told).

After climbing for about 5.5 km, there was still no sign of Stu and the others. I was struggling most, so I volunteered to go back down and try ringing Stu. Rich and Duncan were to ride the last 3 km to the top, before riding back down to meet me (and hopefully everyone else) at the bottom.

A quick mobile call revealed that Stu had gone to the movies instead.

When Rich and Duncan arrived back at the car, we decided to put in one quick run down, then go searching for Dirty Harry's, a "serious" DH course that was supposed to be fairly close by, near Narbethong. Rich and I rode, and Duncan drove down to meet us at the bottom. It is amazing how the hill looks much steeper to ride down that it is to ride up. I clocked a 77km/h (beating my 75 clicks on my first half-run), and felt very comfortable on my bike. Losing 400m in 8 km on smooth, fast firetrail is always enjoyable. This was my first Rim Run since swapping my old Zokes forks for Judys, and the difference in torsional stiffness was superb.

On the way to Dirty Harry's, an old Valliant ute thundered past. It was hard not to notice a set of riser bars and massive triple clamp forks peeking out of the tray.

He soon came thundering back the other way, and told us that there was no one at the track, and that we should all come with him and ride another downhill course nearby, where "everyone else" were.

The course in question was actually Mt Gordon, known to the downhill crowd as Grantham, after the nearest town. The downhillers have carved 2 tracks out of the state forest. Apparently the Victorian DH champs had been on there the weekend before, on the less technical "long course".

I felt hopelessly underequipped, on a hardtail that had a mere 4-figure price tag, 63mm total suspension travel, and wearing lycra shorts instead of body armour. I spotted quite a few sets of Monster T's, a couple of home-modified motorbike forks, and lots and lots of disc brakes. Not a front derailer to be seen.

Rich and Duncan rode the long course, while I drove. Big grins at the bottom.

Next up was Duncan and I for the short course.

"We put the track through in one day, from virgin bush to what it is now. Really technical, you'll probably want to get off and walk some parts" came the advice. "The log jumps are pretty harsh, only a few people can ride them all".

Oh boy, here we go.

The top of the track, common to both courses, was wide, fast and rocky. Not too hard to pick a reasonably smooth line through if you can trust your forks to eat their way through some of the crud.
Singletrack branches off to the left, and plunges down the hill. A few tight switchbacks, drifting through ruts where berms haven't had a chance to form.
Then the first "log jump". Apparently there had been a few big trees down across where they wanted to put the track. Big, as in upward of a metre in diameter. The solution was to build a ramp on the uphill side, and just launch off it. This concept would scare me enough (especially on my hardtail), except that you are launching off the side of a 60 degree slope, and dropping into a tight, rutted switchback as soon as you land. I did the sensible thing, and lowered my bike over the drop (which was not a trivial excercise in itself). I think this is the normal practice for anyone who doesn't have a serious chance of winning national titles.
I got into the rhythm of the corners, and realised why downhillers ride platform pedals. Having a foot out near your front tyre helps alot, and it is too hard to bother clipping in after every corner when you know there is another one about 2 seconds away.
The chewed up, wet loamy track gave alot of grip, and gave good warning before washing out. I stepped over my bars a few times when I overshot a particularly sharp corner, but thankfully stayed on my feet.

The track was a bit over my head, but would be fun to try a few more times, to help build up some techy downhill skills.

Rich and I were next on the long course. This I enjoyed much more.
As Duncan had said, there was nothing on it that couldn't be made easier by either taking it slowly, or by going really fast and pretending it wasn't there. All the jumps were jumpable on a hardtail, and I only stepped off the bike once when my (rather worn) front tyre washed out on a steep clay corner. I guess that's why they make those massive DH tyres.
I kept up with Rich fairly well, surprising us both (given past performance and the difference in bikes - me on my hardtail with Judys, he on his dually with Bombers). A few times I even had to hold back a bit, so I didn't catch his mud in my face.

It was an enlightening introduction to "real" downhilling, and although I had no chance of keeping up with the lads who do it all weekend, every weekend on monster DH sleds, I'm going to enjoy having a bash at the uni champs in December.

Downhillers are a strange breed, and although they were all quite friendly and encouraging, I think they have more in common with trail bikers than "normal" XC riders.

And, with reference to recent discussions on the list, I'm still sure none of them are vegetarians.

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