Despite my repeated complaints on the list that noone was up for a Melbourne ride on Saturday, I didn't end up riding on Saturday anyway. Row was out womanising, and I couldn't get hold of him until Sunday morning. He has just invested in his first set of clipless pedals. As such, he was keen for a ride on familiar turf, just to get used to clipping out when he knew he was going to have to. I had never ridden at Studley Park. It made a good destination for both of our purposes. En route to the park, we dropped by (non-listee) Ray's place (at around 12.30). Ray staggers out of bed, bleary eyed and feeling a little seedy, but put in a fine effort to be on his bike within 15 minutes.

I was on my trusty Shogun Al H/T, Row on his splendid Giant-ATX-890- full-XT-R-equipped "instrument", and Ray was on his Avanti FS job, with some of the strangest tubing geometry I have ever seen on a bike.

For those who haven't ridden Studley, most of the tracks are narrow singletracks, carved into the side of the Yarra River valley/gorge. If you fall one way, you won't get very far because you can put a hand out and balance off the hillside. The other side will be a long tumble down about 30 foot of greenery, possibly into the lush chocolatey waters of the Yarra. The tracks follow the river for about 15 km all up (including all the meanders of the river), and come within about 5 km of Melbourne city centre.

We entered the park at the Fairfield boatshed, crossed the river and headed upstream. Returned to civilisation at the Chandler Highway bridge. Riding back toward the boathouse bridge, along the road, found a couple of nice tight tecchical descents to play on. Back at the bridge we headed downstream, along more similar tracks. A stretch of "conservation area" had us back on the road for about a km down to the Studley Park boathouse.

Crossed the river on another footbridge, and headed along the river (a big river loop...not sure if we were going up or down stream here) to find a track Row assured us existed. We did find a big steep descent onto what could have been a track, given some work. I thought it was a good track, but I had 2 riders in front cutting their way through with their Mavic "machetes". Gave up and went back to the bridge.

On the other side we happened accross another group of 3 lads on bikes who then tagged along with us. Fairly new, mid range Al H/Ts, better than mine but not as nice as Row's. Easy tracks around via Dights Falls to the Johnston St Bridge, then Ray led us onto the sweetest track in the place...

The descent to get under the Johnston St Bridge is basically unridable. Under the bridge things got smoother, and we had a nice fast single track for about a km. Then things got technical. A few unridable obstacles, and always the knowledge that a fall the wrong direction (or riding off the track) meant a nasty tumble down to the river. At one stage I got a little over-ambitious in trying to ride up a very steep little pinch, and went over backwards. Row was close enough to catch me and help me get some balance happening before I went down.

This gloriously technical little track went on for about 3 or 4 km, dipping up and down the escarpment. Ray, Row and I, and 2 of the others, emerged at the park at the other end (sort of opposite the Abbotsford CUB Brewery), and had a play on a couple of dips and jumps. Row and I were rejoicing in our clip-ons, and getting nice big air. It was a few minutes before it was noticed that team member #6 was still missing. He eventually emerged, somewhat grass- and dirt-stained, and with a flat. Not sure of the exact sequence of events, but he had gone over the edge, and had a flat, and was not feeling too happy with life. We fixed his flat (they had 1 tube between them, which had a schraeder valve. It didn't fit through this rim which was drilled for those silly little metal things), and had a bit of a sit around, chat, and tweak things on bikes, before heading back.

On the way back, I did the unthinkable. Came to a standstill at the top of a little climb, and overbalanced the wrong way. I could feel it happening, and couldn't do a damn thing about it. I unclipped, pushed my bike toward the track, and went for about 30 foot of tumbling practice. Disturbingly close to a large and splintered log, which I managed to kick off a few times on my way down the 60+ degree slope, without injuring myself much at all. A slight leakage from my shin, and a bit of a sore neck this morning. At least my priorities were right: the bike stayed at the top, completely unscathed. This counts as the stack of the day, because I HAD WITNESSES!

It was a difficult climb back up to the track, and a rather uneventful ride back, along more lovely tight singletrack. Most of us were getting pretty stuffed by now, having ridden hard for about 4 hours.

We farewelled the others at Fairfield boathouse bridge, and rode off into the setting sun...

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