God or Gibbon?

So what worked and what didn't? What would I take again and what would I change.

Separating Gods from Gibbons:-

Gods.

The Bike

Lets start with the big things - the bike worked out just fine - many thanks to Aaron at Brookvale Bike Factory who recently rebuilt it. It's a 2008 Scott Genius with a carbon main triangle and an aluminium Horst link on the back. I got it as a 40th birthday present for myself to prove I was still young. I bought it on a Saturday then crashed it on Sunday, breaking my arm. Certainly, age has not made me smarter.

The great thing with this bike is the adjustable travel suspension. With a Fox Talas upfront and Scotts own rear shock you can set it up as a hardtail with 100mm at the front for going fast, or, as the wear and tear builds up on your rear loosen the back to 90mm, then 130mm of travel. In training I've run it hardnosed; locking the front and leaving the back @90mm. This means you can stand up and honk without having to touch the controls. There is no platform damping on the rear shock - I don't think it needs it with the Horst Link - it's such a good peddler.

The Wide Wheels

The Snowcat wheels I've already talked about at some length - I won't repeat it all here but I will just mention tyres. That Kenda Small Block 8 was a beast in 2.35 width. I was a bit worried about the very thin sidewalls bit it got through fine.

Puncture Sealant

Stan's No Tubes Sealant. The SDCC is probably the best advert for Stan's Sealant in the world. Leon got a monster thorn in his tyre. He pulled it out but the hole was too big for Stan's to seal, so he put the thorn back in the hole and kept cycling. By contrast, Aaron, rider 29 had 8 punctures. On one occasion he got 200 metres from the start before getting a flat. Freddy ran tubeless tyres but still got flat tyres until Richard sorted him out with some sealant.

The GPS

The GPS was great, both for overall speed and for the waypoints that help break a stage into managble chunks. On that hard second day I knew exactly how far I had to go before I'd turn out of the headwind. The screen can be a little hard to see on the Oregon and it's not really meant for cycling but it kept me company well enough.

Waxed Chains

Chains I've already spoken about. Not a problem with the sand.

The Bento Box

The bento box looks a bit odd on a mountain bike but did a good job of holding both my camera and my Uncle Tobies muesli bars.

My camera (a knackered Canon Ixus) was also a good thing to have along.

Finally, wearing 2 pairs of shorts was a great idea and something I should have done from day 1.

Gibbons

Cheap bar ends

Worst of the worst, the bar ends. Three weeks after the event and I still have no feeling in the smallest 2 fingers of each hand. Well, that's not quite true, and the difference shows what a curious creature the human is - I can feel the inside of my ring finger but not the outside - the feeling is split down the middle. The nerves for the little finger and half the ring finger must be routed in one direction and the nerves for the other half of the ring finger routed somewhere else. Interesting, but I'd rather have some feeling back.

I bought cheap barends in a panic after meeting up with the Sydney guys who were all using them. I only completed one circuit in the Blueys with them, had problems and bought some expensive track mitts to try and compensate. "never use anything in a race that you haven't used in training: - that's a good motto. The clamp has a bulge that bruised the ulna nerve in my palm.

Not everything about the bar ends was bad. I liked the wide grip with the extra leverage it gave for steering on sand.

My beloved saddle

The saddle - a Fizik Gobi. I've spent many a happy hour on this saddle. I’ve done 8 hour rides, 16 hour weekends. It’s amazing that one day in the desert and I'm in deep trouble. I think next year I'll get something big with springs.

Untested Cycle shorts

Nothing wrong with the shorts per say, they’re well made and I got a good deal. My idea here was to have a fresh pair on knicks for every stage – bibs in the morning and shorts in the afternoon. My mistake was not testing them out before I raced in them. I've been wearing bibs for a long time and think I get on better with something that has braces - it holds the chamois up and stops it moving around.