Today was Delatite day (name of the track) where we would ride from the top of the mountain to the bottom at Mirambah a small shop run by the Mt Buller people. From Mirambah we were shuttled back up in a 21 seat bus or we could ride back up. A couple chose to ride back up and my plan was to do 2 Delatite runs and ride back. My plan came unstuck unfortunately due to a large stick into my deralieur and another bend of the rear mounts and jockey wheel cage, therefore bike mechanical issues prevented me from riding it after the second run, I even had trouble riding the last section back to the end with the chain locking up and jamming all the time. My gear selections were very limited and not optimal.

7AM bunch riding to the start

Conditions were not great!

My first run was on the early start group and it was a blast with a lot of water about and plenty on the face and everything else. I decided to do my second run straight after the first so I was only wet and cold once. We hopped off the bus at the top to tolerant rain and cold winds. We started with a group of 14 that quickly dropped to seven as they stepped out of the bus. This second run was horrible to start with. There were rivers of water running down the tracks and over the banks onto the tracks. Water and mud was thrown into everything and everybody looked a sight. The second run was a bit sketchy but still a lot of fun.

Sharon went on the second run for the morning. We came across 4 of their group with a flat and we gave them a gas canister and moved on before we became any colder. Sharon was slightly out of control a lot she tells me but she had fun. Everybody piled onto the bus soaked in mud and grime and the must hose it out after we have all been in it as it was disgusting inside when we got off. Apparently they are used to it. The coffee shop was not much better after we all traipsed in and filled it with mud as well.

Snowing

Hailing

As I am witting this it is constantly changing from rain to snow to hail to rain to snow to hail, you get the idea. All the people from far north are running outside for their first taste of snow like excited kids. Tomorrow on Buller the top tem will be 3 degrees if we are lucky and start at -3 or something like that with a wind chill to match. They have decided to all relocate us down the hill to an alternative venue tomorrow and on Monday with the great weather forecast we will head out on the really long ride to Craigs Hut over beyond Mt Sterling.

We spent a couple of hours on my bike with various experts looking and giving assistance. We found 4 badly bent links in the chain and one of the chain rollers missing with just the ping rotating around trashing my gears. On top of all this my rear hanger was badly bent and the spare I had was the wrong one! With the use of a Dag Tool (google it) which I am going to buy ASAP we confirmed about 15mm of inwards bend on my hanger. We managed to coax it back within a couple of mill and not snapping it luckily. A new chain and a lot of tweaking and it was functional again. Sounds like a whole new drive train coming up after this trip.

I took heaps of GoPro footage and images today but there is just not enough time to process anything and blogging has to be fitted in between all the activities the have planned for us. We are a very diverse group with almost half of us from Tassie, mostly from Hobart and one from Alice Springs and 2 from Townsville. A good bunch and fun times being had.