Paul Petch

My bikes. 2000 – 2009

Marin Wolf Ridge. Current.

It’s a six inch machine that rides and feels like I’m on a XC bike.

This is my current trail bike. It is a 2008 Marin Wolf Ridge with 6 inches of travel. I absolutely adore this bike as it’s light enough for 8hr epics, but it has enough boing and strength to ride some rocky and technical trails. This is the first mountain bike that I’ve owned with a front and rear axle (Rockshox Maxle) which makes the whole bike track so nice when it gets rough. Infact, this is only the third dually that I’ve owned in the 15yrs that I’ve ridden a bike. The PIKES just eat up the terrain and with the “U- Turn” feature I can wind it down as low as 100mm if I choose. As for the Gravity Dropper, it is the best bit of kit that I’ve used on a bike. It has really opened up the trails and suits this machine perfectly.

I look forward to every ride on the Wolf, and it is such a fun and stable bike. No other bike has enabled me to push my riding skills as much as the Marin Wolf. I love this bike.

GT Peace. 2008 – 2009

Simple, fast and always in the correct gear :)

Of course I have a few other bikes in the back room, but the Wolf is the bike I dedicate to riding off road 95% of the time. Currently, my other off road machine is the simple and no fuss GT Peace single speed. This bike is so much fun on the local forest trails at Bottle Lake or Mcleans Island. With plain gauge steel tubes it feels quite comfy, and it never seems to be in the wrong gear for these types of trails. Aside from the challenge of riding a single speed, it is also refreshing to ride a bike that you can just pedal through the crap of winter and get home to leave it alone without the need to pamper any bearings or moving parts. It’s a true ride and forget bike with some great geometry to boot, and quite affordable too. I’ve done a review of the GT Peace, if your keen.

I’ve also used the GT Peace for daily commuting duties too. With some slicks, a different ratio and panniers it is a really nice way to get from A to B.

Salsa Fargo. Current.

Today a commuter, tomorrow a long distance tourer, and next week a single track eater.

Talking of commuting, this is now the job of a new addition the stable – the Salsa Fargo. The beauty of the Fargo is that it’s suited to road and off road touring. It can fit chunky 29er tyres and has so many mounting options for racks, water bottles and mud guards that it makes my mind boggle. As well as commuting, I plan to do some adventure touring come Spring/ Summer time. It’s an amazingly versatile bike and my first 29er too! With a great steel frame and sensible groupset it really does feel like a bomb proof work horse and capable long distance traveler. The Fargo is truly the “missing link” :)

Cove Handjob. 2008 – 2009.

The bike that made me give up on weight weenie-ness and just get out and have fun.

The Cove Handjob was built up in early 2008 with a long travel Revelation fork. I had simply out grown my stable of XC racing orientated bikes and it was time for a more appropriate machine for the gnarly NZ trails. This bike was my first purchase since arriving in NZ and I rode it everywhere from Bottllake Forest and the Port Hills to Wharfedale and Craigieburn….and it loved it all. The Handjob was a really versatile frame and could be ridden with a fork at 100 to 140mm, yet it still felt totally balanced out on the dirt.

Once I picked up the Marin Wolf though it saw less and less time out there. I converted it to a single speed for a while, but it was eventually ignored and was sold to help fund the Fargo bike buy. I have many fond memories of the Cove, but these two stand out; My first Craigiburn ride down the “Luge” where I stuck hard to the leader who was on a dually as I nailed it! And the other was the 7+ hr Wharfedale ride that Spencer, Craig that we did all the way to Oxford and beyond during last Summer. Good times on a sweet bike that I’ll really miss.

Lynskey Titanium. 2007 – 2008.

Smooth, fast light and nimble. A total classic.

I’ve  been guilty of sourcing the best lightweight and matching anodised parts just “because”. The pinnacle of this stage was during the last year in Australia when I picked up what some people see at the best XC race frame in the world at that time….a Lynskey and hung some serious bling from it! This 2007 frame was bloody great and rode so so nice on everything I was throwing it at…especially the rockier side of XC trails. It was so so smooth. With XTR bits and other light weight parts such at the Thomson Masterpiece post, WTB Ti seat and carbon bars I was not concerned with the cost, and with a weight below 10KG it rode like a goat.We had some great times out on the dirt and my riding buddies back downunder were starting to struggle a bit to keep up with me….it was like it had wings.

Sadly, during the winter of 2008 I noticed a small crack on the seat post stay and after 3 months waiting for a replacement it eventually arrived and was not the same frame design. The magic that the original frame had…was gone.  After trying to love it I soon sold the frame. By this time I had also built the Cove and had got used to the extra travel up front too. XC bikes were just not my thing anymore. The memory that stands out most from this build was when it first arrived in NZ in the shipping crate. I had been riding a dually for a few months and was really missing the feel of the a hardtail and in particular the Lynskey Ti frame. Hitting the Port Hills was a total blast and I remember carving it up with perfect precision….I’m smiling just thinking about it. I really miss that 2007 frame design….it was a total classic and I’ll never own another frame like it :(

Trek Fuel EX8. 2007 – 2008.

A bit of a lemon.

The Fuel EX8 was quite a light weight machine really. With 120mm of travel it was seen as a “All mountain bike”, but it was just the wrong bike for me at the time. Deep down within my soul, there was a lycra clad wann-abe racer :D I was still obsessed with how heavy my bikes were and this machine felt sluggish and slow compared to my hardtails at the time. I never really rode enough trails in Australia to justify it really and on arrival to Christchurch I still felt that it was to slow and heavy. Looking back, it was infact ME that was slow and heavy :)  I remember how awful it felt under braking though- and it would cause terrible brake dive and the rear would also become rigid. What a pointless thing to happen on a AM bike when the terrain became rocky, loose and technical! I hated it. It also felt like it was to small and cramped for me, but with Treks stupid sizing, I had no choice. I soon sold the Fuel frame in favor of the good old hardtail.

In 2008 Trek re designed the Fuel due to the exact same issues that I had experienced. What a bummer and what a lemon of a bike! I do have a few fond memories of the bike though and the first has to be the first Otway Odyssey and I cycled 50KM on it. Not bad for it’s first outing! I also remember the first time that I rode out at Lake Sumner in early 2008 where I learnt to appreciate what this bike can do over rocks (f you don’t brake!).

Overall, this bike was really disappointing really and never felt “right”. Saying that, I also think that my fitness was just not upto the task back then to fully hammer this bike. I’ll never know now though will I?

BMC Virus. 2007.

A cheap frame that was to become my solo friend.

Still in my bling “phase” but with not enough money to justify carbon or Ti, I opted for a cheapy frame of Ebay that cost $250 if i remember correctly. With a bit of spare cash in the bank I went silly and splashed out on Avid Ultimates, XTR, Thomson…you name it…I got the best. Originally the bike was setup with REBAS and worked fine when the trails were a bit rocky, but the PACE carbon/ Ti forks were just the ticket when it came to the smoother stuff (especially over the winter months). By the end of my crazy spending I had a machine that weighed close to 9KG and was a total weapon for a guy with limited fitness at solo endurance events. During 2007 this bike would often accompany me on solo rides of 70KM over 6- 8 hours at a time….and we had some great times together.

When I shipped over to Christchurch I had to many bikes and the BMC frame set was sold to a good friend of mine who still rides it today. I did consider converting it to a single speed, but it was on the larger side and really suited to XC racing so off it went. I did not get much for it, but then I never paid the Earth for it to start with. The fondest memory of riding the bike has to be at the You Yangs near Melbourne where it accompanied me to my first ever solo ride. What a stella and fun machine it was!

Giant XTC. 2006 – 2007.

My return to riding- and boy oh boy it was fun!

Nearly 4 years had past since I had ridden a bike- but it was time to get back into it. I did not have much cash so the Giant XTC range made sense with a great groupset and fantastic frame.  With a few parts from the previous bike and a little “Ebaying” it was not long until I had a really sweet, light weight and great performing bike. The Giant XTC also came with SRAM X9 & X7 shifting- which was to be the start of my love for SRAM shifting….it was faultless :) I could not believe how much the mountain bike had come along since I last rode one! The XTC frame was so light weight and dialed in for single track that I soon got the buzz back. The Pyslo forks had been repaired too and set to 100mm of travel which felt never ending back then! This was also my first experience with disk brakes and the Hayes 9.0 setup was breathtaking….like I said…I was gob smacked at how far the humble mountain bike had come in just 4 years!

I teamed up with my good friend Tiago and together we rode local trails and had alot of fun. 2006 was a special year for me- I gave up smoking and looked at getting back into shape. After a year or so I sold the Pyslos to Tiago and in 2007  focused my energy on a better ride with no other reason other than I had got the bug back and it was time for a change. I still have this frame today actually, and it was converted to my first singlespeed back in the winter of 2007! My Wife now rides it to work each day as a single speed commuter and it’s still going strong.

Specialized FSR. 2002.

Fugly.

I can’t really remember much about  this bike at all other than it was heavy and kind of sucked. I picked it up cheap from a bikeshop when I lived in Townsville and stripped it down to replace the parts with the gear from the Coyote as well as some sweet Psylo forks off Ebay. It their day, these forks absolutely rocked- but I had purchased a total set of lemons that in the end cost me big time to get fixed up. I only rode it for a few months “up North” and we then moved back to Melbourne, so it saw limited dirt time. The time that it did see though was bloody awful and alot of weight to carry about for 60mm of travel??.  This bike and period was quite a sad one for me too, as I had lost the buzz from riding a bike and my smoking and poor life style choices had caught up with me. I sold it along with the Coyote shortly after returning to Melbourne. Damn it was an ugly bike…just look at it!!

A memory? Oh OK….how about the time that I rode with some guys and lied abut having punctures so that I could hang back for a smoke. Like I said- shit was really bad in 02!

Coyote. 2000 – 2002.

A bike from the UK that served me well.

Amazing how long this bike lasted considering how many machines (well frames) have passed through my hands since 2007 isn’t it? Well, if the truth was known it’s because I rode it until 2003 and it went into the garage to be sold shortly afterward. At the time this frame was the bees knees back in the UK and when I shipped it over with me- it was a true rarity downunder.

It saw some Melbourne trails at Lysterfield Park in 20oo and then during 2001 we moved to Townsville, North Queensand and it saw a fair bit of commuting as well as ride time on the local trails. It had fairly cheap gear on it, but it all worked faultlessly. If I remember correctly it had XT brakes with SRAM carbon levered brakes…..and they were awesome! The forks were the famous Judy races, which at the time were great forks and the first “real” affordable suspension with true rebound/ compression adjustment. I really liked how this bike rode and we had some good times together exploring – in particular the trails behind the University of James Cook (where I was working at the time). The best memory has to be a ride that I did along the coast line near Walkerville back in Australia, with my dog May. She was only a few months old and we were out all day exploring and had a total blast together. I remember giving her water from my quickly diminishing water bottle supply as we headed onwards. I’m sure that she remembers this day too :) Good times.

Before 2000

Prior to 2000 I rode clunkers to and from work and University and even owned a second hand Schwinn Sweet Spot that I got “cheap” off a red Indian at University who was from Moab USA (no shit) – which in its day was fantastic.  I also remember my “first real fork” back in 97? the good old RST Mozo Pro Boy oh boy!! what a fork that was in the day with 80mm of harsh elastomer travel…… Total crap compared to today’s forks mind you!

It was not until 99 that I really got into the more expensive side of bikes and the Coyote brand back then really took my fancy. The frame sets were made of Easton Aluminum and super light- best of all they were quite affordable and I picked up a Coyote Slalom frame in electric blue as well as the HT5 you see above. This signaled my obsession/ hobbies with building bikes and saving up to buy expensive parts and “bits”. At this point (to cut costs) I also started to learn how to maintain and service my bikes. Mountain biking for me back then was a lap in the woods or hitting the fireroads and Bridle ways to and from work/ study. :) I would be on my bike at every opportunity! Sadly I have no photos of these bikes :( but I have bloody fond memories ;)

As for other bits n bobs since 2000, I had a DMR Switchback frame during 07 that was loaned to my friend Tiago to be sold a week later. I thought that it was to heavy back then :/ I also had a Giant TCR1 road bike over the winter of 2006 that I sold because it bored me stupid. Looking at the amount of bikes/ frame sets/ gear that I’ve gone through since 2000 is simply astonishing isn’t it!!?? It’s also interesting to see how my riding style and tastes have changed too- from weight weenie obsessive to practical and fun. One thing for sure  is that I’ve had good times, met some great friends and people and have got fit. I love bikes and riding so so much.

I’m keen to see your collection or bike history, what have you got ? :)

Related posts:

1. Weight weenie bikes
2. Cove Handjob and Its rebirth ;D
3. Lynskey Titanium – it has wings I tell ya!
4. Some quick updates
5. Seven weeks in – Lake Sumner ride

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Bike Stuff and tagged with 29er, australia, bling, bottlelake, christchurch, commuting, gear, rock shox, single speed, Trails & Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.