Destination Derby

Winding back to mid September, I had two weeks holiday and took an epic mountain biking trip to St Helens and Derby with my mate Ev.

Eye of the storm … in the weeks preceding my time off, I seemed to have a fantastic relationship with the universe, everything was going so well and I was expecting things to change, as they so often do.

I took my bike in for a service two weeks out in preparation, and the problems started. My rear hub was disintegrating and spare parts were unavailable. As I’d already badly dented the rear rim, I decided it was a perfect excuse to switch from a 29″ rear wheel, to a 27.5″, otherwise referred to as a “mullet” setup. I’d been thinking of this move for a while but the cost had put me off.

I rode my bike three times after the service, I was expecting it to be better downhill and take a small hit going uphills, but it was awesome in every way all-round. Climbing, especially tight switch-backs was much better! The only negative was the pedals were closer to the ground so I had to watch out for rocks a bit more.

Then it happened. I was washing my bike as usual post ride and noticed a small crack developing that wasn’t there before, radiating from a previous dent in the swing-arm that happened back in April. I pealed the tape off to inspect …

It was far worse than I expected, definitely not fit for Derby, and a part nearly impossible to get on a two year old bike.
While extremely disappointed, I was glad I noticed it at home and it didn’t break in the middle of a 40km ride!

While my bike went back into the shop, I had to borrow my mates old bike, we spent a few days changing tyres, new brakes and getting it fit for some big rides.

The morning of departure arrived, a lovely day for a road-trip up the East Coast of Tasmania to St Helens. We left early so that we would have time for a BIG ride in the afternoon before checking into our accommodation.

We stopped to get supplies on the way up, and an opportunity for some photos. While I took the Olympus up, I only used my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to take photos and I also took a heap of video on a GoPro … of which I have yet to edit.

A little before St Helens, we turned off and headed for Loila Tier, the starting point of our 30km circuit ride to The Dreaming Pools.

It was a day of magic, perfect weather and a great ride! The track is rated blue, but was more like a green except for it’s remoteness, distance and hefty climb back to the ute. For more details on the track visit TrailForks.

The next morning we headed for Derby and decided to have a kind-of rest day, we treated ourselves and hired some E-mountain bikes! We rode over 40km, riding to the trailhead where the shuttle goes 3 times!

You can see one of the E-bikes in the image below to the left.

I absolutely loved the E-MTB, the extra weight make it handle more like a dirt bike than a mountain bike, offering extra grunt to get up tricky rocky rooty sections that you would really struggle with just pedalling. BUT, getting used to a different bike with different weight distribution did come at a cost …

I came off first, less than 1km on our first trip down the hill, on a large, steep slap of granite. Luckily I didn’t slide or it would have torn me to bits, but despite the damage, I dusted myself off and jumped straight back on. I refused to let it ruin my holiday!

It wasn’t much later that Evan did almost the same thing, but far less damage.

Derby is a lovely little town. We stayed two nights and ate out at the local pizza joint and the pub for dinner, both were excellent and within walking distance from our accommodation. I ate breakfast out on the veranda and this is the view up the main street of Derby below.

We visited just before school holidays and the start of the riding season, so it was pretty quiet and the locals were very friendly and helpful.

And how did that “Derby tattoo” turn out …

Back home a few days later. My right side rib and left hand actually hurt more than the bruise, but now, a few weeks later and I’m fine.

I also got my bike back after 4 weeks in the shop! The supplier had to part out a new bike to get me a new bottom swing-arm (chain-stay), a slightly different colour but I don’t care, it’s only cosmetic. I’ve also flipped the rear suspension “chip” which has lifted the pedals 2cm. I’m so happy with the resulting mutant mullet!

Happy trails, stay safe and thanks for visiting 🙂