Out of the box this bike was awesome! Which is just as well because in my haste to render our house before the carpet layers came and then travel to WA for the annual Cape to Cape race I had not had a chance to even measure myself on this bike. Even on arrival to Margaret River things were not going my way when I noticed I had forgotten to pack my pedals! All of this conspired to find me on the start line (well just off to the side!) at Cape Leuwin lighthouse with a multi tool in hand adjusting grips saddle and bars before finally setting off on the race 15 minutes after the starters gun had sounded!
Immediately you could feel the quality in this bike, the first hill was an efficient pedal to the top accelerating with the slightest turn of the pedal, absolutely flying past the now last placed person!??? The first fire road decent I found, in my effort to ensure I didn’t sink in the sand, that 20psi was a little too soft! As I landed, after my first water bar launch, the tyre rolled alarmingly but true to its form the bike corrected and accelerated away down the hill! I now added a little caution to my air time but confidence grew as the trail unraveled and I had no hesitation in letting it all hang out on many descents usually with a string of abuse in my wake as I had not hand signaled enough for the many road riders in this race! At the end of race day 1 I found the only changes needed were a little more air pressure and some brake lever adjustment which could only lead to more speed on the descents!
I settled back that evening with a recovery Cascade in hand confident of my new chariot and its ability to get me to the finish line. This confidence should have been reserved for my bike only and certainly not the riders conditioning, but as I lined up on day 2 I found myself accelerating up the hill looking for clear air and the hope of some quality uninterrupted single track. If the race was 20km long I could have been a chance! However as the race wore on energy dropped and with 20km left I found myself like a Calcutta beggar clinging to any wheel for the briefest of assists before falling away on even the smallest of climbs, yep I was cooked, the Woolies trail bars will not run your engine for 60km of off road riding!
With my aspirations dashed I entered day 3 for pure enjoyment and soon realized that the effort on day 2 was well warranted. Congestion on the first part of the trail was at its worst so far in the race and whilst this was by far the best trails we had ridden the pace was that of an over weight tortoise! Mountain bikers can be a cynical bunch and there were soon calls of “Stopping, twig down!” or “fallen leaf, stopping!” Roadies are great climbers but occasional descenders but there is no one else to blame but ourselves for not being at the pointy end of the race, fitness would reward the technical rider with open flowing single track not a verbal spray to our roadie cousins.
Day 3 done I decided that day 4 was not going to be worth the pain as the fire downstairs was raging out of control. I pulled the pin. The bike was a sensation; the rider was, well…, under done. As I settled back at the Margaret River Hotel expecting the All Blacks to canter home with the World Cup I reflected on a race I’d taken all too easy, this had been the reconnoiter look at 2012!
Liteville Frame
