What a huge weekend for NEMTB!!!

Post date: Sep 17, 2012 12:21:12 PM

First off Troy’s team at TK’s Fabrication and Trailers handed over the keys to the new custom NEMTB trailer, all nicely branded and finished. A huge thank you goes to TK’s for their assistance in producing a very sharp MTB trailer with slide out BBQ and the ability to hold 10 bikes if required, 6 on the top and 4 on a rear tow bar mounted rack. If you’re looking for a trailer or some complex welding jobs they’re the team to see.

Just about now some of you may be asking, “why do we need a trailer?”. Well this is how all the kit used to make it to the track previously; Ben Harris would bring the club marque which he had to pick up from Peter Harris who was unable to attend the MTB race as he was defoliating for his next Iron Man event. Chappo would bring the BBQ and gas bottle, but had to bring the old van as he spilled the drip tray in the Forrester last time and Caroline was still not impressed. The Woosters would bring the two oversized club tables but this meant that Harry had to ride on the roof again due to the lack of space in the car and the addition of two new iPads to the family. The Hosking’s would bring the club first aid kit, tub and throw in a couple of folding chairs as Michael gets cranky when he has to sit on the ground to do complete race timing and you do anything for people that are happy to time. Gregatron was starting to get vocal (yes it was getting serious) as the lost property container had to be upgraded as it no longer fitted into his car, oops sorry - his backpack. The club bike (yes we do have one, medium size Jamis hard tail) gets left behind because Gregraton, who recently serviced it, can no longer carry it on his back as he now has a 44 gallon drum full of miscellaneous water bottles strapped to it. Harry brings the NEMTB banner because he wears it when completing his victory laps (crazed) around his own back yard. James Harris brings sufficient material to build a 45 foot berm. Matt Benham would bring a couple of cold refreshments, only because Jo remembered, and finally Bill had to bring the key down to unlock The Piney as no one else had the room to carry it. So now all that stuff fits in one convenient trailer, minus the berm material which The Harris Brothers weren’t going to relinquish anyway.

Picture :- The New Club Trailer

So moving onto the weekend proper, Saturday morning started with a busy bee at the Sport UNE Mountain Bike Trails where some of the final major jobs were completed. Some of the triumphs were the installation of the Gnarly Knock Over IV (Paul from Sydney, Gregatron, David and Shireen Brunkhorst, Katherine and Bella Hosking), the pine forest section was completely blown with the new GroundEffect sponsored blower (by Ian, our furthest away NEMTB member, Sydney), the installation of a new section of track following GKO IV (to the new Brunkhorst construction standard - “You can’t make track with a whipper snipper!” was the construction motto), the new “Dam Bridge” on the far side of the track (Bills Platts), whipper snipping grass sections (Barbs H), lots of pruning completed by Team Wooster, the three Harris brothers were working on track so I assume there will be some big berms and table top jumps installed in different locations (luckily this job was being supervised by Sam Harris), Michael and Kirby completed track maintenance and finally a big thanks to Harry (Dave Harris) who co-ordinated the entire morning and blowing random objects with the new Ground Effect blower (just because he could). With quite a few new faces to the busy bee this made fast work of Harry’s list.

Keep an eye out on the web for more information on the opening of the Sport UNE Mountain Bike Tracks and keep 10am to 1pm on the 21 October free for the first club event on the new track. More details to come.

Picture :- Gnarly Knock Over IV

Sunday marked the start of NSW Bike Week. A few different Armidale biking groups displayed their wares in the Sustainable Living area of the Curtis Park Farmers Market. This gave NEMTB a chance to talk to people who have not been exposed to mountain biking. Thanks to the Woosters, Greg, Dave and Lisa Harris for completing their shifts at the NEMTB booth.

And then Sunday afternoon we had the backwards Winter Series race at The Piney, just to keep everyone on their toes. A big thank you goes to Megan and Lisa who covered the timing duties and Michael Wooster for maintaining his clean sweep of the Individual National MTB Results Posting Champion title. See Chappo’s article for more details.

Thanks to everyone for their efforts over the weekend.

Peter Hosking