Dream bike and bike garage history.

I was once asked what bike I would ride if I had the option of riding any bike in the world. Surprisingly, I found this a really really difficult question, Having worked in the bike industry for...well far too long really...I have been lucky enough to have access to some of the best bikes around; even on a meagre wage working part time.

When I got my first mountain bike, a GT Avalanche 1.0 (complete with v-brakes) which weighed about 14kg and had Rock Shox Dart forks on it which really didn't go up and down terribly efficiently (I was probably sub 50kg in weight then...running 15 or so hours a week does that), I thought that it was the duck's nuts.

Ahhh....the Av'. Have some good scars from this one!

Then...when I met Aido and he looked at my plastic cassette UFO and reflectors and quickly whipped them off, I started thinking about a real bike. As broke as a joke as a uni student living in a share house, having the then-NSW sales manager of Cannondale as my boyfriend definitely helped. Despite this, I couldn't afford a new bike for ages, and when I could, I ended up getting an entry level roadie; the 105/tiagra Cannondale Synapse 5 (femme); Mr Speedy.



This is as close as I could find to Mr Speedy.


I managed to get on the AIS TID squad on this heavy roadie, but was a terrible road rider. Rode NSW/NRS races, dagging the whole time. Definitely someone that needed time to develop some muscle! Could climb (was light) but had no POWer. I think that's when I decided that I should stick to mountain bikes.

Percy, and the first bike with a comfy seat. Even if it was massive.

So eventually I ended up with Percy, the 2007/2008 Cannondale Rush Femme (with some sneaky upgrades like CrossMax's). I wanted something that I could have fun on, but something that I could also race on as well. Indeed I raced my first national series race on Percy, following my first XC race (state champs) at Port Mac; fourth from four...but I was close to a podium and a sprint for third, which I lost. I'm pretty sure I came last, after binning it twice and generally creeping. I also rode the Boonah Marathon (when it was actually an event that people went to race) and came third. I rode to second in the half Highland Fling on that bike too. I also DNF'd at a few races on it, learning the tough way about bike racing.

I guess it was a transitional bike. Between complete hubbard and a somewhat-hubbard. But it was a 12-13kg endurance dually, and not really suiting what I wanted to (eventually) be doing well at (XC).

Aido ended up finding a 2007 team Canno optimo hardtail frame from Cannondale in America; the last one available in small, in a raw/black/orange finish. This was the bike that I stopped coming last on. I had X0 gripshift on it. I still came last a little bit...but I managed an 11th at Nationals 2010 (or 2009? Can't remember) on it, which was my best result until then. I don't think I really had a name for that one. I rode the QLD state series to win on this bike, I managed to pick up a few skills (still in the process of that...). The Optimo was the team bike Aido was riding on the real Canno team when I met him, in sexy silver kit.

It was a small, which fitted me when I was learning, but when I got some more skills I realised it was a bit on the small side. It was a great bike though, and we're rebuilding it up as a sweet hardtail trail bike for our buddy Amy, who is going to be a shredder...if she want to be.

In here, I discovered singlespeeds with my sweet GT Peace, upgraded with Aerozine cranks and spiffy bits. This was the bike that I lost singlespeed nationals on, having flatted with bolt on rear wheel and no tools (D'oh!). This opened my eyes up to the world SS, having only ridden Rob Parbs at a race where I rooted my bike, and a loaner bike from Canno for NZ SS Nats in 2008. It was a TRUCK the peace, but it's all I rode for a long time. I loved that bike. But we sold it so I could get a sweet Niner frame.

The Niner frame rendered the optimo component-less, as we pilfered what we could off it, and I went without a geared MTB for ages. It was great, I rode super strong on this light and nimble 29-r SS, probably my favourite bike of all-time, ever, so far. Took it for a week to NZ, and won SS nationals 2010 on this baby. But it was time to get another bike as XC racing loomed and I was in for hard, fast racing, not a beer-infused ss time.

It was time for me to pick up my act and start riding fast, so I sort of did, on my medium Cannondale Flash ultimate. As the Optimo was a tad too small, the Flash was a tad too big, but I ride it with some relative success to 6th and 5th at National Series races, and then had a crummy Nationals when I put gears on the Niner, though the bike, I believe had little to do with it and the lurgy I was flighting off at the time (sound familiar?) did. Flash Gordon was my first carbon race bike, my first sub-10kg race bike, and the first bike of mine where the planets started to align and me, as a full time uni student, 25-hour week worker could turn it up against girls in Aussieland who lived to go and race the World Cups.

So what now? What am I riding now? I am riding no mountain bike, as I recover from this chest infection and while I wait for an interim bike ordered through the store to turn up so I have something...ANYTHING to ride. Especially seeing as I am going to Alice springs to race for a week in two weeks time. I hope this pneumonia clears up, but more importantly I need a bike. I have my priorities sorted.

It's crazy when you read back on this that only a few years ago I was saving up my pennies to purchase a crummy GT Avalanche with v-brakes and forks that didn't really move very much, and now I race bikes all the time and it's a huge part of who I am.

I've tried a 29er, dually's and hardtails but in the end I don't think I would ever ride a dually...or not until I am old and purely race endurance events. And guess what? Aido, sales rep extraordinaire that hooked me up with Mr Speedy, my first roady, and then Percy tthe rush; is now my husband. We are a bike-loving, bike-racing family. And that's the way I always think it will be.

And what's my dream bike...well I think I have had a few already, but if I think of any others I will let you know.