Being back on Aussie soil after a month in France, the old (as in brand new!) Ibis Ripley was waiting rather impatiently for me – it was just itching to get out amongst it in the bush and have me abuse it! The time had finally come for me to introduce the Ripley to my favourite local ride, the Old Great North Road. And what an introduction…

It was just me and the Ripley, both dressed in green and black, soaking up this trail together for the first time. We were loving it – eating up the hills, cruising over the rocks and rough stuff, getting used to each other very quickly when, right in the middle of my grins and smiles as the track was disappearing beneath us, the unthinkable happened!

Yep, that’s right! That’s my Ibis lying on the track where we fell. Pretty innocuous looking piece of track, I hear the seasoned rider say. And you’d be right. But take a closer look at this next pic, look for the clue as to what caused my undoing.

See that sapling? It isn’t going to catch anyone else out.

Choosing my path, I took the clay side of the track, avoiding the rocks on the left so I could keep my speed up. I must have been so focused on the track — or was it the wider handle bars that I may not be accustomed to just yet — but next thing I knew my front wheel was facing right and my weight was heading left. My bars had clipped the sapling that’s leaning into the track and that was that. The bar tracked along the trunk of the sapling and down I went. My first response was to apologise to a brand new bike for dropping it so soon!!!

A sight that one does ones best to avoid, specially during the “honeymoon period”. Thankfully, no one was there to witness it – but now the whole world knows anyway!!

I dusted it off, relieved there was no obvious damage and continued on. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but super cool. There were some sections, specially in the rock garden, that I felt the Ibis was more forgiving and graceful than the Anthem. Rocky ledges I found difficult before were a bit easier to negotiate.

My confidence as I inched down the steep last kilometre of Finches track was higher also — very happy with the Shimano XT brakes plus the extra travel on the front suspension helped me feel a little more sure footed on the loose, steep, rocky descent.

Love this grassy field at the bottom of the Simpson Track

Being a bit out of condition the long climbs were hard work, but I did feel the lightness and climbing prowess of the Ripley helped me out.

The three to four hours of riding was a good chance to get accustomed to the sram XX1 gear set. And let me tell you, it didn’t take that long to appreciate it. The simplicity of the 1×11 gear arrangements suits we very well and the sram gears change so quickly with just a gentle tap of the gear levers. Obviously I’ve sacrificed a bit of range trading my Shimano 2×10 XT for the XX1. I was running the 32 tooth front sprocket for this ride and the only time I thought it would be nice to have a lower gear was climbing out of the gully up the last 2.3 km climb. That said, I was able to still make the climb, but the tiring legs found it hard going on the two sharp pinches.

How good does this bike look? And how good does it ride!

So, having survived our first excursion to Dubbo Gully and the Old Great North Road together, albeit with a little bruising and scratching, we can’t wait to head back in a few weeks time for the Convict 100