Author Archives: Kath Bicknell

Merida Carbon 96 Long Term Thoughts

The 96 needs no introduction.

The Merida Carbon 96 is one of those ‘bikes of the moment’. People who don’t own one are curious to hear about how the light weight technology transfers to the trails, and people who do own one are always enthusiastic in their responses. I’ve been riding the XTR equipped Carbon 5000-D model for about a year and a half now.  I looked at upgrading to the 2011 Team edition late last year, but this one is still running like a dream (so many events cancelled due to wet weather has even meant I’m still running the original cluster). While it would be fun to try the different running gear on the 2011 model not enough has really changed to justify the cost of upgrading.Continue reading “Merida Carbon 96 Long Term Thoughts”

2011 ADSA Conference

This year’s  Australasian Association for Theatre Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) Conference, “Transcultural. Transnational. Transformation: seeing, writing and reading performance across cultures” kicks off at Monash University in Melbourne this Tuesday.  I’m looking forward to hearing about the recent work of other performance and theatre studies researchers and feeling the conference buzz.

I’m presenting a short paper on mountain bikers’ senses of place as part of a phenomenology panel.  If you’re interested, the abstract is below.

 

A sense of place, a sense of self, a sense of something else.

 

How does a transcultural, multi-placial performance practice manifest in an experience of selfhood?  Considering mountain bike riders as a culture of mobility, this presentation draws together a series of phenomenological investigations of mountain bike racing to reflect on relations between senses of self and senses of place. Drawing upon Edward Casey’s application of Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus to the place-world, I argue that a deep immersion in performance practice develops a series of skills and strategies that extend beyond distinct place bound experiences into many.

 

I’ve been requested to write a plain English version of the above:

 

Riders like to ride in different places. This makes us happy and influences our off-bike life as well. Let’s talk about that…

 

SRAM Singletrack Mind Series – Rd 2

To quote event photographer Dave Bateman, who took the great image above, “I got so many awesome shots because riders looked like they were absolutely loving it! I got so many “this track is rad”, “this is awesome” comments from riders of all abilities. Great to be part of it.”

The Nowra trails are what holidays are made of. Photo: Dave Bateman (www.davebatemanphoto.com)

Continue reading “SRAM Singletrack Mind Series – Rd 2”

BG/Merida Demo Day Wrap

The two things I enjoyed most about the Bicycle Garage/Merida Bikes demo day were watching other people (re)discover mountain biking and getting to ride types of bikes I’ve heard about, but never experienced. On the new experience front, the stand out for me was the new Merida 29er, the “Twenty-nine Lite 1000-D”. Being 5’4″ I’ve never been too interested in the clown wheel hype that’s going around (I feel like my 26″ wheels are clown-like compared to my stature in any case). What surprised me was how nicely balanced this bike felt. The way it glided through singletrack like a boat through water made me see why people are enjoying the ride experiences these bikes offer. The Shimano SLX-ish build felt solid and reliable to use and the Rock Shox Recon forks soaked up the trail nicely.  While this spec is not top technology by today’s race weenie standards, the way technology has trickled down to this mid-range spec over the years makes a bike at this level a much nicer experience than it would have been 5 – 10 years ago. And given the cost of replacement parts to a nice race steed after a wet ride or some ambitious crashes, I can’t help but think what a great second bike something like this would be.

All in all, the demo day re-affirmed my love for all things riding (like I needed any help with that) and it was a great, fun way for people to feel what sort of set up suits their riding best, rather than just wonder about it. If you get the chance to do something similar, get stuck into it!

Thanks to the Bicycle Garage and Merida Bikes for making this day happen, it’s another example of how a good local bike shop really can make your local neighbourhood an even more fun place to live!