2018, tell us your highs and lows

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
My 2018 has been pretty mixed in highs and lows.
Went to Thailand on a work trip which was pretty cool.


Raced at the Buller Bike Festival’s Gravity Gods and came 6th in masters

Rode Bright and Falls Creek for the first time

But also broke my ankle in Bright☹


Had a great Queensland holiday with my family

Got a few scrap metal art ideas made.







I almost quit my job and when I told my boss he arranged for me to move to an area in the business that I had been wanting to go for quite some time. Really happy with the new role so far.
Broke a rib and my collarbone

My club opened the first stage of the Dial Range trails. The Montgomery Loop

The first stage of the Wild Mersey trails in my home town opened





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Ky1e

Likes Bikes and Dirt
2018's been pretty good to me I guess, can't complain..

- Took my eldest to cannonball, she loved it, had a ball and has ignited her passion for riding.
And I didn't get completely drunk and make a fool out of myself like last year hahaha
- Rode an E-bike and fkn loved it! Want one!
- Entered my first MTBA nationals race, ge at stromlo, and got my arse handed to me but still loved it!
- Did myself a number good and proper and ended up with a haemotoma on my thigh. That was a shit bit lol..
 

LPG

likes thicc birds
2018 has been a bit of a mix with a lot of good and some frustration as well

The Good

- Moved to the Ilawarra at the end of 2017 which has meant I've plenty of awesome trails around me including a small network 500m out the front door. Awesome beaches and general outdoor stuff as well.

- I've been riding quite a bit and finding heaps of new tracks in the area. I Been riding with a couple groups which is new to me and is awesome. You tend to push yourself more when there are others around.

- Got married in March. We had been together for about 11 years and living together for a fair few as well so it wasn't a big deal but it was a fun afternoon. Married life isn't any different which is great for us. We went on a 9 day honeymoon to Thailand in August which was relaxing. Wasn't the most exciting overseas trip but it was still great.

- I've actually finished my engineering degree 11 years after starting it. (another 6 months before I graduate thanks to the silly systems)

- My wife and two dogs have been awesome and having a great time.

The Bad

- Was let go from work in June. I had been with the company for 5 years working full time but technically casual. I was promised verbally to be put on full time when I moved to the Illawarra at the end of 2017 but there were excuses once I made the move. A few people left the business at the office I was at originally leaving them with not enough work, though things were going well in the office I was in. It was pretty disappointing as I was recognised within the company as being more capable, more well rounded and easier to work with than the two other engineers at the office I was originally at. The plan was to centralise the engineering at the Sydney office where I was originally. I think they let me go because I didn't need a severance package being casual and someone who I had worked quite closely to had left to work for a competitor and they probably expected to follow. Also the main boss incompetently micromanages everything that people don't hide from him and likes people who follow orders blindly. This had bred a workplace culture where everyone lacks initiative which led to the issues at the office I was originally at.
I was planning on looking for something new now that I've graduated as I had enough of getting excited about opportunities for the company only to see the main boss get involved and ruin relationships with clients and piss jobs and projects away. I was being paid well below what I should have been for the work I was doing which was frustrating. Despite all that I still enjoyed the work

- Job hunting has been frustrating. Most if not all of the contacts I've built up while working in my field have been in Sydney or the Hunter Valley. Until just recently I hadn't quite graduated and trying to have people see me for my real experience and skills instead assuming I'm just a new graduate who is overstating his experience is frustrating.

- I've been offered a new position which is really well suited to me but I was supposed to start 6 weeks ago and now there isn't any certainty when it will be starting. I'm starting to put my feelers out again to see what's available in case this one runs into issues.

The good again

- My wife has a good stable job and supports us while I find the right position, as opposed to just get something ASAP. We're in no position for new bikes or holidays but the bills are getting paid and food on the table.
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
It took me a while to post here as after a long think my year was really as simple as these 2 statements.

Bad....
Depression nearly got me..

Good...
Currently not an issue..

Talk to someone! anyone! it might just save your life.
I've found this place is pretty damn awesome and supportive for dealing with that headspace.

It's been a mixed bag for me. Started the year by filling in for the head printer who literally broke his neck falling off a ladder. Much like @LPG I'm recognised as being technically better and easier to work with, with less jobs needing to be reworked, but ex-retail boss only sees the gross number of jobs printed, so when Old Mate came back to work, I've ended up running a lower spec, more poorly maintained machine than what I ran as an apprentice. Still working out what I did wrong so I can do something about it. They then re-hired a bloke who worked for them years ago, and have put him in the role I was supposed to be training for. So I'm stuck on the POS for the foreseeable future.

But, the same ex-retail boss also agreed to salary-sacrifice the best bike I've ever owned, so I at least get to ride out the frustration that machine causes on the way home.

The other silver lining is by running that machine I get to be more flexible in my work hours, which has meant I have been able to put more into the bike building side-hustle, meaning a little less pressure on the house finances, and more money for bike bits. This time of year is a bit busy though, one more week and my silly season is done for another year.

Things are looking up on the finances too. I think @beeb pointed out I bought a ridiculous bike, but can't afford a race entry. Two days ago we refinanced the car and can pay out a few other debts faster, and we've worked through the financial decisions we had no control over, so things are good. Still tight, but good.

Relationship wise I'm in weird headspace. Mrs George and I are as close as ever. She's a big reason why I'm where I'm at now, it was her idea on how to finance the Procaliber, she Fucking Rocks and I'm not fucking any of that up. Ever.

But, I always liked (as a friend) the Store Manager at the retail store I used to work at, despite half the store hating her guts. There was just something that made us work together, similar age maybe, she used to watch The Tour, she knew I wouldn't take her shit, and she knew I'd do everything I could to do what she asked. Any way, I continued to build bikes for her store after I left, and over the last twelve months or so we've been getting to know each other better and we've become pretty close. The 'wonder what would've happened if we met years ago' sort of close.

The other night she confided in me she's applied for a job 'back home' so I shared my thoughts. Turns out the feeling is mutual. Fucking with my head big time right now.

So yeah, on balance 2018 has been good, just with a mega twist in the tail.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
This is tricky.

My contract was terminated this time last year and I was on gardening leave for a while. That was good. Get paid not to go to work and deal with the usual shit. Sadly it doesn't last long... Set up a consultancy and been doing some jobs for free and some jobs for a silly hourly rate. Basic engineering and fabrication through to expert. Oh and data entry bitch.

Thus I was pretty much on a gap year 30 odd years after graduating. Highly recommend it.

Didn't ride as much as I should. Part laziness, part injury recovery. Broken rib at the sternum two years ago now and other back issues meant riding was followed by lots of discomfort. Not as bad as golf though. That was bad. Kayaking strangely was ok. Things are improving however. This last week I have been hammering the Bronson through some National Park trails and access roads and a crazy scary descent down a private road that was stupidly steep and all the time being raced by the owner's horse. And no pain or discomfort so the Bronson is going to get some use afterall, but it needs decent tyres and that rear shock is rubbish. Mind you seeing red belly blacks each ride/walk makes every stick look snake like. Not to mention copping scratches from sticks on every ride!

The gap year meant I could accompany one of my cousins when he raced his mini. And build a toy to join in the fun. All that I have enjoyed immensely. Also a few more trips and hikes and kayaking. And lots more photography which I love.

#2 is studying mechanical engineering so I could take time to be a tutor too.

Still have to work out what I want to do when I grow up. Might even apply for a job or two.

Oh and somewhere along the year I was one of two out of several hundred thousand million applicants asked to be a mod on this great place. About the only thing I have done though is change a few titles, try and ban @Dozer (13 times) and ask a few people to tidy up their sale ads. Great place this be!

2018 has been good so far.
 

Kerplunk

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Relationship wise I'm in weird headspace. Mrs George and I are as close as ever. She's a big reason why I'm where I'm at now, it was her idea on how to finance the Procaliber, she Fucking Rocks and I'm not fucking any of that up. Ever.
.......

The other night she confided in me she's applied for a job 'back home' so I shared my thoughts. Turns out the feeling is mutual. Fucking with my head big time right now.
Think you already know the answer for what to do there... Rock verses shiney new green grass over the fence..
 

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
For me 2018 was mostly about recovering from a pretty messed-up second half of 2017, particularly from a riding perspective.....

Scroll back to about May/June last year; I was fit as fuck, had the Forrest 10-hour XC Enduro in May which I'd been building up to for basically the whole preceding year, did the race pretty comfortably (in the context of a 10-hour solo effort), riding time was only eight minutes less than total race time, so I was pretty stoked with that and feeling mighty fine about myself, so much so that I went & smashed out another little 6-hour only a few weeks later.

Then my car decided to put a brake on things.... Between June and October it was one problem after another, the nett result of which was that I was rarely able to go far enough to get to nice places to ride. So as far as riding the second half of 2017 didn't happen, and I lost a lot of the fitness I'd built up, and worse, started feeling fat. Now I'm still pretty slim compared to the average population, but when your normal weight is around 62kg, and suddenly you're pushing 70, that's kinda fat! By early November I'd got the old bitch of a car to some degree of decent function, so was getting out again, and even managed a trip up to Lake Macquarie for a sailing regatta just after Christmas, and placed second, crewing with a guy I'd never sailed with before (but had previously won two Nationals sailing against him :) ).

2018 then began with a bang. The wrong kind of bang. On the way home from the regatta, the engine decided it'd had enough and blew up. Hole in the block, oil & guts spewed all over the road, fire. Full-on terminal. 400+km from home, and I'm meant to be back at work the next day. Fuck.
However, under all that there were several layers of silver lining. First part was that a few mates were planning a Mt Buller trip for the weekend I was heading home, so I nutted out the logistics, figured it was possible to join them for the Sunday, so I threw the bike in and had that with me. Their ride plans ultimately got changed due to the weather (it was a stinking hot weekend), so they cut the trip short, which made my plans very fluid, so I opted to take a very indirect route home. Everything hunky-dory (or so I thought), I decided to make the last leg of my trip via Mt Hotham and the Dargo High Plains. However just as I began the climb out of Harrietville the car went nuts. Lots of noise, rough running, low power, so I immediately decided "fuck that plan", found a spot to turn around and gingerly rolled back down to Harrietville, where I figured I'd see if letting it rest & cool down as much as possible on a 40-degree day would help. With plans of going over the mountains shot, I figured I'd try to nurse it along the valley toward Wangaratta and the main route home. Got about 7km, to the tiny settlement of Smoko, when it erupted. Fortunately right outside someone's house, so they had quick access to a fire extinguisher. That was the end of travels for that day, so on the advice of my very helpful local, I found a spot by the river to set up camp and collect my thoughts over a beer or two. Just as well I had the bike with me, and there was no way in hell I was leaving it on the side of the road in my car while I sorted the shitstorm out, so the next morning I packed the essentials into a backpack and rode the 100km to Wangaratta, and from there was able jump on the train back to Melbourne.

That was the low point of the 18 months.

I was able to get hold of a loan car indefinitely until I could buy a replacement, so at least I was able to get back out to join the local group rides and get riding again, but pretty much all year I've been battling that "fat" feeling; the loss of fitness is demoralising, because I know I've been able to ride better than I can now, and the little bastard thought tries to discourage me from riding because I'll be disappointed with my lack of fitness.... Vicious circle.

Depression has been an unwelcome companion for quite a few years, and this past 18 months or so it's sunk its teeth in a bit harder than it has for a while, but thankfully not as hard as '09-ish when I had a really massive breakdown.

Unfortunately I can't say I've had any particularly outstanding highlights this year, but at least I've been on an upward swing from that rocky start.
 
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Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Think you already know the answer for what to do there... Rock verses shiney new green grass over the fence..
Without a doubt. We've worked so hard and come so far together to risk it on my whim and curiosity. And I like my partners to be a bit fiesty and a bit challenging, so the potential of it being catastrophic disaster is HUGE.

Nope, definitely staying where I am. I'm not even sure it's a grass is greener thing. I've lived my life chasing down opportunities solely because I refuse to die wondering 'what if?'. This is one of those times I'll (happily) have to do just that.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
For me 2018 was mostly about recovering from a pretty messed-up second half of 2017, particularly from a riding perspective.....

Scroll back to about May/June last year; I was fit as fuck, had the Forrest 10-hour XC Enduro in May which I'd been building up to for basically the whole preceding year, did the race pretty comfortably (in the context of a 10-hour solo effort), riding time was only eight minutes less than total race time, so I was pretty stoked with that and feeling mighty fine about myself, so much so that I went & smashed out another little 6-hour only a few weeks later.

Then my car decided to put a brake on things.... Between June and October it was one problem after another, the nett result of which was that I was rarely able to go far enough to get to nice places to ride. So as far as riding the second half of 2017 didn't happen, and I lost a lot of the fitness I'd built up, and worse, started feeling fat. Now I'm still pretty slim compared to the average population, but when your normal weight is around 62kg, and suddenly you're pushing 70, that's kinda fat! By early November I'd got the old bitch of a car to some degree of decent function, so was getting out again, and even managed a trip up to Lake Macquarie for a sailing regatta just after Christmas, and placed second, crewing with a guy I'd never sailed with before (but had previously won two Nationals sailing against him :) ).

2018 then began with a bang. The wrong kind of bang. On the way home from the regatta, the engine decided it'd had enough and blew up. Hole in the block, oil & guts spewed all over the road, fire. Full-on terminal. 400+km from home, and I'm meant to be back at work the next day. Fuck.
However, under all that there were several layers of silver lining. First part was that a few mates were planning a Mt Buller trip for the weekend I was heading home, so I nutted out the logistics, figured it was possible to join them for the Sunday, so I threw the bike in and had that with me. Their ride plans ultimately got changed due to the weather (it was a stinking hot weekend), so they cut the trip short, which made my plans very fluid, so I opted to take a very indirect route home. Everything hunky-dory (or so I thought), I decided to make the last leg of my trip via Mt Hotham and the Dargo High Plains. However just as I began the climb out of Harrietville the car went nuts. Lots of noise, rough running, low power, so I immediately decided "fuck that plan", found a spot to turn around and gingerly rolled back down to Harrietville, where I figured I'd see if letting it rest & cool down as much as possible on a 40-degree day would help. With plans of going over the mountains shot, I figured I'd try to nurse it along the valley toward Wangaratta and the main route home. Got about 7km, to the tiny settlement of Smoko, when it erupted. Fortunately right outside someone's house, so they had quick access to a fire extinguisher. That was the end of travels for that day, so on the advice of my very helpful local, I found a spot by the river to set up camp and collect my thoughts over a beer or two. Just as well I had the bike with me, and there was no way in hell I was leaving it on the side of the road in my car while I sorted the shitstorm out, so the next morning I packed the essentials into a backpack and rode the 100km to Wangaratta, and from there was able jump on the train back to Melbourne.

That was the low point of the 18 months.

I was able to get hold of a loan car indefinitely until I could buy a replacement, so at least I was able to get back out to join the local group rides and get riding again, but pretty much all year I've been battling that "fat" feeling; the loss of fitness is demoralising, because I know I've been able to ride better than I can now, and the little bastard thought tries to discourage me from riding because I'll be disappointed with my lack of fitness.... Vicious circle.

Depression has been an unwelcome companion for quite a few years, and this past 18 months or so it's sunk its teeth in a bit harder than it has for a while, but thankfully not as hard as '09-ish when I had a really massive breakdown.

Unfortunately I can't say I've had any particularly outstanding highlights this year, but at least I've been on an upward swing from that rocky start.
I’m solidly in that camp too ducky. Three years ago I was smashing out times at lystie at the three hour point of a ride that put me inside the top 100 for comm games laps times. Can’t fathom that performance right now. I’ll return to that level of fitness again I’m sure. This time I’ll stay there and it won’t be a fleeting 8 month peak. But fuck it might kill me getting there now I’m 40.

The black dog is a chunt, sorry to hear it.

New(er) car has resolved the car dramas I hope.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Seen this post right after Dozer posted it, "liked' it as he had some good shit going on.

Didn't think I had any Highs or Lows so didn't need to comment.

Now, seeing some others... some of you's blokes are legends, so many dark times but still have the time to come here and have a whinge and share it with us... thats the good thing about a forum rather than FakeBook that makes us still hang out here.
No missus or family to pass comments, no sympathy from do-gooders, no bullshit from pretend friends... just bike riders with the same problems, same bikes and same shit as the rest of us.

Happy Christmas all !
 

Miguel75

Likes Dirt
Thanks to everyone for sharing their highs and especially their lows. Its never easy struggling through difficult times though I’m glad to be in a community where people support each other, and ride bikes (and buy lots of bike stuff that may not be really really necessary).

Highs: the family is healthy and happy; almost finished the build on our new house; one test left to complete my A grade and finish my apprenticeship:)

Lows: work life balance a little off resulting in lost strength/fitness.

All in all pretty happy though tired. Have a great Christmas gang, stay safe and enjoy your riding.
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Highs-walking unimpeded again. Can ride. New car is a hoot. Mr’s ultras new job is splendid.
6D1B84CA-7D1A-4281-95C9-9EE3979A2FAF.jpeg

7D79DCD2-6F7E-479A-80D2-BE5439AA5A66.jpeg


Seriously lads, how can ypu be upset when these little doobers are your workmates?
Happy Mr’s Ultra certainly makes my life better. When two people are really struggling, it certainly strains things.
Now I can struggle away with my rehab without worrying about her so much.


Lows-can’t upload sweet photo of my MRI because new phone photo’s are too large for servers to handle.
 
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beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
My 2018 was pretty mellow. Work's been dull but reliable, with plenty of overtime available meaning more money for bike parts. Lots of work sounds like a negative, but it's actually a positive after being made redundant a few years back and having had to start over in a new career and build back up to a decent position and wage again. Got to admit that my work-life balance has been very poor this year though, and not helped by the fact I'm single so there's still all the cooking/cleaning/shopping to sort out once I get home (I realise most folk have to do this, I'm just saying!). The plus side of having being long-term solo this last year or so is for the first time I can remember I've achieved a clear headspace and actually matured a bit, learning how to "not sweat the small stuff" and minor negatives in life (generally speaking, there's still the odd moment of frustration here and there of course).

One of the highlights for the year was taking about 10 days off in April, and taking Mum for a well-earned holiday (from Dad, haha) down to Tassie. There was no riding unfortunately - but it's such a beautiful place we did heaps of walks and enjoyed as much of the superb local food as possible and generally had a really good time! We got warm sunny days at the beach, misty days in the forest, and snow in the alpine parks!

It was also a last blast for my photography as I hadn't used my camera for ages beforehand (I basically hadn't used it since I bought a house and started living by myself roughly a year and a half earlier), so put it to plenty of use on the trip before selling it on my return. A few highlights of where we stopped were:





Other than that, the main highlight of the year was definitely a recent weekend riding at Falls Creek. It was the culmination of a year's worth of changing bikes to find what worked for me, then developing what I had to really suit my tastes. We got an amazing gap in the weather (having booked in October) - it snowed the weekend before, and has rained heavily the two since - we couldn't have been luckier with just a little rain Sunday morning and it just felt like everything came together perfectly after nearly a year's worth of anticipation to get back up there. I have actually made a bit of an effort to improve my fitness and bike handling techniques this year (though I still suck at bunny-hopping - that's next on the list!), and coupled with a better understanding of how to setup the bike it was amazing how much faster I could ride and how much safer it felt. Me being me, there's another bike being eye-balled for next year, as I'm finally feeling ready for a bigger bike and bigger terrain, but still bloody happy with this one!
View attachment 349383
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All in all, a good year - and looking forward to the next!
 

Kerplunk

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Highs...

Riding more advanced trails and getting faster at them. Taking the most risk than I have ever on a mountain bike (20 years on and off). It is quite amazing what a correctly sized bike with good geo does for the confidence..

Lows..

Being a self employed. Fuck it’s such a slog, you finally think the pendulum has swung in your favour then it comes back and kicks you in the guts harder than ever.. Wondering everyday where the next gig is coming from is bloody stressful. I now have no tolerance for others whinging that their 9-5 $100k jobs aren’t 100% totally satisfying and they aren’t feeling challenged/praised/paid enough.. And they are tired of me telling them they have no idea ..
 
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