quick tuesday bottle lake - Singly

spun round to Petes, climbed into the TFC van and tony, pete, steve and me headed to bottle lake. spun round the quick loop, no detour out to spencer park. short. no real dramas. popped nice air on my two favourite jumps. singley doing good.



intention is to do godley head, me on single again, tonight... post that tomorrow...

sunday a.m.

crisp frosty start, but was hot by the time i was at Lancaster Park. met Matt at Steve's, no one else was in, we hoofed it up Rapaki, turned right, around summit trail, to Vic, to Kiwi, up road to top of Marley's, bombed it down to Kiwi, back up into vic park, down through gums, Dazza's, macrocarpas below dazza's, round the side, down the k2 washout, out the bottom, home. nice ride. trails were in immaculate condition. i felt headachey and tired, but still managed to bomb it all. fanged the downhills something wicked.

quick night bottle lake single

Nelson picked me up in the van. out to bottle lake, car park chokka, ah, wednesday night racing... they'd already started so we figured we'd meet them somewhere. headed in, turned right, cruised through to the beach, following the race course for most of that. nelson was tired cos he'd given blood that day, which gave me the edge even tho i was feeling tired from lack of riding. no racers, but evidence of their track, which we avoided, headed in after dump, then around usual trails, popped those jumps nicely, then when we were at the point where you head for Spencer Park we could see the racer's lights nearer the beach, headed through and they were crossing in front of us. i had a low rear tire, so chucked some air in it and nearly everyone in the race said "y'all right?" which was nice.

rather than chasing and having to overtake them all, we headed right and through to Spencer Park, where the rain started lightly. we were hanging around and nelson said "how tight a circle can ya ride" whereupon i turned too tightly and fell over, not clipping out in time. D'OH!

figured time had passed so headed on back. a way's through, before the Macrocarpa dark section there was a racer with a flat, running. chatted a bit and carried on. then told the organisers about him. one of them was WELL keen on my Mary bars... and the other, Tony i think poss. ex of Bike Biz, said 'nice bike'... he's got one too. cool.

Switchback's rule.

quarry poach number 2.

Picked up nelson at nearly 7pm. checked out craig's khs steel 29er singlespeed, fully rigid, made me want one.

anyway, drove out and parked at Halswell that ends well quarry. headed in, up round top of quarry, then up through switchbacks to new slobdivision, then on up kennedy's track to gate, then over singletrack to next gate, then back up kennedy's to original gate, then down singletrack to New Tasty, then croc, back into quarry park, up a left hand steep across and over quarry again, then a couple more little explores and back to car... good ride. nelson had trouble cos he forgot his riding gloves and so was wearing his snowboarding gloves he'd chucked in for the cold.

sunday sumner greenwood godley taylors

to petes, drove to sumner and met up with the massive. Steve, pete, matt, andrew, tony, wayne, plus Anton and a friend of his, and me. up capt thomas, greasy slippy but cleaned lots, up road to top of greenwood. then flew down to evans. only a few dicey dodgey bits. then out godley, down anaconda, steve got a flat, gave him a tube cos his spare went flat too. new section into carpark had been worked on on saturday, and is brilliant. then over scarborough to dot com. mostly good riding. i was hot on andrew's tail all the way down the 'conda. no one else could hold onto us.

rogainers, ThomGreen singlesped

cold night in town, nelson, al and me, van to scumner, nelson and me on singlespeeds, hoofed it up capt thomas, passing the odd group of night time orienteerers, or rogainers as they're called i believe... then up summit rode, nighttime hills lit by little groups of lights roaming. then hit the Greenwood park/Richmond Hill trails from top, bombed it down, wind howling norwest over the tops, blowing us off course on some tacks,and pushing us fast on others. then flying down the lower half. then down capt thomas, cleaned everything, nelson and me absolutely flying. great ride. back home in van, through smog in linwood to mildish norwest nighttime at home.

some time around now, i think prior to this ride, i'd swapped off the wheels from my old (socalled) Schwinn (as seen on the cover of this (thats me by the way)) onto the single... they're Mavic rims, with funky coloured alloy spoke nipples, and are lighter and quicker than the deep V rim i was running on the back, as well as having no deep wear in the braking surfaces.

sunday long godley

steve's at 9. hubby, andrew, tony, steve, wayne and tony's neighbour Jeff. up rapaki, left, castlerock to bridle, road, single round john britten's, greenwoodpark, evans, godley trail to breeze col, down anaconda, over scarborough, nicholson, dot com too busy, so onwards, steve and me slipstreaming eachother across the causeway, to WAC, then the linwood ave slog for me to supermarket shopping... crisp clear day. warmish norwest. trails in immaculate condition. everybody seemed to ride really well. bombed greenwood to evans, the slats were slick and nearly lost it there, chased and caught some dudes below that. steve had a rocket run down. then the col before breeze i had my fastest smoothest ever. and anaconda, i was chasing a duded on a Cove G-Spot, he was hummin'!, but i was right on his tail. crashed weirdly on the new taylors track that's above the walking track, back wheel dropped into a hole and my knee slammed into the ground hard. WAC has C4 coffee and their food is good value, we'll stop there again i think.

quarry poaching

parked up at halswell quarry gates. rode in, up round top of quarry, grunty wee climbs they are. mark, hubby, steve, pete, tony, matt, wayne and a new friend of tony's, warren, and me. over quarry, to gate, up hill towards houses, round and up grunty zigzags onto new subdivision road, up kennedy's track to singletrack over to gate and back up and then down singletrack. new Tasty bit, awesome, then crocodile down and out. all took turns leading, well, mark, pete and me. pete crashed nicely in the lower pines of croc. then out bottom of croc, left down through wee gulley, up to big picnic field, then up little valley track and back over top of quarry and back. all poached, but all so so good and wickedly fun to ride. the ccc really needs to open that place up as a night riding play ground. have it only open to bikes under the hours of darkness...