Thursday, August 02, 2007

fiiinally... rapaki, road, traverse, thomsons, old dyers. singlespeeds

finally got out last night. singlesped over to Rapaki, hooked up with Nelson, headed up. haarrd work. a few stops for rest. 13 days off the bike due to injury does not a happy singlespeeder make. anyway, nelson pulled away, got past some guys so didnt wanna stop and wait, meanwhile i plodded on. got to the last climb, strong headwind, just starting into it and weight too far forward, back wheel spin, oop, i'm going over, fell left, feet didnt unclip fast enough, smack on my knee and landed left (damaged) hand out. jarred it but didnt tweak sore thumb, but fuark it hurt like hell. considered giving up then and there and heading down, but cos nelson was so far ahead, i had to go, so walked all of that straight, up round corner, then rode the last bit to the gate, struggling... rapaki is full of scour and ruts from all the weather...

vernon trail closed, so headed round road. thick thick fog and strong southerly blowing up on tops, hit Huntsbury gate onto Traverse, spun round there, being careful, greasy, but trail in good nick. nelson had a nice tumble on the rocks just above oldschool bowenvale, then another later, i was ahead at this stage so just caught the first and missed the second. good spin round to vic park, down Thomsons to kiwi, then down Old Dyers Pass Rd. first bit below kiwi with good chip on it is in perfect condition, but then that runs out and its dirt/mud. then creekbed pretty much... man there's been a lot of water up there, and there still is, the trail was running clear water its had so much all the silt has washed away... huge scours and gulches eaten into the 4wd track before the road...

finished off by heading up onto the walktrack above dyers pass rd, and coasting it down to the takahe, then rolling down dyers pass rd to the bottom of hill... then tootled down colombo and home.

oh yeah, night before, took new switchback frame round to nelson's and we pulled the kona townbike to bits and loaded them all onto the new switchy frame...
my whole stable of bikes are Switchbacks now...

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