Pleased with the Soul, I am.

First Cotic ride. Lunch time blast. across town to rapaki, met nelson, headed up, turned right onto singletrack, up round mt vernon, climbing very nicely, cleaning all the little techy rockbits where nelson dabbed a couple times. mucky mucky yucky on the flatter bit up western flank before heading down to road. then stopped for bit of a snackage, then round single, good nick, and down Old Skool. did all the 'shortcuts' cleaning everything. bike handles very nicely indeed. indeed. so well as to not even notice it. seems smoother on the rough stuff than the switchbacks were... then down the last stretch below that pylon before the singletrack proper begins. looking ahead at the shady hillside and the freshly turned dirt (where the new lines have all been made), we decided to check out the old walking track that takes you down from about there to the bottom of the valley. steps, but much much dryer than the bike track ever would have been. had a wee look in the top of the old forest where there used to be singletrack til the big storm of 01 that bowled over oh so many trees. all the gates were open so it was a blast down the maintrack. then back to work through beckenham and straight down dirty old colombo st. pleased with the Soul, i am.