Boys were meeting at Steve's at 9 and heading for St Andrew's Hill, so I figured I'd head down Linwood Ave and meet them at the bridge. Pete ended up catching me up at the Eastgate lights, thinking he was running late and that they were heading up Huntsbury, a quick call straightened that out and we continued the length of Linwood and round Humphreys to the Ferrymead bridge. We waited not so long til the boys to roll up. Was good. I hadn't ridden with these guys for ages so was good to catch up with each in turn. Up St Andrews, climbing away nice and easy at Steve and Robin's heart-conditioned paces, then up to the old entrance to Britten, with it's new little extra entry. Up here was into fog, getting cooler and damper the higher we got. I blazed on ahead needing to keep the pace on myself to regain anything I'd lost over the last couple weeks. Didn't have much of a wait and one by one the boys rolled up.
Down the road and into Greenwood entrance, deciding here to head down the new track having a nice roll down this, the odd off piste on the off cambers. Then the next new bit towards the ruins, a bit sluggardly with the soft dirt. Wetspots have had some good work, and climbing the switchies up and then up the 4wd to the climb up Mt Pleasant. Sticky greasy on the rocks up here, but the rest was fine. Lots of dabs and quick slips, but all made it eventually, then straight ahead to the gate, Robin vanishing from view before he got to us waiting... Had caught one of the hidden rocks and toppled off the side, landing upside down and trapped by his bike...
Off over and down, lots of rear end slippage in the corners at the top, but the rest was sweet, slowly descending out of the fog. Round under gondola, with a bit of a stop to check out the view over Lyttelton before heading into Castle Rock. Good wee climb this. I dabbed on the first hairpin but cleaned up the rest, conserving energy til the last blast to the top, where I had one small dab, spinning out and wheelying to a halt, got going again tho and headed on to the top. Regroup, and then off down the road, with Pete and me taking the single track above the road, which put us behind the other boys, but saved our tires a bunch.
Into Witch Hill, and around and I popped one of the rocky sections as a jump, hearing what I thought was a rock hitting the spokes, but at the next rock I tried to grab some rear brake but there was none. Stopped and looked and NO PADS! Huh! Quickly ran back to the jump and found the spring, then the two pads, phew! Pete gave me a zip tie and continued on to let the others know. I did my trailside repairs, replacing my lost bolt (and circlip) with the ziptie, and headed on down to meet at the top of Crapaki. When I got there I was told Pete had clipped one of the rocks and busted his derailleur cage, but it seemed to still be going, so he led off down. Bombed down the new singletrack, weaving nicely all the way down and then getting some real speed towards the bottom. Pete popped a bunnyhop over a ditchy thing at the bottom and when he landed the derailleur spat itself into his spokes, snapped off, broke several spokes, pierced his tubeless set up, and locked up his back whee. Hmmm... a walk ensued. Andy sped off to get his van, the rest of us rode the rest of the way down Craphappy and around to Fava, and Andy and Pete arrived not long after.
I split and headed home across town after coffee... completing 32 kms, with 784m climbed. Not a bad effort.
Down the road and into Greenwood entrance, deciding here to head down the new track having a nice roll down this, the odd off piste on the off cambers. Then the next new bit towards the ruins, a bit sluggardly with the soft dirt. Wetspots have had some good work, and climbing the switchies up and then up the 4wd to the climb up Mt Pleasant. Sticky greasy on the rocks up here, but the rest was fine. Lots of dabs and quick slips, but all made it eventually, then straight ahead to the gate, Robin vanishing from view before he got to us waiting... Had caught one of the hidden rocks and toppled off the side, landing upside down and trapped by his bike...
Off over and down, lots of rear end slippage in the corners at the top, but the rest was sweet, slowly descending out of the fog. Round under gondola, with a bit of a stop to check out the view over Lyttelton before heading into Castle Rock. Good wee climb this. I dabbed on the first hairpin but cleaned up the rest, conserving energy til the last blast to the top, where I had one small dab, spinning out and wheelying to a halt, got going again tho and headed on to the top. Regroup, and then off down the road, with Pete and me taking the single track above the road, which put us behind the other boys, but saved our tires a bunch.
Into Witch Hill, and around and I popped one of the rocky sections as a jump, hearing what I thought was a rock hitting the spokes, but at the next rock I tried to grab some rear brake but there was none. Stopped and looked and NO PADS! Huh! Quickly ran back to the jump and found the spring, then the two pads, phew! Pete gave me a zip tie and continued on to let the others know. I did my trailside repairs, replacing my lost bolt (and circlip) with the ziptie, and headed on down to meet at the top of Crapaki. When I got there I was told Pete had clipped one of the rocks and busted his derailleur cage, but it seemed to still be going, so he led off down. Bombed down the new singletrack, weaving nicely all the way down and then getting some real speed towards the bottom. Pete popped a bunnyhop over a ditchy thing at the bottom and when he landed the derailleur spat itself into his spokes, snapped off, broke several spokes, pierced his tubeless set up, and locked up his back whee. Hmmm... a walk ensued. Andy sped off to get his van, the rest of us rode the rest of the way down Craphappy and around to Fava, and Andy and Pete arrived not long after.
I split and headed home across town after coffee... completing 32 kms, with 784m climbed. Not a bad effort.
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