Sunday Fatty Mucker, on new rubber

Spent a little time installing Surly Nates on the Fat bike.  Bought them years ago but have been waiting for the Vee Rubber H-Billies to wear out a bit more.  They're only the 'cheap' ones, 27tpi (nothing flash) but man are they tractor tires!  3.7, so a little smaller than the 4.25 Vees that were on it.  This turned out to be rather good.  More round profile, they don't 'self-steer' like the Vees did - with extra air in them, they ride up more on the centre knobs, less friction.  

Time to take them out for a smash.  I'd pumped them pretty hard (over 10psi!) to 'pop' them onto the rims, so it felt easy to ride for a start, up the gravelly path just above the road, then onto the dirt one through the trees.  Really mucky up near the top of this and the big teeth really gripped in here.  Then onto the road on up through to Ranger Station and up onto my 19th detour, clambering up the rocky edge track for a pic, drizzle drifting through, 

then down to the skidder and up the guts (following a guy who was walking his bike, but not making any headway on him).  Through Brake Free and stopped to release a little air, then up through Worm and back across to Thompson's #1.  Released more air here before dropping in, immediately meeting a triplet of E-bikers, then nice comfy blast down, tonnes of grip, around, onto road, into Thomson's #2, blast, grip, climb.  Road to Kiwi, up to first saddle and off over the left, dropping into Governor's track.  Tech rock, bit of ping, a few dabs (for fear of 'runaway biiiike') then nice cruise around, and into the climb up the back, steep in places, walked one wee bit, but cleaned with stops the rest, stopping to chat to T on phone and Doug briefly too.  

Rounded out the top and crossed the road to the Nun, riding pretty good, only 2 bad puddles, and the tires worked pretty good at gripping and suspending.  Definitely better than the old ones.  Across the Kiwi again and up the road, into top Thompson's, climbing up to Vic-top.  Usual way in, bypassing the main jump then taking easy way down to cattlestop and down the (wet) rabbit paddock, through the rock garden, back and forth in the gums, usual route, lotsa fun, then out the bottom and down to the 19th gate - having to wait here for umpteen riders and walkers coming through (heesh), including Nik's bro David (oh, and the dude working on top of Old Skool I talked to earlier in the week, with his whole fit mtbiking family and heavy tools onboard).

Down the road, meeting Tra'y in the Dog Park for a bit then agreeing to meet her and Jet over the bottom corner.  I peeled out into the 235 trail dropping through for lots of fun, taking the new left line part way down that's been extended (I'd walked down it a couple days before, finding it a dead end), able to push through to the oaks, climbing back up and over to meeting T and J.  From here we, walking pace, down to Harry Ell Drive and around home.

Not a bad little 9.5 kms, with 377 m climbed

Thursday Morning Early Start on Empty

Up the hill in the crack of dawn, for a (on the map) U shaped there and back again.

Clamber clamber, usual route, up the road, 19th, Skidder, and grunter, Brakefree, then Worm...  The sun was just up, skimming behind and above the hills as I climbed.  Onto the Traverse into it, cruising on an empty stomach (practicing 16:8 intermittent fasting now).  Met 3 teens oncoming, then a runner, and that was pretty much it.  

Top of Fourpause/HuntsDH I paused before dropping in for a storming sesh, catching the first jump good, second jump kicked my tail up badly, then third and fourth both perfect.  On down the ridge on the singletrack, peeling across through the cattlestop (where we used to climb over) and then started explorations for the Rocky Ridge track entrance, meandering through tussocks and rocks, finding it, sorta following it then climbing on it's zig zag up the back of the knoll.  Took a pic back at Vic Park from here and one down the way I was to ride.  

Tech rocks, down this then onto the DH again, jump, not-jump, jump, cop and dog, through the cattlestop and new line, rock jump, wooden jump, back on mainline then, huh, what's this?  short cut, avoiding a couple jumps then into the curves and jumps down down, spotting a couple of climbing riders, then down finishing on the final drop.  A few people down here on their way up the main drag.  I headed over to the new climber Nelson and me are instigating, other tire treads in evidence.  Granny climb, up under pylons and then zig and zag in tussocks up onto main DH, then through c'stop and across to the farmtrack climb and up onto the main singletrack to finish up to the landingstrip and final climb, catching the slower of the two riders I'd seen before.

Into the Traverse, sun behind me, great bomb around, feeling plenty of power all the way.  Into the Vic Pines and across, jump, jump, bypass see-saw and first curves of Brake Free then out to Rabbit paddock, tight right after the cattlestop to top of Gum's Pines, dropping down 'new' line then the rest of the way the usual, carrying excellent speed all the way through.  Out the bottom, out to 19th, down road, easy going cruise coast, then into 235, bomb bomb, muck muck, climbing, right, left, behind houses final hoon, and home. 

Glorious day, 13.7 kms ridden, 495 m altituded.

Tuesday Working(-out) From Home

Afternoon bit of exercise skiving off working from home... 

Headed up the usual way, road, 19th, skidder, grunter, Worm onto the Traverse.  Fucktonnes of people around, bloody 'lockdown bubble bursters' and I bet none were truly local... Across the Traverse, pulling over for various riders, mostly in ones or twos, tho one dad seemed to have about 4 or 5 teens in tow.  Pulled up and had a nice rest at the top of Huntsbury DH aka Fourpause.  

Dropped in, nor'wester pushing across-wise, jumping, flowing and pumping, on down, dropping over the edge towards Old Skool.  Into the steeps, dropping the first one and then around to the one I don't seem to be game on anymore, and I heard a shout from above.  "new track up here!" so pushed back up to there and chatted with the dude who had a couple of grubbers and was pushing in a new line from just above the first drop-over.  Nice.  Two other fellas pulled up, gave it a blast and then I followed after, reeling them in by the time I was down in the lower off cambers.  Anyway, new line is nice, back and forth a bit, a couple of nice dropovers, but nothing too hefty, and comes back in just at the bottom of the scary dropchute.  On down, catching the other two on Old Skool and then all of us catching up to a guy who was really struggling with the pressure on him.  I peeled left, up valley, at the end and the evil climbing began.  

Ugh.  Up Up Up, then up some more.  Tried out a little something below the 23 footer (texaco?) then kept climbing, passing a couple young'uns walking (one with a Zerode!), then at the 40 a woman came down shazz's and I caught up to her as she was walking up to Raceline crossing, greetings shared, I continued on and she headed down.  Looked like a very capable rider.  Up some more to Skidder and through this over to the usual sidler down to 19th, down the road, into the dog car park, peeling freely (no cars!), then turn turn, bomb bomb, down into the greeeaaasey oaks, then climb up onto road, up to microwave tower for the final blast down behind the houses, avoiding the wet spots quagmire, which resulted in not enough speed for any air.  Down to home, Mint.

Just under 12 kms, with just over 500 m climbed, not bad.

Saturday E-dventure to Bellbird with Go

On Locked-down Saturday, needling Gogo to get out for some stretching of legs, I convinced him to go for an E ride.  We headed up Vic Park, easy cruising compared to my usual huff and chuff, after the toilets, below the infocentre we were rounding down through the corner on the smooth seal and a dad came flying around the corner, cutting it, then followed his daughter TOTALLY cutting it, right when we were apexing!  Holy shit it was close, I screamed "IN COMING!!! For FUCK'S Sake!" we all skidded, somehow missing any contact (I was envisaging total carnage of my front rack ploughing into her forks and mangling, us colliding and hitting the pavement), and continued on.  She was pretty shaken I'm sure, looking back she took a second or three to regain composure and get riding again.  Hopefully learned a lesson - just cos there's no cars on the road (gates shut at each end) there ARE other users around!

Around and into the Skidder site, carrying speed as best as possible into here, I managed to climb higher than last time we came up this way, but still couldn't keep power or traction to get much higher.  Walking, pushing heavy e bike til it levelled off a little and I got riding again, breathing much harder now.  H managed to carry his tall gear all the way up, no problem at all.  Up through the Brakefree zone, SO many people around.  We were witnessing, I think, much breaching of lockdown rules, with obviously-not-the-same-bubble kids hanging out with each other.  We tootled around and straight into Thompson's number one, techy (on this bike) down across the hill.  H got mud in the eye, then we rounded out onto the road and bombed it to the Kiwi.  Again, here, tonnes of people, including a group of teenage boys with road bikes all perched over the side of the road hanging out, breaching bubbles, little shits.  

Summit Rd was good, tail wind, chilly easterly, pushing us along on our (already) tail-wind machines.  Nice cruise around to the Bellbird where we stopped and took in the sights then turned back.  Hellishly cold head wind from Kennedy's, having to actually push into it down hill, ice-cream headache forming, ugh!  Same down past worsley's and into Kiwi (teen roady breachers still in full effect), finally out of the worst of the wind climbing up to top of Vic again.  Dropped in and down to Rabbit paddock, more teen this time mountainbiker breachers, hello to Mel and son, and on down, having to hold back down the 4wd due to walkers, finally letting go the brakes past them and rushing down into the Skidder.  Out to the road, and bombsville home.   

Just over 15 assisted kms, with 471 m of easy altitude.  A nice cruise with nice views on a nice day.

Thursday Locked Down Up and Back Rigid Single Quickster

Quick blast up to top of Vic on the BFe SS. 

Good climbing, standing and chuffing, getting the rhythm going nicely, finally taking a seat around the dog park car park, and riding with a guy on a Marin Pine Mountain (new 29r steel hardtail) who I'd been slowly winding in.  I peeled off to head up to Skidder and up the guts.  Got a wee way up then off to walk.  Just for the fun of it I decided to take the diagonal path to the right, crossing Sesame St and taking me up into the middle of the Gums where I found a way up (that could be marginally rideable?) climbing above where I hatchetted the tree and up that dh bit in the pines out the top.  Through the cattlestop to rabbitsville, climbing up this, finding it not as wet as when I got sideways on the fatty the other day.  A lot of people about, how many live local? I wondered...  

Into the pines (nice late afternoon lighting) 

and across the Worm, then turning back, across and down, over the See Saw, pumped through first BrakeFrees and out, down the soggy Rabbit paddock, rock garden and across back and funtimes down the gummies.  On down the trail below here, greasy, then out 19th, coasting down the road, into the 235/UpperDogParkNewby, good to start then mucky suck hole down below.  Last climb out and tire-clearing down the road, home.

Four and three quarter kilometres, with 166 m climbed. 

Sunday Fatty Mucking

Quick ride this afternoon. Headed out on the fat bike.  

Up through Vic, up the gutser through Brake Free, onto Worm and onto the Traverse.  Cruised around this as far as Four Pause /  Huntsbury DH, checking out the car below the track that'd scuffed a big chunk of track out.  I'd heard the chopper rescuing these fucktards on Friday night, flew over at 2.30 am, and could hear it hovering til it flew back over at 3.00am.  

At the top of Four Pause I debated with myself the pros and cons of heading down that.  The cons won, and I turned back, bombing back across the Traverse nice and smooth.  Into Vic trees, across and down the Rabbit Paddock, greasy af, got sideways in the worst spot, then over the cattlestop and into the Gummies, across and down my usual favourite.  Out to skidder and into Shazza's, bopping and grinding down this then straight into the climb past the 40fter, back up to skidder, then over and into the wee finishing track out to the 19th.  

From here, down the road and into 235, which some mongs have put little rock jumps in (Dumb), and then it was greeeaaasy mucky fucking quagmire, and even worse in the Oaks.  Climbed out and cleared the tires with speed down Vic Park Rd...  

Around an hour all told, dead on 10 kms, with 350 m climbed.

Thursday Night Captain Windy Sketchville

Awesome ride tonight.  

Met Nelson at Slumnervale and we headed into the Closed Captain Thomas.  Not too greasy, a few wet spots, ie, too wet to ride down, but fine going up without destroying the trail.  Gasping for air as usual, we stopped at the top of the hairpins and I really struggled to breathe.  Didn't help that I could SEE the motes of pollen in the air either...  Up through the rocky sections, I walked once or twice - grease and rocks getting the better of me or my lungs not up to capacity.  Upper section was good and we made the road.  

Headed up into the Godley, but once up the nasty rocksection we got our clamber-walk on and pushed up the ridge fenceline walking track, wind starting to pick up a bit as we climbed this exposed section.  Some riding, some pushing and eventually made the top.  Short break and around the top over the edge towards the darkness that was the harbour.  Nelson found it entirely unfamililar thinking he'd never ridden it before but I knew he had, last year even, and before that in 2017.  Neat drop down, not as techy as I recalled, but around the back heading across towards Livingston it was pretty greasy, water running on the track a bit.  Bomb down the ridge to Livingston Col and familiarity returned.  Out Godley from here, good riding, with only the final paddock to the cattlestop at the end the usual quagmire which we attempted to skirt widely after pfmtbc rock.  Stopped at Breeze Col in the 'breeze' (read, gale), and watched as several spaced out riders came down the road and past us. 

We dived into the OG Godley, below the road, and headed outwards.  It's been tidied and benched better and rode pretty well, very few wetspots.  At the road end we headed up the 4wd track towards our bunker, wind pushing at us hard making the climb harderer than it would normally be.  Then across and over the stile onto Breeze Bay track.  I ducked behind some tussocks here cos the wind was doing my head in.  Nice break and snack here then off around the track, out of the wind, spectacular riding, easy going cruisey as.  Into the teeth of the gale at the stile here, nearly blown off, and pushing hard into the wind to get to the road.  Then it was back along the Godley Head Road, pushing hard into the gale, but once, eventually, around above the new Escape trail we got the tail wind pushing us uphill to Livingston, nearly plucking us from the bikes across there, then a bit of work up the rest to the Para-launch place, into the wind around then pushed all the way back down to Evans.

Down into Rapanui bush, definitely ridden it wetter in the past, and techy goodness around to Scarbluffs track.  This was tricky with the wind, and felt dangereux with the exposure, but mostly a pretty good run out across towards Scumner then dropping down the tricky hairpins, water running down the track towards the road.  Across and over for the last blast down below the road, fun times had.

An interesting and quite spectacular 16.44 kms, with 701 m climbed.

Sunday Summit Hailing McTrollface

Wintry blast teeming through so got out for a gravel roady on the Troll.  Up Vic Park Drive, then through the Skidder and up the gutser, walking most of this - gearing and tires overwhelmed.  Brief chat to an old friend Doug up here, then on up through Brake Free and up to the top Thompson.  Down this singletrack, good fun, then up onto the road and a nice coast down to the Kiwi.

Across the Dyer's and up, up around Marleys, onwards out the summit.  All fine, no snow, but lo! - Bradley and Herbert were dressed in white about a third down from their summits, right across the tops there.  Further round I could see low on the plains as well - Oxford / Sheffield kinda ways, and squalls marching across the plains too.  After a nice descent I pulled into the Bellbird and had a snack and tidied a little of my clothing for warmth.  Big hail storm came in, so I was in the perfect place for it.  It buttoned off a little and I hit the road again, not really knowing how far I might go, and at one point even considering all the way down Gebbies to Motukarara and taking the rail-trail back to Lincoln, Taitapu and back round, but figured it'd be well dark by the time I made it home from that adwenture and my lights were already showing the red spots of low battery.  

Continued along the summit, climbing into the wind, descending into the wind, the occasional sheltered bit.  Popped up to check out the Living Springs summit, had a wee look in the bush track on the top there  ("rescuing" a seedling for my garden).  Rode again.  Hail again.  Eventually, Gibraltar Rock hove into view, and Omahu Bush, which I'd never explored before.  Popped down into the top zigs, parked the bike and walked (and slipped) down to the bush edge.  Bumped into Douglas again here, I swear the dude was following me, random.  Looks to me like there could be some good riding in this Bush, at night perhaps... Hail through again while I was in the bush.  

Back on the road, headed for home, tail wind (tho not so's you'd notice), more down than up.  Saw another (gravel or road bike?) rider at that water fountain thingy.  Moved a (dead) possum off the road a bit for the hawks.  Up and down, hail storms coming along and moving on.  Some lovely long rolling coasts, then easy ups.

At the Kiwi I could see the traffic was just starting to move, green light, so I bombed down, then they seemed to be stopped, one car having trouble, so I passed them all and jumped in behind the one car that made it past these guys who were struggling and so I had the whole length between the lights and beyond to myself.  Peeled right into Vic Park Drive, Climby McClimbface up to the 19th and then rolling home free, some good speed on that final descent, then brake checking hard and into the driveway.

23.43 kms Trolled with 772 altitudes.

Sunday Planton Bradley

Met for the 8.50am sailing to the Harbour of Diamonds.  I arrived to find the Bush team and Pete already on the wharf, then Nelson and Kirsty rolled up once we were on board.  

From DH we headed up and proceeded around the road.  At Whero St I said, "lets go up to the high road" (not knowing that Whero was a dead end, but then discovering at the top a nice singletrack that led all the way up.  Nelson and Kirsty disappeared.  She'd stopped to delaminate and when they got going again couldn't figure out where we'd gone...  ooops.  Never de-group guys.  Pete jetted down, couldn't see them, jetted back up and we proceeded around Bay View, steep down followed by bloody steep up that nearly killed me given my Troll gearing.  Up under Elaine's house and then it was mostly down from there, down into that nice Hunter Reserve valley, short climb then bombing down down down, Pete and me (J9 taking it easy and Steve sticking with her) to the main road and around to Andersons to regroup.  

Nelson and Kirsty turned up with the Bushes again and we all rode together up over Andersons', fast bomb down the last with Pete in the lead, onto the main road and into Orton Bradley.  The planting was just off the main route in after the tollbooth, off up to the left on a very muddy (to start with) track through oaky forest out to some farm country - a small gully being fenced around a creek.  Chucked a bunch of trees in the ground meeting some nice people, then back to the School Room and a cuppa then back on the road again.

Around the road and a steady pace, Pete and me out in the lead.  Above the yacht club we took the wee walk track drop down and up then steps and stopped for a regroup.  Then climb climb climb around and some nice downs back to DH, getting down to the cafe just before the 12 o'clock ferry was ready to leave, Bushes and Pete bombed and caught it while I waited for Nelson and Kirsty and we caught the half hour later one, 12.30.

Forgot to start the MMR til we were up top of the Whero singletrack, about 1km in and 120m alt, but the rest of it was 11.85 kms over 270m climbed (so, total 13 kms, 390 up). (mmr website playing up at this point)