Hanmer 12 Hr race.

AWESOME. one word sums it up. team mates were Clare and Eric from nightlightning, plus a friend of theirs Dale, and (i think, another ring in) Kathy (who featured in Feb06's Spoke magazine). Nice people to meet. and we were all a pretty well matched team i thought. in the Mixed category. looks like we got 4th. My lap times ranged consistently between 26 and 29 mins. our team polished off 23 laps all up. Eric and Clare did 4 laps each, and us other three did 5. All up there were apparently 755 competitors, in 126 teams, and 26 12hr soloists, and 30 6hr soloists... i ended up only taking the geared switchy.

Here's the course description, extracted from the organisers website

From Startpoint...
Turn right onto Pawsons Rd (shingle road), Left onto Camp Track (4WD), Left onto McIntyres Road (shingle road), Follow McIntyres Rd all the way up - it will then become Mullans Road(shingle road & dead end), Turn right onto Fir Trail & then Natures Trail (single track), Come off Natures Trail & cross back over McIntyres Road & Onto Dog Stream (single/4WD/single track), At the end of Dog Stream turn right onto Red Rock Track (single track), Quarter of the way up Red Rock turn left which will take you into a skidder site & then right to take you onto Pawsons Rd., Ride along Pawsons Rd & turn right onto Timberlands Trail (single track), Left off Timberlands Trail, cross back over Pawsons Road onto Majuba Track (single track) then left back into the Horse Paddock.

I took the first lap, managed to squeeze my way up to near the front third of the field for the start (looked at my watch, 10.08), but as is usual with these events, everybody gets spaced into their relative positions pretty quick. started off with a 4wdish softish dirt track up to Pawson's Rd, where it descended, around to the Camp Track, a widish singletrack (ie, a few passing spots), across to MacIntosh's Rd, where everybody really juggled into the appropriate positions... good steady easy climb up MacIntosh's Rd, then around up steeper (middle ring, 2nd or 3rd down on back) climb up to the first real singletrack - the Fir Trail, this drops and climbs in dark fir forest, with some sweet rooty sections, twisting and turning through til the Nature trail which climbs up one side of a creek, easy going, sweeeet trail, then descends the other side, the odd rocky rooty bit ready to pitch you off into the creek (as far as i know, no body did tho), then across MacIntoshes, down across DogStream and onto the DogStream track, wide track, good down hill fast, for passing too, then it veers up onto another singletrack again, with only the odd place for passing, then hard right up a rooty steep section (middle ring, biggest on back), hopping and popping up the roots, this bit blew so many people out, including me twice because of someone else losing it infront of me. then left and down to Pawson's again, fast bit there, wide for passing, then another rooty but wide climb followed by the home straight, ish, which swept through open trees round to the timer station, make sure your transponder beeeps, then down, round, up, round and changeover. from changeover went down round, up, round, down, round, down, then final left round out to the original startline to do it all again...

My first lap got stalled up behind quite a few people in the more techy sections.
Second lap, good flow, passing well, but then got behind a guy near the bottom of the course who was slower than me on anything technical, or downhill, but when i went to take him on the road bit he bloody pedalled harder and kept ahead, and i didnt wanna blow it on the next climb, so i buttoned off and stayed behind him, but i was thinking "Prick", especially as he was making me ride slower than i would have if i'd been ahead, so i definately wouldnt have been holding him up... bah.
Third lap, i think was my best, had it wide open and clear on nearly all the track, no one really slowing me down at all that i can remember. i think it was this lap that a faster dude caught me up before the road crossing, so i let him by and then tailed him all the way down the fast Dogstream section, but then we got bailed up behind a long string of slowbos, (exchanging a couple of jokes about them being so slow), and then on the rooty uphill a whole bunch of them lost it, he took off, and i jumped off and ran like mad past them all, getting through quick. it was a great lap bar that bit.
4th lap, first lap with light (kindly borrowed off Nightlightning, a beautiful Lithium Ion battery (660grams 16.8volt 7odd amphour) powering a basic 20watt halogen (making it as bright as my usual 35), which wasnt really needed except for a couple of darker sections in the forest... was another good time, especially cos i tucked in behind a guy i know, Daryl, who was on the winning team, on the road section, drafting him all the way up the road, and i kept him in my sights all the way up Mullans to the Fir Trail (where he totally lost me), with only one or two holds ups.
my 5th lap, fully dark, was a scorcher. i honked it, i think cos i knew that it was my last. hardly anybody in my way, all of them moved over quickly to let me pass. had one wee incident with a guy in the middle of the track messing with his chain, i said "can you get out of the way?" and he took offence (probably cos i didnt say please) and said something like "cool it!" and then "i'll probably pass you on the downhill anyway"... to which i replied "that'll be nice"... anyway, he DIDN'T! Ha! no one was gonna take me on that lap, i was hauling! rode every bit of the rooty section, passing people in the process, then cleaned it out. not having gone any slower in the dark than in the light...

Here's me towards the bottom of Dog Stream just before the corner leading up into the Red Rocks trail...

Longest post yet? anyway. a damned good day, finishing with me winning a wicked spot prize, a whole outfit - roughly $375 worth of GroundEffect gear... ankle-biters socks, a cadence top (blue), these chipolatas winter gloves, pair of montezuma shorts, and something i've always wanted, a submerino top (in orange)... choice!

chilly, windy, dusk, to sumner

left home at 5.25pmish, thursday, cos i thought that www.nzride.com film The Pusher 2 was sposed to be on at the Hollywood, and was gonna meet Nelson and his lady out there by 7.15... cross town, up rapaki, made good time up there, passed a every other biker. then left, along summit trail, road, turned on light at castle rock, it felt really dim, cos it was just on dusk, too dark to see without it but kinda still too light to see properly with it... anyway, onto the road again, to be passed by some kid on a mtnbike before the Gondola, then just after the gondola by a roadie... skipped the JohnBritten Reserve section of singletrack, cos i wanted to make some time, and then hit the top of Greenwood park. i might mention here that it was a cold blowy southerly, had rained a lot overnight, but been fine all day. so, Greenwood park trail was in good nick, the workparty work done the other weekend (by steve etal) had created lots of good drainage spots, so was a good cruise down to evans, with only an occasional greasy bit, caution was used on the rocky sections too.

Then, onto the Capt Thomas... two riders coming up, both got out of my way, which they didnt have to, but neither of them returned my 'gudday', rude bastards. anywho, cruised down capt thom and nearly lost it on the very first of the rocky technicals, which blew me for the next one, the trail was wet and greasy, the two 'nemesises' i walked, due to the greasiness. then further down on the flat (usually) fast bit i was all over the show, but cleaned the two rocky bits before the bridge, and then in the lower sections i got a few blasts of speed, (altho blinded in one eye by mud) and ended up out the bottom splattered head to toe, almost wishing i'd ridden the road from Evans...

met nelson and trudes at Hollywood to be told they knew nothing about it... went to Dot Com and looked online. they'd not posted to the mtnbike.co.nz forums, but we found on nzride.com that it was postponed cos it wasnt finished yet!!! that is just plain slack. if you're gonna advertise an event as being at a location on a certain day, and then can it, the least you could do is tell the location, AND update the notice at all the places online that you advertised!!!! SLACKERS

Easter: Good Friday Eve SS, and Easter Monday

so, Thursday night, drove across and parked in Buxton Ave, with the singlespeed, headed around to and up Rapaki, then right along summit trail, and down through vic park. met a guy top of Vic on a bike same as Nelson's. talked a bit. was the only other rider i saw out there. it was like a friday night, cos of good friday, so there were heaps of hoons on the summit road... this dude followed me down through gums and then Dazza's and onward into gulley, and out. his light was dying by the time we were down in bottom of valley.

Yesterday, Easter Monday, got out about 3. rode geared switchie across to rapaki, and up, along summit, to kiwi, up road to top of marleys, down flying nun, dyers, up into vic, down to lower section of cool runnings, which was greasy, lost it slightly in 'the darkness', continued out and down, and home... good spin. excellent soundtrack, with some absolutely stunning moments of build up and crescendo in apt places, music fitting the trail perfectly. battery died on mp3 player just as i was riding down Bowenvale Ave. so that was good timing too.

Trying to get all this in as training for the 12_hour race i'm in on Saturday. i'm on team nightlightning. so, hopefully i'll manage one more singlespeed ride before the event. i'm thinking of taking both bikes up, so i've got the singley as a back up if there's a mechanical on geary.

hot saturday afternoon..Pleasant, Greenwood, Thomas

back from my work trip to fiordland, 11 hrs in the car on friday. nice to be home. managed to get a small ride in the Eglington, moslty on the road, but included a little bit of singletrack from Deer Flat.

O had a kiddies birthday party in the afternoon in Heathcote valley park, so they dropped me in Ferrymead, i headed around to mcCormacks bay, and up the singletrack in the valley. mostly climbable, it is very steep in a couple of spots, including the switchbacks at the top. granny gear. walking. then onto Mt Pleasant Rd, and up to summit, hot hot hot norwest day. really takes it out of you. fighting a little bit of a cold too, which never helps.

anyway, peaked, and got onto the singletrack, Greenwood Park, which had seen some maintenance that day, Steve and Wayne had helped... BOMBED down the downhill, the wind was difficult on the north bearing stretches, but once over the brow it was sweet. felt like i was riding very nicely. as i was coming down the rocky bit from where those trees are, i saw a group of 4 take off on the lower section... that made me speed up and i chased... took the first girl just after the cattlestop fence gap, then the second where Nelson crashed last ride. the other two were better riders and i was just gaining on them at the bottom... they stopped to wait for the other two and i carried on down Capt Thomas. Cleaned every inch of it. including the little climby bit after the two old nemesis's, not a single dab. beautiful flow.

then round road back to Heathcote Valley. head wind round the headland by Shag Rock was so strong a cyclist ahead of me got off to walk, i was almost stopped. then he drafted me, we chatted a bit, he was hammered, had done the full Crater Rim race route and was rooted. across the causeway was insane, i've never ridden it so hard. once in the valley tho, it was sweet, didnt seem nearly so strong.

wednesday night... thomas and richmond

nelson picked me up in the van at 7. we cruised to Slumner and hit Capt Thomas. try as i might, my new LED light was too focussed to light up the trail well enough. it'll be fine for ascending Rapaki, or probably even Worsley's, but its just too tight for singletrack. so, burning a fair bit of the 35W i could see good. think i might consider carrying the 20watt for these sorts of occasions...

anyway, good ride up, cleaned a fair bit, blew a couple bits too. then just near the top, the lollies i'd scoffed on the way home from the supermarket with T earlier gave me a coldsweat weakness inducing sugar crash... i was dying the last few hundred metres. anyway, had some OSM (those things are great!) and softdried banana and choc-coffee beans and dates and we set off up the road for the top of Pleasant... not bad going up the road, only a couple of cars, and one helluva headwind.

from the top, i led the way, tail wind blowing us along. takes a bit to get used to the lack of surface definition and limited field of view that lights-riding does for ya. numerous occasions the edge of the trail rutt caught us, or rocks that you couldnt see properly would grab ya. but the Vanilla forks are doing their job and making my riding smooooooth. was a fast and fun descent. nelson had a good bail, he said following me he couldnt see shit cos of the dust, so was giving me plenty of room. so this one bit, near the bottom he was on my tail and missed a rock, ie didnt see it, and stopped dead, then toppled, unable to clip out, ending up upside down down the steep bank. all i heard was him gaining on me, a little bit of a clatter and then nothing... i stopped further up and there was no sign of him... anyway, nothing major, slight knee scrape and a rotor zing he was annoyed about.

then on down Capt Thomas. bombed it, cleaned it all, nearly took out a hedgehog, then most of the way down, a possum. nelson got the possum with his back wheel, it scarpered through a fence and down a hill after i'd nearly hit it too.

by the bottom nelson's rotor zing was more of a scritch scritch scritch... something not sounding right there. he'll investigate in the light.

a whole week to a nearly non-starter sunday

woke up to rain, so we called off the intended 9.15 at Sumner meet, and decided that as Matt and Tony were both looking for new bikes we'd meet at 10 at C1 and then proceed to raid the bikeshops... i had Otis, who had his first ever 'fluffy', and a marshmallow and a small chocolate fish (which came back to bite me on the ass later with him acting like a 'normal' kid, ie, a little shit, from the sugar crash). anyway, the rain cleared entirely just after 9 and we would have been fine riding, but thems the breaks. (alas, Matt had seen the 6am and not having a synoptic forecasting background suggested to steve to call it off...at 9 i jumped onto the weather radar, and if i'd seen the 6am radar earlier i would have said that it was gonna clear, and then the 9am reading was dead obvious!) too bad. anyway, after the boys i went to Yum Cha with Tra'y and Cas and O at the Foo San, and whilst there it rumbled thunder and flashed lightning and rained and hailed and passed, then to T's G.ma's and it blew like hell while we were there, was a helluva system.

anyway, on with the riding. had to inflate front tire, was very low, then i biked over to Derek(from work)'s place into a strong headwind. we proceeded to, and up, worsleys, which wasnt too bad. he keeps a good pace, so we got up pretty quick. some 4x4 drivers not far below the body bag. i blew out on the top section, just didnt have the steam i needed. i think cos of tiredness and the lack of carbs in a yum cha meal... anyway, topped marleys, where i changed my front tube, finding a nasty wood spike (gorse or barberry (from last sunday's)) in the tire. then down down down. track condition perfect, no dust, just damped down enough. Derek asking for downhilling tips, as i was leaving him behind the way he would leave me behind on an uphill. to the kiwi, sweet runnings, some fun new design on the lower sections of the 'nun. then we toodled back up the summit and down the 'new' section of track into Gov's bay, then up road, up summit top of vic, down through gums, down to the lower section of Cool Runnings, then out. good ride. tho, i was in trouble for saying i'd only be 2 hours and nearly taking 3...

glad to get out, a week off the trails is bad.

sunday, out of fog and an overgrown return...

had to deliver my dad's car back after borrowing it for saturday, so drove up with bike and told the boy's (turned out to be Steve, Tony, Andrew and Matt) i'd meet them at top of rapaki. from my folks (top of Cashmere ~200m alt), headed up through fogginess into vic park, up the main fireroad from the skidder/jump site out of the fog into glorious sunshine, then along the singletrack traverse, feeling good. then crossed the road, and up round and down the Mt Vernon singletrack to the top of rapaki, flew it, was all good except for one deadstop on some rocks. waited a bit, fog coming and going a bit.

no sign of the boys, so headed round the Witch hill singletrack to the highest point and then turned back. still no boys, so figured what the hell, and bombed down rapaki. met them on the flat section, and headed back up, feeling really fresh, well warmed up but with heaps of energy.

we turned right, and headed up the road past Farmtrack up to where the singletrack crosses, then took it back to top of rapaki (my 2nd time that day), then on round the singletrack below Witch hill, then up to Castlerock, down to Bridle Path, hummin'!, then for a bit of a break in the shade of the stone shelter. then down Bridlepath and along the farm track above the motorway (see this when we rode it May last year). beautiful flowing ride along the farmtracks, but where it entered the scrub near the tanks it got nasty. Fennel, broom, bit of gorse, bit of barberry, all scraping and scratching at our arms and bars. lots of it unrideable now. needs major work... shame tho, cos it was a great spin last year... then across the motorway, and had to drop into some people's yard, then down Martindales, under railway, past Ferrymead, then round the devils elbow section of the river... and back to steves for muffins and boston bun and coffee, then home for a nice rest.

beautiful day, a fair few miles, lots of laughing and smiles in the overgrown trail.

SS Tuesday Forest

We all assembled at Pete's, Nelson had his van, loaded it with bikes, bodies in Pete's car and me and nels in van. we both had the singlespeeds (and i'd put my 42tooth on front again, to even up the odds against nelson's strength), out to bottle lake, parked up unloaded all the bikes. then spun, out to the right, crossed paths with Mark Hubby Lung and a couple others going other way, out to the beach, along, back in, then north to Spencerpark on usual tracks, bit of a break there, then back thru to waitikiri carpark. steve left S.Park ahead of us, i took off maybe 5 minutes after him thinking i'd catch him eventually, then realised a ways in the others werent following. so, i waited, and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited, with quite a few people (all male, on mostly crap bikes) riding past me, then finally the others showed up. from then on, it was a race, nelson and me out front, trying to get past all these plebs riding through the forest so damned slow... none of them had the sense to pull over or take the slower routes... some of them really pissed us off. but we passed heaps of them, crazy fast... man people can be slow.

people dont seem to realise that riding along slowly isnt gonna make them fit. they gotta push themselves harder.

Craigieburn Luge Dracophyllum Cheeseman Taboggan shute

early early sunday morning, 6.30 to be precise, i lumbered my gear across town to opposite my old highschool on Memorial Ave... jumped in a car with a guy from work Harry, and headed out of town. One other, a guy called Al, was in the car, and another car with three others (Paul, John? and ??) were also travelling... out to Craigieburn. Stopped and put mine and Harry's bikes on Paul's car, left Harry's at the Cheeseman gate, then continued on to the Craigieburn Rd. parked up.

kitted up, and started riding. nice clear sunny day. beautiful conditions, hasnt rained up there for quite a while, so the tracks were dry dry dry... Headed up (granny ring) to Lindon Saddle, beech forest singletrack, the best..., 830m odd to 1140m or so, then "the Luge", descent, beautiful, rooty, twisty, fun, down down down as much alt as previously gained. then up (middle ring) Broken River access road to top (~950) of Dracophyllum Flat track, flat tack down that, even better, more open, faster, with pops and dips, one very close call with a tree, i was heading right for it, but braked and leant with finesse avoiding it beautifully. then it turns hard right and down the side of a steep gulley, gotta get the speed riiiight off as there's a very loose section right at the top that would shoot you out into air air air then trees trees trees... awesome wee descent down to 'the' Broken River (at 800m contour) with a log bridge (dont think you'd wanna ride it). then gnarley steep, granny ring, wee climb out up to Dracophyllum Flat... nice wee blast across this, and into more forest, through a clearing or two. the track would be hard for the untrained eye to find in this bit altho there is the odd marker about (more than last time apparently), then into forest again, across a stream (Cuckoo Creek) and up up up a nasty wee granny gear climb (800m to 920m) that blew me juuust before the top. then across the edge of the bush and clearing to the Ice Skating rinks below Cheeseman.

then we went up the Cheeseman access Rd to the "middle hut", climbing from 950 to 1300m. dunno how long it took, but it was solid, much of it was in the lowest granny possible, to the point where i was going numb in my feet and bits of my legs, just from the slow solid spin spin spin grind grind grind... then a traverse followed, across an old track line, minding out careful like for the Spaniards... then an off piste descent across trackless (follow the cairns) tussock and daisy strewn landscape, down a ridge, and into the bush, where the track hung a right, and down... steep as they come, ass nearly on the back wheel, just holding on... managed not to skid much, the taboggan track, one hunk in the middle unrideable, almost difficult to even walk down with the bike, but the last bit down to the road was wicked, then below the road it continues down to the Ice skating rink, steep and shutey. nice. then we coasted and sped down the access road out to Harry's car... probably about 3 hours riding. over a kilometre of altitude climbed, with about 1200m of descending over roughly 25kms...

home in time for Fat Freddy's Drop at the Cheap as Chips gig... nice.

Eventually, there's gonna be a connector through from Cheeseman road to Castle Hill Village. i cant wait for that, and the opportunity to get a group together, get a bach in the village, go up early, ride right through to craigieburn skifield and back most of a day probably, then party up for the evening. nice.

first night ride... McLeans

The other night i pulled my double-light apart and made it into two singles, one 35 watt IRC (50w equiv.) and one a 20watt IRC (35w equiv.). so, last night Nelson and me headed out in his van to McLeans island around 8. both of us had our singlespeeds. we hit the trail around 8.30. dunno how many kms a lap is, but we spun round the track for 3 loops. sun was just set as we started out, did most of the first lap without lights on, moon rising about 3/4s. i stopped to pump up back tire after first lap, cos it was washing all over the place. spun fast all the way. in the second lap i discovered that following really close behind him i got a good slipstream happening, letting me pedal less. from then on we took turns at leading... the open section has some awesome flow to it, lots of bits with beautiful flow, and other bits that are just a tad boring... was heaps of fun. smooth fast track. headed out the gate about 10.30, sposed to close at 10, but the security guy was just locking up when we were loading the van. so. each lap probably 35 or so mins, i'm sure the first was faster, and the last was slowest... had quite a few short breaks all through. nelson's chain popped off a few times.

"have you ridden this track?"

Nelson Tony Andrew Matt and me assembled at Steve's at 6ish. Steve was out cos he's still got the lurgy that cut him on sunday. we headed across to the bottom of Bowenvale. up the valley, up K2 and the Nationals DH course (always fun riding UP DOWNhill tracks). pretty much cleaned the whole lot. a couple of small dabs here or there. from Skidder site we headed towards Cool Runnings, but took a right instead of left, and headed up up up, crossing the Nats course on each of the zigs and zags, walked the gnarley bit from one of the corners... then over thomsons to kiwi. huge group of riders where flying nun pops up. then we went up road from kiwi intending on doing lower flyingnun til nelson said, "have you ridden this track?"... we hadnt. it goes from part way up that road section, sorta through a small saddle over towards Gov's bay. bombs down over rocky sections, big drops to the side, then a whole heap of bermed switchbacks down to one of the big hairpin bends on the Dyers Pass rd. when we all got to bottom, a few riders from the big group showed up. they headed back up this track, but we headed back up road to kiwi. Tony peeled off home, we went back up summit rd to top of vic, down through gums, then down cool runnings, and out. met up with the fellow new singletrack riders several more times, top of vic, halfway through cool runnings, bottom of cool runnings, bottom of k2, then when matt was fixing a flat after stream crossing (just after slideways sheepstop).
awesome riding. great amount of climbing, and downhills.
rained on all the way across town home. soaking when i got home.

piked on... SS Bottle Lake

everybody else cancelled for Sunday morning. steve cos of head lurgy, others for other reasons including being on the coast and the Sound of Thunder...

took the singlespeed out to bottle lake. left home about 9. headed round river, then round Banks ave singletracks, then across Burwood park to Horseshoe lake reserve, rode the walk track through to Lake Terrace, then through to the Bottle Lake. headed in, turned right, through, up over, out to beach, along then back in all the way into the pond and then back out and north all the way up to Spencerpark. then all the way back, normal paths. then home at 10.50. Battery on mp3 player ran out 3/4ths way round. sound track was a good mix of Milanese, Pavement, Prefuse73

good spin. legs and core felt good all the way. wiped me a bit for rest of day tho. although, Yum Cha and a Sarsparilla helped that a bit, later on.

TWUNCK!...brubrubrubrubrubrubrubrub

very limited time, so singlespeed hoon round bottle lake... spin spin spin across town to the forest, bit of a hammy stretch and seat up a few mm then in i went. all good, back wheel feeling a bit flexy in places, but mostly good, then nearly half way through, TWUCK! brubrubrubruubbb... broken spoke, rear wheel, non driveside. no spoke tool (i really must get a lightweight one today) to retune the wheel, and it was rubbing badly on the frame, really out of whack. so, rang T, cos she had a seminar thing at 7, and there was no way i was gonna be home in time for her to go, and said come get me, and i kept riding the rest of the way out. one long road shortcut to a later section of trail and out, brubrubrubrubrubrubrubrubrubrubrubrub all the way, sometimes bruuubbbrrruuuubbb up bits and brbrbrbrbrbrbrbr down bits.

later in evening i went to fix the spoke, (i bought a few spares last time i broke one), and got the new spoke in, had the wheel almost true, and then noticed that around one spoke nipple there was major crackage in the rim... toast i figure. so, grabbed the spare townbike (Deep V) wheel from the garage and set it up. its gonna be a bit more solid i hope. still need to get into its bearings, maybe a new cone and balls and grease... one of these days i'll get a SS specific wheel.

sunday morning, day after Craterrim

Finally got Steve down the oldschool Bowenvale... We drove to Tony's, rode to bottom of Crocodile and up it. then up Kennedy's, following in the footsteps of the CraterRim race of the day before. Nice, cos 300 odd riders had cleaned up the trail a bit, getting rid of loose rocks on the steeper bits near the top... anyway, cleaned the whole of Kennedy's in middle ring, which is a first for a while. then along summit road, up Marley's over Flying num, HUMMIN'! it down to Kiwi, nabbed some sunscreen from there, then on up road, i did first section of Thomsons (no one else did), then up road to top of Vic. then round summit trail, again, HUMMIN it, then down oldschool. i cleaned every single line i took, pete may have, none of the others were game, but then, they're not used to it, cos they dont ride it often enough... then out and i piked home while they all went to tony's for coffee.

new track... shhhhh

Wicked ride Wednesday night, that included a couple of trails of dubious legality... Went up farmtrack (why oh why do I punish myself like that), then turned right on the single track and rode to highest point (hundreds of plebs up there training for the Rim race). Then turned around and headed back down towards Rapaki, getting a bit baulked on a few of the rocky sections, which annoyed me, didnt seem to be going fast enough down there.., bypassed the top of Rapaki, continuing on around the singletrack below Rapaki Rock, then on up summit road, down Castlerock to Bridle (chasing a guy who was obviously training for the Crater Rim - racer boy). Bridle to John Britten Reserve, then bombed down through it (fun track, too bad its not legal) to top of Major Hornbrook, down to Mt Pleasant Rd and I found my valley track… it starts off switchbacking down the side of the hill, some steps right at the top, but none following them, and then it just shoots beautifully down the valley, some fun and techy bits, but mostly just smooth sailing, not a soul on it. Near the bottom, i thought i'd taken a wrong turn, so headed back a little to this track that had loads of steps down through these pines, then down the side of a bunch of houses, but i reckon the proper connector that spits you out down in McCormacks Bay should be accessible to about where i turned back… Anyway, I was saying to Steve the other night how I thought it might be a good climber, but having come down it i think its probably a wee bit steep in places, and then you dont end up that high up Mt Pleasant Rd, which on its own is much easier. But, I’ll give it a go some time, just for interest’s sake. And there’s heaps of side tracks that zig and zag off it up to different parts of the hill suburbs…

soggy sunday

misty drizzle greeted us at Sumner. Headed up Capt Thomas, with the rocks slick from the moisture and the dirt just damp enough to stick to the tires a bit, but not too badly. good ride most of the way up. then headed out godley. very tricky on the rockier sections, but good riding most of the way. flew down the downs to the first of the cols, where Pete got a flat so we sheltered under a rock as the rain got heavier there... next section was good to Breeze col and weather lightened up a bit so we continued out to the end, then back round the single below the road to the col again, then down Anaconda, which was sweet. i chased Pete down and was pretty steady with him, then we all sidled along on the newly mown trail that skirts above the walking track but is unrideable mostly for now, extremely off camber. then a mellow climb out of Taylors and down through Nicholson. caught excellent air off the little boatshed/garages on across from Scarborough slipway. coffee at dotcom.

Forks spectacular. loving every minute of riding with them

climbing and descending. RapCastleBridleCastleCraterRimVernonOldskool

Met nelson at bottom of rapaki. Steve and others all piked to spin round McLeans Island, >yawn<. so, we went up Rapaki, turned left round summit track, all the way to top of Bridle Path, very hard work keeping on track in the howling easterly wind, it was insane, making us dab numerous times we absolutely shouldn’t have. Then turned around and rode back up the bridle to castle rock track, very nice climb, surprisingly easy except for the very last 10 metres or so before the top. Then down the road to the walking track on the Cass Bay valley head, that’s a great track from that direction, and when dry and with no walkers, I think is a totally viable option for biking (i think the fact that its private land is one of the main reasons its not legal). Then bumped into Mark below Rapaki Rock on the singletrack, chatted with him a bit, he was on his new Coiler (which are only 5.5 inches now) which he only paid $2K for (with a backpack, hoodie and gloves thrown in)!!! He was off to Taylors then home. Nelson and me carried on and up singletrack round vernon, cross the road, along to the Old Skool Bowenvale (again!) and down. Found a couple new rather interesting lines in there too, you shoulda seen nelson going off this rock cliff… all up a really good ride. Felt like I’d climbed a lot at the end of it, that’s for sure.

plush new front end. VicKiwiNunThomTravOldskoolOut

Beautiful is all i can say... Vanilla = Tasty. Starting at my folks (top of Cashmere) bout 2pm tired and a bit hung from Ngaio's wedding, headed up into Vic park, then from ranger station, down through the trails to the Old Dyers Pass Rd trail crossing, cruised along and up that to the Kiwi, hot in the sun out of the wind, trying out the lock out once or twice, tweaking the low speed and the rebound a little too, then up road from kiwi to top of Marley's, watching some dude's coming down the section below the road, saw one guy have an incident bollocking himself, i holla'd, "thats gotta hurt", continued on up, then bombed it down the Flying Nun, very very good control, blissful plushness and responsiveness and tracking control down the lower section, popping out at the Kiwi. then up Thomson's track to top of Vic, stopping in the shade at one stage, cleaned to the top, then headed round the traverse, cruising nicely, relishing the psshhht every time the fork rebounds, then headed down the Old Skool Bowenvale, my old favourite. cleaned everything, pinned all the dodgy bits, smoooooooth, then out the bottom of Bowenvale, and toodled home.
Fox Vanilla RLC 140mm 10/10

new Vanilla's. and singlespeed huff.

Well, the geared beast has just been fitted with a new set of Fox Vanilla RLC forks. Sweet. 140mm pluuussshhhhh travel. will eventually put the Minute's on the singlespeed, but til i score a disc front wheel and a diskbrake i'll have to make do with the old bombers.

Nelson and me took the singles up Rapaki, turned right, along the road to top of Huntsbury, hooked up with Jeff and James Angrywadder's and huffed it round to Vic Park. screamed through the gums, then down the lower section to the 19th battalion war memorial, then down to the Dog Walking areas, and down the sweeet wee bit of track beside the plantation above cashmere, taking us out the sweetest bit of singletrack below the houses and out onto Longhurst Tce. nipped into my Nainy's place, had icecream, apple shortcake and strawberries, then in near-dark, back over to Longhurst, and down Hollis and out back round to the van. good trip.

singlies are fun

Just down the road from Paradise.

After a night in Tekapo (quick spin around the camp ground and down to the shops) spent a few days in Kinloch (opposite Glenorchy). On Wednesday i drove back into Queenstown and got a bit of riding in. Took the Access Track up to the Skyline, quite a long, relatively steep climb, managed it in middle ring all the way up tho, then rode down Vertigo and a couple of others, interesting downhill tracks, twisty, purpose built, steep in spots, interesting and fun. a bit like vic park, only tighter, darker and longer.

Then drove round to the 7 mile creek network of tracks. started in on a nice multiuse singletrack, which climbs a couple hundred metres to the 'dream arena' selection of tracks, cant remember their names, but i took the left hand ones first, down to the Loop7, then carried on along the multiuse track for a while towards qtown, til it started down some hairy steps i figured i'd be tired of climbing back up, so headed back up to the 'dream arena' and took the right hand tracks, which were sweet leading down to some supposedly black diamond area, then onto this obviously new track called Cool Runnings, which looped back around on itself so many times i lost track, also it had a few interesting built bits, a log ride with 8inch wide boards on it, only about half a metre off the ground, and then this nice drop ramp and low wall ride corner, fun. the final section down back to the multiuse track was best.

Then, because i'd originally intended on riding the Moke / Dispute Lakes loop, i rode UP the descent from Dispute, ie, walked heaps cos it was so steep, and very hot day, and broke my chain on the way up, replaced it with a quicklink, got to the top, and BOMBED back down to the car. then headed back to kinloch.

Saturday we decided to do a bit of the Greenstone walk, so i rode the road from Kinloch to greenstone trailhead, 12 kms of gravel road, following lake wakatipu. it undulated a bit, and had 3 fords. discovered as i was just heading out that there was a mountainbike race on (Bike Wakatipu), with the riders all coming towards me, having ridden through from the Te Anau road, through the mavora, mt nicholas stn and along wakatipu, heading through to Glenorchy. it was about 1 oclock and they'd been riding since 9am, so were pretty shagged along the last miles. got to Greenstone and chatted with the refreshmentstation guy. after 20 mins the others arrived in the car. we walked in to the caples river, had a picnic, swatted sandflies, then walked back out again. when we got back the race people had all gone. i rode back. getting pretty knackered too. tho, took a side track up a bit, which i wish i'd explored to the top, cos on the topo's the dashed line goes way up the side of the Humboldt mtns... it was between the closer of the two fords to kinloch.

issues:
Minute rebound knob has broken out, due to being knocked in the car on the way down.
Chain breaking, mainly cos rear cluster out of tune.
Front Brake still honking.
Headset is sorta loose.
Bike needs damned good clean and lube.

Talked to Kris today, and am scoring some Fox Vanilla RLC's... yip. and the now faulty minutes can go on the singlespeed eventually, cos then both bikes will have the same geometry 130mm front, and the single will benefit greatly from spv.

oh yeah.. forgot to mention.

i FINALLY found out what DMR stands for, courtesy mbaction mag,

DesignMakeRide...

sunday heatsville

finally summer hit us, or some summer at least, maybe we should call it some-er... anyway, all met at Steve's, even tho he wasnt riding. nearly at steve's i was crossing over the heathcote river bridge on Opawa road when this car pulls along side and goes to go ahead of me and then turns left into where i'm going to steve's, so i'm thinking, this is a bit dodgey, but i'm going this way anyway, so i wont say anything. i can see all the fella's outside steves, some of who are watching me, and then this woman keeps turning, making for the first driveway round the corner, and i'm getting edged off the road to the curb, all at about 20-25kph, and i slam on my brakes keeping it incontrol and yell top of my lungs, 'FUCK OFF YOU STUPID FUCKING BITCH!!!" and finally she realises she's cutting me off and stops, me millimetres away from slamming into her side, cos i was way running out of room. i stayed upright, didnt dab, and pedalled around the front of her car and onwards to the boys who are all looking now... anyway, i'm shaking by the time i get there, with one of those stupid adrenalin grins on, and then a minute later she drives up and she's almost in tears and totally apologises profusely and is so so sorry and will never do anything like that again and said she'd thought she had room and didnt see me etc... i apologised for my gut reaction of swearing and abusing at the top of my lungs...

so anyway, there's pete, matt, andrew, chris, wayne, and me. we headed up rapaki, pretty uneventfully, felt good on the geared machine, new shoes felt very good, nice and stiff. the day was very very warm, and pretty muggy too. turned right on the singletrack, i think wayne and chris rode the road round. crossed summit road, and carried on round trail to vic, stopped in the shade and then headed over Thomson's Track down to Kiwi. Pete, Matt and me waited and waited and waited, and eventually i txted Andrew. still no word, then down they rolled... Wayne had a VERY sore foot... he'd gone off just entering the forest on Thomsons where Tony had gone down the bank on one of his first rides. where tony just got scratched up a bit, poor old wayne has fractured his foot! (didnt know that at the time of course). anyway, Andrew, Chris and Wayne headed down Dyers Pass Rd, and Matt Pete and me headed up to top of Marley's on road, then down Flying Nun, Dyers Track and up into Vic, down Dazza's, and out bottom. all excellent descents, with me cleaning every log drop and the washout at bottom of K2. home by 12.15. drank a LOT of water, and grabbed a poweraid on way home for the electrolytic replacement therapy

Off to Tekapo tonight, then Glenorchy (Kinloch actually) tomorrow. taking the geared beast, and i intend on riding Moke and Dispute Lakes as well as the Seven Mile Creek tracks, just out of Q'stown. next posts next week.

coupla singles...

Saturday, dave came by and said go for a ride, i'll look after otis, so off i went in the car to try out the new 38tooth ring on the singlespeed. up rapaki, much easier, cleaned the whole thing, then up the singletrack to the right, even cleaned the first two switchbacks, and the whole rest of it, up to top of farmtrack. then turned around and bombed back down, and down rapaki. all up, probably only 40 mins or less.

wednesday, last night. nelson, nathan and me went to sumner. nels and me on the singles. up capt thom, up summit road to top of richmond hill track, down that to evans, out godley, down anaconda, and back over from taylors... all good. bombed it all, cleaned most ups. all good... hard work out of taylors, cos riding with them fit buggahz pushes me... good to burn off the xmas fatrolls...

toosday spin

POST NUMBER 100 ! ! !

big group met at Steves. Hubby, Tony, Andrew, his bro Chris, Wayne, Steve, Pete, Matt and me on the geared bike, with new KoolStop pads up front and the old front on the back... tried to work them in on the way over, then more so on the way up. the fronts bedded in nicely by the time we were up top but the rear were a bit slow... Cruisy trip up rapaki, me and pete at the fore mostly. steve was a bit wiped from work. good cruise round the summit, excellent infact, then down into vic, down the rockgarden, gums, then some of us did Cool runnings, others took dazzas, then out. excellent fog cloud round the tops, and a little rain as we were coming down the bowenvale valley, wet roads home but not much from above. wayne crashed good.

new purchases: new Lake Shoes, and a 38 tooth ring for the single...

Nu Yeah's and back

So, following boxing day, got three rides in over at Little Akaloa. First one to top of View Hill, spectacular up there.
Second one with a couple of visitors, over to Raupo and back.
and number three, all the way round to Menzies Bay, cos i hadnt been there for years. nice bay, but cant say much about the 'friendliness' of the natives... nothing but glowers.

Then, yesterday, the usual sunday slog with the boys. took the singlespeed. we drove out to sumner, up Capt Thomas, then up summit road to top of Richmond Hill track, down to Evans, ragged edge material, me keeping my own the whole way, then out Godley, walked only the first bit, and one other little bit on the first climb, cleaned the rest. more ragged edge. followed Steve on last descent, then Pete on Anaconda. helluva climb out of Taylors, but rode it all.
who needs gears???

Boxing Evening

Got out last night too. parked-up on Centaurus, headed round to and up Rapaki about 7.40pm. made pretty good time up there cleaning the top just after 8. was definately feeling the several days of eating lots of food and chocolate tho, nearly wanting to barf at the top. then up to right round summit trail, onwards round to Vic park. not a single other cyclist on the road or trail. headed down towards the Gums in Vic, but peeled left on that doubleblackdiamond just before the trees. got down the top of it no worries, but the nana route down the gulley was totally overgrown and i slipped out the front wheel a bit in there too, but got out to skidder site then down Dazza's, new half, then turned right at the 40 footer and then down the valley tracks. out what i'll call Hanging Valley from now on, and round the Sidle track to k2 and baulked on the washout drop twice, then just rode the k2, then hoofed it down the valley. was out to Bowenvale Ave about 8.30. as i was riding back round to the car i saw my old work mate David, stopped and chatted a whiles...

xmas eve...

o went to bed early, and our car was at Joy's, so drove her jeep across back to her place and jumped on the bike and headed up Cannon Hill Cres, then on up Major HornBrook to top and then up through a Keep Out paddock that's being developed, then up through John Britten Reserve to top, then over Richmond Hill and down Capt Thomas. fantastic relatively quick climb and a lonnnnng downhill. awesome. took it pretty easy cos the dirt was just a bit moist which made the rocks a trifle interesting. all the way down. cleaned everything, pretty much. sweet way to set myself up for a xmas day feast...

solosinglespin

didnt think i'd get out, even ate dinner, nice simple rice, steamed veges and kofta i'd made. but, jumped on the single and headed round bottle lake. very fast, smooth spin. included for a change burwood park shortcut, and on the way back went through horseshoe lake reserve and back across burwood park. at Shirley Rd, or is it New brighton Rd, i popped over a chain, but didnt clip out in time and fell to the ground, and my cleat ripped out of the thing its screwed into! broke the metal clean off, the cleat is still fine, and i saved one bolt, but the other bolt will still have some of the metal from the shoe left on it... find one today at a bikeshop hopefully.

Tuesingleday and Sun (with a NEW (to me) trail)...

bit of a non event on wednesday. nelson picked me up with the van and in the back was his shiney newly built singlespeed. a Gary Fisher frame he picked up off tirademe for a fiddy, decked out in all the gear (minus the gears) of his old Muni Mula. nice rig. little bit lighter than the switchy, but hey, it aint steel. so, we drove out to Slumner, and headed off up Capt Thomas.. Nelson had neglected to use a chain tensioner of any sort, so pretty quick the chain started dropping off. ended up he tried taking out a full link and putting in a half link (15mins), then it was too short and we managed just to force the wheel in but it wouldnt turn, so he put the link back in (another 15mins), and rode a little bit but ended up running all the way up. it was getting pretty late so we just turned round and headed back down. a woman (in this large group of women (with a guy) who were all practising the tricky bits) said to me, "Nice Bike", and she was on 16 inch version. same cool grey colour. stopped and chatted to her about it on the way back, she loves its ride too (who wouldnt!?)

Sunday, al grabbed me and we went round to petes. matt there too. out to sumner,met upwith andrew and hubby, and then steve, tony, and steve's mate Wayne turned up. big posse!!! plan was to ride up capt thom, out to Breeze col for some track work, but at the top of the captain, ranger nick singletrack had canned the work and was doing small spot fixes with his dedicated crew. oh well. more riding less tiredness for us, yay. cleaned everything on godley, at breeze col pete matt me and al went round the walking track on the harbour side of the hill. FANTASTIC piece of track. it SO should be a bike legal track. perfect. but probably only so in the dry. soem lovely wee step ups. also, would make an awesome back-to-breeze-col trail too. next time. then round back to the others on the col, and down Anaconda. Pete was chasing me and had a nice off. i had a good run down, no scary moments. then chuffed back over the hill, coffee at cot dom and home. nice.

Two Solos, wednesday and sunday.

hot norwest day on wednesday. headed out on my own, only to be txted by Nelson half way up rapaki. but didnt matter cos i'd wanted to split early and get as much ride as possible. hell of a wind. it was howling, probably up round a hundred kph on tops. so, up rapaki, left along single, then hopped fence onto lyttelton side and rode the walking track, was somewhat out of the wind, then up road to castle, helluva wind, then castle rock to bridle path was sweet, mostly sorta sheltered, cept for one or two bits. its riding really nicely at the mo. they've put gutters in for all the worst spots from winter, so will be good to see how it holds up next year. then along summit under gondola. nearly blown over. couldnt believe the gondolas were still in use, woulda thought the wind was too much. round john britten reserve the wind making the singletrack interesting, having to dab now and then, just to stay upright. then over Greenwood, tail wind, blissful, flying. creamed it, cleaned every ounce of it, wind wasnt an issue, cos it was in the lee of the hill. bombed it down to Evans, just taking it easy tho, cruising. noticed some event coming towards evans along godley track, and down Capt Thomas. Damn. runners. a race. anyway, top bike section of captthom was free, they were coming in where it used to end, and i managed to pick a big gap between groups, and was tailing these two people for a while, then several times just held back let them go til i saw the next few coming, then i'd take off, normal pace. cleaned all the usually tricky odds and sods. not so much fun having to curb my styles tho on the lower section... then on to sumner, and home along the road, into the wind, exhausted. utterly utterly burned out.

Sunday, had yard stuff to do in morning, so did that, and then got out about 12. headed across up rapaki, rode the valley for the top section, that was interesting, dabby, tussocks, ruts... steep too. then up singletrack, round vernon, then down the Old School Bowenvale. Sweet. cleaned everything as usual, blitzed it. lovely flow. then home.

weather permitting...

woke up sunday morning to fine, only for it to start raining just as i was about to head for steve's. rang him and we decided against it. so, instead, i jumped on the singlespeed and headed out to bottle lake. had a good spin round there, wasnt too wet at all. the hills would have been greasy with it, and rocks and roots might have gotten a bit nasty, but really, it wasnt all that bad. steve's excuse for piking was that he'd had a nasty headache all saturday... anyway, bottle lake, was fun. the singly is just perfect for round there. going as fast as you can the whole way. did a loop out left to nearly-spencer park, then when i got back to the carpark it was only an hour since i'd left home, so i headed back in, left, and out to beach track then south and back towards carpark, over the new trails and landfill, opposite direction to most recent jaunts out there... still got home by 10.30. was wet, drizzly rain, the whole spin. not that cold tho.

as usual, a sunday and a tuesday...

Sunday, tootled round to Pete's. Matt, him and me drove over to tony's, and we headed up Worsley's, round and down Kennedy's. all clay and dirt surfaces were greasy, making it a pretty tough climb up worsles, and making a few of the croc corners a bit sketchy... pete also had heaps of issues with flat tires, about 3, one at home, one half way up road, one at top of seal. i patched on on the go, and that was the eventual tube he ran home...

tuesday, i biked over to nelson's then to tony's then up worsles again, this time cleaning the whole thing, was good. checked out the whole of the illegal jumpy track, rode and walked up it. then cleaned the top, up marley's, down flying nun to kiwi, tony peeled off down dyers, and n and me carried on up to top of vic park, around the summit trail to bowenvale track and down that. the super steep sketchy rocky stuff was all sweeeeet, fun down, and out. massive group of cyclista at bottom of bowenvale and not a one said hello. buncha snobby wankers, may as well be roadies...

tuesday worsleysoutherly

Hot norwest day, til it turned southerly, which was just as i left home for Nelson's, then onwards to the hills. no Al, no rain, and no hooking up with the Angrywad crew. stronnnnnng head wind all the way across town to Worsleys, and then it blustered us about as we rode up there. discovered, but didnt ride, a piece of 'illegal' trail, with a fence jump and a wall ride (which looked shonky) off to one side a quarter of the way up the offroad. cleaned everything all the way to the top, where i blew it, spun out on a rock a couple of metres from the end. rode the rest tho, didnt walk at all. next, up to top of Marleys, stopped for a bit of a feed and a view, the low dark stormy looking clouds all ominous looking, glued to the top of Herbert and Bradley, just above the packhorse hut. then on down the flying nun, yippeeeee, tailwind then headwind then tailwind as we maneuvered the switchbacks. then bombed it down below dyers, tailwind pushing, making for silent smooth flowy riding. then up through vic, along the singletrack before the skidder site, i hadnt been up that for ages, then down Dazza's, down into the gulley, rode lines in there i hadnt ridden for a while too, then round the side, into the trees again, where i nearly bailed rutted in three evil parallel treeroots that were hidden just over a short vert drop, then took the tough line on the Washout (bottom of k2), then flew out the rest. awesome tailwind down bowenvale ave and home... fun!!!

singly thursday, and a post-too-much-chardonnay sunday...

Al and me met Alister at C1 on thursday, me and Alister on the singlespeeds. and lo and behold, James (tv1 cameraguy), roly, jeff and another dude were hangin' out waiting to ride too. the three of us headed off before them cos they were muckin about a bit. expected to see them somewhere on rapaki. Alister flew up rapaki. he must be on a 32 16 i think, which was noticeably spinnier, making for much easier climbing. so, anyway, i cleared nearly all of rapaki, just walking a small section of the top of the straight. then Jeff and James showed up while we were sitting at the top. but roly was miles back so james took off back down for him. and the three of us carried on round the single track. saw another black dmr swtchbck further round the single. good spin round the singletrack, i even cleaned the first two switchbacks above rapaki. then down through vic, the gums, tootled along to top of cool runnings again, which was rather sticky, freshly dug dirt and a few days of rain will do that. then out the bottom, flying the whole way. nice ride.

then today, sunday, round to petes, drove out to scumner, checked out Pete's new bike for first time, very nice lightweight yeti 575, beautiful chris king hubs and headset. X9 sram and xtr kit all over it, and juicy carbons. sweeeeeet. lighter than the switchback... up capt thom, me hung over as too much Hurunui River Chardonnay last night, ugh... then out godley, cleaned heeeaaps of the first section. nice run all the way, steve had an off trying to be cheeky by cutting a corner to get in front of me. good flight down the Anaconda, tho i was losing it a bit on some of the corners. hoofed it back over from taylors to a coffee, a ginger beer, and a choccy chip cookie at DotCom...

sunny sunday sanguine sideswipe smash

Expecting to see just Steve and Pete, arrived at Steves, 9.30 sunday, to find Matt and Tony and Steve and milan. no pete, kidney infection, no good...

Hot norwest beautiful sunny day. headed up Rapaki, swapped with Steve briefly to try the Nomad on the hill... sure is cushy, but felt to me like it had a flat tire, just the cush. man, you'd get lazy sittin in an armchair like that all the time. he didnt like the rough ride of the hardtail so we swapped back promptly. on we tootled up rapaki, Tony doing very well. cruise cruise, to the top. waited for Steve, then off to the left. along singletrack, feeling pretty good. then along road, then bombed down Castle Rock singletrack to bridle, keeping a healthy distance between steve and me. he's certainly faster on the technical downs on the Nomad than he ever was on the Scott. then along summit road to John Brittan's reserve, round the singletrack in there. seems to be a bit neglected by bikers, not a lot of evidence of a lot of use.

then onto the Richmond Hill singletrack... yummy. climbed up nicely from the road to high point. down to the trees for a quick feed and drink and rest. then, into the descent. flying. steve hung on a bit but i made some space between us, i was creaming the whole trail, just flying, round the hill over the slats, past the tree to the little climby bit, and stopped just before the downhill to rest and wait for the others. steve cruising up first. then not too far, ie, a lot less than he would have been in the past, behind him was Tony. then matt and then milan. i heard later that both matt and milan had been over their bars, low speed...

then on down. me workin' to keep steve and black-betty off my tail, i was pleasantly surprised by a white helium baloon wafting by, about 5 m off the ground, just quietly floating by... anyway, on wards down, switchbacks left, right left right over through the fence, into the wee valley, around and towards the bit that used to have a nasty off camber drop to the left which was fixed not that long ago, i come flying into it, see its all rutted, then lose it. barely keeping control i'm all askew falling falling, smaaacckkk scraape into the bank, clay and rocks. points of contact, shin, knee, elbow and two random bruise scrapes in my inner thighs that must be from the bike. YOW! but i leapt straight back on the bike and kept it rolling. a bit sore, slowly at first, then a bit better, steve catching me a bit now. then on down, out to the road where i stopped and had a good look at my wounds. nice bit of dust and blood. the others all eventually arrive and we chatted a bit, but then i realised i was seizing up so off we went again, down the Capt Thomas. this time i was a little more careful, but my balance was a wee bit off, making for one VERY close call in the second of the rock sections. cleaned every bit of it, including all the bits i used to baulk on, thankfully, and steve did too, for the first time ever. awesome run down, even rode the fence/stile gap which is nice and wide now. and on down to Dot Com. coffee and laughs comparing wounds to two other bikers in there that day sporting similar scrapes and bruises to me. cruise home, arriving just after 1.

Singlespeed Heck

Singlespeed Heck, cos it really wasnt quite as bad as hell...

Twas a good ride last night. I've swapped the Mary bars off the geared switchback onto the singlespeed switchback (involving a new rear cable and outer, reusing the old rear cable and outer on the front). this was my first ride with them on the singlespeed, which i was on cos i thought we were meeting fellow singlespeeder Alister. But he had crossed wires and thought we were riding thursday, so didnt show, so, ended up being me, Al and Nelson, and then these other two guys who happened to be meeting at C1 as well, who Nelson has ridden with on the HQ shop rides, Roland and Jeff (and actually were in the group the other week when my pedal broke). anyway, we all tootled across to rapaki, met another guy on the way (tv1 cameraman who was also on the illfated broken pedal ride), and piled up the hill. i was good to go for a while, cleaning the road happily with Al, then hitting the trail fine, cruising to first gate, where i over took some people and one of them said, astoundedly, "*gasp* singlespeed!" I was good for a while, but then i blew my energy a about half way between Roger's Track and the Manuka, so i walked a little bit, much to the joy of the others, who said things like, "Oooh! Look at all my gears, i think i'll change down! ah thats better" Then i got back on and gasped and struggled til the flat bit where i picked up the pace and got my breath back. with a good run up on the straight i made it 3/4s of the way up it and had to get off and walk again, feeling a severe lack of energy... still made it to the top in pretty good time to the others waiting.

they went off round to the left and back, and i made a start on the singletrack to the right, walking up the switchbacks, then riding, then walking again from top of farmtrack, off piste to the top of those next two switchbacks. then i waited. and waited and waited. finally, nelson hove into view, shortly followed by the rest, and from then on i was in my element, pushing them all hard, all the way round to the sugarloaf saddle... the singlespeed absolutely sings around the singletrack. from there, nelson and i lost the others completely, we were hummin'!

then down through the gums, and did cool runnings. personally, i liked it in the old days when it was all gnarley and rooty and technical... but yep, i'll concede, it is fun. we all stopped while this guy (who was riding in a different group we kept seeing) on a Felt (7 inches in rear, 6 up front) did that wooden structure drop...twice. roland filmed it. should be on their website, which is www.angrywad.com . then out the gulch, round the sidle, down 'the washout' and out the valleybottom. speeeedy. love the way the singlespeed just floats over everything, i'm very impressed by its handling.

then rode home with Al, with a DODGEY incident with this young C*NT in a car who came flying up behind us on Eastern Tce, and practically forced us off the road at the intersection with Tennyson St. little shit, wanted to smack his car up. i told him what for, and we gave him evils the rest of the way along Eastern, and he pulled over and stopped half way along. Al gave him a silly wave as we departed...

Hanmerations

found myself in hanmer over the weekend, arrived late friday night. the bike (geared) was accompanying me too, sooo...

Saturday morning, bout 10 headed out, mp3 soundtrack consisting of Milanese, the new DJShadow, Coco Solid, a couple of Pavement tracks, and Deaf in the Family, on random.

road around to and up Chatterton's Valley. grunted up the Link Track, grannied up past the pylon, keeping the nose down, ass right forward on the seat, huffin and chuffin, cleaned it and proceeded to enjoy the downhill through the pines around followed by the short climb to Jack's Pass Rd. Next section, the downhill on the Tank Track. beautiful, a little rutted at top, but otherwise in supreme condition. then back to Pawsons, roll down to the Yankee Zephyr. another granny geared climb to top, then the swoopy fun downhill, with Pavement's lyrics "i'm weavin'" very aptly backing my sweeper followed by sweeper followed by sweeper down, cross Pawsons, onto Swamptrack, right down it and around back to road, then small climb up, down to Timberlands, grunt up that, middle ring i think, to Jolliffes Skidder site. up Jolliffes saddle track, cleaning all the switchbacks on the way down to the first Dog stream bridge, then flew all the way down to second bridge, one close call where i locked up in some gravel towards some trees. somehow managed to survive. crossed the lower bridge and found the entrance to the detox, up that, and down, my first time on this trail, one nice rock drop midway down. then back up MacIntyre's rd to Dog Stream, down that, up Jolliffes Rd, then out up and down the Red Rocks trail, fantabulous, then back had a nose in at the flat forest tracks, decided against them, and headed back to house. 2 hours. total alt, 740m, longest up only 190m.

Sunday morning. same soundtrack. up Jacks Pass Rd, down tank track, up Yankee Zephyr, and down, yay, then before lower Swamp track, peeled up the Majuba trail, which descends quite nicely and spits you out at bottom of Timberlands. up that. then out Red rocks again. then down DogStream all the way down to the campground, back through town, to tidy house.

all good.

Monday and then Little Akalala

Rode with Nelson on Monday after i'd gotten my pedals back. we rode across to and up Worsley's. the body bag got the better of me, mind you, we'd been pushing the envelope by riding the most technical lines we could actually ride all the way up, so that was fun. then up marleys, down to kiwi, blitzed that, awesome. then up road to top of Vic, round summit trail, all the climbs taxing me heavily, but i was fine on the downs and flats. then down Bowenvale, cleaned all the trickiest. funny, i always clean them when i'm with Nelson, but often bail when i'm not... anyway, bottom of valley, and home across town. good spin, couple hours.

Weekend, lonnnng weekend at little ak. went over thursday night, with the singlespeed. got a ride in on saturday, beautiful hot norwest day, stunning, rode up the road to Chorlton, then up View Hill Rd. Walked from "the crow's nest" for a while, then rode and walked a couple more times. all the way to the top gate. fantastic views of the Kaikouras and Brighton beach and chch coastline in general, not to mention the hillsides surrounding l.ak. then turned and the descent began. speedy, lots of off piste following cattle or sheep trails which parallel the track. the tuck it in and fly down the road into the bay. nice. dunno how long i was up.

then sunday Andrew W. came over with his wife and two kayaks and bike. so we took off and rode exactly the same ride. he'd done the Wharfdale the day before, in appalling conditions, so was a little sore from that, and crashing, but made it all the bits i made on the singly. same ride, all the way up to the gate, and back. the boneyards of totara stumps and logs up there are stunning. was overcast and cooler easterly when we did it...

off to hanmer this weekend.

pedal disaster... ish

tuesday last, i headed to HQ to join Nelson and Craig and some others at 6pm on a 'shop' ride. we decided to head up Worsley's, so we all headed down Colombo and round the Heathcote. along the river, towards hackthorne road my right pedal started to feel really weird, like wonky, i thought, this isnt right... and kept riding. then opposite Princess Margaret's hospital the bloody thing broke off, leaving this short stub behind. the actual axel had fatigued and broken... so, i turned and limped home, and as it was only 6.35 when i got home i decided to take the singlespeed out to bottle lake, so i headed out there, on the way seeing the result of a ute pulling out in front of a motorbike, just up the road on North Parade, (i'd heard the sirens 5 minutes before i left home), they were loading the biker onto a stretcher, he was a good 5 metres from the ute, his bike had left a big bike shaped dent over the front wheel...
anyway, after that had a great ride, spinning spinning spinning, pushing the limits of my tires on the corners, out along the beach a bit, then back in, then out towards Spencer, when my right hand pedal started to feel a bit wonky. i thought, naah, surely not.. but sure enough, i was cruising along a section of singletrack and wooop, the pedal fell off, same side, broken in exactly the same place. WHAT ARE THE ODDS!? twice in one day??? so, i started limping back, by now my shoe is starting to get a bit rough and both legs are sore from their respective innefficiencies, the left from pushing too much, the right from having to constantly reposition on the turning stub. i rang tracey who was ont he way home from dinner at a friend's and she came picked me up, mind you, i'd still managed to ride all the way down Burwood Rd, almost to the river...
so, 2 crankbros pedals broken, both same side, so i was bikeless. took them into Craig at HQ the following day, paid for the courier to the distributor, and yesterday, sunday, got them back... life time warranty. nice one.

RailTrail, and UP bowenvale (oldschool)

Last sunday, had a go on the Motukarara-Little River Rail Trail... Met my folks out at Motukarara, us with Otis, and were supposed to meet T's mum too. her jeep was there but no her, so we assumed we'd catch her up, and as there was no cellphone reception round there we couldnt get hold of her. cellphone reception was very intermittent all the way along there.
so, off we went, nice slow pace, as my olds arent overly bike fit. about 4kms in dad realised he'd left his bag behind, so off i spun, me on my singley, back to his car. calculated that if they're travelling half my speed onwards, they'd be 4kms on when i got back to where i left them, and another 2kms on when i got to the point they were then i got back to my starting point, and theoretically i should have caught them at the 8km mark, as for every km i made, they were travelling half a km. as it was, i probably made them at about the 7km mark, and we stopped at 8 km mark, Kaituna Quarry, for lunch. No sign of Joy, so they turned back and i went on to look for her. i spun and spun and spun, left Lake Ellesmere behind, rounded Birdlings Flat and headed towards Lake Forsyth. called Joy's cel and she's sitting in Little River having a feed. i said, i'll join you, and txt'd T telling her to leave without me i'd ride back to vehicle with Joy and get a ride. pedalled on for another couple kms towards Joy, and was almost at Catons Bay, which is the end of the trail and from where you have to ride the road up to Little R. Then suddenly it dawned on me, i had dad's car key in my pocket from when i went back for his bag... ugh. so, i txtd tracey, hoping she'd get the msg, and rang Joy to say i was turning back, sorry, and i turned back and hauled... now, i'm around 19kms from the cars, have already pedalled that 19, plus the 8 return earlier, on my singlespeed running a 2 to 1 ratio. mental thoughts, one was 'for every rotation i'm travelling approximately 2m, so, how many rotations in 10 seconds, how many in a minute, x60, how many kph, how long am i gonna be doing this for... and also, was wishing the wind was stronger and i had a sail... wind assist on railtrails is somethign that should be considered seriously... anyway, made it back to the others, about 15 or 20 minutes after them, is how slow they were going. we never did see joy either.

cruddy weather during week, so last night, thurs, drove across, parked at end of Bowenvale Ave, and headed up the Bowenvale track... boy, she's sure steep. with gears, granny, pedalled, walked, pedalled, walked, pedalled, walked, pedalled, walked, pedalled, pedalled, walked, pedalled, walked, pedalled, sunset was at 7.31 (daylight savings now! yay!!!) so i gave myself til 7.25 to get to summit trail, or i'd turn back downhill. made it, so i bombed round the summit into the southerly and then down through vic park, through the gums, down Dazza's, down through the valley track from there, out round the sidle, down and out to car. total round trip, 1 hour. nice. home in time to finish putting O to bed and for T to go to movie with Joy.

branching legs... mongomery, singles, rapaki

well, i had a nice wee ride last night. up rapaki, overtook a few riders, then up onto Montgomery Spur, up and round its farmtrack. AWESOME views from up there, feels like you're on top of the world, probably cos its a view we're not used to. then up onto the very top of it, to the trig. quite a few hawks up there. and the wind was howling... and there were sheep with lambs, but at first i couldnt see any lambs, but as i got closer, i saw them sheltering amongst tussocks. With the sun getting low and orange, and the easterly haze, and the wind and the big view, it was pretty spectacular. two lambs saw me, maaaa-ed at me, and then started to chase me, so i took off, flew down off piste over rocks and onto the track again. thought about heading along the ridge, above rapaki, under the pilons, but realised that section IS private land. so headed down onto main track and up the normal way to top.

turned left onto singletrack, just the first section out to end and back to top of rapaki, then continued on along singletrack up to top of Farmtrack, then turned around and rode back down singletrack to top of rapaki again. Then, down rapaki flat tack, full tilt. (one stupid woman runner at the bottom of the straight (me doing probably 60 or 70k?) wouldnt move off the packed part of the track, forcing me to cut pretty close to her to avoid getting into the loose stuff, ugh). At middle gate i saw a guy heading down ahead, just disappearing over far corner, so i chased, caught him just after the lone Manuka, overtook him amongst a bunch of people coming up.

my line was smoooooth all the way down, had the groove on, the flow, i was FLYING... quite a bit of traffic too, bikers and runners and walkers, i must have looked a sight, flying down hill like that, spittin' gravel out under my tires as i drifted round the corners, pedalling on the straights...

sunday CaptThom/WorkerBee/Anaconda. Tuesday Mcleans

sunday Andrew picked me up early, and we met steve at sumner. steve with his Nomad... up Capt Thomas, steve a wee bit slow, due to heavy bike and still getting used to it. me on the geared switchback.

At the top due to meet Ranger Nick for maintenance session on the trails. he turned up and a couple other people too, so we rode the Godley singletrack out to where we were working. cleaned more than i expected to, but still didnt make it up the roughest section of rockiness... great spin out to worksite.

work site included a fall-line rut that was just being exacerbated by water flow and people rutting it, so we did a big S curve that ran across it. basically grubbed a line into the dirt, little bit of banking on a two bends. put in an hour and a bit of work and hit the trail again, on out to breeze col and down Anaconda. rocked that. riiiight up on the berms, flying the jumps. awesome. then good ride out of Taylors, down to coffee at DotCom, lift home.

Tuesday night, Steve picked me up, we drove out to McLeans Island to the new Mtnbike park. it officially opens on Sunday to the public. but the trails are all finished, so we figured we're just doing everybody a favour by marking out the lines... besides, plenty of people have been riding the new track. its pretty sweet. nicely made, very easy tho, not exactly challenging. i took the singlespeed. met Andrew, Hubby, and Mark out there. had a good spin, 12 kms loop. some ups and downs, on the stopbanks. most corners have a nice berm on them. nothing technical tho. good beginners track. i prefer bottle lake, except for the sand. have to take T and O round it, also mum and dad sometime...

gonna head out tonight too. cos only did one lap last night and it wasnt really enough...

post work pre daylight savings...singlist...

Dan and me left work at 4.30. Me on the singlespeed. spun across to Halswell Quarry Park, 10kms, and hit the Crocodile. i made it round the first couple of switchies, but walked the next couple. then beautiful section thru the trees and down into valley, then up the switchback section, walked most of them, rode a couple. rode most of the track up, there were one or two bits, especially the switchies, that got me tho. Dan did really well. then walked the first straight of Kennedy's up to tanks, rode next bit to top of singletrack, swooped down to gate, then rode 90% of that big long straight from the gate, levelled off so pedalled again, pretty much all the way up to next gate, then the hell bit began. Dan cleaned it all, which is great for a novice. said it helped that i'd given him the tip of butt forward on seat, and chin near your bars, gettin' down low for the steepest climbing... i walked the whole steep bit, no way is 38:18 gonna clean that...

then pedalled round Summit Rd, up Worsley's, walked up first gravelly section of Marley's, then creamed it down the flying nun, and on down to the kiwi, smooth, flowy. i love the lightness and quietness and springiness of the singley. its a dream, it just floats over rough stuff, no harsh bottoming out. got to Kiwi about 6.10, so, with 11 minutes to sunset, flew down Old Dyers track, and got to the road crossing about sunset, headed up into Vic, cleaned all that track again, then up to skidder, down Dazza's, the new section nearly pitch black, fun!, and then bypassed the section below the 40footer into the valley, round and down K2. and out. flashies home. spin spin spin. nice. excellent ride, was 2 hours 15 from work to bottom of bowenvale. sweet. dan enjoyed it, bailed a couple of times. i stayed on.

sunday just gone, evening

drove over to Nelson's, we hit the road, across to rapaki, good pace up, but i was feeling stuffed, then around first section of singletrack to top of farmtrack, but light was definately gonna run out on us, so hit the road round to where singletrack crosses. then we headed down Bowenvale (i seem to have been frequenting that a lot lately). i noticed as we were descending that the city's streetlights were on, but we could still see fine. i cleaned all the bits i sometimes dont, and had a swoopy great descent. then we rode back to N's with our flashy lights flashing...
Hoping to get a singlespeed ride in tomorrow (thurs) night...

Steve's gotten his Nomad. Havent had the pleasure of seeing it yet, but will do on Sunday... working bee planned, probably godley head.

explorations...

home off work cos of a sick Otis, in the afternoon my folks came by and so i took advantage of them and took off for a quick ride, because T is off to Wellers for a few nights, and it was the last chance i'd have for a ride before sunday afternoon, and the weather turned to rain after dark so its just as well i wasnt out night riding, which had been the plan... so. anyway, took the geared switchbacker across and up FarmTrack, and as i passed Roger's Track (to Dry Bush Track) i thought, 'why not'... so, tight tight singletrack, walking track really, up the valley between Vernon spur and Huntsbury, some rideable, some walking, til the last bit to a funny shelter they've built on the hillside, walking carrying bike up to it. trail continued, but i'd had enough and so carried the bike on my shoulders and wheeled, back up to the Farmtrack. still below the pylons and middle gate!!! continued up there, onto summittrack, right, along, over the road, along and then Down down down the Bowenvale. lovely riding.

funny to be on the geared bike, as i was leaving home, lifting it out the front door i couldnt believe how heavy it was. which, compared to the singlespeed it is. also, riding up in low low gears didnt feel right after all those standing in the pedals cranking rides...

anyway, down bowenvale, met a guy on a 29er Salsa softtail (nice) riding UP it! nice. i'd thought i might ride up it last night, but piked and took farmtrack instead... anyway, headwind home across from bottom of Bowenvale valley, round trip around 1 and half hours...

Sunday morning, Hill, single...

annnnnd, another ride on the singlespeed. i'm getting hooked methinks. mainly from the challenge of it. i know i can easily cruise up the hill on the geared Switchie, but can i make it on the single? well, now. yes. i did it. all but 20 or 30 m around the top corner on the Rapaki. and it wasnt nearly as much of a grunt as the last time.

so... here's how the ride rolled. spun over to steve's sunday morning, just Andrew, Steve and me, headed up rapaki, turned right onto summit trail, i walked the hairpins and the little steeper bit then rode to top of farmtrack, then walked up to top of next hairpins, and rode the rest of the way. we cruised the summit trail, the 38:18 is perfect up there, before heading below the road, met a dude on an Azonic Steelhead, also singlespeed, who said, "good to see another real bike"... his had massive tripleclamp Fox forks on it, was one sweet ride. he was gonna head down the Nat's track. chased him for a bit and i caught up to him but then backed off to wait for the others. smooth riding all the way round, we got to top of Vic park and decided to head for Kiwi, up summit a bit and do lower Marley's and old Dyer's... again, 38:18, excellent. major slip (that'd been graded) just near the end of that, dyers pass road down to one lane with a traffic light... mucky smelly track. then up through vic park- really thought i'd blow the hairpin on the way up there, but cleaned it, veeeerrrry slooowwwly, then up to the skidder site, over and down to "My Favourite" which, as mentioned last week has berms and yumps in it now. then out gulley sidle track to K2 and out bottom. nice bit of work done down there since last week, repairing up the damage done by the slips and floods of last month... across town home. loads of cop action, on the way to, and on the way home from, the ride.

sulphuryellowbottlelakespeedsingle.

spinny spinny out to the forest after work, bout 5pm. hit the carpark, headed in and turned right, cos i'd not explored how the new area on the old dumpsite had connected...

well, after crossing the sealed road you spin through the now quite tall (and dark within) forest towards the dump mound. and lo and behold, it connects directly across the cross road you used to head toward Bower Ave on. so, a bit of a pump up the hill and along the top and weeeeeeeee down into the edge of a good sized stand, then into the duney burned bit i'd explored to previously from the other end. then through, over the whoopee jump, and down the standard road towards the beach, then along the coast trail, then into the maintrails again past the dump fence. then when you have the option of turning right to go to Spencer Park or left to go back to the Waitikiri end, i took the right option cos it was closed last time i was out there, new trail, which eventually connects/becomes the old trail. where i caught up to KT (an ex) and her beau, had a wee chat, then took off again back round toward the main entrance, spin spin spin. excellent gear for the forest. just knuckle in and pedal pedal pedal.

Everything is yellow out there, from the pollen. amazing. saw clouds of it blowing off the trees as we flew in from Vegas last week.

back out and on the road home. flashies needed, bout half six. then home, quick wipe down and change, and onto townie to get to dinner at C's at bottom end of Wilson's Rd. 10 minutes later, bottle of beer in my hand, and then wine and a delicious chinese poached wild pork on steamed veges and noodles. YUM.

singlespeeeed

spun across to bottom of rapaki this morning on the Switchback (18inch) singlespeed. met andrew, and off up we headed. fuark thats hard work. i cleaned all the way to end of trees, then up past first corner, then just blew and walked for a bit, then rode a bit, then walked a bit, then on the flattened out bit i rode then made it half way up the straight of the last slope, walked to just round the bend then rode the rest of the way. haaaaarrrd. very very hard. anyway, got on the singletrack, walked the first switchback section and then hopped on again, round to top of Farmtrack, walked up, off piste, next section to just after the upper switchbacks, then rode rest of way. from there on, it was a blast on the singletrack. slightly faster than the usual pace round the singletrack, and you hold speed more and it is just fantastically quiet. no chainrattle or clunk chunk of the gears... exquisite. blew a spoke at top of lavaflow, didnt realise it til a bit further round... wobbly back wheel. then down through gums, down to 'my favourite' which has all changed, new berms and jumps and new lines all the way through, then out valley to k2 and out. messy down bottom of valley, there'd been slippages and trees down in that last month of storms. then said my good bye to Andrew and headed down Colombo for a couple of spokes. fixed them up this afternoon... work tomorrow. will clean more of rapaki next time. an excellent work out, upper and lower body. gonna buff me up real good.

ROTORUA, 2006 UCI... and riding...

Where to start????

Vegas. The Worlds. Boxed up the Switchback and flew up Thursday last week. Watched some trials, downhill practice, and then the big event of the day, 4X on Friday. Saturday was the DH day, in the am when we got there we skylined up to top and walked rest of way to the start gate, then perched at various positions all the way down the course, watching the first drop from the start for a while, then the Kia Kaha jump, then down into the Larches, which was an INSANE section, then further and further down as the day progressed, to end up next to the Wall ride for the last few riders, seeing them hurtling past, inches away at probably 70 kph was amazing. then sunday was the XC, women in the morning, where we were positioned for their last little bit before the finish, and then afternoon the mens, We started up near the top of the course, in the wide open section then made our way down the trails again. all very good...

then, monday, round to Waipa Mill entrance to the Mtnbike park in Whakarewarewa. Tracks we hit first session: the Repco, the Creek, the vetta, Challenger, Diamondback, sidewinder, the Grinder, and i'm bummed i missed the Rosebank... took time out for lunch, then after chatting with Jeff Anderson(Jeffson), of kiwibikes he suggested we ride up the tarawera road and up hill road and down Hot X buns etc... so, took his advice, and did it. hot x buns, hot, then B rude not 2, and pig track, which strangely spat us out on Nursery road so we just followed that up and out the Exit.

tuesday, drove beautiful roads out to Murupara, then on to Minginui, and Whirinaki, brand new track, purpose built, very very very fun downhill sections, but mostly it needs work, packing down firming up... awesome country tho. north island Kahikatea and Tawa forest.

wednesday, back into Whakarewarewa, up to top of Gunna Gotta, down A trail, up Tickler, along Link(?) road to Hill road, up up up Moerangi road, top to Billy T, down Chesnut links to rollercoaster, then chopsuey, springroll and the other one. then down B rude not 2 and nelson and me went up Lions Trail, looped about in the sidewinder again then out the Exit/Rat/NDo trails... sweeeeeet. all up, only did B rude not 2 twice, all the rest once, and probably had 9 hours total of riding in there. thats pretty impressive. you'd have to cover the porthills and bottle lake to get something similar here. and still there was stuff in whakarewarewa we could have done. and i'd so love to do some of those trails again and again and again...

will fill in these details at a later date, by updating...

wet week, singlespeed, nice weather, sunday ride, snow, VEGAS...

aannnnnd another week off. more rain, devastating destruction of the hills, slips etc... firstly, took posession of my singlespeed. DMR Switchback, 18 inch, with my old marzocchi forks, titec bars, some cheap tektro brakes, second hand wheels, and a bunch of goodstuff that Kris put on for me. have spun it a little around river, tweaked positioning of seat etc for comfort, still one or two tweaks to do. might run Freud with it this evening after work.

so, sunday, nice mild norwest day. spun to Pete's, drove to sumner, rode up Evans Pass Rd on account of there being Track Closed signs on Capt Thomas (which wasnt stopping runners...). then hit the singletrack out to Godley. Cleaned more of the first section that i expected to, but still blew it on the worst rocks. cleaned pretty much the whole rest of it. not bad nick the first few kms. was round on the flatter grassier bits, looking down into taylors that the trail's a mess. mud mud mud mud, near those boardwalk bits. black sticky grassy mud amongst tussocks. then the downhill from that flatter area to the first col was SO rutted as to be impossible to keep
upright on without having the feet out on either side. then i was on a good roll til i got a snakebite pinchflat. bang! fiss fiss fiss fisssss fisssssssssss... jumped off and ran the rest of the way down to the col. slipped in my new tube, and we all rode on. (i patched the snakebitten tube yesterday, it had two biiig splits in it). the next section was really good til the last bit down to the Breeze Col. then up and over the last hill, cleaned most of that too, down to the loo's and trees. very mucky down the last section of that too. then back round the single below the road to Breeze, then down Anaconda. i ROCKEd it. it was so flowy and smooth. bombed it. riiiight up the sides of the berms. then over Taylors, down through Nicholson, to Dot Com for coffees... excellent ride.

now its snowed again last night (monday) and the porthills are covered. they look beautiful, but now the tracks will be saturated again for another week or more... not to worry, we leave thursday for Rotorua, WORLD CHAMPS!!! and will watch Friday Saturday Sunday, and ride monday tuesday wednesday, Whakarewarewa, Whirinaki, Craters of the Moon, next week before flying back again on thursday... Switchie is pretty much packed in a box, ready to fly.

Saturday, super fine.

a week off, partly due to crapola weather, with 130mm of rain on tuesday alone, followed by a few days of fine... got out finally saturday afternoon, cos i werent gonna make sunday morning with the boys. A beautiful beautiful day, sunny, mild... hauled it across town to rapaki, up that, with its juicy scoured out ruts, hit the singletrack, walked the worst mud affected area, just above the shallow pond above the lower switchies, then rode the rest. holding together well, not much splatter at all. round the next section below the road, still the trail was good then off pisted it down through the tussocks following sheep trails to top of the oldschool bowenvale. had my headphones on, mp3player on random, mixing up Burial, new Fourtet's DJKicks, and Tunng's newest. weird mix of dark ethereal atmosphere, folk, and fourtetmixed beats/electronica/soul/80's synth... anyway, a good soundtrack to ride by. as i was descending the 4by switchbacks, a southerly whipped up real good. spittiness from the ominous cloudcover, rolling over the tops and blasting me down the 4by track, practically shunting me to a standstill when the switchbacks turned into it. thought it was gonna get worse so i didnt hang about. hit the singletrack sidle flying, there were areas like snowdrifts of clay, from where all that rain had pulled it out of the ground and washed it down hill. amazing. one set of tracks had passed before me, i wonder who, i wonder when. anywho, out to the bottom, with some treachery down the tunnel-eroded clay section at the bottom then onto the valley track, which was a mess. big slumpy slurries of mud all over that lower section, it was them that covered me in muck, not any of the rest of my ride... then tail wind all the way home, me thinking it was gonna chase me across town, but by Wilson's Rd it was still just hanging on the hills...

Rained a bit saturday night, then we had torrential rain all sunday night and monday. with snow on monday up there, so the trails are gonna be closed down for at least another week of it...

Yay, word from Kris is bike is ready. AND i scored some Mallets for $40. so i'm good to go, singlespeeeeeeeeeed. s'gonna be fun fun fun, which is what its all about !

Sunny and fine wednesday, should be drying out them tracks...

drizzly crashville mud and blood.

Sunday morning, rode over to Steves, tired as after a bit of a night before and only about 5 hours sleep... Steve, Pete, Andrew, Tony and me, up rapaki, and turned right, all good, got foggier and wetter as we went higher, and was starting to get muckier as we travelled around the tops. single track was all good, with the technicality of the slick rocks and mud covered tires getting the better of us occasionally, resulting in the odd dab... down to the kiwi, then up the road to top of Worsley's and down. started down the Body Bag (top of Worsley's) and my tire instantly started picking up dirt, til it was an inch thick, offering NO traction, i got rutted, front wheel washed out, i held it for a second then went down hard on my front, landing on my chest. nice. got up, tried to get going again and down i went again... classic. the worst bit over, i managed to hold on the rest of the way down. was a fantastic trip down, so greasy, and sketchy. just picking lines in the bottoms of ruts and interesting angles, trying not to wash out. blood mixing with mud running down my leg from two points on my right knee. we made a pact to go all the way down the tarmac part of worsley's road OFF road, found some sweet wee bits of riding too, and once at the bottom grabbed some muffins from Coffee Culture and headed round to Tony's for coffee-style-drink (ie, instant)... then Pete and me booked it across town, me exhausted, and mucky, home.

Tuesday now, and we've had torrential rain overnight, with blustery conditions. soaked to the skin into work today, and head wind all the way. This is gonna screw the tracks again...

couple rides. one with a trailside fix, and folks for tea.

monday night, having not ridden since that last ride, i took joy's jeep across to bowenvale ave and then biked round Centaurus to rapaki, and up rapaki.

all going good, until i got onto the flat section riding across that and my gears shifted weirdly, then wouldnt shift properly, cable all slack as i tried to change up to get up the hill straight. stopped, and noticed frayed and snapped cable at rear derailleur. pulled the outers out, unscrewed the barrel adjuster, and found i couldnt budge the cable out of adjuster... damn. fiddled and fiddled, tweaked and pushed and pulled, to no avail. finally realised i could use the derailleur cable clamp to hold it, then slid the adjuster. then, disconnected the middle section of outer from the top tube cable mount, which gave me a bit of slack, then hooked it all up and i was away. the shifting wasnt particularly good, and i found it was a bit jumpy in the gears i wanted for climbing, but it was fine for downhill and back round the roads to the car... haha, not a problem i would have had had i been on a singlespeeeeeed...

tuesday, big day, two presentations which always freak me, so, hit the road at about 5.20, to steves for exchange of The Collective for Roam, then up rapak, round summit, down thru vic to ma'n'pas... where T and O were for dinner. all up a very sweet ride. only mud i encountered was in back of the top cashmere houses, just below the big microwave tower. other than that, the whole lot was dry and sweeeeet. singletrack rolling. blitzed the rockgarden and gums. nice.

next ride? not sure. singlespeed? hopefully this week.

sunday sunday

Caught up with Kris on saturday, have set the ball in motion on my singlespeed. he's getting what i need together, and i guess will do most of the build. will catch up next week, pay week etc, and be rolling the following weekend... looking forward to spinning like crazy on the flat and not worrying about chainsuck on the hills... sounds like i'll have a 38 tooth front ring, meaning i'll run a 17 or 18 on the back, but i might get a smaller one i can get onto for bottle lake, either than or another chain and bigger ring.

sunday, cold frosty start, rode across town to Tony's, steve pete and andrew turned up and we headed out cashmere road to the quarry. across the field was icey, crunchitty crunchitty crunch, then up the croc, cleaned all the switchbacks, rode the greasy mud section, then on up the rest... a few dabs, here and there, cos it was so damn slippery. then up kennedys, hard work that. Steve experiencing bad chainsuck in granny, had to run middle ring all the way up, good for him i said, pete and me both ran middle ring most of the way too, in sympathy, tho, i'd been running it anyway. then i started getting a bit too, later on, bastard bastard chain suckkk...

then along summit road, bit of snow up there on the sides and clearly up top of marleys, which we avoided, speedily rolling down road to ride the lower marleys section along to kiwi, sweeeeeet run on that lovely track, then up road to top of vic. along first section of summit trail below Sugarloaf, then up onto road due to the trail just being too messy, and us messing up the trail... round to Mt Vernon, we got up onto the single, which was a quagmire... greasy and mucky, rode it down to rapaki, its holding together surprisingly well, then we BOMBED it down rapaki... lots of other users, walking, biking, dogging,,, slow to manageable speed on approach then kick it down and bomb it again just as you're passing... lotsa fun. a couple of times i was catching beautiful air right next to punters, musta looked grand. then the final bomb down the road, and the slog across town home. later than i should have been. pretty munted for rest of day too.

Fog bound, for a bit...

amazing up on the hill last night. up the wee valley below Rapaki. that involves quite a bit of scooting, getting off, walking, pushing, and granny gear pedalling. it was about the same fogginess/low cloud as the rest of town, not too bad. when i got up to where my track met the Rapak i got onto the main track, cos my valley track was actually a bit muddy, the fog got thicker and thicker and thicker as i ascended. the headlight just glowed up the whole field of view, no visibility, barely even see the trail, anyway, got to the top, completely engulfed in fog, it was other-worldly, spectacular, light off and there was no glow from anywhere, just dim fog all around, it was 7 when i was at the top. another cycle headlight started to appear in the fog on rapaki, so i headed off up the single track... up the first two switchbacks and along a bit and suddenly i could see the lights of the city, and there behind me was a wall of fog, a tongue of it rolling over the saddle that is the top of rapaki, the suburbs at the foot of the hill were clear of fog by this stage, and the ridges and hill i was on were clear too. but out to the western side of the city, and north of about the square was completely under fog, with the city lights below making the fog glow, it looked beautiful...so, when i got to the road, i turned back along the summit trail, then down Farm Track. about half way down i deliberately left the track, and just rode sheep tracks most of the rest of the way down. that was fun. then home across town. good ride.

Turd'sday night...

relatively short but strangely long ride. rode to pete's, drove to pick up steve, then a roundabout way to Halswell Quarry. rode up the Crocodile, drier still, and wonderfully cleaned all of the muddy section down to the bridge, and every single switchback. up Kennedy's track to top of single, then back down.

muddiest sections were on the flat riding across to the bottom of the track., and one small section just before the frogpond and square log down off kennedys.

all in all, nice night to be out, bike needs a hose and a lube. thinking it might be time to change out my fork oil. and perhaps pull down my wheels and re-lube the hub bearings and probably pull apart the pedals and clean everything and of course force some grease into the headset...

no riding over weekend as i was sole charge of Otis.

Basking.

well, i went for a quick ride last night. it was beautiful on the hill. the moon was nearly full, tho partially shrouded by cloud, practically rode all the way up rapaki without my light on. it was warm and the air was fresh. whereas town was disgusting, smoggy and freezing cold. the moment i got up Rapaki Rd a little ways it was easily 10 degrees warmer. nuts.

had my mp3 player, GOOD sounds (Prefuse73 Security Screenings, Department of Eagles, Tunng, Burial, Open Souls) on random all the way.

trails are in good nick, no muddy bits anywhere, and a lot of repairs done on them where they were damaged earlier.

so, alls i did was ride up rapaki, here's Switchy at the top, looking down the Avoca Valley, Montgomery Spur the dark lump above the seat..., (gotta love that low res phone pixt schwag) then from here, rode round summit trail to Bush Head then turned around and rode back and back down Rapaki...

Greeeaaaasy sunday

FREEEEZING start, huffed across to Steves in the early frost of sunday, just pre 9 am, fingers and toes going numb in the process, but merino hood and Jetson windfleece keeping the core temp good... tony, hubb, andrew, pete, steve and me, assembled, pete realising he'd left his helmet took off home to get it while Andrew set up the camera on pete's bike.

headed up rapaki, warmed up enough to shed some layers by the first gate. on up, good spin, tony only lagging a little. tons of bikers around. turned left along single track, only that first little bit was mucky and the rest was sweet. then up road to Castle Rock, hit the single track there and it was grreeeaaasy. not muddy, just soft moist dirt, and slippery rocks. the odd patch of muddiness, til maybe 30-40 m before the first hairpin, then things started getting a bit sick... then after the first hairpin there was this trench forming, best to stay in it as at this point the hillside is steep and getting out of the trench means you're cutting up the rest of the dirt around it. but, one hole was almost up to the disks. pretty much dab-scooting along through all of this. then trail tidied up before the next hairpin and was good rolling from there... Andrew and Tony had sped down the road and were waiting for us at the top of Bridle Path. Andrew because he wasnt wearing clipable shoes...

then along road to johnbritten reserve, singletrack through there was sweet. i really enjoyed it, cleaned all the rocky bits with only one dab. then down to Richmondhill trail... first off the road the trail is very very nasty. the hillside is very boggy and where the trail should be is becoming a quagmire, so everybody's skirting it, thereby widening it. this section should probably be avoided and people should be entering from the old 4wd track down by the trees. anyway, once past the worst section the rest was sweet. stopped for a top up at the ruins.

the descent... i led, got away ahead, slithering and drifting all over the place. again, the singletrack was just greasy, with rocks a tad slippery, and only one or two wetspots. bombed it all good, round the corner to the native trees (ribbonwoods or lacebarks, never can remember) and stopped just after the wee ups that get you out of the tree's gulley. everybody caught up and we all laughed at what a wrestle the riding was. then i took off again, pete relatively close to my tail, and not far below our stopping point i had some wicked speed on and my front wheel just waaassshhhhed out, and i started scooting then lept off and was running alongside my bike for a second, thinking all the time "i'm losing it, i'm losing it!" and then remounting and carrying on, to shouts of encouragement from pete on my tail... stuck in and got more speed on and bombed the rest of it. it was sweeeeet. the traction was just marginal with drifting and slithering and greasy being the best descriptors. bombed the last section down to the road, trying out some body positioning as read in the latest NZMTBR mag. low, and more forward than in the past. feel quite perched in the middle of the frame, not uncomfortable, and the bike seemed to relish speed in this position... regrouped above evans

and hit the Capt Thomas. i bailed on three of the trickier sections, due to the apparent slipperiness of the rocks, but pete cleaned them all. out to the bottom was great.

then i hoofed it round the road to Joy's, she gave me a lift home and then Tracey and Otis, Mary, and Joy, and me went out to bottle lake and rode some trails out there. Otis in the kiddy seat behind Tracey. he enjoyed it for a while, but ended up kipping a little and then grumpy.
all up, about 4 hours on the bike...