Paddy's Croc

picked up Nelson and we headed for the Quarry. arrived to find Wayne, Steve, Tony, Warren and Rex, and then Pete showed up. headed through the quarry park to the bottom of the crock. up that, cleaning all nicely, to bottom of Kennedys, then on up newtasty, young cattle all over the top half, that didnt seem to wanna get out of the way. i botched one of the little ups. nelson and me powering miles ahead of all the rest. regrouped at highest gate, then on over to the next one, nelson filming that descent with camera facing backwards on seatstay this time.

turned around, and climbed back up, then filming again, nelson leading, us all bombing down down down down. Nelson got bailed up by the twistytricky little rock gut on the lower section in the valley, i nearly crashed into him, and then pete ended up juuust bumping into me, coming to a halt with my pedal IN his front spokes. if he'd moved another 3 inches it would have taken some out. then onwards down, grunted up the climb, cleaning it, regrouped and on down the rest. some tasty sgilfs walking their doggie were a treat to behold, and on down to the cars... the others went for a st paddy's day beer while i went and got a bike for O.

para para again

went in and did it again. Started into Forest again, over Saddle, round Little River, up Ridge, down DH, up Estuary, up Ridge, down Ridge, round Big River, back out Forest, then up to Estuary trail, down that and back round the flat to car... was fun...
time limited me to doing only that again. spent 2 nights at Marahau and would have loved to have ridden the Kaiteriteri trails again, but family time took over and walked Anchorage back instead...

Rameka'd, and Parapara

En route to Totaranui on the 2nd March, T dropped me at top of Takaka Hill and i cruised out the Canaan Rd to end, 11kms in a bit less than an hour, prob 400 odd m of climb, then at end there's a sign, roughly 1 hour to bush edge, another hour to Takaka... well, dunno who that's for. 35 mins to bush edge and another 35 to Takaka.

Anyway, mint ride. was a beautiful day, perfect views everywhere, the road in was cool, only met two cars on their ways out. got to trailhead and hit the singletrack. wee climb to Rameka turn off, then the sidling benched gorgeous track began. winding in and out, less of a gradient than any of Wharfdale, middle ring cruising, roots, puddles, the odd stream crossing. nice flow... then, towards bush edge, finally a bit of a flowy descent, then into gorse, steeper, some mildly tech descent into a gulch, then back up other side on a carved out of a rocky cliff bench to the end of the track. 4wd for a km or so, then gravel rd down down down down to a Project Rameka sign (Kennett project), nice wee flowy piece of singletrack deviation from road on original rameka, and then back onto road, near miss with a 4wd coming up, and good bomb to a ford and valley bottom downhill gravel road for a good few kms out to a sealed road... hmmm, which way? left felt right, so took it and ended up about 3kms from Takaka on main road... 1 hr 10 or so since i left the Harwoods Hole carpark, surprising Chris and Lottie at the pub.


No real riding at Totaranui. just 5 days on glorious golden beach, bush, sun, some torrential rain and lotsa beer.


then Collingwood. so far, yesterday morning i drove round to the Parapara inlet, and hit the parapara trails. small, not even 1km sq piece of forestry, with about 60-80 m of altitude in it, and heaps of trails. followed signs, Forest Trail, Big River Loop, Little River Loop, Ridge Track, Estuary Track, Ridge again, estuary again, up an unnamed DH track, down Ridge, Saddle both ways, back round Big River and back round Forest. all up probably 1.5 hours? no idea how many kms or m alt, but a lot of it is twisty low speed stuff. the whole time i was thinking how cool a Pugsley would have been, bouncing over roots and stuff... fun tho.

Might try'n get in Aorere Goldfields, walked up there yesterday and looks like fun country... otherwise, we're prob off to Marahau in which case i'll try for Kaiteri again, or Nelson, do something there again...

Peaky.

I'm on Holiday!!!!!
Today, headed out 1.30-2ish, rode up Codgers to Tantragee and a guy had just come down off Fringe Hill, said its shut cos of the logging (that i could see up on the old devils tail). so, headed round Dun Mtn Walkway. good jaunt up there, probably an hour? less?? the wind damage from last year is madcore, whole faces next to ridges just clearfelled. mental. right pedal wouldnt clip in, had a look and it was bent, and the bolt/screw thingy that holds the whole spring set up for one half of the pedal was out. worked on it for 15 mins or so and just couldnt get it in, so tightened it up as best i could.

had a rest at 3rd House and then tackled the walk up through the decimation to windy ridge... probably 20mins carrying the bike. really messed up in there. then up the ridge a brief distance and whoopee, down Peaking Ridge (see here for last year's)(a year to the day, nearly!).

Absolutely more insane than i remember it. the new 'built' bits are few and far between, the rest is still just as rooty and crazy as before, except that there's huge expanses of it, maybe 40%, that have been windfelled. excellent work by the trail pixies who've been in and re-cleared it... a little way down i spotted my pedal wasnt looking so happy, so i took all the bits off and only had one half to clip into. so, even with that, no real tight moments, quite a bit more walking than last year, cos of the fact that it must have rained in the last 24 hours and the roots were a fair bit slippier than the dry trip down i had last year. the last section especially, i thought i remembered cleaning it all, but this time i bailed on quite a few of the steeper sections... had to keep myself safe, right?

anyway, got to bottom, Maitai River, and stayed on the side i was on (vs switching over cos of track work last time), and nice wee ride down benched singletrack to a bridge, then onto the gravel road alllllllll the way down the Maitai.

When the seal started, i popped over the river, and headed up Tantragee to the top and then down Codgers. back at Flamedaisy at 5.30ish.


Loads of bikers in town, cos Nationals are on this weekend, and a cyclone is about to hit. got this ride in today cos forecast looks like a LOT of rain... wet racers... the track was around Codgers, lots of tape around there.

Are your mcleans showing...

nelson, me, singlespeeds. 3 laps. just done. filmed looking backwards from nelson's bike for one lap. overtook a couple people, as well as a group of scouts we kept seeing, and got taken by one speedster on our second lap. he had gears and a nice new looking lightweight weightweenster bike, so it was no surprise really... anyway he only caught us on the straights, couldnt keep up in the corners. first lap, 23 mins, second a bit slower, third, maybe as fast?

Wednesday evening, Cashmere quick blat

Had Nainy over for dinner, so dropping her home up the hill decided to have a wee ride. Picked up Nelsy on way across town, and we hit it from her place, up the zigzag, gasping for air, up the Vic Park track, dropped down to Old Dyers, up to Kiwi, up road, checked out the trail progress into Gov's, they were working on it, looking good, nearly connected thru..., then up over marleys, legs tired on the up, followed by my best run down i reckon ever, then up thomsons, down thru Vic, with me doing the Seesaw for the first time ever - finally!!! then down through gummies, stopping and walking up to check out the madcore jumps track off next to bottom of them, then singletrack parallel to fire access down to 19th battalion and Rangerstation, poached paths up round info centre, then across playground, poached dog park where Nelson flatted, fixed that, easterly cooling us down a bit, then it was nearly getting too dark to see, picked our way down the barbedwire-kiss trail beside the pines, below the houses, explored past the no access to see why its no access, and understood why (trees down and gulch washed out), then back to Nainy's. All up a pretty short but good ride.

Sunday, Worsley 'nun gov dyers dazzas nats hidden oldskool

dropped in at work to set a process running, then hit road about 10. straight down Colombo, into Ernsley(sp?) then round river (nice jump on that bridge by Princess Marg's) to Cracroft river and up Worsley's. pretty warm. seemed like hard work but made pretty good time. made the top at 10.50, cleaning entire. seemed to be lots of bike-orienteerers around (Rogainers?), with checkpoint thingies up Worsley's and elsewhere i noticed.

Excellent bomb down the 'nun, the braking ruts not really all that bad, just gotta scrub the speed before them or ignore them entirely. lower rocks fun, then excellent run down lower til i got stuck behind someone. that made me decide to peel off up the little side track halfway down the lower section, and pop over onto the trail that drops into Gov's bay. i'd been wanting to check out progress on the new track. bumpy bomb down towards gov's, hung a right onto the new bit and pedalled on up. miles further than last time. surface a little bit sticky from recent(ish) rains. got to end of where they'd worked, and turned round and floated back down. nice flow. then worked it back up to the summit road, and over back onto the bottom of the nun. continued on into Old Dyers. spotted a couple of other riders a ways ahead. chased them down and passed them on the straighter bits, cruised round to Vic.

climbed up into Vic, took singletrack to skidder site, then hit Dazza's. peeled left before the bottom and grabbed Pono's down to the pylon, then down the Nat's course (avoiding the rock drop), bypassing the 23 footer, hoofing down into off camber, and crossing k2 and on down through the drop. then hung a right into the gorse and clambered up towards Hidden Valley. instead of going up through hidden, i took the old track. more work than hidden i think. up to pylon, and onto the Lower Old Skool. saw a guy ahead, chased him down took him before the newbits, and bombed rest of way down. bit of a head wind across town home. home by 12.15 - not bad timing.

Then, took O out to bottle lake, singlespeed and tagalong. rode in, hung a right, out to and along beach, then back in past the pond. he enjoyed it, i was feeling a bit tired tho.

Tuesday Lunchtime Blast

Left work just after 12. headed Manchester, High, Barbadoes, Waltham, Wilsons, met Nelson at Centaurus, we headed up Rapaki. pretty quick climb, first section graded flat and smooth, blatted to top. hard work. then up round Vernon singletrack, which had been weedeaten most of the way up, with very very very very dry grass all over the trail (this'd be hella slippery coming down). the weedeaters were parked up for lunch. Hit the first bit of Traverse, then bombed off piste and onwards down Old Skool. excellent run down there, cleaning all nicely. nelson made his leg bleed by scraping it with his back tire off balanced in a rut. lower section of singletrack full of sheep and shit and trodden up dusty trail. out bottom, Bowenvale Ave, Birdwood, Sandwich, round river to Colombo, all the way back to work, Nelson peeling off at Milton... back at work by 1.45.

this was just what i needed after a more than a week off the bike.

Packhorse, pack of heat...

Mint ride yesterday with Nelson. rode over to his place by about 8.30, and we jumped in the Bongo, headed round to Motukarara and up Gebbies.

parked up top (160 m), and hit the trail. gravel road for first 800 odd m, mild gradient, then into pine forest singletrack. slight climb then sweeeet descent into a valley, then a climb up a bit and over a stile then climbing along side forest and round a corner, onto a forestry road descent, which then peeled onto a sweet flowing climbing singletrack through fir. a coupla switchies too tight and steep to ride, then pedalling again, all the while in forestry. man, have we discovered the untouched unknown forested singletrack riding destination on the outskirts of chch??? Possibly. climbing easily some more ups and downs, nothing major, passed a couple of walkers, then it got steeper, little bit of walking, not much tho, heat getting to us, so muggy so stopped for rest. walkers passed. rest some more, then onwards, up towards the final fence of the forest. quite steep hillside here, with the track lightly bench cut into it, going up at a nice gradient, kinda bottom range middle chainring, or a few down on back in granny, sidling round the hill. you wouldnt want to tumble off the side... up to the Remarkable dykes with some nice rocky trail here, and they really are remarkable... then its about 5 minutes round to the hut (460m)... all up, about an hour from van to the hut.


the hut had been full over night, with people camping around it too. most had departed by the time we got there. nice hut. great views, down Kaituna, across Lyttelton Harbour, over the porthills all round. no sign of the southerly.

anyway, we decided to explore a little further, and so headed round back of Mt Bradley. nice trail round to a wicked patch of bush, trail sweeetness through it, except for the onga onga that crowded out the trail at one point, then out of the bush onto a zig zag track up the hill. spotted some goats above us. ended up getting tighter and tighter up to about the 650m contour. then we turned round and rode the 200m altitude back to the hut. then after waiting for a few walkers to come up, headed on down the track to Gebbies... much better downhill, obviously.

carefully round the sidling through the dykes and on down to the forest. then into the forest and a smooth flowy bombfest ensued. luckily encountered no walkers, tho the visibility is such that it wouldnt be a problem, not really any blind corners anywhere that you're not going carefully round. awesome flow all the way back down. the first few little ups are easy blasts, but towards the end theres a couple of grunts that were pushing my heat and sleep deprived exhausted bones. the last climb (that was the sweet descent at the start) had a few corners of walking. then a blast down the gravel to the car. all up, about 25mins back down from hut. We're thinking this'd be a great night ride.

Tuesday night, into the wind...

bit of a southerly blowing, pushed into the wind over to Steve's to find him not riding (again!), this time cos of his wrist tweak (cause unknown) of sunday. Nelson, Andrew, Tony, Warren and myself were the only starters. tootled round, up busy Rapaki, taking down a few people, helluva wind up on top, waited for Helmetless Mark, Marie, and accountant Steve, aka Abba... my legs still not fully recovered from heat and ride on sunday.

struggled up round Vernon, then blasted round Traverse to Vic, Thomsons, Kiwi, up road to top of Marleys, struggling majorly with the road and last 4wd climb. (Marie riding up Flying nun from road to meet us part way up). Bombed it down the 'Nun, passed Marie by, and hauled ass down to Kiwi again... everybody seemed to have a pretty good run. i felt good, getting to know what to expect on every section now.

Up road to top of Vic, and down to brakefree, then down ?Sesame St? into new section with cool wooden wallride. then Tony, Marie, Mark and abba bailed, and the rest of us went down Dazzas, into Brents, Flow, Bridges, top line again, cleaning all, then barged up the being-rebuilt-zigzags, up Hidden Valley, to pylon, and caught the lower Old Skool singletrack for a blast down. all good.

streetlights were just on as i rode home across town, nice tail wind to push me, tho it'd died a bit (as per..).

Hot as hell, Sunday. lots of rests in the shade

Left home 8.35ish, warm sunny morning. Nelson was riding slowly to meet me and we rendevoused alongside Lancaster Park. both pretty tired, me cos of an excellent saturday enjoying Fat Freddy's Drop followed by a slightly late night, nelson just cos of a late night. we cruised very mellowly down Wilsons, Eastern and up Bowenvale. Hit Old Skool for the climb, already feeling the heat, but thankfully, a lot of the singletrack was still in the shade. however, the final zig zags were not and we cooked. i had to stop twice due to poaching of the brain. stopped in some shade for a rest just above top gate. rode on up, hit the Traverse and hauled ass round to Vic park, then down Thomsons to Kiwi. Nelson got some more water, i bought a Budget Ice Cream Soda, knocked back its sugar, flavouring and colouring goodness, then on we went up to top of Marleys. sat under shade of Worsley's big pine tree for a bit enjoying a cool breeze and chatting to some folks with a flat.

rode up and hit the Flying Nun... nelson following, camera mounted on handlebar. bombed it. flew down, enjoying every berm and yumpy and rocky bit. all the way down. caught upto and were briefly held up by a woman on the lower section below road, she pulled over and on we flew. then on down Old Dyers. best ride down there in ages. the middle section that is usually heinously bumpy was smoothed out somehow and we seemed to float down it in now time.

climbing up into Vic from the road was killing me, took off my helmet and when we got to the 19th battalion memorial stopped under a tree in the shade for a rest and discussed how people on sundays seem to be mostly rude...

after a rest we tootled up to skidder site and passed top of Dazza's down to middle section of Cool Runnings, swooped down it, round Flow, upper line of Bridges cleaned all drops into washout bottom of K2, nelson stepped off, then on down out and home by 12. all up bloody good ride, but tired and heat are not a match made in heaven.

meanwhile, the boys rode like this which i would have done if i'd not been doing the bees in the afternoon.

Tuesday night, rapaki, vic, nun, vic, oldskool. Kar Nidge.

good sized group assembled at Steve's (who'd returned from holiday), to find Steve was piking all due to a measly little flat tire... tubeless, eh? who'd run 'em.? :). anyway, there was Pete, Andypandy, chris, weird-little-tony, waynus, nelsy, warren, and then we picked up english mark at bottom of Rapaki Rd.

tootled up, nelsy and me putting a bit of distance on everyone, tho mark keeping up well and the others not that far behind. i overtook these two guys half way up the first half only to be overtaken by them on the last section. chur! some nice views to be had, and hoards of other bikers, runners and walkers. busy busy. made the top and had a good rest, then on up Vernon. legs tired from sunday i reckon, but cleaned it all good,

took off from below road round traverse, haulin' ass, me trying to hold on to nelsy's tail, which i managed to mostly. and just before the lava flow i started something that i seemed do from then on, which was taking a differing line from him (more on that later). good bomb round to vic, with one incident just before the pond where this guy could have easily pulled up and let nelson thru, but cos he was on the uphill decided he had right of way and nearly collided with nelson, and me right behind. sure, uphill has right of way, but only where practical, and its courtesy to give people way if its easier... dumbass.

all assembled eventually at vic, and no sign of waynus. weird-little-tony went back, andypandy checked his txts and there was one from wayne, flat tire... right back at the start. he showed up eventually.

then it was over and down Thomsons, some taking both bits, others not., then up road to top of Marleys. Nelson and me just absolutely flew down this. really getting the flow on. bombing the rocky bits, jumping, nelson nearly losing it on the jump into the old below the road. made the kiwi and waited. and waited. mark turned up. waited. waited... then along come the others. Pete in a bit of a state. blood leaking from knee, what will be a very bruised chest, scaped hip... he'd lost it on the same jump nelson nearly did.

Pete bailed down Dyers Pass Road, we went back up into Vic. all taking different lines to Brake Free, then into the new below that, me chasing andrew to skidder site, others ending up there.

then into Dazza's, nice flow down, bottom bit a bit brake-cut. into Brents, flew thru there. before Flow, Tony busted a whole bunch of spokes, so he bailed, walking back up to road and out home, the rest of us continued down. took the high line across Bridges, into K2, i cleaned all and down 'washout', the others walked down. then wayne crashed at top of washout...

then the others continued down valley and nelson and me took newly nearly-restored zigs and zags up to pylon at beginning of lower OldSkool. bit of granny, bit of walking, but moderately effortless gain of altitude to an excellent flowy descent, me taking every line nelson didnt... including the old bit that has the overhanging gorse, extrawidth thistles and sketchy rocks, which surprising cuts a couple of minutes off the descent... waited for nelsy then bombed the last. out bowenvale, home across town, just before dark, lights'a'flashin.

Sunday, rapaki to thunder to sumner

just the 4 of us met outside steve's. Tony, Wayne, Rex and me. headed up rapaki, good haul up there, Rex pushing hard as he's training for the Vulcaniser this coming weekend. At the top we hung a left. the sky was looking ominous, with huge thunder-head type clouds, darkness below. had a good spin round witch hill then a bomb up the road to the Castlerock.

waited for some guys to come up towards us, then waited for a couple of other riders who'd caught up. then let them get ahead in case we got stuck behind them. i said "i bet i'll catch him on the 2nd hairpin"... wasnt far wrong either. hussed down the trail, wishing i didnt have quite so much pressure in my rear tire, and would have caught the guy by the second hairpin, except that a rider comin the other way slowed me up... anyway, caught him by the end, and his mate had a pinch flat.

Stopped at top of Bridle path to admire the roar of hail on Heathcote Valley. could see it slowly creeping up the Tunnel Rd motorway, and the roads in the valley were all saturated. Thunder rumbled overhead and around us. very spectacular... headed round summit road and under the gondola a bit of rain spat on us, but nothing major. by the cutting the road was drenched but rain had passed on. walkers were soaked to the skin and complained of hail. John Britten was soaked, i stopped and cut a couple of drains in places, mud flecking all over us.

down road to Greenwood, trails quite wet. musta been a downpour, the clouds heading towards Port Levy and along the coast. just prior to this time there was a waterspout off sumner pics . was a fun spin down greenwood, with the greasiness making it interesting. amazingly, the steepest bits were the driest, as the water would have run straight off, whereas the less steep stuff the water had soaked into. not too much carnage, tire to trailwise, a group had been through before us and their treads were barely visible. all cleaned it nicely, out to Evans.

Then, time for the Captain. once again, i led off. strangely i took the new(ish) low line (which we normally climb up). baulked on the big rock with the wee steps cut into it (its been getting me every time lately). then cleaned everything else. had a great flow. all the way down. then to Dot Com for coffees, disturbing some snobs who made comments about how 'there should be dress code', us giving mud splattered evils back. they can just fuck off back to their poxy McMansions and stick their middle aged middle classed heads back up their middle new zealand assholes.

Wednesday night, MacCormacks, Greenwood, Godley, Snake, husshhhh...

totally mint ride last night. i drove over picked up Nelson and we drove to MacCormacks Bay. headed up the grunty singletrack, cleaning most, only walking the round two lowest corners (and me the second of the final switchbacks at the end), and the steps at top. then on up Mt (un)Pleasant Rd, which is always about a km longer than you think its gonna be... short break at top of Greenwood park, then the bomb began. Nelson led the way, i sat right on his tail most of the time. sometimes i couldnt see the trail for the sun shining on the dust he was rarking up. once or twice he got away from me but i reeled him in on the rockier stuff. excellent flow down with only one near-whoops that didnt result in anything.

crossed Evans Pass and hit Godley track. both botched the first rockies, pounded the rest no probs. i led after i passed Nelson part the way up (where i broke a pedal once, under a rock overhang near the top). excellent flow through to Livingston, bit of easterly shove from the left on occasion, then clambered up and over next lump, with a good flow down to Breeze, a few cattle in the way (and their tasty deposits to avoid).

Hit the Anaconda. I led off, haulin'. possibly one of the best runs down the snake we've ever done. Nelson reckoned it was one of his fastest and he was on my tail, so i musta been quick enough i guess. i was more concerned most of the way down with the fact that my chain had fallen onto the granny... but yeah, a wicked run down and a couple of major g-outs round some of the bermy corners... then a good blast down the 'tail. (part way down we stopped and watched briefly.. surf was messy, but quite big, not that many surfers out)

thru the car park and on up the road. but not all the way up...(disclaimer: there is no sign that specifically says "No Bikes"... = fair game) we finally tried out a trail i've always wanted to test. it proved a good climb, a few wee switchies that are too tight to ride, and the very last bit of climb i walked (cos my legs were dead by then), then over the ridge and the view of Sumner very good, then the trail sidles along the slope above these big muthahfucker cliffs. quite techy riding, which would be doable were it not for the 100m (or more!) drop below you. no wonder its never been touted as a bike trail, too dangerous. then towards the end it got WAY too techy, so we walked and carried between short riding stints. a few zigs and zags (ride, ride, carry, ride ride) and we were down onto the road, where we blasted down and back round through sumner etc to the car... all up a mint ride.

I can see us using this 'new' trail in the future to get back up onto the Godley track to go back to Evans on then down Capt Thomas, thereby extending those rides and keeping up the singletrack content (and avoiding the road out of taylors and the stupid fucking boyracers who dont seem able to navigate it properly)

Thomson stem report #2. bloody good. still able to climb like a mtn goat, but descent and control is well good.

Sunday, Worsley's, Nun, Traverse, Old Skool

fitted new (short) Thomson Stem on saturday, so was interested to see how performance was affected. it took off 20mm from the old FSA (which has been re-allocated to the Singlespeed).

Excellent ride. spun across town to Tony's, to find a big group (Andrew(pfmtbc), Wayne, Tony, Fi, Englishmark, Andrew's bro Chris, and two others- Warren and TRex(?). we tootled round to Worsley's and picked up a couple of MotherTed's friends, then halfway up the hill, Marie. good climb up the hill, onto the dirt, and i kept the power on the whole way. passed a Landrover Discovery part way up, front tire blown off. stolen? i cleaned the bodybag, as did a couple of the others, which is always good. the shorter stem definitely lightened the front end on the steep, but was manageable... we rested a bit under the big pine tree.

On to the Flying Nun. a tonne of riders through while we were waiting at the top, then we let them get ahead and got to it. enjoyed the descent, blasted down the top section, into the two newly formed switchbacks, nice one, overtook some guy. New stem making the bike eminently flickable. sweeeet. bombed the lower section, jumping more jumps than ever before (short stem? perhaps). at the bottom, i ducked up onto the road and trundled across to have alook if the new gov's bay track was up to there yet, but nope, so re entered the singletrack and promptly caught up with Wayne.

At Kiwi Fi and her two friends peeled off, the rest of us carried on up to upper Thompsons and then round the traverse. good spin round there, lots of oncoming riders, including Graeme from Bicycle Biz's last ride of about 15-20 folks...

then off Piste down top of Huntsbury, into Old Skool, taking all the shortcuts drops down rocky stuff, good flow and control. English mark got dismounted by a rock hiding behind tussocks up top, then got rutted on the 4wd/zigs.

Lower Old Skool absolutely rocked. hauled ass down it, enjoying the crap out of it. then down Bowenvale ave, and i peeled off round Eastern Tce home into the headwind, feeling pretty good but slightly worn out.

Bottled at bottle lake

Nelson picked me up and we drove out to the carpark. Huge turn out, with two guys i recognised but dont know the names of. so, there was them, and the usual suspects Steve, Pete, Andrew, Tony, Wayne, Matt, English Mark, Maria, Helmutless Mark, and Maria's 11 yr old son. Helmutless was on a ONE WHEELER! so, anyway, i was on the singlespeed, nelson was on his new frame, as was Wayne, and Andrew was on the ss too. had an excellent fun ride, spin spin spin, turned right, out to the beach, back in up the middle to Spencer Park where we visited Pete's wife's sister who was camping there. had some beers, was fun, then riding back was even more fun. good times. had a wee go on the Nomad, and on Matt's new Force. both interesting, but strange off of a hardtail...

Peninsula Tops, View, Sinclair, Fitz, Herb

Spent Boxing day to the 4th at Little Akaloa. other than tootling about the bay, i did one big(ish) ride whilst there, then the biggie on the way home.

Cant even remember what day it was now, but back in the last days of 2008 i headed up to Chorlton, and on up View Hill Rd. it was hot, damned hot. schlepped on up to the end of the 'legal' bit, thru the gate and on up to the peak. the Hill really lives up to its name, with a view down into Little Ak, Raupo, Okains, Akaroa harbour, out over the plains to the mountains, across the whole peninsula, the porthills behind Lyttelton, right up the coast to the Kaikouras... with a weird sea fog banked up off Little Ak, Raupo and Okains. mint. had a little explore on the south side, then bombed back down, minutes top to bottom.

Yesterday, got dropped at Pettigrews Road. headed up over Sinclair, Fitzgerald, across the tops over Mt Herbert and into Diamond Harbour. Awesome ride, awesome views, awesome weather. Saw only 3 other bikers, and 5 walkers.

about 20 minutes in, after a bit of climbing, i was stepping off a stile into Whatarangi Totara Reserve when my foot went into a hole and wham the pain shot through my left ankle. "FUCK!" i thought, "not now". it hurt like hell, but i figured i just had to go on with it. it twinged a bit whilst pedalling but mostly was okay. definitely felt it but the pain seemed to keep at bay most of the time. anyway, i soldiered on, not letting it take away my enjoyment of the epic trip i was undertaking. little bit of walking up top of sinclair to where i met the first two bikers by almost being run into by the first. i'd just climbed over a stile and was testing my ankle when this guy came honking in. he took evasive action and avoided hitting me. i had a wicked descent from there to the saddle between the two peaks, flowy and beautiful, with cool singletrack (that we'd always avoided in the past) for a time. the grunt up the back of Fitzgerald was a grunt as always, some walking. on the fast descent off the top i said g'day to a walker.

little bit of walking through the tight techy bit, then nice descent down and grunty wee climb then nice fast descent again to waipuna saddle. walked a bit again then fast down to portlevy saddle. VERY disappointed to see on the DOC sign a biker with a red slash through it from here. ignored that and continued on. steep wee bit then all riding til the attack on the back of Herbert's sub peak (913m). walked up that, carrying bike mostly, sometimes walking it ahead or beside me. talked to a walker couple on way up that. rode across and peaked Herbert (919m). then for the descent. 17:44 and i was aiming for the 18:10 ferry... talked to a couple of walking girls, then right down in the sweet singletrack valley talked to a biker.

made the ferry wharf at 18:15, ferry already half way across back towards Lyttelton... damn. only one thing for it, Godley House, where a pint of Monteiths Golden hit the spot bloody well. as did some fries and another pint... after sitting there for the good part of an hour, when i stood up again, the ankle screamed. T picked me up from the ferry in Lyttelton.

Overall, i climbed the equivalent of Mt Herbert, all up 917 m of altitude gained, but i got to relish a grand total of 1380 m of descent...

xmas eve

afternoon, headed up rapaki, turned right, round summit, to vic, and kiwi, then up road, and headed down the gov's bay track, hung a right onto new bit and followed it to its end. then turned round and back down that and up the track back up to summit road. then headed up to bottom of new flying nun, up the old 4wd track to the beginning of the new bit, then bombed down the sweet newby section, all the way down to kiwi, back up road to top of vic. down through gums, dazza's, brents, flow, bridges, and out the bottom. all good, felt super fine...

off to Little Ak for a while, taking bike, so will ride a bit over there.

Sunday, rotovirus Rap Witch Castle Witch Vern Oldskool

Feeling like garbage, i just made it to Steve's as they were heading out. in attendance were Steve (wrote pfmtbc) , Pete, Tony and Wayne. At the bottom of Rapaki we picked up Fi and a friend of hers Nikki. tootled up the hill, me going slower than ever before on account of having had a rotovirus interfering with my system... i even DABBED on the way up, front wheel caugh in a drainage rut and stopped me dead... even today, monday, i feel like crap. anyway. pete dropped me entirely before the last climb...

top of rapaki, waited in the bitter easterly for Marie who was riding round from cashmere. she got there, we hit Witch Hill, had a good spin round there, then up road to Castle.

Pete led off and i sat on his tail... awesome blast down to first hairpin where i reminisced about Nelson's bike the other day, awesome blast to next hairpin. awesome blast to first grunt up and my legs were jelly. struggled up there (but still cleaned it all) and then had an awesome blast down to the end, until... smack! Fussshhh fusshhh fusshhhh, no more air in back tire. walked to shelter, took off wheel, took out tube, put in spare, replaced tire, blew up tire..."hmmm, what are these lumpy bits? rocks?" followed by... "hmmm, where's my other tirelever?"... "D'OH!" out goes the air, off comes the tire, out comes the lever, in goes the air again... then up road, down road fast, back round witch hill, up vernon singletrack. good climb, tho i was getting pretty wiped out by then. nearly lost it on last descent to road. regroup, and then we all headed off round the Traverse, and i peeled off down Old Skool.

Had a total blast heading down there. saw a guy ahead, so i went flat out and caught him. no wonder tho, he was on a rigid On-One SS. (i said, "good to see some English Steel!"). passed his mates who were waiting for him above the pylon, hurtled into the singletrack. bomb bomb bomb, ooop, riders coming up. OnOne guy and mates caught me up. climbers passed and i said "i'll let you by if you catch me" to my fellow descenders. took off, with a couple of lambs running in front of me for the first 100m, then left the others in my dust. had a good run the rest of the way down, bombing it all, living up to my Switchbacker name...

then there was the evil easterly head wind all the way home. i think i stayed in middle ring all the way across town. it sucked. i was exhausted for the rest of the day, and still aint right...
rotovirus 1, swtchbckr nil.

Wednesday Night, Old skool vernon witch castle (Nelson frame break, again)

drove over to Nelson's. we hit the road, headed up Bowenvale, up the Old Skool. cranked the first half middle ring, not doing too badly, saw vorb's Tama and friends on their way down. hit the 4wd section, nelson continued grinding on up in middle ring, cleaning the whole bastard, while i struggled and gasped in granny... by the time i reached the gravel of Huntsbury (where i_ride_rigid aka paul passed me heading down), nelson was pretty much already at the top. i ambled on up and had a breather.

Onto vernon, at the highest point Nelson stopped and turned on his camera. i led off down - not very smoothly, a couple of off balance near botch ups, and then a bit more finesse and flow at the bottom. then across to Witch Hill trail, Nelson lead off, losing me on the climb, again, i wasnt very flowy and a bit stilted... then the road. climb climb to Castle Rock.

Camera on again, me leading off, hit the trail, bombed it, flow ALL good, total blast, floaty and flying. this trail is primo right now, into the first hairpin and just round it when nelson yells out (from not too far behind me) and i hear the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of his tire rubbing the chainstay... BROKEN, AGAIN! exactly the same place as it went that other time in vic park. needless to say, game over. i headed back up the singletrack, bombed down the road to Rapaki, bombed down that, getting a bit dim light wise now, tho still all good. then i hoofed it across town to my car, and drove to pick up nelson, got to him under the Tunnel Rd bridge on Port Hills Rd.

Footage heaps better than last time...

Sunday Arvo, kiwi area meanderings.

Firstly, couldnt make the PFMTBCinc ride in the a.m. due to small person at home with a puke. so, got out later in the afternoon. had to drop something off to the folks, so drove up and rode from there, thereby increasing my singletrack time and lessening my riding across town time and giving myself a 200m alt advantage...

headed up into Vic Park, to the 19th battalion war memorial bit, then headed down the trail to the Old Dyer's Pass Rd trail. Rode up that to the Kiwi, then on up the road round to top of Marleys. Bombed down the 'nun', bailing half way down the lower section before the kiwi, and heading over and down that cool track into Gov's Bay. before the final switchbacky section, hmmmm, what's this? a new track to the right... brand new, no tire treads on it at all, heading up and round a bit... followed it to where it had finished having work on it, and where it is going to go went on into the scrub. so, left the bike and started walking, just for a look to see if it connected up to 'built' track further up. explored a while, then could see its line onwards, but needed to get back to the bike.

Got back to the bike, and there were three guys waiting for me... hehe, um, yeah, hi, just checking out where its gonna go, are you the builders? uh huh. anyway, chatted to them and i should join them sometime. Wednesdays, 6 to 8. eventually, it'll get through to the bottom of the new sections on the Flying Nun... mint. its gonna be so freakin' awesome!. so, rode with them back up to summit road, first one letting me pass, then the fast young guy (james). i cleaned more of it than i've ever cleaned before, including the final little step.

Then i jumped back over onto the rest of the 'nun and headed for Kiwi. then up road, upper section of Thomson's, and down through vic, Brake Free, the new one below Brake Free and onto the gummies, then down to war memorial, down through park, into lower Dog Exercise Area, down rooty goodness on east side of Pines, and into Cashmere, to Nainy's, then back up the zigzzag to the waiting car...

Scorcher NW, Worsley Nun Dyer Vic Traverse Oldskool

Rode over to Nelson's, and we headed for Worsley's. Hot NW day, scorching hot riding up there, but the tail wind helped, a little... nelson powered up in middle ring, all the way up the body bag!!! i managed to clean it all grovelling in granny, and nearly wanting to barf at the top.

hit the Nun, and had a good float down there, with Nelson chasing me trying out his camera again. then, on down Old Dyers bumpity bumpity bumpity, cross road and on up into Vic.

Hit the fire road up thru the gums, slippin' on the big leaves, me hitting granny and Nelson powering away again up in Middle ring. hit the traverse, not toooo bad a run round there, but the lack of sleep the night before and the heat were really getting to me, and every little climb seemed to kill me. then hoofed it down the Old Skool out to Bowenvale, and on round for a pint at Elevate.

Friday 28th Nov, Crocodiled

Drove over to Nelson's about 7. we took his truck out to Halswell Quarry, parked up and headed on up the Croc. good riding, cleaned all the climby bits, tho my very recent Junkfood dinner was slowing me up, and the legs were a tiny bit tired from the night before. but, got on up to top of Croc, continued up singletrack to highest point then on down to the next gate... then back up the old road section and time to hit the down on the singletrack, me in lead, Nelson testing out his new helmet mounted camera. not a bad run down, not the quickest or the smoothest, gusts of easterly blowing us off course in the top sections and then pushing us faster and faster down the straightaway before the gulley switchbacks... i blew it on the short climb, then a good run down the final section under the trees... 9 minutes of footage... then, it was back up to do it all again.

climbing up into the sunset, it was sitting on the horizon when we reached the highest point again, at which point we turned round and i led off down again, this time much smoother much faster much better. its great doing two runs, you get a better feel for the trail cos its still fresh. bombed well all the way down again, then blew it on the short sharp climb again!, then on out to truck.

checked out the footage back at N's place. some good. but aiming a tad low, and also its a bit bumpy. so, once those two issues are sorted, its gonna be mint!

Old skool's well cool.

Fiiinally got out. time and light short, leaving home at 7.45pm, drove to Bowenvale Ave, rode up Old Skool. right at the start i bumped into Angrywadder James finishing a ride, caught up with him briefly and while talking to him a dude on a Cotic Simple stopped and chatted too...

anyway, headed up through the new switchbacks up the Old Skool. Cleaned everything and was in middle ring all the way til the pylon. its alll good up there now, with post winter repairs all good. cruised, coughing my lungs out and emptying the snot pressure of the remains of a lurgy, grannying all the way the 4wd zigzags to the top gate, chasing the last of the sunshine up the hill. never quite caught it.

then turned around and headed back down the way i came up. glasses off as they were steamy, and down all the techy lines, well worn from the return of other riders, and then down the singletrack. nice flowy descent and home by 9.15.

lonng time no riding...

hard to believe the last ride was that post election sunday... i've been away in the depths of the south coast of fiordland from 16th to 24th. walking in the bush several hours every day, counting birds, setting traps, examining fuchsia flowers, checking tracking tunnels... i reckon a 36inch wheel balloon tire bike would be the go for some tramping tracks, as for the bush itself, no way could you ride a bike in there...

took O for a bit of a tagalong spin round the river last night, but thats the total of it... will ride again SOON

post election Sunday, vic witch vic nun out

the country is now on its way down the tubes under the new Nazional government. hoo fucking ray.

saturday afternoon, i pulled the cranks off the cotic, took out the bottom bracket, cleaned everything, re-greased, re-assembled, thereby getting rid of the looseness and creak before any damage was done.

Sunday morning... nursing a few too many Leffe's under my belt and a rough night crashed at my folks (left kids there while at Paul's 40th party at Kiwi), i headed up from top of Cashmere into Vic park, gently easing into it, to be confronted with blue tape crossing the skidder site from the gums to Dazza's for local DH racing. Middle ringed it up good to top, getting out of the way of the motherhucking downhillers, and then booked it round the summit traverse towards rapaki. nice flowy ride round, into the wind in spots, and over vernon, with a bloody good flowy down to top of rapaki where i found Marie, Fi the swearing irish optometrist, and Nicole, shortly followed up by Steve, then Pete, AndyRandy and Waynus. We headed back up round Vernon, good climb, overtaking some guys strangely walking near the top (gotta start somewhere i guess), and then good bomb round to Vic. dodged a few more DHers, and headed into Thomsons, kiwi, where pete discovered his rear wheel had come loose, Chris King hubs too, very weird. he bailed down the road.

the rest of us headed up round road to top of Marleys, and had an awesome bomb down Flying Nun, enjoying the crap out of the new bits. then my phone rang. it was T, saying she didnt have a key, so i had to bail then. the others went back up for another blast down the new bits. i bombed it down Old Dyers, (overtaking the two guys that were walking on Vernon), and then blasted it down Dyers Pass Rd (overtaking 1 car and having the rest of the road to myself). was home by 11.30 or so, to find no sign of T, H or O... who arrived later.

Tuesday Night, Singlist Thomas the Green God Snake

Wounds all healed. Cotic's bottom bracket is loose, so singlespeed it was. Nelson and i hit Slumner, and ground up Capt Thomas, cleaning lots, and puffing a lot.

At Evans we headed up Scummit road, nelson pulling waaay ahead, me struggling. Topped Greenwood Park and hit the single. he blew the first rocky bit and i pulled into the lead for a while, leading into the top descents. nice flow, good riding, the singles behaving nicely. couple weird front wheel washouts but mostly a good flight. got down into the lower reaches and we stopped so nelson could hit this jump just after a sheepstop. he got good air, and on we went.

At Evans again, i thought we were gonna head back down Thomas, but nelson had other plans. the sun had pretty much set, but there was still plenty of light, and i relented and we hit Godley. wasnt long before i lost sight of him ahead. i was slow, he was fast. good ride nonetheless. they've cleaned up a bit, build some groovy rockybits on what is wet in winter, and tidied it further round. ended up we bombed all the way out to Breeze and when i got there he was already well on down the snake, so on i followed, lower back getting more and more sore. still enough light. bombed it into Taylors and hit the climb out, flashies now on.

Down into Scumner via the road on account of it being too dark to do Nicholson, and back to Nelson's truck.

PFMTBC Inc Annual Trip... Central

got myself and my baggage to Pete's Friday 17th morning. Andrew, Wayne, Pete and myself, drove to meet Steve, Nelson and Tony at cookietime, where we all bought up big on One Square Meals etc. then set off for Tekapo.

rolled into Tekapo, kitted up and set off round the lake and up mt john. some grunty wee climbs, as bad as the body bag, several in fact, and peaked, had a coffee at the top, took in the views, and hit the descent. bombed down the way we'd come up, very fun. couple of flats, but otherwise no sketchies and no crashes, cept for Andrew hitting the chain at the bottom. then it was off to Wanaka. In the evening, Dave, Hubby and Mark rolled in. much frivolity was had.

Scored a map from bikeshop night before, and Saturday a.m dawned with a bit of rain, but that cleared up soon enough and off we treadled, up Hendersons? Rd, down to Rata St, turned left by accident and ended up grovelling up a double fenceline to Double Gate. rode round and hit Hoe Down down, then back up it, then down Easy St and hit Venus, bliss... then grovelled up Crank'n'Grind, then hit Scooby down to The Hub, then grovelled, mistakenly, up some downhill track (14 or 16). then back down to doublegate and Mark and Dave hit Bilentus, while the rest of us hit Venus extention (8a) and we all met up down at Venus Landing. somewhere in here Hubby blew his calf out, or was in danger of doing so, so he bailed, and was out for the trip. from venus landing we hit Thread the Needle over across and down to Beacon Pt Rd to ride back out to town for lunch... lounged a bit and headed out again, this time riding round the waterfront and hitting the Outlet track hoping to find an easy-ish uphill. Dave did a sideways landing off a random hop jump and snapped his chainstay..., round the outlet a we ways, then i lead them up a cool ass little track that was carved into a cliff-face, narrow as, with massive drops off the side, and eventually landing up near Outlet Motorcamp Rd. where we took a wrong turn, rode a little singletrack then grovelled up a steep ass hill to the top of the Sticky. once up there we hit Twin Towers, round to Hoe Down, back up that, hitting venus again i think and maybe a couple of loops down to the hub and back up 10 which proved a nice climb.

The next morning, Sunday, we packed up our shit, and drove to clean up a few more of the tracks we'd missed or re-do the ones we loved. in the carpark before we even set off i was just riding about and my chain snapped, bloodying my knee. fixed that and we headed in and randomly met a local, who took us under his wing and showed us a few wicked xc track across above the rivertrail and on out, then down Rockabilly Ditch, back along outlet and up an awesome zigzaggy climb to venus landing from the motorcamp. we hit crank'n'grind again, up and a few of us did Bilentus. getting sketchy remembering. when we'd finished, we headed for Alexandra.

KEE-RASH!
Rolled into Alex, got cleaned up, and rode into town to pick up some supplies... on the way in, i'd forgotten i had a slow leaky front tire, and was popping a few jumps here and there, when on the line up for a curb, my front wheel washed on the low pressure and on some loose shit in the gutter, and WHAM! down i went. Left palm, right knee, right elbow all skinned, right shoulder tweaked bad (severe bruising) and a good smack to the helmet. first aided up a bit, and later we rode the river trail up to Clyde, ate dinner and then rode with lights back down the railtrail.

Monday a.m, headed into town to bikeshop Dave knew, i bought a new helmet (Giro Xen... niiiice), hooked up with bikeshop owner's son (Ashton), who took us up an interesting trail (singletrack starting in under the Clock on the hill, up a valley, then hang a right up an evil steep 4wd track over some tops round to the right and back down out next to Sewage Treatment). Dr Strangelove i believe the descent was called. then we hooked up with one of the young mechanics (Jimmy?) from the bikeshop on his lunch hour plus his girlfriend (Michelle) and they took us through another trail (up same under clock round along behind range sorta towards the Lower Manorburn Dam, then back out the front to the railtrail), something about a Leaping Lizard, that was a good ride too. Michelle offered to take some us out for a ride the next morning. Dave, Nelson and Mark headed out with Jimmy for an afterwork ride too. i rested. by all accounts, that was a good ride too.

Tuesday a.m. Sour Taste in the Mouth Time...
Told we wouldnt really find any more trails without help, we agreed (with encouragement from Dave) to pay Phil from the bikeshop to guide us. he upped it from $25 to $30 a head when he heard it was only Dave, Mark, Nelson, Pete and me, and off we rode. this time up what's called Shit Track, on account of it stinking riding past the Sewage Treatment Works. nice climb up a nice valley, some techy wee sections, all good. then over some farmer's land we werent supposed to be in, up onto the tops, up to a big rock shaped like a seal, the other boys rode down this for fun. i's nursing my body from the crash so was taking it easy. then we rode down a neat flowy track, over another fence, and across these wicked tops and down a techy wee gulch, then grovelly climb up for another ridge run, and then finally down this super technical descent, which i dabbed/walked/and rode, finally out to the Roxburgh dam trail, back into town.
2.5 hours, ie, 150 minutes, ie, $1 a minute for Phil. they say a fool and his money are soon parted, i guess we're fools. we reckon this was a little steep. Everywhere else you go in nz you either buy or are given a map, and you self guide. you roll into Alex, the locals say, no, you gotta get a guide, in which case its either a matey thing, or you pay. Also, we got back to find out that the boys that'd been out with Michelle had been told by her that Jimmy had been reamed out for guiding the others for free, and that he'd reamed her out, and so they gave her $20 a head... so, Phil, you got your $25 a head from all of us in the end. sure, do this to tourists, but not to kiwis. its not like it was a pain in the ass for you to come out riding with us. if you ever come to chch, we'll be asking you for $30, each. not impressed.
anyway, drove on through to Naseby that afternoon.

got a quick ride in before dinner, from campground headed onto waterrace, me guiding (for free, note) round to the big dipper and to Andrew's Tree from 5 years ago. bark still not grown back. neat wee gulley. headed out back of forestry, found a singletrack nelson and me had maybe riden, took that down then up the shoot and down the shoot, and then up for change and dinner.

Wednesday morning, packed up, and most of us got out for ride. left along waterrace, headed up past hoffman's dam, found neat flowy (bottle lake with a hill style) track which we looped twice, then back down round and dropped down what we'd known as cemetery track which had changed cos of logging... then across to do the shoot once (or twice or three times for some). drove home.

Sunday, tag and worsles.

In the morning i tagalong'd with O to a trees for canterbury planting at Horseshoe Lake. some of the boys had ridden via bottle lake. afterwards, steve obtained permission from one of the rangers, so we rode the walk track thru, much to the thrill of O, who commented later in the day how much fun it was riding the boardwalks... at the Avon we peeled right and followed the river home, and the boys headed on down stream.

at 6ish, got a txt from Nelson, so i chucked the bike in the car and drove over to his. Craig joined us and we grunted up Worsley's. the lower half was as usual, but the top half, including the body bag, has been bulldozed. felt a bit asthmatic to start, but managed to climb okay (craig miles ahead, even on his heavy Commencal Meta6), and cleaned all of bodybag. then onto Flying Nun fun. new bits near bottom getting further and further down. then we bombed down to kiwi and on down below dyers. then up into vic, and took in the whole of cool runnings. out and down. all up a good ride.

Thursnite Farm, Witch, Castle, Britten, MacCormacks...

Steves, 6pm. Andrew, Tony, Wayne, Pete, Steve and me. round to Farm track and up. one dab on first section, middle ring the whole first half. all tootling up pretty well. then blast down to top of rapaki, much better flow than last time. Witch hill was good, then up road and i'm starving so stop for snack.

While i'm snacking, Steve leads off, followed by Tony. then Pete goes, then me followed by Andrew and Wayne. Pete got himself a good start but i caught him a little. dunno what gain he put on Tony and Steve. anyway, carry on round summit road, and onto Britten... finally cleaned the rocky bit i usually blow. normally i hit it in the wrong gear, last night i changed just before and managed to clamber over it. then BOMBED down britten reserve. following the track this time, instead of off piste. got rutted a couple times, nearly losing it, then near the bottom i'm hearing a weird rattle... turns out its my cluster come a bit loose... tightened as best i could by hand. meanwhile, Steve had lead off down road, so we all chased him. then into the MacCormacks trails... SWEEEET, walked the steps then rode all of the rest. wicked descent, such a fun we track. took a look down the pines i'd gone the first time, veeerrry techy riding in there so we clambered back up to main track and blasted down the fun but mildly boring last section...

then round road, i peeled at ferrymead and slogged linwood home. just about run down at Gloucester corner, with a car crossing the cycle lane right on top of me. i abused the crap out of the fucker, tried to chase them down but didnt have enough left in the tank, even with added adrenalin, cunt got away. i woulda picked up my bike and smashed in their window with my pedal and punched the shit out of their face if i'd caught them, i was so mad.

late tuesday soggy bottle lake single spin

title says it all. kids to bed, supermarket shopping needed. had a niece staying, so missed out on riding with the boys, which by the sound of it is just as well, as southerly had mostly blown thru, so took the singlespeed out to Bottle Lake and had a quick spin. i was the only car in the car park, got out there at nearly 9pm. hit the internal loop. pretty mucky, surprisingly wet. then, out near landfill corner they've logged out a heap, including my two favourite little jumps, and detour had to be made for the beach. stopped a bit, deciding whether or not to head south or north. headed north. snuck back into usual singletrack via an old trail half way along that's sanded up, then took some of the trails less travelled. then came out behind closed tapes. took the loop out towards spencer and then back into carpark. uneventful bar a couple of near off front wheel slippages. back to car 9.40 something and off to Stupidmarket...

Sunday a.m. greasy Rapaki to Taylors to home

Met at Steve's 8.30ish to find Steve, Andrew, english Mark, Wayne and Tony. quite wet, drizzly sorta rain, forecast to clear so figured why not... headed up Rapaki, it was much soggier than you'd've imagined. i felt lousy, due to a late night... but still hammered up the hill in good time, tho cruisier than normal. quite wet at top, but headed round Witch Hill, which was very rideable, bar the slick rocks. no real mud, just a tiny bit sticking to tires which then made for slippy rocks. along road, cautiously tackled Castle Rock to bridle path, and quite enjoyed it, with the squirrelly flicks that rocks throw at ya. then round road, Britten. Steve and Wayne were behind the rest of us and we decided to stay on the road, by half way round we realised they'd taken the singletrack, so i jumped the fence and joined them for the last bit. then we hit Greenwood...

Beautiful run down Greenwood. the damp rocks kept things very interesting, but the armouring and drainage has treated the trail well. the slats werent too slick and all was good. i had one very near off, just after the rocky descent that follows gloomy gulch, before heading into the switchback area, managed to keep in on board and continue down tho. Tony stayed well on my tail down the rest after that, he was on form!.

then godley, up and out, went pretty good. the backside before livingston was freshly dug, probably on saturday during the hot norwest, so there was a fair bit of exposed clay which stuck something wicked to the tires. got off and walked the worst of it, and then the descent to livingston on the newly formed line was sweeeeet. much better flow for me this time than last. Hubby was under a rock on Livingston, fixing a flat. we carried on, following these two identical nomad riders up the next climb, sneaking past them when one of them toppled off a rocky section that i cleaned. bomb to breeze all sweet, turned to watch tony crash just after the final cattlestop.

then a BLAST down the anaconda, caught excellent air all the way down. bit mucky in the bottom section, tail all good, climb over taylors not bad, nicholson good, dot com good. left ahead of others to get home for lunch, very tired by the time i made the end of Linwood ave.

Tuesday night Captain Godley Snake, first no lights ride

biked Linwood Ave to meet a lift from Andrew, to DotCom. in attendance arrived Steve, other Steve, Tony, Wayne, Hub and the dreaded Mark. trundled up Capt Thomas, the new boosters on the steps near the bottom make them HEAPS easier climbing, cleaned up much of it before the short walk. the rest is good, cleaned many wee grunts, off for the usual., ruts near top fixed.

had an apple at Evans, then hit the Godley. Steve hadnt stopped so it was chase time. he was already past the first rocky climbs when we started. i seemed to be pushing a taller gear last most of the time, like i was riding a singlespeed... Caught steve eventually, up on the flats. we regrouped at the fence before the worst of the rutsvilles... Mark took off in lead, me following. good run down, the ruts in the usual bad bit were as bad as ever, quite tricky avoiding them, taking a wide berth at times. then the fast bit. i was staying on mark most of the way down, bike riding really well, me too. then near the bottom where i did my ankle in they've altered it, slowing right down, with curves, makes you control your speed a bit more.

Next bit over to Breeze Col was good, i followed behind mark, him spinning a smalll gear on the climb and me standing and singlespeed style cranking. the descent was good, one nasty rut section on the down, then the last bit to the road i could barely see, my eyes were watering and kinda glugging up...
then, the bomb down the Anaconda. i chased Mark and we hauled ass. caught wicked air, my form was ON. felt really good. he stopped before one of the last corners, and then when hub carried on round and down the tail of the snake, i chased him down with mark in close pursuit. above the baches hubby baulked on a rock, i got along side just creeping through while mark ran into the back of him got past and chased me down the rest... all fun.

from taylors mark and hub headed back round to boulder bay cos they had their lights, the rest of us headed up and out. fast climb with andrew, then quite a dark wee ride down through nicholson park.

are your mcleans showing? singlists

Al and me drove out to Mcleans island about 7 something. singlespeeds. hit the trail and spun good round twice. pretty uneventful. took the new track out to the river, it was running VERY high, and had recently run through part of this new track, meaning we had to turn back a little. good spin.

weird singlespeed screak in back wheel still happening, smooth til about halfway through a ride. WHY??? swapped bikes for a short jaunt too. big wheels fun.

meanwhile, the boys did this... pfmtbc

Sunday Arvo rapaki to sumner jaunt

Excellent ride yesterday. gorgeous day, the norwest finally clearing the cloud cover off just before i left the house about 1.45, across town to Rapaki. nice cruise up there, making pretty good time, sub 25 to top. hung a left, buffetted by winds, round Witch Hill, then up road, more buffetting to Castle Rock.

Amazing blast down Castle Rock track to Bridle. winds not so bad as its in the lee of the Nor'waster. then hit the road and trundled round and up to John Britten Reserve. Singletrack along that all good, bit rutty round on the east side, up onto road and down for the Greenwood.

Greenwood Park, how long had it been?? months indeed methinks. been staying off it due to all the crapola weather we've had, and it looks like most others have too. the work done to it before the weather packed in has left it in good condition too, with drainage and rock armouring all keeping it sound. Stopped for an overlook snack before my descent. then hit it...

First part, with the switchbacks, flowing well, bouncing and ramping off a few of the rocks, into the sidle round towards gloomy gulch, excellent flow, funtimes. the slats were dry, making for easy rolling. then the bomb down, swerve swerve curve float pop smooth lines. the sheep on the lower half have cleared away the overgrown grass leaving a good clear view ahead, awesome ride down to the road.

At evans i kicked myself for not having any change, cos a Mr Whippy would have been really good right about then. anyway, hit Capt Thomas, and just as i caught upto and was about to pass this guy on a really new Kona, there was Angrywad-Roly coming up. stopped for a chat, and new-konaman continued on. got going again, and got baulked by a couple of bits, the first above the new lower climbing bypass, the second on the rocky bit which has had steps cut into it. but cleaned the rest, gliding, flowing and flying. all in all an excellent descent.

then Sumner to home, into the wind it a fair bit, but i think it was kinda just northerly, rather than full on Nor'west near the coast with more of a side wind along the causeway and linwood ave...

Tuesday cruiseday. Farm, vernon, witch, castle, britten, mccormacks

Good ride last night. usual kinda suspects met up at Steve's. included Nelson, Andrew, Tony, Wayne, Steve, Pete, english Mark and newby Marcus (29r Stumpy from a few weeks back). headed round river and up Farm Track. grunt grunt. eventually all assembled at top and we bombed off down the singletrack towards Rapaki. the techy rocky bits getting the better of most of us to start with, something to do with lights and not having ridden it for ages. flew down the last section into the switchbacks.

Then, twas round Witch Hill, nice spin round that, and onto the road up to Castle Rock. i led down this, flying and loving it. rock armouring from the other week has all bedded in nicely. most of us made it to top of Bridle Path and Steve's phone rang. it was Wayne, Mark had a flat a bit back up the trail. so they fixed it while we waited around. Pete and Marcus headed up to see if they were getting on okay, and when they got back Marcus had a flat. he changed it quick.

Then it was a tootle round summit rd to John Britten Reserve, along the first half of the singletrack, then off piste off down towards Major Hornbrook. at least, we started out off piste cos i couldnt find the usual trail i ride due to the darkness and the spring growth of grass. got onto it half way down, bombed on down to Mt Pleasant Rd and then hit the Craigieburn Pl into McCormacks Bay trail. steps, followed by mostly greasy switchbacks, then some flow, some bomb, enjoyment all round. Excellent ride, with me peeling off at Ferrymead, then realising halfway round Humphrey's that Wayne was going my way too. we rode Linwood Ave together. Got home at 9.

Foggy Thursday nite summit singletrack ramble

Drove over to Nelson's and we hit the road about 8, headed for Rapaki. Good cruise up there, into the foggy tops. amazing light all around, with the moon getting pretty big (88% full according to my igoogle widget), so was nice and bright, bright enough to ride by pretty much all the way up. at the top we hung a left and semi-blindly clambered up and over the Witch Hill singletrack, all in good dry nick. then up the road, in the fog, to Castle Rock. felt our way down that, me pointing out the bits i'd helped with, and enjoying it all, then from Bridle we headed back up the road towards the top again.

Flew down the summit road, cautiously with only 2 lines visible at a time, better off with headlamps off, just running with the LEDs on the bars, then back round the Witch, decided to give Vernon singletrack a go, having not been on it in months. it too, all dry bar 2 small puddles, in remarkably good condition. Then it was a Traverse blast, still under fog, lights reflecting glare back at us, but a good pace managed. into Vic park, down to the see-saw, Nelson did it, i baulked twice and then didnt... maybe in the day light. dunno why i'm so fearful.

First few jumps on Brakefree, then across to hit the Gums. awesome descent down through them, bombing the berms and haulin' ass through the rest. out to the skidder site. then down Dazza's, which has suffered a little lower down, down Brents, and out onto the open bit before Bridges. the rut that was has now been rock-amoured, fantastic job (GC?) done cleaning up that mess, and then we kept the highline along the trees, and dropped down to the washoutdrop. had a look at the zigzag going back in where it used to be, then sped the rest of the way down.

Highlights? the overall quality of the light and the sense of being "anywhere". the view towards Ferrymead from halfway up the top straight on rapaki, as well as the view into Bowenvale Valley from the newly armoured section...

Sunday Morning, loner... to lunch

had some work to finish, so rode in to sort it out and once done, headed for the hills.

Decided to punish myself for lack of riding and grovelled up Farm Track. ugh. there was a hella cold easterly blowing, and with a sail i could have ripped up the hill... once at the top, i hit the single track, which was nice and dry, round to Traverse, also nice and dry, totally flying it round to Vic. Down Thomsons to kiwi, then up the road and over to Marleys, back down to kiwi, loving the lot of it. Then back up road and upper bit of Thomsons to top of Vic again, and down to the gums, which were all dry and nice, except that last little bit that heads out to the road, the first bit of which, kinda below the skidder jumps site, was all mucky, plus had a broken tree all over one bit. headed all the way out past rangerville, and down between the road and the dog parks, then over a couple of fences and onto a tiny little singletrack that spits you out on Harry Ell Pl. vooom down that, then back along Longhurst and up to my folks for family lunch. good ride all round, tho lotsa climbing. unfortunate to end up climbing 200m more than descent.

Wednesday Night, Worst Worsley, Marley Vic. Pollen-ville

Al and me rode over to Nelson's, then we hit the road, caught a bit of the river round to Craycroft then up Worsley's. not a bad road climb. hit the dirt and my oh my. first section not too bad. Dirt nearly a greeny yellow with pollen, which was also like a starfield in our vision under lights. explored into the McV block, lower Hidden still viable after lifting over their attempts at stopping us. Al's pedal started making a funny noise as we climbed back upto the main track. then he discovered the Crank Bro's Curse, his bearing had dissolved, just like mine had all those times... he walked, Nelson and I rode most of the way up the rest. fun technically difficult, balancing along the ridges between ruts, some of which seemed to drop away forever. one or two spots were nigh on impossible to cross and getting off was the only option. but mostly it was cleanable. Hit the bottom of the Body Bag however, and whooah... nelson dabbed, and his foot went over the ankle in mud. once past that tho, the rest of the Body Bag was okay, tho very rough and cut up at the top, making traction an issue and we all walked the last 20 m or so.

Marley's: Al got back on and we all had a hoot coming down Marleys. the new bit is fantastic, with no damage done by the last few months of horrible weather, good work dude who makes it, this is how all trails should be built, and the lower section below the road was surprisingly good nick too. At the kiwi, Al took off down the road, and N and me headed up Summit Rd to top of Vic. good spin down through trees, Brake Free, then into the Gums. AWESOME berms built into the lower gums, g-outs and tight twisty fun.

Met Al again at Skidder Site, and off down Dazza's. Nelson hadnt experienced all the new bits, and enjoyed the fact that its so long now. just before Brett's, there's a nasty hole on the left, and it chucked Al off. rode down through Brett's, and wondered why Al was taking so long, and then saw this dim orange light coming... battery dying. so, from there down he rode between nelson and me, fingers crossed that the trail was still there... good bomb down valley, then Bowenvale, Eastern, Wilsons, Nursery, Stanmore home.

Back to back, Friday night Saturday morning Rapaki. Working Bee.

Friday night, didnt make it to Nelson's til nearly 9pm, due to a baby puke emergency at home (yay!). anyway, headed up across to and up Rapaki, had a wee look up Erewhon Tce, as on the aerial photos and Cadastre it looks like there should be a way up onto Montgomery Spur, but to no avail, we were annexed by driveways and houses... even tho the legal road goes well up beyond the houses... hmmm. anyway, back down and on up Rapaki. good spin, then round summit road to the beginning of Traverse, round through the first fence and then down onto Huntsbury and on down Huntbury track. the gravel on that has bedded in quite nicely now and is a much better run than it was a few years ago... explored the subdivisioning above Nelson's property, then on down Major Aitken Drive. and back to his place. good spin, but wasnt home til about 11.

Saturday morning, i hit rapaki at 10am. hoofed it up passing lots, hung a left round summit road (saw Witch Hill was no longer Track Closed but wasnt sure so stayed on road), to Castle Rock, where Trailbuilding working bee was on. lots of people down below, i tootled down the road til i was above Nick the Singletrack Ranger, climbed over fence and got to work helping out with some armouring. worked on a couple of locations, carrying piles of rocks and placing them. all good. good to put some faces to vorbii. coupla pics taken by i_ride_rigid... heres the gallery
my bike and some guy, and Me.... That section of track is where we spent a lot of time, placing rocks into one of the seeps.

Wandered up to top again with all the willing workers, and then was 2nd person to ride down it all newly spruced up. it was MINT. rode back up road to top, gagging to do it again, but had to get home, so back down road, round Witch Hill, and bombed it down Rapaki back to car on Centaurus.

no ride week...

no mtnbike rides,
Tuesday rode over to Steve's on the Ghetto Spesh for an evening of mtnbike dvds and tasty beer. i took with me a couple of La Trappe Wittes, an Emerson's Dunkel, and Renaissance Stonecutter...
Wednesday, biked to Cannon Hill, which felt like some miles, but really, plenty of people do that both ways every day, so its not really much...

Hopefully, planning to get up hill tomorrow to assist with the maintenance of the Castle Rock to Bridle Path singletrack.

Hanmer and Cycle.

Awesome ride Saturday morning in Hanmer, with Al.

headed from his folk's, up Chattertons, up pylon steep grunty little bastard of a track, i walked the steepest bit, Al cleaned it. then my rear brake messed with my head, so muddled with it and it seemed to come right.

down Tank track the top of which is a bit messed up, but the rest still rocks, beautiful rooty goodness. then up onto one of the lower Conical hill trails round to Majuba, found one coming down, so we walked up it, found another going right up to the top with a munty rock garden built on it, so, walked up that too, to the top of Conical hill, second knoll... were told later by a local that that trail is called the Eagle's Nest. bombed down it, dabbing over the rockbridgegardenthing, then dabbed through the tight hairpins and bombed the last bit down onto the Majuba.

then through and up onto Joliffe's, upper Dogstream, all good climbs, most of which i always forget how long they are... then up onto Big Foot. beeeaauuuttiiiffuuulll... Nature, conect to Detox, loose and greasy down Detox, rutty and a little bit messy, tho nothing on what the Port Hills've got right now. then back up the road, and down Lower Dogstream up Joliffe's again, up RedRocks, through two lots of Track Closed for Logging tape, rode most of the way down and into the clearfell... R.I.P lower Red Rocks... then back into the village...

minty minty singletrack... love riding up there.

Thurs night Bottle Spin - 2 singles

Spun out quick to B.Lake on the newly ratio'd (42:18) switchy, met Andrew in the carpark, he with his magic Marin (42:16). took a jaunt round the inner circle, going hard out then having a break then going hard out again. trails are loose in places, slick and greasy in others, and downright crappy (Teddington SUCK anyone?) elsewhere... with stretches of nice fast dry stuff too. anywho, good ride, burned the legs, slowing towards the end, then back to the carpark and each to their respective rides home, mine spinning frantically. enjoyed.

also, we swapped bikes for a couple hundred metres. was interesting to try something different. i found his to be comfortable, providing a good ride, and the drivetrain felt tight, in a good way. the forks however, i found very slack and thought they kinda flopped from side to side. the frame was designed with 3 or less inches in mind, so the extra degree or two of slackness are probably just a bit too much, for my tastes, anyway... he didnt particularly like the switchback i think... the Mary bars maybe just a bit too much, and the short (4 inch) fork making its geometry heaps steeper than the slack (also 4 inch) on his marin.

FINALLY, Tuesdaynight rapaki summit road pleasantness

finally after over week off, i made it out. Missed thursday night cos just couldnt be arsed, and then sunday, the first day that singletracks on the hills would have been ridable for months, i was laid up in bed. anyway, last night, over to steves for a 6.15 depart. good crowd showing, Andrew, Tony, Pete, Matt, Steve-the-accountant (who was heading off as i arrived - for rapaki to meet helmutlessMark already up there), a new guest Marcus (that Matt had picked up at a library)(on a 29r stumpy), Steve, and of course yours truly. Txts from Nelson put him late and i held back a bit letting him catch us up at the second gate. by the time he'd gotten there most of the others were already at the first corner disappearing, so we put the power, overtook them, gained the lead and held it all the way up. i felt surprisingly good, seemed to have good power and endurance, amazing what a week off the bike seems to do, - builds up glycogen reserves i guess... rapaki was pretty soft in places especially where the dude crashed on his face the other weekend, noted someone had stuck a stick into the ground there with plastic bags on it (as warning). top still had just enough snow to make for an interesting lumber out.

helmetlessmark and accountantsteve appeared from some shelter when we all piled up, and off we trundled round the summit road. ice just starting to sparkle in places, but nothing black and slippery. stopped for a bit at Castle Rock. i would have been keen to explore the trail from there, cos it was well covered in snow, it would have been interesting, but the lower slopes would have been quagmire. froze our asses down to the Bridle, then on continued round and up to top of Pleasant. 'nother short break, then off for the flight down Mt Pleasant Rd. wish i'd put my chippolatas on. brrrr... bombed it down, road drying out the lower we got. then at ferrymead bridge, i peeled off and headed my happy way home down linwood. home just after 8, not bad.

Sunday Morning, Snowville.

Slick black ice ride across to Steve's after rain and sleet finished at 2am and it cleared... good group, Steve, Pete, Andrew, Tony, Hubby, Wayne, Matt, English Mark and your's truly. headed up Rapaki, soggy and sapping a little. then at middle gate, headed up farmtrack onto Montgomery Spur. up to the trig marker, on snow mostly. quite cool. thats me, giving the stick...

good views from that knoll. must explore further down sometime, and find some sheeptrails back to the bottom of the 'paki. whilst up there we were joined by a fellow Switchback rider, running 32:18, white rigid single. back down to Rapaki and on up it. at the bottom of the straight there was a bunch of people and a guy down, in spaceblanket and coats, blood all over his face. the chopper came in before we made the Summit Rd. quite cool to see that too.

then on up the road to top of Farm track, and off piste snow riding down the ridge. brilliant! heaps of fun just drifting down on a really good snow surface, maybe 2 inches, but well packed and crunchy. picking lines and flowing. alllll goooood. eventually back onto the farm track, splattered our way down and muckily we went to cafe opposite St Martins New World.

no singletrack was harmed in the making of this ride...

Wednesday Night 3 Bottled Singles...

Nelson picked up Al and me from mine about 7-7.30. headed out to the 'Lake. all of us on the singlespeeds. entered the forest and took the usual internal loop, left, through, all good. spin spin spin. full tummy made me wheezy so a few short stops in the first section before the pond/lake. then good rip through onwards. bombed it, mostly good trail conditions, til we hit the Teddington Chip... Teddington Shit more like. sapping all your power, sticky and soft. that stuff SUCKS in the wet. the old surface of the grey gravel (graded river gravel (FAR more sensible, cos it's naturally draining)) is heaps better... anyway, just cut a quick internal loop, back to the start.

then, to mix it up a bit, headed back round the wrong way. MINT!!! a whole new trail. the usual track and corners were all completely new and fresh. you knew where you were but putting the pieces together you couldnt figure what was coming next. and, sections seemed to be faster and over sooner... was cool. so, did a full long loop back out to the beach and down, then back round from the south. all good, except for the Teddington Shit. it makes me doubt very much whether its the best stuff to be putting on the summit trail etc.

Most of the time Nelson led, followed by me, usually close on his tail, and then Al. Al's gearing is slightly lower than ours, so he was having to spin more to keep up. home 9.30ish

been away...

in the bush, fiordland... riding will begin again, soon.

before i went away tho, Kris serviced my Vanillas...

Tuesday Night, Bottle Lake (AGAIN) Seven (3 singles)

Andrew, Wayne, Matt, Hubby, Stealthy Steve, Al and me all congregated in the carpark bout 6.30. Andrew on his long legged (42:16) singlespeed marin running the magic ratio (no tensioner), and Al and me both on singles again. headed in, hung a right, and out towards beach, good spin through there, bit muckier than sunday i think. then along beach, in to pond and back out on main track, north all the way up to Spencer, breather at the picnic shelters, then back in for the final slog. some slick ass bits, greasy corners, and muckiness, but all in all a good spin.

(i have to put this next bit), i led most of the way, but matt was riding my ass the whole time, and andrew was hard to keep up with on his long gear...

Sunday Arvo Bottle Lake 3 Singles

spun over to Al's at 3.45, we headed to Bottle Lake to meet Alister, first ride for him for a while. so, 3 singlespeeds, one of which a 29r, one rigid. headed in, south, loop back onto main, north, and back. stopping and talking a fair bit. good spin, quite mucky in places, and was getting REALLY dark towards the end. Al had a good little off right in front of me on that last leg, front wheel just went out from under him. quite hard to see through the last section. and spun home. by about 6.

Tuesday night, Rapaki, Summit, Vic, Cashmere

overcast easterly, nearly drizzly riding across to Steve's for 6pm start. got there, and riding were Steve, Andrew, the other (accountant) Steve, , Matt, Tony, Jo from work and me. headed up Rapaki, good climb, into heavier and heavier fog, making for any speed tricky. good moon out, lighting the way too.

avoided the single track on Vernon, took road, then hit Summit Traverse. excellent ride round there, coming out of the fog around the Sugarloaf. down through vic, Gums, to skidder site, then down road to Dog Exercise Area, dodgey down side of pines to top of cashmere, with big drips falling off the pines onto their roots making for very interesting riding down there. once next to the houses the lower section of walktrack was closed (must've been a tree down or slip?) so bailed out onto Scarfe Pl, then down Longhurst briefly, then Derrynane lane through park to Takahe/Kidson. a few of us bombed down Kidson, but the others lost their way and went up Takahe, meeting us finally down bottom of Kidson. into Macmillan to Marie's place where she had laid on some delicious Muffins and warm drinks... then down hill, and i rode home down Colombo whilst the others peeled into Beckenham back to Steve's.

Sunday a.m. Kennedy's Marley's Vic

totally different riding buddies yesterday. Rode across town to Paul d'S's and met with Derek there. then we picked up little Dave from work at bottom of Westmorland. Headed round to the Quarry, and up the Crocodile. it was in good nick all the way. even the 'bad bit' was okay, little sticky on some of the upper reaches. then headed up Kennedy's. always forget how long Kennedy's is. tho, good to go up it again, its been a while. everyone kept good form up there. then round the road, and up to top of Worsely's. Dave peeled off here, down what looked to be a muckfest, there was SO much standing water down there. the rest of us headed up over Marley's. i lead. it was great. in very good condition, dry with only one or two slightly soggy bits. the new section rocked! then the lower bit was good, tho the top rocks were pretty greasy.

from kiwi, headed up Thomsons, top of Vic. down Coffee Break, first few jumps of Brakefree, then down through the gums. excellent cruise down there, then Dazza's which rocks at the moment, then down Brents, round Flow (nasty big deep rut formed here) into Bridges, dropped the k2 washout drop, and out the bottom of the valley. i was home 35 odd kms later, by 12.15, tired.

Late night Thursday solo Bottle single spin.

left home bout 9. headed River Rd, Banks, Archilles, Ajax, New Brighton, Burwood Park, Horshoe lake. counted 6 possums through there, and that was just on the track, hate to think how many more are in there. good spin, tho very sticky in the middle. boardwalks bit slippy.

up Burwood Rd, into the forest. hung a right, headed out over the dump, along beach, then back in and north, round and back to carpark. all good. one or two weirdnesses, where for example i'd come round a tree thinking the trail was gonna keep going straight, or veer left, when it actually hung a right, thereby throwing balance and flow off, nearly crashing, being saved only by emergency squirrelly braking...

hardly saw anybody out there. one group of three fixing a puncture, a couple leaving as i entered, that was about it. cruised home catching the short section of Horseshoe, park, then from Archilles a right on Banks to clean up the last section of singletrack. flying over this hump - there's this huge tree down across the creek and trail. nice dirt encrusted squirrelly stop. clamber back up onto road, around it and back on trail and down North Parade home.

Hour and a half or so all up. sketchily, i'd forgotten my cellphone.

Wet Hills.Dyers, H.Ell, Traverse, 'paki

Too long off bike, weather's been diabolical...
bout 8, i drove over to Nelson's with the Cotic in the back. we rode down colombo and up Dyers Pass Rd. Past the Takahe, we hit the walking track which sidles along above the road, all the way up to the saddle. nice easy climb, good track surface, no damage whatsoever resulting from us. More and more snow as we got higher... Summit Rd was closed, which was nice.

headed to top of Vic Park, then hit the Traverse... we appeared to be the first to have sliced through the snow along there. was fun. we stopped to aid guttering drainage a few times. otherwise, the trail is holding together well, and survived our riding it very well. hitting a patch of snow was like someone putting your brakes on, and the front wheel would dart left or right randomly too... interesting... the rocky bits near Lava flow were tricky as all hell. few other tire tracks round there too...

then we took the road around vernon, into a bitterly cold wind down to Rapaki. then hoisted it down Rapaki. the most fun Rapaki can be. foot deep ruts, greasy clay, slippery rocks, limited visibility... mint!

cruised back across town, invigorated, splecked with less mud than you'd expect, toes like blocks of ice, or as Nelson put it, his feet felt like they'd been through a planer...

Horseshoe Bottle Lake Brooklands Single Late night spin

Nelson turned up to my place and we woulda headed out door about 8. up North Parade, into Banks Ave singletrack, riding several sections of it, then turning back to Archilles, Ajax, New Brighton Rd, across Burwood Park, coupla jumpies on the bmx track there, then into Horseshoe lake. Burned through first section then hit the walk track that goes through to the river. FUN. i'd never ridden it before, and it was awesome, some boardwalks, plenty slippy, much longer than we'd thought it would be. cool. then, all the way up Burwood Rd.

into the forest.Bombed through the usual and on up to Spencer Park. then hit the Brooklands Walk track. rough. sandy in places, soggy. hard work, quite a distance too. then back to Spencer Park, snack stop, then met these bikers at the BBQs with some meat and beer... then back into the forest, back to Waitikiri, back usual way then caught a bit of Horseshoe, coupla jumps, home via Banks singles and River...follow the lines...mappage 40 odd kms... home just after 11...

Too long... then Saturday, ride to planting

Dropped O off up at my folk's, then headed to bottom of rapaki to meet the boys. Steve, Tony and Wayne showed up. we trundled up rapaki, hung a right, breezed up singletrack, running into Matt and a mate of his John, who were riding to meet us. they turned round, we headed round for Vic Park. bumped into James Marshall, angrywadder who i've not seen for a while.

headed down, couple jumps on the Brakefree, then down gums, dazza's and across to planting. planted lots of trees, steve and wayne took off. tony and me went for bbq at ranger station, then he headed down, and i bombed down dazza's again, on down, into valley, around and down

Wednesday Bottle Lake spin

Nelson picked me up, we drove out to find the carpark chocka post the Wednesday Night Racing... on our geared bikes, cos his first ride on his replaced frame, headed into the forest, took the middle trails out and round full loop, going hard, me wheezing a bit in the cool, hardly stopping, full loop back round to start, then headed right and out towards beach. my chain broke strangely. was the quicklink that had split. luckily i combed back up the trail and found the missing culprit, and put it back together. then we headed out to beach, back along and the back in to carpark. good spin...

Hanmered winter wonderland

amazing weekend in hanmer. bigfoot is my new favourite track.

Jerry and me left the bach we were in, riding around to and up Jacks. took the right on one of the early corners and headed down the track Al took me last time. nice wee climb up to new majuba connection behind conical. bad sidle on majuba to the nice rest of it. jerry did really well, falling off twice cos his clips were too tight and then at the bottom of majuba managed to get his butt pretty good. then we headed down Pawson's, and up Dog Stream.

At Joliffe's rd i pointed him in the right direction and tootled up to do upper dogstream, nice nice nice, one close call hand nearly bounced off bar. then met him at picnic by lower bridge. up mulgins, he bailed out down the lower upper dogstream, top bridge down, and i carried on up to Bigfoot. cleaned it all up bar one or two bends, then the downhill was blissful. bombed it with such flow, saw a dude coming up, got to the bottom and had to do it again, took the fir back up, cleaned bigfoot climb again bar the same two, awesome, and better descent. then up nature, onto detox, back up road, dogstream down to joliffes again, up there and out redrocks, then home. i hope Jerry enjoyed it, i tried to show him interesting riding... here's a googlemap of it like

that afternoon it snowed, 3 or so inches by end late in the evening. froze hard overnight. gorgeous winter wonderlands. white landscape driving home

Worsley Grease-fest...

Rode over to Nelson's about 5.30 on the Soul. He had to ride his singlespeed cos he hasnt protected his new frame yet. so, we headed across town to Worsleys. round the first corner it was a good 10 or more degrees warmer we had to stop and get layers off. continued up road, him getting way ahead cos of the standing and grunting, me spinning a lower gear.

hit the dirt, it was wet... the surface was juuust sticky, but not to the wheel clagging stage, and most ruts had either flowing or standing water in them. Grease is the word. a fair bit of walking ensued, but surprisingly rode a few bits i wouldnt have expected to. staying on the ridges between ruts was tricky at times too, and then the body bag was a complete walk, no way could you get traction, it was hard enough on foot... re jacketed at top, and had a bite to eat. wind had changed up there to southerly, clouds building a bit to the south.

headed up Marley's. most of the descent was pretty good. greasy sticky bits following Teddington Chipped corners which were nice and dry. the new section is coming along amazingly, with some awesome rock armouring and a fantastic line with good flow. riders should make tracks... good bomb to kiwi, slippin and sliding here and there. up road to top of vic. and round the summit trail all good, tho my legs were struggling by this time on all the ups and nelson was ploughing ahead of me.

Top of Huntsbury, headed down, then out the landing strip, then over a fence and picked lines between tussocks over the ridgeline, down to pylons, with some nice flowy bits, then down various off piste lines over the two wee jumps and down onto the road. then down to Nelson's property, had a look around that, scoped out the reserve below it, but couldnt see well enough to risk going down and having to clamber back up, so headed down Major Aitken Drive, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz all the way down, home via Eastern, Wilsons etc, southerly wind blowing me home...

SS-tagalong, then Wharfdale non starter.

Saturday, O and me went out to Bottle Lake with the tagalong. nice spin, fun with him. start of inside loop, then out to beach, then back along beachside track, and in the old (blown out connector) then on round. surprised at permafrost bits, frozen puddles and patches of frost in spots.

Put the Soul back together (using the derailleur i scored off Mel on Vorb), tuned up and ready to rock.

Finally thought we were gonna get to do the Wharfdale again, after well over a year since any of us had done it, yesterday. but disaster struck... drove all the way out to Oxford, and round Woodside to View Hill, towards the Wharfdale. Headed in the Wharfdale gravel rd, hit the first ford, entered it, it got deeper and deeper, pete had an “oh shit” moment, and the engine conked out.

So, there we are sitting in the middle of a river, water all up round the doors, all of us going “this is bad” and “holy crap” etc. Nothing to do but get out and let all that water in. Tried to push the car, it were too heavy (falcon v8). Got the hell out of the water cos the pain was too much to bear. Formulated some plans. I said I’d go get help, but of course needed to get bike off the rack. Tony’s first, then a couple wheels, then my frame. All the while YOWCH YOWCH YOWCH in the cold cold water. Headed back down the road, first house, older lady, said they're just a small holding and dont have anything capable, but try Derek the farmer down the road. So biked to this guy and said to him “you must get this all the time, but my mate has parked his car in the middle of your ford. Lady down the road there said you’ve towed people out before. any chance of a tow?” he said yep. So I rode back to the boys and in due time the farmer came along and pulled the car out with his hilux.

Then we sat and waited, and scooped water out of the foot-wells, and got rained on, and ate some bacon and egg pie. Matt was came from chch to tow us home. It was looking like a very long trip home… Matt arrived, hooked up, started out. and then a few hundred metres up the road pete signalled to stop. Brakes (being power assist and being wet too) and steering were very very bad, meaning matt was gonna have to take it really easy… also, being an auto, we were gonna have to tow slow anyway. But then Pete tried starting the car up. And amazingly he got it going. It was a bit sluggish at first, idling really roughly, but revving out okay, blew a good gallon or two of water out the exhaust (that had flowed in whilst in the river), then ran beautifully. A few of the warning lights were on the dash, but it ran fine. so we headed for town. Stopped half way down South Eyre Rd to check pete’s oil, which had a little water in it, but other sodden carpets, and upholstery, car seemed alright. Insurance will take care of everything. So, Wharfdale, if you're listening, we'll be back.