Mondaynightitis. Horsey Travis Bottlo ignoration.

Only opportunity for riding for me this week was last night, so- Nelson (after a false start and ditching the single for the geared) beginning a very long ride for him, treadled over to mine and off we set, me on the single.

Headed round and hit Banks Ave singlebits, then Burwood Park into Horseshoe Lake. Took trail all way through (bit bloody mucky in the middle), with all the boardwalk kinda almost 'shorey fun. Nelson had a disagreement with a tree and ended up in the bushes, losing a light in the process (which he didnt realise til later). We exited onto New Brighton Rd, crossed over and hit the single along the river to Bassett St and headed up to Travis.

I'd never ridden through here, so we blithely ignored the "No Bikes Please" (viewing it more as a request, not an order (figuring at night, fully lit, no prob, right?)) we rode the (very sturdy well made and nicely boardwalked) track through to Tumara Park then explored our way through this slobdivision to the edge of Bottle Lake.

Found our way onto the southern circuit and fanged it through to the hilltop gazebo. short break there, headed back down the hill, then along side of the landfill (stinky! last night) to the inside loop. not far into that came upon some 'Logging, no access' signage, which we ignored and continued in. one of our favourite sections of trail now destroyed, we rode along side it til we could get back onto the usual trail, which is a fucking mess all Teddington-shitted and soggy mucky stupid mess, which slowly improved and on we went. Mostly good riding from here through. Open areas just starting to frost, on through, the bermy corners fast and having lots of traction.

Made our way out to Waitikiri carpark and headed back down Burwood Rd, Lakewood Drive and back into Horseshoe lake to find Nelson's light, which was still on, pointing down right where he crashed. continued on through thinking there'd be an exit into the burbs, only to get most of the way through and finding our way out to Jean Batten Pl, mildly disoriented, so spotted the southern cross and worked out which way to go down Liggins St, explored a wrong turn into Tasman Pl trying to get back into Horseshoe across to the park, which we found through Moncrieff Pl. Back through Burwood Park, Ajax and Archilles, hung a right on Bank's singles and home. Nelson carrying on. i was in the door at 9.25pm or so.

Hummdinger of a frost this morning...

Saturday Single-hill-speed

FIIINALLY hit up the hills. Saturday morning i set to the singlespeed, throwing on a new wheel (SS specific (disc only) i changed its 16t for my 18t) and new rear brake (cheep ass cable disc), scored off a couple of vorbii

O and T were off at a concert and so GG came over to look after H and i hit the road almost dead on 2. spun across town to Rapaki, and so began the grunt. Ugh, it'd be along time, and i was wishing i'd put on my 34t front ring instead of rocking the 38:18, but, struggled away and made pretty good time. got off and walked a couple of times, once by the Manuka, once half way up the upper straight, and once on the corner just after that.

Track Closed signs were up for Vernon (but people were still heading up it!), so i took the road round to the Traverse. no 'track closed' sign there (and i'd neglected to check the web) and talked to a guy who'd just come off it, who said it wasnt bad (and he wasnt absolutely spattered in mud, so i hit it and headed round. Trail was in good knick. the usual odd wet spot. Bombed it good, really enjoying the singlespeed ride, round to the Sugar Loaf restspot. chatted with some folk there (guy on a Rocky Hammer (STEEL IS REAL, Bro)) and then i headed back.

Temporary blindness made me miss the Track Closed sign at start of Vernon, and headed over the first bit. Trail was fine, besides the two wet spots up top. interestingness over the rocky sections up top, then good flow down to Farm Track (where there were two !motorcycles! up above the road (almost on the bike track!)). i continued on down (thinking i might head for top of Rapaki) but got to the first wet section, walked around it, saw the next bit and turned back up to Farm Track.

Hurtled down Farm Track, putting my new (to me) discs to good use... good flight down here, but fork needs attention.

Spun back home (via the Grape Escape for a couple of Green King IPA's). 2 hours all up. yesterday, my upper body was feeling the ride. must get up the hill on the single more often, its a bloody good workout.

Tuesday full moon urbanism

aaarrrggghhh... how long since tires schluffed dirt? neeeeeed singletrack...

weekend resulted in no riding... took O to a kids BMX thing out at Hornby which was groovy for him and made ME want a sweet little trick 24inch bmx cruiser.
and yesterday, went out to Cowles Stadium and had a go on a bunch of weird and wonderful machines at Bikes4Fun (also as part of KidsFest), even having my first ever go on a P-Far. freakiness and harder than i thought it would be.

then, last night, krewzd to Petes, where met with Andrew Hubby Steve Steve Warren and we proceeded to repeat last thursday's ride, only tacking on south hagley park, a slightly different route back through town, and all of us ending up at Pomeroys for a couple pints... (this time, Tuatara Hefe and then an 3boys Oystah stout.

Thursday Urbanity

Grovelly weather and saturated trails kept us off the hills, and even off Bottle Lake... So, i jumped on the Globe and trundled to Petes, where Steve (on his Earth Cruiser), Rex, and Mark (on the Healing Tenspeed Tandem (on his own)) showed up too.

Pedalled the streets - round Avonside to Swanns bridge round River Rd to Fitz along cycle way to Cambridge round past cemetery brief encounter with Barbadoes then continuing along down the poplars and on round crossing river and Colombo into Vic Sq then along past courts and belgian beer bar on along to Worcester down to Museum hung a right and then into North Hagley diagonally towards Harper followed along side that round to Riccarton Roundabout althewhile in the park to hospital to Bridge of Remembrance down Cashel where Steve peeled off the rest of us jaunting to Pomeroys for a coupla pints - i had an Emerson's Hoppy Porter (YUM) and a 3Boys Oyster Stout (also YUM).
Some Fixsters were in residence there, 3 brakeless.

rain had just started as we headed home, and 10 minutes after i got in the gale and downpour began... lucky we didnt have that 3rd pint, and the fashion fixies will have had wet arses on their way home, rubbing brakeless (a la bsnyc...)

Sunday: greasy Thomas, mucky Godley.

trundled thru a cold and frosty morning to Steve's for a lift. him, tony and me shuttled out to Scumner in the TFC Van... tony w/ his hardtail due to a flat on his susser. outside DotCom met up with Waynus, Steve(abba), Hubbster, and Mark and Marie on the (well dodgey) tandem. (pete was crook and Andrew was off to the Home(OH!) show.)

squelched up Captain Thomas. wasnt too bad, but it was too in parts. the worst part by far due to a horse living on it, rather than bikes... issues with the tandem slowed Mark and Marie's progress. At the top, we bailed out the old route, rather than facing the dredge it would be on the south facing section before rounding up to Evans.

At Evans, tandem rear wheel got a tickle, and all but them hit Godley. as usual, blew the early rocks, but after that i had a really good run. cleaned heaps, if not all. some recent work was in evidence further around, but man the trail was a mess. even tho it was Open, we felt we probably shouldnt have been on it, but continued to ride anyway. good run through, tandemriders avoiding the earlier rockies and joining us up on the flatter tops, then the descent to Livingston Col, the first section to and between the boardwalked bits rather untidy. the teddington shitted stuff not bad, but soggy and splecky in places, and the final run down cautious, but with some speed. tandemmers back to road, the rest of us headed up and over to breeze. good cleaning ride through for me, and on the way down to breeze my cassette came loose, and was a mudbath at the bottom around the cattlestop.

tightened up the cassette and bombed onto the 'conda. tandeems and abba had headed off earlier. i caught them and pulled up thinking i'd let them get ahead, then hubb underpassed me and caught them, so i headed down after. he got past them then i managed to (when they pulled over for me the ended up in a wheelshaped ditch!), and so all of my run down anaconda was sweet. bombed out the tail, slowly gaining on hubby. one VERY close call in the tail above the baches, nearly lost a wheel over a rocky edge, but held on and got through.

climb out of Taylors, i pushed hard cos i felt like i needed it and got up first. felt bad and good. then nice cruise down nicholson and round waterfront to coffee and hospitality at the 'Com.

Thursnight: McPleasn'tGreenmitMondgans squirrelville

forgive us for we have sinned... Last night, nelsh picked me up about half 7, we cruised to McCormacks Bay and headed up into the valley. there's been some work going on in there, and they've mulched the hillside of its brush, so the track was a soft sucky heap of sticks and mulch, albeit a fennel fragranted one. headed off the mulched track onto the single track and started squirrelling our way up, me walking heaps cos i just couldnt get good traction... by the time we got into the switchbacks parts of the track were saturated with water oozing from the hillside, and much walking ensued... onto the road and we tried out Longridge Drive, on up thru to Upper Major Hornbrook, which was a steep wee grunt, tho got rid of a lot of the duller sections of Mt Pleasant Rd...

got to summit rd, hung a left, and rolled on down to the start of Greenwood. here began the badness and sinfulness. which, if you read on, we ameliorated a little, did some pennance as it were. yes, i read now on ccc website that it is Avoid, but earlier i'd figured, no rain since weekend, should be good to go, right? wrong. anyway, we soldiered on, i ended up mostly riding several metres away from the track, parallel, following sheep lines through the tussocks, something that isnt too bad to do on those slopes. due to the trail being reasonably flat in that area, it holds ALL the water. we stopped and cleared out one particularly bad drain, cleaning up the wooden drainage channel and its feeders. at the same time, bumped into someone i know who was up walking with a mate.

continued to squirrel around on down and round, past the ruins, the trail picking up a bit in places, over all the rocky corners, all good, nice flow on, with minimal wet spots, until down round on the east face... rode through a bunch of stuff and i holla'd to Nelsh that we oughta stop and do something... so, out with the shovel, and repair repair repair. the water is just ooozing out of the hillside, and in places it is running down the track, so we took measures to stifle its flow down the track by making it drain straight across. fixed up a few really bad spots, but left others for another time.

on down, round into gloomy gulch, boardwalk so sweet compared to old slats. nasty section over the rocks and then i was super tentative further down on the rocks, but then good flowy sections into the top of the next few switchbacks, where i found nelsh stopped. out with the spade, where one place water was running down round a corner, really trashing the track. this was cos of a completely blocked wooden drainage channel, which i had to get my hand into the stinky anaerobic mud to clear, dug, diverted water, cleared out drain... corner pretty much sorted. should dry out nicely now.

on down, sketchiness prevailing, round and up to that little creek, part of which was running down the trail... so. out with the spade, yet again, and dug it out so it wasnt running down the trail. and then on down and out, the rest of the track being pretty good cos its north facing and has enough rocks around.

Up Summit road to the big pines on Richmond Hill, nice flowy cruise down paddock towards Panorama. over stile, through cattle, over style, down rooty interesting fun section, over stile, more rooty under trees, over stile onto Clifton to Panorama, down to "Private R.O.W" down round tanks and down steps (vibrating mud off)to Tuawera, down next bit Kinsey, and on down Mulgan's Track. if you didnt know the area, i doubt you'd find your way down all that. Nelsh managed to hop-ride all of the mulgan switchbacks, amazing.
then, on through redcliffs back to the vehicle. homeward bound 10.30ish. guess we spent about an hour digging... so, yes, i freely admit, these were far from ideal riding conditions, and really shouldnt have been up there, but, we did some work and maintenance on the trail, which is more than most who trash the tracks ever do...

Weak end weather limited options.

Was the intention Saturday to ride up to the planting in Vic Park with Steve et al, but the weather was abominable at 11.30 when we were supposed to be going, so we all bailed from the riding part. nearly didnt make it to the planting either, but the weather cleared so the whole family went up and planted some future-bush.

Sunday, no contact from anyone (thanks ANDREW!), so loaded up the tagalong and the singlespeed and O and me went out the Blottle-Ache, probably about 11am. just as we were about to head into the forest, i spotted andrew, wayne, warren, dallas and the girl (from Mcleans ride the other week) who's name i dont know all just finishing up their ride... said gudday and headed in to the forest. took the internal loop, rather than southern circuit. interesting new bit where they've diverted traffic into some dark woods (which was scary for O). then once back to the pond back onto the familiar trails. spun north up to Spencerville turn off and back through.

all in all a good spin, fun for both O and me. managed to overtake a few people even. O was well and truly splattered head to toe having been on the receiving end of my back wheel (i really must find that crudcatcher again). Luckily we were both wearing sunnies, me in my yellows, and O was in a raincoat. Worst bit was a new section of trail seemingly pointlessly diverting riders around a tiny bit (about 30m) of track around the intersection of 20th Ave and Golf or Foxtrot. soaked through teddington shit all rutted up and mucky as. terrible stuff. O was strangely a bit scared for the first half. i guess cos we havent spun round there for a while. he used to love fanging it round the place, hurtling down the hills etc, but yesterday he was saying "slow dooowwwn!" a lot. til towards the end when he was finally whooping it up on the speedy descents.

back to carpark, loaded up and did a vegeshop on way home. home by 12.20.

Thurs Night, dyers vic marley x 2 worsley

Fun spin last night. the boys were gonna park up hill from kiwi and do laps of marleys, so nelson and me rode up dyers and hackthorne (for a change), into vic, up to top (not Harry Ell this time!), took thomsons down to kiwi, then up road. (a bunch of skyline-wankers were at the kiwi carpark, and all roared up past us later. (i hate skyline drivers)) Thought we'd missed the others, then saw lights at the carpark, and there they all were. Steve and Tony were done after two laps, but Hubby, Andrew, (hel)Mark and Pete were up for another lap.

So, off we tootled up the road, Hubby having left as Nelson and me arrived and Mark grabbing a lift up in his truck with Marie. met them at the top. bit of snow up there, was crunchy and nice. top section of marleys had a bit of frost/snow, and softened up a bit below that. was good. mildly sketchy, but eminently rideable. not sloppy. bombed down taking it reasonably easy. first run, Mark, Nelson, Pete, me and then Andrew and Hubb following. i kept on Pete's tail pretty much all the way.

back to cars, Andrew bailed and Hub's car was at kiwi so he bailed down rest of singletrack for that. Mark was in for another lap as was pete, so three of us rode and Mark shuttled again. another run down, all good, this time Mark followed by me followed by Nelson and Pete, all with good gaps between. i managed to catch up to mark, he'd had a wee botch up i think, by the rocky lowers, Nelson was steady on my tail but not chasing too hard. this time round was better, i felt smoother and trusted the surfaces better. back to car. Pete bailed, and Mark decided to join us on our descent, so we chucked our bikes on the back of his truck and Marie drove us (lazy, i know) to top of Worsley.

hat on, and hit it. Body bag was sweet. it looked greasy as hell but actually had good traction. below the gate we peeled right on a highish line. i was thinking it would get us past the worst of the chewed out bit, but it spat us out at the top of that. it proved pretty not all that bad. was an interesting trip down, a balance of keeping out of the ruts without crossing up too much. most of the surface was dryish, only greasy in spots. around the area we did some digging last week i managed to get into a big rut, riding along, hmm, that puddle could be deep, front wheel in, and i'm stepping off the bike over the handlebars onto my feet. one smooth motion. some part of the bike bit the back of my leg, dunno which bit tho. picked up bike and continued. very messy (4wd's) below the pylons, and then quite a good run down the last of the rutsville. across a permafrost slope, and i hear Mark hurtling up behind me, he actually crashed into my back tire, twice even, unable to slow down. then he crashes spectacularly behind me... his rear (v) brake wasnt working and his front was locking up.

on down, meet up with Nelson and blat out the last to the road. then, put on warmer gloves under bike gloves, and off we go. down road, flat tack. and down into the freeeezing cold valley. along river singletrack out onto cashmere road and Mark heads up hackthorne and nelson and me continue, round Ernle reserve and then back to his through Studholme, the park, Woodard McCombs Roker and Bradford Park.

Sunday a.m. tiresome bottle lake blat

tired from excesses on friday night and lack of sleep both friday and saturday, i was gonna take the singlespeed for a spin but remembered just as i was heading out the door that the back wheel would drive me mad, so i grabbed the Cotic instead. bout 10.30, hit the road, usual route, north parade, new brighton rd, horseshoe lake terrace lakewood drive burwood rd. into main carpark, headed round southern loop out to beach, back in normal loop out to top and back and back same way, pushing myself hard the whole way to the point of nearly wanting to puke. managed to overtake a few people. home at 11.55.

Weds Night, mudspin Worsley, foggy gnarley Marley, Vic Park

Got a call in the middle of dinner from Nelson saying he couldnt ride tomorrow night, so how bout it. figured why not and headed out the door after bathtime for the two boys...
got over to his about 7, and we headed for Worsleys. My LED flashie was low on battery so i ended up having to use my main headlamp for most riding. Up road wasnt too bad, i got a bit puffed, as you do. took a midlayer off at end of seal and hit the dirt.

greeted by a muddy mess on the flat bit above the gate, headed up the rutty track, picking our lines carefully. traction was bad, with only the top surface of of the flatter pieces of clay saturated, allowing no purchase. north facing slopes, below the powerlines, were good, but other bits were diabolical. slipped and slid, avoiding massive 4wd created ruts. rounded the corner, and Nelson got out his spade. the section above the corner above the powerlines needed some tickling to keep a good riding flow up, so he dug and dug, and i rode bits, and he dug, and i rode. then when deemed done, we headed on up, only to be greeted with nightmare inducing ruts and slipperiness. woohoo. walked a bit, spun a lot, caked up tires. clank clank as we bashed mud out of cleats. the section where they'd graded was nasty, with some really sloppy bits, and a massive hole eroded. then on up to body bag not so bad, and the 'bag itself was cool. i stayed in middle ring to avoid the granny'd chain 'cleaning' the side of my rear tire (and thereby inducing some chainsuck), only blew on the last steep grunt.

on up to Marley's. wasnt looking good, as the 4wd track from seal up to singletrack was very greasy, but top of singletrack looked good, and off we went, into this horrendous fog. severe lack of visibility made for a cautious descent, encountering new sections too. trail condition VERY GOOD, no wetspots, no greasy chewy mud, meaning we werent damaging it at all. AWESOME JOB TRAIL WORKERS the other weekend. bombed on down out of the fog to the Kiwi.

Hit the road up to second section of Thomsons, and treadled on up that. little greasy but nothing major. tree across it half way up.

Top of Vic. headed down past the seesaw, and on down to the gums. headed in there and only two sections were a little greasy, kinda flat bits. due to Sesame St and all the 'crafted' trails, this old trail is seeing less and less traffic, which is great for us. peeled left before the jump lineup and cruise on down to bottom and the little berms under the cypruses, before walking back up to the skidder site. then, hit up Dazza's, which also was in good knick, maybe two mudpuddles. on down into Brent's which was also good.

Now, round onto Flow and Bridges... hmmm... flow, just after the wee bridge half way down my front wheel rutted (too much front brake!) and threw me, i held on and just managed to get off the back, but landed on a wooden gutter on my ass. bruised glute. sore as i write this still... on down and some horrendous ruts and wetness. Out with the spade. dug a couple of drains across a particularly bad section, and skimmed off a few rut edges. this was just before the trees. hit the trees and kept to the low line, then i pulled up and nelson bombed the drop, and got caught out. lost it but held on, i thought he was a goner for sure. i took the pussy route and then it was off down the valley, out, and back to his. home about 10.30... late ride. amazingly my light held out the whole ride considering all the standing around i was doing lighting up Nelson's digging efforts.

sunday afternoon, Mulgans, Richmond, Greenwood, CaptThom quicklap

time was short, so T dropped me at bottom of Mulgan's Track. grunted up that, dabbing on the corners as always, feck its steep. then up next steeper section, then up to water tanks then up to Panorama. Up panorama and onto the singletrack rooty climb. at the stile i was only 20 minutes in. on up the paddock to next stile and then up to the big pines. hit the road up to Greenwood entrance. half way up i spotted a guy behind me, and thought, if he catches me he catches me. hit the singletrack and there he was on the road below me, maybe 50 m behind. by the time i made the ruins he was 100 metres behind. good bomb down Greenwood, careening off occasionally greasy rocks. track in mint condition, only about 4 troublespots. new boardwalk quite the damned sight better than the old slats. had a couple close calls. both right near top. one i was >< this close to going over handlebars, the other was a rut edge near tip. good flow down down down, by the time i was above Evans, the other guy was easily 300 m or more behind. stopped to stash sunnies, and then hit the Captain. (the other guy went on to do Godley).

Capt Thomas was in reasonable knick. i got a good flow on apart from blowing the rocky drop above the climbing bypass, and bailing on the next nasty (which i havent cleaned for ages now), but cleaned both old nemesises further down. way further down, the trail is well cleared (by horses?), meaning better visibility against arsehole walkers (hark memory back to Steve getting shoulder barged by those wankers that time). met one lady with dog on way down. felt dodgey on the rubber mat next to the steps on final descent. layered up and tootled round through sumner, moncks bay (passing bottom of Mulgans 1 hour 10 mins since i'd headed up), redcliffs, streetlights coming on as i went along causeway, stopping at ferrymead where i met and caught lift with T and the two boys home.

Thursnight, (c)huntsbury, Vern, Witch, Castle, eltsaC, hctiW, Rapak(yawn)i. Plus Maintainence.

twas a cold and frosty night, in town. Moon was getting pretty big too, 86% or so waxing gibbous, lighting the hills nicely. drove to Nelsies, and we cruised the streets kinda towards Rapaki but not really knowing where we were gonna go up til we decided to see what Steve's fuss has all been about and headed up Ramahana and Aotea and on up the Kunstbury hill. not that bad i'll admit. that last bit of seal sure is a steep wee number, and watch out for boiracers. and there's one section of gravel between top of Oldskool and the gate that is a mare too. other than that, yeah, not a bad climb, and yep, mint that it spits you out at the top end of the Vernon trail.

Hit Vernon and stopped at the first mudpuddle. Nelson was carrying his fold-up german army spade, so we cut a drain. rode on, nice, very slightly greasy, slippy rocks, occasional sparkle of frost under lights. i had a nice 2 wheel drift into the second hairpin, then on down past top of FarmTrack, and round. next muddy bit, stopped and cut a couple more drains, draining water away for everybody. onwards down, bomb bomb lotsa fun. hit the Teddington Shit section and stopped at a particularly bad boggy piece, cut a drain, emptied the water and made it so it'd flow away. on down to top Rapaki.

Onto Witchy poo. (some dumb ass boiracers saying "do some skids, au" - fucktards). nice wee climb up, cleaned but one dab. around, down, fun. then just before ya hit the road again, there's always been this big puddle... well, no longer. nelson cut and dug a nice clear drain for it, all the water ran away.

Hit road for Castlerock. some frosty bits in the shaded parts of road. very first corner of Castlerock was sparkly crunchy ice, not slippy tho. down that first section, bouncing and skidding about on the rocks, and onto some water... so. stopped and made some better drainage. on down, down, all good, great surface, dry (enough), round the first hairpin, and half way to the next before we found something we needed to drain again... spade out, dig, spade back. onwards. next hairpin, rockity rockity rock, bridge, climb, another spot to dig. this one needed some thought. a dripping rock face right next to the trail, water dribbling down the trail. picked a spot juuuust below where the water dripped and dug a wee channel across, waiting til the water trickled. on up the trail to top of bridle path. decided there to turn back. so. back up trail towards Castle Rock. cleaned everying except for blowing out (stupidly) on the second hairpin, and then up near top. all our drains were working nicely as we came back through. as he approached the top, another group of boiracers said "bit late to be out?" to which nelson replied, "yeah, past your bedtime isnt it?". that shut them up.

then chilly blast down road back to Witch Hill, big puddle now drained and drying, good spin up through there, with nelson's light starting to get a bit orange. so, bailed it down Rapaki. 200 m down i thought "fuck this", and bailed over the side into the field, dodged some tussocks in search of animal trail singletrack. hello cattle! but fun wee sidle back down to main track. then on down. this was my first time since the resurface and i must say it SUCKS. you almost cant let go cos the gravel they've laid is too loose. i liked it better when it was a rut infested rock fest. at least there were edges you could use as berms. what a waste of altitude, but had to be done cos of Nelson's gammy battery.

Frosty chilly ride back to his place where we had a Weka lager which put a good tingle in the limbs...

Thursday night, A few McLeans were showing... singlists

prior to riding, i oiled, on the Singlespeed, all the spoke nipples and heads, squeezed oil into the freehub both sides, and the jockey wheel. hoping that would ease the creak... spun over to Pete's, we drove, picked up Nelson (also singling), and zoomed out to Mcleans Island, where we found Andrew, Warren, Wayne, Dallas and a girl i cant remember the name of now... off we tootled, blatting round the trails. about 2 kms in nelson and me out front, heard a ping clatter from behind, and pete had stopped. we bailed up and turned back to find him looking at a seat-less seatpost. the bolt had snapped. he talked of turning back, but then decided to stay with us for the rest of the lap. so, a good work ensued for him, standing. kinda what we're doing on the singlespeeds most of the time too. anyway, on we bombed. me out front most of the time, swapped with Nelson at one stage. and warren not far behind most of the time too. eased up after the open flowy section (near the diggers) and i put more air in my back tire which had been washing all over the place, also took jacket off then. onwards again, and the fucking back wheel started its creak up again. its gotta be in the freehub somewhere. put up with it, rode on. Pete departed leaving nelson and me to catch lifts with the others.

second lap, warren, nelson and me did full loop, others bailed into the shortcut loop. the creak continued, we were faster 2nd time round. good blast all up. nice and dry out there, even after all the rain. shame its so far from town but then again, its kinda more boring than even Bottle Lake, so probably just as well...

Sunday a.m. Cruise. Sumner then back to plant some Trees for Canterbury

crapulent weather for the entire week, trails are all creeks or would be destroyed from the attack of the tires, so jumped on the ratrod-ghetto-backpedal-single-Specialized Globe commuter beast and trundled over to pete's. joined by himself and his lovely wife, him on Grandad - WW2 Swiss Army Doctor's Bike, and her on her brand spanking new Electra Coaster, girly cruiser, we literally cruised down linwood ave and through Charlesworth Reserve to ferrymead bridge to meet up with Wayne, Andrew, Warren (all on mtnbikes) and Steve and J9 on their cruisers. as a large group now, cruised along to sumner, had coffee at dotcom and cruised back to Charlesworth Reserve whereupon we put plants in the ground. O was dropped to me by friends he'd stayed with overnight, and i put his seat on my toptube and he rode home with Pete and me. mellow. cruise.

SundayNight Singles. H.Ell, Nun, Traverse, OldSkool

Saturday night i finally tensioned and trued up the front disc wheel i built for the singlespeed and tightened and tweaked the back wheel and adjusted the rear brakes on the beasty too. then on Sunday due to childcare responsibilities i wasnt able to join the boys (and girl) on their ride... so, while H had his morning sleep i sorted out the front end of the single. put my old Manitou Minute's onto it, and set up the Avid Juicy 5 brake and got nearly everything sorted. needed a Star-fangled nut in the steerer tube, and needed a clamp bolt on the brake, so once H woke, and we went on the vege run, took the bike and dropped into bikebiz out Marshlands. guy there installed both and only charged me $11.50 all up. Sweet as.

So, had to try out the bike, and we were going for dinner at my folks, so, arranged with Nelson to come up after that, and off we rode, probably about 8pm. me, full to the brim with yummy food and a couple of wines, which made riding tricky.

because it was dark, we decided on the H.Ell track, mint gradient climb for singlespeeds. to the Kiwi, then up road to the Nun. the Minutes SPV feature is exactly as i expected for singlespeed, perfect. it locks out excellently for the standing-in-the-pedal-kranking yet still absorbs the bumps when on the trail. i was feeling like i was gonna blow chunks near the top of Worsley's Rd, so had to have a major breather, then up the dirt track to top of Nun same thing happened so walked about 10 m before forcing myself back on the bike.

The descent was decent. nelson led off, and we blazed our ways down. fair bit of wind about, but pinned most of the jumps okay. the minutes feel quite burly, but no where near as buttery plush as the Fox's on the Cotic. a lot firmer, majorly in need of a service methinks after a few years in a cupboard. and the Avid brakes? not bad, not bad, slightly better than v's i guess. blazed on down to kiwi, only hiccup being nelson's commuting rear mudguard snapping off halfway down.

Then it was up the road to top of Vic Park. lighting up some young lovers in the carpark at the top, hehe... then on round the summit trail. not a bad blast round there, singlespeed all you need. all the puddle work we'd done last week had done a good job of drying out the affected parts of the trail nicely. i had one close call just past top of Lava Flow, somehow i missed the track and was heading over the edge but then pulled the front back over the wooden edging and came to a squirrelly stop with a wheel on either side and nearly losing balance... got going again and we picked our way down through the off piste tussock sheep trails.

All's cool on the Old Skool. nelson led the bombing down, staying on the zig zag trail rather than taking all the shortcuts. was kinda fun. hadn't done it for years! was getting pretty shaken up by the end tho. then round and down the singletrack. sweet flowing singletrack. on the second of the splits, old above new, i passed Nelson and led on from there. not much further on, ran into water running down the track. blast. round the corner and back across the face, and near the end there's the big muddy hole again, i stopped and nelson came over the rise behind me and nearly took me out. we walked by the hole, and rode on, with this wet section running across the trail 3 times below that. then, where the single meets the bottom road, we fixed up some of the ruts. and then headed out and home across town. the rear wheel creak winding me up all the way home...

Moondaynight. Farm, Summit, Worsley rut scuffers

13 days since i last mountainbiked... ugh.
however, an excellent old skool ride last night was had under a 96% waning gibbous moon. drove to Nelson's bout 7.30 and we hit the road closer to 8. Feeling almost frosty, backstreets to Wilsons Rd then up past St Martins Primary, where it was already starting to feel warmer, just with the slight rise. across to Hillsborough Tce and on up the Crescent where the exursion and the rise out of the pooled cool air made all the layers we were wearing a bit much. stopped at the gate and took off jackets and hats as a couple of riders came tentatively down towards us, both on flash vpp cruz type machines. hit the dirt and mud and surprised ourselves with the traction. cleaning stuff i didnt think i should have, but then blowing on stuff i shouldnt. walked for about 5 m below first gate, rode some more but then blew again - due to lack of riding and usual small-child-induced tiredness, and walked again for the last bit before reaching the ridge. Nelson's brake was rubbing so brief pause for quick repair and it was onwards up, soft dirt conspiring to make the hill steeper, and a headwind further up adding to our woes. Nelson rode the whole hill. i walked again briefly on the last steep, getting back on for the last 100 m (without the lights riding by moonlight only). i did middle ring everything i rode tho.

Hit the road, towards Dyers. Poked our noses down and had a look at the summit traverse trail, it was full of puddles. continued. below sugarloaf, hit the singletrack again and in the first 50 m was a few largish puddles just past the rocky bits, so we made some drains and continued on. from here round almost all the way to Vic Park trees was dry as. the all weather surface proving to be quite 'all weather'...

was very mucky under the trees so we picked our way carefully through there and on up to the road again. bombing down to the kiwi was cold and there were several sheets of flowing water crossing the road, spraying up and making us colder... then from Kiwi, up road to top of worsleys. snow and ice appearing around the back, and the top of Worsley's road crunchy and icey...

the downhill. fun. streams of water gurgling, often on both sides of us as we rode the skinny ridges between the ruts. the bodybag looked slick and dodgy, but actually had quite good traction. below there the newly graded cut is being eaten up by the streams of water. more weather like the last week + a few overzealous 4wds will turn Worsley's back to the old one we knew so well. out of the graded section it got more hairy and fun, ruts to avoid, streams of muddy water to hop over and not lose a wheel into, skinny ridges to perch upon. fun fun fun. picking up more speed when allowable, scrubbing it off carefully when not. the lower half, nelson's light was getting more and more orange, and by the bottom of the dirt it was hopeless.

Finally a bomb down the seal, and after the final corner down into the icyness. brrrrrrr... beside a muddy high Heathcote river and thru the burbs to Nelson's, into the car, heater on full and i was home by 10.30, chilled to the bone.

no ride week. Happybirthday Blog and RIP Freud.

bah. too much fun and other busy-ness over weekend to get out on bike. then missed out on last night, intending on getting out tonight, and now the rain has set in and the trails will be soaked. BLAH!


BUT!!!!! Swtchbckr is 4 years old now!

And on Thursday, 7th of May, we had to put down our beautiful big boy Freud. He was the best dog ever, and we were so so sad to say good-bye to him

Tuesday night short hill jaunt

the norwest mildness had stuck around, and so it was a perfect night for riding.

a few of us assembled at Steve's, who turned out wasnt riding cos he'd forgotten to charge his light from last week (or that's his story anyway...). Pete, Andy, Warren, Tony and myself headed off and cruised up Rapaki. Pete, Andy and me got into a good groove and rode ahead, lightless pretty much the entire way up. Warren and Tony tail-end-charlied it with their lights on. with the city glow off the clouds, there was plenty of light to ride by. made the top in reasonable time, but most were feeling it.

quick spin out and back on Witch Hill, with most of us fucking up at least once. nightridebalance issues methinks. as we passed back over the top of Rapaki, there was a group of something like 15 riders. said gudday to them. no reply. dicks.
then it was up the Vernon singletrack. i blew out on one rocky section overlooking rapaki, and then again on the first hairpin near the top. cleaned the top rocky section perfectly, finding the smoothest line i've ever seen there. stopped just over the road and regrouped. the huge group from top of rapaki regrouped there too, and not one of them said hello. what a bunch of fucking imbecile asshole stuck up wankers. flash harry wankers. then Hubby turned up from the direction of Vic park. we stood and chatted a bit as the wankers all filed off.

then we hit the trail, with the first 5 heading down OldSkool, and hubby continuing round to where he'd parked his car at kiwi to do a few laps of the nun. good waft down through the offpiste tussocks'ville, and then a blast down oldskool. no sketchies, took one of the steeper droplines down the rocky bits, and then had a good blast down the lower new.

home by 8.30.

Sunday Rapaki Traverse Nun Vic

turned out a nice warm norwest day. Warren, Steve, Wayne, Tony, Rex and myself assembled at Steve's. Three of us at least nursing heads and guts from Tony's party previous night, with Pete piking (we think) for that reason, and Andrew otherwise besetzt. Up Rapaki at a surprisingly good pace, Rex and me feeding off each other a little for speed, so i directed him onto the valley singletrack for the last leg to the summit... i was too wiped to contemplate it, but it gave him a little bit of adventure.

hit the singletrack and cruised round to top of Vic, enjoying a good blast along the Traverse, then hit Thomsons to Kiwi, running into Hubby on his way up road. Then off we went on up road to top of Marley's. Bombed flying nun, enjoying it all but overcooking a couple of the new jumps and nearly ploughing myself into the bank. Steve's rear brake was for some reason starting to rub so he bailed down the Dyers Pass Rd. the rest of us headed up the Summit to top of Vic, flowed down into the Gummies and then on down Dazza's Brent's Flow and Bridges, me taking the high line that i love so much and cleaning all the droppy bits nicely. Discussed heading up the (by the looks of it -newly worked on) trail into the Hidden Bush valley to take in the lower Old Skool, but figured Steve would be waiting at bottom of Bovenwale, so headed down and out. out by 11.30 pretty much. Steve was waiting, so all but Tony went for coffee at St Martins. after which i pushed into a helluva head wind home.

Tuesday Night, Bottle Lake cruise.

9 folk bowled up to the Broadpark carpark. if i remember correctly, warren, dallas, andrew (on his longlegged singlespeedsteed), steve, pete, tony, steve and marie. and me (on the singlespeed). tootled up the coast and hung a left into the park. some rode the first uppydowny section, others took the 'road'. then through to the old dump. met a few up by that shelter, them calling me the pied piper cos of the string of lights following me... headed on into the forest, against the flow of traffic, meeting two groups of assholes who didnt know how to move over. the track is bi-directional, get with the fucking programme, losers. anyway, round to near waitikiri and bombed on into the usual loop. little bit of fun had playing with slightly longer paths from the front and ending up in second or third place. and a few times we all stopped and steve and marie continued on through after they'd caught us up, which made for some fun overtaking. i seemed to always overtake steve on a jump, me flying (literally) past him.

mosied out to Spencerpark, sat about a bit, then headed back in. by this stage Marie's underpowered light was starting to die, but dallas came to the rescue with a groovy led thing. we rode on, he bailed at waitikiri, we continued back through, towards the end Tony's light was dying.

as usual, the weird creak reappeared in the latter stages of the ride. gotta sort it.

Sunday Night, fog-coddled Worsleys Nun Vic.

got out with Nelson last night. probably at his place 7.30-45ish, dunno what time we hit the road, across to Worsleys, via Earnsleigh, Heathcote and Cracroft singletrackies and on up the road. i was stuffed, had been at a 1 yr's b.day party all afternoon stuffing myself with cheerios and lollies etc and was full full full.

hard work getting up the hill, but pushed and pushed up into the fog. we rode with minimal lighting. both just using our small LED's for the entire climb. was magical up on the dirt, cos you were coddled in this fog, with only the beam of the LED and the quietness all around. the last section before the gate at the bottom of the bodybag just disappeared, suddenly there we were and the harsh climb began. top of the bodybag got the better of me. blew out where i used to always blow out, not through loss of traction, just loss of lungs... meanwhile, nelson middle ringed the whole bastard. i walked to the finishline. then onto the nun climb a brief rest, now just sitting in the top of the cloud level before the glorious, and tricky to see descent...

nelson lead off and we picked our way down, still pretty quick but careful not to out ride the lights too much(which were glaring in the fog back at us). boosting through the new corners, all minty and fun, dust kept down by the moisture filled air. some sketchy moments but mostly smooth. loving the rocky section, and the blitzing down the old... until my chain jumped, the crunched and jammed. poor chainstay all gouged and scratched, was bloody hard to pull the chain out from where it'd wedged between granny ring and stay. got moving again and were surprised by a new (since Wednesday!) section in the last leg before popping up to Kiwi, i think it was here it was about 9.18.

Kiwi to top of Vic up road, in fog, car headlights sooo dim in distance. Bombed first bit down to see-saw, which we bypassed, then took the oldskool line down to the Gums. first rockgarden was smooth, me in the lead, then we were fog free for a bit through the gums, peeled left (where no one seems to ride anymore) enjoyed the wee jump, i slid beautifully through corner berm and on down through next two berms then blew the wee climb back up to Skiddersite...

then we rode over to Dazza's and explored on foot the wee yumpy trail that starts just to the right. wandered back to the bikes and hit up Dazza's. good flow down through there, me tight on Nelson's tail, then at Brents we peeled onto the "Track Closed" trail. just for a look. rode in and walked over the first jump, then the next, and the next. then there's this wicked swoopy uppy downy blast section, then a couple more drops and jumps that are unrideable to us. good to explore tho, and see whats happening in there. the unfinished end led us through to the 'Darkness' section of Cool Runnings, bombed out the rest of that and onto Flow and Bridges. took the high line above Bridges and had fun dropping down the the drop and then just blew on down out the valley.

rode back through to Nelson's and it was 10pm when i drove home. good use of a sunday night.

Wednesday Night, Dyers, H.Ell, new, Nun, Traverse, Old Skool.

excellent ride last night. drove over to Nelson's and we watched the Craigieburn footage he'd gotten. worked out pretty good.

then we hit the road, Strickland, Colombo and up Dyers Pass to the H.Ell Track. burned up there under LED light only and made the Kiwi in good time.

then up the summit rd to the top of the new tasty singletrack that shoots down into Govs Bay. EXCELLENT WORK in there. its finished to the top (opposite where Flying Nun meets the road) and is gonna be hella dodgy in the winter, with permafrost sections and slippery slippery mud. it looked like it was gonna be slippery last night, the dirt was dampish, but proved to be good traction. cool bridge section half way down too. flowed down that and decided to turn tail and ride back up it. not a bad wee climb, but my legs were starting to suffer cos i think i pushed too hard coming up the road earlier, spun out a couple of times.

from the top we continued up Summit Rd to top of the Nun, BOMBED down that, me leading, loving all the new corners up the top, they flow so well. Nelson had a mishap up there somewhere, i think jumping and landing in the rut of the old track. enjoyed the rocky well-worn-in lower sections too. i waited for him a couple of times but never let him get too close on my tail. but we both got to the bottom safely, albeit me a bit ahead.

then up the road to top of Vic Park. hit the Traverse Highway, spun round there, stopping for snackage at sign below Sugarloaf. Nelson pinchflatted his front wheel at top of LavaFlow, so short delay while he swapped tubes, then as we were cruising down through the tussocks on our way to Old Skool i did the classic-slowmo-frontwheel-stopped-by-a-tussock-over-the-bars, rest of bike clattering down on top of me, (literally - rear drop-out and wheel hit my helmet!). luckily tussocks are a soft landing. laughed out loud at it and had a good laugh while we continued and then we BOMBED down to the gate and did the top section of Old Skool pretty damned quick too. took all the piste-off lines - which are ruttier than ever, and then hit the sheepshit strewn singletrack. i had an excellent roost down there, creaming the whole lot. one dodgey section on some of the upper new stuff where there's a really bad wetspot (leaky pipe up hill or something?), appeared from behind a tussock and is a muddy mucky rutted hole, nearly lost it but made it through alive and continued with the bombing.

out Bowenvale Ave, back to Nelso's round the river and the 'lombo, all up a couple hours not bad.

Easter, Little Akalala

Little Ak, took the Cotic over. rode it around the section a bit, and down to the beach with O once. in cutting wood i've cleared a bit of a trail up into the forest, and rode down it a couple of times, nice techy rooty dirt trail. working out a feasible loop route too. also tootled around testing out ratios for the SS project i'm building for over there...

Capt Thom and Godley under first lights.

got a lift with Pete and met up with massive group assembled outside dot com. Nelson, Steve, Andrew, Hubster, Tony, Warren, Rex, Mother Ted and Pete and me.

Good blast up Capt Thomas, nice and mild on the hill, Nelson and me leading out, riding without lights for as long as mentally possible. I turned mine on briefly in the gulch near the bridge, then off again, until the wee descent over rocky bit further up. dismounted the usual dismounts, but cleaned everything else. good blast to top, tho legs were feeling a bit wiped by Evans. All regrouped there, was amazing watching the tailenders lights from up top.

Hit Godley, balance all over the place, blew the first climb, and had lots of weird offbalance dabs most of the way out. bit of a regroup round at the start of the first main descent, and then off we went, nelson leading out onto the newly laid Teddington Shit. most spectacular crash i've ever had the pleasure (and shock) to watch. it was amazing, i saw his front wheel go out then suddenly the bike was flying through the air and he was crashlanding and running and stumbling and tripping as the bike somersaulted and vaulted off the track and down the hill. amazing. he was okay, just a small graze (which is gonna bruise up nicely) on his thigh, and some scrapage on his shoulder. he led off again, and nearly lost it again before the wee bridge, so i led off and blasted the rest to Livingston. not a bad run, taking it reasonably easy, but still getting a good speed on. From Livingston, i tackled the climb quite well, but my random dabbiness was still in action on the rocky bits near top. then good spin down to Breeze, tho with a massive bottoming out of the shock on the last leg.

The others all bailed down Anaconda, while Pete, Nelson, Rex and me tootled along the road under moon's light to the end. watching the other's lights powering along the 'conda. Nice blast back on the singletrack, then onto the 'conda for us. i was getting my eye in, and managed to really fly down.

Then it was up out of Taylors, Nelson and Rex powering off, my legs still recovering, (craigie-)burning from Sunday's jaunt, and Pete not far behind. then blasted down Nicholson, and at Scarborough Fare looking back, no sign of Rex... thought he'd crashed, but his light had died so he'd come down the road. regrouped with the rest and most of us stayed for snackage and coffees/hotcho's at the Slotcom.

Damned good timing on craigieburn on sunday, as last night it snowed a lot up there.

Craigieburned it up.

huge pile of us, ten in fact, assembled at Steve's. incl: Steve, (abba)Steve, Andrew, Pete, Nelson, Tony, Wayne, (hel)Mark, hubby and myself. drived there, weather looking ominous, but turning out good.
previous trips, once on way home from Kaniere (pre blog), then May06-marys-first with al.
March07-luge-draco-cheese-taboggan with harry from work, and
Jan08happy-new-yeah with nelson (hard to believe that was the last time i did it... )

parked up, and headed up the road to the Luge... i led off, cleaning heaps but walking some of the steeper rootier sections that plague the lower 1/3rd. having not ridden for a couple of weeks meant my lungs were struggling. sat for a spell on the bench 1/3rd of the way up, and regrouped, then headed on up. granny for a start but middle ringing the top 1/3rd no prob. Lyndon saddle, and off i led blasting the way down to Craigieburn access rd. absolutely flew that section, i think it was my best riding of the day. even nelson couldnt seem to keep up. he put the camera on from the turn off and followed pete, who said he had trouble staying on my tail down to the road.

then the grind began. well, not really. the road is sweet to start with, middle ring most of the way, but after the ford/bridge the steepness begins. nelson cleaned it all middlering, but i grannied/2nd it all the way up, the straights looking not that bad, but biting nonetheless.

regrouped in skifield carpark, bit of drizzle drifting in, lotsa wind about. climbed up and hit the trail. the edge. of reason. here's me on it... right near the top, when i was feeling okay about it...

i led the way, but soon felt out of my depth. cleaned lots of tricky stuff, but dabbed in so many places i shouldnt have. was just feeling very very careful i guess. anyway, sections of absolute brilliance followed by sections of near shitting myself rounding corners with shitscary drops off. the final scree was washed out on what it was last time we rode it. nelson nearly offed, pete cleaned lots of it. most walked bits, including me.

then the climb, back up to Lyndon Saddle, and at one point i stopped, rocked backwards slightly and heard this 'ting' from my front brake. the pads were so low that the spring that holds them apart had caught on the disk and bent. rode it to top and got to work. tried bending it back, no good. so new pads installed, (with me being given a hard time for no apparent reason other than holding everyone up - tho, it didnt take me THAT long...), and off we rode. pete, nelson then me, then hub. me breaking in my new pads... hauled up at the benchseat, hub continued on, and then off we all bombed again. pete then me then nelson and the rest. mostly an excellent drop down, tho i dropped my chain near the bottom which slowed me up a little, tho not that much, more of a nuisance than anything else... then talk of climbing up and doing more, but instead we bailed... through gales on the drive home. andrew's car got all chipped up by blown gravel.

heeeesh... no rides to speak of

fiordland last week, and only riding to work and the Specialized Ghettoglobe jaunt to Andrew's on tuesday night for a pfmtbc meeting about this October's trip to speak of...
plan is to do some Craigieburnin' on Sunday. and Nels and me might do a spin on the hills Saturday night, cos its Daylightsavings ending, so the evenings are gonna have to be lit from now on...

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!