bazillion...

so... here's a comment about the proliferation of bike blogsssssssss

foggy start sunday morning...

a whole week of busy nights and crappy weather. so. along comes sunday. early start, 8am at Steves. woke up to a fog-bound city. visibility about 20-30 metres, got quite damp riding through it across to Steve's. Steve couldnt make it on account of his guts, so it was just Pete, Hubby and me. headed up rapaki, fog starting to clear a little and as we got into the trees on Rapaki we could already see the sun shining on the hillsides above us. looking back over the city, all you could see was the tops of the CBD buildings and the 4 light stands of Jade Stadium (where there'd been a fogged in rugger game the night before). over the course of our ride we watched the fog dissipate. up into the sun, nice gentle ride up rapaki, cept for the last leg i switched to a 2:1 ratio a la singlespeeding and cranked it up, just to see what it was like. hard. but doable. but man, you gotta have yourself a whopper set of lungs, standing in that gear and honkin' it up that slope. at top of rapaki the harbour was beautiful, a cauldron of fog, hills ringing it in basking sun. we turned left along the summit trail. the first section i walked cos it was so muddy, my back tire spinning and digging it up, so i gave it a rest. further up tho, the trail was in good nick, our tires barely marking it... got to the end of the first section and hopped over the fence and down to the craterrim walkway (not strictly legal...). it was very very muddy, and technical, slippery rocks (and one clump of Urtica ferox, native stinging nettle (which took a swipe at Hubby)), singletrack, cow trodden. our bike tires doing much less damage than the pugging and pooling of cattle hooves. if anything, we provided channels for the water to actually drain off in... then from the tors the last bit of road up to the Castle Rock section of bike track down it, which was in surprisingly good nick. cleaned it all nicely, slippery rocks being the only major technical issue... then down Bridle Path. i bombed it for a change. seems to be quite nice after wetness, well packed, not too loose. we stopped next to the Morgans Valley track, and headed the other way. there's a sign on the gate that said something, but its unreadable now. (i suspect it was something to do with Property?? cant imagine what tho!). headed along the farm-4wd track that follows above the bush thats above the Tunnel Rd Motorway, great wee spin, medium to big ring rollin', with a couple of little climbs, nothing major, then at the end, a gate, hop over it and there begins the barely followable 'secret singletrack'. down to the first of 2 big watersupply tanks, all under a treelucerne and various natives canopy. this trail snaked down and down and around the lower of the two tanks and then sidled down to a turn off that is adjacent to Martindales Rd on the Motorway. We skedaddled across the motorway, and then made our way down to Martindales Rd. from here, we travelled along martindales, under the railroad, left down Truscotts Rd to Ferrymead historic park, past that to the lower reach of the Heathcote, and then along the true right bank of that, up stream to the Tunnel Rd bridge. This section of riverbank is great, its walked by people with dogs quite regularly, so the trail is sweet, twisty, well defined. and of course, like all the trails today, muddy in places. once done with that section, we made our way to a Trees For Canterbury planting in Charlesworth Reserve. at this stage, it was a beautiful sunny day. planted a heap of natives, and i biked home along Linwood Ave after 12... later on, the fog rolled back in.

sunday cruise

so, sunday afternoon, al and me cruised to Hugh's, then up to Pete T's and then up rapaki. it had dried a bit since wednesday, pretty mellow cruise as Hugh doesnt get up much, but that was cool. then up singletrack to the right, where there were still some quite mucky bits, but mostly dry. after crossing the road the muddy holes that were there on wednesday were gone. the odd wet patch further round, some good flowy sections, so much flowier than at night when you cant see behind tussocks. hit the top of vic, and headed down thomsons to kiwi, up road to lower section of Marley's, bombed down that, down dyers track the start of which has been newly surfaced and is like a road, the longer flatter section still bumpy as hell, and then up into vic. i peeled off there and headed down to my folks for tea. not sure where the others were heading, down into bowenvale i think. was getting pretty low on light by the time we split...

Marys: performing better still. am getting used to them still. but did enjoy a certain laidbackness they gave. allllmost wonder if a slightly shorter and slightly angled up stem might position them slightly better... but. still getting used to them.

two rides, back to back, muckymucky wednesday, misty forest bottle lake thursday

first night ride Wednesday night, with the lights.

cross town, looked at watch on Wilson's Rd, was 17.31. cruised up rapaki, muddy in places, we've had a fair bit of rain lately, and there's only been a couple of days since, so its still all pouring off the hills. top of rapaki, was 18.06 (i know that cos i txted Nelson that i was there cos he'd txtd just as i was on the last leg). turned right, along the summit trail, first section to the first switchbacks was fine, then the steep bit from them was disgusting, rutted and greasy and wet and muddy... once it flattened off it was alright, the rocks being decidedly slippy, and then the bit round the front of Mt Vernon above the FarmTrack was nice and dry (in the sun all day's why), and actually it wasnt bad the rest of the way up to the road. next section, a few divets with sloppy mud, but mostly dryish. caught a guy on a Marin fullsquisher, i'd been gaining on him most of the way along the summit. and mostly trail was good except the odd spot all the way to vic.

thru the pines was soft, then down to and thru the gums was soft, new berms on a lot of the corners in the gums, gonna be sweet when they're dry. from the skidder site i bypassed dazzas, headed down that firetrack, hung a left down the Nats track, then a right before the 40footer down the valley track, then peeled left on the singletrack that goes into the Darkness... there was two streams in there, running clean fresh water that have never been there before...

crossed the little bridge, rooty section, sheepstop, bridge and onto the sidling track, which was disgusting. mucky, soft, running water, gouged and rutted. front wheel slid hit a hole and sent me over, rolled and tumbled down into the tussocks... unrideable, even with some speed. then down through the trees carefully, and bottom of k2 was its usual gouged out squidgey slippery rutted mess, then the main track down was fine. out, and home. bit of smog. 19.09 i noticed at home, some time after i'd gotten there...

cooked up a delicious feed, after the requisite shower. and hosed off the bike, which left the discs noisy. will lube everything before tonights ride.

Mary Report: good. excellent climbing, and standing out of the saddle pumping, and general singletrack control and comfort. Extremely steep, ass almost on the back wheel, descending, excellent, but middle steepness terrain i'm not so sure about. it might be something in the way i'm holding them, or maybe they just need another slight tweak. tonights ride is bottle lake, so will monitor and adjust accordingly.

Bottle Lake, Thursday night.
Al and me ended up biking out there, meeting up with Steve and Tony and Andrew, and eventually Pete (who got a speeding ticket on the way... hence making him even later. i hope his demerit points havent topped out!!!)Spun round the usual inside loop. checked out the leg towards Spencer Park, but it was closed due to them pulling out all the logs in the burned areas. shame, cos that burned out area was pretty spectacular, would have been cool to leave it the way they do in the states for natural regeneration... but then, this forest is far from a natural system, being a working plantation. mostly pretty good ride. one fun thing was when we stopped for a break, i managed to balance my bike all by itself. just hovering there, then Al and then Steve and tony all got theirs going too. was cool just standing around with all these bikes just floating there... heh.

Marys performed well. they really do excel when standing in the pedals cranking it. i'm still feeling a little crowded by my elbows... but am seeing if my body will respond by developing the appropriate muscles thru riding like this for a month... otherwise, i might return to the Azonics and put Mary on the singlespeed i'm gonna build with my 18 inch frame.

Craigieburnin', Marys first ride

Fresh and early saturday morning, first frost of the year pretty much, al and me split town about 8.30, headed up the plains. gorgeous sunny day unfolding in front of us. crested Porters Pass and rolled down into an icey valley fog, quite thick, which engulfed us all the way through to the Day Shelter at Craigieburn Forest Park, and filled the valleys most of the day.

parked up, rugged up into the appropriate clothes, and headed out onto the road, rougly 10am, low visibility. i was wearing my new Hoodlum, which proved very good for these conditions. my windstopper gloves (Krapmandu) were very good too. then we headed up the gravel road that is the access to Craigieburn Ski Field. starting altitude, 800m. this road winds up the side of this steep sided valley, through beech forest. there's a couple of major scree slopes that cross the road on the way up. its relatively steep, middle chain ring, second or third down on back. and up towards the top you have to slip down into granny and haul. snow on the ground from around 1200 m alt. there were a couple of vehicle tracks in the snow on the way up, and a few people working on the skifield, two on the roadside 50m from the carpark and then a 4wd with chains, heading up.

Mary bars first ride, felt that they made the front end a little lighter, but felt good in general, on the way up.

we got ahead of it and so were riding on virgin snow, apart from some Hare tracks. snow provided pretty good traction. then onto the singletrack descent... fun. had to layer up tho, cos there was snow dripping and dropping from the trees. the track is in and out of the trees, crossing a few big scree slopes. very good riding. swoopy and flowing in parts, then technical and dabby for a bit then swoopy and flowing again. couple of sections with a lot of roots, but mostly fantastic.

Marys very comfortable on this descent. good control, natural hand position, thought they needed rolling back a smidgen.

then a wee climb up to Lyndon Saddle, where we had a wee stop with a small hike up for some view and eats, then onto what they call the Luge... all down, nice rooty drops, swooping singletrack, down down down, all in forest. beeaauutiful. worst roots, slippery and dodgy in the lower third, then out onto the road and quick descent down that back to the car.

found the Mary bars very very comfortable on the steep technical stuff, and in general, i like their feel. still a little bit of getting used to to do, and i've tweaked their position slightly for next ride. i think there'll be a couple of tweaks and i'll be loving them

Total ride, 2 hours elapsed, rougly 600 m alt up and down in about 18 kms.. broken down: 8.5 on the road up 500m alt, ~4kms sidling down 250m alt, just under 1 km up 100m alt to saddle, then almost 3 kms singletrack descending 300m, then around 2 kms down (80 or so metres) hill road back to car, 12ish. had a feed, loaded up car and drove home, arriving around 2. still plenty of day left.

bikeblogs.com

so... roll along to bikeblogs May06 and you'll see yours truly rollin' with the other bloggahs...

might just get out thursday night. provided promised rain doesnt hit. and then saturday, longrange looks good, Al and me will Craigieburn it... yeah drop in episode one, thats us.

septo de mayo

Al collected me and we rode to Steves for 9am start. hubby, andrew tony and steve were already in attendance, and pete turned up shortly thereafter. we headed up rapaki. good pace all the way up. i was a little ahead of the group when i turned and saw a guy passing them, so i took off at a slightly faster pace, just to keep him on his toes, he eventually caught me and overtook, but i stayed on him the rest of the way up. i was feeling a bit overhung, tired, from two shortnights sleep. cold and windy up top, overcast day, from the south. rode left along the summit trail, donned my jacket on the road section. bombed it down the castle rock section. interestingly greasy down through there, with just slightly damp dirt, which carried from tire to rock so's to make for a more technical ride. good pace along road to Britten Reserve, new section in there needs a wee bit work, it just doesnt quite flow yet. then breezed down road onto Richmond hill singletrack... fun. greasy. quite a few dabs, one near shoulder barge with a rockface when the rocks i was skittering on got too skittery, then most of the way down, i feel like i've bent my brake lever, but no, slowly my handlebars are twisting back (the other day when i tried out my mary bars i obviously didnt quite torque the clamp up enough and now i'm paying for it...) riding got harder and harder as my handlbars became more and more swayed back. levers getting more and more horizontal. we stopped in the Macrocarpa at Evans for foodsnacks and pete's twisted chain link removal and my handlebar reallignment (i got to test out my new multi tool multi5 received as gift for subscribing to Spoke magazine last month).

then off out godley trail. after first climb pete's chain pin had started to poke out so we stopped again and they used a proper pin. then it was fantastic downhill, trail drier out there. next climb and then down to breeze col. decided just to drop it down to taylors.

Anaconda... wickeeeed. couple of other riders had taken off ahead, we'd given them a bit of a head start, but me in the lead soon caught one of them, and on the first right hand sweeper i caught him after a jump and juuuuust about lost the front wheel, washed out a bit, and i found myself heading off the track, so i just held on and cut out a big corner, taking my place ahead of him, and just let it go, screamed down popping excellent air on every jump. caught the next guy on the big long sweeper that i crashed on another time, sat on his tail a bit but he wasnt moving over, so i paused to watch pete and the others behind catch up a bit, then i hammered on and caught that guy again before the bottom. sweeeeeeet spin. then the grind out of taylors. nichelson park, coffee at .com and the long slog home...

Happy birthday Blog...

One year old today.
a whole year of rides contained herein...

finally, after a week and a half...

just getting more and more antsy, finally last night i managed to get out. split work early, home quick, changed, jumped on switchy.


Left home at 16.32, was somewhere on Rapaki Rd at 16.46 (cant remember quite how far up but well before first gate), made good time up Rapaki. passed a couple of guys between first gates, then caught this smiley youngish but greyhaired german dude on a kula deluxe (same colours as Nelson's) a km up from the second gate but then he caught and passed me 200m from top. made the top at 17.08. me and the kraut exchanged friendly words at the top, what a great night it was etc. then he went towards the Bridle Path whereas i turned right. when i got up to the upper switchbacks (just above Farm Track) i caught up to a dude on a Santa Cruz (Blur(i think)) who managed to keep ahead of me, so i tailed him until i peeled down the oldschool Bow'nvale, took it a little easy down there, as bits were slippy, lovely descent, tho, i bailed on the worst of the rocky outcroppy bits, cos of the minor greasiness issues. then the singletrack was bliss, just cruised it down, hearing voices, til finally i came upon a couple of walkers..., and was spat out the bottom and on the Avenue at 17.35... quite possibly my best time ever for home to Bowenvale Ave via that route. .

no riding light needed either, just the flashies across town home.

so, i feel much better.

mary mary, quite contrary

so, mary arrived this morning. popped home to see her. eyed them up, and thought i might juuuuuuust be able to install, but got grips, shifters, levers all off the olds and got them lined up and just as expected, the angular bar just pushes the brake hose too far to be possible. it was always a little dodgy since i got the 20inch frame. so. have to wait til i get the cable lengthened. Kris said $75. must get that organised.

too wet to really ride tonight. havent ridden since last sunday, week ago. am seriously jonesing for a ride, as the americans used to say. might just go anyway. bah. will see how she's looking. do the responsible thing, go home, cook dinner for the girl and bubs, and then decide...

oh!, and my Hoodlum is SWEEEET... all good. wear just it and basically a teeshirt in these climate. water beads on the outter and its snug and toasty.

Try this for size...

hooee, just scored myself a Hoodlum, from RaceFace... niiice.

sunday, anzac a day away...

sunday morning, steve and pete were up watching race cars waste petrol around the Pukekohe tracks, so Andrew and Tony and me met outside steves anyway, and headed up rapaki, round the summit to vic. they went downhill from there due to time constraints, i carried on along thomsons to kiwi, up road to lower section of flying nun, then on down below dyers... heh, bombed down there, caught and overtook a woman who was inching her way down, then tookdown her hubby who was also inching down hill... flew down the rest, then climbed back up into vic, down dazza's, hung a right up a little ways and down the valley tracks, round and down bowenvale. my front mechanism was getting very jingly jangly on the way down, i thought it was my cluster coming to bits, but no, just the cage on the front mech. rode home... all in good time. home by 11.30 i think.
next day, flat tire on bike. pulled the tube, tiny hole, found the culprit gorse needle, but it broke off before i could pull it out, fixed the flat, left tube out and pumped up over night, still hard in the a.m, so put it back into tire, and later that day its flat again. damn. must be more of those gorsey bastards. time for a new tire perhaps...

OH. and my Mary Bars (here or pics of them on a bike here ), by On-One, are nearly here... YAY!!!! scored through Paul at EssenceBikes ... good bloke to deal with. cheers paul. so, ride reports as soon as they're installed... i'm just praying i can get away with my rear brake hose... it might be a bit on the short side.

Banks Pen View Hill

Friday, Good Friday, Steve Pete and Andrew came over to the bay, (T and O and dogs and me went over thurs night straight after work). we drove to top of bay, pete's car overheating in the process, parked on summit road, and jumped on our bikes...rode towards Okains Bay to first ridge, then rode and walked along this to flanks of View Hill (762m) up to pretty much the highest point, then down down down paper road, through Chorlton, down on down to snappy wee singletrack down into Raupo bay where we stopped and enjoyed the beach and the mega surf pounding in from a massive southerly swell. then rode up onto Long Lookout. On the way up, you come up to the cliff edge, and there, framed by the cliffy headland and the pounding surf was the Spirit of NZ, in nearly full sail, heading south, very spectaculer.
That dark smudge in the distance, believe it or not, is the ship...
continued riding back up to Chorlton and down into Little Ak. all up, 20 kms, 440 m ascended, and 980 descended. then after some cheese scones kindly baked by Tra'y and a refreshing beer, we loaded 4 bods and 3 bikes into the fiat and i hauled them up to their car at the top...

Monday, Easter Monday, i biked up to Chorlton, then up View Hill Rd to the fork, then left along the branch i'd not explored before. up to around 600m alt, then turned tail and back down. only this time, instead of riding the 4wd road, i rode all the animal tracks on either side, off piste, technical and fun. then bombed back into the bay. quick trip.

ripsnortin'rockin' it!!!

good turn out yesterday. usual stv peat tone and me, plus hubster and Mark, and an additional Milan, from work. Andrew's wrist is still playing up.

so, toodled up rapaki, good pace, turned left, singletrack road singletrack road singletrack road and onto richmond hill. stopped for a bite at the ruins, and the BOMBED it down. first of me on Mark's tail, hammering it, kept up with him pretty good. then he bailed to adjust his seat just before the sweeping switchies, so i pulled in front with him pushing me. i was going so fast, my arms have never felt that pumped by the time we got to Evans. some vvveeeery sketchy turns... then Capt Thomas, i let Mark go in front again (this guy is on a Kona Coiler, 6 inches of heavyduty travel both ends..., vs me on the switchy, 5inches up front is IT) and again we bombed it down this, i cleaned all but a dab at the bottom of the first of the two dodgiest rocky bits. down past the two stiles and the wee bridge Mark's chain got eaten up, and got some horrendous twists in it. so he had to pull it off and ride the rest of the way without it... he repaired it over coffee at the Com
Milan did good, a bit slower on the downhill stuff, but pretty good round the rest of the singletrack. but then we lost him in Slumner, cos he didnt know which cafe we were going to. i waved and waved, and then went after him a bit but he took off. txted him. no worries...

sunday cut short and tuesday speedy to dinner...

sunday, usual suspects, steve's, 9am, up rapaki, right, 'long summit to vic. were gonna carry on up to top of marley's and down below dyers back into vic and down bowenvale, but Andrew's wrist was playing up from his silly crash on the rocks last week. so, we cut it short, headed down thru the gums, then i took them across the upper track to the new track that i rode by myself a couple weeks ago and then rode all of with Nelson another week or so ago... so, i rode most of it, had to shimmy one little steep bit next to a tree, but pete rode all of it, and andrew, steve and tony walked pretty much all of it... we hooked onto my 'favourite' and continued out bottom of bowenvale.

then last night, tuesday, nelson met me at my place after work, and we rode across to farmtrack, up it, quite fast, i was blowin!, cos it was getting quite dark in the clouds so we rode round the road to the rest of the singletrack, bombed it to vic, screamed down through the gums, and on out to the vicpark road, down to top of cashmere, where i was having tea at my folks... niiice ride. i was on fire coming down. but i blew going up.

wednesday slightly soggy spin

been grey and rainy a bit for last week or so. S.A.D getting the worst of me, so a ride was a damned good thing... left work a bit early, got out the door of home at 4.45pm, rode across to and up rapaki, which seemed very hard, head wind all the way up, and the dirt was softish from previous rain. hit summit trail and got my groove on, one or two muddles but mostly plenty dry, nicely packed, drainage very good thesedays. hit top of vic, and down through gums, GREEEAASY, then i bypassed Dazza's and went down my "favourite" but bailed on the first cross track, cos it really was pretty greasy and sliding was rarking up the leaf matter and trail a bit... took the final bit through (what i've started to call) "the darkness", where the pines and mac's are so thick its really dark in there (especially on an overcast day), and it was hairy through there, with two wheel slides into ruts etc... interesting. the rest of the trails were okay, but that last little cattlestop right at the bottom before the gates i got the bike sideways on, scared the bejeezus out of me. Stopped in and saw Kris on Bowenvale on way out too. then flashies across town home. in the door 6.45...

sumner morning...

rode to Pete's, we drove, picked up Andrew, and met Steve and Tony in Slumner... biked up Capt. Thomas out godley and taylors and back to coffee at .com. way up capt thom was sweet. cleaned most stuff or more than often. cleaned heaps of godley, one or two dabs at the start and that was about it. while we waited for Steve to void his bowels at Godley, Andrew was dooffing about on some rocks and had a wicked tumble. winded the crap out of him. garked up his legs a bit too, and jimmied his wrist. yowch. awesome descent into taylors, they'd really done some work on the trails for the Crater Rim. and nice climb out of taylors. dropped some awesome wheelies on the way up. steve and me first. then down through nicholson park, speeeeedy... good run in all. only a couple hours.

sunday morning monday night...

sunday morning, biked over to steves, then him and me biked to TFC picked up the van and drove out to Slumner. met andrew there, parked right outside DotCom and headed up Capt Thom... nice climb, i seemed to have heaps of speed all the way up. the other two werent so quick, so i stopped and rested a lot, meaning i had heaps of speed when we got going again... hot and sticky in the top valley just before Evans. quick rest inside the Macracarpas at the start of the Richmond Hill track. then up up up up up... then, turned around and came back down it all. bombed it. beautiful descent, switchy playing very nicely. then down Capt Thom, cleaned everything, except that on the first of the two gnarlies, i had to bale at the very bottom of it, the rock that sticks up straight across the track exactly one bike length from the bottom of the drop jumping into my way just at the last and i didnt want it to do what it does best, which is stop your bike dead and throw you over the handlebars, or worse still, straight onto your top tube, yowch... then cleaned the rest of the trail... lovely, and coffee at Dot com.

Last night (monday), headwind home from work, changed and met Nelson at bottom of Rapaki, up we slogged, turned right, round the summit to Vic, then down through the cattlestop next to the A frame, turned right and along the fenceline and down, (instead of through the fence and riding the "upper fenceline" track), and down the wicked ass DH tracks, steeper than we usually ride... cleaned most stuff, i walked one drop that nelson rode, it was just too scary coming into it, and then rode some wicked bits, and walked one jump that nelson popped off, i'll do both bits next time for sure. it was the track that i hooked up with a few rides ago. then down the usual and out. nelson took an awesome line on the washout next to K2, jumping off this bit the nats DH riders were popping... and now that its daylight saving, i used my flashies riding home across town. home by 7.

Swtchy, in the flesh

a snap of me bike from me fone... blurry eh?

wednesday with da girls...

left work at 4.30 or so, with a couple of workmates, Bex and Snoozen, headed down Clumbo St to Earnsleigh Reserve along the Heathcote River, past coffeeculture and Prncss Maggies Hosp, down the steps just past Cracroft along that wee forest trail and then up the slog that is Worsley's... me in middle ring one down on back, Snuse and bex both in grannies... overtook some big travelly boys, up up up, good ride up the dirt, nice and smooth flowing, no real dabs, all the way up. Marley's was particularly nice, down to Kiwi, then up Thomsons into Vic, i proceeded down through the gums, and the grrrls headed down the fireroads. regrouped at the Jumps skidder area, where a friend of S's was hangin', him on a Crack'n'fail Profit, nice and new. Him and me took Dazza's while the girls took the pikeroute, straight down. then followed the Nats track down. couple new bits. bombed out bottom of bowenvale, then slogged it back across town to work, grabbed my bag and headed home. quite a long one in the long run. home at about 7.10pm... long. lotsa stops i guess. then i went to quiznight and had a few guinnesses (preempting friday by a couple days) and scoffed down a rare-as steak and chips and yummy yummy salad. as usual, 3rd equal in the quiz, and lost the tiebreaker! bah.