sunday morning, day after Craterrim

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

new track... shhhhh

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

soggy sunday

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

Forks spectacular. loving every minute of riding with them

climbing and descending. RapCastleBridleCastleCraterRimVernonOldskool

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

plush new front end. VicKiwiNunThomTravOldskoolOut

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

new Vanilla's. and singlespeed huff.

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

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

singlies are fun

Just down the road from Paradise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

oh yeah.. forgot to mention.

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

DesignMakeRide...

sunday heatsville

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

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

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

coupla singles...

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

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

toosday spin

POST NUMBER 100 ! ! !

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

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

Nu Yeah's and back

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

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

Boxing Evening

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

xmas eve...

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

solosinglespin

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

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

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

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

Two Solos, wednesday and sunday.

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

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

weather permitting...

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

as usual, a sunday and a tuesday...

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

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

tuesday worsleysoutherly

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