sunday night scopesville.

tag-alonged with Otis on saturday, southern loop at bottle lake, were intending on playing in the sand at the beach for a bit but he wasnt keen once we got out there...

sunday, couldnt get out any earlier, so i drove to nelson's and we hit the streets at about 7.45pm. headed straight into cashmere, up dyerspass road, hit the (notso) H.Ell trail to the kiwi... then up road to upper marley's, up the zigzags, down body bag then stealthmode to the new 'dreamtrack' which turns out aint so dreamy afterall, specially not at night... oh, and we decided that it aint a motocross trail, its definately a dh'ers trail... anyway, its pretty wicked, twisty through trees near top, across this clifftop rocky section, then back into the woods. lots of kickers with no run-in so we took pussy routes, and lots of constructed rockgardens that 6 or more inches of travel would soak up, but that hardtails just get eaten on. still rode most of it down, some lovely swoopy sections, found the lower section, which had some wicked (rideable) drops and then some ridiculously wicked (unrideable) ones. scoped out where it might go lower, but it doesnt, but it should. then we headed back up onto the lower section of the 'wallride' trail out to bottom of worsley's, then over to the watertank, down a 'used once or twice' 4wd trail following road down to new subdivisions, then on road down to new westmorland valley park trails, bombed them and then back out. nelson's light was getting pretty orange by the bottom. cross town to his and then home. 10.30 by the time i got home... heesh.

single track gold.

awesome ride. explorations, discoveries... amazing. so. parked up down near princess margaret hospital. headed up worsley's, but instead of going up road, explored new trails that went undivulged with nelson and my night ride the other week... up where we came down, then down where we went up, then back up that, then on up to the worsley's road. then up to the track... then, where i'd discovered new homebuilt trails up there i thought i'd explore a little further... well... found a motocross trail that is being worked on, followed it to the top, discovered its secret entrance and will ride down it next time, with nelson, and or steve et al.

then headed up body bag, cleaning it, and over marley's to kiwi, up thomsons, down gums, lower cool runnings, across and down washout, and out bottom of valley. excellent ride, mainly cos i'd discovered this dreamy singletrack, even tho i didnt ride up much of it,...

tag-a-longing and proper ride...

saturday and sunday went out to bottle lake with the single speed and Otis (aged 3) and the tag-a-long... google it. anyway, he loves it. the seat is as low as it can go, and he can pedal, and he laughs and chortles the whole way. i go "pedal hard, pedal hard, pedal hard" as we go up hills and we come whooshing down them.. saturday was with dad, who couldnt keep up, and sunday was with mary and gigi who were marginally better. gigi did pretty good in fact... anyway. more of that will definately be on the cards, and the tagalong attachment will be a pretty much permanent fixture on the single from now on...

today, before picking up O from preschool, i parked up in Sumner and headed up Capt Thomas. bit sticky in some places but mostly pretty good. then headed out Godley. my gears working less and less and finally on the last descent to Breeze Col they gave up completely, middle ring, and it dropped down to small cog on back. flew down anaconda, railing all the berms, launching all the jumps. then along the 'anaconda's tail'... at the bottom i checked out my gear cable and it was totally snapped. just as well i had my spare. so, threaded that up and headed up out of taylors, checking out Gigi's rental property in taylors that burned down last thursday... i'd never known which house it was, now i could just tell from the blackened bushes surrounding where it used to be.
good descent down nicholson park and out to the car.

my thumb is still giving me gyp. wearing a neoprene brace now, which is good, but i probably should have strapped it. hurts most on the bumpy downhills gripping the bars and braking...

who knows when my next ride will be. hopefully wednesday, again, before picking up the boy.

new baby disrupting sleep greatly.

first post new baby ride!

welcome to the world my new son, Hugo, brother for Otis. he was born on saturday, so has been hangin' with his mum in the hospital. so, before dinner on sunday up at my folks, i took the bike up and headed out for a spin from theirs. Up through vic park to top. thomsons to kiwi. up road round top of marley's, down flying nun, one close call near kiwi, then on down below dyers, up into vic and back down past the tv tower above the folks and back. bout an hour... good to get out. hand still in plastic braceysplint thing. hurts to ride with it, cos my hand gets crammed into it, feels like bruising...
dunno when the next ride will be.

explorations, then kennedy's slog - singlists

drove over to nelson's, singlespeed in the back. he'd spotted some new trail whilst out walking, so we went up to have a squiz. its in a valley (whose location i shan't divulge) that's been sitting idle for a long time and i've always wanted/wondered about trails therein... anyway, the council has cut some new track in, so we explored. up up up we rode/walked occasionally, til we reached the top of this valley, us being the first bike treads evident. at the top we discovered trails that have been there a lot longer than this new one, making us wonder if there was secret singletrack lying un-ridden for years, known only to the local walking brigade. anyway, zigged and zagged up this track to a road(that i wont name) and then back down and down to the bottom of the valley again. basically, the newly cut track we went up, we should have gone down, and where we came down, we should have ridden up. we'll do that next time.

then on round the bottom of the hills, found a little more singletrack a long a section of stream that kinda runs through people's front gardens but doesnt, and then on round to Kennedy's. wandered up through park towards bottom of croc. very soggy in there, as always. crocodile is fully shut, “respect the dirt” (dan van asch), so we headed up the backside of the quarry park thru the un-lambed lambing paddocks to the final zigzag onto kennedy's bush road. then up the track. rode lower new tasty, then hit the main track up.

no dinner, getting late, howling cool wind, i walked a lot last night. was running out of steam by 8pm, half way up kennedy's. even nelson walked the top section, legs of titanium needed up there... then round summit road to worsley’s rd, and down Flying Nun/Marleys which i must say is in absolutely MINT condition. its hard packed, no ruts, not even remotely soft, and i only counted one puddle the whole way down to the kiwi.

Then, because nelson’s light was getting orange, mine was starting to fade a bit and my back-up had all but run out, we coasted down the walk track just above the dyer’s pass rd (harry ell?) all the way down to the takahe. then down hackthorne, right into dyers and on down. back to nels's along the lombo around 9.30.

sunday

pissed down all saturday evening, and all night, but sunday morning dawned fresh and clear.

cruised over to Steve's. like a revelation being on the geared switchbacker. fox plushness all the way... met wayne, hubby, tony, pete, steve. toodled through streets to heathcote cut waited on tony with a flat, on to Mt Pleasant Rd, slog up to summit road (not nearly as bad as on the singlespeeds with nelson the other week). turned right, round into the howling southerly and fog/cloud strewn tops. sunny valleys glowing below, spectacular. sticking to the road the whole way. pete, tony and me rode the witch hill section of singletrack. Castle rock and Mt Vernon singletracks were closed. then we headed down Huntsbury Track. gravel not as bad as it has been, fast and a little boring... then cut through to Major Aitken, i pointed out Nelson's section, and down we went, humming down the smooth tarmac. then home before 12...

stilll no baby. due date was the 1st.

fiiinally... rapaki, road, traverse, thomsons, old dyers. singlespeeds

finally got out last night. singlesped over to Rapaki, hooked up with Nelson, headed up. haarrd work. a few stops for rest. 13 days off the bike due to injury does not a happy singlespeeder make. anyway, nelson pulled away, got past some guys so didnt wanna stop and wait, meanwhile i plodded on. got to the last climb, strong headwind, just starting into it and weight too far forward, back wheel spin, oop, i'm going over, fell left, feet didnt unclip fast enough, smack on my knee and landed left (damaged) hand out. jarred it but didnt tweak sore thumb, but fuark it hurt like hell. considered giving up then and there and heading down, but cos nelson was so far ahead, i had to go, so walked all of that straight, up round corner, then rode the last bit to the gate, struggling... rapaki is full of scour and ruts from all the weather...

vernon trail closed, so headed round road. thick thick fog and strong southerly blowing up on tops, hit Huntsbury gate onto Traverse, spun round there, being careful, greasy, but trail in good nick. nelson had a nice tumble on the rocks just above oldschool bowenvale, then another later, i was ahead at this stage so just caught the first and missed the second. good spin round to vic park, down Thomsons to kiwi, then down Old Dyers Pass Rd. first bit below kiwi with good chip on it is in perfect condition, but then that runs out and its dirt/mud. then creekbed pretty much... man there's been a lot of water up there, and there still is, the trail was running clear water its had so much all the silt has washed away... huge scours and gulches eaten into the 4wd track before the road...

finished off by heading up onto the walktrack above dyers pass rd, and coasting it down to the takahe, then rolling down dyers pass rd to the bottom of hill... then tootled down colombo and home.

oh yeah, night before, took new switchback frame round to nelson's and we pulled the kona townbike to bits and loaded them all onto the new switchy frame...
my whole stable of bikes are Switchbacks now...

no ride weekend...

alas, hand needs to rest. but, here's my leg!

Thumbsday night Mcleans singlegraze

a whole week with no riding, crappy weather and other commitments... finally, last night, nelson and me, van, Mcleans island, singlespeeds. drizzly, track in good nick, unchanged if not not as wet as last time was out there the other week, tho a bit splecky in the eye a couple times. first lap was sweet, spun round in good time, taking turns leading, getting to know that track pretty good now, tho some sections still seem to go on longer than i'm expecting.

second lap, decided to ride the trail backwards, as in Wrong way (not as in sitting on the handlebars...) anyway, all good, some corners obviously dont flow as well as they do the right way, but no matter. anyway, nearing the end, chasing nelson, probably 2-300 m from the finish, blazing round this long sweeper, frontwheel starts to slide...oop, i'm going down...i'm down, land on my right side, sliding on my knee and shin, handlebars spin, left hand thumb poking into the ground and sliding bending ...that...doesnt...feel...right... cant...do...anything...about...it... let off a nice swearword as i come to rest, oooshh. sure it was broken, it looked all wrong. picked up the bike, chain off, other than that, no probs. limped final distance back to van, drove on. nearly home i decided the pain was too much and it wasnt right so went to afterhours, check, xray, and cashectomy later i'm strapped and have landed some 75mg diclofenacs for the taking. got home, shower hurt like hell on the leg, then sleeping was tricky cos bandages only fit one of the graze spots.

rode road... to mist mud and muck and a revelation

had a task to do, ie, load a trampoline onto a trailer at the top of Clifton Tce... so, nelson and me vanned with the singlespeeds to McCormacks Bay, rode up Mt Pleasant Rd (relentless, standing, working all the way), entering the drizzly mist about a km from the top, jumped onto the Greenwood singletrack, all spatial references removed by blowing mist and fog, all traction removed by mud and slippery rock, riding along totally lost suddenly i'm at that tree thats around on the eastfacing slopes, whereas i was thinking i was miles further back... we headed down farmtrack to the big pines on Richmond Hill, water and grit flicking high, barely any visibility still in foggy mist, then over road and over stiles down farmtrack, more water and grit to watertank then on down to gate to meet a sign saying "Private Property. Track --> ". so, carried bikes up hill to another stile, which if we'd been able to see anything we would have ridden straight to. then down this wicked singletrack (with several options) beneath old man pine shelter, roots and rocks and mud but fun. ending up on Revelation Drive... quick blast down road to trampoline house, met with Andrew, carried biiig trampoline down off lawn onto trailer, then headed on down the Zig Zag, two lots of steps, the rest tight rideable switchbacks dropping at least 100m alt straight down into Sumner. tootled back to the van all mucky and wet and smiling..

sunday frostbitten muckfest

possibly the hardest frost of the year, so far at least, rode across to steve's just before 9, shins burning with the windchill, hands freezing even in my Chippolatas, and feet going solid even with thermal socks. headed up rapaki, hung a left. any dirt there was on any of the singletracks was sticky and mucky, splecking, flicking, spraying, coating bikes and riders alike. control was marginal, two wheeled steering round bends, glancing off rocks, technical. except the shadiest bit of Greenwood, which was frozen solid like a very grippy concrete, perfect. (we shoulda been riding 2 or 3 hours earlier, and the whole trail would have been frozen solid like that) but this mud, it was just no good. and bad for the trail too. Nick the singletrack ranger will be most unhappy with us...

anyway, castle rock to bridle, not bad going, cleaned first hairpin, section between hairpins was dabby out of control, second hairpin i just had to stop and laugh... rest of it was sweet tho. road to JBritten's, sweet. J Britten's reserve trail was fine, greasy, but fine. then Greenwood, diabolical. still managed to clean most of it, but dabbed in some bits you'd never normally dab. crazy. then we discussed riding down Capt Thomas, but bailed and took the road. cold and fast. T, O and GG happened to be in Sumner, so picked me up. bike needed a damned good wash and lube once home...

Wednesday Foggy rapaki - vic, cashmere, hollis

Nelson and me hit Rapaki about 6.30, both on the geared bikes. hard work to the top, neither of us feeling 100%, me cos i'd been up since 5am, full day in wellington (meetings etc), him cos of a cold. and i think the dirt was just a tad soft, coupled with a head wind, made it all difficult. Lots of funky fog up rolling over saddle at top of rapaki and on round first section of Mt Vernon. Decided to give the single track a go, and found it in surprisingly good nick. The summit trail is holding together beautifully, with the stretches of teddington chip hard as nails. There were probably 3 short sections from rapaki to vic park that were mudbaths, only short tho, and the rest of it was sweet, no damage, no harm done. Nick Singletrack the ranger is being very protective with notices on vorb warning us to keep off. I'd be keen to get up there with him and fix those few sections that need it, and then rapaki to vic park would be clean and ready to roll in all conditions. The worst bit was just before top of farmtrack, there's two small gulchy (kinda ex-slips) bits, one of which they filled with good sized rocks not so long ago, that was really bad in there, cos there's never been any tedd chip put in, and the only other standout bad bit I can think of was below sugar loaf, not far round from where we often stop at that sign.

Anyway, got to Vic Park, floated through the pines, then down through the gums, which were in good nick, ie, the trail is soft but we werent cutting it up, and the gum leaves provide exce;;emt binding material and traction (surprisingly). then down the wee singletrack from jumps to 19th Battalion War memorial and on down past the ranger centre, then *ahem* down through the dog park, down the side of the pines above cashmere, riding the roots and trying not to gark our arms on the barbedwire, overlooking bowenvale ave, then down the funky ass singletrack to Longhurst Tce. Cabbage tree leaves also make excellent trail binding material... then we explored a walking track (that was 80% unrideable due to steepness and steps) which connects through a wee reserve into Hollis Ave. yeah, we were a bit spleckled with mud at the end of it, but we did very little damage to the trails because they're holding together very very well.

thursday and sunday singlespins

Thursday night, lift with Pete and Matt, to Taylors, met up with Steve, Tony, Wayne, Andrew, and Nelson. Nelson and me on the singles, headed up new section then round to boulder bay. then up steep (walked), to top, then out to gun emplacement on the end (at top). sat and all imbibed a beer each we'd brought. i had a Wigram Dunkel, which was really tasty. everyone had something different... as we were leaving the gun sites Nelson pinchflatted on a concrete lip, and as he pulled out his back wheel he broke his single-ator, meaning no chain tension, so in the end he pulled off his whole chain and just scooted and rolled all the way back. even like that he was 3rd fastest down Anaconda... brilliant flight down.

Sunday, morning. had been raining all friday into saturday, so we gave the hills a rest and got out to McLeans Island. spun round there on the single too. two laps, about 1 hour. even on the singlespeed i'd get miles ahead, slow and rest til i saw them again then get going again.

quick tuesday bottle lake - Singly

spun round to Petes, climbed into the TFC van and tony, pete, steve and me headed to bottle lake. spun round the quick loop, no detour out to spencer park. short. no real dramas. popped nice air on my two favourite jumps. singley doing good.



intention is to do godley head, me on single again, tonight... post that tomorrow...

sunday a.m.

crisp frosty start, but was hot by the time i was at Lancaster Park. met Matt at Steve's, no one else was in, we hoofed it up Rapaki, turned right, around summit trail, to Vic, to Kiwi, up road to top of Marley's, bombed it down to Kiwi, back up into vic park, down through gums, Dazza's, macrocarpas below dazza's, round the side, down the k2 washout, out the bottom, home. nice ride. trails were in immaculate condition. i felt headachey and tired, but still managed to bomb it all. fanged the downhills something wicked.

quick night bottle lake single

Nelson picked me up in the van. out to bottle lake, car park chokka, ah, wednesday night racing... they'd already started so we figured we'd meet them somewhere. headed in, turned right, cruised through to the beach, following the race course for most of that. nelson was tired cos he'd given blood that day, which gave me the edge even tho i was feeling tired from lack of riding. no racers, but evidence of their track, which we avoided, headed in after dump, then around usual trails, popped those jumps nicely, then when we were at the point where you head for Spencer Park we could see the racer's lights nearer the beach, headed through and they were crossing in front of us. i had a low rear tire, so chucked some air in it and nearly everyone in the race said "y'all right?" which was nice.

rather than chasing and having to overtake them all, we headed right and through to Spencer Park, where the rain started lightly. we were hanging around and nelson said "how tight a circle can ya ride" whereupon i turned too tightly and fell over, not clipping out in time. D'OH!

figured time had passed so headed on back. a way's through, before the Macrocarpa dark section there was a racer with a flat, running. chatted a bit and carried on. then told the organisers about him. one of them was WELL keen on my Mary bars... and the other, Tony i think poss. ex of Bike Biz, said 'nice bike'... he's got one too. cool.

Switchback's rule.

quarry poach number 2.

Picked up nelson at nearly 7pm. checked out craig's khs steel 29er singlespeed, fully rigid, made me want one.

anyway, drove out and parked at Halswell that ends well quarry. headed in, up round top of quarry, then up through switchbacks to new slobdivision, then on up kennedy's track to gate, then over singletrack to next gate, then back up kennedy's to original gate, then down singletrack to New Tasty, then croc, back into quarry park, up a left hand steep across and over quarry again, then a couple more little explores and back to car... good ride. nelson had trouble cos he forgot his riding gloves and so was wearing his snowboarding gloves he'd chucked in for the cold.

sunday sumner greenwood godley taylors

to petes, drove to sumner and met up with the massive. Steve, pete, matt, andrew, tony, wayne, plus Anton and a friend of his, and me. up capt thomas, greasy slippy but cleaned lots, up road to top of greenwood. then flew down to evans. only a few dicey dodgey bits. then out godley, down anaconda, steve got a flat, gave him a tube cos his spare went flat too. new section into carpark had been worked on on saturday, and is brilliant. then over scarborough to dot com. mostly good riding. i was hot on andrew's tail all the way down the 'conda. no one else could hold onto us.

rogainers, ThomGreen singlesped

cold night in town, nelson, al and me, van to scumner, nelson and me on singlespeeds, hoofed it up capt thomas, passing the odd group of night time orienteerers, or rogainers as they're called i believe... then up summit rode, nighttime hills lit by little groups of lights roaming. then hit the Greenwood park/Richmond Hill trails from top, bombed it down, wind howling norwest over the tops, blowing us off course on some tacks,and pushing us fast on others. then flying down the lower half. then down capt thomas, cleaned everything, nelson and me absolutely flying. great ride. back home in van, through smog in linwood to mildish norwest nighttime at home.

some time around now, i think prior to this ride, i'd swapped off the wheels from my old (socalled) Schwinn (as seen on the cover of this (thats me by the way)) onto the single... they're Mavic rims, with funky coloured alloy spoke nipples, and are lighter and quicker than the deep V rim i was running on the back, as well as having no deep wear in the braking surfaces.

sunday long godley

steve's at 9. hubby, andrew, tony, steve, wayne and tony's neighbour Jeff. up rapaki, left, castlerock to bridle, road, single round john britten's, greenwoodpark, evans, godley trail to breeze col, down anaconda, over scarborough, nicholson, dot com too busy, so onwards, steve and me slipstreaming eachother across the causeway, to WAC, then the linwood ave slog for me to supermarket shopping... crisp clear day. warmish norwest. trails in immaculate condition. everybody seemed to ride really well. bombed greenwood to evans, the slats were slick and nearly lost it there, chased and caught some dudes below that. steve had a rocket run down. then the col before breeze i had my fastest smoothest ever. and anaconda, i was chasing a duded on a Cove G-Spot, he was hummin'!, but i was right on his tail. crashed weirdly on the new taylors track that's above the walking track, back wheel dropped into a hole and my knee slammed into the ground hard. WAC has C4 coffee and their food is good value, we'll stop there again i think.