sunday

across to steve's, up rapaki, Andrew, Chris, Hubby, Steve, Tony and me. turned right, round the summit, into all the on-coming plebs training for the big Crater Rim race, everybody friendly for a change, including a rude dude on a red Epic who we'd seen tuesday before. his blonde girlfriend had overheard us bitchin'n'moanin' about him then, so perhaps she'd put a word in his ear... anyway, then we rode Thomsons to kiwi, up road to the top section of Marley's, or the Flying Nun if ya wanna call it that, which they seem to insist on, then down Worsley's. I bombed it. fantastic run. leaped of heaps of leaps, and left all behind in my dust. did a beautiful big long squirly sliding skid at the bottom. it was awesome. then down the road, and we just clipped 80kph before the last bend... then back to tony's for a coffee (instant) and muffin's we'd picked up from that cafe at Craycroft shops.

not riding tonight, might bike to lyttelton tomorrow night, or have a ride on thursday, or both.

tuesdy's regs plus and minus some...

Following monday's ride, tuesday night rolled over to Steve's, to find Mark, Hubby, Tony, Andrew (who then bailed to the hospital to see his boss), Andrew's brother Chris, and Steve... so, the rest of us cruised up rapaki, round summit, checked out the top of the DH race track (which we'd watched last saturday), then did the gums, dazza's, back along the nats dhtrack from the 40footer and down through the gulley (where i'd ridden up to the night before), then out the valley. came incredibly close to a crash at the bottom of the washout drop, where the dh track hits k2... i was gonna crash, but i luckily kept one foot clipped in and kinda hung off the back of the bike til i got the speed undercontrol... niiice. boooked it down the valley track. and home into a hella easterly... muggy.

should be riding sunday. longrange forecast is gooood.

week or so...

last tuesday morning on the way to work i had a bit of an off. crossing Fitzgerald ave, on the median strip, i was scoping the traffic and there was a gas bottle truck coming but nothing else, and he was far enough away that i was gonna make it across no problem, so i was bookin', and suddenly wham i'm flying through the air and landing on the centre lane, came down hard on my right hand side, scrapin' crap out of my right wrist, elbow and knee... and bruising my thigh nicely with my keys... picked myself up, dragged myself and bike off the road, SOOO lucky nothin' coming to wipe me out... one asshole old guy commuter didnt even say a word, and a stupid bitch walking commuter went by without a word either... scumbags, not even a "are you okay?" what IS it with people these days... anyway, carried on to work going ouch ouch ouch. got some firstaid kit supplies applied once at work. then tuesday night, pete was a bit wiped out by the heat so we did a town ride. from petes, along river road all the way in cambridge tce, to vic sq, bit of tooling about there, was a dude on a banshee showing off jumping off big drops that we werent even considering. then onwards in to artscentre then round hagley, north, and back along deans ave edge, into rotunda area, hung by a bench by the "wrestlers" then rode all the way back along the river and i went home early...

no rides over weekend, but last night, headed out about 6. rode across to and up Farm Track, round summit to vic park, down the upper fenceline track. at the top, after only a small quantity of descent, i stepped off the back on a steep section and singed a nice wee crescent of disk tat on my right calf... yowch! carried the bike back up that section and rode it again, cleanly, and on down the track.., a bit further down i was seriously concerned my hot disks were gonna torch the long dry grass... pedalled back up one of the fire roads a ways, towards the nationals track, then down the little valley single tracks, and then out and round and across to k2 and down and out bowenvale... into the easterly home.

off out tonight too, up rapaki from steves.

Sunday Flatsville

drove from Pete's to Sumner, rode up Capt Thomas, hot hot morning, still and hot, cooking up the trail. cleaned a couple sections i dont think i usually clean, still a few bits ya just gotta get off on. rested in the shade of a rockface at top of Evans. then attacked the Godley singletrack. got a lot of that first section, cept my rear cogs were slipping a bit (tuned that out later). Parts are vastly improved. then on the first major descent, i thought my balance was all up the wop, the bike seemed to be squirrelling all over the place in the ruts and i felt quite off. got to the bottom, and actually found my front tire at probably 10 or 15 psi... swapped out the tube, was a leaky old patch. pump pump pump and carried on riding, flying down the next descent and oh shit, its happening again, bike very hard to control, only the flat happened quicker this time and i ended crashing quite spectacularly not being able to scrub enough speed off in time. walked ran down the rest of the hill to bottom and got a tube off Tony. this time was a pinch hole from a spoke hole i think the rim tape had slightly shifted on the last tube change and so had punctured. no worries for me from then on, we rode up and over the last hill to the godley carpark where the boys wanted to top up water. got down there, the others had gone ahead, and steve is there with bike upside down. his derailleur all munched up, chain twisted as, hanger snapped. his back wheel had locked up on the way down the hill. MUNTY. so, they tried as they might to singlespeed it, but the chain was just too twisted in too many spots. so, steve rode the anaconda with no chain. did mighty well too. you dont need a drivetrain to get down a hill. then we all pedalled ahead over from taylors to slumner and tony went back for him in his ute while pete nick andrew and me had coffee. other riders, hubby, and nathan, and of course steve..

Gun Emplacements

the usual suspects, S P T A and me drove to Taylor's carpark, rode round the boulder bay track, first time i've done it in daylight, so interesting to see the sheer drops to the left in places down to the surf and rocks... up the head to the top where we rode out to the newly accessible WWII gun emplacements that are up on the top of Godley Head. Interesting area, with lots of info about the site, and you can get down into the magazine store, which is way under ground, and lights automatically. sat up there and had a beer, then rode back round single track to top of the Anaconda. met up with a slightly older dude on an older specialized from Nelson, BC, we told him the way down. Pete crashed pretty big time on one of the last yumps on the 'conda, and totally taco'd his front wheel. had to take it out and bounce on it to get it to spin.

so, not the longest ride, and not the best, but good nonetheless...

Bottle Lake will be closed right now due to fires at both ends.

Sounds like...

...fun. long drive up coast, stopping lots for little man, picturesque beaches, etc... Waikawa. a night of rain, and then summer holiday. rode every one of the three days we were there, each morning while O slept. on the first day i met up with a guy on another Switchback! fantastic. he had a good set up, double front ring, instead of triple, and large disks. we rode together up this trail that started out interesting and got steeper and steeper, and him being young and fit made me feel old and fat and slow... i chuffed and chuffed eventually getting off and walking the last 20 or 30 metres up... to the top of Victoria Domain. he'd just come back from doing the Snout, so i went and did it. that was fun. tho you had to watch for walkers round every bend, tho i didnt see a soul on the final leg out to the snout and back... the snout, for those geographically interested is the point between Waikawa Bay and Picton harbour. Anth and me tried to fish off it last time we were up there. anyway, riding back up it was long, tho really only half an hour or so. maximum altitude is less than 180 m. but the ups are steep, full granny granny, big cog in back, smallest ring in front, granny granny... an exercise in keeping the nose down.

so, ended up just exploring that the first day, rode all the way through to picton the second on the Waikawa Picton walk/bike track, and back down the steep gnarley trail i'd ridden with the other switchbacker and then back up it to try to clean it, rode more, but still walked a couple switchbacks, then found more of the twisty singletracks in the scrubby bush behind the highschool and the new slobdivision. heaps of little twisty trails, so fun, not much altitude but what there is is steeeeeep. played in there, rode back. then friday rode the first bit of the snout again, and played in the twisties again...

Yesterday, Pete, Steve, Tony, Nathan and andrew and me rode up Worsleys, over marleys to Kiwi, up thomsons, down the doubleblack that kuts just before the gums, down dazzas then down a trail we havent ridden for ages into the gulley and out bowenvale... was fun, fast tho with lots of breaks. hot hot hot norwest day, hella headwind home for me. talked to Krs about new front tire, will put the Conti on the back... wanna get a Nevegal.

Exmass Excess...

ugh, sitting here, latish, mid holiday, with not enough riding behind me... soooo... dredging back into far history, before xmas, tuesday night, i believe Andrew Tony and me did rapak summit vicpark, i remember being on fire like the last capt thomas run...

saturday, xmas eve, steve et al a large group rode with Clint from Aus, rapak summit vic i believe. Al and me did rapak left to capt thom i recall, very good ride, caught a guy who'd caught us on the descent, thrashed him on the last stretch but when got out the bottom saw he wasnt running a front caliper!!! without that braking its no wonder i thrashed him out...

eat eat eat drink drink drink,
then wed's 28 a.m. rode with steve and Nathan, welcome back nathan, LONG time no ride... and we did rapak and left... down capt thom. coffee at .com good tail wind home, streamed a truck for a bit, but the others hadnt gotten on so i pulled out and waited for ages for them.

garden garden garden,
little ak, gnu yeah's eve, swim in bay, ride about on the old Phillips Roadmaster out to wharf and all over Little Brook.
and tomorrow, off to sounds, taking Swtchbck with.