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.

sunday arvo outting...

Sundaymorning ride was planned, but the weather got in the way, with a blistering cold southerly dropping a fair bit of rain overnight and in the morning... so, we duly canned the ride with possibility of getting together for one later in the day. ended up going out by myself at 4.30. tracks were already nice and dry. howling southerly still blowing cold. rode across, into the wind, up rapaki, into the wind, turned right, along singletrack. on the switchbacks above the farmtrack a guy caught me up, gave me a bit of a fright actually, and as i let him past just after the second switchy he said "same bike" and yep, he was on a black Switchback too! cool. i replied, "nice ride". from then on, i stayed just off his tail. i noted that on all the downs and all the flats i was quicker than him, but on all the ups he juuuust got away from me... stayed on his tail all the way round to Vic Park, just before which we'd started chatting a little. we both agreed they're a nice bike to ride. his was a 16 inch, but he was quite a bit shorter than me. he looked like he could easily handle an 18 inch, having quite a bit of seatpost out, like when i had the 18incher... we parted ways, i bombed it down through rockgarden and gums to and out to vicpark road, then down to the below dyers pass road track. went up it, saw the other swtchbckr on his way down, "hello!" and then at the kiwi i rode up the road for the next section, lower nun or lower marley's (depending on your naming convention), down it back to the kiwi, then cross dyerspass road and up to thomson track, all the way up it to top of vic park again, then down through the gums again. then, instead of going down Dazza's or the track Dazza's comes off, i went up the track just to the right of them. this takes you across various of the DH tracks, out to the end, where i saw a new wee track cut, so toodled down it, to a wicked wicked dh track. rode it, with great difficulty, then out to my 'favourite' down it, round to k2, where i baulked the wicky drop, so pushed back up and did it again, out and down, tailwind home across town...southerlies are good for some stuff.

another quickspin...monday night norwester

Monday night, in a hot norwester, left home 1714hrs, across town, up Worsley's, oh so hot. couple of fires out on the plains, one northwest of Lincoln, and the other way way further in the distance. hard work getting up there in the heat. once on the dirt tho, much better, tho still hard. cruised, pretty good. made it all the way up the bodybag and then spun out just as i was cresting the top. easy start up again tho for the last haul... couple of female runner/walkers up top. they took off back down when i got there. then onto the flying nun, or marley's as i prefer to call it. down to the kiwi, where there was a roadie lying on the road, picking himself up. i think he'd just come out of the kiwi drive way and had toppled. didnt look roadrashed... cross dyers, up summit bypassing the first bit of Thomsons but taking the second. then bombed it down through vic to the gums, down to the skiddersite, then down Dazza's, back up the Nats DH and down to "my favourite", across to K2 then down and out the bottom. then home into the howling norwest.

Off to Melbourne tomorrow (thursday) for a week. so wont be getting any riding in, but it should be fun. gonna try'n find me some of those new Oakley shoes that MBA featured briefly this month. they look really styley, and my old Rockhoppers have clicked and creaked for too long. so. til next time... whoeverso out there reading this, wait and see what happens.

hi john. i think you're probably my only reader.