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!!!

singly thursday, and a post-too-much-chardonnay sunday...

Al and me met Alister at C1 on thursday, me and Alister on the singlespeeds. and lo and behold, James (tv1 cameraguy), roly, jeff and another dude were hangin' out waiting to ride too. the three of us headed off before them cos they were muckin about a bit. expected to see them somewhere on rapaki. Alister flew up rapaki. he must be on a 32 16 i think, which was noticeably spinnier, making for much easier climbing. so, anyway, i cleared nearly all of rapaki, just walking a small section of the top of the straight. then Jeff and James showed up while we were sitting at the top. but roly was miles back so james took off back down for him. and the three of us carried on round the single track. saw another black dmr swtchbck further round the single. good spin round the singletrack, i even cleaned the first two switchbacks above rapaki. then down through vic, the gums, tootled along to top of cool runnings again, which was rather sticky, freshly dug dirt and a few days of rain will do that. then out the bottom, flying the whole way. nice ride.

then today, sunday, round to petes, drove out to scumner, checked out Pete's new bike for first time, very nice lightweight yeti 575, beautiful chris king hubs and headset. X9 sram and xtr kit all over it, and juicy carbons. sweeeeeet. lighter than the switchback... up capt thom, me hung over as too much Hurunui River Chardonnay last night, ugh... then out godley, cleaned heeeaaps of the first section. nice run all the way, steve had an off trying to be cheeky by cutting a corner to get in front of me. good flight down the Anaconda, tho i was losing it a bit on some of the corners. hoofed it back over from taylors to a coffee, a ginger beer, and a choccy chip cookie at DotCom...

sunny sunday sanguine sideswipe smash

Expecting to see just Steve and Pete, arrived at Steves, 9.30 sunday, to find Matt and Tony and Steve and milan. no pete, kidney infection, no good...

Hot norwest beautiful sunny day. headed up Rapaki, swapped with Steve briefly to try the Nomad on the hill... sure is cushy, but felt to me like it had a flat tire, just the cush. man, you'd get lazy sittin in an armchair like that all the time. he didnt like the rough ride of the hardtail so we swapped back promptly. on we tootled up rapaki, Tony doing very well. cruise cruise, to the top. waited for Steve, then off to the left. along singletrack, feeling pretty good. then along road, then bombed down Castle Rock singletrack to bridle, keeping a healthy distance between steve and me. he's certainly faster on the technical downs on the Nomad than he ever was on the Scott. then along summit road to John Brittan's reserve, round the singletrack in there. seems to be a bit neglected by bikers, not a lot of evidence of a lot of use.

then onto the Richmond Hill singletrack... yummy. climbed up nicely from the road to high point. down to the trees for a quick feed and drink and rest. then, into the descent. flying. steve hung on a bit but i made some space between us, i was creaming the whole trail, just flying, round the hill over the slats, past the tree to the little climby bit, and stopped just before the downhill to rest and wait for the others. steve cruising up first. then not too far, ie, a lot less than he would have been in the past, behind him was Tony. then matt and then milan. i heard later that both matt and milan had been over their bars, low speed...

then on down. me workin' to keep steve and black-betty off my tail, i was pleasantly surprised by a white helium baloon wafting by, about 5 m off the ground, just quietly floating by... anyway, on wards down, switchbacks left, right left right over through the fence, into the wee valley, around and towards the bit that used to have a nasty off camber drop to the left which was fixed not that long ago, i come flying into it, see its all rutted, then lose it. barely keeping control i'm all askew falling falling, smaaacckkk scraape into the bank, clay and rocks. points of contact, shin, knee, elbow and two random bruise scrapes in my inner thighs that must be from the bike. YOW! but i leapt straight back on the bike and kept it rolling. a bit sore, slowly at first, then a bit better, steve catching me a bit now. then on down, out to the road where i stopped and had a good look at my wounds. nice bit of dust and blood. the others all eventually arrive and we chatted a bit, but then i realised i was seizing up so off we went again, down the Capt Thomas. this time i was a little more careful, but my balance was a wee bit off, making for one VERY close call in the second of the rock sections. cleaned every bit of it, including all the bits i used to baulk on, thankfully, and steve did too, for the first time ever. awesome run down, even rode the fence/stile gap which is nice and wide now. and on down to Dot Com. coffee and laughs comparing wounds to two other bikers in there that day sporting similar scrapes and bruises to me. cruise home, arriving just after 1.

Singlespeed Heck

Singlespeed Heck, cos it really wasnt quite as bad as hell...

Twas a good ride last night. I've swapped the Mary bars off the geared switchback onto the singlespeed switchback (involving a new rear cable and outer, reusing the old rear cable and outer on the front). this was my first ride with them on the singlespeed, which i was on cos i thought we were meeting fellow singlespeeder Alister. But he had crossed wires and thought we were riding thursday, so didnt show, so, ended up being me, Al and Nelson, and then these other two guys who happened to be meeting at C1 as well, who Nelson has ridden with on the HQ shop rides, Roland and Jeff (and actually were in the group the other week when my pedal broke). anyway, we all tootled across to rapaki, met another guy on the way (tv1 cameraman who was also on the illfated broken pedal ride), and piled up the hill. i was good to go for a while, cleaning the road happily with Al, then hitting the trail fine, cruising to first gate, where i over took some people and one of them said, astoundedly, "*gasp* singlespeed!" I was good for a while, but then i blew my energy a about half way between Roger's Track and the Manuka, so i walked a little bit, much to the joy of the others, who said things like, "Oooh! Look at all my gears, i think i'll change down! ah thats better" Then i got back on and gasped and struggled til the flat bit where i picked up the pace and got my breath back. with a good run up on the straight i made it 3/4s of the way up it and had to get off and walk again, feeling a severe lack of energy... still made it to the top in pretty good time to the others waiting.

they went off round to the left and back, and i made a start on the singletrack to the right, walking up the switchbacks, then riding, then walking again from top of farmtrack, off piste to the top of those next two switchbacks. then i waited. and waited and waited. finally, nelson hove into view, shortly followed by the rest, and from then on i was in my element, pushing them all hard, all the way round to the sugarloaf saddle... the singlespeed absolutely sings around the singletrack. from there, nelson and i lost the others completely, we were hummin'!

then down through the gums, and did cool runnings. personally, i liked it in the old days when it was all gnarley and rooty and technical... but yep, i'll concede, it is fun. we all stopped while this guy (who was riding in a different group we kept seeing) on a Felt (7 inches in rear, 6 up front) did that wooden structure drop...twice. roland filmed it. should be on their website, which is www.angrywad.com . then out the gulch, round the sidle, down 'the washout' and out the valleybottom. speeeedy. love the way the singlespeed just floats over everything, i'm very impressed by its handling.

then rode home with Al, with a DODGEY incident with this young C*NT in a car who came flying up behind us on Eastern Tce, and practically forced us off the road at the intersection with Tennyson St. little shit, wanted to smack his car up. i told him what for, and we gave him evils the rest of the way along Eastern, and he pulled over and stopped half way along. Al gave him a silly wave as we departed...