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???