Thurs single, then non ride-ish

Nearly forgot about it... thursday night, Al 29ed and i singlesped, up rapaki into the cloud and drizzly mist, bypassed vernon to singletrack below road, around to top of vic, thomsons to kiwi, down dyers, up into vic, then down zig and zag to 40footer, then down Nationals dh k2 valley and out... nice spin tho i was pained going up rapaki. 7.30 to 10ish...

sunday, otis and me went out to bottle lake and had a quick inner loop spin with the tag-a-long. was good...

monday night, i swapped the 20inch with the 18inch, mountain to town to mountain... all my own work. headsets and bottom brackets inclusive... just gotta get some shims for the rear disc now and i'm good to go. town bike handles nice as a 20inch.

Tuesday Morning Worsley's explorations, Marley's Dyer's...

T had taken O and H to story time at the library, so i drove to Nelson's around 10am. we rode across to Worlsey's and up. when we got onto the dirt, we detoured onto the the 'secret' dh track, riding up it to the dodgey 'wall' then up the forestry track hidden away in the woods there. instead of turning left off it above the pylons, we continued up it, only to find it spat us out at the top of the cool cliff top thats up there. we explored around that for a bit getting into the forest a bit. its all wide open in there and the potential for more trails is incredible. the pollen is going off a the moment. the forest floor is practically fluoro green, and after walking about for a few minutes our shoes were the same colour, little puffs of pollen at every footstep. back to the bikes, we continued up the 'secret' track. the builders of it have done more work on it, with some sections getting more and more flow, even upwards. kept an eye out all the way up for a side track across to worsley's proper too, to no avail. hit the paddock, bombed down to bottom of body bag and boosted up it.

Hit Marley's, bombed down that, flowing very nicely. half way down nelson's seat clamp came loose, then i took the lead, bomb bomb bomb... down old dyer's trail. then up into vic, singletrack from 19th batt. memorial, over and down to lower cool runnings, trying out the righthand line for a change just after passing the top of Dazza's... good flow all the way down there, feeling excellent through the 'darkness', over the bridges, round the side, through the next trees, bumpy bumpy bumpy, down the 'washout' bottom of k2, then out bowenvale. stopped to examine where that guy died..
all up an excellent ride.

Single Haul...

Al turned up to my place at 7.30ish on his new rigid 29er singlespeed, and we spun across to Nelson's. headed across to Rapaki, and up. ugh. i had great difficulty, tho, with a couple of rests, managed to ride all the way up. the 29er has a lower ratio than Nelson and my 2:1's, making it a bit easier on the climbs... had a go on the 29er on the climb around witch hill. swapped back for the descent. then continued around summit road to Castle rock. let Al cruise off down there, nelson and me watched him go, and the light looks amazing. then honked into it. nelson on my tail all the way down, pushing pushing... bombed that til just after the second switchback Nelson's chain jumped off, then by the end of the climb i was just catching Al as we rolled into bridle path. waited up for nelson then headed down it to Morgan's Valley track. headed round that, i walked a bit of that climb up to a horse, then nelson got a flat, pumped it up, rode on following the fence, thats a blast that section. then he changed out the tube cos it was getting too low again. then hit the single track, me leading. mint trail that, absolutely mint. except for the pesky sheep with lambs scattering left right and centre... switchbacks down, then into the scrubby stepped section, then beautiful cruise into and through the quarry, and then down the steppy switchbacks to the bottom. rode all of them, nelson had one off, Al stepped off a couple times... then, ferrymead singletrack to Tunnel Rd bridge, then new trail along to the cut, opposite side of river to usual, potential for mintiness... then up the cut, and along the singletrack on southside of the bank to Radley St. then ferry road, nelson departed us at nursery road, stanmore, home... 11pm.

saturday cruise...

saturday, left home at 11am, rode across to rapaki, up, then right. round summit trail to top of vic, thomson's to kiwi, then up road a tad to the Gov's Bay trail. dropped down it, nearly losing it big time on a soggy patch near the bottom, then turned round and attempted to ride back up it. got a lot of it, but walked a bunch and dabbed heaps too. she's a steep wee trail. then, on up the summit road to the lower section of Marley's / Flying nun, back to the kiwi. then up road to top of Vic again, back around the summit trail, hesitantly at first, thinking "can i really be bothered?", "aren't i tired enough already?" but continued on and then bombed it down the old skool bowenvale, having some interesting times on the rocky sections, cleaning them, but losing momentum on the very last gut-drop onto the main track. the singletrack section was sweet, but then the last zig and zag had soggy bits on it, tho cleared them and out bowenvale home. 2 and a half hours all told.

sumner twice

friday. biked from a meeting at work, 1204 i passed C1. headed out ferry barbadoes waltham, wilsons centaurus, up rapaki. easterly blowing so figured i'd go into it along the top and that way i'd have a tail wind home from sumner... at castle rock i figured i'd explore the tors reserve. carried the bike up to the top along towards the 'actual' tors, and then headed back round the trail i'd ridden in the other direction previously. not nearly as rideable as i'd remembered. lots of rocky offy bits i wasnt game to ride due to the enormity of the descent that would entail should i off... anyway, 15 minute detour done, i rode back up the road to castlerock and down the singletrack.. bombed it. pinned everything, looking where i was going, ie, looking where i wanted to go, and the bike just flowing. nice.

then up road to Greenwood. flew down it, again, bike going exactly where and how i wanted it to. flowy. sweet. then down capt thomas nearly losing it on one of the techy sections, then dabbing at the bottom of the upper of the two ex nemesises,

then the slog back, tail wind tho, which was helpful and faster, and home, ride duration 2.5 hours


then, today. cos it was father's day, pete steve and me rode from sumner 1.30 in the arvo. headed up capt thomas. good haul up there, nice not to have any waits. (spotted a new singletrack (running probably) across the other side of valley... mental note to explore next night ride...). then out godley. stuffed up the first techy, but cleaned the second. then all the rest. rutties out on first downhill were interesting. from breeze col we headed the lower above road route, then back round below, and down anaconda (SMOOTH!, good jumpies). lots of dumbass boyracer action going on over taylors and sumner way... spotted track off taylor's road that said "sumnervale" which to my reckoning will be the trail we'd seen from capt thom... down through nicholson and coffee at dot com... ride duration 2 hours. nice.

both rides on the geared beasty.