Clifton Greenwood Godley Anaconda

Awesome ride with Nelson last night. we drove out to Sumner, parked at bottom of Clifton Hill, rode back round to Moncks Bay and headed up Mulgan's Track. Switchback city, steps on some corners, concrete walking path, steep as. connects two or three times and ends up going round the water tanks and up York's old driveway to Panorama Drive. We then headed over the park to Clifton Tce, tho going up Panorama would lose you less altitude, then up clifton to a trail described by Laurence Mote of Ground Effect in the current Spoke Magazine. blissful rooty rocky singletrack that leads up under pine shelterbelts into tussocky Greenwood Park to the Richmond Hill pines. then up the road to top of Greenwood. Bombed down that. me catching Nelson on all the rocky bits, down to Evans at an awesome pace. then out Godley. Nelson was powering away on all the climbs. but i lead on the first descent and left him behind. reckoning it was the 5 inches travel and its slacker head angle that makes my bike smoother over the rockiest bits. then up last climb and i was on his tail again for the descent to Breeze col. then down anaconda. i took the lead. railing all the berms and flying all the jumps, watching out the cool easterly wasnt blowing us off course in the air too much. by the last leg above the baches to Taylors my back was getting really sore. then the climb out of taylors my seat was too low making the the pedalling inefficient. Down through Nicholson, found a new wee line, then nelson's chain blew apart, so fixed it with my quicklink and we treadled back to the car round the waterfront. awesome ride.

Bottle Lake spin then the Bach

Two thursdays ago went out to Bottle lake, did a quick inner loop spin, then met the boys, Steve, Matt and two friends, and Andrew (i think) at the carpark, and we did a bigger loop. good pace, not stopping too much. Pete was out there too, but he was hanging with his son Alistair who was yumpitty yumping heaps...

next day was show day, so went to little ak. got a ride in on saturday. up the usual Chorlton, then View Hill road. cleaned all the gnarley steep bit, on up the paper road to a point above the old house, then i cut down across a freeflow paddock, down a wee gulch then up to the old house to have a look in. last time i was there would have been with York and Nigel back in about '90. and prior to that with Doug Claridge in 85 (his name is still in charcoal on the wall upstairs). then clambered back up to the paper road and bombed... down down down then down into the bay and back to bach.

have just returned from 7 days at Lake Poteriteri Hut counting birds. spectacular place, as usual, shame about the sandflies...

Vegas, volume 2

(see here for vegas volume 1...)... So. I'm at a conference of fellow GIS geeks for three days in Rotorua... Thursday morning the agenda doesnt look all that interesting, so i turn up in my bike gear, helmet strapped to my pack, pedals inside, and at 9am i walk out and up the road to BikeVegas, where i take possession of a Steel(is real) Jamis hardtail. the frame isnt a bad weight, the brakes are Avid BB7 (cable disks), and the gears are SRAM... unfortunately for me, the forks are Manitou Axels, supposed to have 4 inches of travel, which would be great, but these things were so blown that they sat right down in their travel and at best gave an inch. in short, they sucked... plus, handlebars too flat, and stem too long, putting way too much weight over this screwed up geometry's front wheel...so, i leave the bike shop, head along a gravelled bike track that leads through this scrubby zone between town and the lake where there's all these bubbling mud puddles and fumeroles steaming their sulphur stench and then makes its way following up a creek for a while, across and past the local DOC office (HI!), then on up towards the Redwoods.

i ride in the entrance by the bottom of the Exit trail, up the hill, then up Tokorangi Pa Rd, over GunnaGotta which i took really carefully cos of the bike being new to me and cos of the lack of travel, lotsa new bits in there that weren't there last year... then onto the ATrail, linking into the Tickler to the water tap at the bottom of HotXBuns. from here, i headed up Direct Rd, up up up up up past sidewinder and onto the FrontalLobotomy upon which i snapped the chain (legs are THAT strong, hah), removed the bad link, and replaced it with my quicklink, then continued on up to Tawa Rd taking me to BillyT which TOTALLY ROCKED! it is sooo mint. i loved it. packed in beautifully since we rode it last year, bombed down it and hung a left and headed on into the wilderness to catch SplitEnz (a brand spanker). overtook some soundingly australian chicks who were gunning along good, just before the descent, so made some good time on them and never saw them again... Split Enz leads to PondyDH, which would have been SOOO much fun with some shocks that worked, jarring my gammy thumb all the way down, from there to PondyNew (nice twisty climb and descent) which joins the bottom of the Roller Coaster which leads into the Chinese menu- ChopSuey ChopSuey, Spring Roll SpringRoll finishing with Sweet&Sour. then down the beautiful B-Rude-Not-2, peeling off that and hitting the LionTrail up to Katore Rd, then a quick flit down to the ExitTrail which is always fun. then back downtown to the bikeshop, returning the bike almost exactly 4 hours since i got it... exhausted, sapped, drained... wicked...

Sat Morn Worsley Marley Dyers Vic Runnings

nice wee spin saturday morning. rode across town, up worsley's, hardly a soul around. spotted some guys heading up the body bag as it came into view, so hustled a bit and was catching them. they were mostly walking it, i cleaned the entire thing, tho, i did stop for a rest just before the last slog, where it kinda veers left before the final gut eating ascent.

headed over Marley's, down flying nun, flying. didnt even hit the road, just continued on down below Dyers, all the way out, across road, up into Vic Park, up single track to jumps/skidder site, then up to top of Cool Runnings, the steep left hander just after the wooden structure caught me out, and even with a back up i baulked again. cleaned out the rest of the trail and then headed round sidle trail to the washout at bottom of K2, cleaning it, and bombing the rest of the way out bottom of Bowenvale

at the bottom of the Old Skool, heade up the new trail, rideable in middle ring, then turned and enjoyed it down. chatted to a dude on a new Enduro... cruised across town home by 10.30...