Monday Night, SS. Greasy Captain, Godley.

Nelson picked me up bout 5.30-6. Headed out to Slumner. Both on Singlespeeds, headed up Captain Thomas. Greasy as, dabbed and walked lots. hard to get traction with all that torque. Got to Evans and we were originally gonna go up the road to top of Greenwood, and back down Thomas, but decided Greenwood would be nasty in places too, and the Captain wouldnt be much fun going down either, so we headed out Godley. first half was tricky, greasy in spots, but dried out the further out we got. Got to Breeze Col and headed round singletrack below road, then back. by which time for some reason Nelson's battery was going, his light becoming dimmer and oranger. Down Anaconda, he was taking it pretty slow. mine was fine, i was ripping. tho, the brakes need overhauling. then up out of Taylors, gooood grunt on the singles. and cos of his light, we just bombed it down the road.

Sunday Flat cruise to planting - SS

not much of a ride. took singlespeed across to Steve's. only Andrew and Wayne were in attendance. we headed down Garlands, round King Edward to the singletrack behind the fish factory, round back of there, crossed the Cut, headed up the true left side to Radley, some cool little singletrack in there on that side, then back on the other side, all the way down to Tunnel Rd bridge, then staying on that side took the single round to Ferrymead Historic park, round to Ferry Rd Bridge, back up stream behind the industrial area, spat out onto Charlesworth St, and along to TFC and the planting. put in heaps of plants, got to lay quite a few out, which i enjoyed, shaping the future ecology of the area. then T and H and O turned up, with the Tagalong, so attached that and Otis and me rode home. along bikepaths, linwood, linwood canal, backstreets, home. with john.

tuesdaynite, full moon, rapaki, witch, castle, bridle, morgans

minor disaster, but i'll come to that... so, heading for T's Mum's for dinner, left home 5.40 cos had gotten caught at work, and hoofed it across town, up rapaki, passing several, nearly catching one (and from above, there were HEAPS of lights following up). hung a left, round witch hill, helluva wind blowing, full moon, clouds skudding, up road, nearly being plucked off the road by the wind just by the Tors where the wind whips over the top to Cass Bay... then bombed it down castlerock, nearly being blown into the bank most of the way, then down Bridle Path... cooked the brakes, they were starting to sound glazed and were getting a tad spongey by the time i veered onto the Morgans Valley track. along and up that, grunting up the steep, then nice cruise (quite sheltered round there) round back of commarc guy's place, and then onto what must be one of my favourite sections of singletrack... then disaster struck. all of a sudden, there was a sickening crunchy noise and i came to a stop, before i even knew what i was doing i was rolling backwards to disengage the derailleur from the wheel. it had been completely snapped in half, the actual thicker alloy fatigue broken right through on the first bit, and it was jammed. must have hit a rock, cos there's no way it would have done it just on its own. it wasnt even in one of the big cogs at the back, but probably 3rd or 4th down... i txtd T to let her know i was gonna be a while, she txtd back that she'd come get me. so i got the chain off, and tucked the broken derailleur into its own cable so's it was out of the way, and i rolled what i could, scooted what i could and walked the rest... had quite a good descent. down past the quarry wasnt bad in places, and down the steps of the quarry walkway was good too, all downhill. T turned up as i was walking along Bridle Path Rd... so. the damage. slightly bent hanger, completely destroyed derailleur. a few scratches on my nice new frame. boo hoo.

friday night, saturday dig, sunday morning

Friday night, drove over to Nelson's and we hit the streets, then up the valley below rapaki. techy, lots of fun, wee bit of walking and dabbing. on up the maintrack, moonlight lighting the way. round summit trail on Vernon, then over Scott's Knob and the next one. Heavy dew made rocks and roots interesting. , cross road, over fence onto single then we headed round the rocketship ride trail (cos of the new 'seal', ie teddington chip) into top of vic, once down Brakefree, then on down into the gums. i led the way, across the first bit, laughing at myself not making a decision quick enough and nearly going into a tree, then round first corner back the other way, then down into the bit that was contentious on Vorb a while back. got a little way down that and heard an almighty "CRACK" then some words from Nelson. i pulled up, and went back up to see what had happened. his frame had broken, chainstay, discbrake side, just infront of the dropout. this was a nearly brand new bike. so, he started walking, and i headed on down, Dazza's, trying out all the new bits, then down through the macrocarpas below there, then round 'bridges', down k2 drop and on down valley. got to the style and my battery fell out. glad i didnt lose anything further up, or that the battery hadnt fallen out on a crucial bit of singletrack! then bombed down bowenvale, very careful through the gategap i crashed on at easter, and hauled across town to Nelson's, grabbed car, drove back up hill, and found him already down Dyer's Pass Rd near Kidson Tce.

Saturday. otis and me went to Living Springs in Governors Bay and helped a team of people dig trails. the report on Vorb said 19 people volunteered, and we got 180 metres of new track built. nice, flowy twisty singletrack in (denuded (by stock)) native vege (mostly manuka and ongaonga, bit of other stuff). cant wait to ride it.

Sunday. met at steve's. Him, Pete, Andrew, Tony, Wayne and me. headed down Garlands, into KingEdward Tce round behind the fish factory, over the fence along the trueright side of heathcote river to tunnel road bridge, the over to the other side and round behind ferrymead industry, then around to the mccormacks bay trail, up the steeps riding much more than previous week. up road, over greenwood, all the new stuff was much better than before. veeery careful across the slats in gloomy gulch, and still managed to get a squirrelly front wheel slide in, then on down, bombing it nicely. on good form. then out godley, tentative through where i did my ankle in, but bombed it all good otherwise, and then hammered the anaconda, beautiful roll down that. Soul is performing wickedly. over the hill, coffee at dotcom, then the haul home.

pleased still, with the new soul i am

saturday morning. Matt, Andrew, Wayne and me met at Steve's, and cos of rain overnight we headed round river to McCormacks Bay, and up the gully track to Craigieburn Pl, up Mt Pleasant, hit Greenwood, and down to ranger Nick Singletrack's ute, grabbed a grubber or spade each and then headed down to meet up with trail maintenance volunteers. put in half hour or more with them, flipped a few rocks, dug a few drains, smoothed up a few lines... all good. then headed back up a bit and down 4wd track to Richmond Hill pines, then under Steve's advice we took a couple wrong turns trying to find the way they'd come up a week before... (personally, i would have liked to ride down the gnarley root infested track under the trees, then across the track we'd ridden up weeks before (when steve wasnt with us), then down Richmond Hill proper. Matt and i scarpered for home cos of the time, whereas Steve Andrew and Wayne stopped for DotComCoffee.

Soul performs nicely, tho, trails werent really testing enough.

Pleased with the Soul, I am.

First Cotic ride. Lunch time blast. across town to rapaki, met nelson, headed up, turned right onto singletrack, up round mt vernon, climbing very nicely, cleaning all the little techy rockbits where nelson dabbed a couple times. mucky mucky yucky on the flatter bit up western flank before heading down to road. then stopped for bit of a snackage, then round single, good nick, and down Old Skool. did all the 'shortcuts' cleaning everything. bike handles very nicely indeed. indeed. so well as to not even notice it. seems smoother on the rough stuff than the switchbacks were... then down the last stretch below that pylon before the singletrack proper begins. looking ahead at the shady hillside and the freshly turned dirt (where the new lines have all been made), we decided to check out the old walking track that takes you down from about there to the bottom of the valley. steps, but much much dryer than the bike track ever would have been. had a wee look in the top of the old forest where there used to be singletrack til the big storm of 01 that bowled over oh so many trees. all the gates were open so it was a blast down the maintrack. then back to work through beckenham and straight down dirty old colombo st. pleased with the Soul, i am.

post number 200 !! and swtchbckr 3 years old today

today marks 3 years of me doing this blog. wow...

AND this is post number 200... extra wow.

on average, 5.69 posts per month posted...


alas!. two weeks since i've ridden. weather has just occurred to ensure less riding on hills, cos the trails will be mucky mucky mucky.
finally finished the build on the Cotic on thursday. it required, new gear cables and outers, new bottom bracket, and lots of thought. anyway. it feels good, riding it around out the gate, but tomorrow will be the first test of it up the hills. gonna do a lunchtime ride.