xmas eve

afternoon, headed up rapaki, turned right, round summit, to vic, and kiwi, then up road, and headed down the gov's bay track, hung a right onto new bit and followed it to its end. then turned round and back down that and up the track back up to summit road. then headed up to bottom of new flying nun, up the old 4wd track to the beginning of the new bit, then bombed down the sweet newby section, all the way down to kiwi, back up road to top of vic. down through gums, dazza's, brents, flow, bridges, and out the bottom. all good, felt super fine...

off to Little Ak for a while, taking bike, so will ride a bit over there.

Sunday, rotovirus Rap Witch Castle Witch Vern Oldskool

Feeling like garbage, i just made it to Steve's as they were heading out. in attendance were Steve (wrote pfmtbc) , Pete, Tony and Wayne. At the bottom of Rapaki we picked up Fi and a friend of hers Nikki. tootled up the hill, me going slower than ever before on account of having had a rotovirus interfering with my system... i even DABBED on the way up, front wheel caugh in a drainage rut and stopped me dead... even today, monday, i feel like crap. anyway. pete dropped me entirely before the last climb...

top of rapaki, waited in the bitter easterly for Marie who was riding round from cashmere. she got there, we hit Witch Hill, had a good spin round there, then up road to Castle.

Pete led off and i sat on his tail... awesome blast down to first hairpin where i reminisced about Nelson's bike the other day, awesome blast to next hairpin. awesome blast to first grunt up and my legs were jelly. struggled up there (but still cleaned it all) and then had an awesome blast down to the end, until... smack! Fussshhh fusshhh fusshhhh, no more air in back tire. walked to shelter, took off wheel, took out tube, put in spare, replaced tire, blew up tire..."hmmm, what are these lumpy bits? rocks?" followed by... "hmmm, where's my other tirelever?"... "D'OH!" out goes the air, off comes the tire, out comes the lever, in goes the air again... then up road, down road fast, back round witch hill, up vernon singletrack. good climb, tho i was getting pretty wiped out by then. nearly lost it on last descent to road. regroup, and then we all headed off round the Traverse, and i peeled off down Old Skool.

Had a total blast heading down there. saw a guy ahead, so i went flat out and caught him. no wonder tho, he was on a rigid On-One SS. (i said, "good to see some English Steel!"). passed his mates who were waiting for him above the pylon, hurtled into the singletrack. bomb bomb bomb, ooop, riders coming up. OnOne guy and mates caught me up. climbers passed and i said "i'll let you by if you catch me" to my fellow descenders. took off, with a couple of lambs running in front of me for the first 100m, then left the others in my dust. had a good run the rest of the way down, bombing it all, living up to my Switchbacker name...

then there was the evil easterly head wind all the way home. i think i stayed in middle ring all the way across town. it sucked. i was exhausted for the rest of the day, and still aint right...
rotovirus 1, swtchbckr nil.

Wednesday Night, Old skool vernon witch castle (Nelson frame break, again)

drove over to Nelson's. we hit the road, headed up Bowenvale, up the Old Skool. cranked the first half middle ring, not doing too badly, saw vorb's Tama and friends on their way down. hit the 4wd section, nelson continued grinding on up in middle ring, cleaning the whole bastard, while i struggled and gasped in granny... by the time i reached the gravel of Huntsbury (where i_ride_rigid aka paul passed me heading down), nelson was pretty much already at the top. i ambled on up and had a breather.

Onto vernon, at the highest point Nelson stopped and turned on his camera. i led off down - not very smoothly, a couple of off balance near botch ups, and then a bit more finesse and flow at the bottom. then across to Witch Hill trail, Nelson lead off, losing me on the climb, again, i wasnt very flowy and a bit stilted... then the road. climb climb to Castle Rock.

Camera on again, me leading off, hit the trail, bombed it, flow ALL good, total blast, floaty and flying. this trail is primo right now, into the first hairpin and just round it when nelson yells out (from not too far behind me) and i hear the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of his tire rubbing the chainstay... BROKEN, AGAIN! exactly the same place as it went that other time in vic park. needless to say, game over. i headed back up the singletrack, bombed down the road to Rapaki, bombed down that, getting a bit dim light wise now, tho still all good. then i hoofed it across town to my car, and drove to pick up nelson, got to him under the Tunnel Rd bridge on Port Hills Rd.

Footage heaps better than last time...

Sunday Arvo, kiwi area meanderings.

Firstly, couldnt make the PFMTBCinc ride in the a.m. due to small person at home with a puke. so, got out later in the afternoon. had to drop something off to the folks, so drove up and rode from there, thereby increasing my singletrack time and lessening my riding across town time and giving myself a 200m alt advantage...

headed up into Vic Park, to the 19th battalion war memorial bit, then headed down the trail to the Old Dyer's Pass Rd trail. Rode up that to the Kiwi, then on up the road round to top of Marleys. Bombed down the 'nun', bailing half way down the lower section before the kiwi, and heading over and down that cool track into Gov's Bay. before the final switchbacky section, hmmmm, what's this? a new track to the right... brand new, no tire treads on it at all, heading up and round a bit... followed it to where it had finished having work on it, and where it is going to go went on into the scrub. so, left the bike and started walking, just for a look to see if it connected up to 'built' track further up. explored a while, then could see its line onwards, but needed to get back to the bike.

Got back to the bike, and there were three guys waiting for me... hehe, um, yeah, hi, just checking out where its gonna go, are you the builders? uh huh. anyway, chatted to them and i should join them sometime. Wednesdays, 6 to 8. eventually, it'll get through to the bottom of the new sections on the Flying Nun... mint. its gonna be so freakin' awesome!. so, rode with them back up to summit road, first one letting me pass, then the fast young guy (james). i cleaned more of it than i've ever cleaned before, including the final little step.

Then i jumped back over onto the rest of the 'nun and headed for Kiwi. then up road, upper section of Thomson's, and down through vic, Brake Free, the new one below Brake Free and onto the gummies, then down to war memorial, down through park, into lower Dog Exercise Area, down rooty goodness on east side of Pines, and into Cashmere, to Nainy's, then back up the zigzzag to the waiting car...

Scorcher NW, Worsley Nun Dyer Vic Traverse Oldskool

Rode over to Nelson's, and we headed for Worsley's. Hot NW day, scorching hot riding up there, but the tail wind helped, a little... nelson powered up in middle ring, all the way up the body bag!!! i managed to clean it all grovelling in granny, and nearly wanting to barf at the top.

hit the Nun, and had a good float down there, with Nelson chasing me trying out his camera again. then, on down Old Dyers bumpity bumpity bumpity, cross road and on up into Vic.

Hit the fire road up thru the gums, slippin' on the big leaves, me hitting granny and Nelson powering away again up in Middle ring. hit the traverse, not toooo bad a run round there, but the lack of sleep the night before and the heat were really getting to me, and every little climb seemed to kill me. then hoofed it down the Old Skool out to Bowenvale, and on round for a pint at Elevate.

Friday 28th Nov, Crocodiled

Drove over to Nelson's about 7. we took his truck out to Halswell Quarry, parked up and headed on up the Croc. good riding, cleaned all the climby bits, tho my very recent Junkfood dinner was slowing me up, and the legs were a tiny bit tired from the night before. but, got on up to top of Croc, continued up singletrack to highest point then on down to the next gate... then back up the old road section and time to hit the down on the singletrack, me in lead, Nelson testing out his new helmet mounted camera. not a bad run down, not the quickest or the smoothest, gusts of easterly blowing us off course in the top sections and then pushing us faster and faster down the straightaway before the gulley switchbacks... i blew it on the short climb, then a good run down the final section under the trees... 9 minutes of footage... then, it was back up to do it all again.

climbing up into the sunset, it was sitting on the horizon when we reached the highest point again, at which point we turned round and i led off down again, this time much smoother much faster much better. its great doing two runs, you get a better feel for the trail cos its still fresh. bombed well all the way down again, then blew it on the short sharp climb again!, then on out to truck.

checked out the footage back at N's place. some good. but aiming a tad low, and also its a bit bumpy. so, once those two issues are sorted, its gonna be mint!