Post Christmas Ride number two - View Hill, Banks Pen.

Well. blog post counts aside, only got one more ride within the old year. spent 10 glorious days in perfect weather at the bach in Little Akaloa. built a tree platform (house would be a misnomer) for the boys. swung heaps on our swing, and rode around the section a bit. swam in the warm(ish) sea many many times, but largely just hung out not doing a helluva lot except playing the the boys. so. one day, not even sure which now, i got out about 10.30 am and headed up the road to Chorlton, then on up View Hill Rd, stepping aside for a couple of bulls who were being taken down off the hill by the farmers, then continuing up to the top of the road, checking in on the cellphone messages up top there, taking the trails right to the very top of the hill, then turning round and bombing back down, exploring out the top of the bush and finding a few off piste animal trails then wending my way down across the slope eventually getting back to the main track. bombing down this, chasing a sheep for a while, then on down the fucking steep gravel and on down the seal to the bay. all up a good wee ride to break the holiday up.

Post Christmas Ride number one - Christmas Day.

Well. first "post xmas ride" was actually this morning, christmas day. did all the fun family present opening etc then got something for lunch ready, then took off on my bike to get to Joy's for Xmas lunch. T took the boys in the car. Left home 10ish, got to hers 11.15ish. bloody headset is dodgy.

sped across town, up rapaki at a good clip, over witch hill, road up to Castle and a good fang down there. then onwards round under the gondola, up round and onto John Britten, then off piste down the paddock, under the pylons and down Major Hornbrook, through the park to Cannon Hill Cres then bombage down there to lunch.

Tuesday PFMTBC DVD Release

Cruiser'd over to Petes and met up with all the crew. Andrew, Wayne, Warren, Hubb, Pete (who'd been at Pom's all afternoon), Steve and Tony. We ventured forth into the hot blasting Nor'waster, made it to the Belgian Beer Cafe where we squatted on the outskirts of a bunch of suits and supped our ales (a Blonde and a Brunette for me). then to Pomeroys where we met up with the three M's - Matt, Mark and Marie. Mark had a Tallboy in tow, and we all carparked it trying it out and liking it except for (mark's) floppy seat - (a Hopwired and a Smokin' Bishop for me here).

Then a tail wind blast to Pete's for the unveiling of Warren's video construction. we drank a little more and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Sketchy getting home, with i think a crash on Pete's drive. i've got unexplained chain muck right up my leg...


Only 4 more posts to fulfill my annual quota... These will be pre-loaded because i'm going to Little Ak from Boxing day and we aint got internet over there. I'll definitely get that many rides in prior to Jan 1st.

Sunday Hunting Traversing Victorian Old Skools.

Smaller posse assembled at Steve's this morning, with Wayne, Warren, Andrew, Mark, Steve and myself cruising round Hansen's and up the Huntsbury into the cloud. clammy moist and humid it was. up up up we went til we broke out above the clouds (or they burned off) and Mark took the old steep line up top instead of through gate and up to beginning of Traverse.

hit the Traverse and put on the pace. i nearly lost my back wheel over the edge after one stop, then a dazed and confused large lamb tried to get in everybody's way cos it didnt know what to do with itself alongside the pond, then Wayne got a flat at the usual signpost-Sugarloaf stop. otherwise a pretty event free jaunt.

Off down through coffeebreak with Mark then me rolling the see-saw and the first coupla brakefrees, then off down the rockgarden into the gummies and peeled left down that sweet little track Marie had shown us. Andrew said Steve looked like he was gonna shoulder barge a tree near that steepy corner.

regrouped and off up to for Mark to show us a piece of Raadi Garden. nice wee rideable steep with optional droppage, then he showed us this play area before the top entrance to Rad^Sick which we did a couple of loops of, then off down the valley, taking in some bits that followed Rad briefly before hooking onto the lower reaches of Cool Runnings. then off down Flow, Bridges and rolling the new bit without pedalling at all, making for a fun lower section.

blatted down the valley and hit up Hidden, cleaning it up nicely, rain starting to fall a bit more concertedly. into the Old Skool and a good blast until the wet rubber matting which sent me screaming towards the rocks in a straight line gaining speed. managed to survive and got down the rest okay.

it being only 11am when we got to the bottom so coffee was had.

Wednesday Sandpit singlespeeders

Chris came to mine and we singlespun across to the forest. in the main entrance, hung a right and drafted to the gazebo, ate a biscuit or two, then onwards. along the beach we hit the worst sand, and headed down onto the beach, where chris wheelied and i cruised to the next entrance, back onto the singletrack and on round, quite a few stops, a swapsie for a section, his forks are well plush, mine are basically rigid. i was surprised by some of the freshly cleared forest, open in places i've never seen open before... played round on the wooden stuff at the end and then rode back towards mine, detouring at the last minute to Pomeroy's for a pint...

All Mtn Trials 1

These two posts, vimeos, are awesome. found them via Spoke Mag
Czech them out...

Nicolai All Mountain Trial from Whyex Productions on Vimeo.

Also, these are a desperate attempt at boosting my blog post numbers for the year.

All Mtn Trials 2

Nicolai All Mountain Trial 2 from Whyex Productions on Vimeo.

Sunday Morning Rich Green God-Snake

got myself to Pete's and we drove to Slumner to meet up with the others. good sized posse, with a Force (to be reckoned with), one in a Trance, three Jami (the plural of Jamis), one Stinky one, one abominable snowman, a feminine Merida, and myself, the psy-Cotic one... (ie, Dallas, Wazza, Andy, Tony(new Yeti shock servicing, hence the Shame-us) and Wayney, Mark, Pete, Marie and me).

We entered Richmond Hill Rd with abandon, and flaunted ourselves up the steep grunter to the farmtrack which was most enjoyable up through yards and sheep and farmers to the pines of Greenwood/Richmond corner. on up road and into the single-ator which was most enjoyable. nice bomb down Greenwood Park with much rockiness and side winds. just after what is normally a creek in winter i flatted, and then had tubular issues finally resolving it with a freshy from Tony. the regroup and rest proved healthy and the rest of the bomb was the bomb.

At Evans the Warren and Dallas bailed down the Captain, and i have it on good authority that they had a all round good ride down, altho Dallas came off over his bars (we didnt see that from where we watched them before we hit up Godley). we hit up Godley, Mark making his mark up the first bit, with much hopping and popping - quite spectacular. i got further up it than other recent feeble attempts, but not quite cleaned. not a bad wee haul out with a couple of regroups and a couple of alterior lines had by one or two. nice wee blasts down and good climbing all round.

from Breezey col, off down The Snake we galloped, with berms railed and dust stirred. excellent runs by all and a good blast down the tail too. in Taylor's carpark, passing by the massive posse that was the Chch Mtnbiking Club. the racer-y members (2) of this group passed us on the way up the road, and after regrouping we got off down Nicholson ahead of them all and to Dot Com not long after 12, home by 1...

great ride, nice day, refreshing wind.

Thursday solo there and back again.

what a ride tonight. no word from Chris, so i got out on my own, drove over and parked up Bowenvale Ave about 7.20 and headed up the Old Skool, steepness getting the better of my unfit bod once or twice, but enjoying the cleanliness of the climb on the single up into the sunshine, then really enjoying the smoothed out clay surface under the pylons, its really taken the lurch out of that section. then on up the nasties, spinning out once or twice, not on my game. at one stop, watched some dh'ers on the lavaflow, walking and checking out sections, and a couple of guys bombing, looking spectacular taking mean lines and raarking up the dust in some of the last sunshine as they blitzed it - their woots echoing across the valley. i continued on my way up to the summit.

fiddled with fork tune as i crossed the road and hit up vernon realising the goodness of the fork change, getting my groove on down over the rocks around into the Rapaki catchment, flowing on down and down to the carpark, rolling through and onto witch hill trail where that one rock early on got the better of me, but cleaning up the rest and enjoying some of the new smoothness.

then onto the road and the schluff to Castle Rock. inspiring descent into the darkening valley, managing to dodge most little piles of fresh sheepshit, but managing to get splecked by one lot... smelly. made the top of the bridle and turned back admiring the carnage of the boulders and rockslide off the top of Castle Rock proper. then endured the good climb back up, big ring the whole way (36t (2x9)) and cleaning the last bit that often gets the better of me.

amazing the rocks piled up on the roadside, and the damage (now patched) where they'd fallen from the Tors etc.

getting cooler now on the descent. looked down at the walkway below the road and dreamed sweet singletrack memory dreams, but was a good boy and continued round, over the witch. got dimmer and dimmer as i climbed back up vernon. then crossed the road again and on round a bit of the traverse before dropping back down into the Old Skool, down the shortcuts, taking a bad line on the worst rocky section and bailing before crashing.

on down and into the sweet sweet singletrack, visibility getting pretty dim now, dusk really setting in, kinda fuzzing the bumps out of the trail almost. blitzed on down and out the bottom back to the car dead on 2 hours after i'd left.

Sweeeet

Sunday family mcleans

kinda almost doesnt count, but i did get a ride in today, even tho T's galavanting off in Sydney leaving me to nurture our sons...

took them out to Mcleans Island, O on his bike and Go on the tagalong behind the singly. pretty mellow cruise in lovely hot day, bailing off cos O was tired. he was sick yesterday so i shouldnt have expected too much from him today. anyway... its one more post to boost the tally for the year.