in Arthurs Pass for weekend, so Saturday, Tom and me headed down and through the Mt White road to the Poulter. Cotic still with Kris, so i had the singlespeed. parked up, and there's a DOC truck with trailer (for quads) and white subie with bikerack (the maxxis tread we followed all the way)
Starts off nicely, with a quick wee blast down a rocky 4wd track to the valley bottom, then meandered up following a mob of merino with a big climb in view ahead. hit the climb, i rode lots and walked lots. especially the really bouldery messy steep shit. once up tho, a nice descent flowed down, lots of line options and fun, then round a few tight bends and across a rough creek, and then down this wicked scree infested rock fest. needed to stay waaay off the front brake down here or you dug in and had no steering. steep too. over all, lots more ups and downs than i expected.
we met a hardcore 4wd coming out. as well as the fellow cyclist (who'd been in for a couple days, was carrying a MASSIVE pack (+ gun and fishing rod).
once in the National Park proper, the track becomes a DOC quad track, ie, narrower. we cruised up through this to the Tarn (where we met a couple of trampers), about 3kms shy of the Casey hut, and it was the 2 hours in mark and we figured we ought to get back. plus, we'd not banked on it being so long, so hadnt had lunch or brought much food with us. ie, Tom had brought an orange, and i'd only brought a One Square, which i duly shared with him. we reckoned if we'd not had them we'd have been toast, crawling back... turned back, slogged up the fun descents that had been on the way in, and bombed down the previous slogs. came across another DOC quad heading in too.
all up: 4 hours riding (and walking), lots of fords, shoes soaked, frozen feet from snowmelt, spectacular views, bikes well and truly beaten into submission, along with our legs and bodies.
not entirely uninteresting riding, just not sweet singletrack. next time, i reckon take a whole day, big lunch to be had at the Trust Poulter hut. or, stay night, check out Lake Minchin, etc...
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Tuesday night Spottle Bake Lingle Sin.
Nelson spun over to mine on his single, i jumped on mine and we spun spun spun out to the sand infested pond. massive group of riders, mostly the usuals, turned up. Steve, Tony, Andrew Hubby Wayne Rex Abbasteve warren and a guy i didnt know but had seen another time. i led us off into the southern circuit, we bombed along nicely, watching for mini root stumps in the 'new' section. onto the trad trail and somehow nelson and me just totally dropped the nearest contenders... clambered up to that gazebo and everyone caught up. then it was off again. getting some excellent speed down into the next section. then at the jump nelson and i stopped for a play. i did a nice job of it when i finally got up the nerve to clear the gap, which proved no biggie at all.
then we were chasing cos the others had gotten miles ahead. caught up to find them all stopped cos tony hadnt charged his new light when he got it (a simple misunderstanding...). so, Steve and tony took to the forest roads, the rest of us headed on into the singletracks. northwards, to the spencerville turn off where steve and tony were waiting. then they led off and we followed catching before the next section, on through blast blast blast, running into Chris, stopped and chatted and all the rest headed onwards. then we rode the rest of the way. pretty uneventful, cept for one overtaking maneuver where nelson was a little cheeky, cutting a guy short. caught up with all the rest at the carpark.
nelson chris and me rode homewards, via the western section of Horseshoe lake trail, a play on the flying fox at burwood park, then took in all the singletrack along Banks Ave, round river to home. for a couple of homebrews and a juice.
then we were chasing cos the others had gotten miles ahead. caught up to find them all stopped cos tony hadnt charged his new light when he got it (a simple misunderstanding...). so, Steve and tony took to the forest roads, the rest of us headed on into the singletracks. northwards, to the spencerville turn off where steve and tony were waiting. then they led off and we followed catching before the next section, on through blast blast blast, running into Chris, stopped and chatted and all the rest headed onwards. then we rode the rest of the way. pretty uneventful, cept for one overtaking maneuver where nelson was a little cheeky, cutting a guy short. caught up with all the rest at the carpark.
nelson chris and me rode homewards, via the western section of Horseshoe lake trail, a play on the flying fox at burwood park, then took in all the singletrack along Banks Ave, round river to home. for a couple of homebrews and a juice.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday arvo View Hill clamberings
as seemingly has become a (rather tragic) pattern, no ride during week, due to usual mix of children and schedules. Going to the bach Thursday night didnt help, so, friday afternoon, H having a kip, i jumped on the treadly and headed up the road to Chorlton, then on up View Hill Rd, managed to clean the steepest section, which must be one of the more sustained granny climbs around. and considering it starts after you've already done around 300 m altitude, you're already kinda 'warmed up'... anyway, on up into the valley, keeping a wary eye on the magpies that were careening around, past the lambing sheep, past a bunch of staring steers, then to the road's end, through gate and on up through the grizzled totara ruins and pepperwood peppered remnants onto the flanks of the View Hill weathertop. norwest wind was howling across the tops, blowing a bloody gale she was. threw a txt to steve into the ether and figured my time was up, so turned tail and skeddaddled down. chose an off piste way back to the gate, following the odd perfectly groomed natural sidling singletrack or dropping straight down the slopes. then, back on the road (read: farm track at best up top here), i took turns either riding it, or skirting up onto the sides and negotiating livestock trails. got some sweet flowy sections down too. after the fork and the big pine i chose one line that had yump after yump after yump, then into a giant's-head (as opposed to baby-heads) rock garden that stalled my progress immediately. picked my way through it and grabbed more of that sweet soulful flow. bombed down the last gravel section of road, side wind nearly washing me out, then tucked into the 80 odd kph sealed road bomb.
at the church, i exited the road into the cemetary, jumped over the fence into Lukes track and wafted down it. steps got the better of me, i probably rode a quarter of the whole track, and then was left carrying my bike up the last hundred steps back to the road. all up, 2 hours of good hard graft. rest of weekend, just cruised about on the old Phillips, H on the top bar.
bike to Kris tomorrow, get the forks serviced... its been wanting.
at the church, i exited the road into the cemetary, jumped over the fence into Lukes track and wafted down it. steps got the better of me, i probably rode a quarter of the whole track, and then was left carrying my bike up the last hundred steps back to the road. all up, 2 hours of good hard graft. rest of weekend, just cruised about on the old Phillips, H on the top bar.
bike to Kris tomorrow, get the forks serviced... its been wanting.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, posse on the highways of the hills - first pollen
trails drying out over week, and too busy otherwise...
Sunday morning, usual meeting place with the usual peeps. Tony, Marie, Warren, Andrew, Hubb, Wayno, Pete and me. Steve had had a bad night's sleep, so couldn't join us, but we met at his anyway. rolled round and up rapaki, along with a billion other walkers and riders. pete was on form, especially considering his lack of sleep and un-lack of excesses... felt the burn a bit up the top section. been a while since i last got up there. ran into Angrywad James and friend, both on Tomacs, who both zipped off for a witch Hill there-and-back.
Hit Vernon Single, very packed, teddingtonshit all firm and good. the two muddy spots were coping okay now too. felt pretty good riding up here, seemingly having sufficient balance and power. then cross the road and pause for a regroup. James and friend passing us by here. Then i led off onto the Traverse. excellent bomb round this, absolutely flying with a tail wind pushing me faster and faster. caught up with James and friend at top of Vic. then it was off down Thomsons, another good flight. to kiwi, brief stop and snackage. and on up road to Marleys. From road, looking across harbour, noticed what at first i thought was a lot of smoke, then clicked on the colour, plumes of pine pollen billowing out of the plantation on the point down to Quail Is. made me realise why i've got this weird 'cold' i've got (that i get every year at this time and every year remember that i get it at this time)... i guess now is the time to realise (once again) i'm a mild sufferer of hayfever. just a tickly throat and mild sinus annoyance... or IS it a cold? aannnyway, no biggie.
Marleys... fantastic run down the top section, blasting through all the curves, blazing all the jumps, into the middle rocky section i slowed a tiny bit and heard someone on my tail. a brief check and realised it wasnt any of our guys, and he was gaining on me quick, so i slowed up and pulled aside, and a matt green burly hardtail passed me by. so, i powered up and stuck to his tail the rest of the way down. bombing. then where trail meets road again, i slowed up and let Andrew and then Pete catch up, then it was time to roost the lower section. flew down that starting to gain on matt-green guy again, but then when i got to the road he'd vanished (up to kiwi i found out later as him and his buds rolled out). regrouped at trail end, and a cluster of crosscountry whippets in full racing regalia turned up, then we blasted off down Old Dyers. very nice run down here too, tho, picking carefully through the rutty wet bits which still plague the middle section.
Clambered up through Vic, legs starting to really burn on last climb, to skidder site, and good run down Dazza's, Brents, Flow, Bridges, with Pete following me across the high line and dropping down through the gut, below which we all regrouped again for last blast down valley track. Marie and Pete bailed bottom of Bowenvale. Pete and me onwards round Eastern, the rest over the river and back to Steves. home by 12.30 or so i think.
Sunday morning, usual meeting place with the usual peeps. Tony, Marie, Warren, Andrew, Hubb, Wayno, Pete and me. Steve had had a bad night's sleep, so couldn't join us, but we met at his anyway. rolled round and up rapaki, along with a billion other walkers and riders. pete was on form, especially considering his lack of sleep and un-lack of excesses... felt the burn a bit up the top section. been a while since i last got up there. ran into Angrywad James and friend, both on Tomacs, who both zipped off for a witch Hill there-and-back.
Hit Vernon Single, very packed, teddingtonshit all firm and good. the two muddy spots were coping okay now too. felt pretty good riding up here, seemingly having sufficient balance and power. then cross the road and pause for a regroup. James and friend passing us by here. Then i led off onto the Traverse. excellent bomb round this, absolutely flying with a tail wind pushing me faster and faster. caught up with James and friend at top of Vic. then it was off down Thomsons, another good flight. to kiwi, brief stop and snackage. and on up road to Marleys. From road, looking across harbour, noticed what at first i thought was a lot of smoke, then clicked on the colour, plumes of pine pollen billowing out of the plantation on the point down to Quail Is. made me realise why i've got this weird 'cold' i've got (that i get every year at this time and every year remember that i get it at this time)... i guess now is the time to realise (once again) i'm a mild sufferer of hayfever. just a tickly throat and mild sinus annoyance... or IS it a cold? aannnyway, no biggie.
Marleys... fantastic run down the top section, blasting through all the curves, blazing all the jumps, into the middle rocky section i slowed a tiny bit and heard someone on my tail. a brief check and realised it wasnt any of our guys, and he was gaining on me quick, so i slowed up and pulled aside, and a matt green burly hardtail passed me by. so, i powered up and stuck to his tail the rest of the way down. bombing. then where trail meets road again, i slowed up and let Andrew and then Pete catch up, then it was time to roost the lower section. flew down that starting to gain on matt-green guy again, but then when i got to the road he'd vanished (up to kiwi i found out later as him and his buds rolled out). regrouped at trail end, and a cluster of crosscountry whippets in full racing regalia turned up, then we blasted off down Old Dyers. very nice run down here too, tho, picking carefully through the rutty wet bits which still plague the middle section.
Clambered up through Vic, legs starting to really burn on last climb, to skidder site, and good run down Dazza's, Brents, Flow, Bridges, with Pete following me across the high line and dropping down through the gut, below which we all regrouped again for last blast down valley track. Marie and Pete bailed bottom of Bowenvale. Pete and me onwards round Eastern, the rest over the river and back to Steves. home by 12.30 or so i think.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Week without a ride, then Sunday Tagalong McLeans.
Weather and timing and family all conspired to keep me off any trails for the week.
But, Sunday afternoon, there was pent up energy needing to be expended, so O and me headed with the singlespeed and tagalong out to Mcleans. hit the slightly splecky trail and O loved it - seemingly much prefering it to the old Bottle Ache. we spun round, him in swim goggles to start with (til they fogged up so much he couldnt see), hit the detour out to the river, parked up at the fence/road and walked to the waimak. river majorly shifted its big flow that used to be right there, now just a trickle. wandered back to bike and hit trail again.
Got to the pond (after the 'rockgarden') (which was almost empty - the pond, that is)), and saw the entrance to the new loop. only 5km, so we took it. O really enjoyed it. smooth, with humps. alongside where John and me were getting wood the other week i was getting a tad tired, from lugging the tagalong along the whole way and O was feeling the cold, but once back in the trees and with a bit of encouragement ("You'll be warmer if you push harder!") we rallied and bombed the rest of the way through. O really likes the G-out cornering. he was raving about it in the car on the way home. saying he wished we could go out there more often... thumbs up. Sunday afternoon ride turning me from tired grumpy (lack of riding and lack of sleep) dad to happy appreciated dad...
But, Sunday afternoon, there was pent up energy needing to be expended, so O and me headed with the singlespeed and tagalong out to Mcleans. hit the slightly splecky trail and O loved it - seemingly much prefering it to the old Bottle Ache. we spun round, him in swim goggles to start with (til they fogged up so much he couldnt see), hit the detour out to the river, parked up at the fence/road and walked to the waimak. river majorly shifted its big flow that used to be right there, now just a trickle. wandered back to bike and hit trail again.
Got to the pond (after the 'rockgarden') (which was almost empty - the pond, that is)), and saw the entrance to the new loop. only 5km, so we took it. O really enjoyed it. smooth, with humps. alongside where John and me were getting wood the other week i was getting a tad tired, from lugging the tagalong along the whole way and O was feeling the cold, but once back in the trees and with a bit of encouragement ("You'll be warmer if you push harder!") we rallied and bombed the rest of the way through. O really likes the G-out cornering. he was raving about it in the car on the way home. saying he wished we could go out there more often... thumbs up. Sunday afternoon ride turning me from tired grumpy (lack of riding and lack of sleep) dad to happy appreciated dad...
Monday, August 10, 2009
Friday nite Spring Living, Saturday tagalonging
Friday night, picked up Chris Cove about 7 and drove to nelson's, whereupon Chris realised he'd left his battery at home, so we all went back to his to get it and then took 'scenic' route thru tunnel and round to Living Springs finally arriving about 8. parked on Bamford under the macrocarpas, and headed in, sidling across Skoolz Out round to the steep grunt up gasping for breath to The Pines, climbed up thru this, enjoying the nicely radius'd switchbacks and middle-ring-ability, onto Rhymes with Orange for a quick swoop through and then up to the OCC. grabbed Mississippi down, near the top stumbling across a couple freshly birthed gooey just-stood-up lambs and mum right in the middle of the trail, on with the anchors and we jumped off and carried our bikes around below them giving a wide berth. continued on down the twistiness and then across onto Zanes. excellent fang down here, only one really nasty wetspot near the bottom. fun twisty tight singletrack..
Back onto Skools Out, back up the grunt, back up through the pines, then we thought, there must be more? (cos silly me hadnt printed off the map i'd gotten off Craig and Rebekah...) so we rode the road round to the main complex, not seeing anything obvious, headed back round and headed up a trail that said Summit... took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up sidling up and across the slope above OFarrells following a cow pocked fenceline. Figured we'd turned wrong so went down to O'Farrells and followed it a bit towards Gov's Bay, but decided it was no good either (reminded us of old skool dayz of exploring trails with cow shit and holes everywhere and not knowing where to go...) turned back to OCC down O'Farrells. then down to Mississippi again, avoiding the sheep and lambs again, flowed down it but this time took the bail out before heading on to Zanes, rode back up open slope and into Rhymes and then Pines in the opposite direction to before, down to the Pines' end. Turned around here and back up Pines, Chris and me swapping bikes for the climb back up. To finish, we headed back down Mississippi (avoiding the mother and lambs again), then back down Zanes (where the leaves that are near the middle nearly threw me off) and out to car. we all rode up the road a ways and bombed back down to try to get all the sticky mud we'd just picked up off that wetspot in Zanes off our tires.
DX LED lights still the biz...
home via Dyers, stopped for a couple beers at Nelson's and would have been midnight by time i was home.
Saturday. Me Sis is over from melbourne, so, O, her and me went to bottle lake. took tagalong and singlespeed, and also O's own bike. rode first a short way into the first section with O riding his own bike. then back out and grabbed the tagalong and did an internal loop. was fun.
Back onto Skools Out, back up the grunt, back up through the pines, then we thought, there must be more? (cos silly me hadnt printed off the map i'd gotten off Craig and Rebekah...) so we rode the road round to the main complex, not seeing anything obvious, headed back round and headed up a trail that said Summit... took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up sidling up and across the slope above OFarrells following a cow pocked fenceline. Figured we'd turned wrong so went down to O'Farrells and followed it a bit towards Gov's Bay, but decided it was no good either (reminded us of old skool dayz of exploring trails with cow shit and holes everywhere and not knowing where to go...) turned back to OCC down O'Farrells. then down to Mississippi again, avoiding the sheep and lambs again, flowed down it but this time took the bail out before heading on to Zanes, rode back up open slope and into Rhymes and then Pines in the opposite direction to before, down to the Pines' end. Turned around here and back up Pines, Chris and me swapping bikes for the climb back up. To finish, we headed back down Mississippi (avoiding the mother and lambs again), then back down Zanes (where the leaves that are near the middle nearly threw me off) and out to car. we all rode up the road a ways and bombed back down to try to get all the sticky mud we'd just picked up off that wetspot in Zanes off our tires.
DX LED lights still the biz...
home via Dyers, stopped for a couple beers at Nelson's and would have been midnight by time i was home.
Saturday. Me Sis is over from melbourne, so, O, her and me went to bottle lake. took tagalong and singlespeed, and also O's own bike. rode first a short way into the first section with O riding his own bike. then back out and grabbed the tagalong and did an internal loop. was fun.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Chooseday Night Posse. Dyers Nun Gov's Nun Dyers
i picked up Nelson about 6 and we drove up to find a massive group assembled at Takahe. lemme see if i can remember - there was 11: Steve, Andrew, Tony, Wayne, Hubby, Rex, Steve(abba), Mark, Marie, and nelson and myself, yeah, thats 11. Discussion ensued as to whether H.Ell track was a go, with some of us thinking not, on account of it being a nice night and earlyish and therefore potential for runner conflict. so, we headed off up Vic Park Rd.
At the carpark below the visitor centre Steve decided they'd go up H.Ell from where it crosses just up the road, whereas Nelson and me decided to blat down to Old Dyers and tootle up there. i was surprised to find we were joined by Hubby, Andrew, Steve(abba) and Rex. all had a good spin up, making good time, gradually spacing out, me leading up the first singletrack bit, nelson tight on my tail. i let him pass where the trail headed down a bit, cos i could barely breathe. trail was good, one or two bits still wet, but nothing sloppy. i chased after him up the last climb, and he was probably 20 metres from the end when we saw a couple of lights ride under the Kiwi (STeve and Tony).
Got up to summit road (by kiwi) and waited for the stragglers. Wayne and the others turned up from Hell (steve and Tony had gone on up road). once we were all together again, off we went up the road for Marleys, catching Steve and tony eventually just near the top. more discussion of options, i led off downhill. blazing. funtastical wonderland, tail wind pushing airborne jumps railing corners, flying. beautiful run down, and popped up onto road at saddle to regroup. Nels and me tried to talk anyone into doing a quick lap of Gov's bay trails, to no avail, so...
Him and me headed over onto the Gov's Bay trail (which we hadnt ridden since before all the wet). Awesome descent down that, with only one rut worth mentioning, and only veery slight greasiness in a couple of spots. seemed to go on and on, down and down, chock full of awesomeness.
then the climb up and out. grunty little bastard that it is, back up onto the road, and climbing yet again, we saw the other's lights up on the 4wd bit of Marleys while we were below on the summit road being overtook by a van-load and a car-full of girrrlz... got to the top of Flying nun to find the others all still in residence, apparently waiting for Mark and Marie who'd vanished...(musta buggered off home early).
another good blast down flying nun, me close on the tail of Nelson, blazing all the way down to the kiwi. all in all, felt really good, riding well, feeling totally on top of my game right now. (i wonder if that "edge" is quietly approaching, the one that sneaks up on you when your riding is getting betterer and betterer, fasterer and fasterer, til WHAM, over you go, crashing and burning. - fingers crossed i'm just becoming a better rider, yeah?). anywho. we all reassembled at kiwi, (nelson noticing here that his fork had been locked out for the descent!)
Splintering again, the others headed down Hell (strangely enjoying a groomed wheelchair track over a gnarley twisty tight narrow singletrack), while nelson and me opted for Old Dyers. another nice bomb down here, me leading and having a blast. once again we spotted the other's spots from below whilst they were negotiating the steps. hit lower Hell and blazed down to Takahe, with more and more spots of rain. downpour beginning as we loaded the car.
At the carpark below the visitor centre Steve decided they'd go up H.Ell from where it crosses just up the road, whereas Nelson and me decided to blat down to Old Dyers and tootle up there. i was surprised to find we were joined by Hubby, Andrew, Steve(abba) and Rex. all had a good spin up, making good time, gradually spacing out, me leading up the first singletrack bit, nelson tight on my tail. i let him pass where the trail headed down a bit, cos i could barely breathe. trail was good, one or two bits still wet, but nothing sloppy. i chased after him up the last climb, and he was probably 20 metres from the end when we saw a couple of lights ride under the Kiwi (STeve and Tony).
Got up to summit road (by kiwi) and waited for the stragglers. Wayne and the others turned up from Hell (steve and Tony had gone on up road). once we were all together again, off we went up the road for Marleys, catching Steve and tony eventually just near the top. more discussion of options, i led off downhill. blazing. funtastical wonderland, tail wind pushing airborne jumps railing corners, flying. beautiful run down, and popped up onto road at saddle to regroup. Nels and me tried to talk anyone into doing a quick lap of Gov's bay trails, to no avail, so...
Him and me headed over onto the Gov's Bay trail (which we hadnt ridden since before all the wet). Awesome descent down that, with only one rut worth mentioning, and only veery slight greasiness in a couple of spots. seemed to go on and on, down and down, chock full of awesomeness.
then the climb up and out. grunty little bastard that it is, back up onto the road, and climbing yet again, we saw the other's lights up on the 4wd bit of Marleys while we were below on the summit road being overtook by a van-load and a car-full of girrrlz... got to the top of Flying nun to find the others all still in residence, apparently waiting for Mark and Marie who'd vanished...(musta buggered off home early).
another good blast down flying nun, me close on the tail of Nelson, blazing all the way down to the kiwi. all in all, felt really good, riding well, feeling totally on top of my game right now. (i wonder if that "edge" is quietly approaching, the one that sneaks up on you when your riding is getting betterer and betterer, fasterer and fasterer, til WHAM, over you go, crashing and burning. - fingers crossed i'm just becoming a better rider, yeah?). anywho. we all reassembled at kiwi, (nelson noticing here that his fork had been locked out for the descent!)
Splintering again, the others headed down Hell (strangely enjoying a groomed wheelchair track over a gnarley twisty tight narrow singletrack), while nelson and me opted for Old Dyers. another nice bomb down here, me leading and having a blast. once again we spotted the other's spots from below whilst they were negotiating the steps. hit lower Hell and blazed down to Takahe, with more and more spots of rain. downpour beginning as we loaded the car.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday Long(ish) fast(ish) Late Night blat
T had yoga so i couldnt get out the door til after 7.30. droved to Nelson's and there met a new rider (to us), Chris, on a Cove Stiffee.
got going about 8.15, rode usual routes at a good clip across to bottom of Rapaki. kept a really good pace and rolled, 3 abreast all the way up, til the last bit where i started flagging and Nelson started burning. reassembled at top and hit Witch Hill, me at the back, all of us blowing one or two lumpy bits, but having a pretty good run too. then, up the road to Castlerock.
I led off down here and kept a really good pace, having a blast, flying over all the rocks and hammering down the trail. trail in really good nick, with no mud, and barely any sign of even soft soil. regrouped at top of bridle path and hit the road.
round and up to John Britten, singletrack nice, me at the back. i got caught up in the ruts once over through the trees, balance seemed all outta whack. quick blitz down road to Greenwood.
hoofed onto the singletrack, and we blazed round the top section and regrouped just before the ruins. sat and admired the view and had a snack. then the descent began. Nelson leading, me 2nd and Chris behind. good pace, tho i tended to follow nelson a bit closely and therefore was reacting a bit randomly to the rocks the trail was throwing at me. we had an excellent descent. nelson had one weird point just after gloomy-gulch, nearly toppling. my backache kicked in at its usual place, around there. excellent blast down through the switchbacks and over the jump and round to the stream, then i was chasing nelson down the straight and both of us were bailed up by the narrowish rocky uppy bit. 'sgotten pretty bare in there. then a sweet flow down and round to the end. Chris enjoying the whole blast too.
aannnd, onto the Captain. Chris's first time down here. still damp where nels and me did some digging a couple weeks back, but the rest was good. blew my most recent nemesis, whereas nelson and chris both cleaned it. but i cleaned the lower two ex-nemesises nicely, the first of which caught Chris out a little. rest of the blast was sweeet. then we had a nice long but fast haul back to nelsies, via some parks and backstreets... back to his around 11, a beer, then i gave chris a lift home via takeouts on way, so i was home for the midnight news... coupled with small person waking at 5.30, tired today.
got going about 8.15, rode usual routes at a good clip across to bottom of Rapaki. kept a really good pace and rolled, 3 abreast all the way up, til the last bit where i started flagging and Nelson started burning. reassembled at top and hit Witch Hill, me at the back, all of us blowing one or two lumpy bits, but having a pretty good run too. then, up the road to Castlerock.
I led off down here and kept a really good pace, having a blast, flying over all the rocks and hammering down the trail. trail in really good nick, with no mud, and barely any sign of even soft soil. regrouped at top of bridle path and hit the road.
round and up to John Britten, singletrack nice, me at the back. i got caught up in the ruts once over through the trees, balance seemed all outta whack. quick blitz down road to Greenwood.
hoofed onto the singletrack, and we blazed round the top section and regrouped just before the ruins. sat and admired the view and had a snack. then the descent began. Nelson leading, me 2nd and Chris behind. good pace, tho i tended to follow nelson a bit closely and therefore was reacting a bit randomly to the rocks the trail was throwing at me. we had an excellent descent. nelson had one weird point just after gloomy-gulch, nearly toppling. my backache kicked in at its usual place, around there. excellent blast down through the switchbacks and over the jump and round to the stream, then i was chasing nelson down the straight and both of us were bailed up by the narrowish rocky uppy bit. 'sgotten pretty bare in there. then a sweet flow down and round to the end. Chris enjoying the whole blast too.
aannnd, onto the Captain. Chris's first time down here. still damp where nels and me did some digging a couple weeks back, but the rest was good. blew my most recent nemesis, whereas nelson and chris both cleaned it. but i cleaned the lower two ex-nemesises nicely, the first of which caught Chris out a little. rest of the blast was sweeet. then we had a nice long but fast haul back to nelsies, via some parks and backstreets... back to his around 11, a beer, then i gave chris a lift home via takeouts on way, so i was home for the midnight news... coupled with small person waking at 5.30, tired today.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, Monday, Tuesday. Denniston and Hanmer
Family holiday away got me into the wilds of the west coast. allowed one opportunity to explore, saturday (25th) morning we drove up onto the Denniston plateau. It was a crisp frosty clear blueskied west coast morning. the museum was closed, but T said go for it anyway. i had chosen to do the Drill Track because it appeared to be short yet interesting enough, so off i treadled.
lots of ice around, with many of the techy descents made moreso by frozen streamwater glazing the rocks. trail was fun, climbs good and descents fun. singletrack bits were cool, and the landscape was super cool. got down to a bridge where Miner's Track peeled left, and started down it, but then decided to go for the Drill track instead. cruised up that and really enjoyed all the climbs and the descents were good too. less ice on that section. got to marker 4.3 and made a biiig mistake. because i'd left Drill Track map in the car, i had in my head that it was a little longer than i thought, so i turned right, when i should have turned left. Ended up riding Cedar Creek Road for about 5 kms til i got to a sign that said "No Admittance - Closed Area" and was a bit confused. txtd T and turned back, thinking all the way back that i'd missed a turn off, but not seeing it got all the way back and realised my mistake. so, last descent down to a bridge and there's our car, (thankfully T and the boys had driven down to Burnetts Face to meet me). so, what would have only been about a 40 minute ride had turned into 2 hours...
Next stop was Hanmer. more sun filled days, i got out Monday (27th) afternoon. left the bach we were staying at and headed up to Flax trail, cruised it through to where i climbed up and caught the lower C-Line, down to a muddy rutty Majuba. across to Timberlands, and up to Jolliffe saddle, where i climbed onto Red Rocks, enjoying it down into a mucky newly cleared bit (was being logged last time i was up) and out onto Pawsons, down to Camp Track, and then out onto the road to head for Threshold. through the Road Closed sign and up up up. hit Threshold, enjoyed the little blurb written at beginning, then struggled up the climb, granny all the way, it beat me and i walked maybe 10 metres... on past the lower entrance, and on up to top. looks like people have been riding down to there, but i didnt explore cos the sun was getting really low in the sky.
Threshold downhill, niiiiiice. weavy cruisy steep corners and flowy groovy singletrack through dark forest. sun set behind the peaks while i was descending. went on for ages. one corner beat me, and i nearly toppled when i bailed at the top of it. cleaned all the rest. contemplated riding back up and taking just the low line but decided i was pretty beat, so headed down. into a little single track i spotted off the road which took me into the back of the Forest Camp, where i found another track and rode up it (normally a downhill), then i grabbed Mack 1 up through, nice trail, onto McIntyre Rd, rode up that to bottom of Detox, but crossed Dog Stream and bombed down to Jolliffe Saddle Rd again, up to the saddle and down Timberlands and back through into town.
Next day, took O for a ride, him on his bike, through some of the flat forest trails. was fun, but not enough, so took off on another hilly ride, up Chatterton's Valley up the new (-to me) Link Track, down the Tank track (nice new top corners off Pawsons) and then down (for the first time in that direction) Flax trail. all good.
lots of ice around, with many of the techy descents made moreso by frozen streamwater glazing the rocks. trail was fun, climbs good and descents fun. singletrack bits were cool, and the landscape was super cool. got down to a bridge where Miner's Track peeled left, and started down it, but then decided to go for the Drill track instead. cruised up that and really enjoyed all the climbs and the descents were good too. less ice on that section. got to marker 4.3 and made a biiig mistake. because i'd left Drill Track map in the car, i had in my head that it was a little longer than i thought, so i turned right, when i should have turned left. Ended up riding Cedar Creek Road for about 5 kms til i got to a sign that said "No Admittance - Closed Area" and was a bit confused. txtd T and turned back, thinking all the way back that i'd missed a turn off, but not seeing it got all the way back and realised my mistake. so, last descent down to a bridge and there's our car, (thankfully T and the boys had driven down to Burnetts Face to meet me). so, what would have only been about a 40 minute ride had turned into 2 hours...
Next stop was Hanmer. more sun filled days, i got out Monday (27th) afternoon. left the bach we were staying at and headed up to Flax trail, cruised it through to where i climbed up and caught the lower C-Line, down to a muddy rutty Majuba. across to Timberlands, and up to Jolliffe saddle, where i climbed onto Red Rocks, enjoying it down into a mucky newly cleared bit (was being logged last time i was up) and out onto Pawsons, down to Camp Track, and then out onto the road to head for Threshold. through the Road Closed sign and up up up. hit Threshold, enjoyed the little blurb written at beginning, then struggled up the climb, granny all the way, it beat me and i walked maybe 10 metres... on past the lower entrance, and on up to top. looks like people have been riding down to there, but i didnt explore cos the sun was getting really low in the sky.
Threshold downhill, niiiiiice. weavy cruisy steep corners and flowy groovy singletrack through dark forest. sun set behind the peaks while i was descending. went on for ages. one corner beat me, and i nearly toppled when i bailed at the top of it. cleaned all the rest. contemplated riding back up and taking just the low line but decided i was pretty beat, so headed down. into a little single track i spotted off the road which took me into the back of the Forest Camp, where i found another track and rode up it (normally a downhill), then i grabbed Mack 1 up through, nice trail, onto McIntyre Rd, rode up that to bottom of Detox, but crossed Dog Stream and bombed down to Jolliffe Saddle Rd again, up to the saddle and down Timberlands and back through into town.
Next day, took O for a ride, him on his bike, through some of the flat forest trails. was fun, but not enough, so took off on another hilly ride, up Chatterton's Valley up the new (-to me) Link Track, down the Tank track (nice new top corners off Pawsons) and then down (for the first time in that direction) Flax trail. all good.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
2sdy Night, New Lights Test, Captain windy Godley Conda
Our DX LED's arrived monday, so lastnight's ride was the test run... plonked the singlespeed on the car and headed to nelson's. In Nelson's drive way, comparisons with the oldskool 35W IRC halogens were made. they looked as bright, if not brighter, tho, different cos they're a purer white vs the orangey warmth of the halogen... and, yay yay yay, no more heavy brick in back pack, instead, tidy little battery attached to back of helmet.
bundled nelson's bike on the rack and we headed for Scumner. now, earlier in the day the ccc web had said closed, but the update had been the 17th, and we'd not had any rain since way before that so we figured trails would be okay... and lo and behold, we were vindicated as this morning, the update (done yesterday) said OPEN to all the trails... anyway, thought i should get that out of the way right at the start... :)
So, tackled Captain Thomas. Sections were still very greasy, but better than last time i'd gone up there. we stopped a couple of times with the spade, assisting drainage. Nelson put heaps of work in up on the section above the road corner (south facing slope, always full of water), and after that the last bit to Evans was sweet riding. Lights working a treat and plenty to see by for climbing on the low setting.
Next step - Godley. All the first section was great (tho, lots of dabbing and some walking - on account of the wind and my 38:18 gear) til the bit that's always wet, some of which has had the armouring treatment, which is fantastic(!), seeing water below and surrounding the rocks you're riding over, awesome. the wind (norwest) was a blustery surreal and buffetting beast all along this section and when the trail started down and flowy (after the first boardwalk) it powered us along like we had motors, and literally blew us up the hill across the open top as we rounded into the Taylors catchment. wicked. (had turned the lights on high for that bit)
Then across the troublesome boggy plateau... staying on the track was made extremely difficult by the wind (ruts and gusty side winds dont mix), and the choice between making a rut deeper or dodging tussocks was made for us. over the second boardwalk and nearly blown off, over the 3rd boardwalk and nearly blown off, avoid the major wetness through there then onto the teddingtonshit section. mostly settled, but the flatter sections slightly waterlogged. then the tailwind blast down to Livingstone Col. what. a. blast. lights all the while lighting the way fantastically.
We decided the southerly that was due might roll in, and from memory the last bit to Breeze Col was likely to be diabolical, so we hit the road round to the 'conda... i led off, and it was a blast. some of the earlier section needs a little work, with one nasty mudsoaked rut grabbing nelson's wheel and stopping him. then onto the 'conda proper. nice tail wind blasting us over the jumps catching good air, and into the lower section... ugh. one super soggy rut grabbed me and nearly had me off, i expected more below, but the surface was at worst tacky the rest of the way down. then into a head wind along the 'tail but a good blat nonetheless. the Taylors paddock at the bottom was the wettest i'd ever seen it, puddles reflecting the houselights while we were still on the 'conda's tail...
The singlespeed grunt out of taylors is always a challenge, but cleaned it all, mainly due to the wind grabbing me and pushing me up to and round the last of the steep corners. good blat down through nicholson, and as we rode across the waterfront the southerly was in effect.
New 900 lumen LED light powered by tiny lithium battery pack with 3 hours burntime on full, 15 hours on low, for US$80... seriously thumbs up.
bundled nelson's bike on the rack and we headed for Scumner. now, earlier in the day the ccc web had said closed, but the update had been the 17th, and we'd not had any rain since way before that so we figured trails would be okay... and lo and behold, we were vindicated as this morning, the update (done yesterday) said OPEN to all the trails... anyway, thought i should get that out of the way right at the start... :)
So, tackled Captain Thomas. Sections were still very greasy, but better than last time i'd gone up there. we stopped a couple of times with the spade, assisting drainage. Nelson put heaps of work in up on the section above the road corner (south facing slope, always full of water), and after that the last bit to Evans was sweet riding. Lights working a treat and plenty to see by for climbing on the low setting.
Next step - Godley. All the first section was great (tho, lots of dabbing and some walking - on account of the wind and my 38:18 gear) til the bit that's always wet, some of which has had the armouring treatment, which is fantastic(!), seeing water below and surrounding the rocks you're riding over, awesome. the wind (norwest) was a blustery surreal and buffetting beast all along this section and when the trail started down and flowy (after the first boardwalk) it powered us along like we had motors, and literally blew us up the hill across the open top as we rounded into the Taylors catchment. wicked. (had turned the lights on high for that bit)
Then across the troublesome boggy plateau... staying on the track was made extremely difficult by the wind (ruts and gusty side winds dont mix), and the choice between making a rut deeper or dodging tussocks was made for us. over the second boardwalk and nearly blown off, over the 3rd boardwalk and nearly blown off, avoid the major wetness through there then onto the teddingtonshit section. mostly settled, but the flatter sections slightly waterlogged. then the tailwind blast down to Livingstone Col. what. a. blast. lights all the while lighting the way fantastically.
We decided the southerly that was due might roll in, and from memory the last bit to Breeze Col was likely to be diabolical, so we hit the road round to the 'conda... i led off, and it was a blast. some of the earlier section needs a little work, with one nasty mudsoaked rut grabbing nelson's wheel and stopping him. then onto the 'conda proper. nice tail wind blasting us over the jumps catching good air, and into the lower section... ugh. one super soggy rut grabbed me and nearly had me off, i expected more below, but the surface was at worst tacky the rest of the way down. then into a head wind along the 'tail but a good blat nonetheless. the Taylors paddock at the bottom was the wettest i'd ever seen it, puddles reflecting the houselights while we were still on the 'conda's tail...
The singlespeed grunt out of taylors is always a challenge, but cleaned it all, mainly due to the wind grabbing me and pushing me up to and round the last of the steep corners. good blat down through nicholson, and as we rode across the waterfront the southerly was in effect.
New 900 lumen LED light powered by tiny lithium battery pack with 3 hours burntime on full, 15 hours on low, for US$80... seriously thumbs up.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday funday in the sun day, Huntraverse Thomson Marl-Wors-ley
met at steves at 9, pete, hub, andrew, wazza, waynus, weirdlittle tony and steve, and me, obviously.
cruised round the park and headed up muntsbury, via aotea. nice climb, with a creak creak creak slowly building in my bottombracket regions. anyway. goodly climb up with a bit of a cool breeze coming off the south. made the top and hit the traverse. excellent bomb round here, everybody enjoying the open and dry track. we all love the two new(ish) berms near the end, allowing far more speed through a section that used to cause a little trouble...
then Thomsons, kiwi, up road up up up, and onto marleys. bit of permafrost up the top, then onto the descent. excellent flow down, peeling it and popping air every chance we got. rejoined the road and Andy and Hubby bailed into Vic Park, the rest of us tootled back up the hill to top of Worsleys.
Fun bomb down here, trail dry enough to get some good speed, picking carefully through a couple muddy bits. then into the lowers below bodybag, me riding all the skinnies above the ruts, others choosing (or not choosing) the ruts. one off, where i had no where to go and the ground wasnt there when i put my foot out, didnt hit anything tho, then on down. lower bit below and between the pylons was prbably the most dug up by 4wd's, mucky but still fun, and shadey bits reeaal slick. at the bottom of the dirt we regrouped and i was surprised to see how mucky they all were compared to me...
hurtled down the road, round the river to St Martins, for a coffee stop, where we re-met Andy and Hubster.
Awesome day for a ride, and mint to finally be on open trails again.
cruised round the park and headed up muntsbury, via aotea. nice climb, with a creak creak creak slowly building in my bottombracket regions. anyway. goodly climb up with a bit of a cool breeze coming off the south. made the top and hit the traverse. excellent bomb round here, everybody enjoying the open and dry track. we all love the two new(ish) berms near the end, allowing far more speed through a section that used to cause a little trouble...
then Thomsons, kiwi, up road up up up, and onto marleys. bit of permafrost up the top, then onto the descent. excellent flow down, peeling it and popping air every chance we got. rejoined the road and Andy and Hubby bailed into Vic Park, the rest of us tootled back up the hill to top of Worsleys.
Fun bomb down here, trail dry enough to get some good speed, picking carefully through a couple muddy bits. then into the lowers below bodybag, me riding all the skinnies above the ruts, others choosing (or not choosing) the ruts. one off, where i had no where to go and the ground wasnt there when i put my foot out, didnt hit anything tho, then on down. lower bit below and between the pylons was prbably the most dug up by 4wd's, mucky but still fun, and shadey bits reeaal slick. at the bottom of the dirt we regrouped and i was surprised to see how mucky they all were compared to me...
hurtled down the road, round the river to St Martins, for a coffee stop, where we re-met Andy and Hubster.
Awesome day for a ride, and mint to finally be on open trails again.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mondaynightitis. Horsey Travis Bottlo ignoration.
Only opportunity for riding for me this week was last night, so- Nelson (after a false start and ditching the single for the geared) beginning a very long ride for him, treadled over to mine and off we set, me on the single.
Headed round and hit Banks Ave singlebits, then Burwood Park into Horseshoe Lake. Took trail all way through (bit bloody mucky in the middle), with all the boardwalk kinda almost 'shorey fun. Nelson had a disagreement with a tree and ended up in the bushes, losing a light in the process (which he didnt realise til later). We exited onto New Brighton Rd, crossed over and hit the single along the river to Bassett St and headed up to Travis.
I'd never ridden through here, so we blithely ignored the "No Bikes Please" (viewing it more as a request, not an order (figuring at night, fully lit, no prob, right?)) we rode the (very sturdy well made and nicely boardwalked) track through to Tumara Park then explored our way through this slobdivision to the edge of Bottle Lake.
Found our way onto the southern circuit and fanged it through to the hilltop gazebo. short break there, headed back down the hill, then along side of the landfill (stinky! last night) to the inside loop. not far into that came upon some 'Logging, no access' signage, which we ignored and continued in. one of our favourite sections of trail now destroyed, we rode along side it til we could get back onto the usual trail, which is a fucking mess all Teddington-shitted and soggy mucky stupid mess, which slowly improved and on we went. Mostly good riding from here through. Open areas just starting to frost, on through, the bermy corners fast and having lots of traction.
Made our way out to Waitikiri carpark and headed back down Burwood Rd, Lakewood Drive and back into Horseshoe lake to find Nelson's light, which was still on, pointing down right where he crashed. continued on through thinking there'd be an exit into the burbs, only to get most of the way through and finding our way out to Jean Batten Pl, mildly disoriented, so spotted the southern cross and worked out which way to go down Liggins St, explored a wrong turn into Tasman Pl trying to get back into Horseshoe across to the park, which we found through Moncrieff Pl. Back through Burwood Park, Ajax and Archilles, hung a right on Bank's singles and home. Nelson carrying on. i was in the door at 9.25pm or so.
Hummdinger of a frost this morning...
Headed round and hit Banks Ave singlebits, then Burwood Park into Horseshoe Lake. Took trail all way through (bit bloody mucky in the middle), with all the boardwalk kinda almost 'shorey fun. Nelson had a disagreement with a tree and ended up in the bushes, losing a light in the process (which he didnt realise til later). We exited onto New Brighton Rd, crossed over and hit the single along the river to Bassett St and headed up to Travis.
I'd never ridden through here, so we blithely ignored the "No Bikes Please" (viewing it more as a request, not an order (figuring at night, fully lit, no prob, right?)) we rode the (very sturdy well made and nicely boardwalked) track through to Tumara Park then explored our way through this slobdivision to the edge of Bottle Lake.
Found our way onto the southern circuit and fanged it through to the hilltop gazebo. short break there, headed back down the hill, then along side of the landfill (stinky! last night) to the inside loop. not far into that came upon some 'Logging, no access' signage, which we ignored and continued in. one of our favourite sections of trail now destroyed, we rode along side it til we could get back onto the usual trail, which is a fucking mess all Teddington-shitted and soggy mucky stupid mess, which slowly improved and on we went. Mostly good riding from here through. Open areas just starting to frost, on through, the bermy corners fast and having lots of traction.
Made our way out to Waitikiri carpark and headed back down Burwood Rd, Lakewood Drive and back into Horseshoe lake to find Nelson's light, which was still on, pointing down right where he crashed. continued on through thinking there'd be an exit into the burbs, only to get most of the way through and finding our way out to Jean Batten Pl, mildly disoriented, so spotted the southern cross and worked out which way to go down Liggins St, explored a wrong turn into Tasman Pl trying to get back into Horseshoe across to the park, which we found through Moncrieff Pl. Back through Burwood Park, Ajax and Archilles, hung a right on Bank's singles and home. Nelson carrying on. i was in the door at 9.25pm or so.
Hummdinger of a frost this morning...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday Single-hill-speed
FIIINALLY hit up the hills. Saturday morning i set to the singlespeed, throwing on a new wheel (SS specific (disc only) i changed its 16t for my 18t) and new rear brake (cheep ass cable disc), scored off a couple of vorbii
O and T were off at a concert and so GG came over to look after H and i hit the road almost dead on 2. spun across town to Rapaki, and so began the grunt. Ugh, it'd be along time, and i was wishing i'd put on my 34t front ring instead of rocking the 38:18, but, struggled away and made pretty good time. got off and walked a couple of times, once by the Manuka, once half way up the upper straight, and once on the corner just after that.
Track Closed signs were up for Vernon (but people were still heading up it!), so i took the road round to the Traverse. no 'track closed' sign there (and i'd neglected to check the web) and talked to a guy who'd just come off it, who said it wasnt bad (and he wasnt absolutely spattered in mud, so i hit it and headed round. Trail was in good knick. the usual odd wet spot. Bombed it good, really enjoying the singlespeed ride, round to the Sugar Loaf restspot. chatted with some folk there (guy on a Rocky Hammer (STEEL IS REAL, Bro)) and then i headed back.
Temporary blindness made me miss the Track Closed sign at start of Vernon, and headed over the first bit. Trail was fine, besides the two wet spots up top. interestingness over the rocky sections up top, then good flow down to Farm Track (where there were two !motorcycles! up above the road (almost on the bike track!)). i continued on down (thinking i might head for top of Rapaki) but got to the first wet section, walked around it, saw the next bit and turned back up to Farm Track.
Hurtled down Farm Track, putting my new (to me) discs to good use... good flight down here, but fork needs attention.
Spun back home (via the Grape Escape for a couple of Green King IPA's). 2 hours all up. yesterday, my upper body was feeling the ride. must get up the hill on the single more often, its a bloody good workout.
O and T were off at a concert and so GG came over to look after H and i hit the road almost dead on 2. spun across town to Rapaki, and so began the grunt. Ugh, it'd be along time, and i was wishing i'd put on my 34t front ring instead of rocking the 38:18, but, struggled away and made pretty good time. got off and walked a couple of times, once by the Manuka, once half way up the upper straight, and once on the corner just after that.
Track Closed signs were up for Vernon (but people were still heading up it!), so i took the road round to the Traverse. no 'track closed' sign there (and i'd neglected to check the web) and talked to a guy who'd just come off it, who said it wasnt bad (and he wasnt absolutely spattered in mud, so i hit it and headed round. Trail was in good knick. the usual odd wet spot. Bombed it good, really enjoying the singlespeed ride, round to the Sugar Loaf restspot. chatted with some folk there (guy on a Rocky Hammer (STEEL IS REAL, Bro)) and then i headed back.
Temporary blindness made me miss the Track Closed sign at start of Vernon, and headed over the first bit. Trail was fine, besides the two wet spots up top. interestingness over the rocky sections up top, then good flow down to Farm Track (where there were two !motorcycles! up above the road (almost on the bike track!)). i continued on down (thinking i might head for top of Rapaki) but got to the first wet section, walked around it, saw the next bit and turned back up to Farm Track.
Hurtled down Farm Track, putting my new (to me) discs to good use... good flight down here, but fork needs attention.
Spun back home (via the Grape Escape for a couple of Green King IPA's). 2 hours all up. yesterday, my upper body was feeling the ride. must get up the hill on the single more often, its a bloody good workout.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Tuesday full moon urbanism
aaarrrggghhh... how long since tires schluffed dirt? neeeeeed singletrack...
weekend resulted in no riding... took O to a kids BMX thing out at Hornby which was groovy for him and made ME want a sweet little trick 24inch bmx cruiser.
and yesterday, went out to Cowles Stadium and had a go on a bunch of weird and wonderful machines at Bikes4Fun (also as part of KidsFest), even having my first ever go on a P-Far. freakiness and harder than i thought it would be.
then, last night, krewzd to Petes, where met with Andrew Hubby Steve Steve Warren and we proceeded to repeat last thursday's ride, only tacking on south hagley park, a slightly different route back through town, and all of us ending up at Pomeroys for a couple pints... (this time, Tuatara Hefe and then an 3boys Oystah stout.
weekend resulted in no riding... took O to a kids BMX thing out at Hornby which was groovy for him and made ME want a sweet little trick 24inch bmx cruiser.
and yesterday, went out to Cowles Stadium and had a go on a bunch of weird and wonderful machines at Bikes4Fun (also as part of KidsFest), even having my first ever go on a P-Far. freakiness and harder than i thought it would be.
then, last night, krewzd to Petes, where met with Andrew Hubby Steve Steve Warren and we proceeded to repeat last thursday's ride, only tacking on south hagley park, a slightly different route back through town, and all of us ending up at Pomeroys for a couple pints... (this time, Tuatara Hefe and then an 3boys Oystah stout.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Thursday Urbanity
Grovelly weather and saturated trails kept us off the hills, and even off Bottle Lake... So, i jumped on the Globe and trundled to Petes, where Steve (on his Earth Cruiser), Rex, and Mark (on the Healing Tenspeed Tandem (on his own)) showed up too.
Pedalled the streets - round Avonside to Swanns bridge round River Rd to Fitz along cycle way to Cambridge round past cemetery brief encounter with Barbadoes then continuing along down the poplars and on round crossing river and Colombo into Vic Sq then along past courts and belgian beer bar on along to Worcester down to Museum hung a right and then into North Hagley diagonally towards Harper followed along side that round to Riccarton Roundabout althewhile in the park to hospital to Bridge of Remembrance down Cashel where Steve peeled off the rest of us jaunting to Pomeroys for a coupla pints - i had an Emerson's Hoppy Porter (YUM) and a 3Boys Oyster Stout (also YUM).
Some Fixsters were in residence there, 3 brakeless.
rain had just started as we headed home, and 10 minutes after i got in the gale and downpour began... lucky we didnt have that 3rd pint, and the fashion fixies will have had wet arses on their way home, rubbing brakeless (a la bsnyc...)
Pedalled the streets - round Avonside to Swanns bridge round River Rd to Fitz along cycle way to Cambridge round past cemetery brief encounter with Barbadoes then continuing along down the poplars and on round crossing river and Colombo into Vic Sq then along past courts and belgian beer bar on along to Worcester down to Museum hung a right and then into North Hagley diagonally towards Harper followed along side that round to Riccarton Roundabout althewhile in the park to hospital to Bridge of Remembrance down Cashel where Steve peeled off the rest of us jaunting to Pomeroys for a coupla pints - i had an Emerson's Hoppy Porter (YUM) and a 3Boys Oyster Stout (also YUM).
Some Fixsters were in residence there, 3 brakeless.
rain had just started as we headed home, and 10 minutes after i got in the gale and downpour began... lucky we didnt have that 3rd pint, and the fashion fixies will have had wet arses on their way home, rubbing brakeless (a la bsnyc...)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday: greasy Thomas, mucky Godley.
trundled thru a cold and frosty morning to Steve's for a lift. him, tony and me shuttled out to Scumner in the TFC Van... tony w/ his hardtail due to a flat on his susser. outside DotCom met up with Waynus, Steve(abba), Hubbster, and Mark and Marie on the (well dodgey) tandem. (pete was crook and Andrew was off to the Home(OH!) show.)
squelched up Captain Thomas. wasnt too bad, but it was too in parts. the worst part by far due to a horse living on it, rather than bikes... issues with the tandem slowed Mark and Marie's progress. At the top, we bailed out the old route, rather than facing the dredge it would be on the south facing section before rounding up to Evans.
At Evans, tandem rear wheel got a tickle, and all but them hit Godley. as usual, blew the early rocks, but after that i had a really good run. cleaned heaps, if not all. some recent work was in evidence further around, but man the trail was a mess. even tho it was Open, we felt we probably shouldnt have been on it, but continued to ride anyway. good run through, tandemriders avoiding the earlier rockies and joining us up on the flatter tops, then the descent to Livingston Col, the first section to and between the boardwalked bits rather untidy. the teddington shitted stuff not bad, but soggy and splecky in places, and the final run down cautious, but with some speed. tandemmers back to road, the rest of us headed up and over to breeze. good cleaning ride through for me, and on the way down to breeze my cassette came loose, and was a mudbath at the bottom around the cattlestop.
tightened up the cassette and bombed onto the 'conda. tandeems and abba had headed off earlier. i caught them and pulled up thinking i'd let them get ahead, then hubb underpassed me and caught them, so i headed down after. he got past them then i managed to (when they pulled over for me the ended up in a wheelshaped ditch!), and so all of my run down anaconda was sweet. bombed out the tail, slowly gaining on hubby. one VERY close call in the tail above the baches, nearly lost a wheel over a rocky edge, but held on and got through.
climb out of Taylors, i pushed hard cos i felt like i needed it and got up first. felt bad and good. then nice cruise down nicholson and round waterfront to coffee and hospitality at the 'Com.
squelched up Captain Thomas. wasnt too bad, but it was too in parts. the worst part by far due to a horse living on it, rather than bikes... issues with the tandem slowed Mark and Marie's progress. At the top, we bailed out the old route, rather than facing the dredge it would be on the south facing section before rounding up to Evans.
At Evans, tandem rear wheel got a tickle, and all but them hit Godley. as usual, blew the early rocks, but after that i had a really good run. cleaned heaps, if not all. some recent work was in evidence further around, but man the trail was a mess. even tho it was Open, we felt we probably shouldnt have been on it, but continued to ride anyway. good run through, tandemriders avoiding the earlier rockies and joining us up on the flatter tops, then the descent to Livingston Col, the first section to and between the boardwalked bits rather untidy. the teddington shitted stuff not bad, but soggy and splecky in places, and the final run down cautious, but with some speed. tandemmers back to road, the rest of us headed up and over to breeze. good cleaning ride through for me, and on the way down to breeze my cassette came loose, and was a mudbath at the bottom around the cattlestop.
tightened up the cassette and bombed onto the 'conda. tandeems and abba had headed off earlier. i caught them and pulled up thinking i'd let them get ahead, then hubb underpassed me and caught them, so i headed down after. he got past them then i managed to (when they pulled over for me the ended up in a wheelshaped ditch!), and so all of my run down anaconda was sweet. bombed out the tail, slowly gaining on hubby. one VERY close call in the tail above the baches, nearly lost a wheel over a rocky edge, but held on and got through.
climb out of Taylors, i pushed hard cos i felt like i needed it and got up first. felt bad and good. then nice cruise down nicholson and round waterfront to coffee and hospitality at the 'Com.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursnight: McPleasn'tGreenmitMondgans squirrelville
forgive us for we have sinned... Last night, nelsh picked me up about half 7, we cruised to McCormacks Bay and headed up into the valley. there's been some work going on in there, and they've mulched the hillside of its brush, so the track was a soft sucky heap of sticks and mulch, albeit a fennel fragranted one. headed off the mulched track onto the single track and started squirrelling our way up, me walking heaps cos i just couldnt get good traction... by the time we got into the switchbacks parts of the track were saturated with water oozing from the hillside, and much walking ensued... onto the road and we tried out Longridge Drive, on up thru to Upper Major Hornbrook, which was a steep wee grunt, tho got rid of a lot of the duller sections of Mt Pleasant Rd...
got to summit rd, hung a left, and rolled on down to the start of Greenwood. here began the badness and sinfulness. which, if you read on, we ameliorated a little, did some pennance as it were. yes, i read now on ccc website that it is Avoid, but earlier i'd figured, no rain since weekend, should be good to go, right? wrong. anyway, we soldiered on, i ended up mostly riding several metres away from the track, parallel, following sheep lines through the tussocks, something that isnt too bad to do on those slopes. due to the trail being reasonably flat in that area, it holds ALL the water. we stopped and cleared out one particularly bad drain, cleaning up the wooden drainage channel and its feeders. at the same time, bumped into someone i know who was up walking with a mate.
continued to squirrel around on down and round, past the ruins, the trail picking up a bit in places, over all the rocky corners, all good, nice flow on, with minimal wet spots, until down round on the east face... rode through a bunch of stuff and i holla'd to Nelsh that we oughta stop and do something... so, out with the shovel, and repair repair repair. the water is just ooozing out of the hillside, and in places it is running down the track, so we took measures to stifle its flow down the track by making it drain straight across. fixed up a few really bad spots, but left others for another time.
on down, round into gloomy gulch, boardwalk so sweet compared to old slats. nasty section over the rocks and then i was super tentative further down on the rocks, but then good flowy sections into the top of the next few switchbacks, where i found nelsh stopped. out with the spade, where one place water was running down round a corner, really trashing the track. this was cos of a completely blocked wooden drainage channel, which i had to get my hand into the stinky anaerobic mud to clear, dug, diverted water, cleared out drain... corner pretty much sorted. should dry out nicely now.
on down, sketchiness prevailing, round and up to that little creek, part of which was running down the trail... so. out with the spade, yet again, and dug it out so it wasnt running down the trail. and then on down and out, the rest of the track being pretty good cos its north facing and has enough rocks around.
Up Summit road to the big pines on Richmond Hill, nice flowy cruise down paddock towards Panorama. over stile, through cattle, over style, down rooty interesting fun section, over stile, more rooty under trees, over stile onto Clifton to Panorama, down to "Private R.O.W" down round tanks and down steps (vibrating mud off)to Tuawera, down next bit Kinsey, and on down Mulgan's Track. if you didnt know the area, i doubt you'd find your way down all that. Nelsh managed to hop-ride all of the mulgan switchbacks, amazing.
then, on through redcliffs back to the vehicle. homeward bound 10.30ish. guess we spent about an hour digging... so, yes, i freely admit, these were far from ideal riding conditions, and really shouldnt have been up there, but, we did some work and maintenance on the trail, which is more than most who trash the tracks ever do...
got to summit rd, hung a left, and rolled on down to the start of Greenwood. here began the badness and sinfulness. which, if you read on, we ameliorated a little, did some pennance as it were. yes, i read now on ccc website that it is Avoid, but earlier i'd figured, no rain since weekend, should be good to go, right? wrong. anyway, we soldiered on, i ended up mostly riding several metres away from the track, parallel, following sheep lines through the tussocks, something that isnt too bad to do on those slopes. due to the trail being reasonably flat in that area, it holds ALL the water. we stopped and cleared out one particularly bad drain, cleaning up the wooden drainage channel and its feeders. at the same time, bumped into someone i know who was up walking with a mate.
continued to squirrel around on down and round, past the ruins, the trail picking up a bit in places, over all the rocky corners, all good, nice flow on, with minimal wet spots, until down round on the east face... rode through a bunch of stuff and i holla'd to Nelsh that we oughta stop and do something... so, out with the shovel, and repair repair repair. the water is just ooozing out of the hillside, and in places it is running down the track, so we took measures to stifle its flow down the track by making it drain straight across. fixed up a few really bad spots, but left others for another time.
on down, round into gloomy gulch, boardwalk so sweet compared to old slats. nasty section over the rocks and then i was super tentative further down on the rocks, but then good flowy sections into the top of the next few switchbacks, where i found nelsh stopped. out with the spade, where one place water was running down round a corner, really trashing the track. this was cos of a completely blocked wooden drainage channel, which i had to get my hand into the stinky anaerobic mud to clear, dug, diverted water, cleared out drain... corner pretty much sorted. should dry out nicely now.
on down, sketchiness prevailing, round and up to that little creek, part of which was running down the trail... so. out with the spade, yet again, and dug it out so it wasnt running down the trail. and then on down and out, the rest of the track being pretty good cos its north facing and has enough rocks around.
Up Summit road to the big pines on Richmond Hill, nice flowy cruise down paddock towards Panorama. over stile, through cattle, over style, down rooty interesting fun section, over stile, more rooty under trees, over stile onto Clifton to Panorama, down to "Private R.O.W" down round tanks and down steps (vibrating mud off)to Tuawera, down next bit Kinsey, and on down Mulgan's Track. if you didnt know the area, i doubt you'd find your way down all that. Nelsh managed to hop-ride all of the mulgan switchbacks, amazing.
then, on through redcliffs back to the vehicle. homeward bound 10.30ish. guess we spent about an hour digging... so, yes, i freely admit, these were far from ideal riding conditions, and really shouldnt have been up there, but, we did some work and maintenance on the trail, which is more than most who trash the tracks ever do...
Monday, June 22, 2009
Weak end weather limited options.
Was the intention Saturday to ride up to the planting in Vic Park with Steve et al, but the weather was abominable at 11.30 when we were supposed to be going, so we all bailed from the riding part. nearly didnt make it to the planting either, but the weather cleared so the whole family went up and planted some future-bush.
Sunday, no contact from anyone (thanks ANDREW!), so loaded up the tagalong and the singlespeed and O and me went out the Blottle-Ache, probably about 11am. just as we were about to head into the forest, i spotted andrew, wayne, warren, dallas and the girl (from Mcleans ride the other week) who's name i dont know all just finishing up their ride... said gudday and headed in to the forest. took the internal loop, rather than southern circuit. interesting new bit where they've diverted traffic into some dark woods (which was scary for O). then once back to the pond back onto the familiar trails. spun north up to Spencerville turn off and back through.
all in all a good spin, fun for both O and me. managed to overtake a few people even. O was well and truly splattered head to toe having been on the receiving end of my back wheel (i really must find that crudcatcher again). Luckily we were both wearing sunnies, me in my yellows, and O was in a raincoat. Worst bit was a new section of trail seemingly pointlessly diverting riders around a tiny bit (about 30m) of track around the intersection of 20th Ave and Golf or Foxtrot. soaked through teddington shit all rutted up and mucky as. terrible stuff. O was strangely a bit scared for the first half. i guess cos we havent spun round there for a while. he used to love fanging it round the place, hurtling down the hills etc, but yesterday he was saying "slow dooowwwn!" a lot. til towards the end when he was finally whooping it up on the speedy descents.
back to carpark, loaded up and did a vegeshop on way home. home by 12.20.
Sunday, no contact from anyone (thanks ANDREW!), so loaded up the tagalong and the singlespeed and O and me went out the Blottle-Ache, probably about 11am. just as we were about to head into the forest, i spotted andrew, wayne, warren, dallas and the girl (from Mcleans ride the other week) who's name i dont know all just finishing up their ride... said gudday and headed in to the forest. took the internal loop, rather than southern circuit. interesting new bit where they've diverted traffic into some dark woods (which was scary for O). then once back to the pond back onto the familiar trails. spun north up to Spencerville turn off and back through.
all in all a good spin, fun for both O and me. managed to overtake a few people even. O was well and truly splattered head to toe having been on the receiving end of my back wheel (i really must find that crudcatcher again). Luckily we were both wearing sunnies, me in my yellows, and O was in a raincoat. Worst bit was a new section of trail seemingly pointlessly diverting riders around a tiny bit (about 30m) of track around the intersection of 20th Ave and Golf or Foxtrot. soaked through teddington shit all rutted up and mucky as. terrible stuff. O was strangely a bit scared for the first half. i guess cos we havent spun round there for a while. he used to love fanging it round the place, hurtling down the hills etc, but yesterday he was saying "slow dooowwwn!" a lot. til towards the end when he was finally whooping it up on the speedy descents.
back to carpark, loaded up and did a vegeshop on way home. home by 12.20.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thurs Night, dyers vic marley x 2 worsley
Fun spin last night. the boys were gonna park up hill from kiwi and do laps of marleys, so nelson and me rode up dyers and hackthorne (for a change), into vic, up to top (not Harry Ell this time!), took thomsons down to kiwi, then up road. (a bunch of skyline-wankers were at the kiwi carpark, and all roared up past us later. (i hate skyline drivers)) Thought we'd missed the others, then saw lights at the carpark, and there they all were. Steve and Tony were done after two laps, but Hubby, Andrew, (hel)Mark and Pete were up for another lap.
So, off we tootled up the road, Hubby having left as Nelson and me arrived and Mark grabbing a lift up in his truck with Marie. met them at the top. bit of snow up there, was crunchy and nice. top section of marleys had a bit of frost/snow, and softened up a bit below that. was good. mildly sketchy, but eminently rideable. not sloppy. bombed down taking it reasonably easy. first run, Mark, Nelson, Pete, me and then Andrew and Hubb following. i kept on Pete's tail pretty much all the way.
back to cars, Andrew bailed and Hub's car was at kiwi so he bailed down rest of singletrack for that. Mark was in for another lap as was pete, so three of us rode and Mark shuttled again. another run down, all good, this time Mark followed by me followed by Nelson and Pete, all with good gaps between. i managed to catch up to mark, he'd had a wee botch up i think, by the rocky lowers, Nelson was steady on my tail but not chasing too hard. this time round was better, i felt smoother and trusted the surfaces better. back to car. Pete bailed, and Mark decided to join us on our descent, so we chucked our bikes on the back of his truck and Marie drove us (lazy, i know) to top of Worsley.
hat on, and hit it. Body bag was sweet. it looked greasy as hell but actually had good traction. below the gate we peeled right on a highish line. i was thinking it would get us past the worst of the chewed out bit, but it spat us out at the top of that. it proved pretty not all that bad. was an interesting trip down, a balance of keeping out of the ruts without crossing up too much. most of the surface was dryish, only greasy in spots. around the area we did some digging last week i managed to get into a big rut, riding along, hmm, that puddle could be deep, front wheel in, and i'm stepping off the bike over the handlebars onto my feet. one smooth motion. some part of the bike bit the back of my leg, dunno which bit tho. picked up bike and continued. very messy (4wd's) below the pylons, and then quite a good run down the last of the rutsville. across a permafrost slope, and i hear Mark hurtling up behind me, he actually crashed into my back tire, twice even, unable to slow down. then he crashes spectacularly behind me... his rear (v) brake wasnt working and his front was locking up.
on down, meet up with Nelson and blat out the last to the road. then, put on warmer gloves under bike gloves, and off we go. down road, flat tack. and down into the freeeezing cold valley. along river singletrack out onto cashmere road and Mark heads up hackthorne and nelson and me continue, round Ernle reserve and then back to his through Studholme, the park, Woodard McCombs Roker and Bradford Park.
So, off we tootled up the road, Hubby having left as Nelson and me arrived and Mark grabbing a lift up in his truck with Marie. met them at the top. bit of snow up there, was crunchy and nice. top section of marleys had a bit of frost/snow, and softened up a bit below that. was good. mildly sketchy, but eminently rideable. not sloppy. bombed down taking it reasonably easy. first run, Mark, Nelson, Pete, me and then Andrew and Hubb following. i kept on Pete's tail pretty much all the way.
back to cars, Andrew bailed and Hub's car was at kiwi so he bailed down rest of singletrack for that. Mark was in for another lap as was pete, so three of us rode and Mark shuttled again. another run down, all good, this time Mark followed by me followed by Nelson and Pete, all with good gaps between. i managed to catch up to mark, he'd had a wee botch up i think, by the rocky lowers, Nelson was steady on my tail but not chasing too hard. this time round was better, i felt smoother and trusted the surfaces better. back to car. Pete bailed, and Mark decided to join us on our descent, so we chucked our bikes on the back of his truck and Marie drove us (lazy, i know) to top of Worsley.
hat on, and hit it. Body bag was sweet. it looked greasy as hell but actually had good traction. below the gate we peeled right on a highish line. i was thinking it would get us past the worst of the chewed out bit, but it spat us out at the top of that. it proved pretty not all that bad. was an interesting trip down, a balance of keeping out of the ruts without crossing up too much. most of the surface was dryish, only greasy in spots. around the area we did some digging last week i managed to get into a big rut, riding along, hmm, that puddle could be deep, front wheel in, and i'm stepping off the bike over the handlebars onto my feet. one smooth motion. some part of the bike bit the back of my leg, dunno which bit tho. picked up bike and continued. very messy (4wd's) below the pylons, and then quite a good run down the last of the rutsville. across a permafrost slope, and i hear Mark hurtling up behind me, he actually crashed into my back tire, twice even, unable to slow down. then he crashes spectacularly behind me... his rear (v) brake wasnt working and his front was locking up.
on down, meet up with Nelson and blat out the last to the road. then, put on warmer gloves under bike gloves, and off we go. down road, flat tack. and down into the freeeezing cold valley. along river singletrack out onto cashmere road and Mark heads up hackthorne and nelson and me continue, round Ernle reserve and then back to his through Studholme, the park, Woodard McCombs Roker and Bradford Park.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday a.m. tiresome bottle lake blat
tired from excesses on friday night and lack of sleep both friday and saturday, i was gonna take the singlespeed for a spin but remembered just as i was heading out the door that the back wheel would drive me mad, so i grabbed the Cotic instead. bout 10.30, hit the road, usual route, north parade, new brighton rd, horseshoe lake terrace lakewood drive burwood rd. into main carpark, headed round southern loop out to beach, back in normal loop out to top and back and back same way, pushing myself hard the whole way to the point of nearly wanting to puke. managed to overtake a few people. home at 11.55.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Weds Night, mudspin Worsley, foggy gnarley Marley, Vic Park
Got a call in the middle of dinner from Nelson saying he couldnt ride tomorrow night, so how bout it. figured why not and headed out the door after bathtime for the two boys...
got over to his about 7, and we headed for Worsleys. My LED flashie was low on battery so i ended up having to use my main headlamp for most riding. Up road wasnt too bad, i got a bit puffed, as you do. took a midlayer off at end of seal and hit the dirt.
greeted by a muddy mess on the flat bit above the gate, headed up the rutty track, picking our lines carefully. traction was bad, with only the top surface of of the flatter pieces of clay saturated, allowing no purchase. north facing slopes, below the powerlines, were good, but other bits were diabolical. slipped and slid, avoiding massive 4wd created ruts. rounded the corner, and Nelson got out his spade. the section above the corner above the powerlines needed some tickling to keep a good riding flow up, so he dug and dug, and i rode bits, and he dug, and i rode. then when deemed done, we headed on up, only to be greeted with nightmare inducing ruts and slipperiness. woohoo. walked a bit, spun a lot, caked up tires. clank clank as we bashed mud out of cleats. the section where they'd graded was nasty, with some really sloppy bits, and a massive hole eroded. then on up to body bag not so bad, and the 'bag itself was cool. i stayed in middle ring to avoid the granny'd chain 'cleaning' the side of my rear tire (and thereby inducing some chainsuck), only blew on the last steep grunt.
on up to Marley's. wasnt looking good, as the 4wd track from seal up to singletrack was very greasy, but top of singletrack looked good, and off we went, into this horrendous fog. severe lack of visibility made for a cautious descent, encountering new sections too. trail condition VERY GOOD, no wetspots, no greasy chewy mud, meaning we werent damaging it at all. AWESOME JOB TRAIL WORKERS the other weekend. bombed on down out of the fog to the Kiwi.
Hit the road up to second section of Thomsons, and treadled on up that. little greasy but nothing major. tree across it half way up.
Top of Vic. headed down past the seesaw, and on down to the gums. headed in there and only two sections were a little greasy, kinda flat bits. due to Sesame St and all the 'crafted' trails, this old trail is seeing less and less traffic, which is great for us. peeled left before the jump lineup and cruise on down to bottom and the little berms under the cypruses, before walking back up to the skidder site. then, hit up Dazza's, which also was in good knick, maybe two mudpuddles. on down into Brent's which was also good.
Now, round onto Flow and Bridges... hmmm... flow, just after the wee bridge half way down my front wheel rutted (too much front brake!) and threw me, i held on and just managed to get off the back, but landed on a wooden gutter on my ass. bruised glute. sore as i write this still... on down and some horrendous ruts and wetness. Out with the spade. dug a couple of drains across a particularly bad section, and skimmed off a few rut edges. this was just before the trees. hit the trees and kept to the low line, then i pulled up and nelson bombed the drop, and got caught out. lost it but held on, i thought he was a goner for sure. i took the pussy route and then it was off down the valley, out, and back to his. home about 10.30... late ride. amazingly my light held out the whole ride considering all the standing around i was doing lighting up Nelson's digging efforts.
got over to his about 7, and we headed for Worsleys. My LED flashie was low on battery so i ended up having to use my main headlamp for most riding. Up road wasnt too bad, i got a bit puffed, as you do. took a midlayer off at end of seal and hit the dirt.
greeted by a muddy mess on the flat bit above the gate, headed up the rutty track, picking our lines carefully. traction was bad, with only the top surface of of the flatter pieces of clay saturated, allowing no purchase. north facing slopes, below the powerlines, were good, but other bits were diabolical. slipped and slid, avoiding massive 4wd created ruts. rounded the corner, and Nelson got out his spade. the section above the corner above the powerlines needed some tickling to keep a good riding flow up, so he dug and dug, and i rode bits, and he dug, and i rode. then when deemed done, we headed on up, only to be greeted with nightmare inducing ruts and slipperiness. woohoo. walked a bit, spun a lot, caked up tires. clank clank as we bashed mud out of cleats. the section where they'd graded was nasty, with some really sloppy bits, and a massive hole eroded. then on up to body bag not so bad, and the 'bag itself was cool. i stayed in middle ring to avoid the granny'd chain 'cleaning' the side of my rear tire (and thereby inducing some chainsuck), only blew on the last steep grunt.
on up to Marley's. wasnt looking good, as the 4wd track from seal up to singletrack was very greasy, but top of singletrack looked good, and off we went, into this horrendous fog. severe lack of visibility made for a cautious descent, encountering new sections too. trail condition VERY GOOD, no wetspots, no greasy chewy mud, meaning we werent damaging it at all. AWESOME JOB TRAIL WORKERS the other weekend. bombed on down out of the fog to the Kiwi.
Hit the road up to second section of Thomsons, and treadled on up that. little greasy but nothing major. tree across it half way up.
Top of Vic. headed down past the seesaw, and on down to the gums. headed in there and only two sections were a little greasy, kinda flat bits. due to Sesame St and all the 'crafted' trails, this old trail is seeing less and less traffic, which is great for us. peeled left before the jump lineup and cruise on down to bottom and the little berms under the cypruses, before walking back up to the skidder site. then, hit up Dazza's, which also was in good knick, maybe two mudpuddles. on down into Brent's which was also good.
Now, round onto Flow and Bridges... hmmm... flow, just after the wee bridge half way down my front wheel rutted (too much front brake!) and threw me, i held on and just managed to get off the back, but landed on a wooden gutter on my ass. bruised glute. sore as i write this still... on down and some horrendous ruts and wetness. Out with the spade. dug a couple of drains across a particularly bad section, and skimmed off a few rut edges. this was just before the trees. hit the trees and kept to the low line, then i pulled up and nelson bombed the drop, and got caught out. lost it but held on, i thought he was a goner for sure. i took the pussy route and then it was off down the valley, out, and back to his. home about 10.30... late ride. amazingly my light held out the whole ride considering all the standing around i was doing lighting up Nelson's digging efforts.
Monday, June 08, 2009
sunday afternoon, Mulgans, Richmond, Greenwood, CaptThom quicklap
time was short, so T dropped me at bottom of Mulgan's Track. grunted up that, dabbing on the corners as always, feck its steep. then up next steeper section, then up to water tanks then up to Panorama. Up panorama and onto the singletrack rooty climb. at the stile i was only 20 minutes in. on up the paddock to next stile and then up to the big pines. hit the road up to Greenwood entrance. half way up i spotted a guy behind me, and thought, if he catches me he catches me. hit the singletrack and there he was on the road below me, maybe 50 m behind. by the time i made the ruins he was 100 metres behind. good bomb down Greenwood, careening off occasionally greasy rocks. track in mint condition, only about 4 troublespots. new boardwalk quite the damned sight better than the old slats. had a couple close calls. both right near top. one i was >< this close to going over handlebars, the other was a rut edge near tip. good flow down down down, by the time i was above Evans, the other guy was easily 300 m or more behind. stopped to stash sunnies, and then hit the Captain. (the other guy went on to do Godley).
Capt Thomas was in reasonable knick. i got a good flow on apart from blowing the rocky drop above the climbing bypass, and bailing on the next nasty (which i havent cleaned for ages now), but cleaned both old nemesises further down. way further down, the trail is well cleared (by horses?), meaning better visibility against arsehole walkers (hark memory back to Steve getting shoulder barged by those wankers that time). met one lady with dog on way down. felt dodgey on the rubber mat next to the steps on final descent. layered up and tootled round through sumner, moncks bay (passing bottom of Mulgans 1 hour 10 mins since i'd headed up), redcliffs, streetlights coming on as i went along causeway, stopping at ferrymead where i met and caught lift with T and the two boys home.
Capt Thomas was in reasonable knick. i got a good flow on apart from blowing the rocky drop above the climbing bypass, and bailing on the next nasty (which i havent cleaned for ages now), but cleaned both old nemesises further down. way further down, the trail is well cleared (by horses?), meaning better visibility against arsehole walkers (hark memory back to Steve getting shoulder barged by those wankers that time). met one lady with dog on way down. felt dodgey on the rubber mat next to the steps on final descent. layered up and tootled round through sumner, moncks bay (passing bottom of Mulgans 1 hour 10 mins since i'd headed up), redcliffs, streetlights coming on as i went along causeway, stopping at ferrymead where i met and caught lift with T and the two boys home.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Thursnight, (c)huntsbury, Vern, Witch, Castle, eltsaC, hctiW, Rapak(yawn)i. Plus Maintainence.
twas a cold and frosty night, in town. Moon was getting pretty big too, 86% or so waxing gibbous, lighting the hills nicely. drove to Nelsies, and we cruised the streets kinda towards Rapaki but not really knowing where we were gonna go up til we decided to see what Steve's fuss has all been about and headed up Ramahana and Aotea and on up the Kunstbury hill. not that bad i'll admit. that last bit of seal sure is a steep wee number, and watch out for boiracers. and there's one section of gravel between top of Oldskool and the gate that is a mare too. other than that, yeah, not a bad climb, and yep, mint that it spits you out at the top end of the Vernon trail.
Hit Vernon and stopped at the first mudpuddle. Nelson was carrying his fold-up german army spade, so we cut a drain. rode on, nice, very slightly greasy, slippy rocks, occasional sparkle of frost under lights. i had a nice 2 wheel drift into the second hairpin, then on down past top of FarmTrack, and round. next muddy bit, stopped and cut a couple more drains, draining water away for everybody. onwards down, bomb bomb lotsa fun. hit the Teddington Shit section and stopped at a particularly bad boggy piece, cut a drain, emptied the water and made it so it'd flow away. on down to top Rapaki.
Onto Witchy poo. (some dumb ass boiracers saying "do some skids, au" - fucktards). nice wee climb up, cleaned but one dab. around, down, fun. then just before ya hit the road again, there's always been this big puddle... well, no longer. nelson cut and dug a nice clear drain for it, all the water ran away.
Hit road for Castlerock. some frosty bits in the shaded parts of road. very first corner of Castlerock was sparkly crunchy ice, not slippy tho. down that first section, bouncing and skidding about on the rocks, and onto some water... so. stopped and made some better drainage. on down, down, all good, great surface, dry (enough), round the first hairpin, and half way to the next before we found something we needed to drain again... spade out, dig, spade back. onwards. next hairpin, rockity rockity rock, bridge, climb, another spot to dig. this one needed some thought. a dripping rock face right next to the trail, water dribbling down the trail. picked a spot juuuust below where the water dripped and dug a wee channel across, waiting til the water trickled. on up the trail to top of bridle path. decided there to turn back. so. back up trail towards Castle Rock. cleaned everying except for blowing out (stupidly) on the second hairpin, and then up near top. all our drains were working nicely as we came back through. as he approached the top, another group of boiracers said "bit late to be out?" to which nelson replied, "yeah, past your bedtime isnt it?". that shut them up.
then chilly blast down road back to Witch Hill, big puddle now drained and drying, good spin up through there, with nelson's light starting to get a bit orange. so, bailed it down Rapaki. 200 m down i thought "fuck this", and bailed over the side into the field, dodged some tussocks in search of animal trail singletrack. hello cattle! but fun wee sidle back down to main track. then on down. this was my first time since the resurface and i must say it SUCKS. you almost cant let go cos the gravel they've laid is too loose. i liked it better when it was a rut infested rock fest. at least there were edges you could use as berms. what a waste of altitude, but had to be done cos of Nelson's gammy battery.
Frosty chilly ride back to his place where we had a Weka lager which put a good tingle in the limbs...
Hit Vernon and stopped at the first mudpuddle. Nelson was carrying his fold-up german army spade, so we cut a drain. rode on, nice, very slightly greasy, slippy rocks, occasional sparkle of frost under lights. i had a nice 2 wheel drift into the second hairpin, then on down past top of FarmTrack, and round. next muddy bit, stopped and cut a couple more drains, draining water away for everybody. onwards down, bomb bomb lotsa fun. hit the Teddington Shit section and stopped at a particularly bad boggy piece, cut a drain, emptied the water and made it so it'd flow away. on down to top Rapaki.
Onto Witchy poo. (some dumb ass boiracers saying "do some skids, au" - fucktards). nice wee climb up, cleaned but one dab. around, down, fun. then just before ya hit the road again, there's always been this big puddle... well, no longer. nelson cut and dug a nice clear drain for it, all the water ran away.
Hit road for Castlerock. some frosty bits in the shaded parts of road. very first corner of Castlerock was sparkly crunchy ice, not slippy tho. down that first section, bouncing and skidding about on the rocks, and onto some water... so. stopped and made some better drainage. on down, down, all good, great surface, dry (enough), round the first hairpin, and half way to the next before we found something we needed to drain again... spade out, dig, spade back. onwards. next hairpin, rockity rockity rock, bridge, climb, another spot to dig. this one needed some thought. a dripping rock face right next to the trail, water dribbling down the trail. picked a spot juuuust below where the water dripped and dug a wee channel across, waiting til the water trickled. on up the trail to top of bridle path. decided there to turn back. so. back up trail towards Castle Rock. cleaned everying except for blowing out (stupidly) on the second hairpin, and then up near top. all our drains were working nicely as we came back through. as he approached the top, another group of boiracers said "bit late to be out?" to which nelson replied, "yeah, past your bedtime isnt it?". that shut them up.
then chilly blast down road back to Witch Hill, big puddle now drained and drying, good spin up through there, with nelson's light starting to get a bit orange. so, bailed it down Rapaki. 200 m down i thought "fuck this", and bailed over the side into the field, dodged some tussocks in search of animal trail singletrack. hello cattle! but fun wee sidle back down to main track. then on down. this was my first time since the resurface and i must say it SUCKS. you almost cant let go cos the gravel they've laid is too loose. i liked it better when it was a rut infested rock fest. at least there were edges you could use as berms. what a waste of altitude, but had to be done cos of Nelson's gammy battery.
Frosty chilly ride back to his place where we had a Weka lager which put a good tingle in the limbs...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday night, A few McLeans were showing... singlists
prior to riding, i oiled, on the Singlespeed, all the spoke nipples and heads, squeezed oil into the freehub both sides, and the jockey wheel. hoping that would ease the creak... spun over to Pete's, we drove, picked up Nelson (also singling), and zoomed out to Mcleans Island, where we found Andrew, Warren, Wayne, Dallas and a girl i cant remember the name of now... off we tootled, blatting round the trails. about 2 kms in nelson and me out front, heard a ping clatter from behind, and pete had stopped. we bailed up and turned back to find him looking at a seat-less seatpost. the bolt had snapped. he talked of turning back, but then decided to stay with us for the rest of the lap. so, a good work ensued for him, standing. kinda what we're doing on the singlespeeds most of the time too. anyway, on we bombed. me out front most of the time, swapped with Nelson at one stage. and warren not far behind most of the time too. eased up after the open flowy section (near the diggers) and i put more air in my back tire which had been washing all over the place, also took jacket off then. onwards again, and the fucking back wheel started its creak up again. its gotta be in the freehub somewhere. put up with it, rode on. Pete departed leaving nelson and me to catch lifts with the others.
second lap, warren, nelson and me did full loop, others bailed into the shortcut loop. the creak continued, we were faster 2nd time round. good blast all up. nice and dry out there, even after all the rain. shame its so far from town but then again, its kinda more boring than even Bottle Lake, so probably just as well...
second lap, warren, nelson and me did full loop, others bailed into the shortcut loop. the creak continued, we were faster 2nd time round. good blast all up. nice and dry out there, even after all the rain. shame its so far from town but then again, its kinda more boring than even Bottle Lake, so probably just as well...
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday a.m. Cruise. Sumner then back to plant some Trees for Canterbury
crapulent weather for the entire week, trails are all creeks or would be destroyed from the attack of the tires, so jumped on the ratrod-ghetto-backpedal-single-Specialized Globe commuter beast and trundled over to pete's. joined by himself and his lovely wife, him on Grandad - WW2 Swiss Army Doctor's Bike, and her on her brand spanking new Electra Coaster, girly cruiser, we literally cruised down linwood ave and through Charlesworth Reserve to ferrymead bridge to meet up with Wayne, Andrew, Warren (all on mtnbikes) and Steve and J9 on their cruisers. as a large group now, cruised along to sumner, had coffee at dotcom and cruised back to Charlesworth Reserve whereupon we put plants in the ground. O was dropped to me by friends he'd stayed with overnight, and i put his seat on my toptube and he rode home with Pete and me. mellow. cruise.
Monday, May 18, 2009
SundayNight Singles. H.Ell, Nun, Traverse, OldSkool
Saturday night i finally tensioned and trued up the front disc wheel i built for the singlespeed and tightened and tweaked the back wheel and adjusted the rear brakes on the beasty too. then on Sunday due to childcare responsibilities i wasnt able to join the boys (and girl) on their ride... so, while H had his morning sleep i sorted out the front end of the single. put my old Manitou Minute's onto it, and set up the Avid Juicy 5 brake and got nearly everything sorted. needed a Star-fangled nut in the steerer tube, and needed a clamp bolt on the brake, so once H woke, and we went on the vege run, took the bike and dropped into bikebiz out Marshlands. guy there installed both and only charged me $11.50 all up. Sweet as.
So, had to try out the bike, and we were going for dinner at my folks, so, arranged with Nelson to come up after that, and off we rode, probably about 8pm. me, full to the brim with yummy food and a couple of wines, which made riding tricky.
because it was dark, we decided on the H.Ell track, mint gradient climb for singlespeeds. to the Kiwi, then up road to the Nun. the Minutes SPV feature is exactly as i expected for singlespeed, perfect. it locks out excellently for the standing-in-the-pedal-kranking yet still absorbs the bumps when on the trail. i was feeling like i was gonna blow chunks near the top of Worsley's Rd, so had to have a major breather, then up the dirt track to top of Nun same thing happened so walked about 10 m before forcing myself back on the bike.
The descent was decent. nelson led off, and we blazed our ways down. fair bit of wind about, but pinned most of the jumps okay. the minutes feel quite burly, but no where near as buttery plush as the Fox's on the Cotic. a lot firmer, majorly in need of a service methinks after a few years in a cupboard. and the Avid brakes? not bad, not bad, slightly better than v's i guess. blazed on down to kiwi, only hiccup being nelson's commuting rear mudguard snapping off halfway down.
Then it was up the road to top of Vic Park. lighting up some young lovers in the carpark at the top, hehe... then on round the summit trail. not a bad blast round there, singlespeed all you need. all the puddle work we'd done last week had done a good job of drying out the affected parts of the trail nicely. i had one close call just past top of Lava Flow, somehow i missed the track and was heading over the edge but then pulled the front back over the wooden edging and came to a squirrelly stop with a wheel on either side and nearly losing balance... got going again and we picked our way down through the off piste tussock sheep trails.
All's cool on the Old Skool. nelson led the bombing down, staying on the zig zag trail rather than taking all the shortcuts. was kinda fun. hadn't done it for years! was getting pretty shaken up by the end tho. then round and down the singletrack. sweet flowing singletrack. on the second of the splits, old above new, i passed Nelson and led on from there. not much further on, ran into water running down the track. blast. round the corner and back across the face, and near the end there's the big muddy hole again, i stopped and nelson came over the rise behind me and nearly took me out. we walked by the hole, and rode on, with this wet section running across the trail 3 times below that. then, where the single meets the bottom road, we fixed up some of the ruts. and then headed out and home across town. the rear wheel creak winding me up all the way home...
So, had to try out the bike, and we were going for dinner at my folks, so, arranged with Nelson to come up after that, and off we rode, probably about 8pm. me, full to the brim with yummy food and a couple of wines, which made riding tricky.
because it was dark, we decided on the H.Ell track, mint gradient climb for singlespeeds. to the Kiwi, then up road to the Nun. the Minutes SPV feature is exactly as i expected for singlespeed, perfect. it locks out excellently for the standing-in-the-pedal-kranking yet still absorbs the bumps when on the trail. i was feeling like i was gonna blow chunks near the top of Worsley's Rd, so had to have a major breather, then up the dirt track to top of Nun same thing happened so walked about 10 m before forcing myself back on the bike.
The descent was decent. nelson led off, and we blazed our ways down. fair bit of wind about, but pinned most of the jumps okay. the minutes feel quite burly, but no where near as buttery plush as the Fox's on the Cotic. a lot firmer, majorly in need of a service methinks after a few years in a cupboard. and the Avid brakes? not bad, not bad, slightly better than v's i guess. blazed on down to kiwi, only hiccup being nelson's commuting rear mudguard snapping off halfway down.
Then it was up the road to top of Vic Park. lighting up some young lovers in the carpark at the top, hehe... then on round the summit trail. not a bad blast round there, singlespeed all you need. all the puddle work we'd done last week had done a good job of drying out the affected parts of the trail nicely. i had one close call just past top of Lava Flow, somehow i missed the track and was heading over the edge but then pulled the front back over the wooden edging and came to a squirrelly stop with a wheel on either side and nearly losing balance... got going again and we picked our way down through the off piste tussock sheep trails.
All's cool on the Old Skool. nelson led the bombing down, staying on the zig zag trail rather than taking all the shortcuts. was kinda fun. hadn't done it for years! was getting pretty shaken up by the end tho. then round and down the singletrack. sweet flowing singletrack. on the second of the splits, old above new, i passed Nelson and led on from there. not much further on, ran into water running down the track. blast. round the corner and back across the face, and near the end there's the big muddy hole again, i stopped and nelson came over the rise behind me and nearly took me out. we walked by the hole, and rode on, with this wet section running across the trail 3 times below that. then, where the single meets the bottom road, we fixed up some of the ruts. and then headed out and home across town. the rear wheel creak winding me up all the way home...
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Moondaynight. Farm, Summit, Worsley rut scuffers
13 days since i last mountainbiked... ugh.
however, an excellent old skool ride last night was had under a 96% waning gibbous moon. drove to Nelson's bout 7.30 and we hit the road closer to 8. Feeling almost frosty, backstreets to Wilsons Rd then up past St Martins Primary, where it was already starting to feel warmer, just with the slight rise. across to Hillsborough Tce and on up the Crescent where the exursion and the rise out of the pooled cool air made all the layers we were wearing a bit much. stopped at the gate and took off jackets and hats as a couple of riders came tentatively down towards us, both on flash vpp cruz type machines. hit the dirt and mud and surprised ourselves with the traction. cleaning stuff i didnt think i should have, but then blowing on stuff i shouldnt. walked for about 5 m below first gate, rode some more but then blew again - due to lack of riding and usual small-child-induced tiredness, and walked again for the last bit before reaching the ridge. Nelson's brake was rubbing so brief pause for quick repair and it was onwards up, soft dirt conspiring to make the hill steeper, and a headwind further up adding to our woes. Nelson rode the whole hill. i walked again briefly on the last steep, getting back on for the last 100 m (without the lights riding by moonlight only). i did middle ring everything i rode tho.
Hit the road, towards Dyers. Poked our noses down and had a look at the summit traverse trail, it was full of puddles. continued. below sugarloaf, hit the singletrack again and in the first 50 m was a few largish puddles just past the rocky bits, so we made some drains and continued on. from here round almost all the way to Vic Park trees was dry as. the all weather surface proving to be quite 'all weather'...
was very mucky under the trees so we picked our way carefully through there and on up to the road again. bombing down to the kiwi was cold and there were several sheets of flowing water crossing the road, spraying up and making us colder... then from Kiwi, up road to top of worsleys. snow and ice appearing around the back, and the top of Worsley's road crunchy and icey...
the downhill. fun. streams of water gurgling, often on both sides of us as we rode the skinny ridges between the ruts. the bodybag looked slick and dodgy, but actually had quite good traction. below there the newly graded cut is being eaten up by the streams of water. more weather like the last week + a few overzealous 4wds will turn Worsley's back to the old one we knew so well. out of the graded section it got more hairy and fun, ruts to avoid, streams of muddy water to hop over and not lose a wheel into, skinny ridges to perch upon. fun fun fun. picking up more speed when allowable, scrubbing it off carefully when not. the lower half, nelson's light was getting more and more orange, and by the bottom of the dirt it was hopeless.
Finally a bomb down the seal, and after the final corner down into the icyness. brrrrrrr... beside a muddy high Heathcote river and thru the burbs to Nelson's, into the car, heater on full and i was home by 10.30, chilled to the bone.
however, an excellent old skool ride last night was had under a 96% waning gibbous moon. drove to Nelson's bout 7.30 and we hit the road closer to 8. Feeling almost frosty, backstreets to Wilsons Rd then up past St Martins Primary, where it was already starting to feel warmer, just with the slight rise. across to Hillsborough Tce and on up the Crescent where the exursion and the rise out of the pooled cool air made all the layers we were wearing a bit much. stopped at the gate and took off jackets and hats as a couple of riders came tentatively down towards us, both on flash vpp cruz type machines. hit the dirt and mud and surprised ourselves with the traction. cleaning stuff i didnt think i should have, but then blowing on stuff i shouldnt. walked for about 5 m below first gate, rode some more but then blew again - due to lack of riding and usual small-child-induced tiredness, and walked again for the last bit before reaching the ridge. Nelson's brake was rubbing so brief pause for quick repair and it was onwards up, soft dirt conspiring to make the hill steeper, and a headwind further up adding to our woes. Nelson rode the whole hill. i walked again briefly on the last steep, getting back on for the last 100 m (without the lights riding by moonlight only). i did middle ring everything i rode tho.
Hit the road, towards Dyers. Poked our noses down and had a look at the summit traverse trail, it was full of puddles. continued. below sugarloaf, hit the singletrack again and in the first 50 m was a few largish puddles just past the rocky bits, so we made some drains and continued on. from here round almost all the way to Vic Park trees was dry as. the all weather surface proving to be quite 'all weather'...
was very mucky under the trees so we picked our way carefully through there and on up to the road again. bombing down to the kiwi was cold and there were several sheets of flowing water crossing the road, spraying up and making us colder... then from Kiwi, up road to top of worsleys. snow and ice appearing around the back, and the top of Worsley's road crunchy and icey...
the downhill. fun. streams of water gurgling, often on both sides of us as we rode the skinny ridges between the ruts. the bodybag looked slick and dodgy, but actually had quite good traction. below there the newly graded cut is being eaten up by the streams of water. more weather like the last week + a few overzealous 4wds will turn Worsley's back to the old one we knew so well. out of the graded section it got more hairy and fun, ruts to avoid, streams of muddy water to hop over and not lose a wheel into, skinny ridges to perch upon. fun fun fun. picking up more speed when allowable, scrubbing it off carefully when not. the lower half, nelson's light was getting more and more orange, and by the bottom of the dirt it was hopeless.
Finally a bomb down the seal, and after the final corner down into the icyness. brrrrrrr... beside a muddy high Heathcote river and thru the burbs to Nelson's, into the car, heater on full and i was home by 10.30, chilled to the bone.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
no ride week. Happybirthday Blog and RIP Freud.
bah. too much fun and other busy-ness over weekend to get out on bike. then missed out on last night, intending on getting out tonight, and now the rain has set in and the trails will be soaked. BLAH!
BUT!!!!! Swtchbckr is 4 years old now!
BUT!!!!! Swtchbckr is 4 years old now!
And on Thursday, 7th of May, we had to put down our beautiful big boy Freud. He was the best dog ever, and we were so so sad to say good-bye to him
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday night short hill jaunt
the norwest mildness had stuck around, and so it was a perfect night for riding.
a few of us assembled at Steve's, who turned out wasnt riding cos he'd forgotten to charge his light from last week (or that's his story anyway...). Pete, Andy, Warren, Tony and myself headed off and cruised up Rapaki. Pete, Andy and me got into a good groove and rode ahead, lightless pretty much the entire way up. Warren and Tony tail-end-charlied it with their lights on. with the city glow off the clouds, there was plenty of light to ride by. made the top in reasonable time, but most were feeling it.
quick spin out and back on Witch Hill, with most of us fucking up at least once. nightridebalance issues methinks. as we passed back over the top of Rapaki, there was a group of something like 15 riders. said gudday to them. no reply. dicks.
then it was up the Vernon singletrack. i blew out on one rocky section overlooking rapaki, and then again on the first hairpin near the top. cleaned the top rocky section perfectly, finding the smoothest line i've ever seen there. stopped just over the road and regrouped. the huge group from top of rapaki regrouped there too, and not one of them said hello. what a bunch of fucking imbecile asshole stuck up wankers. flash harry wankers. then Hubby turned up from the direction of Vic park. we stood and chatted a bit as the wankers all filed off.
then we hit the trail, with the first 5 heading down OldSkool, and hubby continuing round to where he'd parked his car at kiwi to do a few laps of the nun. good waft down through the offpiste tussocks'ville, and then a blast down oldskool. no sketchies, took one of the steeper droplines down the rocky bits, and then had a good blast down the lower new.
home by 8.30.
a few of us assembled at Steve's, who turned out wasnt riding cos he'd forgotten to charge his light from last week (or that's his story anyway...). Pete, Andy, Warren, Tony and myself headed off and cruised up Rapaki. Pete, Andy and me got into a good groove and rode ahead, lightless pretty much the entire way up. Warren and Tony tail-end-charlied it with their lights on. with the city glow off the clouds, there was plenty of light to ride by. made the top in reasonable time, but most were feeling it.
quick spin out and back on Witch Hill, with most of us fucking up at least once. nightridebalance issues methinks. as we passed back over the top of Rapaki, there was a group of something like 15 riders. said gudday to them. no reply. dicks.
then it was up the Vernon singletrack. i blew out on one rocky section overlooking rapaki, and then again on the first hairpin near the top. cleaned the top rocky section perfectly, finding the smoothest line i've ever seen there. stopped just over the road and regrouped. the huge group from top of rapaki regrouped there too, and not one of them said hello. what a bunch of fucking imbecile asshole stuck up wankers. flash harry wankers. then Hubby turned up from the direction of Vic park. we stood and chatted a bit as the wankers all filed off.
then we hit the trail, with the first 5 heading down OldSkool, and hubby continuing round to where he'd parked his car at kiwi to do a few laps of the nun. good waft down through the offpiste tussocks'ville, and then a blast down oldskool. no sketchies, took one of the steeper droplines down the rocky bits, and then had a good blast down the lower new.
home by 8.30.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday Rapaki Traverse Nun Vic
turned out a nice warm norwest day. Warren, Steve, Wayne, Tony, Rex and myself assembled at Steve's. Three of us at least nursing heads and guts from Tony's party previous night, with Pete piking (we think) for that reason, and Andrew otherwise besetzt. Up Rapaki at a surprisingly good pace, Rex and me feeding off each other a little for speed, so i directed him onto the valley singletrack for the last leg to the summit... i was too wiped to contemplate it, but it gave him a little bit of adventure.
hit the singletrack and cruised round to top of Vic, enjoying a good blast along the Traverse, then hit Thomsons to Kiwi, running into Hubby on his way up road. Then off we went on up road to top of Marley's. Bombed flying nun, enjoying it all but overcooking a couple of the new jumps and nearly ploughing myself into the bank. Steve's rear brake was for some reason starting to rub so he bailed down the Dyers Pass Rd. the rest of us headed up the Summit to top of Vic, flowed down into the Gummies and then on down Dazza's Brent's Flow and Bridges, me taking the high line that i love so much and cleaning all the droppy bits nicely. Discussed heading up the (by the looks of it -newly worked on) trail into the Hidden Bush valley to take in the lower Old Skool, but figured Steve would be waiting at bottom of Bovenwale, so headed down and out. out by 11.30 pretty much. Steve was waiting, so all but Tony went for coffee at St Martins. after which i pushed into a helluva head wind home.
hit the singletrack and cruised round to top of Vic, enjoying a good blast along the Traverse, then hit Thomsons to Kiwi, running into Hubby on his way up road. Then off we went on up road to top of Marley's. Bombed flying nun, enjoying it all but overcooking a couple of the new jumps and nearly ploughing myself into the bank. Steve's rear brake was for some reason starting to rub so he bailed down the Dyers Pass Rd. the rest of us headed up the Summit to top of Vic, flowed down into the Gummies and then on down Dazza's Brent's Flow and Bridges, me taking the high line that i love so much and cleaning all the droppy bits nicely. Discussed heading up the (by the looks of it -newly worked on) trail into the Hidden Bush valley to take in the lower Old Skool, but figured Steve would be waiting at bottom of Bovenwale, so headed down and out. out by 11.30 pretty much. Steve was waiting, so all but Tony went for coffee at St Martins. after which i pushed into a helluva head wind home.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday Night, Bottle Lake cruise.
9 folk bowled up to the Broadpark carpark. if i remember correctly, warren, dallas, andrew (on his longlegged singlespeedsteed), steve, pete, tony, steve and marie. and me (on the singlespeed). tootled up the coast and hung a left into the park. some rode the first uppydowny section, others took the 'road'. then through to the old dump. met a few up by that shelter, them calling me the pied piper cos of the string of lights following me... headed on into the forest, against the flow of traffic, meeting two groups of assholes who didnt know how to move over. the track is bi-directional, get with the fucking programme, losers. anyway, round to near waitikiri and bombed on into the usual loop. little bit of fun had playing with slightly longer paths from the front and ending up in second or third place. and a few times we all stopped and steve and marie continued on through after they'd caught us up, which made for some fun overtaking. i seemed to always overtake steve on a jump, me flying (literally) past him.
mosied out to Spencerpark, sat about a bit, then headed back in. by this stage Marie's underpowered light was starting to die, but dallas came to the rescue with a groovy led thing. we rode on, he bailed at waitikiri, we continued back through, towards the end Tony's light was dying.
as usual, the weird creak reappeared in the latter stages of the ride. gotta sort it.
mosied out to Spencerpark, sat about a bit, then headed back in. by this stage Marie's underpowered light was starting to die, but dallas came to the rescue with a groovy led thing. we rode on, he bailed at waitikiri, we continued back through, towards the end Tony's light was dying.
as usual, the weird creak reappeared in the latter stages of the ride. gotta sort it.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday Night, fog-coddled Worsleys Nun Vic.
got out with Nelson last night. probably at his place 7.30-45ish, dunno what time we hit the road, across to Worsleys, via Earnsleigh, Heathcote and Cracroft singletrackies and on up the road. i was stuffed, had been at a 1 yr's b.day party all afternoon stuffing myself with cheerios and lollies etc and was full full full.
hard work getting up the hill, but pushed and pushed up into the fog. we rode with minimal lighting. both just using our small LED's for the entire climb. was magical up on the dirt, cos you were coddled in this fog, with only the beam of the LED and the quietness all around. the last section before the gate at the bottom of the bodybag just disappeared, suddenly there we were and the harsh climb began. top of the bodybag got the better of me. blew out where i used to always blow out, not through loss of traction, just loss of lungs... meanwhile, nelson middle ringed the whole bastard. i walked to the finishline. then onto the nun climb a brief rest, now just sitting in the top of the cloud level before the glorious, and tricky to see descent...
nelson lead off and we picked our way down, still pretty quick but careful not to out ride the lights too much(which were glaring in the fog back at us). boosting through the new corners, all minty and fun, dust kept down by the moisture filled air. some sketchy moments but mostly smooth. loving the rocky section, and the blitzing down the old... until my chain jumped, the crunched and jammed. poor chainstay all gouged and scratched, was bloody hard to pull the chain out from where it'd wedged between granny ring and stay. got moving again and were surprised by a new (since Wednesday!) section in the last leg before popping up to Kiwi, i think it was here it was about 9.18.
Kiwi to top of Vic up road, in fog, car headlights sooo dim in distance. Bombed first bit down to see-saw, which we bypassed, then took the oldskool line down to the Gums. first rockgarden was smooth, me in the lead, then we were fog free for a bit through the gums, peeled left (where no one seems to ride anymore) enjoyed the wee jump, i slid beautifully through corner berm and on down through next two berms then blew the wee climb back up to Skiddersite...
then we rode over to Dazza's and explored on foot the wee yumpy trail that starts just to the right. wandered back to the bikes and hit up Dazza's. good flow down through there, me tight on Nelson's tail, then at Brents we peeled onto the "Track Closed" trail. just for a look. rode in and walked over the first jump, then the next, and the next. then there's this wicked swoopy uppy downy blast section, then a couple more drops and jumps that are unrideable to us. good to explore tho, and see whats happening in there. the unfinished end led us through to the 'Darkness' section of Cool Runnings, bombed out the rest of that and onto Flow and Bridges. took the high line above Bridges and had fun dropping down the the drop and then just blew on down out the valley.
rode back through to Nelson's and it was 10pm when i drove home. good use of a sunday night.
hard work getting up the hill, but pushed and pushed up into the fog. we rode with minimal lighting. both just using our small LED's for the entire climb. was magical up on the dirt, cos you were coddled in this fog, with only the beam of the LED and the quietness all around. the last section before the gate at the bottom of the bodybag just disappeared, suddenly there we were and the harsh climb began. top of the bodybag got the better of me. blew out where i used to always blow out, not through loss of traction, just loss of lungs... meanwhile, nelson middle ringed the whole bastard. i walked to the finishline. then onto the nun climb a brief rest, now just sitting in the top of the cloud level before the glorious, and tricky to see descent...
nelson lead off and we picked our way down, still pretty quick but careful not to out ride the lights too much(which were glaring in the fog back at us). boosting through the new corners, all minty and fun, dust kept down by the moisture filled air. some sketchy moments but mostly smooth. loving the rocky section, and the blitzing down the old... until my chain jumped, the crunched and jammed. poor chainstay all gouged and scratched, was bloody hard to pull the chain out from where it'd wedged between granny ring and stay. got moving again and were surprised by a new (since Wednesday!) section in the last leg before popping up to Kiwi, i think it was here it was about 9.18.
Kiwi to top of Vic up road, in fog, car headlights sooo dim in distance. Bombed first bit down to see-saw, which we bypassed, then took the oldskool line down to the Gums. first rockgarden was smooth, me in the lead, then we were fog free for a bit through the gums, peeled left (where no one seems to ride anymore) enjoyed the wee jump, i slid beautifully through corner berm and on down through next two berms then blew the wee climb back up to Skiddersite...
then we rode over to Dazza's and explored on foot the wee yumpy trail that starts just to the right. wandered back to the bikes and hit up Dazza's. good flow down through there, me tight on Nelson's tail, then at Brents we peeled onto the "Track Closed" trail. just for a look. rode in and walked over the first jump, then the next, and the next. then there's this wicked swoopy uppy downy blast section, then a couple more drops and jumps that are unrideable to us. good to explore tho, and see whats happening in there. the unfinished end led us through to the 'Darkness' section of Cool Runnings, bombed out the rest of that and onto Flow and Bridges. took the high line above Bridges and had fun dropping down the the drop and then just blew on down out the valley.
rode back through to Nelson's and it was 10pm when i drove home. good use of a sunday night.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday Night, Dyers, H.Ell, new, Nun, Traverse, Old Skool.
excellent ride last night. drove over to Nelson's and we watched the Craigieburn footage he'd gotten. worked out pretty good.
then we hit the road, Strickland, Colombo and up Dyers Pass to the H.Ell Track. burned up there under LED light only and made the Kiwi in good time.
then up the summit rd to the top of the new tasty singletrack that shoots down into Govs Bay. EXCELLENT WORK in there. its finished to the top (opposite where Flying Nun meets the road) and is gonna be hella dodgy in the winter, with permafrost sections and slippery slippery mud. it looked like it was gonna be slippery last night, the dirt was dampish, but proved to be good traction. cool bridge section half way down too. flowed down that and decided to turn tail and ride back up it. not a bad wee climb, but my legs were starting to suffer cos i think i pushed too hard coming up the road earlier, spun out a couple of times.
from the top we continued up Summit Rd to top of the Nun, BOMBED down that, me leading, loving all the new corners up the top, they flow so well. Nelson had a mishap up there somewhere, i think jumping and landing in the rut of the old track. enjoyed the rocky well-worn-in lower sections too. i waited for him a couple of times but never let him get too close on my tail. but we both got to the bottom safely, albeit me a bit ahead.
then up the road to top of Vic Park. hit the Traverse Highway, spun round there, stopping for snackage at sign below Sugarloaf. Nelson pinchflatted his front wheel at top of LavaFlow, so short delay while he swapped tubes, then as we were cruising down through the tussocks on our way to Old Skool i did the classic-slowmo-frontwheel-stopped-by-a-tussock-over-the-bars, rest of bike clattering down on top of me, (literally - rear drop-out and wheel hit my helmet!). luckily tussocks are a soft landing. laughed out loud at it and had a good laugh while we continued and then we BOMBED down to the gate and did the top section of Old Skool pretty damned quick too. took all the piste-off lines - which are ruttier than ever, and then hit the sheepshit strewn singletrack. i had an excellent roost down there, creaming the whole lot. one dodgey section on some of the upper new stuff where there's a really bad wetspot (leaky pipe up hill or something?), appeared from behind a tussock and is a muddy mucky rutted hole, nearly lost it but made it through alive and continued with the bombing.
out Bowenvale Ave, back to Nelso's round the river and the 'lombo, all up a couple hours not bad.
then we hit the road, Strickland, Colombo and up Dyers Pass to the H.Ell Track. burned up there under LED light only and made the Kiwi in good time.
then up the summit rd to the top of the new tasty singletrack that shoots down into Govs Bay. EXCELLENT WORK in there. its finished to the top (opposite where Flying Nun meets the road) and is gonna be hella dodgy in the winter, with permafrost sections and slippery slippery mud. it looked like it was gonna be slippery last night, the dirt was dampish, but proved to be good traction. cool bridge section half way down too. flowed down that and decided to turn tail and ride back up it. not a bad wee climb, but my legs were starting to suffer cos i think i pushed too hard coming up the road earlier, spun out a couple of times.
from the top we continued up Summit Rd to top of the Nun, BOMBED down that, me leading, loving all the new corners up the top, they flow so well. Nelson had a mishap up there somewhere, i think jumping and landing in the rut of the old track. enjoyed the rocky well-worn-in lower sections too. i waited for him a couple of times but never let him get too close on my tail. but we both got to the bottom safely, albeit me a bit ahead.
then up the road to top of Vic Park. hit the Traverse Highway, spun round there, stopping for snackage at sign below Sugarloaf. Nelson pinchflatted his front wheel at top of LavaFlow, so short delay while he swapped tubes, then as we were cruising down through the tussocks on our way to Old Skool i did the classic-slowmo-frontwheel-stopped-by-a-tussock-over-the-bars, rest of bike clattering down on top of me, (literally - rear drop-out and wheel hit my helmet!). luckily tussocks are a soft landing. laughed out loud at it and had a good laugh while we continued and then we BOMBED down to the gate and did the top section of Old Skool pretty damned quick too. took all the piste-off lines - which are ruttier than ever, and then hit the sheepshit strewn singletrack. i had an excellent roost down there, creaming the whole lot. one dodgey section on some of the upper new stuff where there's a really bad wetspot (leaky pipe up hill or something?), appeared from behind a tussock and is a muddy mucky rutted hole, nearly lost it but made it through alive and continued with the bombing.
out Bowenvale Ave, back to Nelso's round the river and the 'lombo, all up a couple hours not bad.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Easter, Little Akalala
Little Ak, took the Cotic over. rode it around the section a bit, and down to the beach with O once. in cutting wood i've cleared a bit of a trail up into the forest, and rode down it a couple of times, nice techy rooty dirt trail. working out a feasible loop route too. also tootled around testing out ratios for the SS project i'm building for over there...
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Capt Thom and Godley under first lights.
got a lift with Pete and met up with massive group assembled outside dot com. Nelson, Steve, Andrew, Hubster, Tony, Warren, Rex, Mother Ted and Pete and me.
Good blast up Capt Thomas, nice and mild on the hill, Nelson and me leading out, riding without lights for as long as mentally possible. I turned mine on briefly in the gulch near the bridge, then off again, until the wee descent over rocky bit further up. dismounted the usual dismounts, but cleaned everything else. good blast to top, tho legs were feeling a bit wiped by Evans. All regrouped there, was amazing watching the tailenders lights from up top.
Hit Godley, balance all over the place, blew the first climb, and had lots of weird offbalance dabs most of the way out. bit of a regroup round at the start of the first main descent, and then off we went, nelson leading out onto the newly laid Teddington Shit. most spectacular crash i've ever had the pleasure (and shock) to watch. it was amazing, i saw his front wheel go out then suddenly the bike was flying through the air and he was crashlanding and running and stumbling and tripping as the bike somersaulted and vaulted off the track and down the hill. amazing. he was okay, just a small graze (which is gonna bruise up nicely) on his thigh, and some scrapage on his shoulder. he led off again, and nearly lost it again before the wee bridge, so i led off and blasted the rest to Livingston. not a bad run, taking it reasonably easy, but still getting a good speed on. From Livingston, i tackled the climb quite well, but my random dabbiness was still in action on the rocky bits near top. then good spin down to Breeze, tho with a massive bottoming out of the shock on the last leg.
The others all bailed down Anaconda, while Pete, Nelson, Rex and me tootled along the road under moon's light to the end. watching the other's lights powering along the 'conda. Nice blast back on the singletrack, then onto the 'conda for us. i was getting my eye in, and managed to really fly down.
Then it was up out of Taylors, Nelson and Rex powering off, my legs still recovering, (craigie-)burning from Sunday's jaunt, and Pete not far behind. then blasted down Nicholson, and at Scarborough Fare looking back, no sign of Rex... thought he'd crashed, but his light had died so he'd come down the road. regrouped with the rest and most of us stayed for snackage and coffees/hotcho's at the Slotcom.
Damned good timing on craigieburn on sunday, as last night it snowed a lot up there.
Good blast up Capt Thomas, nice and mild on the hill, Nelson and me leading out, riding without lights for as long as mentally possible. I turned mine on briefly in the gulch near the bridge, then off again, until the wee descent over rocky bit further up. dismounted the usual dismounts, but cleaned everything else. good blast to top, tho legs were feeling a bit wiped by Evans. All regrouped there, was amazing watching the tailenders lights from up top.
Hit Godley, balance all over the place, blew the first climb, and had lots of weird offbalance dabs most of the way out. bit of a regroup round at the start of the first main descent, and then off we went, nelson leading out onto the newly laid Teddington Shit. most spectacular crash i've ever had the pleasure (and shock) to watch. it was amazing, i saw his front wheel go out then suddenly the bike was flying through the air and he was crashlanding and running and stumbling and tripping as the bike somersaulted and vaulted off the track and down the hill. amazing. he was okay, just a small graze (which is gonna bruise up nicely) on his thigh, and some scrapage on his shoulder. he led off again, and nearly lost it again before the wee bridge, so i led off and blasted the rest to Livingston. not a bad run, taking it reasonably easy, but still getting a good speed on. From Livingston, i tackled the climb quite well, but my random dabbiness was still in action on the rocky bits near top. then good spin down to Breeze, tho with a massive bottoming out of the shock on the last leg.
The others all bailed down Anaconda, while Pete, Nelson, Rex and me tootled along the road under moon's light to the end. watching the other's lights powering along the 'conda. Nice blast back on the singletrack, then onto the 'conda for us. i was getting my eye in, and managed to really fly down.
Then it was up out of Taylors, Nelson and Rex powering off, my legs still recovering, (craigie-)burning from Sunday's jaunt, and Pete not far behind. then blasted down Nicholson, and at Scarborough Fare looking back, no sign of Rex... thought he'd crashed, but his light had died so he'd come down the road. regrouped with the rest and most of us stayed for snackage and coffees/hotcho's at the Slotcom.
Damned good timing on craigieburn on sunday, as last night it snowed a lot up there.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Craigieburned it up.
huge pile of us, ten in fact, assembled at Steve's. incl: Steve, (abba)Steve, Andrew, Pete, Nelson, Tony, Wayne, (hel)Mark, hubby and myself. drived there, weather looking ominous, but turning out good.
previous trips, once on way home from Kaniere (pre blog), then May06-marys-first with al.
March07-luge-draco-cheese-taboggan with harry from work, and
Jan08happy-new-yeah with nelson (hard to believe that was the last time i did it... )
parked up, and headed up the road to the Luge... i led off, cleaning heaps but walking some of the steeper rootier sections that plague the lower 1/3rd. having not ridden for a couple of weeks meant my lungs were struggling. sat for a spell on the bench 1/3rd of the way up, and regrouped, then headed on up. granny for a start but middle ringing the top 1/3rd no prob. Lyndon saddle, and off i led blasting the way down to Craigieburn access rd. absolutely flew that section, i think it was my best riding of the day. even nelson couldnt seem to keep up. he put the camera on from the turn off and followed pete, who said he had trouble staying on my tail down to the road.
then the grind began. well, not really. the road is sweet to start with, middle ring most of the way, but after the ford/bridge the steepness begins. nelson cleaned it all middlering, but i grannied/2nd it all the way up, the straights looking not that bad, but biting nonetheless.
regrouped in skifield carpark, bit of drizzle drifting in, lotsa wind about. climbed up and hit the trail. the edge. of reason. here's me on it... right near the top, when i was feeling okay about it...
previous trips, once on way home from Kaniere (pre blog), then May06-marys-first with al.
March07-luge-draco-cheese-taboggan with harry from work, and
Jan08happy-new-yeah with nelson (hard to believe that was the last time i did it... )
parked up, and headed up the road to the Luge... i led off, cleaning heaps but walking some of the steeper rootier sections that plague the lower 1/3rd. having not ridden for a couple of weeks meant my lungs were struggling. sat for a spell on the bench 1/3rd of the way up, and regrouped, then headed on up. granny for a start but middle ringing the top 1/3rd no prob. Lyndon saddle, and off i led blasting the way down to Craigieburn access rd. absolutely flew that section, i think it was my best riding of the day. even nelson couldnt seem to keep up. he put the camera on from the turn off and followed pete, who said he had trouble staying on my tail down to the road.
then the grind began. well, not really. the road is sweet to start with, middle ring most of the way, but after the ford/bridge the steepness begins. nelson cleaned it all middlering, but i grannied/2nd it all the way up, the straights looking not that bad, but biting nonetheless.
regrouped in skifield carpark, bit of drizzle drifting in, lotsa wind about. climbed up and hit the trail. the edge. of reason. here's me on it... right near the top, when i was feeling okay about it...
i led the way, but soon felt out of my depth. cleaned lots of tricky stuff, but dabbed in so many places i shouldnt have. was just feeling very very careful i guess. anyway, sections of absolute brilliance followed by sections of near shitting myself rounding corners with shitscary drops off. the final scree was washed out on what it was last time we rode it. nelson nearly offed, pete cleaned lots of it. most walked bits, including me.
then the climb, back up to Lyndon Saddle, and at one point i stopped, rocked backwards slightly and heard this 'ting' from my front brake. the pads were so low that the spring that holds them apart had caught on the disk and bent. rode it to top and got to work. tried bending it back, no good. so new pads installed, (with me being given a hard time for no apparent reason other than holding everyone up - tho, it didnt take me THAT long...), and off we rode. pete, nelson then me, then hub. me breaking in my new pads... hauled up at the benchseat, hub continued on, and then off we all bombed again. pete then me then nelson and the rest. mostly an excellent drop down, tho i dropped my chain near the bottom which slowed me up a little, tho not that much, more of a nuisance than anything else... then talk of climbing up and doing more, but instead we bailed... through gales on the drive home. andrew's car got all chipped up by blown gravel.
then the climb, back up to Lyndon Saddle, and at one point i stopped, rocked backwards slightly and heard this 'ting' from my front brake. the pads were so low that the spring that holds them apart had caught on the disk and bent. rode it to top and got to work. tried bending it back, no good. so new pads installed, (with me being given a hard time for no apparent reason other than holding everyone up - tho, it didnt take me THAT long...), and off we rode. pete, nelson then me, then hub. me breaking in my new pads... hauled up at the benchseat, hub continued on, and then off we all bombed again. pete then me then nelson and the rest. mostly an excellent drop down, tho i dropped my chain near the bottom which slowed me up a little, tho not that much, more of a nuisance than anything else... then talk of climbing up and doing more, but instead we bailed... through gales on the drive home. andrew's car got all chipped up by blown gravel.
Friday, April 03, 2009
heeeesh... no rides to speak of
fiordland last week, and only riding to work and the Specialized Ghettoglobe jaunt to Andrew's on tuesday night for a pfmtbc meeting about this October's trip to speak of...
plan is to do some Craigieburnin' on Sunday. and Nels and me might do a spin on the hills Saturday night, cos its Daylightsavings ending, so the evenings are gonna have to be lit from now on...
plan is to do some Craigieburnin' on Sunday. and Nels and me might do a spin on the hills Saturday night, cos its Daylightsavings ending, so the evenings are gonna have to be lit from now on...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Paddy's Croc
picked up Nelson and we headed for the Quarry. arrived to find Wayne, Steve, Tony, Warren and Rex, and then Pete showed up. headed through the quarry park to the bottom of the crock. up that, cleaning all nicely, to bottom of Kennedys, then on up newtasty, young cattle all over the top half, that didnt seem to wanna get out of the way. i botched one of the little ups. nelson and me powering miles ahead of all the rest. regrouped at highest gate, then on over to the next one, nelson filming that descent with camera facing backwards on seatstay this time.
turned around, and climbed back up, then filming again, nelson leading, us all bombing down down down down. Nelson got bailed up by the twistytricky little rock gut on the lower section in the valley, i nearly crashed into him, and then pete ended up juuust bumping into me, coming to a halt with my pedal IN his front spokes. if he'd moved another 3 inches it would have taken some out. then onwards down, grunted up the climb, cleaning it, regrouped and on down the rest. some tasty sgilfs walking their doggie were a treat to behold, and on down to the cars... the others went for a st paddy's day beer while i went and got a bike for O.
turned around, and climbed back up, then filming again, nelson leading, us all bombing down down down down. Nelson got bailed up by the twistytricky little rock gut on the lower section in the valley, i nearly crashed into him, and then pete ended up juuust bumping into me, coming to a halt with my pedal IN his front spokes. if he'd moved another 3 inches it would have taken some out. then onwards down, grunted up the climb, cleaning it, regrouped and on down the rest. some tasty sgilfs walking their doggie were a treat to behold, and on down to the cars... the others went for a st paddy's day beer while i went and got a bike for O.
Friday, March 13, 2009
para para again
went in and did it again. Started into Forest again, over Saddle, round Little River, up Ridge, down DH, up Estuary, up Ridge, down Ridge, round Big River, back out Forest, then up to Estuary trail, down that and back round the flat to car... was fun...
time limited me to doing only that again. spent 2 nights at Marahau and would have loved to have ridden the Kaiteriteri trails again, but family time took over and walked Anchorage back instead...
time limited me to doing only that again. spent 2 nights at Marahau and would have loved to have ridden the Kaiteriteri trails again, but family time took over and walked Anchorage back instead...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Rameka'd, and Parapara
En route to Totaranui on the 2nd March, T dropped me at top of Takaka Hill and i cruised out the Canaan Rd to end, 11kms in a bit less than an hour, prob 400 odd m of climb, then at end there's a sign, roughly 1 hour to bush edge, another hour to Takaka... well, dunno who that's for. 35 mins to bush edge and another 35 to Takaka.
Anyway, mint ride. was a beautiful day, perfect views everywhere, the road in was cool, only met two cars on their ways out. got to trailhead and hit the singletrack. wee climb to Rameka turn off, then the sidling benched gorgeous track began. winding in and out, less of a gradient than any of Wharfdale, middle ring cruising, roots, puddles, the odd stream crossing. nice flow... then, towards bush edge, finally a bit of a flowy descent, then into gorse, steeper, some mildly tech descent into a gulch, then back up other side on a carved out of a rocky cliff bench to the end of the track. 4wd for a km or so, then gravel rd down down down down to a Project Rameka sign (Kennett project), nice wee flowy piece of singletrack deviation from road on original rameka, and then back onto road, near miss with a 4wd coming up, and good bomb to a ford and valley bottom downhill gravel road for a good few kms out to a sealed road... hmmm, which way? left felt right, so took it and ended up about 3kms from Takaka on main road... 1 hr 10 or so since i left the Harwoods Hole carpark, surprising Chris and Lottie at the pub.
No real riding at Totaranui. just 5 days on glorious golden beach, bush, sun, some torrential rain and lotsa beer.
then Collingwood. so far, yesterday morning i drove round to the Parapara inlet, and hit the parapara trails. small, not even 1km sq piece of forestry, with about 60-80 m of altitude in it, and heaps of trails. followed signs, Forest Trail, Big River Loop, Little River Loop, Ridge Track, Estuary Track, Ridge again, estuary again, up an unnamed DH track, down Ridge, Saddle both ways, back round Big River and back round Forest. all up probably 1.5 hours? no idea how many kms or m alt, but a lot of it is twisty low speed stuff. the whole time i was thinking how cool a Pugsley would have been, bouncing over roots and stuff... fun tho.
Might try'n get in Aorere Goldfields, walked up there yesterday and looks like fun country... otherwise, we're prob off to Marahau in which case i'll try for Kaiteri again, or Nelson, do something there again...
Anyway, mint ride. was a beautiful day, perfect views everywhere, the road in was cool, only met two cars on their ways out. got to trailhead and hit the singletrack. wee climb to Rameka turn off, then the sidling benched gorgeous track began. winding in and out, less of a gradient than any of Wharfdale, middle ring cruising, roots, puddles, the odd stream crossing. nice flow... then, towards bush edge, finally a bit of a flowy descent, then into gorse, steeper, some mildly tech descent into a gulch, then back up other side on a carved out of a rocky cliff bench to the end of the track. 4wd for a km or so, then gravel rd down down down down to a Project Rameka sign (Kennett project), nice wee flowy piece of singletrack deviation from road on original rameka, and then back onto road, near miss with a 4wd coming up, and good bomb to a ford and valley bottom downhill gravel road for a good few kms out to a sealed road... hmmm, which way? left felt right, so took it and ended up about 3kms from Takaka on main road... 1 hr 10 or so since i left the Harwoods Hole carpark, surprising Chris and Lottie at the pub.
No real riding at Totaranui. just 5 days on glorious golden beach, bush, sun, some torrential rain and lotsa beer.
then Collingwood. so far, yesterday morning i drove round to the Parapara inlet, and hit the parapara trails. small, not even 1km sq piece of forestry, with about 60-80 m of altitude in it, and heaps of trails. followed signs, Forest Trail, Big River Loop, Little River Loop, Ridge Track, Estuary Track, Ridge again, estuary again, up an unnamed DH track, down Ridge, Saddle both ways, back round Big River and back round Forest. all up probably 1.5 hours? no idea how many kms or m alt, but a lot of it is twisty low speed stuff. the whole time i was thinking how cool a Pugsley would have been, bouncing over roots and stuff... fun tho.
Might try'n get in Aorere Goldfields, walked up there yesterday and looks like fun country... otherwise, we're prob off to Marahau in which case i'll try for Kaiteri again, or Nelson, do something there again...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Peaky.
I'm on Holiday!!!!!
Today, headed out 1.30-2ish, rode up Codgers to Tantragee and a guy had just come down off Fringe Hill, said its shut cos of the logging (that i could see up on the old devils tail). so, headed round Dun Mtn Walkway. good jaunt up there, probably an hour? less?? the wind damage from last year is madcore, whole faces next to ridges just clearfelled. mental. right pedal wouldnt clip in, had a look and it was bent, and the bolt/screw thingy that holds the whole spring set up for one half of the pedal was out. worked on it for 15 mins or so and just couldnt get it in, so tightened it up as best i could.
had a rest at 3rd House and then tackled the walk up through the decimation to windy ridge... probably 20mins carrying the bike. really messed up in there. then up the ridge a brief distance and whoopee, down Peaking Ridge (see here for last year's)(a year to the day, nearly!).
Absolutely more insane than i remember it. the new 'built' bits are few and far between, the rest is still just as rooty and crazy as before, except that there's huge expanses of it, maybe 40%, that have been windfelled. excellent work by the trail pixies who've been in and re-cleared it... a little way down i spotted my pedal wasnt looking so happy, so i took all the bits off and only had one half to clip into. so, even with that, no real tight moments, quite a bit more walking than last year, cos of the fact that it must have rained in the last 24 hours and the roots were a fair bit slippier than the dry trip down i had last year. the last section especially, i thought i remembered cleaning it all, but this time i bailed on quite a few of the steeper sections... had to keep myself safe, right?
anyway, got to bottom, Maitai River, and stayed on the side i was on (vs switching over cos of track work last time), and nice wee ride down benched singletrack to a bridge, then onto the gravel road alllllllll the way down the Maitai.
When the seal started, i popped over the river, and headed up Tantragee to the top and then down Codgers. back at Flamedaisy at 5.30ish.
Loads of bikers in town, cos Nationals are on this weekend, and a cyclone is about to hit. got this ride in today cos forecast looks like a LOT of rain... wet racers... the track was around Codgers, lots of tape around there.
Today, headed out 1.30-2ish, rode up Codgers to Tantragee and a guy had just come down off Fringe Hill, said its shut cos of the logging (that i could see up on the old devils tail). so, headed round Dun Mtn Walkway. good jaunt up there, probably an hour? less?? the wind damage from last year is madcore, whole faces next to ridges just clearfelled. mental. right pedal wouldnt clip in, had a look and it was bent, and the bolt/screw thingy that holds the whole spring set up for one half of the pedal was out. worked on it for 15 mins or so and just couldnt get it in, so tightened it up as best i could.
had a rest at 3rd House and then tackled the walk up through the decimation to windy ridge... probably 20mins carrying the bike. really messed up in there. then up the ridge a brief distance and whoopee, down Peaking Ridge (see here for last year's)(a year to the day, nearly!).
Absolutely more insane than i remember it. the new 'built' bits are few and far between, the rest is still just as rooty and crazy as before, except that there's huge expanses of it, maybe 40%, that have been windfelled. excellent work by the trail pixies who've been in and re-cleared it... a little way down i spotted my pedal wasnt looking so happy, so i took all the bits off and only had one half to clip into. so, even with that, no real tight moments, quite a bit more walking than last year, cos of the fact that it must have rained in the last 24 hours and the roots were a fair bit slippier than the dry trip down i had last year. the last section especially, i thought i remembered cleaning it all, but this time i bailed on quite a few of the steeper sections... had to keep myself safe, right?
anyway, got to bottom, Maitai River, and stayed on the side i was on (vs switching over cos of track work last time), and nice wee ride down benched singletrack to a bridge, then onto the gravel road alllllllll the way down the Maitai.
When the seal started, i popped over the river, and headed up Tantragee to the top and then down Codgers. back at Flamedaisy at 5.30ish.
Loads of bikers in town, cos Nationals are on this weekend, and a cyclone is about to hit. got this ride in today cos forecast looks like a LOT of rain... wet racers... the track was around Codgers, lots of tape around there.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Are your mcleans showing...
nelson, me, singlespeeds. 3 laps. just done. filmed looking backwards from nelson's bike for one lap. overtook a couple people, as well as a group of scouts we kept seeing, and got taken by one speedster on our second lap. he had gears and a nice new looking lightweight weightweenster bike, so it was no surprise really... anyway he only caught us on the straights, couldnt keep up in the corners. first lap, 23 mins, second a bit slower, third, maybe as fast?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday evening, Cashmere quick blat
Had Nainy over for dinner, so dropping her home up the hill decided to have a wee ride. Picked up Nelsy on way across town, and we hit it from her place, up the zigzag, gasping for air, up the Vic Park track, dropped down to Old Dyers, up to Kiwi, up road, checked out the trail progress into Gov's, they were working on it, looking good, nearly connected thru..., then up over marleys, legs tired on the up, followed by my best run down i reckon ever, then up thomsons, down thru Vic, with me doing the Seesaw for the first time ever - finally!!! then down through gummies, stopping and walking up to check out the madcore jumps track off next to bottom of them, then singletrack parallel to fire access down to 19th battalion and Rangerstation, poached paths up round info centre, then across playground, poached dog park where Nelson flatted, fixed that, easterly cooling us down a bit, then it was nearly getting too dark to see, picked our way down the barbedwire-kiss trail beside the pines, below the houses, explored past the no access to see why its no access, and understood why (trees down and gulch washed out), then back to Nainy's. All up a pretty short but good ride.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday, Worsley 'nun gov dyers dazzas nats hidden oldskool
dropped in at work to set a process running, then hit road about 10. straight down Colombo, into Ernsley(sp?) then round river (nice jump on that bridge by Princess Marg's) to Cracroft river and up Worsley's. pretty warm. seemed like hard work but made pretty good time. made the top at 10.50, cleaning entire. seemed to be lots of bike-orienteerers around (Rogainers?), with checkpoint thingies up Worsley's and elsewhere i noticed.
Excellent bomb down the 'nun, the braking ruts not really all that bad, just gotta scrub the speed before them or ignore them entirely. lower rocks fun, then excellent run down lower til i got stuck behind someone. that made me decide to peel off up the little side track halfway down the lower section, and pop over onto the trail that drops into Gov's bay. i'd been wanting to check out progress on the new track. bumpy bomb down towards gov's, hung a right onto the new bit and pedalled on up. miles further than last time. surface a little bit sticky from recent(ish) rains. got to end of where they'd worked, and turned round and floated back down. nice flow. then worked it back up to the summit road, and over back onto the bottom of the nun. continued on into Old Dyers. spotted a couple of other riders a ways ahead. chased them down and passed them on the straighter bits, cruised round to Vic.
climbed up into Vic, took singletrack to skidder site, then hit Dazza's. peeled left before the bottom and grabbed Pono's down to the pylon, then down the Nat's course (avoiding the rock drop), bypassing the 23 footer, hoofing down into off camber, and crossing k2 and on down through the drop. then hung a right into the gorse and clambered up towards Hidden Valley. instead of going up through hidden, i took the old track. more work than hidden i think. up to pylon, and onto the Lower Old Skool. saw a guy ahead, chased him down took him before the newbits, and bombed rest of way down. bit of a head wind across town home. home by 12.15 - not bad timing.
Then, took O out to bottle lake, singlespeed and tagalong. rode in, hung a right, out to and along beach, then back in past the pond. he enjoyed it, i was feeling a bit tired tho.
Excellent bomb down the 'nun, the braking ruts not really all that bad, just gotta scrub the speed before them or ignore them entirely. lower rocks fun, then excellent run down lower til i got stuck behind someone. that made me decide to peel off up the little side track halfway down the lower section, and pop over onto the trail that drops into Gov's bay. i'd been wanting to check out progress on the new track. bumpy bomb down towards gov's, hung a right onto the new bit and pedalled on up. miles further than last time. surface a little bit sticky from recent(ish) rains. got to end of where they'd worked, and turned round and floated back down. nice flow. then worked it back up to the summit road, and over back onto the bottom of the nun. continued on into Old Dyers. spotted a couple of other riders a ways ahead. chased them down and passed them on the straighter bits, cruised round to Vic.
climbed up into Vic, took singletrack to skidder site, then hit Dazza's. peeled left before the bottom and grabbed Pono's down to the pylon, then down the Nat's course (avoiding the rock drop), bypassing the 23 footer, hoofing down into off camber, and crossing k2 and on down through the drop. then hung a right into the gorse and clambered up towards Hidden Valley. instead of going up through hidden, i took the old track. more work than hidden i think. up to pylon, and onto the Lower Old Skool. saw a guy ahead, chased him down took him before the newbits, and bombed rest of way down. bit of a head wind across town home. home by 12.15 - not bad timing.
Then, took O out to bottle lake, singlespeed and tagalong. rode in, hung a right, out to and along beach, then back in past the pond. he enjoyed it, i was feeling a bit tired tho.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday Lunchtime Blast
Left work just after 12. headed Manchester, High, Barbadoes, Waltham, Wilsons, met Nelson at Centaurus, we headed up Rapaki. pretty quick climb, first section graded flat and smooth, blatted to top. hard work. then up round Vernon singletrack, which had been weedeaten most of the way up, with very very very very dry grass all over the trail (this'd be hella slippery coming down). the weedeaters were parked up for lunch. Hit the first bit of Traverse, then bombed off piste and onwards down Old Skool. excellent run down there, cleaning all nicely. nelson made his leg bleed by scraping it with his back tire off balanced in a rut. lower section of singletrack full of sheep and shit and trodden up dusty trail. out bottom, Bowenvale Ave, Birdwood, Sandwich, round river to Colombo, all the way back to work, Nelson peeling off at Milton... back at work by 1.45.
this was just what i needed after a more than a week off the bike.
this was just what i needed after a more than a week off the bike.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Packhorse, pack of heat...
Mint ride yesterday with Nelson. rode over to his place by about 8.30, and we jumped in the Bongo, headed round to Motukarara and up Gebbies.
parked up top (160 m), and hit the trail. gravel road for first 800 odd m, mild gradient, then into pine forest singletrack. slight climb then sweeeet descent into a valley, then a climb up a bit and over a stile then climbing along side forest and round a corner, onto a forestry road descent, which then peeled onto a sweet flowing climbing singletrack through fir. a coupla switchies too tight and steep to ride, then pedalling again, all the while in forestry. man, have we discovered the untouched unknown forested singletrack riding destination on the outskirts of chch??? Possibly. climbing easily some more ups and downs, nothing major, passed a couple of walkers, then it got steeper, little bit of walking, not much tho, heat getting to us, so muggy so stopped for rest. walkers passed. rest some more, then onwards, up towards the final fence of the forest. quite steep hillside here, with the track lightly bench cut into it, going up at a nice gradient, kinda bottom range middle chainring, or a few down on back in granny, sidling round the hill. you wouldnt want to tumble off the side... up to the Remarkable dykes with some nice rocky trail here, and they really are remarkable... then its about 5 minutes round to the hut (460m)... all up, about an hour from van to the hut.
the hut had been full over night, with people camping around it too. most had departed by the time we got there. nice hut. great views, down Kaituna, across Lyttelton Harbour, over the porthills all round. no sign of the southerly.
anyway, we decided to explore a little further, and so headed round back of Mt Bradley. nice trail round to a wicked patch of bush, trail sweeetness through it, except for the onga onga that crowded out the trail at one point, then out of the bush onto a zig zag track up the hill. spotted some goats above us. ended up getting tighter and tighter up to about the 650m contour. then we turned round and rode the 200m altitude back to the hut. then after waiting for a few walkers to come up, headed on down the track to Gebbies... much better downhill, obviously.
carefully round the sidling through the dykes and on down to the forest. then into the forest and a smooth flowy bombfest ensued. luckily encountered no walkers, tho the visibility is such that it wouldnt be a problem, not really any blind corners anywhere that you're not going carefully round. awesome flow all the way back down. the first few little ups are easy blasts, but towards the end theres a couple of grunts that were pushing my heat and sleep deprived exhausted bones. the last climb (that was the sweet descent at the start) had a few corners of walking. then a blast down the gravel to the car. all up, about 25mins back down from hut. We're thinking this'd be a great night ride.
parked up top (160 m), and hit the trail. gravel road for first 800 odd m, mild gradient, then into pine forest singletrack. slight climb then sweeeet descent into a valley, then a climb up a bit and over a stile then climbing along side forest and round a corner, onto a forestry road descent, which then peeled onto a sweet flowing climbing singletrack through fir. a coupla switchies too tight and steep to ride, then pedalling again, all the while in forestry. man, have we discovered the untouched unknown forested singletrack riding destination on the outskirts of chch??? Possibly. climbing easily some more ups and downs, nothing major, passed a couple of walkers, then it got steeper, little bit of walking, not much tho, heat getting to us, so muggy so stopped for rest. walkers passed. rest some more, then onwards, up towards the final fence of the forest. quite steep hillside here, with the track lightly bench cut into it, going up at a nice gradient, kinda bottom range middle chainring, or a few down on back in granny, sidling round the hill. you wouldnt want to tumble off the side... up to the Remarkable dykes with some nice rocky trail here, and they really are remarkable... then its about 5 minutes round to the hut (460m)... all up, about an hour from van to the hut.
the hut had been full over night, with people camping around it too. most had departed by the time we got there. nice hut. great views, down Kaituna, across Lyttelton Harbour, over the porthills all round. no sign of the southerly.
anyway, we decided to explore a little further, and so headed round back of Mt Bradley. nice trail round to a wicked patch of bush, trail sweeetness through it, except for the onga onga that crowded out the trail at one point, then out of the bush onto a zig zag track up the hill. spotted some goats above us. ended up getting tighter and tighter up to about the 650m contour. then we turned round and rode the 200m altitude back to the hut. then after waiting for a few walkers to come up, headed on down the track to Gebbies... much better downhill, obviously.
carefully round the sidling through the dykes and on down to the forest. then into the forest and a smooth flowy bombfest ensued. luckily encountered no walkers, tho the visibility is such that it wouldnt be a problem, not really any blind corners anywhere that you're not going carefully round. awesome flow all the way back down. the first few little ups are easy blasts, but towards the end theres a couple of grunts that were pushing my heat and sleep deprived exhausted bones. the last climb (that was the sweet descent at the start) had a few corners of walking. then a blast down the gravel to the car. all up, about 25mins back down from hut. We're thinking this'd be a great night ride.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday night, into the wind...
bit of a southerly blowing, pushed into the wind over to Steve's to find him not riding (again!), this time cos of his wrist tweak (cause unknown) of sunday. Nelson, Andrew, Tony, Warren and myself were the only starters. tootled round, up busy Rapaki, taking down a few people, helluva wind up on top, waited for Helmetless Mark, Marie, and accountant Steve, aka Abba... my legs still not fully recovered from heat and ride on sunday.
struggled up round Vernon, then blasted round Traverse to Vic, Thomsons, Kiwi, up road to top of Marleys, struggling majorly with the road and last 4wd climb. (Marie riding up Flying nun from road to meet us part way up). Bombed it down the 'Nun, passed Marie by, and hauled ass down to Kiwi again... everybody seemed to have a pretty good run. i felt good, getting to know what to expect on every section now.
Up road to top of Vic, and down to brakefree, then down ?Sesame St? into new section with cool wooden wallride. then Tony, Marie, Mark and abba bailed, and the rest of us went down Dazzas, into Brents, Flow, Bridges, top line again, cleaning all, then barged up the being-rebuilt-zigzags, up Hidden Valley, to pylon, and caught the lower Old Skool singletrack for a blast down. all good.
streetlights were just on as i rode home across town, nice tail wind to push me, tho it'd died a bit (as per..).
struggled up round Vernon, then blasted round Traverse to Vic, Thomsons, Kiwi, up road to top of Marleys, struggling majorly with the road and last 4wd climb. (Marie riding up Flying nun from road to meet us part way up). Bombed it down the 'Nun, passed Marie by, and hauled ass down to Kiwi again... everybody seemed to have a pretty good run. i felt good, getting to know what to expect on every section now.
Up road to top of Vic, and down to brakefree, then down ?Sesame St? into new section with cool wooden wallride. then Tony, Marie, Mark and abba bailed, and the rest of us went down Dazzas, into Brents, Flow, Bridges, top line again, cleaning all, then barged up the being-rebuilt-zigzags, up Hidden Valley, to pylon, and caught the lower Old Skool singletrack for a blast down. all good.
streetlights were just on as i rode home across town, nice tail wind to push me, tho it'd died a bit (as per..).
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