finally, after a week and a half...

just getting more and more antsy, finally last night i managed to get out. split work early, home quick, changed, jumped on switchy.


Left home at 16.32, was somewhere on Rapaki Rd at 16.46 (cant remember quite how far up but well before first gate), made good time up Rapaki. passed a couple of guys between first gates, then caught this smiley youngish but greyhaired german dude on a kula deluxe (same colours as Nelson's) a km up from the second gate but then he caught and passed me 200m from top. made the top at 17.08. me and the kraut exchanged friendly words at the top, what a great night it was etc. then he went towards the Bridle Path whereas i turned right. when i got up to the upper switchbacks (just above Farm Track) i caught up to a dude on a Santa Cruz (Blur(i think)) who managed to keep ahead of me, so i tailed him until i peeled down the oldschool Bow'nvale, took it a little easy down there, as bits were slippy, lovely descent, tho, i bailed on the worst of the rocky outcroppy bits, cos of the minor greasiness issues. then the singletrack was bliss, just cruised it down, hearing voices, til finally i came upon a couple of walkers..., and was spat out the bottom and on the Avenue at 17.35... quite possibly my best time ever for home to Bowenvale Ave via that route. .

no riding light needed either, just the flashies across town home.

so, i feel much better.

mary mary, quite contrary

so, mary arrived this morning. popped home to see her. eyed them up, and thought i might juuuuuuust be able to install, but got grips, shifters, levers all off the olds and got them lined up and just as expected, the angular bar just pushes the brake hose too far to be possible. it was always a little dodgy since i got the 20inch frame. so. have to wait til i get the cable lengthened. Kris said $75. must get that organised.

too wet to really ride tonight. havent ridden since last sunday, week ago. am seriously jonesing for a ride, as the americans used to say. might just go anyway. bah. will see how she's looking. do the responsible thing, go home, cook dinner for the girl and bubs, and then decide...

oh!, and my Hoodlum is SWEEEET... all good. wear just it and basically a teeshirt in these climate. water beads on the outter and its snug and toasty.

Try this for size...

hooee, just scored myself a Hoodlum, from RaceFace... niiice.

sunday, anzac a day away...

sunday morning, steve and pete were up watching race cars waste petrol around the Pukekohe tracks, so Andrew and Tony and me met outside steves anyway, and headed up rapaki, round the summit to vic. they went downhill from there due to time constraints, i carried on along thomsons to kiwi, up road to lower section of flying nun, then on down below dyers... heh, bombed down there, caught and overtook a woman who was inching her way down, then tookdown her hubby who was also inching down hill... flew down the rest, then climbed back up into vic, down dazza's, hung a right up a little ways and down the valley tracks, round and down bowenvale. my front mechanism was getting very jingly jangly on the way down, i thought it was my cluster coming to bits, but no, just the cage on the front mech. rode home... all in good time. home by 11.30 i think.
next day, flat tire on bike. pulled the tube, tiny hole, found the culprit gorse needle, but it broke off before i could pull it out, fixed the flat, left tube out and pumped up over night, still hard in the a.m, so put it back into tire, and later that day its flat again. damn. must be more of those gorsey bastards. time for a new tire perhaps...

OH. and my Mary Bars (here or pics of them on a bike here ), by On-One, are nearly here... YAY!!!! scored through Paul at EssenceBikes ... good bloke to deal with. cheers paul. so, ride reports as soon as they're installed... i'm just praying i can get away with my rear brake hose... it might be a bit on the short side.

Banks Pen View Hill

Friday, Good Friday, Steve Pete and Andrew came over to the bay, (T and O and dogs and me went over thurs night straight after work). we drove to top of bay, pete's car overheating in the process, parked on summit road, and jumped on our bikes...rode towards Okains Bay to first ridge, then rode and walked along this to flanks of View Hill (762m) up to pretty much the highest point, then down down down paper road, through Chorlton, down on down to snappy wee singletrack down into Raupo bay where we stopped and enjoyed the beach and the mega surf pounding in from a massive southerly swell. then rode up onto Long Lookout. On the way up, you come up to the cliff edge, and there, framed by the cliffy headland and the pounding surf was the Spirit of NZ, in nearly full sail, heading south, very spectaculer.
That dark smudge in the distance, believe it or not, is the ship...
continued riding back up to Chorlton and down into Little Ak. all up, 20 kms, 440 m ascended, and 980 descended. then after some cheese scones kindly baked by Tra'y and a refreshing beer, we loaded 4 bods and 3 bikes into the fiat and i hauled them up to their car at the top...

Monday, Easter Monday, i biked up to Chorlton, then up View Hill Rd to the fork, then left along the branch i'd not explored before. up to around 600m alt, then turned tail and back down. only this time, instead of riding the 4wd road, i rode all the animal tracks on either side, off piste, technical and fun. then bombed back into the bay. quick trip.

ripsnortin'rockin' it!!!

good turn out yesterday. usual stv peat tone and me, plus hubster and Mark, and an additional Milan, from work. Andrew's wrist is still playing up.

so, toodled up rapaki, good pace, turned left, singletrack road singletrack road singletrack road and onto richmond hill. stopped for a bite at the ruins, and the BOMBED it down. first of me on Mark's tail, hammering it, kept up with him pretty good. then he bailed to adjust his seat just before the sweeping switchies, so i pulled in front with him pushing me. i was going so fast, my arms have never felt that pumped by the time we got to Evans. some vvveeeery sketchy turns... then Capt Thomas, i let Mark go in front again (this guy is on a Kona Coiler, 6 inches of heavyduty travel both ends..., vs me on the switchy, 5inches up front is IT) and again we bombed it down this, i cleaned all but a dab at the bottom of the first of the two dodgiest rocky bits. down past the two stiles and the wee bridge Mark's chain got eaten up, and got some horrendous twists in it. so he had to pull it off and ride the rest of the way without it... he repaired it over coffee at the Com
Milan did good, a bit slower on the downhill stuff, but pretty good round the rest of the singletrack. but then we lost him in Slumner, cos he didnt know which cafe we were going to. i waved and waved, and then went after him a bit but he took off. txted him. no worries...

sunday cut short and tuesday speedy to dinner...

sunday, usual suspects, steve's, 9am, up rapaki, right, 'long summit to vic. were gonna carry on up to top of marley's and down below dyers back into vic and down bowenvale, but Andrew's wrist was playing up from his silly crash on the rocks last week. so, we cut it short, headed down thru the gums, then i took them across the upper track to the new track that i rode by myself a couple weeks ago and then rode all of with Nelson another week or so ago... so, i rode most of it, had to shimmy one little steep bit next to a tree, but pete rode all of it, and andrew, steve and tony walked pretty much all of it... we hooked onto my 'favourite' and continued out bottom of bowenvale.

then last night, tuesday, nelson met me at my place after work, and we rode across to farmtrack, up it, quite fast, i was blowin!, cos it was getting quite dark in the clouds so we rode round the road to the rest of the singletrack, bombed it to vic, screamed down through the gums, and on out to the vicpark road, down to top of cashmere, where i was having tea at my folks... niiice ride. i was on fire coming down. but i blew going up.

wednesday slightly soggy spin

been grey and rainy a bit for last week or so. S.A.D getting the worst of me, so a ride was a damned good thing... left work a bit early, got out the door of home at 4.45pm, rode across to and up rapaki, which seemed very hard, head wind all the way up, and the dirt was softish from previous rain. hit summit trail and got my groove on, one or two muddles but mostly plenty dry, nicely packed, drainage very good thesedays. hit top of vic, and down through gums, GREEEAASY, then i bypassed Dazza's and went down my "favourite" but bailed on the first cross track, cos it really was pretty greasy and sliding was rarking up the leaf matter and trail a bit... took the final bit through (what i've started to call) "the darkness", where the pines and mac's are so thick its really dark in there (especially on an overcast day), and it was hairy through there, with two wheel slides into ruts etc... interesting. the rest of the trails were okay, but that last little cattlestop right at the bottom before the gates i got the bike sideways on, scared the bejeezus out of me. Stopped in and saw Kris on Bowenvale on way out too. then flashies across town home. in the door 6.45...

sumner morning...

rode to Pete's, we drove, picked up Andrew, and met Steve and Tony in Slumner... biked up Capt. Thomas out godley and taylors and back to coffee at .com. way up capt thom was sweet. cleaned most stuff or more than often. cleaned heaps of godley, one or two dabs at the start and that was about it. while we waited for Steve to void his bowels at Godley, Andrew was dooffing about on some rocks and had a wicked tumble. winded the crap out of him. garked up his legs a bit too, and jimmied his wrist. yowch. awesome descent into taylors, they'd really done some work on the trails for the Crater Rim. and nice climb out of taylors. dropped some awesome wheelies on the way up. steve and me first. then down through nicholson park, speeeeedy... good run in all. only a couple hours.

sunday morning monday night...

sunday morning, biked over to steves, then him and me biked to TFC picked up the van and drove out to Slumner. met andrew there, parked right outside DotCom and headed up Capt Thom... nice climb, i seemed to have heaps of speed all the way up. the other two werent so quick, so i stopped and rested a lot, meaning i had heaps of speed when we got going again... hot and sticky in the top valley just before Evans. quick rest inside the Macracarpas at the start of the Richmond Hill track. then up up up up up... then, turned around and came back down it all. bombed it. beautiful descent, switchy playing very nicely. then down Capt Thom, cleaned everything, except that on the first of the two gnarlies, i had to bale at the very bottom of it, the rock that sticks up straight across the track exactly one bike length from the bottom of the drop jumping into my way just at the last and i didnt want it to do what it does best, which is stop your bike dead and throw you over the handlebars, or worse still, straight onto your top tube, yowch... then cleaned the rest of the trail... lovely, and coffee at Dot com.

Last night (monday), headwind home from work, changed and met Nelson at bottom of Rapaki, up we slogged, turned right, round the summit to Vic, then down through the cattlestop next to the A frame, turned right and along the fenceline and down, (instead of through the fence and riding the "upper fenceline" track), and down the wicked ass DH tracks, steeper than we usually ride... cleaned most stuff, i walked one drop that nelson rode, it was just too scary coming into it, and then rode some wicked bits, and walked one jump that nelson popped off, i'll do both bits next time for sure. it was the track that i hooked up with a few rides ago. then down the usual and out. nelson took an awesome line on the washout next to K2, jumping off this bit the nats DH riders were popping... and now that its daylight saving, i used my flashies riding home across town. home by 7.

Swtchy, in the flesh

a snap of me bike from me fone... blurry eh?

wednesday with da girls...

left work at 4.30 or so, with a couple of workmates, Bex and Snoozen, headed down Clumbo St to Earnsleigh Reserve along the Heathcote River, past coffeeculture and Prncss Maggies Hosp, down the steps just past Cracroft along that wee forest trail and then up the slog that is Worsley's... me in middle ring one down on back, Snuse and bex both in grannies... overtook some big travelly boys, up up up, good ride up the dirt, nice and smooth flowing, no real dabs, all the way up. Marley's was particularly nice, down to Kiwi, then up Thomsons into Vic, i proceeded down through the gums, and the grrrls headed down the fireroads. regrouped at the Jumps skidder area, where a friend of S's was hangin', him on a Crack'n'fail Profit, nice and new. Him and me took Dazza's while the girls took the pikeroute, straight down. then followed the Nats track down. couple new bits. bombed out bottom of bowenvale, then slogged it back across town to work, grabbed my bag and headed home. quite a long one in the long run. home at about 7.10pm... long. lotsa stops i guess. then i went to quiznight and had a few guinnesses (preempting friday by a couple days) and scoffed down a rare-as steak and chips and yummy yummy salad. as usual, 3rd equal in the quiz, and lost the tiebreaker! bah.

sunday arvo outting...

Sundaymorning ride was planned, but the weather got in the way, with a blistering cold southerly dropping a fair bit of rain overnight and in the morning... so, we duly canned the ride with possibility of getting together for one later in the day. ended up going out by myself at 4.30. tracks were already nice and dry. howling southerly still blowing cold. rode across, into the wind, up rapaki, into the wind, turned right, along singletrack. on the switchbacks above the farmtrack a guy caught me up, gave me a bit of a fright actually, and as i let him past just after the second switchy he said "same bike" and yep, he was on a black Switchback too! cool. i replied, "nice ride". from then on, i stayed just off his tail. i noted that on all the downs and all the flats i was quicker than him, but on all the ups he juuuust got away from me... stayed on his tail all the way round to Vic Park, just before which we'd started chatting a little. we both agreed they're a nice bike to ride. his was a 16 inch, but he was quite a bit shorter than me. he looked like he could easily handle an 18 inch, having quite a bit of seatpost out, like when i had the 18incher... we parted ways, i bombed it down through rockgarden and gums to and out to vicpark road, then down to the below dyers pass road track. went up it, saw the other swtchbckr on his way down, "hello!" and then at the kiwi i rode up the road for the next section, lower nun or lower marley's (depending on your naming convention), down it back to the kiwi, then cross dyerspass road and up to thomson track, all the way up it to top of vic park again, then down through the gums again. then, instead of going down Dazza's or the track Dazza's comes off, i went up the track just to the right of them. this takes you across various of the DH tracks, out to the end, where i saw a new wee track cut, so toodled down it, to a wicked wicked dh track. rode it, with great difficulty, then out to my 'favourite' down it, round to k2, where i baulked the wicky drop, so pushed back up and did it again, out and down, tailwind home across town...southerlies are good for some stuff.

another quickspin...monday night norwester

Monday night, in a hot norwester, left home 1714hrs, across town, up Worsley's, oh so hot. couple of fires out on the plains, one northwest of Lincoln, and the other way way further in the distance. hard work getting up there in the heat. once on the dirt tho, much better, tho still hard. cruised, pretty good. made it all the way up the bodybag and then spun out just as i was cresting the top. easy start up again tho for the last haul... couple of female runner/walkers up top. they took off back down when i got there. then onto the flying nun, or marley's as i prefer to call it. down to the kiwi, where there was a roadie lying on the road, picking himself up. i think he'd just come out of the kiwi drive way and had toppled. didnt look roadrashed... cross dyers, up summit bypassing the first bit of Thomsons but taking the second. then bombed it down through vic to the gums, down to the skiddersite, then down Dazza's, back up the Nats DH and down to "my favourite", across to K2 then down and out the bottom. then home into the howling norwest.

Off to Melbourne tomorrow (thursday) for a week. so wont be getting any riding in, but it should be fun. gonna try'n find me some of those new Oakley shoes that MBA featured briefly this month. they look really styley, and my old Rockhoppers have clicked and creaked for too long. so. til next time... whoeverso out there reading this, wait and see what happens.

hi john. i think you're probably my only reader.

back in Hanmer...

well, i had twisted my chain, predominantly in one link, so i pulled the bad link, and am now running a link short... seems the last third or quarter of all my chain's lives are run with a link short ...and am trying a new chain lube. at the suggestion of Dougal, who's a regular on the mountainbike.co.nz website, i scored me a big bottle of Chainsaw bar lube. $5.85 at the Warewhare (compared to a tiny little bottle of Rock'n'Roll for $20 (1/10th the size of the Chainbarlube)). seems sticky like motorbike chainlube but not quite as sticky. doused the chain and wiped it all off again (which, John, is what you're supposed to do) and is running nicely so far. will be interesting to see how much dust and muck it picks up.

a beautiful day greeted me in hanmer, there was a slight smell of smoke when i first arrived, due to a wildfire up the waiau river towards the Lewis Pass, but i didnt notice it later on. was waiting for some riding buddies but they ended up being longer than anticipated, having a hard time of it paddling on the Waiau (very low flows make for less water over obsacles making for trickier paddling)...

so, took off on my own, rode up the Chatterton river valley, hit the mtb link track, which is a steeeep wee huff up to a pylon then a bit more climbing on a singletrack, which leads to a sweet little descent and sidle round to the Jack's Pass Rd, spitting you out opposite the watertank. just behind the watertank is a singletrack that leads down into the forest, below Pawson's Rd. John's Drop, No Bull seems to be what its called. its a great twisty wee trail with quite a nice steep descent or three in it, and a grunty wee climb in the last third. it chucks you back out on Pawson's, not far from Conical Hill Rd, which you roll on past to the first left, which is a road for a minute and becomes a single track climb, huffy for a bit, up up up, granny all the way, til you pass between two silverbirches on a steep wee step up, turn right climb a tad more, and bam, you're descending like buggery, swooping down another fantastic bermed singletrack tree trunks whooshing by millimetres from your shoulders. and it goes on and on and on, i had a couple of near misses, with the front wheel getting sketchy in the loose stuff, but mostly it was just divine. you cross Pawson's and carry on down to a stream, following that for a bit. This is all exactly the same ride as i did with Al last year, (may 24th 2005 blog) and here i'm upto where i broke my chain. funny, i remembered a lot of it being a bit more difficult, and some of the steeps steeper, but my riding's improved that much that i just flow it all now. anyway, this trail winds its way back round to pawsons, without getting too steep. then you have to follow pawson's to your right - up a bit, then down quite fast for a bit til you get to the Joliffe's Saddle turn offs. not really any signpostings so you pretty much gotta find your own way. i took the singletrack up to joliffes, then at the top, if you're standing looking across at Jolie's pass, Mt Isobel on your left, there's a new trail on your right, marked by a roadmarker . same as Al and me did last year, but they've changed where it descends, added some extra in the open stuff on the top and then added heeeaaaps of sweeeet trail in the forest later on. so this track, climbs heftily up over some rocky crags, then out onto this really open bit, with a bit of the pink stone breaking through, (hence the trail's name, Red Rocks) descending you down this fast and open tight singletrack, and eventually chucking you into the forest, there's some lovely rooty drops down, a couple of wee climbs, and more descending... then into a very new bit (possibly parts still under construction), eventually taking you out to upper dog stream trail. you could easily ride up it and get back up to Joliffes to do that again, or like me, just head out and down to lower dogstream singletrack back to the house. got back and Matt and Sean were stiiiill on the river. they called not long after tho and were on their way back then. i just cruised out. all up, only riding for 1 hour 20 or so. sweeet. woulda done it all again if i'd not been tired. really have got to get up there again soon.

tuesday quickspinspinspinspin

Tuesday night quick spin, was a good ride, except i felt truly crappy going up rapaki, tho, i was pushing myself a bit, cos when i got to the gate at the top of the trees, i saw a guy on a red specialised disappearing round the corner up ahead (~200-300 m ahead) so i was pushing to catch him, but when i got to that corner he was just disappearing around another corner about as far or further ahead so i had to push a bit harder... by the next bend in the track i was a tad closer, but still some ways behind, as i entered the last climb i was probably 100 m behind him, slowly gaining, so that by the top i was only about 40 m behind... and he was paused at the top when i got there, but took off just as i got there. i rested a bit letting him get another 100 m or so ahead again and this other guy came up on a Titus (rare bike round here and $$$bling too, nice blue Chris King hubs etc, very flash). he'd obviously been chasing me, he was one of those guys who i'd say is a multisporter, really lean in the face, super fit looking, he had massive muscles on his legs and he hardly looked to be breaking a sweat, plus that Titus would have been worth maybe $6 to $8K... said hi to me, friendly like, and i let him go first. i stayed on his tail a bit, and a we both caught the guy i'd been chasing all the way up (i said to him, "i've had a helluva time catching you!" and he apologised!), over took him then the superfit guy got away on me, tho i was holding his tail for a bit... he was only a bit faster than me. anyway, all in all a good ride. up rapaki, right, along summit trail to vic park, down Thomsons Track to the Kiwi, then up to top of marley's hill, down single track back under the kiwi, down singletrack below dyers pass road, up into vic park, over and down into bowenvale... flowing very smoothly. my bike was really feeling in tune... til the gears started skipping, which was annoying, but will be tunable, (i couldnt get it tuned quickly as was running out of time), or at worst, i might need a new chain. i tweaked it at one stage along the summit trail, i was shifting onto the big ring and it over shifted, then kinda got tangled in the crank and pedal, but then i thought i'd gotten it and tried to pedal on, but it was a bit stuck, which may have bent a couple of links. i had to stop and unloop it, and from then on it seemed to just kinda clickity click every now and then. might need to get a new chain, but may just get by with a good lube and worst case (other than a new chain) would be to go through and swap out the bent links... i've got a few remainders of chains lying around, from the leftover links when replacing them. at least, gotta get something sorted, cos Saturday, i'll be riding in Hanmer! yeah. bunch of guys i know are getting together to ride and drink and eat bbq'd meat. should be good... update as soon as after i can.

service...

well, took the bike to Kris on saturday morning, and he taught me how to service my shocks. ended up only costing me the price of the special oil that they require ($40 - which will do 4 oil changes (required only a couple times a year))... cos he figured he kinda owed me a service. took it for a spin yesterday afternoon. i was feeling beat, cos we'd been to barbie at Steve's saturday evening and i'd eaten way too much meat (as usual) but only had 7 beers, but didnt sleep well after (digesting all that meat i'd say) (oh yeah, got home and had to move all dad's scaffolding from where wilson used to park his car to the back of the house (heavy! and in the dark)) and then sunday we went to Al and Zoe's for brunch, then we went to Centennial with Otis to play in the water and then i took off on my ride from there, and having eaten pancakes and banana and maple syrup and bacon at 11.30ish, then the swim, then riding about 3.45, i was hungry, and weak from being tired, and bloody well took myself up Farm track, which is exhausting at the best of times. felt fat and useless and had nooo energy... still managed to overtake people on the summit trail tho, and then headed down the oldschool bowenvale track, which is always a favourite of mine except i dont think the rangers think anybody rides it anymore, cos they never take the whippersnapper down it and so its a bit overgrown, and the heat and dryness of it had me worried again that my nearly redhot disks would set it alight... (didnt see any smoke from the bottom so should have been alright :-).
anyway, the forks were PLUSH. oh so comfy, oh so amazing... beautiful
oh yeah, watched thursday's Drop In on fridaynight. brilliant. that was the craigieburn track that first one with the offcamber scree then the rockin' twistie turnie through the bush. beautiful and Naseby, oh, naseby. i've SO gotta get down there again.
So, anyway, i wrote the local ranger Nick about the trail... I said "Hi Nick,
I realise you must have been busy with setting up the trails for the Crater Rim, but just wondering if anybody's going to get a weed-eater down the old bowenvale track or the upper fenceline track in Vic Park anytime soon? i was actually concerned about the fire risk last time i came down the Upper Fenceline, cos disks get pretty hot, and the long grass on the track was extremely dry. and the last couple times i've ridden rode down the oldschool bowenvale track its been pretty over grown too... (the last time the Thistles were very bad, but they've died down now (rode it yesterday))
i realise neither of these trails are particularly heavily used, in fact, in the last few years, i dont think ive seen another cycle on the bowenvale once. i still really enjoy it though. but i think a lot of the older riders have forgotten about it and the younger ones dont know about it. anyway, just thought i'd see, are they in the loop as far as mowing resources are concerned?
cheers."
To which he replied:
Hi swtchbckr (not really, but you know what i mean),
Thanks for getting in touch.I was hoping the sheep grazing in the area might have kept it under control. I agree with you that it has become a bit of a forgotten track but its still fun to ride. I've booked it in to be cut in the next fortnight. I'll get Upper fenceline cut as well.
RegardsSenior Ranger- CCC

tuesday fast

Limited time tuesday, had to be home by 18hrs45, so left at 1710, Blitzed across town and up rapaki in 35 mins, then round summit and down through vic and out bottom of Bowenvale in only half hour ... i'm thinkin thats a record time. with the boys its normally about 33 mins from Steves to top of rapak. sweeeet... i burned up rapaki in a gear (middle ring and 3rd down) higher than usual, and rode the single track reeally sweet. came down through the rockgarden to the gums, zigged and zagged through them, down dazza's, then turned right at the 40fter, and down the next bit into what i'm gonna call "the darkness" from now on (where "my favourite" comes in), out that little valley, round the sidler to K2, and bombed down the main valley road, nice wee bit of air on the yumpy... stopped in and talked to Kris for a few minutes cos i was making good time, then hauled ass across town home in just over 10 mins. home by 18hrs40. sweet.

sunday morgans

Met at steve's, the usual suspects, Pete, Andrew, Steve, Tony and me. up rapaki, i was cruising nicely. had a few chats with people on the way up. one guy asked me what i'd had for breakfast, Fish i said... cos i had, had Red Cod for breakfast. yummy. then turned left around the singletrack, i thought i was getting a flat back tire, but it was fine... along summit, overtaken by a sporty dude training for CraterRim, on a Cannondale. down the single track from Castle rock, i ROCKed, flying down it, running really smooth at the mo. then we plummetted off down the Bridle Path, (where i'd walked up the other week), town side, wasnt as loose as usual, seemed to keep quite a good speed on and didnt feel out of control like usual. then peeled before the bottom onto the Morgans Valley Track, which, tho is officially a walking track, fails to mention this until you're already committed... and, when dry, its a perfect bike track, bar some steps near the end. anyway, its a nice wee track, without too much altitude, sidles around the valley above the new subdivisions in the Heathcote valley, and ends at the Heathcote Quarry. then there's a ton of steps to ride down, tho, i managed to only ride on about three steps total, riding to their sides... then back around the riverside of the Ferrymead industria, and i treadled home from Radcliff St. quick ride, i think i was home by 11.30. Bloody hot day too. 29 or 30.

walkin' huffin' skiddin' chuffin' blowin'...

well, following that last sunday ride, on the wednesday i ended up having to go to Lyttelton to pick up Otis, so i biked across to the Bridle Path and walked up it, 20 mins bottom to top, then, and this is on my town bike, not the switchback, let a bit of air out of the slicks at the top, and proceeded down into Lyttelton cautiously. quite hairy, but it is how we used to do it, what with the vee brakes and the rigid forks etc... anyway,
went to little ak for weekend, took swtchbck, rode it around the property but thats about it. i did take it up to Chorlton to try to get a celphone coverage, (which i didnt) but had the dogs with me so couldnt speed back down. anyway, one loop i had going fast in the orchard ended up sending me over the handlebars... that was fun.

on tuesday, nelson and me rode, met at bottom of rapaki, there was a HOWLING easterly blowing, a warm muggy one, we turned left at the top. i was huffin and a chuffin to keep up with him, he always pushes me harder than i would myself, whereas riding with the other guys i'm always taking it easier than i would by myself. anyway, bombed down richmond hill. oh, before that we trialed the new John Britten Reserve trail, just being built, not open yet, but i figure, riders riding it makes it. shows the builders where to build it... so, bombed down Greenwood (called it Richmond Hill at the time), then down Capt Thomas. i baulked on only the first of the doubletroubles... and there's a stupid new set of posts just before you're about to enter the pines near the bottom... and i lost my endcap on the eggbeaters, so a service kit is on order. so yeah, major tail wind home across the causeway, but linwood ave was tiring. took a good 20 minutes longer than that time i did it myself in 2 hours... must have been the head wind along the top, and i did stop and re tune the gears at the top of rapaki too...

riding tomorrow with the usual suspects.