Friday Dun Done and the Copper was Mine...

Just landed from a fantastic ride... Hit up something i'd never done before, namely, the newly finished Coppermine. Headed up Codgers. Nearly at Tantragee bumped into a local (looked like he might have been guiding a couple of non locals?) who i asked if Jenkins was clear from 3rd house through, and he suggested i do the Coppermine instead, and as i'd never ventured further than not far past 3rd house before, figured i should... So. headed on up. met a few riding down, at intervals, including one really large group, passed one older couple near 3rd House, and continued on past that on up the Dun Mtn trail. gets a little narrower further up, and then eventually bursts out into the mineral belt, much different from the beech forest earlier, open and scrubby and quite spectacular. Trail is quadbikeable up here, wending its way round to the Coppermine Saddle, where you're greeted with a sign saying to the effect, Control your speed, Expert trail ahead... had taken me slightly less than 2 hours to get to this point. lay down in the sun and ate my OneSquare thinking 'fuck i'm shattered'...

then, seat down, just a little, looked at my watch, 12.30, and hit the trail down. Swoop swoop corner, swoop swoop corner, long bit, pumpy water bars, nice and wide, lots of room, and man this track is gonna be primo once its been made a little more difficult by weather. very enjoyable descent back and forward down this big basin of a valley, remaining in the mineral belt for a long time, getting lower and lower, and it seemed the further down you get the longer and faster the straights are, but you cant quite just let go cos you dont know what's coming up round the next bend. anyway, got back into the forest and swooped and flew and flowed down down down. glanced at my watch it it was 12.55, and i was still descending... somewhere in the forest i must have passed the track to the Maitai Caves, met a couple of walkers as i swooped and bombed on down what is tantamount to a wheelchair track, only a little too steep for wheelchairs. finally, popped out on the 4wd track that Peaking Ridge finishes on, and bombed that out down the Maitai, onto the nice little singletrack to the coathanger bridge.

here, i decided to check out the waterpipe track, and rode that round above the river for quite a while, passing the turnoff to Jack's Clearing, and continuing on down til i met a motorbike, then a tracked motorised wheelbarrow, and then a guy with a digger, at the end of the line... chatted with him, couple more weeks he said, oh well, back up and round the track past the tracked thing, and the bike, and on down the steep descent to the Maitai river. do you think i could find suitable stepping stones??? waded in the nice cold water up over my knees, carrying the bike, and then hit the gravel road down down down the maitai. Just after the seal began i headed over that coathanger bridge to Tantragee. Stupidly biked up the saddle, instead of the easy way down the Maitai singletrack, and then rode Codgers down, thereby closing my loop.

total time out riding? 3 hours 15 minutes, not bad for a 4-5 hour ride, eh?

and here's a video of the trail!

Tuesday Pleasant sunset Dreamwood

Great ride tonight. Andy, Tony, Warry, Wayney, Roby, Dalley, Becky and meey piled up outside Warry's place and headed round back of Ferrymead for an eyeopening experience for Bex.

Then it was up Mt Pleasant, a steady slog to the top with the odd regroup. Sun had well and truly set and light starting to flag as we headed out along the top of Greenwood. Lights were donned by the Wazz and me (the others all had theirs on) before the descent began, tho first off no lights were needed, tho it certainly was getting sketchy and i believe a few crashed here or there... a brief regroup at bottom of the top switchbacks, and off we headed, down and round, my flow on as good as ever, seemingly effortless rolling smoothly and sweetly and loving it all.

A regroup at the usual spot just past gloomy gulch and we noticed a few rocks about, and looked up and there's about the only rock face on the whole trail... the tailenders caught up and off we went again. lights off to start with but on very soon after, tho barely necessary. good flow down the next section, loved the new line into the lower switchback section, you'd hardly know there was an old line. then round into the creeky bit and back out for the blast before the rocky stepups, the first of which i momentummed into just with a dab push up the final lip and cleaned the second whereupon i stopped to watch the others - Robin and Bex still back on the switchbacks. waited for them to show up and then off down the last bit, that drop to the right above the road as always giving me the heebeejeebees..

Hit up the top of Capt Thomas, boy is it overgrown... just down to the old maintrack and back up onto the road, for the final descent down the scarred road blazing down to the Road Closed barrier and into the cool air pooling then patches of sudden warmth past the containers and containers and containers, round thru sumner, causeway, back round Ferrymead cracked up singletrack to Warren's.

a magnificent way to finish a tuesday.

Tuesday Blottle Ache

Quick dusk and nighttime spin of the pond tonight. all up it was Pete, Steve, Dallas, Warren, Robin and me. nothing of note particularly happened, except somehow the pad part one of my rear brake pads came off leaving me with no back brake... made for one interesting moment, where i overcooked it into a corner locking up the front wheel sideways and nearly losing it. Also, we lost Robin somewhere along the way... managed to get him on the phone on our way back (after splitting and looping round two ways to try to find him). He was at the cars when we got back...

Sunday Hillage

Met Andy, Wayne, Tony and Pete at Steve's(who didn't join us), and headed up Huntsbury. Good climb, good pace, and beautiful day.

Bombed the Traverse (after pete had returned to the start (not collecting 200$) to fetch his sunnies), all on good form, the Thompsons, some greasiness here, then up road to top of Worsleys. Due to short time -- down this and into the B line for much hooting and enjoyment. no major offs and everybody was peaking on their performances. at bottom of Worsley's the arm on Pete's sunnies broke, indicating he should have lost them to start with... bombed down the road, then the sideline even faster than ever, and then round river back to Steve's and home just in time for my duties...

Saturday Travis Planting riverine meandering

Individually or perhaps grouped, ways were made to Andy's. i was latish and hit the road, getting a call from Steve at Wainoni/Breezes saying they'd meet me at Pages Bridge, so i spun my way to them. They being Andrew, Steve and Wayne.

We headed along the southbank sort of enjoying (and sort of not) the undulatory nature of the newly built stopbanks. someone likened it to a really rough downhill only you had to pedal the whole time. at Anzac drive bridge we spotted Dallas across river and met him over there. Rode along that north side to Basset St then up that to Travis and round to the planting.

Well over 100 people, close to 150-200 perhaps, put a couple thousand plants in the ground and then enjoyed sossies afterwards.

Then us bikers headed for my place via the river all the way bar Retreat Rd...

Tuesday hilltop nightride

Pete picked up me then we got Bex and headed for the kiwi. There, were Steve, Tony, Wayne, Andy, Dallas, Marie and Mark, a real posse for a ride of many regroups, and lingering to watch the many splendid trail of lights out behind.

We headed up round to the second Thomsons which we huffed and chuffed up, pollen star field a constant reminder of hayfever potentialities... Regrouped then set off round the Traverse, into a bit of a wind, lovely dry conditions, and my legs feeling gooood. brief regroup under sugarloaf where the sign used to be then onwards round to the end, yippee.

At the road crossing there was another large posse, to whom I said, "my group's bigger than yours". They held back for a couple of us, then headed off to blind the others. Numerous other riders rode by while we were regrouping. Next up, we hit Vernon, with slightly more of us heading all the way down to Rapaki (Steve, Wayne, Mark and Marie pulling out at Farmtrack exit). Awesome to hit this again, dry compared to last week and so so fun. Rocks snaggled me in a couple of places, wrong geared etc, but blasted the final bit, losing a little less on the offcamber by the 'pond'.

Back up the road round back to Traverse and another regroup... headed back round Traverse and this time tail wind pushing us fast and fun all the way round again, blasting and finishing by taking in both the Thomsons, speedy bliss.

From Kiwi, up the road for an awesome blast of the Nun. Railing corners, flying jumpies, pure excellence. Then in the lower tophalf, came over that wee rise followed by the wooden bridge, some broom hit my helmet and instantly I was in total darkness... totally expecting to crash, waiting for the pain, slammed on the brakes and somehow bailed up before hitting either the bank or going off the edge. Flicked the switch and got going again, popping up in front of Mark who was parked in the truck. Pete passed by, then Andy, then Steve, and i got back in behind him, decided to wait a little for Tony to catch up then headed down again. Chasing and gaining and getting a little loose in spots. Steve's light was starting to warn him it was gonna give up and i saw it strobe on one of the lower jumpies, as i caught him. Still having a fair bit of juice in the legs i cranked up the road to see how Bex was doing, dropping in opposite the lower entrance to Gov's Bay track and hopping down in front of her, leading her thru the jumpies.

We regrouped for the last time, loaded bikes, said our byes and headed home. A great ride.

Tuesday Hunts Farm bury Vernon track

hit a car tonight on way home from work. i'd just turned on my front light, to be more visible, and i'd put my hand down in front of it to see if it was flashing, cos it was still daylight albeit dim, and when i looked up there's the back of a fucking car right there in front of me. nothing doing so i guess i braked a little hit him, thought for a second 'i might come out of this okay...' WHAMM! handlebars spun, i went down landing on the car, the road and my bike all seemingly at once. ouch... a graze on my belly, a very sore knee, one or two other scratches. adrenalin got me home, or at least, to O's teacher-pupil-parent interview.

then, came home, got ready and biked to Pete's place and we Falcon'd to Steve's where we met Andrew, Warren, Tony and Robin. Steve, once again, was out due to familial duties.

We headed round Hanson's, and up the usual Schmuntsbury. Spotted a few lights on Rapaki - people breaking the law... tsk tsk. not to mention putting themselves in more danger than necessary, i guess.

Mostly was good, my injured knee was giving me a bit of gyp, but i managed the climb okay. At top we debated, and as we're nursing a new rider, time was getting away on us, so we just hit up Vernon. What a blast! Been since way back in Pre Quake Feb since we last rode it, and it was FANTASTIC. Had such a good run on it, the rocks, the flow, pure singletrack enjoyment.

From here, looked at the Road Closed and Rapaki Track Closed signs and headed back up the road to top of Farm Track, where we negotiated all the gates and had a BLAST down hill. First time down this since July 2009!!!

Pollen was a major issue on the lower reaches, and then seemed to be in my lights-view from there on back to Steve's. A southerly whipped up just as we were at the bottom.

Pete and me swung by Pomeroy's on the way home. Tried to get a Monk's Habit, but they ran out half way through our first pint pour, so we had a Cock and Bull "She's In Saison" dark Saison, and a lovely wee glass of Tuatara Barleywine, deliciomundo. a perfect painrelief for a crashed bod.

Sunday Family Rail Trail

no mtnbike ride to speak of this weekend. But today, T, H, O, Tane and me droved to Kaituna, new carpark, and hit the Rail Trail. Small was on the tagalong behind T, and O rode his Norco. Tane's a fit little fella so he rocked out ahead, and O was worn out from their late night, so was struggling a bit.

We cruised through round the Birdlings bend and then half way along the straight hugn a right and rode down the gravel road to the Forsythe Power Boat Club where the Radiofliers were having a meet. some cool flying action going on. Hung out for a couple hours then headed back with H tagged to me. there was no way O was going to manage the journey back we hooked T and O back up and they all treadled off to Birdlings Flat beach, and i spun my way back to the car - no hands most of the way.

Tuesday slightly messy hill ride of interesting adventures

Relatively regular posse of boys assembled at Steve's, Pete and me having ridden together from his place. Assembled were Robyn, Dallas, Wazza, Andy and up turned Stu and Tones. Steve popped out the gate to proffer his regrets due to spousal illness and dependent dinner preparation. We trotted off round Hansen Park and on up Ramahana Aotea etc etc. Robyn was dying, having had an severe osteo session yesterday and lacking hill fitness, and threatening to bail part way up Huntsbury Ave. I convinced him to struggle a little further up and then enjoy the downhill of Major Aitken, allowing himself a bit of a loop back round through town. the others were well ahead by this stage so i was chasing, catching the first ones on the final sealed grunt, and the others waiting at the roadend.

Up the dirt, patches of snow still lingering, they musta been pretty big drifts to start with. Lots of water running down gutters and track a bit of a stream in places. Little bits of slop, but not bad overall, with dry lines to choose most of the way.

At the summit we watched as runners and some other bikers came along Vernon towards us. we took off along the summit towards Vic Park before they regrouped. The odd puddle, but overall the track was way dryer than it was wet. One or two of the usual troublespots could have done with a quick spade session, but too much fun was being had to stop.

Into top of Vic, and down and incredibly soggy Coffee Break, me being the only see-sawer, then down the quagmire paddock and into the rockgarden venturing forth to the gummies. Couple of dodgy slop-festy bits but high dry lines to be had, and the little squirelly left hander was fun greasy with Pete offing on the steep corner and me offing on the next. we bailed out early to the skidder site, cos the left round to the log jump was treacherous.

Down through Vic Park we headed into the dog park down through the gates and followed the barbed wire and bounced down the roots loving every second of that trail. out under the houses and lots of borse and groom leaning in the top section. past storm damage had been fixed up and a new section of gravelled switchbacks lead us down further than we've been before, spitting us out opposite the Hollis Ave track.

we opted against lots of steps, and I led the now mucky boys down someone's drive and then through an empty section down to Holliss for a fast tarmac buzz into the cold of the flatlands.

Homeward round Eastern, the others peeling off over the footbridge and Pete and me back to our 'hood. Grins all round.

Sunday Pleasant tarmac and Richmond dirt hill spin.

after much snow last week, and still some lingering on the hills, the trails were all closed, so...

Singlesped to Ferrymead bridge with my lovely missus (out for her constitutional) to meet with the usual crew of Steve Pete Andrew Wayne Warren Marie and Dallas. T headed back for M's and we headed up St Andrew's Hill. Rode it all the way up to Major Hornbrook, then on up that to top and across to Mt Pleasant Rd and on up to top of that with a brief stop for snowball fun. Hardwork on the SS but good for me and nothing too dramatic.

At top through the Road Closed sign and headed down Summit Rd to the Greenwood/Richmond Hill Pines where we headed down, finally on singletrack, across the paddock towards the lone pine, over the stile, a few patches of grease to the next stile, then down the groovy rooty slick and dodgey trail to Clifton Tce. from there it was down an even more greasy little section around through a wee creek and a good bit to top Richmond Hill roads, then a bomb down that, taking in the shattered houses, loose tiled roofs and fallen-away carparks.

Coffee at DocTom and a spin home via back-of-Ferrymead trails (where Steve had a spectacular off right in front of me), then all the way to Radley St where Pete and me peeled off up Ferry, Smith, Linwood Park and home.

Foggy Night solo spin

Missed a ride on Tuesday night due to T being sick as a dog, so managed to sneak out last night. Drove up to my folk's place and parked to ride from there.

Was 7.30 when i set out, up the trail beside Vic Park road, cutting across onto the (dry as a bone) Tawhairaunui trail and then down the mtnbike track and crossing Dyers Pass Rd onto Old Dyers. Decidedly mucky for the first section down the hill, messy and sloppy, but once round onto the more north facing stuff, drier and better rolling. Clambered on up the, in places mucky, trail to the kiwi - the final singletrack bits much better surfaced, and tidied.

From the Kiwi i hit the bottom of the Nun, riding up this is something we never do, but its actually pretty cool, with a surprising number of descents. its been trackworked recently so rolls pretty good too. At the midway carpark i pulled out and rocked up the Crater Rim track above the road. a few steps and walky bits, some permafrost and one or two spots of snow stilly lying on the ground, and the fog was starting to encroach. Lights of 3 riders on the upper Nun were surprisingly close above me on this track. Hit the road, and then the 4wd to the top, completely encloaked in fuggy fog

Good bomb down, albeit difficult to see, what with the headlight glaring back at me through the fog. Fog seemed to diminish slightly on the lower reaches, and i pulled out at the midway carpark to head back up the 4wd section that used to be the main trail. Rode up this to the its top corner, and spotted a light up in the fog above, me, so waited. and waited... eventually up rolled a guy on what i thought was a Jeff Jones (but may have been a Black Sheep) ridden by a guy i've run into on a Simple a few times. We chatted a bit then he headed down and i continued up for a couple more corners. Then turned back and flew down through fog again and on down all the way to the Kiwi. I was catching him a bit, but he took off down Dyers Pass Rd, while i stayed true to the singletrack and headed on down the way i'd come up.

Took it easy through the mucky stuff at the end, and crossed the road and headed down the H.Ell track, wondering, whether like a tree falling in a forest, if a biker rides a walking track and nobody is there to see him, has he really ridden it? Cut up right at the top of that ridge near the bottom and climbed up to Vic Park Rd, finding myself way higher than i expected, then bombed down and into my Old's, 1 hour 15 minutes after i'd left. Excellent ride!


This morning, on the way to work, i stopped in at Velo Ideale and test rode a couple of Pugsleys they've got built up -- one singlespeed, and one with a NuVinci. VERY COOL. I want.

Sunday Planting on the Other Side.

rushed to Pete's for a lift to Lyttelton where we found Andy, Wayne, Steve and Tony. Caught the 8.50am ferry to Diamond Harbour and cruised up the hill and around the road to Orton Bradley, relishing the fine weather and calm harbour views. Arrived early for the planting so treadled to the end of the picnic areas scoping out our planting sites, then a couple of us went back and got spades and we knuckled in. With three on spades and three putting trees in the ground we knocked off maybe 100 plants around several embankments in an hour and then i found another huge area of probably 100 plants that we got started on. Well into that and the sky got gloomier and then the southerly hit with avengance. Spectacular it was, lifting clouds of pollen from the pines and making the trees roar like 747 jets. a bit of rain fell just as we were joined by the rest of the planting folks to put in the last 3 plants of our patch, and we mosied to the old school room for a brief get-ready, then cruised back round the road, nice strong tail wind for all those wee climbs.

Once back into Diamond Harbour, we explored round a bit and found the Cliff Edge Track... the first section we took was marginal in places, interspersed with nice wee sections, but the second half, which was what i'd had in mind, was pure singletrack bliss. dry clay base, pine needles, roots, hairy drop to the right below to rocks and pulsing harbour and surging kelp beds. awesome! a nice finish to a good planting and a scenic road ride.

Toosdy Quarry Crocking

Finally i get out for a ride. its been forever, due to moving, and holidaying (without bike(!) in Hanmer (too much snow)), and sickness. Possibly just as well i havent tried to ride recently, as i discovered my BB was seized on one side. Luckily i had a replacement in my bike stash, so duly installed that as soon as i got home from work last night.

Met up with Andy, Wayne, Dallas, Warren, Tony, Stu (from Nelson), Pete, Alistair, Brandon at the main gate of Halswell Quarry. We set off and it certainly felt like more than our 10. Grunted up the Rim track, feeling like my lungs were going to bleed. Brief regroup at top for Pete to re ziptie his light, then up the next little bit before the downward spiral to the lambing paddock climb to final zigzag and road. then off up the upper crock, or lower kennedies to Siberia, the odd little slip on the upper sections but otherwise in nice firm condition.

Quick lap of Siberia, all enjoying the descent. then back up the 4wd track to the top and Alistair and Brandon led off. i gave them a good gap then hit it. caught up with Brandon about half way down and we all regrouped for the start of the Croc proper. Alistair led off and i took his tail. we had a great blast down except for bailing up on the rocky narrows. then he lost it on the same corner as he crashed off last time we rode it together, and i took the lead down the last couple of switchies, over the bridge, and schpleurtched to a greasy halt on the upturn. the whole climb from the bridge was sticky greasy clay. barely even walkable. the gasps as everybody rolled into it were humorous. clambered up the slope and rode on into the dry forest pineneedled surface, needles and mud eminating from spinning wheels as speed increased back and forth through the trees over the roots and down and out.

another regroup and we headed back through to the cars, alister and me both bunnyhopping a chain and jumping over the speedbumps.

Then it was round to Tony's to discuss the October Trip.

First Sunday Mt Grey

Fantastic ride today. Met at Pete's and headed north. Clouds were looking pretty hairy as 6 of us drove in two cars north on the motorway, but they blew off and the sun was shining on a nice dusting of snow on the tops by the time we were heading through Balcairn. Riding were Steve, Pete, Wayne, Tony, Marie and me.

Parked up at the usual spot, "Lake" Janet, and after swapping out a tube on Wayne's borrowed (off Pete) Chameleon, we headed up to catch Steve and Marie. Good going on the access road, little soft and so dragging slightly, but not so bad. Not far up tho, we started to run into the snow we'd seen earlier. it was cool! higher we got the crisper and squeakier it got. Once we got round onto the top the wind was heinous, strong and cold. on up to the big comms tower, ice and snow all over the place.

Then the descent began. Surprising traction down the little singletrack to the top of the Mt Grey track. Sidling round with little bits of slip and slide, ice keeping the mucky bits under control, grins forming all round. A zig and a zag or two then round and out of the wind, into the forest. Now the real riding began. Switchbacks interspersed with sweet flowing singletrack. Cleaned a few more of them than i did last time, but there's still some in there that are always gonna be nigh on impossible.

Lower down parts of the trail just got faster and faster. Sweeeeeeeet flowing, smiles on all our dials. Briefly we left the beech forest and bombed down some bits in the young pine trees. the trail through here was majorly mucky, but fun, and no one lost it. Well cool. Then back into the beech and roots and rocks and fun. Photo op on the bridge, little bit more trail, and we hit the road.

Tootled up the road, i grabbed the tfc truck and headed down to pick up the stragglers, tho, they were so close i probably didnt need to.

All up, high fives were exchanged, and we skedaddled back to town, arriving home by 1.30.

Tuesday spinning Mcleans

Pete picked me up. We picked up Matt and drove to Mcleans Island. There, we met a shitload. Andy, Wayne, Warren, Dallas, Steve, Tony, Rex. 11 in all. All lit up, we rode around the trails. Spin spin spin, corner, spin, corner, spin. No tecknuckle challengement present whatsoever. Exercise is all its about out there. I led a posse peeled left at the "River Loop", chasing forever to catch the others at the overpass and steaming pond. Patches of frost around the place, and not-freezing and freezing patches of air around too. Took the Coringa Loop east and round and over the pass, another regroup there again. Then the final blast through. Rex sat in 36:12 on my tail for the whole second half. I spun out and wore my legs down the whole way. Pete said he was burning his legs off too.

Good to get out, tho the hills are more interesting.

Sunday Hunting Traverse Nun Worsles.

Good ride today. Big posse assembled at Steve's as usual. There was a Wayne, a Warren, a Dallas, a Tony, an Andy, a Pete and a Steve. We toodled through the frosty air to Ramahana, Aotea and on up the hill. Steve struggling with his pains, everyone else really glad to be out on the bike and on the hills, especially on such a nice day.

Approaching the top of the hill and we spotted Sandals, Jandals and Helment, aka Marie, Ben and Mark, on the traverse above, on their way to meeting us. Traverse was a great blast, flying down the downs and generally enjoying the crap out of it. Everybody had a good run round there. Then onto to Thompsons, great blast on the odd greasy bit, especially on the second half.

Up road to top of Nun, where, after a big regroup, i led off. First corner nearly got me, the trail was sketchy greasy to start with and carrying all that slop into the rocks could have proved nasty. But, survived and continued, Mark appearing on my tail at the next bend. I hauled up to let him by, but then kept it rolling and he was complaining about bald tires, so figured i'd be okay out front, and was, i think, not holding him up to much. Pretty good run down most of it, even getting through my usual troublesome rocky bits okay.

The lower half was only sampled by myself, Mark and Pete. the others all bailed out half way. The lower half was sweeeet. On the second of the big swoopy uppy bits there was some fresh dirt with a nasty looking rut in it. Managed to stay on, i think it was kinda soft so it didnt have too much bite in it. From there tho, the jumps were sweet, with some clearance been done along the trail sides opening it up nicely. good air time on the first couple.

Back up the road and we met the others all at the top of Worsleys. Fanged the first bit then into the B-line. Sweeeeeeetness in their taking it all in. Then down the road and the sideline to the bottom and home round the river and through town, all splitting our separate ways as we progressed.

Sat Bottlo with kids, Sunday Sumner Cafe run

On Saturday, Tom, Tane, my boys and me went to Bottle Ache for a spin. O on his bike, H on the tagalong. was good, nice day, fun for the boys with Tane speeding off out front and O desperately trying to keep up. Ran into a guy on a Jeff Jones (Steel Space Frame), wicked machine, but surprisingly more heavy than i'd expected. first i've seen in the flesh. very cool.

Sunday, showers coming through and all the hill tracks closed, so we (Wayne, Wazza, Andy and me) assembled at Steve's and we road cruised out to Slumner to look at all the rock falls and scoured clean cliffs. Dot Com for coffee and back. managed to avoid any rainfall, even tho T said just after i'd left it had pissed down. i saw a rainbow on my way over to Steve's but didnt get wet. :thumbsup:

Greasey eastern Sunday morning. Bottle lake Tagalonger

No other takers for a ride this fine frosty morning so i headed out on my own. Had a couple dogs to feed at Joy's so parked there and headed up Cannon Hill, Michael, Cannon again, Freeman, Major Hornbrook right to the top (via Clearview etc) and then some Upper, then up Mt Pleasant Rd. Good pace all the way up, no breaks til the top where i was too hot. Hadn't checked the ccc site prior but the trails were on Avoid yesterday so figured they might be okay today. Turned out i was right.

Hit Greenwood and proceeded to slip and grease my way down, cautiously at first, wheels squirrelling all over the place, front glancing one way while rear glances the other. Lots of fun. Quite a few dabs in places not known for dabbing. Made it to the bottom unscathed, having loved every second of it, and watched some bikers head down a Closed Capt Thomas... :hmmm:

Got onto Godley and blew out all of the first section. Screwed it up at every move. The rocks seemed way worse than they'd been last time i rode it (which was back in January!!!). Had a whizz and got going again and got my groove back on, much better, cleaned up the rest of the trail and it wasnt nearly as greasy as Greenwood had been. Met one group of riders coming the other way (one of whom i recognised) just before the first wooden bridge. Felt really on form on the descents, floating 'in' the bike and enjoying profusely. Great to see the other week's working bee has re-alligned the corner that leads into the sidling extra bit just before Breeze Col, excellent. and enjoyed riding over the PFMTBC rock. Nice work, fella's.

Next up - the Anaconda. Fun had here, again getting down 'into' the bike. Recent work lower down that is all good, except for the slop-channel. yikes. nearly threw me, a greasey sloppy dirty channel full of water and mud between two bermed corners... terrible. the rest was sweet tho, and the 'tail' was choice, bro.

Slogged up out of Taylors and over Nicholson Park, controlling my speed for the walkers, then back through Sumner round past all the rockfalls and containers and back up to Joy's to the car. 2 hours riding all up.

The next day a 6.3 hit and did this...



Afternoon.

Later on, i took the small one (nearly 4) out to Bottle Lake with the SS and the tagalong (conveniently T's bike is my old grey 18inch Switchback and i just needed to swap seatposts). I's pretty tired but we managed a good blast, him chattering away out back the whole way and enjoying it profusely.

Saturday Mixed bag

Not a lot of riding opps around these days for some reason. But, today, a miniscule posse met at 11am at Steve's, ie Steve, Dallas and me, and we headed up Ramahana, Aotea and the rest to the dirt. Steve was struggling with lower back pain that's been niggling him forever. We got up eventually to start of the Traverse. Ate the majority of a OneSquare before setting off.

Hit it good. Blat blat blat round, hardly anyone about up on the tops today. Best stretch for me was the last towards Vic, blazing it all oh so sweetly. We regrouped and hit up Thomsons which was also a lot of fun.

Through the messy road rebuild to the Kiwi and on up the summit towards the Nun and Steve pulls over and does something. Then he catches up and informs us that his brakes has been on the whole time. New pads and hadn't adjusted them accordingly (Avid brakes like his can apparently do this), after which he was like a new man...

Bit of a struggle up the road and up to top of the Nun where Di meets us greeting 'planters' for the 1 oclock planting... Grabbed a couple of spades and i left my bike there and walked down to the second hairpin where there were numerous plants waiting for us. I put in roughly 10 plants while the others continued and i walked back up to the bike at the truck. Hit the trail and enjoyed the ride down, rolling and jumping, as you do on the Nun, down the the halfway mark, pulled out and hauled up the road again.

1.30pm Top of Worsley flew into the bodybag, bombing down. At the bottom, hung the righthander and crawled up over the gorse stumps, stopping for the rest of the OneSquare and got onto the sweet sweet singletrack. Wound my way down, passing some dudes in a 4wd parked up on the top of that cliff, strangely. Then enjoyed the crap out of the next section, but the bit where Chris, Mark and me messed about with rocks the other night some motorcrossers have been spinning around, actually messing with our biketrails... anyway. back down the 4wd bit, and hung a right onto the sweet descent, bombed it out to the ride back up, then round behind the sketchy wallride and across the trails out down past the tank and back onto the maindrag.

Down the road i headed into the valley between Worsley's and West Morland, down the switchies, taking the first shortcut, then down the valley. fun times down there, then up the steep steeps back onto Worsley's Rd.

Out and a slog, major slog back across town. hoping C4 would be open, but they werent. Home at 2.30

Kids Bike (traffic) Jam

No ride over the weekend, except taking the boys to Kids Bike Jam, where i rode the course on teh SS with H on the toptubeseat. I can see why its called a bike "Jam" - think of Jam as in Traffic Jam... how-many-hundred kids and parents, all on bikes, all vying for limited singletrack space.

They say its to introduce kids to bike fun, but I wondered to myself how much its going to be creating 'change' - it sure appeared to me that the whole thing was preaching to the converted. The people that attended mostly appeared to be the kind of people who already have their kids on bikes, having fun on bikes, and experiencing places like Mcleans and Bottle lake with their kids on bikes...

It does, however, introduce kids to the culture of mass bike events, getting stuck behind people, overtaking people, being overtaken by people, so that, in the future, any that go on to entering races etc will find their first ones a lot less daunting. As far as serving a purpose, this might well be it, ie, seeding the future of NZ Mtnbike Culture and Racing... which is a very good thing.

O, while pretty fit and reasonably fast (on his 24inch wheel 15spd), doesn't appear to have a large amount of competitivism, whereas his buddy Tane does. The two rode together for the first stretch, then O got away from Tane first from the clusterfuck at the stopbank. Tom and me stopped to help numerous kids at the stopbank, running up and down to carry their bikes up for them, so it took us a long time to catch up with O, and by that time Tane was long-gone ahead. Tracey said Tane got back a good 5 minutes ahead of us.

All up it was cool to see so many people encouraging their kids on bikes, but at the same time i felt it was lacking a certain something. i wondered if maybe some sort of performances, trials or something, making it more of a 'festival' than just an event hundreds turn up to, spend half an hour riding, and then all drive home. Tracey thinks i should join the committee and get things going... maybe i should.