Jeff's Bike Blog

Phone test - freeload bottle mounts

2012-01-25T11:00:00.001+13:00

Kiwi Brevet Email to blog test

2012-01-18T10:17:00.001+13:00

Dont forget to email in your profiles if you are doing the Brevet.
http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.com/2012/01/briefing-start-list-and-rider-survey.html

Nice rack !

2012-01-17T12:51:00.000+13:00

I am a bit of a Freeload rack fan-boy. (Previous post). I used one on the inaugural Kiwi Brevet and have found nothing bad to say about them since then. One of the big advantages of the Freeload is that it will fit on almost anything, one rack fits all, rigid or suspended, front or rear.

One day I noticed that there was actually a heap of clearance between the wheel and the rack on my 26 inch bike - the same rack also fits a 29er. Tim, one of the designers said, yes it was made one size for all. I thought that maybe if I "chopped" my rack, I could get even more clearance between my kit and the back of my seat under full suspension compression. Tim reckoned it might work and sent me a couple of frames to hack up. See the results below. It worked brilliantly for my application, but mileage may vary given frame/swing-arm angles etc.

Chopped rack at top, original rack at the bottom.

I have also had a new tour deck, but have not yet had the chance to use it. I lent it to my work mate Andrew (one of 4 of us at work doing the Kiwi Brevet) and he installed it yesterday with some very serious looking panniers on it ! It feels rock solid. I reckon one pannier would do, they are massive.

Xmas 2011 - Nelson to Penzance

2012-01-08T15:56:00.000+13:00

I always have a great time when I head south to holiday with both my wife's and my families who live in Nelson and Blenheim respectively. I was keen to ride over from Blenheim to Nelson via the Mangatapu track but had to double back when seeing the (erroneous) road closed signs. Apparently they had been there for over a year. That meant back tracking to Pelorus and back onto the road. An extra 26kms of gravel, but all good training: )

Once we got to Nelson I was lucky enough to get invited out by my "Cuz" Paul McNabb for some early starts while the whanau were still asleep. One day before (Paul's) work we managed to sneak in a lap of the Coppermine circuit with event organiser James Hufflet. They were both keen to check out if the flooding the week before had washed away any of the new work done on the track. It was all mint, and nothing like the track I had ridden two years earlier. The next day Paul got my old Hutt bogan buddies Susie Wood and Gazza organised and we met up at 6.30 to ride a newish track called Involution up the Marsden Valley near Stoke.

Pelorus River

The Xterra atheletes Suse and Gazz were smacking it good up the roadie climb, but Cuz was about to get his revenge, at least momentarily. At the top we came across Eloise Fry and her dog, that made 4 Santa Cruz's on the ride. The Santa Cruz virus has run rampant in Nelson with Stylianou Mansions dealing it out like crack in the Baltimore slums. The previous day's ride was also a Santa Cruz affair, with James as always sporting a very bling looking carbon Nomad.

Cuz was eager to show off the merits of his new acquired seat dropper and spanked it down the "Involution" track proper. A few minutes later I caught up to him as he was rearranging his undercarriage having just smacked into a newly fallen tree - a byproduct of the floods. There was some more damage at the lower parts of the track but nothing too fatal.

Opouri saddle

A couple of days later I loaded up the bike and headed off early for our final holiday destination, Penzance Bay in the Marlborough sounds, via the Mangatapu Track. Sifter had been through the previous day, so I knew it would be open, despite all the stupid signs at both ends.

I was reminded how short the hill was on the Maitai side, and there were only a couple of very small unrideable bits. It was lovely travelling in the shade of the bush canopy in the early morning. The descent down the other side was a bit rougher, but nothing too bad. By the time I got to Pelorus it was heating up, and was getting pretty steamy as I navigated the 4km climb over the Opouri saddle. This was a real beauty, probably the gnarliest road climb I can think of, for that distance.

The scenery from the top of that hill was incredible. Penzance Bay seemed like a very well kept secret. We met up with all of my family and indulged in lots of fresh seafood for the next 3 days. One day Ash and myself did a very gnarly run up the hill for a couple of hours and took in even more sights. A day or two later I did a leisurely ride along Archers Track for 9kms to Elaine Bay. It follows the coastline the whole way and is a very achievable ride or walk. I came across a set of deck chairs in the middle of nowhere. There were no bogans to steal them this far away from the civilization !

Pelorus River at Mangatapu end

Maitai side of the Mangatapu

Pelorus end of the Mangatapu

The girls shucking scallops

On the way to Elaine Bay

Returning from Elaine Bay

About 3kms out from Elaine Bay !

More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrwhippy/sets/72157628766540243/

Freeload straps - first impressions

2011-12-12T17:48:00.001+13:00

I make no secret. These "straps" were bought for the ultimate epic adventure, the Kiwi Brevet.
But how could I test them to failure without endangering myself unduly? Fate smiled upon me in the form of the end of year christmas function double header. A lunch at the Upper Hutt Cossie Club followed by an epic duel on the Killing Fields of the Upper Hutt Bowling Club. Heady stuff.

We started with an entree of the sea-food platter, which I duly followed up with a main of the seafood platter. Even the batter had batter on. My zip was bursting, the Freeload strap was straining but it held fast. I didnt even need to re-cinch it once. We had some Ginger Crunch and a very good Latte and we adjorned to the green. Bending over with that much seafood onboard was a risk, but things stayed in place. Phase one of the testing was over.This is by no means a final test, but its a good start. Stay tuned.
http://www.freeload.co.nz/store/0/12/Straps

Elite bowls action, Upper Hutt styles

How buying a new pair of pants added value to my day

2011-12-12T17:20:00.001+13:00

It’s funny how progress happens, or as often doesn’t. Many times we are told that the latest thing is the best iteration of a product in a long evolution. Often it is complete bullshit and is usually a fix for something else that the marketing guys botched along the way. Bike racks and bottom brackets are a good example. You won’t get me giving up my square taper internal BB just yet.

Ground Effect Supersonics

I had an excellent experience the other day that made me think about the evolution of bike pants. My mum had given me some loot to spend for my birthday, and after much deliberation I decided to buy something sensible. A pair of cycling pants. I'd heard very good things about Ground Effect’s kit, so opted for a pair of Supersonics. These are not bib shorts. I quickly realised that 95% of my shorts are bibs. I started to wonder why. Have you ever been to a ladies race and seen the poor women trying to have a nervous one before a race? A very tricky manoeuvre with bibs on.... not so for the guys, but why were bibs invented? This is a guess, but maybe the original shorts were woollen and shoulder loops were a means of keeping them up, kind of built in suspenders.

Back on to the subject at hand.The upside of these new Supersonics shorts was how they have streamlined my day. Now I can jump straight out of bed, throw on my shorts and wait in line to do my ablutions. None of this faffing about, not being able to get dressed while I wait for the log-jam at the bathroom door to clear, because of the complexity involved with putting a top on over the bibs and then having to take it off again for a number 2. Time is money. I can get out of bed at 7.30, do my stuff and free-wheel down the hill to be at work in about 5 mins, by 8am!

Not only was I very happy with the freedom these new shorts gave me, but they were on my desk when I turned up at work the next morning, having only ordered them at 3.30 pm the previous day. That is impressive. On top of that, they are very comfortable, and look to be very solid in construction. Also you don’t get a sweaty patch up the middle of your back from the bib part when wearing a back-pack. Apparently they are made in NZ too. I get the impression these are going to be my favourite shorts.

Once again, popular with the chicks

I have had quite a few rides on these shorts now and can fully recommend them. The first two rides on the shorts were long ones, about 5 hours each and I got a bit of chaffing on the left as they settled in, but now they are fully broken in and comfy-as. The special "lower leg bands" are just right. They seem to give a real wide band of support, unlike your traditional leg grippers which can cause a bit of a pressure point, and the back is just high enough to protect you if your top rides up. There is a little internal pocket in there as well, not sure what it’s for, maybe a spare patch or two. The lyrca seems very robust which is what I like. The last time I brought two pair of shorts they both failed in different areas. The Cape Storm bibs material wore out in about a year (became transparent) and while the Tinelli shorts I got at the same time are still going really well, the stitching has come away on the chamois on one side. Only time will tell how robust these pants will be but they come with a good reputation, a good price and laser fast delivery.

A real challenge

2011-11-27T18:57:00.001+13:00

View from the window

The Huka 80km MTB challenge was to prove to be just that, a challenge. One of our 5 members didn't know until 12pm whether he would make a work deadline, and then the pick-up deadline, luckily some slower than planned packing gave him the time bonus required. Then Marco had a spell in the drivers seat. More uncertainty. There was also a minor fly in the ointment when Marco realised he had left his camelbak holder at home. Botty. With a roll of duct tape he managed to fashion my new "eski-bag" spotprize into a passable camelbak. I am sure it wasn't as light as the original though!

Bad norty elitist pedal : (

The wind seemed to follow us up from Wellington and it was a little bit brisk as we started the 15 minute trundle from the accommodation to the race start. Unfortunately 1 minute later Cleetus's XTR pedal just fell off the end of the spindle. Bugger. What to do. Calling on his past as a proponent of one-legged drills the only option was for Cleetus to try to make it to town. For once I had my eftpos card on me and if we could find a bike shop open at 6.30am we might strike it lucky. I pushed him with my left hand while he jammed away with his left leg. The exposed bit along the front of the lake was pretty brutal. Fortune smiled on us and he found a shop and scored some new pedals with time to spare!

sus-pension-ers

The race started and it was up the hill and into the single track. Singletrack that just went on and on. It was awesome. It was a bit windy, but nothing like what Cleetus and myself experienced the week before while riding the "Skyline" track in Wellington. Before long there were ominous creaks and groans, then crashes in the trees. The trees were falling down in the forest. It was pretty damn freaky. Some of them were very very close. After a couple of hours the organisers decided to pull the pin before anyone was badly hurt. It was the right call. They cut out about 20kms of the course and we carried on, some continued hammering, some didn't, it didn't matter, it was race over : (

After we cleaned up we called into BushLove HQ for a bit of a bullshit and then endured the prizegiving and headed back to the digs for a beer and sossies.

A big thanks to Ash for the transport and the accommodation, and Matt-2 for his colourful stories.

I havent done "Taupo" for about 15 years so was blown away at how big it is now. We have unfinished work, so will probably be back next year, hopefully all the weak trees will be gone !

Surly Karate Monkey second impressions

2011-11-08T17:09:00.000+13:00

You may have read my Surly Karate Monkey first impressions here. Now I am a few months down the track I reckon its time to revisit and see what else I have discovered with longer term ownership.

I tend to think that the Karate Monkey is a tinkerers bike. I come from the generation of people that grew up working on their own cars and motorbikes, so its second nature to want to build their own bicycles. Especially if there are budgetary constraints. If you are the kind of person that buys a bike ready-made, and doesn’t enjoy messing with it, then the Karate Monkey may not be for you. Why? Because there are so many options for the person who enjoys getting their hands dirty. Building my own bikes is a big part of the enjoyment that I get out of cycling, and it helps with “mechanical empathy”. That link you have in knowing how what you assembled effects how your bike hangs together, sounds and feels. Some of my contraptions may not even look pretty, but they are my babies, and you never tell anyone their baby is ugly : )

The Karate Monkey was my first 29er, first drop-barred bike, and first rigid bike (since the late 80’s), so you have to bear that in mind when reading my findings. The reason I chose it was because of the many options it gave me. I wanted to try a 29er, and apparently the Karate Monkey was one of the very first out there. Canti mounts meant that I could build it up with old crap already lying around the shed, v-brakes, road wheels etc. In this first iteration it was a very capable Cyclo cross machine as it weighed in at a passable 24 pounds. (CX images from Craig Madsen).

For the second build iteration of the Karate Monkey I picked up some cheap wheels, complete with new tires and discs off trademe. With the addition of mechanical discs it rocketed up to around 28 pounds. The discs certainly took some getting used to. There is none of the progressiveness associated with hydraulic discs - they are on or they are off. On the trails of the Wainuiomata Trail Park the Karate Monkey was great. It climbed awesomely and descended with confidence. At no time did I think I would have been better off with a flat bar. In fact, I suspect the drop bars may even have a little bit of suspension built in, they certainly feel that way. Unfortunately I mis-read the course signage in the race I was doing there, did an extra lap and dropped from 2nd to about 8th in my class by the races end.

One thing you will notice with drop bars, you can be a bit limited with braking set-ups. If you go with road levers you will need to get the appropriate discs for them. I had some special road levers that had normal MTB-style-pull so went with standard MTB discs. If I wanted to go from the bar-end shifters to STI levers, I would have to get one of these : http://problemsolversbike.com/products/travel_agents/ or change to the road specific calipers. This is starting to sound more like its about drop bars than it is the Karate Monkey. I will try to keep on track.

There are many strange things about the Karate Monkey. It is the swiss-army-knife of bicycles, so in many ways it is a compromise. It can take very fat tires, but there is little clearance for your front derailleur or derailleur cable so you might have to use the “monkey-nuts” which push the wheel more rearward in the horizontal drop-outs to give better clearance up front. This in turn would negate the whole idea of having a bent seat tube which is presumably to allow the wheel to be closer to front for that legendary Karate Monkey cornering. Of course if you go single speed its not an issue. My widest rear tires have only been 2.0 inches so I haven’t had any issues at all. Personally I hate the horizontal drop-outs which are a bit of pain when installing the rear wheel, but apparently a big improvement on previous models. At least now you don’t have to unbolt the disc calipers to change the wheel!

Something which I think is a real mistake on the latest Karate Monkey is the dropping of the canti bosses. They really gave you a lot more options. Mine is the 16 inch model. I was concerned that the 18 inch, with drop bars would be too long for me. With the 16, its great, but if I throw a normal flat bar on it, it feels a bit short. Bear this in mind when choosing frame sizes. I did a lot of research online for sizing, it did not help. An 18 with a shorter stem may well have done the job even better. Typically when using a drop-bar you are extending your cock-pit length a fair bit so you need a shorter top-tube or a shorter stem.
Some of the cable routing is not that great with the 16 inch frame, the bottom triangle (because of that silly little gusset) is only 13.5 inches tall. Presumably it’s for a better standover height. This does not leave much room to braze on a derailleur cable stop, hence you have crazy loops of cable sticking up above the top tube, and a very steep exit angle on your cable. Once again, not a problem if you are running it singlespeed.

There is only the one cable stop on the Monkey which is intended to use continuous cabling. I am not sure what I think about this. I am getting used to it, should improve cable life in theory.

I wasn’t really expecting to say anything good about a 2 and half pound steel rigid fork. I was wrong. It goes exactly where you point it. There is a lot of confidence to be gained from knowing that your wheel will go where you want it to, and it wont in fact wallow down the side of a rut and spit you off. As I said, I haven’t ridden a rigid fork since the late 80’s, but I cant help but think that the 29 inch wheels make it less of an issue.

A good example of the merits of the wagon wheels came to me the other day when riding the river bank section of the Crazyman ride. There are a series of man made speed humps. When you hit them on the 29er, you just launch off them. When I hit them on my 26er, they really knock my speed back.

In really tight single track the karate Monkey’s geometry is amazing. It even turns better than my Santa Superlight which is my best handling bike to date. That's with the drop bars on. I haven’t ridden it that much with the flat bar on, although I can say unequivocally, the drop bar is better for long descents as you only really have to brake, and not brake AND grip the bar simultaneously. Gravity and the shape of the bar means you can relax your grip and your hand wont slip off, or get arm pump to the same extent. This is one of the main benefits of a drop bar. There I go again.

So what else have I found out? Its the only bike Ive ever had to use a proper head-set tool on. It was a tight fit. Luckily Marco had one in his garage. The bottom bracket shell is 73mm wide and I am using a 113mm wide spindled square taper BB on it, like most of my BB’s.

More things, not necessarily to do with the Monkey, but more the 29er format.
1. You can run MTB tires on Mavic Open pro road rims.
2. You can run road tires on 29er MTB rims.
3. If you flat, a 26 tube will fit a 29er tire no problem with a bit of care.

I have had a lot of fun with this Bike. It handles really well, its very robust, cheap and adaptable. I will probably ride it a bit more with the flat bar on, then put the drops back on, then do some big day trips on it, then maybe turn it into a singlespeed for a while. I am interested to see how the drop bars cope with the big leverage efforts you get when SSIng. The “on the hoods” position on my current Woodchipper bar gives excellent leverage for in the saddle efforts anyway.

At around 5 and a half pounds for the frame, this is indicative of the many steel hard tails that are turning up on the market. Cheap and robust, and heavier than a lot of fullies. But if you are not suffering from weight weenerism and you like messing with your own bike, then the Karate Monkey promises hours of fun!

Other links. Worlds fastest Monkey.
Karate Monkey First Impressions.

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/karate_monkey

Karate Monkey Landspeed Record attempt

2011-10-19T13:11:00.001+13:00

In my bid to build the fastest Karate Monkey on the planet I have a way to go. My second attempt at wind tunnel testing on the Rimutaka incline proved problematic as a southerly came through. I was in danger of getting hypothermia in the actual tunnel as the wind tried to wrestle the 2nd rain jacket I was trying to put on from my grip.

It's at this time of the year (spring) that the weather is always at its worst. Winter is a doddle in Wellington. It's always mild and mostly dry and most of the time you don't even have to wear gloves. Ok, it snowed this year. But that has never happened before. Spring sucks. I am getting probably 1 dry ride out of 3, and the trails are a mess.

The first speed enhancement I tried was my home brewed aero-bars, followed by a reverse slammed riser stem, the Freeload rack speed-pod, then the Wheelbuilder.com wheel covers (disc wheel emulator). A 46 tooth big ring helps too.

Room for an expresso pot, tools and spare shorts.

Wind tunnel testing is all very well, but its on the race track where you see if all the hours of computer modelling you have been doing pays off. Unfortunately the disc cover caused a slight rubbing on the brake caliper, so I had to eliminate it from the test. I could have run my tri-spoke on the front, but that would have meant putting the v-brakes back on. Too hard.

The race was on what the UK Time Trial testers would call a "sportsmans" course, a winding 22kms in the country with lots of the nasty coarse 3/4 chip that we specialise in here in NZ. You can tell it was slow when the fastest time was a 41kmh on a hi-end TT rig. We got hammered with a rain squall coming through as well.

The best I could manage was 35kmh in 37.25 mins. Pretty pathetic, but with 32 spokes smashing into the wind, Armadillo tires and very wide handlebars I guess I shouldn't have expected too much. I did sit on 54kmh for a bit on the wednesday worlds ride early that week, but then I also went out the back some time shortly afterwards : )

The fat tires are back on now. But if anyone else wants to have a crack, we can start with the Karate Monkey World Landspeed record at 35kmh for 20 kms. All results must be verified.

A different kind of parrot sketch

2011-10-18T12:27:00.002+13:00

I got out on my road bike before work yesterday, but by golly it felt horrible compared to my Karate Monkey. Tiny carbon handlebars with negligible brakes. I was buzzed though when a flock of about 7 Rosellas flew directly over my head. Better than the Coach Track Magpie who must have had a crack at me 8 times in about 800 metres a week back. Then as I was going past the Rimutaka prison turn-off I saw an adolescent Pukeko chick with its parent and directly across the road were a pair of Paradise Ducks with the tiniest of chicks. Unfortunately this morning on my commute I found a severly injured male Paradise duck on the road that I had to euthanise. A real shame as they are said to mate for life. I thought I would cheer myslelf up with this clip of a Kakapo getting jiggy on some guys head.

Wind tunnel testing for Brevet

2011-10-02T18:08:00.000+13:00

Well I know I said I wasn't competitive about this thing... but there was a tunnel, and it had wind in it...

I left work at 4pm on friday with the idea of a getting a longer ride in, leaving the weekend open for all the other stuff like, house maintainance, market and veggie shopping and as it turned out, BBQ prep.

I loaded up on batteries and a cookie time, with the idea of heading to the top of the Rimutaka Incline summit, travelling as much as I could on the gravel. Unfortunately I always get lost at the bit up the Plateau road, so I bypassed this and had to do some tarmac from Moonshine North. Next time I will sort it out.

I was testing my new home modified aero bars and I was rapt with the way they felt. Actually more comfortable, more aero and lighter than the Profile T2's that I used in the Brevet last time. The position is a bit more extreme than the position on the T2 as the pads are ON the handlebar rather than BEFORE the handlebar. I was amazed at how much control I had when I had built up my confidence, and that was with the narrow CX tires on. Unfortunately it was quite a short ride, with a tail wind on the way out, and downhill on the return, it was a little bit over 3 hours and not even dark when I got home. Maybe next time I will drop down to Cross Creek to make it a bit longer.

Its great getting out on the gravel river trails, no stress from the traffic and quite relevant to XC or Brevet riding. I have tended to completely ignore them in the past but no more! People don't tend to think of the Hutt Valley as a Picnic/River destination but its as good as many other places in NZ that people rave about.

Only 134 sleeps til the Kiwi Brevet !

2011-09-23T12:42:00.000+12:00

I knew I was really looking forward to 2012's Kiwi Brevet when I was daydreaming about the new course and I nearly rode into the back of a parked car. I also had this strange dream where I was riding my bike flanked by a group of Pukekos. Birds are very portentous to me. Native birds anyway. Maybe it was a combination of Brevet memories of all the Wekas we came across near Moana, and the time we were riding with a baby deer. The mind does strange things. I have done a lot of very cool things over the years on my bike, but so far the Kiwi Brevet tops them all. A special combination of adventure, camaraderie and challenge.

Last time I was very green, and apart from doing Outward Bound in 1984 I didn't have much outdoor experience. My aim was to able to cope with anything that nature threw at me. I wasn't interested in buying into the "accommodation anxiety" thing, riding on into the small hours to try and make it to pre-booked accommodation. I felt the need to be prepared. If you break a freewheel in the middle of the bush your credit card wont save you, so I took a bivvy sack and a sleeping bag. As it happened we did experience a breakdown of sorts with my buddy coming down with heat-stroke and an enforced camp 3/4s of the way up the Mangatapu on day 1. Its not like he wasn't fit. We had done a fair bit of training together and I was worried about keeping up with him to be honest. Anyway, we had the gear for a comfy night out so we were sweet. It was the most memorable night of the ride for me too. Camped out on Murders rock, with an amazing night sky..

In the end we were all very lucky, with good weather the whole time and what seemed like a perpetual tailwind. That doesn't mean to say it will be the same this time around. New Zealand's weather can be very changeable.

This time I am looking at different bike options. Last time I adopted a pretty simple approach. I brought a Freeload rack and bolted it onto my Santa Cruz full suspension bike (my installation pix here). Freeload built the first, and to my knowledge only rack that will bolt on to almost any fully (or suspension fork). If you have a fully the only other option is one of these overgrown seat bags. Having never used a seat bag I cant comment on how they work. I guess the weight is up a little higher. Freeload also do a pannier specific rack now, which I have but have yet to test.

I ended up riding with two other guys with Freeload racks. Jonty had them on both ends and Nick had one with panniers on the back. While they would have have been very envious of my fully as we rode through the Molesworth corrugations, I was very envious of the ease of access that Nick had to gear in his saddlebags. There was no messing about with un-strapping a dry bag which you probably just spent 15 minutes cinching up so it wouldn't wobble off after a couple of hours on a gnarly track. A couple of small side panniers like Nicks were brilliant.

Outside the Black Ball Hilton.

Now that I have a rigid 29er Surly Karate Monkey I am wondering if I should use that. Its going to be at least 2 pounds heavier than the Santa Cruz which weighed in at 28.5 pounds with aero-bars and rear rack (no load). The 29er wheels roll beautifully and I am not yet convinced the weight would make a lot of difference.

It didn't seem to be a problem for the Aussie Brovet guys who came over with their fully loaded Salsa Fargos. There is a hell of a lot of climbing in the Kiwi Brevet, but it is spread out over 1100kms. Its got to be pretty damn steep for a heavier bike to make a big difference. There will be a few very steep segments this time around, probably more than there was last time, but if it comes down to it, if you get out of bed 30 minutes earlier the next day, any disadvantage from having a heavier bike would be gone (I think). This implies a degree of competitiveness, which we weren't actually buying into in 2010. I am pretty sure I wont be buying into it again in 2012 ! The Karate Monkey is also a very simple bike, cable discs which are so set and forget, compared to my finicky hydraulics, and friction bar-end shifters. No pivots or shocks to break. Who am I trying to convince?

Cleetus in Port Underwood. It was hot.

Riding a fully in 2010 made it fun for me. I am wondering if that's what kept me fresh and enabled us to bang out the last 200 plus kms from Hanmer in under 11 hours. How tired would I be if I rode a steel rigid bike the whole way. That is the big question. Am I stuck on the big-wheeled band-wagon? I guess I need to do a few long rides. Some with CX tires, some with full sized tires. The CX tires fairly scream along on the flat stuff, but in lieu of suspension, a fatter tire is the only suspension you will be getting on a rigid frame.

More questions, a camera or not? I took some good photos last time, many of them good enough to be used in magazines, and I also used my little phone to take some passable photos for blogging. What's the use of doing such a cool event if you don't take the time to snap a few quality shots to document it and skite about what a fun time you are having while you are doing it! There is a lot of weight in there if you also take a phone charger, plus one for your lights. The new Ayup light's batteries come with a low-power light setting so that could greatly extend battery life.

The next thing I am geeking out on is a bivvy sack versus a tarp. A tarp could be a bit smaller and breathe a lot better. I only used my bivvy sack twice last time and I found it a bit sweaty. Here is a very cool set-up. Charlotte used one like this in 2010. Check out this website pimping the pros of "quilts". It actually makes a lot of sense.I am also keen to use aero bars again, they are a great place to hang some light gear off and you really appreciate having another position for your hands, and the ability to stretch out and take some more weight off your butt. I made sure I was well used to my aeros before the last Brevet and even did a lap of the Coppermine circuit when in Nelson with them on. Right now I am messing with some home-grown minimalist aeros in my shed. Never throw anything out : )

So that's were I am at at the moment.Thinking about the Kiwi Brevet on February 4th 2012.
Only 134 sleeps !

Some of my favourite pix

2011-09-21T12:45:00.001+12:00

I reckon you are better to have a crappy camera in your pocket than an expensive one at home in your cupboard. Here are some of my favourite pix. None of them are from particularly flash cameras. All of them point and shoots, a Canon Power Shot A460 and a Canon Power Shot SX200IS.

If you want to see what you can do with a compact camera, check out this guy's stuff, its really impressive. http://www.gnatlikes.com/

Cleetus ripping up Mt Climie on his Singular Gryphon

Jonty and Chris on the Molesworh in the Kiwi Brevet

Cleetus on Mt Climie again

Jonty in the Waiuta on the Kiwi Brevet

Snow on Belmont Trig this year.

Flatter than a flat thing. Nth island CX champs.

2011-09-19T16:23:00.002+12:00

That was the worst I have felt in race since the singlespeed world champs last year.
I was flatter than a flat thing. Such is life. But I have got to tell you about it just so I can include this cool photo that Craig Madsen took. You can't tell that I am complete rubbish in it. At least I had the option to have a free beer on each lap, not that I did... I dont think I have recovered from the 6-peaks 6-pack ride I did a few weeks back... thats probably why I am flat... Too old for that kind of nonsense.
Craig Madsen had just got off the plane from Interbike 2 hours earlier, he raced, took photos and was full of gossip and tales which I could tell you about but then I would have to track you down and kill you, and I am too flat for that right now..

Well done to Bike Hutt's Mike Anderson for putting on a great series of events. Cyclo-cross was the winner on the day and there were costumes and all sorts of dodgy things going on. I am not sure, but I think one of the Hawkes Bay guys won, but on a beer count-back the local Yeti Alex Revell may have taken home the trophy. A good report here from Ken.

Legend of the day had to go to Mark Humphries for riding his Pugsly in all three races! He is gonna kill himself or get very very strong. It was also good to see "Frog" Woodward who I don't think I have seen since the North Island Cup at Dry Creek in 1993. Funny how things go. I am pretty sure that back then Frog was on a double chain-ring set-up with drop-bars. How bizzare. There is truly nothing new under the sun.

It was great catching up with heaps of the local crew and some of my old Brevet buddies who are starting to get a bit amped about Simon Kennett's 2012 Kiwi Brevet !!

The importance of arithmetic

2011-08-31T15:32:00.002+12:00

I had my first real MTB race on the Karate Monkey on sunday at the Wainuiomata Trail Park, round 1 of the PNP series. It was also my first offical race as a Master 3 (50 year old). Not that I am 50 yet, but I will be this calendar year. Given that I was M3, I knew there would be limited technical challenge to the course (knowing the course designer's preferences quite well) so running a rigid frame wouldn't be too much of a hindrance.

Photo borrowed from Andy Woodwarks Collection

The hooter sounded and I wound up the new 46 sprocket (thanks Marco) and shot past a fair few of the combined M3, M1 and elite field before we turned off 10 seconds later onto the first climb. Straight away I was hammering up behind my old protege Jordan Blake and before long Marco floated up behind us on his 17 pound C-dale. I could see Marco was angling to take the left hand side of the water-tower at the top of the first climb, but my gut feeling was that the right side was quickest. Jord had the local knowledge so I went with him. Good call, we didn't see Marco again for quite a while, until I heard him call out from behind that "The Painting Man was coming through". Despite his digital weight-loss techniques Ian Paintin was still a bit behind on the climb, but was about to make his move. He busted through on the descent and we levelled out again on the next small climb.

The first of the granny climbs went well but I lost traction just before the top. On the second climb, Ian had the good line on the left, and I had the gnarly one on the right, but he spun out and speared off over to my side forcing me off, apologising profusely like the gentleman racer he is.

We remounted and somewhere before the main ridge track Marco made his move and got ahead of me before the left turn into the newly built Towai single track. Ian was having none of it and retook the lead, having been caught behind Marco's extra large elbows before. I on the other hand was not so clever and spent what seemed like an eternity stuck behind the Godfather until he agreed to pull over. I have the guys in the workshop working on a high-voltage Capacitor Discharge device that should enable me to give Marco a good zap on the ring-piece if he shows a lack of fair play again!

The new Towai track was great. Narrow and winding, and a bit rooty, but I cant wait to get out on it again. The wagon wheels on the Karate Monkey seemed to eat it up quite well, but I suspect a bit of front end suspension would have been a help. I got out onto the main trail in second place wondering how far up ahead the Painting Man was.

The bee-line descent went well, (took the girls route) up Jungles and down Snails and over the Wetlands and on to an unmarked fork in the track. Bugger. What to do. The majority of the wear and tear to the track seemed to be to the right so I went that way. Doh! 20 seconds later I almost had a head-on with someone coming the other way so I back tracked back and took the left hand fork. I heard a coasting free-wheel up ahead and wondered if it was another super-crusty who had passed me while I was going the wrong way. Sure enough I spied Gary Moller up ahead. Catching him was hard, as I kept hitting back markers. They were always courteous and pulled over where they could. Gary is at the upper end of the super-crustys age bracket and has just gotten faster over the last 3 or so years. I snuck past him near the top of the climb somewhere but didn't put much time on him down Snails on the next lap.

Somewhere along here things get hazy. I would swear on my death bed that I did 3 laps of the course, as outlined in the Course Algebra description, but obviously I did 4, and I apologise for convincing Gary that we had an extra lap to go, as it cost both of us a place on the podium. A small amount of post-race research found that there was a strong correlation between our numeracy skills and our final positions, with school cert maths results having a big influence on the final outcome with Ian Paintin scoring 98, Marco 86, and me a dismal 50. It all makes perfect sense now.

All things considered it was a good day, a fun track and some good riding. Things are looking a bit dire up our way at the moment. The Waitangirua Forest Park is closed for lambing and Danzig is likely to get levelled so that the timber can be turned into car-boxes in Japan. On the up side Marco and his buddies are building a new link track from the Coach track across to Hill Road (I think).

The above foto was from Andys shots. More photos and relevant links here.

Snow business

2011-08-15T13:04:00.001+12:00

Who would have thought, my first ever experience of riding on snow would happen in my own back yard!
After the dumps we got at our house I figured there might be heaps more up the hill, so headed off up to the top of Belmont Trig before work. It was amazing, no wind and about 6 to 8inches deep where there was a northerly aspect. Hard work riding up it, but a blast coming down!

Where are the roadies?

2011-08-08T12:33:00.000+12:00

Here are a couple of nice shots from Craig Madsen from The Bike Hutt's latest Cyclo Cross in Upper Hutt.
He must have had some old black and white film in the back of the fridge ; )

Craig's Pugsly was a popular ride at the race. Incredible to think that Surly are about to launch one with even fatter tires called the "Moonlander".

About 1.3 seconds after this I slipped and fell flat onto my knees in front of the next barrier ! The guys that were bunny-hopping these were taking heaps of time out of those of us that werent. There are some great photos of guys on CX bikes getting big air in the Bike Hutt facebook, in particular Ben Knight.

It was a full-on course with lots of tight corners and quite a few barriers to deal with. The hardest one for me so far. What was really cool was seeing the little kids doing their race. This is the perfect environment for the kids to race in as its not easy to find flat places for kids in the Wellington area.

I am a bit surprised to be going as well as I am at these events as my bike training at the moment is pretty much 1 ride a week ( 2.3 hrs a week average over the last 3 months) as I get ready for the Butterfly Creek Midnight Madness Night Run which is on this weekend in the Hills above Eastbourne.

Its a 15 km two-man teams event, (480 metres of climbing) but unfortunatley myself and Cleetus both got broken-arses last week, him with his back going out, and me with my first time experience of ITB (illiotibial band syndrome). I probably got it by trying to run downhill too fast just trying to keep Cleetus in sight. Hopefully with a serious taper we can enjoy ourselves for a few hours on saturday night.

More photos here from the Bike Hutt's Facebook page. Ken Feist had a good race and on his Blog asks the question we are all thinking. Where are the Wellington Roadies? As I was waiting for Cleetus at the bottom of the Hill (on the ride out) both the Welly bunch-ride and the Meoow GP ride came through. I guess we missed our chance to infiltrate and spread the good word....

Drop it like its hot !

2011-08-03T12:37:00.008+12:00

The Karate Monkey is getting close to being a final build with the addition of some MTB wheels - brand new, complete with new Racing Ralphs for $285 off tardme!

Some Avid BB7s disc brakes (mtb version) complete the package. All of this has bumped the weight up by about 3 pounds to about 27.5 pounds over the v-braked road-wheeled iteration I was using at the CX's. The CX tires will be back on for this weekend hopefully.

It got a good hammering at Wainui Trail Park last weekend. The drop bars were great, but the rear brake was almost unusable they were skidding so much. I know that the Racing Ralphs roll incredibley well on the road, so a bit of the skidding could be caused by them, but I think I basically had the Avid BB7's set up too well. I backed off the inside pad a few turns when I got home. Hopefully it will make them less vicious as the outside pad will have to drag the disc over to the inside which should knock back the efficiency a bit.

I am really liking the Woodchipper drop-bars. I cut 2 inches off each side last week so now I can at least get them into the shed without snagging bottles of turps and paint brushes all over the show.

The position of your hands when riding these off-road is such that its like hanging onto a big set of bar-ends. You can get massive amounts of power through them, which is handy, because with bar-end shifters, I am not going to be changing gears as often as I would if I had an STI road shifter on the front right.

There are several reasons for this choice of shifters. You need a different set of BB7s for road pull levers (mine are special ones that pull the normal MTB amount) and I am using them in friction mode as I would be surprised if STI would work with my circuitous cable routing : )

Why you should take Global Warming seriously

2011-08-02T10:09:00.008+12:00

Beer - it's a kiwi favourate - but according to NIWA global warming might just be about to taint your pint.

Another beer related item. DB has managed to gain ownership of the trademark 'Radler' . Imagine if Ford were the only people allowed to call there cars "CARS". The rest of would be driving "Motorised buggies".

I like the suggestion of Radler brewers putting an '@' in the name to give the finger to DB.

Trees are our friends

2011-07-06T21:43:00.004+12:00

Last saturday myself and celebrity seismologist Mr Cleetus, hit the Wainui Trail Park yet again. We were both on our rigi-didgy 29ers and as I followed him up the Wainui Hill I pointed out that his rear dropout looked less than perfectly vertically aligned. He acknowledged my concerns and pedalled on. We shot up Labyrinth to check out the new trail that is being built up near the top - The Towai Traverse? It is really coming along and is quite different to the other trails at WTP. A bit more natural rather than being so smoothly bermed. Towards the end of the trail it started to get pretty muddy. Initially my Beaver/Karma combo was sweet, but before long it had turned into a big fat mess just like Cleetuses dry weather Geax Akkas.

Before long there was a foul exclamation and Cleetus stopped to view his now extremely dislocated rear derailleur which was jammed between the spokes in a most unnatural position. His non-replaceable steel drop-out was also looking very munted. We were in a quandry. What would Bear Grylls do? It was way too cold to pee on our tee shirts and make a bandana so I elected to break the chain and make a singlespeed to hopefully get us home.

After 10 minutes we eventually found the power-link in the mud covered chain and we removed the rear derailleur. Cleetus related to me a belief that it might be possible to realign his drop-out to a usable level by leveraging it between two branches in a tree.

It sounded far-fetched to me, but anything was worth a go. Low and behold there just happened to be several trees near-by, one of which was a good fit. 10 minutes later the whole thing was reassembled and we scrambled up the short-cut to the firebreak to continue our ride.

We decided to keep it safe and leave the gear changing to a minimum but had to ride down the Snail Trail at least a couple of times. Its a very fun trail on a rigid bike and I was really enjoying the control on the "wide-as" Woodchipper bars. I always assumed that they were a disadvantage to Cleetus, but I am well and truly convinced now that they are not.

We shot up Jungle Gym and Directors and down the Wainui Hill to finish off an eventful day.

Leave it to Beaver

2011-06-20T12:59:00.002+12:00

Maxxis Beaver 29er tire - first ride.

I was on the lookout for some 29er tires. I'd just built up my Karate Monkey and had blooded it with its first Cyclocross race and it went well - with CX tires, now I needed some MTB tires if I was to venture further afield in more comfort and control.

Given that I am not currently rich enough to have proper 29er wheels, I needed some 29er tires that would work well enough on my current wheels (Mavic open-pros road wheels). I did a bit of Googling and found that its not unheard of for people to use 29er tires on 700cc road rims, but it was advisable not to go too wide. I managed to find a cheap Kenda Karma 1.9 somewhere for the rear, so I just needed a front. A quick look online and I spied something called a Maxxis Beaver. I googled it up, and could only see two references to it at all. Everyone else was either testing prototypes from the factory or had just got them and hadn't put any real miles on them.

I clicked "buy", and 18 hours later there was fresh Beaver on my desk! A 29 x 2.00 tire designed for use in mud and challenging conditions... apparently. There is nothing about them on the Maxxis website, this was just from some PR fluff I came across. They had a nice sticky feel to them and weighed in at a scant 553 grams. How can a 29er tire be lighter than most of my 26ers? They didn't have scary thin looking sidewalls or tiny knobs. The did have the EXC specification which is supposed to offer high TPI count and lightweight "advantages".

Anyway. The day after the sunday cyclocross race I came down with a very bad case of dysentery that had me out of action for most of the week. A real shame as it was forecasted to bucket down by the weekend. I snuck out on thursday in the early dawn to see how the Beaver held up on the Danzig track, which was trying to dry out after the previous week's downpours. Danzig is a slippery muddy pig in the wet, so it was a good test. It wasn't as bad as I had seen it in the past so thought I would give Big Weta a crack as well.

The combination of the Karma on the back, and Beaver up front was was giving me very good braking. I wasn't constantly locking up like I do on my Superlight, but then again, the Superlight has powerful disc brakes, and presumably a smaller braking patch. Cornering was pretty much as expected on a bicycle in the mud. No real surprises, only me continually surprised that it takes a while to get used to no suspension on the front after 15 years of having a suspension fork!

It got a bit squirrley near the bottom of Big Weta and I had a magnetic tree experience and ended up trying to embrace the sky as I went over the bank. Thankfully there was lots of damp rotting plant matter to soften my fall. It was still a bit dark, but darker still down the bank. I hauled myself out on a Ponga frond after documenting my stupidity in Gonzo style.

I checked the tires and they were still working well enough. A fair bit of sticky mud build-up in between the wide-ish spaced knobs, but nothing that was hampering traction. If it was wetter, there would have been less mud stuck on the tires for sure. Danzig's combination of drying mud and pine needles can be pretty crappy if you get it at the wrong time on the wrong tire.

This was only my first ride on the Beaver, and given that it has pelted down non-stop since then, I will have to go out again and try it in even wetter conditions.

* No Beaver/s were harmed in this test and I paid full screaming retail for the tire. I am in no way affiated with the Beaver/Maxxis family although its true I once lived in a town which was to be called "Beaver Town" but which thankfully settled on Blenheim as a name.

Mud glorious mud!

2011-06-12T22:15:00.003+12:00

We had a good day today at round 1 of this years new and improved BikeHutt Cyclo-Cross series. It was my first serious outing on my new Surly Karate Monkey so I was hoping all my DIY mechanicing would hold together. I had a 42 mm tire on the front and a 38 on the back so riding out to the event on the road was a doddle. I stopped for some more "moody" shots on the side of the road while the bike was still clean.

The course itself was the most enjoyable one I have done so far, and either it was longer, or I was fitter, because I didn't get lapped which was good. It would have been an excellent course for a single-speed set-up and I reckon I only used two gears on the back as it was. I diced with Mike Thomson early on in the race and he was on his Masi CX bike set up in Single Speed mode, no way I could hang with him. The Karate Monkey worked flawlessly and although it picked up a bit of mud it didn't impact on gears or anything that was going to cause me grief. The 45 minutes plus 1 lap format is just right, although 40 mins plus one would have suited me better as I exploded pretty much on time during the last lap.

There were heaps more CX bikes there this time and some really fruity set-ups. I am pretty sure Revolution Cycle's Alex Revell was the winner on the day on his very cool Yeti Cross bike.

Check out a nice image from lensman Craig Madsen (http://www.craigmadsen.com/). I met him after the event while washing my bike. He has this beautiful looking Pugsly. As he was washing it as the thing was trying to float away!

Some more images (above) of one-time NZ Junior Downhill Champ - Ed Banks, Cleetus and myself. I don't know how Cleetus gets all that crap on his face. Maybe he has a water bottle full of it and he squirts it on so he looks staunch.

Results:
http://blog.thebikehutt.co.nz/2011/06/cx-12-june-provisional-results-45mins.html

Dont miss the next one...

Cyclocross Series 2011
CX Dates/ venues as below:

Sunday 12 June - Trentham Memorial
Sunday 26 June - California Park
Sunday 10 July - California Park
Sunday 24 July - Trentham Memorial
Sunday 7 August - California Park
Sunday 21 August - California Park
Sunday 4 September - Trentham Memorial
Sunday 18 September - Harcourt Park

http://blog.thebikehutt.co.nz/2011/05/cx-series-info.html

Karate Monkey first impressions

2011-06-04T20:20:00.010+12:00

I went for the first ride on my new "frame" on thursday. I still hadn't recovered fully from the cold that I have had for the last week so it was a gentle up and down of the Danzig and Big Weta tracks in Belmont Regional Park, about 8 minutes of descending and 16 minutes of leisurely climbing.

The Surly Karate Monkey is a pretty bizarre looking machine and is well known for its utilitarian design. If Batman had a bike on his utility belt, it would be this one... if you could take only one bike onto a desert island, then you would take the Karate Monkey... or so the legend goes. It is adorned with all kinds of welded on attachments (except cable stops) which enable it to be used in many different roles.

Apologies for the crappy Tablet photos.

Its a 29er, with canti studs so can be used as a Cyclo Cross Bike, a Cross Country bike (can take a suspension fork and discs) a Single Speed (has horizontal drop-outs) and a touring bike (has mounts for racks and mudguards). So that's effectively four other bikes I don't need now... which is just as well, because I had to disable at least three of them just to get together enough parts to make this one go!!

I had to borrow the rear v-brakes off my single speed, the front v-brakes off my Franken-cross bike, the Woodchipper handlebar and old road-wheels off same, and the right-hand shifter off my Time trial bike !

Cleetus gave me his ex-Kiwi-Brevet 42mm conti-cross tire for the front and I picked up a cheap 38mm CX tire for the rear.

Aside from having no front suspension and very narrow tires my initial descent of Danzig and Big Weta went well. There was a fair bit of jarring but nothing I couldn't handle, a big fat tire on the front would give me a completely different ride. I cant wait. What impressed me most was the nimbleness of the bike, it just dropped into the many Danzig "zig-zags" beautifully. Maybe it was the short chain-stays tucked in close to the bent seat post, reminds me of he old Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo? Surprisingly it felt way more nimble than my Santa Cruz Superlight which is the bike I ride down there the most. Not what I would have expected from a 29er, although the thin tires may have had a big effect on its lively feel.

The frame layout is very strange to look at, and I did a lot of comparing of "effective top-tubes" before I ordered this size - the 16 inch. The actual measurement from BB to the bottom side of the top-tube is only 13.5 inches, but to the top side is 16. The actual "effective top-tube" length is longer than many other "medium" sized bikes at 576 mm, or 22.7 inches.

My plan was always to use this as a drop-bar bike which tends to put your arms more forward than a flat-bar anyway. I do have short legs and a long torso (5ft 10 - very monkey-like; ) and so far the fit feels really good. The amount of actual seat-post sticking out is surprisingly identical to my Superlight, even though it looks crazy. It looks like the top-tube almost slopes directly into the rear chain-stays on the 16inch frame !

The Woodchipper drop-bars are amazingly good. They feel really safe, because of the way your hands just fall into them, but I have to wonder what would happen in an off - would your legs get all tangled up behind the things ? The bars do offer quite a few different positions and what I found really interesting was how natural they felt when climbing. With the hands on the hoods position they had a very similar feel to what you get from riding on bar-ends on a flat-bar equipped XC bike. I have the top of the bar set up about parallel to the top of the seat, but ideally they are supposed to be quite a bit higher than that for proper control while riding on the drops off road.

It will be in the Cyclo cross/Commuter format for quite a while I think, because to run fatter tires I will need wider rims, and if I am going to do that I might as well get rims that have braking surfaces AND disc ready hubs while I am at it. No sense in having two sets of wheels when you are cheap.

The current brake/shifting set-up is very basic but comfortable, Diacompe road levers with special pull for v-brakes. I have done my time with normal canti's and ain't going back!

If I ever go to STI styled shifters I would probably go for an SLX 10 speed rear cluster, that way I could have a 34 rear, meaning potentially less chain-rings needed up front.

Surprisingly in this current build it only weighs in at 23.5 pounds. With a steel 4130 frame at about 5.5 pounds and a 2.6 pound fork it was never going to be a light-weight. Anyway, as you know, steel is real, real heavy and real cheap so I am really looking forward to getting over this lurgi so I can get out for a really decent ride !!!

Some relevant links
Baby monkey - riding on a pig going backwards.....
http://www.surlybikes.com/frames/karate_monkey_frame/
http://www.tomac.com/john-tomac.php

Phoo! Google is your friend, I found you can actually run 29er tires on road rims, it's just not recommended! I will try out this 1.9 Kenda Kharma. The Rim is an old 36 hole Mavic Open Pro with a Durace hub. I am pretty sure the wheel, or the hub was once my workmate Sam Raphel's.

A few more observations.
For some reason the front cantis only have holes for one position of the v-brake spring while the rear studs have three. It means I cant get the brakes snapping back into position how I'd like. The seat-tube is also so rediculously short that there is hardly any room to mount the front derailler cable-stop without it potentially fouling an incredibley fat wheel (if it was used) hence negating the pretty bent seat-tube design - hence the cable angle is pretty gnarly. Usually when I assemble a bike I can tap the head-set in with a piece of wood and rubber mallet. Not this one. I gave up and used a proper tool that required %*&^-loads of torque on it to force the head-set in. The BB went in easily with no extra preparation.

Crazyman 2011 - Happy 21st !

2011-05-09T12:58:00.003+12:00

I cant tell you how many Crazymans I have done, but I can say that I did the first one in 1991 when it was a 2 day event at the height of the Multi-sport craze. In those days you had to be pretty serious to be up for the rigors of the equivalent of two half marathons in two days, plus two bikes, and kayaks (from memory). My involvement then was usually as the biker in a team. When it changed to a 1 day format there was a duathlon option and I had some good cracks at that over the years.

The last Du option I did was in 2006 and the new longer run nearly put paid to me. The run was a good 20 minutes longer for most people and the result was that most suffered from cramp at some stage when they got onto the bike leg.

Michael Jacques has been constantly tweaking the course and now he makes use of the Wainuiomata Trail Park which really evens out the course, makes it heaps more fun and achievable and eliminates one of the most heinous sets of hills.

There was a lot of interest at work this year with with a few teams and a few ex GNS employees doing the Individual, all of the them the duathlon option. Myself, Marco and Mark Hearfield were lucky enough to have masters multi-sport record holder Dave Ross ferrying us around and doing our transitions - a very important job.

The start, 400 odd nutters looking in vain for a firm piece of sand to run on. Photo by Martin Crundwell

Because of the weather the start was changed so that the triathletes and duathletes started together instead of the triathletes starting first with the paddle. We all hit the beach, desperately seeking firm sand, and roared up the road to the bus barn track. It was steep and a bit greasy, but not as greasy as the downhill. By the time I exited the butterfly creek loop (around 46 mins later) about 5 people had passed me due to my crap downhill running skills, including "Mrs Coast to Coast" - Elina Ussher.

I grabbed my hidden water bottle from a bush and as we hit the tarseal Chris "Navy Seal" Martin and Paul "Grimly Fiendish" Grimwood caught me. We legged it along the flat for a km or two until we neared the Ferry Road climb. Paul disappeared behind but we caught Daniel, and Chris seemed to be gaining on me. Jason McCarty was faking a pretty good run and I could see him about 2 corners ahead of me. He stayed that way until until I got to the very top at Mt Lowry. Jase was 10 paces ahead, but he nailed it on the descent and I didn't see him again : (

Callum Kennedy on his new Yeti. Photo Martin Crundwell.

By the time I got to the transition area I was pretty poked. I couldn't let Jase beat me, the bugger told me he'd only been for a couple of runs! And I believed him!

Dave passed me a camelbak, a lid and shoes and I was off - in well under a minute. I sculled a half bottle of drink, a gel, started sucking on my camelbak and tried to tell my legs to pedal all at once. Eventually I caught my workmate Jim (count the vowels) Chrzeszczyk who kindly let me passed on the Labyrinth track. Jim was teamed up with Chris Martin. At this stage it was important not to do anything that was going scare my legs into cramping, so anticipating gear changes well in advance, and not spinning to small, or too tall a gear was the best strategy. Out onto the main firebreak I eventually came across a small bunch with Lee Campbell - last years multisport runner-up, and Elina Ussher. Lee was still gas-bagging as he had been all through butterfly creek!

My nutrition must have started to work as I dropped them and carried on smacking it up the hill, looking for signs of the elusive Jase. Nothing to be seen. It was raining lightly as it was most of the time (I think), well, everything was wet anyway, and I started to notice the ineffectiveness of my tires. They were the same ones I used at Xterra, hardly mud tires, but I figured they would be worth the extra speed along the flatter river bank section. The Stans Raven on the back and the Spotted Cat on the front. Semi-slicks at best. Its not like there was anywhere where I wasn't riding straight up and down so I didnt think traction was that much of an issue.

The mud and water was making my drive train feel and sound terrible, but it never stumbled, no chain-suck or slippage. Getting towards the Stokes Valley end of the course I caught a guy who looked reasonably fit. I wondered if it might have been the record holder for the veterans, Andrew Wheatley (a good runner) so I smacked it on past him. No response. I put my head down and kept nailing it while I still could. Up until then I hadn't seen much of anyone else. To be honest the visibility was pretty bad with foggy mist but I do recall teams rider Wayne Hiscock and Rodney Wallace passing me - Hiskey was standing up and smashing it.

I had been managing to keep the cramp at bay so far but on the descent approaching the Stokes Valley fire roads my quads were getting hammered and they seemed a bit marginal. Ed banks told me later he had to stop at this point and stretch, it was so bad for him. I couldn't help but wonder how Geoff Notman was coping on his Cyclo cross bike, at least I had the luxury of full suspension !

About to climb up the near vertical bank. Photo Martin Crundwell

So it was under the culvert and down the river bank to the dreaded cramp inducing portage up a near vertical wall. Apparently at this point Alex Revell's legs has locked up so much that he couldn't go on and had to wait for them to come right. Bugger.

The end was in sight but I was starting to feel a bit off colour. My worries about mixing it with the saturday morning market shoppers in the Hutt Riverbank carpark were unfounded as I only encountered one pedestrian on the footpath. Maybe it was too wet for them?

Any feelings of jubilation at having finished were largely over-ridden by those of nausea, but within a few minutes they had subsided. About 10 minutes later I spied a very grottty looking Jason McCarty.... He had been behind me since the bike transition while the whole time I was trying to chase him down, thinking he was in front !

Awesome. I was very happy with the win in veterans class and only 3 mins off the record set on a pretty dry year. I am moving up to the masters class next year so I wont be taking another crack at the veterans record. I know I couldn't have gone any faster on the day, but I also know I can be a hell of a lot fitter.

Its a good thing I checked my seat-post height on friday night because somehow it had slipped to be almost 20mm lower than it is supposed to be. I have no idea how long it has been like that for, Karapoti? Xterra? I wondered why my feet were sticking out like a duck on my daily commute.

Matt's team mate, Mick Finn, also from my work, was the MC and somehow found the energy to MC the whole event after they won the vets Duathlon team option ! This was probably a short event for Mick who does a few ultras as well.

One thing was evident through out the event, the organisation was incredible. There seemed to be 4wd and first-aid people all around the course, not to mention video-graphers and photographers. The course marking was excellent and there were marshalls where ever you thought you might have needed them. Thanks to Michael Jacques and and his very extensive team of helpers. Hope to see you all again next year.
Results in excel format.
TV3 news video

One of these guys used a crud-catcher. Photo by Jase's mum, Karen McCarty

Undie 500 version 2.

2011-04-25T16:46:00.002+12:00

A new frame for the undie 500 Franken-bike. Quite a bit lighter, (alloy) and shorter, so a tad more squirrely. Took it out on the Hutt River Trail with Cleetus to test it out. Its currently sporting a 42-32 crank - an MTB minus the granny : ) It went pretty good, not sure if it's up to the Crazyman course though, especially not in todays conditions !

Some of my best friends are triathletes

2011-04-14T21:58:00.006+12:00

Ive always been a fan of the sport of triathlon from the early days of Erin Baker and Rick Wells. I often wished I could swim so I could give it a crack, but a lack time and a propensity to sink had me sidelined. My most recent attempt in learning to do freestyle resulted in a completely munted back and a withdrawal from a half finished learn to swim course. I could think of plenty of other ways to wreck my back that were a lot more fun than swimming so once again it went on hold.

My good buddies Susie Wood and Gary Milbanke had been doing the Xterra Triathlon (very successfully) for quite a few years now and kept pimping it to me as something I just had to do. A 1km swim, 29km Mountainbike and a 11km run in the Rotorua forests sounded like a pretty fun event (for someone who isn't a real triathlete), and with some prompting from my buddy Matt and a very kind loan of a wet-suit and googles his evil plan of kicking my arse in a triathlon was taking shape.

I quickly found that being a triathlete takes a lot more effort than I was used to, and the downside is that you pretty much suck at all three disciplines. I don't like sucking below a certain level, but my swim training stood me in good stead as I went completely under water at the start of the Karapoti Classic this year.

Given the time it would have taken me to learn to float, and then swim freestyle for longer than 1 length, I elected to swim breast stroke instead, which I could already do at some rudimentary level. Swimming is boring as hell but at least I could poke my head up out of the water to look around every stroke, and compared to a free-styler, I can cut 20% off the course, just by swimming in a straight line.

I ended up having two swims in the sea before Xterra, and discovered why they say “swallow salt water” if you eat something nasty and you need to expel it. Yuck. The water in Tikitapu (The Blue Lake) was like Perrier compared to Scorching Bay!

Dr Seuss using her dial-up, our link to the outside world

Susie and Gazza had organised a salubrious crib for us at Lake Okareka, only minutes from the Race HQ, and proceeded (each day) to pick up a collection of training partners from Nelson from the airport. Being the perfect hosts, they then showed them all around the course. Susie was on fire in the single-track in what must be some of the most fun trails in NZ. Split Enz, Huckleberry Hound, Corners and G-Rock were all part of the MTB course and there was plenty of medium ring climbing for the elevation gain, all in all, a very honest MTBers course.

Our crib-mates Lyndon and John had some pretty serious palmares, some more recent than others. We were all waiting to see if Lyndon would unleash his 4.05 minute mile on us at some stage. John elected to pre-ride the whole course the day before, including one lap of the run. I don't think he managed to sneak in a swim though as it was getting late in the day.

Cleetuses freak-mobile sporting Geax Akka rubber

The weather was picture post card perfect on race day. Apparently the water was cold and the swimming rough, as far as getting clouted around the ears goes. I guess I was too far out the bum to notice. I really enjoyed the swim only dropping 3 mins to the majority of our camp who surfaced in around 13 mins – except for John who cranked out an 11 minute swim. Awesome! I discovered why Susie oiled her calves with baby oil when my wet-suit became stuck on my ankles! Bugger....My transistion took 2 mins 24 seconds... Compare that to Richard Ussher's at 41 seconds. Mind you, I also put on gloves and socks, a real no-no for the Pros. There were some very nastily blistered heels and toes in our camp at the end of the day I can tell you. There was just no way I was going to try to use gripshift with wet and potentially sweaty hands, and apparently the well meaning locals had just resurfaced the transistion area so it was covered in loose sharp gravel, I got a stone in my sock as it was.

I treated the MTB a bit like a Cyclo Cross race as I desperately tried to pull in all the punters on flat pedals and toe-clips before they got into the single track to thwart my progress. It wasn't too bad and I reckon that after an hour I eventually caught up to Matt Farrar, Lyndon and Matt Gerstenberger, the later two both on 29ers, Matt's being of the rigid drop-barred variety. I was surprised to see Matt who I thought would have had a massive lead from the swim, not so, but he was riding really well on some very technical trails.

Just before catching Matt I had caught up with Catherine Dunne and gave her some gentle sledging. “You are going pretty well for an old lady” I yelled, and surprisingly I got no response until I pulled up beside her. Catherine was on her best behaviour and I rode with her for a bit until I managed to pull away somewhere.

Sometime later I heard a very polite womens voice.. “Hellooo”, “Hellooo”. Cripes, a lady had caught me, either she was in a very fast team or she was a very crap swimmer! (It was the latter...) It was the legendary local Anikka Smail. She rode away from me without even pedalling, such was her mastery of the trail. Pumping it without braking. Impressive.

It was time for a Gel and to think about preparing myself mentally for the run. Crib-mate Lyndon is a physio and I started doing some exercises that he suggested while descending down to the bike-run transistion. It must have worked, because when I eventually found my shoes and got them on, there was none of the back-spasm induced duck-shuffle that I had experienced in previous transition training attempts.

The 11 km run was a beauty, two laps with a real varied mixture of single track, a set of stairs, a gentle climb, a gentle descent and more singletrack. Just into my second lap I think I started to suffer a bit more and someone yelled out “Your'e going alright for an old man!” It wasCatherine Dunne, I let her past and she took another 2 mins out of me in the last 5kms of the run : ) A number of runners were passing me now, compared to none on the first lap. I rolled my ankle badly about 1 km from the finish but it didnt matter. It was over, 2 hours and 57 minutes of swimming, biking and running in a stunning location.

Susie shows how its done for 2nd place.

It was a long way from the winner Richard Usshers time of 2.17, and still a long way from camp mother Susies 2.43 !

Susie, got her fourth podium in as many years with a 2nd place, after recording the fastest womans MTB split and getting run down by national MTB champ Karen Hanlen on the last lap of the run. Gazza got bumped from 3rd to 4th when another competitor decided he didn't want to be a pro after all. John was 3rd, Lyndon 14th, Matt 7th and myself 6th in our respective age-group categories.

John was on a brand new, (until then), unridden Jamis Carbon 29er, Lyndons was an alloy Fisher 29er I think. Matt was on his usual mount, Singular 29er with rigid fork and drop-bar. Susie Gazz and myself were all on Santa Cruz 26ers, them, Carbon Blurs, me the Superlight.

I didn't even have to win to get a tatoo!

I am not sure if tires make a lot of difference in Rotorua, but you are definitlely best to err on the side of "fast". Matt's Geax Akkas were obviously way faster than the 2.4 inch Conti monstrosities he usually totes around Wellington and he lost no confidence in going to the faster tire. Gazz was on the light and minimally treaded Furious Freds, Susie had a bit more tread on her tires, Continental Speed King Supersonics I think, but it didn't slow her down measureably, the only one of us riding faster splits than her being Gazza. I had the very minimally treaded Stans Raven on the back and the Vredestein Spotted Leopard (seriously thats what its called) on the front. I had no problems on the back at all, but had a few slides on the front while trying to keep Susie in sight on the front in training.

So there it is. If you ever wanted to do a Triathlon, cant swim, and like MTBing, then this could be your next fun thing to do. http://www.xterra.co.nz . The trails in Rotorua are so good, we rode everyday we were there.

I had a real treat ready for me when I got back to Wellington, but thats another story....

The Karapoti Blogs - a Wellington angle

2011-03-21T22:17:00.001+13:00

Sifters story. You can feel the grit in your eyes....
http://sifter-writes-bikes.blogspot.com/2011/03/karapoti-2011.html

Lynskey, the diary of a retro singlespeeder.
Really good if you want to know what it was like at the pointy end of the SS league. A good ripping yarn.
http://moon-rambler.blogspot.com/2011/03/hard-work-at-karapoti.html

Oli's photo-essay. A picture tells a thousand words.
http://oli-roadworks.blogspot.com/2011/03/karapoti-2011.html

Hamish Norton - Newbie SSer
An ex hard-core trackie, personal trainer and all round nice guy. Got mixed up with a bad crowd and only made two bad moves. Buying a single speed, and riding it around Karapoti! Not doing the Karapoti cos its muddy is a bit like not doing Iditarod cos it snowed eh ? Hamish inspires.
http://onegoodrun.propellife.co.nz/2011/03/karapoti-2011-inside-story.html

Bushlove Racing.
Bush, racing, and mud.
http://www.bushloveracing.com/2011/03/karapoti-swimming-race.html

Ken Feist
Hardcore CXer - Brutal, free-ride even, no, those are not arm-warmers!
http://kenfeistcx.com/2011/03/05/murphys-law/

Alex Revell
A new 29er for Yeti's Yeti.
http://yeti.blackseal.co.nz/wordpress/?cat=13

Stu Houltham
National Champ, more than once.
http://stuarthoultham.blogspot.com/2011/03/karapoti-classic.html

Wayne Hiscock
World Famous in Upper Hutt.
http://hiskeysblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/wet-and-muddy-karapoti.html

Calum Chamberlain
Was studying seismology in the shakey isles. Timing is everything.
http://calumchamberlaincyclist.blogspot.com/2011/03/karapoti-famous-last-words.html

This blog!
http://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2011/03/karapoti-2011.html

Undie 500 - part 3

2011-03-21T12:43:00.004+13:00

The undie 500 concept comes from a guy I met at my brother in law's in Nelson, he was into vintage moto-cross, and these people he knew were doing a "fire-roads" kind of a trek on these old motorbikes. They had to be worth under $500 though. It seemed like a lot of low-key fun.

To finish off my build I had to dig deep into the junk pile. An old cyclo-cross tire (ex-brevet) from Matt looks awesome on the front. The right hand brake lever is a v-brake compatible one given to me by Geoff some time ago. Geoff is a rather tall guy at my work who specialises in riding weird bikes that look like growths out of his bum. The left brake is an old one off the Geoffrey Butler that Hughy Mcparland gave me many years back. I had a choice of crap rear brakes so went with the shimano 105 over the Campy Record as I think the 105 has more tyre clearance. I am pretty limited with what I can do there I think.

The rear wheel, or at least the hub, is an old shimano 600 that Matt threw out about 12 years ago. The front is an old style Durace... most likely from our old work-mate Sam Raphel's bike, which Matts still owns. The rear cluster is an old partly worn MTB 8 speed 11-32 which is meshing beautifully with the rustly old chain.

The rear derailleur is an old Durace one which has no problems at all with the ratios. I think I got that off Kirky a long time ago. The old shifters are running friction and feel great, but its just a bit un-nerving to take your hands off bars to shift when they are so wide, and you can accidently bump them on the way back up!

The Campy cranks are 53-42, so a bit tall for Danzig, so I have a 53-39 shimano at home that I could try. The seat is a Fizik that Paul Lewin gave me - not the worlds most comfy seat. The seat-post is an old heavy alloy jobby from something thrown out.

It had its maiden voyage to work via Hill Road - Belmont Road and Moonshine this morning. The verdict? It descended really well. The bars were awesome and it fair screamed along the road of course. If I had more time I would have taken the river trail. Any suggestions for a low profile but fatter rear trye welcomed - current one is just a 25mm Armadillo.

Undie 500 - part 2

2011-03-19T17:19:00.001+13:00

A new fork with canti bosses on it. Courtesy of Bruce at Adventure Cycles in Auckland. $ 45. I have some old vee brakes lying around too. Ex Kashi I think.

Undie 500 - part 1

2011-03-17T21:15:00.002+13:00

Goal: to build a fun dunger out of old stuff lying about for under $500. This frame was from skip outside lower hutt Avanti shop some years back. Old campy cranks thrown out by grass hopper.

Karapoti 2011

2011-03-06T20:30:00.002+13:00

Well, the Karapoti pulled its usual stunt, with weeks of very dry weather in the lead-up, and the usual turn for the worse in the last week. Fortunately mud is to Karapoti as ice is to eskimo's and the mud on tap on saturday was in one of its better forms. Wet and thin! As long as it kept raining lightly, there was no chance that it would dry and turn into the chain-sucking sticky mud we all hate.

Anyway, the gun went off - the flow in the river was strong, and seconds later I was fully submerged directly in front of the offical press photographer. Brilliant. I was less worried about drowning than I was about the bearings in my hubs and bottom bracket - the electronic key to Matts VW only popped into my mind later. Hopefully it would be well sealed in its plastic bag. A minute later I was on the tarseal wondering where my old starting speed was. It was official, I was as flat as a turd, best I let the race dictate to me, rather than kill myself and not make it through.

A few bunches of riders slowly passed me and eventually I saw both Trevor Woodward and Barryn on the side of the Gorge with punctures. I am not sure what happened there, no one has more sub-3 hour rides at Karapoti than Trev so it must have been a freak accident. You dont take risks on tyres at the poti thats for sure.

I ended up having some great dices up Deadwood with Gary Moller who has been having some great form this year for such an old bugger. I think for me it was often more efficient to run some bits rather than blow-up trying to ride every little dodgy bit.

One particular piece of track after deadwood was impressive with a small water-fall rolling down it. I stopped at the top of the Rock Garden for a gel just into time to see Gary Moller and Steve Owens from Wainuiomata go through. Awesome I thought, Steve has way better skills than me so I thought I could follow his lines. It was a pychological victory for me when he balked at the first big drop-off and I went hard right to fly past. Wahoo! Almost immediately I caught about 6 guys floundering away down the rock garden, and as they were devoid of momentum I was able to sneak past most of them.

My plans to nail it (running) up the slippery Devils Staircase didnt come to much as there is pretty much nowhere to pass – until you get to the offical passing lanes : ) I managed to pick off another 6 or so riders before the top, where I stopped for a quick lube of the chain. No one passed me here.

At different points along the big Ring Boulevard I saw several people with punctures, one was Revolution Cycle's Jonty Ritchie and another was Oliver Whalley - Kiwi Brevet winner and room-mate from last years Singlespeed Worlds. After talking to Ollie later he admitted to using some very light weight tires. Bad move. My ghetto tubeless were going mint. A rather porky Nevegal on the front and a Larsen TT on the back, but no punctures or dodgy moments. Ollie is an engineer and will be involved in getting his home town of Christchurch back up and running, and his house, by the look of his blog : (

Somewhere down the Boulevard Trevor Woodward caught me and apologised for riding like a nana as he didnt have a spare tube. I managed to keep him in sight until the bottom of Dopers. From there to the finish he took 4 minutes out of me. I was in damage control mode up Dopers but not seeing stars so that was good. The descent down the other side was one of my better ones but the noise from my brakes was horrific. I think I was already braking on metal by then.

Steven Owens beating me to the line - Photo shamelessly stolen from Oli http://oli-roadworks.blogspot.com/

The Gorge just seemed to go on and on, and the puddles were sapping the life out of me. I got the fright of my life when Geoff Notman, who is at least my age, bombed past me on his rigid 29er singlespeed and rode straight throught that last stream cutting without even having to jump off. Amazing. I watched him up ahead, spinning like a nutter as we got onto the tarseal - looking over his shoulder to see If I was going to catch him and he could hitch a ride. He neednt have worried, I was toast. He ended up winning the single speed class and got the World Champ's (Garth Weinberg) scalp in the process. Legend. 2 hours 55.

The best thing about Karapoti is catching up with old friends. My old buddy, two times world masters 70+ pursuit champion, Garry Humpherson was there supporting his son Rex who still holds an age group record (2.35.04 - M1). Rex was on the podium again. It looked like there was a Cycle Services Reunion going on with all the purple tops around the place.

Speaking of records, my old protoge (Jordan Blake's) junior record (2.26.18) was in threat from phenom Anton Cooper who sprinted through the river to take the slenderist win from Dirk Peters. If its a dry year and Anton is still a junior then its up for grabs I reckon. It's hard to predict what will happen with a junior though as a lot can change in a few years. He really does look like the real deal though - he is out-lapping all the pro-elite riders in NZ currently.

My current protoge Tom Bradshaw came 2^nd to Anton at the Nationals this year but as he's started at Uni in Dunners he couldnt make it up to the poti. I got to race his dad - Ant Bradshaw, and barely sneaked home in front of him. A good result for Ant, 2nd to Arkie and 2nd in the MTB nationals a few weeks back.

I am not 50 til October so under the Karapoti rules I had to race the younguns (40-49) where I finished 6th. I was pretty happy given that I have been training for the Xterra off road triathlon. Look out for me – the only twit doing breast-stroke!

I always think its great when you don't have any excuses. My bike was flawless. (Santa Cruz Superlight). It was my first Karapoti with discs and full suspension. I didn't crash, I didnt blow (completely). Mission accomplished !

Rappa riding in the heat.

2011-02-21T21:52:00.001+13:00

We took monday off and went over to the wairarapa for some gravel rangling. Got out as far as Pahaoa on the coast, and back to Hinakura up the back of Admirals, in to Gladstone pub for a coke and back to Martinborough. A big day in the Wairarapa heat.

It's a wrap

2011-01-11T13:37:00.001+13:00

Its a wrap. 2010 is over. For the first time this year I think I can say I was actually starting to feel my age. As the work project I have been slaving over for last few years came to fruition, the heat was on, and I just did not have the energy to multi-task and still be able to race effectively.

It wasn't the sort of year I am used to, with a strict absence of "form" pretty much through out the whole year. With the exception of the completely awesome Kiwi Brevet, I think I had one race all year where I was even "average". Not that I didn't have a lot of fun.

Anything else was always going to come up short compared to the Brevet, but I had some great trips with Team Voodoo Lounge, and Sepp, Ed, Pete and Callum in building up to the Single Speed Worlds. I wouldnt have missed that for anything.

The change of emphasis on riding with buddies, over racing competitively has been quite different, and a lot of fun, and requires a lot less motivation. A cold beer and a good laugh seems to be as good a reward as anything else I can imagine right now.

I am back at work again already, without really having much of a rest, unless you can call pulling down your car-port a rest. I have snuck in a few rides and runs and have worked my way through 12 episodes of "The Wire" and a few cool podcasts. Hopefully we can escape Welly a bit later on.

The tree was the only thing holding it up!

Who knows what 2011 holds in store, but I see the St James track has been opened up to MTBers.
That might be a nice ride.

The Pohutakawa above the bike shed was looking good this year.

They are playing my Tune

2010-11-22T13:13:00.001+13:00

It was a very sad moment. My favorite hub had just broken. A slight buckle in the wheel had caused me to grab a handful of spokes to check the tension.... then plunk! A big piece of flange from the non-drive side had pulled away. I was mortified, I'd had that hub since 2003 at a guess, so it had done some hard yards. But it was a Tune Kong, probably the lightest hub available in the world at the time, a feathery 252 grams. It came courtesy of my duties as Kashi Leuch's webmaster.

Between Kashi's tenure on the Rockstar Volvo Cannondale team, and Julian Absalon's Bianchi team, he spent a year as an independant riding for Maxxis and Trek, with fruity-bits supplied by the guys at Tune. The hubs, along with, stem and cranks were all part of my payment for web-munstering duties for Kashi over the years. This was the only way a poor married with children racer like myself could aspire to such fruity kit.

The guys at Tune are serious freaks when it comes to componentry. The weight and visual appeal of some of this stuff is completely off the radar. Hubs with magnetic pawls and carbon fibre axles are not unheard of.

I have also had a Tune hub on my road bike since 2001 (this was my training and racing wheel) , and to this day it still hasn't even had to have its bearings replaced.

Being the geek I am, I thought the guys at Tune might be interested in seeing a picture of the broken hub flange, given that it was on the "non-drive" side so I emailed them one. Imagine my surprise when in a return email they offered their condolences and offered to replace the hub body for the cost of postage! Thats what I call service! Any warranty would have been long expired.

Eventually a new hub body turned up, and with the help of a mallet, a vise and a pair of pliers, I had installed my old axle and bearings. The new hub was a feathery 231 grams, and would be substantially less with an upgraded axle I would guess.

Some people in NZ might go on tours of the Cadburys chocolate factory in Dunedin, or the Tui beer factory in Mangatoinoka, but if I had my choice of tours, it would be the Tune factory in the Black Forest of Germany, as this lucky Weight Weener did.

I am looking forward to rebuilding that wheel and hitting the trails again with it.

Some more links:
Here is my own "how-to" on removing a Tune spider, with the "track-bike-tool".
Check out the images of the famed alchemist Mr Tune (Uli Fahl's) rocket powered bike.

Be the envy of your friends and download the Tune "ring-tone", in case you can't guess, the sound of a coasting tune hub : ) or if the Mrs asks for suggestions, for a stocking filler for you this year, there is the 20th Anniversary Tune MTB groupset, for a paltry Euro 1500.00. I am not sure if the crank is included. More stingy wives may spring for the lovely Carbon Fibre cup and saucer set !

Single speed worlds

2010-10-24T20:34:00.007+13:00

This photo shamelessly stolen from NZ MTBing
entity Freditor Christiensen's facebook.

Single speeds worlds is done. What a cool event, like the rugby sevens, minus the rugby! Perfect.
Wicked costumes all round and some seriously cool bikes. They managed to get 900 riders tootling around a tiny starting pen in a clockwise direction at 2kmh for about 5 mins, and then, like a game of musical chairs they whipped open the gate, and those who just happened to be at the right place stormed out!

I was one of the first! What a blast. In the top10 ten at the SS worlds, what a dream start. It was about 5mins later that the current world champ (Ross Schnell) finally caught me as I was pushing my bike near the top of the first climb. Probably another 10 minutes later I was on the side of the track with a slow puncture. Bummer. Stuff happens. Hundreds of people must have passed me but it wasn't to be my day anyway. At then end of the first lap I was pretty cooked and still had one long slow lap to go.

At one point I pulled over for a rest and just checked out some of the cool costumes. Chris and Bob rolled by, Bob in her saucy nurses uniform. It was a hard ride, the hardest I have done for a long time. Not sure why. Maybe too much time off with the flu. If the singlespeed worlds ever come back you have to go, if not to ride, then at least to watch!

There were quite a few Welligntonians up there, but to be honest I would have expected a few more, maybe their brownie points were all used, or maybe they didn't realise what a blast it would be.

Photo by Kates friend Emily. Thats a dude in camo just
behind me, and Hannibal Lectur and a Smurf to the left .

There were some very cool bikes up there, this was one them, but I think at the high end there is an element of being a bit too cool for school. It was almost like if you were out riding and were spotted on a geared bike that you might be jeered at! On the other hand, I am very keen to try some of these bars on my wifes commuter bike...

Thanks to Sepp for the transport and Callum and Kashi for the accommodation at the lovely bach at Lake Okareka. We also ended up sharing rooms with Kiwi Brevet winner Ollie, and I also met fellow Kiwi-Brevet rider Chris Tennent-Brown as we circulated in the "shark-pool" at the start.

More links. Singlespeed Champs Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40071&id=100000003948263&l=2b3f0cfaf5

Singlespeed Worlds site.
http://www.sswc10nz.com

Flickr (some good ones in here)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79498713@N00/sets/72157625108601455/

Oh yeah, I have just seen the results and it looks like US Superbike Champion Ben Bostrum came 3rd ! (Behind Garth Weinberg -1st, and Ross Schnell - 2nd).

A very good post from Sifter who was up there helping out.
http://sifter-writes-bikes.blogspot.com/2010/10/whaka-100-and-single-speed-worlds-part_24.html

These are a few of my favourite things....

2010-09-29T20:40:00.002+13:00

These are few of my favourite things...
A lunch-time lap of Dry Creek now that Danzig is pretty mucky.

Podcasts
Ideal for when you are doing a long ride (yeah right), or gardening, or painting the house.

This is one of my favourites, with US Legend Steve Larson, who passed away unexpectedly last year at the tender age of 39. He is pretty much the Forrest Gump of cycling and has achieved in all disciplines from Road, MTB, Xterra, Ironman. Its a great interview. http://competitorradio.competitor.com/?s=larsen . Competitor radio has masses of inteviews with all sorts of Endurance athletes from Rod Dixon and Lance Armstrong to Dave Scott.

This one is from The American Life. An amazing place for stories about things, some everyday, some completely out there, like this one about how before the US stock market crash, the company Magnetar brought up "toxic" debt and on-sold it, at the same time betting on its imminent failure. All completely legal, if morally corrupt. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/405/inside-job .

In this one, the Police install a new system for measuring crime stats, and before long they are "reclassifying" their crime to make it look like they are achieving new goals and meeting quota, something which is illegal. A cop disagrees with it, and wears a hidden microphone, right up to the point where they come into his house and have him "committed" to a mental hospital. The whole thing is recorded. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent

You can download these for free via itunes, or stream them on the web.

Socks, a top and a multi-tool.
Everyone used to hate it when they got socks for birthdays as kids right? I know I did. I got these socks for the Kiwi Brevet and they are still going strong, I dont think they were cheap, but they are comfy and showing no signs of wear. Lorpen XBTC Multisport is the name.
You dont always have to pay top dollar to get a good product. This Kathmandu multi-tool has everything, including chainbreaker, a torxc and 4 spoke spanners. This Kathmandu "Altica" top is the best Poly-pro I have ever had, it doesn't get smelly, it doesn't get wet and it doesn't get too hot, once again, like the multi-tool, brought and used in the Kiwibrevet. We used the Multi-tool to re-true Sepps busted wheel during the Ride to Erewhon 155km event the other week.

Cupcakes.
Hmmm cup-cakes. Arent they lovely? Good enough to eat. My youngest daughter made these.

Look at thoses jugs!
The Kettle on the right in this picture has the name that was always associated with quality - when I was a youngster. If you had a Russel Hobbs, you were to be envied. They turned themselves off automatically, and they lasted for ever. Shiney steel with an important looking red button. The one on the right in this photo lasted about a week before the "lid activator" broke off. We got a new one. It broke off too. I think we put up with it for another two years, pouring the water in down the spout, then the "start" button broke off, so I managed to whittle down a close peg to do the job.... then it started leaking water all over the electrical parts.... It also made a noise like a 1989 3.7 litre Toyota Land Cruiser idling with the choke out. You had to turn up the TV 2 notches and shut the two doors between the lounge and the kitchen just so you could hear the telly.
And then, after at least two years of putting up with this monstrosity my wife brought home a new one... the one in the left on this picture. A Sunbeam. Well.... she wont tell me what it cost, but I dont' care, you can listen to the radio in the same room ! Right now that Sunbeam kettle is up there with my favourite things.

What should be done with the man that designed my previous kettle

Its raining... and I dont care.

2010-09-18T20:54:00.000+12:00

There is an MTB race on at the Wainui Trail Park on sunday morning.
Its raining. Its been raining off and on all week, all month, all spring, all winter.
Its poo!
But I dont care.
I dont know why.
I used to sit around freaking at the prospect of bad weather before a race.

Maybe its the advent of disc brakes?
Maybe its full supension?
Maybe its contact lenses?
Maybe I have a life now?
Maybe is the awesome trails in Wainui.

Anyway, its gonna be fun : )

Oonce! Oonce! Oonce!

2010-09-06T20:31:00.001+12:00

Pre-ride briefing in the Cafe Lembas

How many times do you get to do a cool ride with your buddies and have a tail wind for 154 kilometres?
Not many, if any!

Oonce! Oonce! Oonce!

It was Matt who convinced us it was a good idea to enter in the "Road to Erewhon" event, not that he had ridden his bike at all in the last month, but he is a very determined person, and he never gives up, no matter how crap he feels. He has also done more 160km plus solo rides than anyone I know, so I figure he has to have a bit of the "memory muscle". So with that in mind we set out looking for more likely suckers to join our team. Given that a predicted distance of 170kms was on the cards, Sepp and Ed thought it would be excellent training for the World Single-speed champs in October. Yeeeeeeeeeeesss.

Thats snow on the mountains in the background

The rules were few, 4-man teams, leaving at 5 minute intervals. The start and end points of this event were a well kept secret, and were only divulged at 6pm the friday night before, at about the same time that it was snowing on the Rimutukas. At precisely that time we learned that we were to start at Raumati, and end at Alfredton (inland of Eketahuna). We could go over the Pahiatua track, or the Akatarawas and the Rimutakas. The one of us who had a PHD did his sums and he reckoned the hilly route was the fastest. The clever people with the local knowledge thought otherwise.... Fortunately for us we had a massive tail wind pretty much the whole way. We also had a secret weapon..... a high peformance sound system aero-dynamically mounted to the front of my aero-bars. This enabled us to listen to motivational music at appropriate times in order to get us through the tough bits.

Ed, keen to try his new
position courtesy of Silas

Ed Matt and myself all elected to ride our TT bikes, while Sepp rode his roadie. Everything pretty much went to plan except Sepp had a rear spoke breakage as we came into Carterton. Ed did the mechanicing with my Kathmandu multi-tool while the rest of stocked up on Coke and lollie water. We were spanking along at up to 50kmh at different times on this leg of the ride. Navigationally we probably messed up a bit by taking the heavy traffic bypass too early, but we need not have bothered, Sepp is only about 96kgs these days.

Still friends.... OK?

The last hilly segment over Dreyers Rock was a bit tough but we were sticking together as per the rules and rolled up to Alfredton to be the first team there at about 5 hours ride time, with an actual distance of 154. I think there was at least 1 other team who rode faster, but we got to ring the bell first, nah nee nah nah!

Power-haus Ed's top secret numbers.
( Dont tell Radio shack ).

This was a very cool event to do, with the emphasis being on teamwork, having a good time and beers and BBQ's at the end. Even the start of the event was all class with free coffee and muffins at Cafe Lembas at Raumati. There was a real friendly vibe to this event, and no one took it too seriously, which is a real good thing. We need to thank the awesome Hutt chicks who ferried us to and from the respective starting and finishing points of the race. Lets hope there are more events like this to come!

It wasnt that bad!

2010-08-29T20:06:00.001+12:00

Crusties 2 race report.
What a bunch of nutters. 170 riders turned out for the 1st round of the PNP MTB series today in Makara, despite the pounding rain. I went for the singlespeed because I figgered it would be less expensive in the wear and tear department. It was a mild uphill start geared perfectly for my 32-18 Wellington gear, but Rob Kilvington's last minute warm-up technique had him executing a u-turn on the start line that Russell Coutts would have been proud of, except he did it right in front of me! I regained my momentum but my shot at stardom (winning the hole-shot) was gone as Angry Clive and a couple of sqids shot up the road. I knew Jonny Waghorn was still behind me as I approached the start of the Rimu track and was just about to look behind and let him through, when he shot past like a rocket!

That was pretty much the last I saw of Jonny. At the very bottom of the hill I must have grabbed a handful of brakes, as I nearly missed the first right turn. I remember noticing that it seemed quite hard pedaling as I made my way through the senior womens class. I got balked by a group and stopped to push the bike. WHAT! The wheels were reluctant to turn. My new uber weight weener brakes I had just borrowed off Marco had locked them selves on....

I ignored it for a while until I could pull over and have a look, sure enuff, the system had come undone, and the left pad was jammed onto the rim. I was pretty gutted. All the chickies passed me back again... Oh crap. Theres just no passing lanes out there when the blow-torch is on the y-fronts. I stopped again and then decided not to bother with it after that, eventually the pads would wear down and it would get easier. There was a new clunking coming from the front tho, that was a bit worrying, after another 10 mins and the leaping lizard descent I recognised it as a loose front QR!

Jonny back in the day when he was a cool kid
on a Yeti with Manitou bumper forks.

That was the last stop I did until the end. I was glad to have two long sleeve tops on, and a jacket in my back pack. If you had to stop to fix a flat you could easily have ended up with hypothermia. When I finished I noticed my seat post had slid down 5 cms, which probably accounted for me feeling pretty good on the final descent!

Apparently Jonny Waghorn won the crusties class, (on his singlespeed) after Angry Clive added on a bit extra and included the t3 track into his race! What a legend ride by Jonny.

Al and Ash did a great job as MCs and watching Hiskeys little boy try to negotiate the choice of spot-prizes to include lollies was a laugh. The little guy also did an awesome job of hawking his chocolate bars on the door.

Bring on round 2.

Random stuff.

2010-08-27T13:08:00.005+12:00

Some cool stuff for the week. Ex Olympian and NZ Yet importer, Kashi Leuchs has unveiled his mount for the singlespeed Worlds in Roto-vegas in october. Its a Big-top 29er. See the photo here by Derek Morrison. He reckons he will have some more in the country for sale soon.

Some more info on the Big-top 29er.
http://www.feedthehabit.com/mountain-biking/yeti-big-top-29er-hardtail/

To see what others are riding at the Singlespeed worlds, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25481&id=100000003948263&l=121327af21

Kashi puts the bike through its paces down south.

Found this link in CAN's mail-out.
- Cycling is an evil United Nations plot, says US politician
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/co-gov-goper-maes-hickenloopers-bike-love-is-a-un-plot.php

PNP MTB champs round one this weekend. 90 pre-entries already!

But check out this for a wicked adventure ride the following weekend! 170kms adventure ride for you and 3 of your lucky buddies. Ride to Erehwon, http://www.kapiticyclingclub.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=773&Itemid=109

VEGAN Bacon! Hmmmmmmmm
http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-bacon/

Roto-vegas and placebo braking

2010-08-20T13:20:00.001+12:00

A break in the weather

My second single-speed road-trip took place last weekend when we hit the road for Rotorua via Taupo. It pretty much rained continuously the whole weekend. Not Wellington styled horizontal rain, but gentle, not-so-cold vertical rain.

This time it was Sepp and his buddy Kevin, myself, Peter "Magneto" Reynolds and his nephew Dan, who came down from Auckland. Once again the digs were pretty swish, but Peter and Sepp still had to have an arm wrestle over who got the double bed, even though there were two spare.

Dans Jefson Rohloff, very tasty.

It was quite a show, and after about 5 mins it was called off in a draw. I think the effort that Sepp put into it reflected in his below par performance on the sunday, and Peter elected not to ride at all, altho he did get out with Dan on the saturday. Sepp and Kevin also got out on the saturday where after a 2 hour ride Sepp decided he would sit in a hot pool by the side of the track and test his cell phone's water proof capabilities. After a couple of hours in front of the fire the phone was back to its original working state. Quite impressive.

Normally when it rains in an MTB race, I am not a very happy person, but in Rotorua the mud is completely different than the rubbish we have down here in Wellington. Everyone was basically riding around on summer tires! People obviously thought I looked a bit strange riding with a medusa mud tire on AND a rear mudguard. Yes, very uncool.

I just thought I'd throw this in...

My choice of a fairly low gear ratio was a good one in my book as I made a good start up the first hill. After about 30 mins my old buddy Susie Wood had caught me in the single track and we rode together for another 30 mins until we hit the first hills. I had to let Susie go at that point as my gear was too tall. (Susie went on to win the womans class). My rear brakes had already mostly gone (vee-brakes) so I was trying to limit my rear braking. I adjusted them 3 times over the race, and then started on the front brakes which were also coming into the bars. At least I was able to adjust them with the big knob on the top of the cyclinder. I was amazed at the "placebo-effect" of rear wheel braking when you dont actually have any brakes. It was teaching me how to ride more adventureously which is always a good thing.

I'd have to say the course was 95% rideable, apart from the walking bits, that only the single-speeders walk.
Another great weekend in Roto-vegas.

MCM hammer.. Singlespeed version 3

2010-08-08T09:09:00.003+12:00

What a minter. In the early 2000's this was the frame to have. Its been hanging up in Franicis's laundry since about then. It did the 2002 Nationals XC season under Rob Scott in Vet 1. Rob was a hard core weight weener and the whole bike was a sub 20 pound hardtail with some very fruity but sometimes dodgy componentry. I remember catching Rob while he was riding this frame, in the first round of the 2002 nationals in Nelson. It was a muddy course and my shimano compatible gripshift stopped working on lap 1 giving me only the front 3 gears. Some how I managed to win the race, against Chris Faithful, but it was my only win of the series that year. My pedal sheared off while I was winning the Hawkesbay round and I was 2nd at the Karapoti and Rotorua Rounds.

Thanks to Francis at Jville Cycles for the loan of this frame. I better look after it. Its spotless.

I am not sure if that seat will stay, I cant believe I rode the Brevet on it. Ouch.

I'd like to thank my sponsors ; )

It really pulls the chicks

A slow learner

2010-08-03T12:29:00.002+12:00

I had a good Single Speed ride in the weekend. Rather than do another CX race I thought I would have a bit more fun and get more familiar with the SSer at Makara Peak with Austrian Pro Sepp Hribar. I was trialing a 32-18 ratio and it was pretty sweet anywhere we went.

By chance we were also both trialing rear mudguards, Sepp's was a Bontrager, and mine was an SKS X3 brand. Mine rocked, Sepps sucked. He reckoned thats it cos he is a big hitter. I reckoned it was cos his was naff and it couldnt be tightened enough on his Joplin seat post.
Sepp's only been riding off road for 1 year and hes already smacking me to bits on the downhills. Kind of annoying when you consider that for the 15 years before I started racing MTBs I was on motorbikes. He did do a Peter Reynolds skills course twice though, so maybe that was the secret.

It was a little bit muddy at Makara, but by the time I had ridden back out to the Hutt Valley the rain had washed most of the mud off my bike. When I was in at Jville Cycles the day before, Francis offered to loan me an old Carbon Giant MCM frame he had lying about for the SS worlds. It should be very light. Watch this space.

Franicis's workshop also appeared to be home to a bevy of classic motocross bikes that he races these days. I reckon I must have met Francis about 23 years ago, while trying to buy parts for my aging 1973 Yamaha RD 350. Francis and Al Heine were running a motor bike shop in Lower Hutt. I think Al is now the Intense, Foes and Fox importer for NZ, among other things. At least Franicis's years on two wheels manifest themselves in good riding skills. Maybe I am just a slow learner, and my best is yet to come : )

A moody shot of Single Speed Ver. 2 on the River Bank
while riding out to the Upper Hutt CX a few weeks ago.

Cyclo-cross number 2, bike number 2.

2010-07-19T12:52:00.001+12:00

Another Cyclo-cross race, another single-speed build! I converted my trusty 1996 Diamond back Apex using the singulator that Mike Thomson gave me.
I worked out that with a 16/18 sprocket range on the back, and the 32-34 on the front, I could get a big enough spread to cover just about any conditions, all I needed was a chainwhip, a spanner, a cassette tool and a couple of allen keys to set it up before the race... Hence, I rode out to the event on a 34-16, and raced on a 32-16.

32x18   47.47
34x18   50.43
32x16   53.40
34x16   56.74

All the gears in the world are for nought if you are riding like rubbish tho. CX is a funny thing, and I certainly found this course much harder than the previous one, with its couple of gutty little climbs. Gary Moller seemed to be having a blinder, especially for a guy well into his 50's. Liz Roberston was there too ramping up (starting) her training for the Single Speed worlds. Ed Crossling on his Carbon Santa Cruz Blur was the winner with I think Revolution Cycles Alex Revell 2nd on his Salsa cross bike, with Johnny Appleseed 3rd on his Single speed. How varied is that? Johnny was riding the "gear-that--it-came-with" ratio!

It was a big foggy on the way out!

Taupo (pronounced /ˈtoʊpɔː/, TOE-paw) Rotorua Single-speeding weekend

2010-07-14T21:41:00.001+12:00

I am not sure whose idea the trip was? Sepps or mine, but before long we had a full van and a professional driver (Peter Reynolds) and youngster (Ed Banks) for company. The BS flowed freely, Ed said nothing the whole trip, but took it all in, to be used against us all down the track at some later date I am sure.

Despite having lived in Taupo for a few years, I had forgotten just how bloody cold it is up there. At least this time I was sleeping in a modern house in the burbs, and not a forestry hut built after the war. Sepp is a master organiser and a very forceful person, and wasted no time in convincing us all that carbs were evil and that every morning we should have 3 eggs and lashings of bacon for brekky. We were powerless to refuse. The plan was to base ourselves in Taupo and hit the local trails there, and race in Rotorua the next day.

The last race I did in Rotorua was the national series finals in 2002. I suffered from my usual lack of riding skills, and time on the trails that even the good Wellington riders suffer on. The flowy BMX styled courses favour riders who can pump out smooth power without the inefficient grunt and brake style of riding I had learnt.

I dont know how relevant the style of track there is to racing on the world cup circuit, but it sure as hell is fun to ride on, and the MTBing public vote on it with their wheels. There are heaps more trails there now than there were back in 02, and some of them you could just play on all day long.

On day 1 we checked out Taupo's Craters of the Moon course on our single-speeds. This whole trip was about trying out our single-speeds and dicking about with gearing and such. Sepp had his dedicated SS Cannodale 29er and Ed and I had our old crapper bikes that had been converted. We did a bit of bike swapping and sledging and we were very impressed with Sepp's. It seemed to roll beautifully over all the terrain we encountered.

The night before, Ed and I recounted the last road-trip we did together. The Ohau and Naseby rounds of the nationals in 1996. Ed was a junior DHer with the Specialised team. I was finally a new vet (35 years old in those days). The day before the Naseby race we watched as a promising junior lake-jumped his BMXer all day. Kashi Leuchs was his name. That night in the camp ground we met up with another rising talent. John Kirkcaldie. He had this completely horn Cannondale with upside down forks. There was nothing else like it in the country at the time. The writing was on the wall for the many times National DH champ, Darren Henderson. JK eventually went on to win the American NORBA DH series twice.

After a couple of hours wrecking our single-speed legs in the Craters of the Moon Park we took off to the Cafe for a coffee. None us was that hungry as there were still partly digested eggs and bacon in our gut. Imagine our surprise when we realised that the guy we had just sat down next to at the cafe was John Kirkcaldie, out for his first ride in 4 months. What a coincidence.

That night Ed was in charge of nutrition and he built the largest lasagne in the world known to be consumed by four people. We dropped Sepp and Pete off at a bar in town to watch the Rugby while Ed-san and I went to at least 5 liqour stores looking for the peculiar brand of Japanese beer Ed always uses for Carbo loading.

The next morning, for some reason, my ribs were really bad. I had had a prang the week before at the Wainuiomata trail park, but thought nothing of it. On the sunday when I did the Cyclo cross at Upper Hutt they were sweet. A week later I was struggling to put my socks on. Sepp came to the rescue with 150mgs of diclofenac.

We got to Rotorua in plenty of time. It was bloody cold but the trails were frosty and firm as. I positioned myself for a good start in my first ever real single-speed race. The trails were awesome. We were all running standard gearing but had to wonder how much easier it would have been to be one tooth lower given the lack of flat or downhill riding. Everyone got a sore back but I noticed myself electing to jump off and run a bit rather than blow my legs completely in the first hour.

When Ed is invloved there is always a wager for a can of coke for the first rider home. He collected big-time again. I can see why so many people from Wellington go up to Rotorua to ride now, and when people talk about Pondys and Split Enz and the A-trail, I now know what they mean. The only problem was, I needed a good bike to make the most of these trails... the Litespeed just didnt cut it.... what to do. Maybe some experimentation with a single-speed fully.....

If a man takes a nap on the couch......

2010-07-04T17:27:00.003+12:00

.... and nobody sees it - did it really happen?

After getting home from the BikeHutt Cyclocross race today, hanging out a load of washing, and letting out the chickens, the chickens started to taunt me by prostrating themselves in the sun.

It was too much. I was severely blown and I took that "nap" option. Thats only the 3rd CX I had done, and it was a lot of fun, but with about 2 laps to go, when I had just caught Nick Blair, I started to see stars.Maybe it was the extra 15 mins we did over the previous events?

The course was a goodie and I didn't feel at any disadvantage to be using my single speed on only its 3rd ride. It held up better than I did. There were heaps of old school riders there, Marco, Ed Banks, Ken Feist, Nick Blair, Jonty and his Revolution crew and Geoff Notman with a shiny new Yet CX bike. Nice! The Bushlovers were out there in big numbers too, despite a lack of bush.
Bring on the next one, I think !

Results - and justice, (Upper Hutt styles).

Photos by Craig Madsen
Hedgehog Photography Ltd
0064 45269579

I once was lost.....

2010-06-30T22:59:00.003+12:00

I admit, I had back-slid. I was spending more time on the road, on the track, and on the TT bike than was healthy. I had lost track of my MTBing whakapapa. But I became saved....

I had known my saviour since 1996 when I met him at the Ohau round of the MTB nationals. He was racing this new fangled suspension bike. A Santa Cruz something. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. I couldnt see full suspension taking off. I was racing my steel Diamond Back Axis with mag 21 forks and despite Mikes monkey motion bike, I was pretty sure I was faster than him so there was no contest. Hard tails ruled.

Somehow we kept in touch. Mike was always very suspicious and derisive of these hard-tail hold-outs from Wellington, although it was to be expected, he was a hard-core jaffa, and as he later confessed, he had never even experienced a real hill until he moved down to the main-land.

Mike was always saying that full suspension was the way to go, and I would respond with "Yeah when the guys in the world cup start winning on it I will get one". Of course this was a blatant lie. I couldn't afford one and that was that. Not that I was convinced anyway.

We would also debate such blue-sky science topics as the use of bar ends, or riser bars, or double chain rings and such. And Mike would preach me the sermon of Santa Cruz. Now the thing about Santa Cruz riders is, they are a bit like 29er riders, or singlespeeders. Or ex smokers. They are reborn. They are painful. There is even a famous thread on Vorb, "I bought a Santa Cruz to make me a better person".

I told Mike that until my wife won the Lotto, I would never be able to afford a monkey motion bike from Santa Cruz, so save your breath. Then one day it happened, I found $200 behind the sofa, and my wife let me have the rest. It was just one of those moments when the stars lined up. Mike even helped my with lots of old crap he had lying around so I could build up my first bike with real disc brakes. My Litespeed had a disc on the front, but it was pretty crappy, a first generation Hope that was worse than a good set of vees. So I transferred the rest of old stuff off my 1993 Litespeed onto my new (second hand) Santa Cruz Superlight frame.

I'd always regarded myself as a pretty crap rider technically, but with this new frame, I reckon I was coming up to average. This new bike was amazing, I actually enjoyed being on my MTB again. It rekindled an old flame. It made me realise just how evil handling my old Litespeed was. There was only one problem. It was not really compatible with an 80mm XC fork. In a park like Makara I was pedal-striking constantly. Eventually I sold off one of my children for scientific experiments and used the money to buy a second hand 100mm SID from the Gos-bros crash-test dummies. Overnight I was Greg Herbold. I even passed Al going down the Lizardy track. I learned that forks are meant to go where you point them, not in the vague general direction that I was used to with my old carbon steered SID. The new fork's extra weight struck at my weight weener core, but there was no going back. I was starting to realise how out of control my efforts had been in the past.

As my confidence increased so did the amount of crashing I was doing, but it was fun. I always assumed that the advantage of full suspension was in the descending. I have found this to be the opposite. I still ride downhill like a girl, but I climb with much more authority over gnarly terrain.

For many years I was fortunate enough to be Kashi Leuch's webmaster, so at years end, Kashi would tally up my web-hours and give me first dibs on his surplus team loot. That is how a lot of the kit on my bike came to be the very fruity German "Tune" stuff. So now I have Tune hubs, stems and cranks, which match nicely with the Santa Cruz's black frame. It was pretty light kit at the time, but above all, very robust and well made.

The Superlight is a very adaptable frame. For the 1100km Kiwi Brevert, I made very few changes. I put on a heavier back wheel, the other was only a 28 holer, and put a bit more air in the rear shock. I strapped on a Freeeload Rack. I took off the carbon bars so I could bolt on some aero bars, and bar ends, and I swapped the crank spider so I could runner bigger ratios, old school 24-34-46.There were no complaints from me.... Ok, my butt had some problems, but I thought it was too late to change my seat at the last minute. Better the devil you know?

When I got back from the Brevet I left the Stans Crow on the front, somehow it worked, I dont understand why.The last time I weighed it, it came in at about 23.6 pounds with 500 + gram tryes on it. Since then I have put on Sram Gripshift as I have a tendency to whack the the Sram paddle shifters in a crash. It has an old square taper race Face cromo BB in it with an XT front derailer. The rest is Sram. Oh yeah, one of the things I love about it the most - the shifting. I have Nokon cables with a fully enclosed internal cable housing. This is the single best thing I think you can do for your shifting in my view. Wash the bike down after a muddy ride and its good to go. No more crunchy gears. It doesn't have to be Nokon, Nokon can be a pain, it scratches the frame and it can creak, but the shifting is perfect.

This is my racing and training bike, the only thing that I change are the tires. The shock has pro-pedal, but I very rarely use it. I have to admit its my first and only full suspension bike, but it suits me. Santa Cruz are still cranking them out after all these years so I cant be the only one thats likes them.

Single speed version 2

2010-06-30T10:28:00.001+12:00

Okay, I admit it I am soft. My first ride up a muddy danzig on my SSer was horrible. It was also wet and pretty dark. I added a smaller ring to the inside, so now I have a 34-32 on the front and a 19 on the rear. Its easy enuff to swap the chain with fingers while I am learning how to ride this contraption.
A couple of good links for newbie punters like myself here:
http://www.surlybikes.com/blog/spew/3_-_single-speed_drivetrains/
http://www.mtbr.com/ssfaqcrx.aspx#ssConversionsChainTension

Single speed version 1

2010-06-20T16:39:00.001+12:00

Its made up out of bits of junk from my shed... but its pretty light.
I will have to see how it works.... one fine day!

Single speed worlds brings out the big guns!

2010-06-15T21:40:00.003+12:00

I have my name down to do the Single Speeds Worlds later in the year at Rotorua. I dont actually have a singlespeed yet but I reckon its worth it to make one up for the weekend.... I mean any race where you are encouraged to dress up and drink beer during the race has got to be a good thing eh?

I heard that LA himself cant come as he has another event on. Well, at the moment he has, but I just got this email from the organisers and the quality of the field seems right up there, I mean cripes, you have to be pretty serious if you are coming all the way from Austria!

Over 800 entries from over 25 countries - the most "worldly" Singlespeed Worlds ever...

Tadeas Mejdr from the Czech Republic and Sepp Hribar from Austria entered in the last week - and if our maths is right (not a done deal!) that takes the country count to 27...
http://www.sswc10nz.com/

I guess I better get onto building my bike. It will most likely be based on my 93' Litespeed Ocoee, altho I believe the winner of the ladies National event last year did it on a full suspension Santa Cruz, so it is possible to go F/S.

What's that big yellow thing in the sky!

2010-06-05T23:20:00.001+12:00

If god had wanted me to sit at home on a saturday watching the morning sun high-light the amount of dirt I needed to clean off the floor, he wouldn't have invented the Wainuiomata Trail Park! I hadn't been there for a while and was impressed that there was hardly any sign of the recent 6 hour MTB race. The trails had held up brilliantly, despite the crap weather. I usually bump into a whole bunch of people I know while there but it wasn't til I left that I came across Sep on his singlespeed. I felt pretty flat the whole time so called in at the Mediterannean Food Warehouse for a coffee to help me on my way home.
Check out my new hat! Its hard to imagine such a light, effective and easy mount lighting system as the Ayups. This is actually light enough to run with, even with the 6 hour battery hanging off the back. It will also be very useful for getting in the wood on these wet and cold nights.

No bikes in here, but some lovely trails

2010-05-24T22:52:00.000+12:00

Some pix from our weekend hike into the Tutuwai Hut and back. 5.5 hours there, 4.5 back. The kids were great. 16 people in at the hut that night.

xxcmag.com - issue 7

2010-05-19T13:22:00.001+12:00

The latest version of XXCmag is out with my story on the Kiwi Brevet. There are masses of other really awesome adventureous styled MTB events in it as well. $2.25 to download it.

What can you tell about a person by looking in his shed.....

2010-05-18T22:27:00.000+12:00

Lowry Bay Ridge Track

2010-05-08T20:38:00.007+12:00

We went for ride up above Wainuiomata today, on the old trails we used to do our lunch time runs on when our campus was at the bottom of the Wainui hill. The track from the top of the Wainui Hill to Mt Lowry is an awesomely rooted single track, and is a now fully legal ride. This was my first legal ride on the track and having full suspension (finally) was a blast in gaining traction control on the climbs. No way could I have ridden as much of it as I did on my hard tail. Cleetus was on his Gryphon 29er and was doing amazingly well for a rider who used to freak at this kind of technical riding. The only problem he had was when his 650cm wide bars couldnt fit between two trees! We did the descent off Rata Ridge and crossed over the road to find a whole bunch of new family oriented trails we never knew existed over by the Reservoir area. A great place to take the kids when you are tired of the Rimutaka Incline or the Pencarrow walk way.

OK, I know this video is very lame, but I was justing trying to see how it would look in HDI, I dont think my broad-band is fat enough to play it though.

Just chillin

2010-04-20T19:27:00.004+12:00

Sometimes I just like to chill out on the couch.. in me nappies, watch a bit of C4. Someone else can fold the washing.

Singular Gryphon Review

2010-04-11T11:21:00.046+12:00

As I geared up for the inaugral Kiwi Brevet I became aware of a different kind of a bike out there. A bike that would eat up big miles in comfort, and roll on 700/29er wheels. They were made of steel or ti, usually had bottle and frame mounts all over them, and used road styled drop handlebars with funky names like the "woodchipper" or the "junebug". These bars were designed for comfort, and wrangling a loaded bike over rough terrain. The bike with the biggest reputation in this market is the Salsa Fargo, but an English company is starting to make a name for itself with its new range.

The Singular Gryphon is one of their bikes, and it fits in somewhere between the "monster-cross" genre and the "tourer". A kind of a do-everything bike. Its a bike made specifically for use with a rigid front fork and drop bars. Front suspension is not an option.

My buddy Matt took delivery of a Gryphon frame and only had a couple of months to bed it in before the Brevet, so a few long rides were in order to test it in its intended environment. With the addition of a Freeload bike rack and a front handlebar mounted bag it was set to go. The corrosion treated steel frame comes with a Phil Wood eccentric bottom bracket so its easy to build up as a single speed if desired. Mike Anderson at the Bike Hutt was responsible for putting it together and most of the subsequent tweaking. Putting drop bars on triple chain-ringed bikes comes with its own set of challenges which are usually solved by using bar end shifters, like you would find on a time trial bike, or cycle tourer. Matt used one for the front derailleur with an Ultegra 9-speed shifter for the XT rear derailleur. Avid's BB7 road-bike-lever compatible disc brakes were used to give the bike serious braking power the likes of which is missing on a traditional "cross" bike.

The very styley but functional Middleburn crankset with 44-34-22 ratios up front. and 11-34 on the back. Tristan from Wheelworks built up a set of wheels that leaned on the robust side for the Brevet and Mike converted them to tubeless. For Brevet use he ran the Contintental Cyclocross tyres in 42mm format, and they rolled beautifully. Several Matagouri induced punctures were had during the Brevet but after a few stops for re-pumping they resealed.

Currently the Gryphon is sporting 2.4 inch wide Conti Mountain Kings which were fitted in preparation for a date with the Karapoti Classic that never came about.

Last weekend we rolled up Summit road and down into the Wainuiomata Trail Park to put the Gryhpon through its paces. After trying to get used to the fact that Matt ran his brakes backwards, I was pleasantly surprised. This was only my 2nd ever ride on a 29er and it was a lot of fun. On the smooth Wainui trails, the lack of front suspension was not really an issue. The bars were very comfortable and I chose to ride on the top of the brake hoods where there was good access to the brakes. This is a no-no as these bars are supposed to be set up to ride with your hands on the flared part of the drops. Unfortunately the bike was still using the set-up used in the Kiwi Brevet.

Maybe it was a combination of the big wagon wheels and the drop bar not quite offering enough leverage given the bar position I was using but a couple of times I nearly smacked into trees as I had not quite nailed the amount of understeer I was experiencing. Remembering of course that this is not the kind of terrain that a bike with kind of bar was designed for, it still held up incredibly well all the same. From memory the Salsa Woodchipper bar on the Gryphon was 650 mm wide, way wider than my XC rig.
Despite the fat tyres and heavier steel frame, it still climbed very well and felt way more relaxed than my twitchier race bike. There was ample clearance for the 2.4 tyres but anything wider might be marginal, depending on the make and model. Running the tyres at 30 psi no doubt helped with smoothing out the ride, as would the steel chassis.

Matt showed how lethal the Gryphon was when despite being a relative off-road novice he could hold my wheel on all but the roughest descents. I am not sure a Fargo would be as spry in this environment with its substantially longer rear stays. The only area in which I felt really disadvantaged over my Santa Cruz race bike was in the very tight hair-pin corners, whether descending or climbing.

There were no problems with the Gryphon during the 1100km Kiwi Brevet (Matts story here) where every conceivable type of terrain was experienced. It would be hard to get a more punishing test in such a short period of time. Overall a very enjoyable bike that just asks to be ridden all day. The longer the better.

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PS. More fotos and technical info to follow.

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Get your own

I remember when....

2010-04-03T16:51:00.005+13:00

I set off on a ride today in the Wainu Trail park. I threw in my phone in case I was needed. I thought I would take my radio too in case there were some cool tunes on Active, as there were the last ride I did (check out Sola Rosa and Bajka on Youtube). A camera would be good also as I was going to take some pix of Mr Cleetus's Gryphon Singular. Video would help too, as some of those new trails are pretty cool, especially the Snail Trail. I thought I might also blog about it while I was out there, so I thought I would take the Computer too......
Bugger. My bag was getting heavy.

Luckily I had my (product placement ;) Sony Ericsson W508 !

Scary what you can pack into one little piece of plastic. This little baby allowed me to Blog, Tweet, Email, and Facebook my way around the South Island during the Kiwi Brevet (where ever there was XT network coverage). It also has very clever (and gimmicky) mp3 and video player, with an excellent radio as well. Plus all the usual cell phone gimmicks. Its no wonder they are number one on the wish-list of your average school kid. The battery life is also very good, as long as you have local networks nearby.

Makara Peak Grand Loop Challenge

2010-04-01T22:38:00.006+13:00

I was very pleased to hear that the Ginger Ninja himself, Big Al, was organising the Bush-love-Racing Makara TT Grand-Loop-Challenge. MTBing and TTing are my two favourite things I reckon, as far as biking goes. Mostly because they don't involve wheel-sucking or sprinting.

I quickly looked up section 1.3.001 in the UCI handbook as it pertains to Time Trialling and found that so long as my wheels were the same size, then 26 inches was cool, no room for 69er or 96er bikes tho... I cursed the fact that I had removed my aero bars after the Kiwi Brevet but wasn't prepared to put them back on. My Louis Garneau Helmet and Skin-suit would have to suffice.

The Godfather himself, Marco Renalli started two places in front of me, so my plan was to try to catch him and prove that aero beats weight, an argument often held amongst roadie weeners with too much credit on their cards. Marco's new Cannondale Flash is a genuine 17 pound bike, while my Santa Cruz Superlight is 23.5. I needed to rely on the increase in wind velocity at Makara Peak to make our differing CDa's useful (Coefficient of Drag).

Al assured me that you'd have to be pretty stupid to get lost on this course, so I set out to prove him right. The 2nd fork in the track I went right... DOH! A wrong way sign... Back on track. Another fork in the track ... DOH. Short-cut, not allowed to go that way.... I was good for a while, and secretly hoping that someone would catch me so that at least I knew if I was going the right way. Eventually that person came along... Brevet buddy Mike Thomson, on his rigid, v-braked single-speed. Cool, I would tuck in behind him.... No chance... By the next unmarked corner I had lost him... and took a left, instead of going straight ahead. DOH. Back-track again. I remember doing this once in a race there so took a punt on it being the right way.

The trail up ahead must have steepened because I was starting to catch Mike, and Marco was just ahead, and seemed to have caught Ricky who was doing his "stuck in the big ring" imitation by the look of his cadence. With my suspension set on sticky (as it was the whole ride) I just tractored up the rocky intro to the Ridgeline and carefully bombed down the other side. Marco had already got off and started walking when I caught him, and I think Mike had a momentary spill which put me back in front of him again on the rough stuff.

I came around a corner to find Ricky sprawled face down in the grass looking rather still. His Bush-love Buddy Davo was there with his camera documenting the event which was great. I quickly inquired if everything was alright and carried on.

As we got onto the smooth stuff again Mike was in his element and I let him past and immediately lost him again, until I caught him..... crashed on a corner. It seems there were a few crashes in the last few kms. He remounted and stayed in front.

What a fun event. I think there was around 40 entries in the end. Thanks Al and the Bushlovers and the easter egg sponsors!

Thanks to Davo for the picture which I stole without his permission.
Results here.

Grape Ride 2010

2010-03-29T15:13:00.017+13:00

Another year, another expedition to the Graperide. 8 of us headed south in Greg's van and booked into the Voodoo lounge at my parents place.

As usual the casual and friendly atmosphere that you get on the Bluebridge Ferry outweighed the only negative, the smell of livestock being transported somewhere to be turned into burgers I guess. Probably good to remind us where burgers come from.

Mum was there to greet us with some fresh road kill, which we took home to feed a convalescing hawk they were rehabilitating.

The next day a very early start had us there on the start line with almost an hour to go, just to try and get away in the first wave. It was a close thing. Gav and I held Neil's bike for 40 minutes while he queued for the toilet. In true Koru Club fashion he turned up just as the hooter sounded!

The pace was fast from the gun as we rode the crazy winding course out of the Vineyard. People were rubber-banding all over the show with big gaps popping up between all the of the riders as they tried to navigate the corners at speed.

It was my turn to pop on the 1st hill just out of Picton. Not enough riding in the last month saw me not able to hold a wheel so I sat up after a while and regrouped with some guys who knew how to form a paceline (mostly). Conditions were great, warm and a little overcast with a southerly.

14 year old Nicole who hadn't ridden her bike since January snuck home in under 6 hours, while Greg's tandem stoker Ryan (aged 8) had the glory of being the youngest ever rider to finish the Graperide!

The rest of the guys, Dave and Neil had gone slower than the previous year, not surprising given their lack of training, but Gav got a PB !!! We felt bad leaving the site after only about 3 hours, as Nicole had not quite finished, but the MC had a voice that just drilled right into your brain, we had to go. Unfortunately for the trip back to the house, the wind had swung right around and it was a stiff northerly. Poor Dave was blown-as broo. I went back in the truck and picked him up to save him from cycling the last 400 metres.

Kathleen ordered up at least 11 pizzas and lashings of liquid amber. We had a good crowd of extra family members from the south island by the time we had finished.

Dave often enjoys the sleeping component of these trips the most, and because Neil's camera came without batteries I was forced to document these naps with my cell phone, and the various props that just seemed to be lying around in the Voodoo lounge came in handy. Kathleen was playing camp mother to Ryan and berating him for drinking sugary beverages so late into the night. He still nodded off first and even slept for the entire ferry ride home the next day!

On the sunday we did the usual tour of the local produce markets and were all primed up for our ferry trip home with stinky cheese, licorice, good wines and paper cups stolen from the terminal. Mission accomplished : )

Summit Road lunch time jaunt

2010-03-23T16:46:00.005+13:00

Summit road at lunchtime today. Imagine if I lived in Western Australia.
1. Summit road would be called The Summit Road Mountain Ranges.
2. It would be too hot to ride up at lunch-time.
3. There would be busloads of Tourists looking at the Wild Flowers (Gorse).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41957928@N00/

Imagine having to drive to the trails?

2010-03-16T10:07:00.007+13:00

Imagine having to drive to the trails, that must suck. I snuck up to the Wainui trail park this morning on the way to work and did Labyrinth, the Spoon Hill track with the new piece of track, and the Bee-lines extension which is a very cool piece of fun flowing track. Spoonhill is so much fun in the dry.

Summers not over yet

2010-03-09T10:09:00.005+13:00

Some Brevet pix from Jonty

2010-03-08T12:19:00.008+13:00

James at the top of the Muangatapu

Heading for the Porika track

The best part of Port Underwood

Nick and bambi

Jeff on the viaduct

Kiwi Brevet - the final cut

2010-02-14T18:31:00.039+13:00

Photos from Flickr - Photos from Picasa - Mr Cleetus's Picasa

Sifters story - Charlottes story - John Morris's story - The aussie's story - Mr Cleetus's story

As we took the train into Wellington we were surrounded by people dressed up in various fancy-dress costumes as they made their way into the Rugby Sevens. We never got a second glance as they probably just thought we were going as cycle tourists.

We boarded the Blue Bridge Ferry with a mixture of excitement and trepidation and we sailed south for the first ever Kiwi Brevet. We met more intrepid adventurers on the ferry and before long we were all talking about kit selection. Have you got a this? How much does your that weigh?

We came from many backgrounds, but one thing most of of us had in common. We had never heard of a "Brevet" until the organiser Simon Kennett mooted the idea part way through 2009. Many of us had watched Simon's epic voyage as he did the Great Divide race two years previous and were awed by the effort. Simon's plan was to do a similar event in NZ. Roughly 50% on road, 50% off road. The rules were pretty simple.
1. No support
2. 4 hours sleep a night
3. You had 8 days to crank out 1100kms.

Other than that, you carried a spot-tracker and were on your own. Who would have thought that 65 people would front up on the start line in Blenheim to start the crazy loop.

The variety of bikes was impressive. 26ers, 29ers, 96ers, cross bikes, rigid and sprung at one or both ends. Even a pugsly and a fixer.

Day 1 was tough. With a 12pm start, the sun shone like only it can in Marlborough and many people cracked wide open by the time they had reached the top of the Port Underwood section of the leg. A series of at least 4 brutal climbs on gravel with fine fine silt, and descents in hot oven-fan-bake like conditions. My riding buddy Matt was wilting in the sun, as well as having to deal with a Matagouri thorn in his tubeless tire, and had to stop three times to add more air. At the first stop in the coastal port of Picton the Supermarkets and gas stations were hit hard as coke water and muesli bars were stocked up. This was just the entree. The Queen Charlotte Sounds drive was next, and although it very scenic and relatively flat, you knew that once you had got through that segment the brutal Maungatapu Climb awaited before the descent into Nelson. If you were on your game, you might be in Nelson by 12pm, but for most, it was a case of bivvying up on the hill, or staying in a camping ground in Pelorus. We were riding with some guys who were also affected badly by the heat so decided to sleep at Murderers rock where we heard there was water and a flat spot to bivvy. Murderers rock was the scene of a planned robbery and murder of 5 people back in the gold mining days. The wash in the stream that night was the most refreshing wash I have ever had, and I have never seen so many stars in the sky so clearly.

The next day dawned with a couple of very sick riders suffering the effects from the previous days heat. Matt was struggling with nausea and couldn't eat, and Mike was just fried after the first half day in the sun. After a long brunch in Nelson we got back on the road and headed north to St Arnaud. By the time we got there we knew we had to make some hard decisions. We decided to split up into two teams with the tired guys staying on and trying to recover their strength, while the rest of us would push on and see how far we could get. It was the right idea.

Jonty Nick and myself took off about 4.30pm after a feed of fish and chips and countless chocolate milks and we headed for the Porika Track. It was a beautiful climb through Beech forests, but it did seem to go on for a long time. Starting the day with half of the Maungatupu to finish at 7am was starting to take its toll. The descent was very rough, and would have been a tricky walk for most people. I elected to walk and had to watch in amazement as Jonty rode the lot on his Cross bike. I had to keep reminding myself that he was once the NZ downhill champ!

After the Porika came the Braeburn track, which was wide open downhill gravel... in the dark. Awesome. Jonty and Nick had lightweight DiNotte lights, but my helmet mounted Ayups were just the business. We rolled into Murchison and managed to find a Backpackers at about 9.30pm.

We left Murch at about 8am the next day, brought some home made pies and hit the road for the Maruia saddle. A beautiful Beech forest with gradual four wheel drive tracks. Along the way we were joined by a curious baby deer who ran out from a farm's front gate! There was no dropping her. We nailed it down a hill at 50kmh and she hung on. I back tracked for a couple of kilometres and eventually found the owner of the friendly fawn.

After an extended lunch stop at the Maruia cafe, it was a bit more tarmac and onto the mining town of Reefton. We passed the young aussie guys at Maruia and caught up with Scott and Ian who had stopped at Reefton to fix Scot's bike. Scot had been hit by a car outside of Murch and needed a new hanger. We fueled up and headed off on our next leg which was hopefully Big River, Waiuta and Blackball.

We were heading into gnarly country now, and had no idea of how long it was going to take to get through, but we were prepared to sleep out, or sleep in a hut if that was as far as we got. Big River was great, but Waiuta was a real effort. An eerily beautiful place, the tracks were narrow and surrounded by sphagnum moss, with fallen logs, rocky outcrops and streams breaking up any kind of flow to the trail. The final descent was special, but more because we were finally getting out of it than for any other reason. We emerged at the old mining ghost town of Waiuta, clipped on our lights and with a tailwind and slight downhill we nailed it to the Ikamatua pub. A pie, a beer and a raspberry and coke later and we were back on the road at 9.40pm and trying to make the Blackball Hilton Pub by 11pm.

It was hilly, it was wet and it was dark. But we made it by 11pm. Our friends from Wellington, Trevor and Barryn were sitting there sipping on some local ale as we stumbled through the door. What an epic day. It would have been rude not to join them.

The next day we headed off on what was to be the biggest segment involving tarmac, although the first part was strictly gravel. For some reason the roadside was full of Weka who were scurrying about and foraging at the road edge. We made it to Jacksons and then the brutal 13% climb of the Otira gorge viaduct. Another stop at Arthurs Pass where I accidentally discovered that sun-block was acceptable chamois cream, and it was back on the road with a nice tail wind to Springfield.

The food at the Springfield Cafe was excellent, and somewhere along the way we picked up Laurence and Guy from Ground Effect, and decided to move on a bit more so we could get an earlier start onto the Wharfdale track. We camped at the View hill domain that night somewhere near Oxford.

The next morning was a bit damp, but not too bad. The Wharfdale was great. Technically challenging, but still mostly rideable. I did go over the bars at one stage with a move that was pretty spectacular from where Jonty was looking. We stopped at the hut and Jonty whipped out his espresso maker! Luxury. He carried it on his handlebar bag the whole way, such was his fear of coffee withdrawal. We had only just started to leave when Charlotte turned up. She had been making a habit of catching us on our leisurely stops. She was riding by herself, unlike most of the other women in the event who seemed to have the support of spouses or boyfriends.

We cranked on into the Lee Valley. This section was epic. It just went on for ever. Initially wide open flat farm roads that eventually turned into nasty little climbs that kept repeating themselves. When we finally got off the gravel at Hurunui we were mentally pretty fried, and depending on who we talked to, we had either 37 or 57kms to go to get to Hanmer Springs. I made the mistake of having a cold drink instead of a hot drink which cooled down my core a bit too much.

Nick had been having problems with his knee for a few days and had pretty much made the decision to pull the pin, as it was so sore and he reckoned he was making no power. He couldn't see himself getting through the Molesworth the next day, which was hopefully to be our final stage. Next thing we knew Nick had attacked off the front. With only a few kms left to Hanmer he was testing his knee to failure.... and found that it felt better when he went harder!!!

It started to rain a bit and by the time we rolled into Hanmer at around 9pm we were pretty toasted. I jammed my fish and chips up my jacket as I needed the warmth. Nick got onto Google at our salubrious accommodation and found instructions for an ITB stretch, and we got out a big stash of nurofen to help with his knee.

We threw all the smelly clothes in the washer and decided to make an early start the next morning. We did. At 7.15am we were grinding our way up Jollies pass. What a grunt. It felt like it must have been close to an hours climbing on the gravel in a very low gear. We caught Charlotte who had started at 6am, then we caught up to Trevor and Barryn who were looking a bit tired . On the Ward pass we hauled in Chris and Brenda. We thought that might have been it, but Jonty was like a heat seeking missile. We seem to be going downhill with a tail wind, and while cresting a rise we spotted David King. He took one look over his shoulder and nailed it so fast down the gravel hill that we had to do 75kmh to keep him in sight! We caught him on the next climb and kept on rolling. It was a long day and I could see the guys jealously eyeing my full suspension set-up as they were getting pummelled on their rigid steads on the nasty Molesworth corrugations.

"Big Country" is the term just about everyone used to describe the terrain on the ride through the Molesworth, and we were a joyous group when we finally saw the sign at Taylors Pass saying only 26kms to Blenheim.

We finished that day's 205km stretch in a bit under 11 hours and we wondered what we could have done on other days if we had spent less time eating and talking and more time riding. It didn't matter. We had a lot of fun. We were still completely coherent and enjoying the feeling of achievement at having finished the first ever Kiwi Brevet. Thank you Simon Kennett. It was a blast.

=========================================
Here is Matt (Mr Cleetus's) story:

The positives:

I finished!
After day two, I got stronger & felt better each day throughout the event
I had some very good times and enjoyed some new people
I learned my friend is a very good friend
I saw some stunningly beautiful country
I was able to smash it at times and had some sublime moments on the bike
I did nothing but ride my bike for 6 days – how could anything be more positive?
I did not hurt myself badly
I still like my bike and wish to continue riding it
My bike and its various parts did not brake
I lost quite a few kgs. :)
I saved money because I did not need to buy much food

The not-so-positives:

I vomited while riding the bike throughout the first day
I felt like vomiting on the bike for the next one-and-a-half days after that
I hardly ate, no matter how much I forced it, and did not feel like eating until late on day 5 (but, man, was I hungry then).
I was not able to ride the whole thing with my friend as planned – he was forced to drop me late on day two.
I had bad back pain most of the way
I was significantly slower than planned and made my friend slower than he planned
My sleeping pad was quietly at home on the living room floor
I have some cycling clothing I may wish to never wear again

Day 1: The start time was Noon and it was stinking hot, somewhere over 30 degrees. That may not sound like much, but believe me: it is! It made for a very tough start. After a bit of argy-bargy in several kms of thorny-puncture-causing-double track sand, we arrived at the start of the hills. These were a series of 7 or 8 climbs with gains of up to 400m on dirt roads that were often in tire-deep loose dirt, which made for slow going. It was absolutely beautiful dropping down into countless picturesque little bays. The early thorn encounters caused me to stop and pump up my rear tubeless which was slowly leaking, but thank goodness for tubeless and it finally held. Yay! No real puncture. It was roasting. I was being slowly roasted. All things were not well.

After three hours it became clear that I was not handling the heat well and I was suffering big time and my back was killing me. My pace remained ok and El Jefe and I were still riding well, but serious nausea was setting in and my energy levels were dropping. We stopped at the first town we hit at 4 hours and refueled. Ice cold coke and a wee bit of a break for me. We had a few hours of climby roads to do and then one of the big-nasty climbs for the event: the Mangutapu. Once we were riding again the nausea was quickly back and soon I was vomiting as I was pedalling. Now, this is not a new experience for me, but it is not one I had hoped to repeat again – especially not on day one of a 1200km event. My lower back, where I had been recently having the problems, was also in pretty bad pain at times. We eventually hit the next town which was our dinner source and I managed 1/2L choco soymilk and forced as much of a can of baked beans down as possible and was still in hopes of making it over the Mangutapu that night. Dusk was settling in as we hit the 12km gravel road climb which leads to the Mangutapu; I decided I had to head up, but my guts continued to deteriorate. When we hit the base oh the 'tapu I decide it was not a smart idea to go up (with all the memories of hours of IVs stuck in my arm in past experiences), but no luck, the only water source was 600m above us. So up up and away we went in the dark with El Jefe telling stories of Murderers Rock, our eventual camping place, the entire way. We finally hit the stream and oh my was it awesome to stop riding the bike!! Four others joined us here and after refilling we headed up and finally hit Murderers Rock at a bit past 10pm. I was bugga'd and doing my best not to think about the kms ahead, but also feeling very badly for causing El Jefe to go so slowly. I dumped my bags on the ground and really could do nothing but laugh when I discovered I had my bivi bag and my sleeping bag, but my sleeping pad was nowhere to be found. Naturally, I blamed my daughter. I managed a few hours of sleep that night, but between my cramping hamstrings, feet and quads and the rocks under my veganised posterior, I would not call it a fantastic sleep; however I was happy and warm and optimistic for the days to come, even though we were, on day one and completely thanks to me, behind schedule.

Day 2: This route was supposed to be one of the tougher ones with a lot of climbing, but a lot of that was on roads – good for me!! I woke up nauseous and finished off my soya, but had little else. We finished the climb – a lovely climb – and headed down the backside, which was good fun. Along the way we passed a few others with mechanicals and headed into Nelson to get some breakfast. I managed to get down a coffee, a bagel and some avocado, but felt awful. Throughout the morning the heat poured on and my energy levels were up and down, and the nausea was always there, sometimes quite horribly, but our pace was still on track. In the later afternoon there was a longish climb on the road, but one that I would have loved if fresh and on a road bike. In this case I groveled, I really groveled and I had do some serious convincing of myself not to walk. By this point we were riding as a group of six; three were up the road ahead of me and two behind. After the descent it was clear I needed a stop, so I had a wee 20 minute break by the side of the road and I was not passed by a single car or cyclist! Once I was riding again it was clear to me I was done for the day and at 5.30 I caught up to the three ahead of me in St. Arnaud and told then I was done. Completely cooked. I don't actually have much memory of the rest of the night as I was a complete mess and in a pretty bad state and had just had about enough of the nausea after fighting it for more than 24 hours. The good news (for me) was the two behind me eventually caught up and also were not in a state to go on. So El Jefe left me to ride on with the other two who were also feeling spunky and I would stay behind with the other two grovellers and we would grovel on together. Grovelling good times to come. I stayed in a bed for the night, but spent it cramping. I managed a very good sleep despite this.

Day 3: I had gone to bed with the hopes of the nausea being gone when I awoke and I had manged to get some quantities of water and electrolytes down, so there was hope. However there was no luck and I felt awful in the morning. With that, and with no dinner the night before and without being able to get breakfast down I was not optimistic for the days to come and for the first time it occurred to me I might not be able to finish. WHAT?!?!? This thing should be easy!! WTF!?!? DNF!!!!??? No f'ing way. So I did what I had to: I forced those thoughts out of my mind and got on the bike and rode. We were blessed with an awesome first 30mins of easy downhill to start, but it did not help, I still felt like a pile of poo. I did not want to feel like a big pile of poo. Finally the fun was over and we started the rocky climbs again and one would not say I was overjoyed at the thought of it, but I very much impressed myself with my ability to just get on with it and remove any negativity out of my head. After some very long climbs we hit some stunning views over Lake Rotoiti and that was awesome. That was a reason I was there. After a nasty nasty fun descent, which most had to walk and another climb we hit the descent on the Braeburn Track – this was it for me, the change point where I started to have fun, the nausea started to recede and optimism returned. This road was a blast!! I had been drinking some apple juice and it, coupled with the cooler temperatures seemed to be settling my stomach. Some time in the early afternoon we hit Murchison for lunch and I managed to get down the first real calories in 2.5 days: baby apple puree and it was lovely. Throughout the afternoon, despite the slightly rising temps I felt better and stronger. Even enough to smash it up some longer climbs and ride off on my own at times. It also finally occurred to me to get the camera out.

At 7.30 we hit Springs Junction, we were out of food and the shop and hotel were closed. It was 40km to Reefton with one pass to on the route. We decided to go for it and I felt the best I had and really had to hold back going up the climb. The last 30kms into Reefton were almost entirely downhill. Awesome! I was rocking now and dreaming of the days to come. We arrived in Reefton at 9.30. In time to get accommodation at the pub hotel, but too late to get any dinner. But we had enough of a food to snack and would be able to get a good breakfast in the morning.

Day 4: I cannot think of many places worse than the West Coast of NZ for vegan food except maybe Kansas, but they were great at this place and gave me what must have been 3kgs of baked beans and 4 slices of toast. I had no appetite so I ate what I could, which was maybe ¼ of this and we headed off to the most technical stretch of the entire Brevet: Big River and Waiuta. The night before we had been warned it was more difficult and slower than expected but we were ready. It was awesome. Some climbing on tough rocky trails, entrenched narrow single track, pushing bikes up stream beds, beautiful scenery and endless lifting and carrying of bikes through steep ravines. Doing this alone would have been a major pain – probably requiring unloading of the bike at times. It was a pretty special segment and took us six hours to get through. I had another puncture and this time the tubeless took four pumpings to heal. All was good. After a couple of more hours of flattish roads and gravel we decided to push on to Jackson's to get us close to the Arthur's pass climb in the morning. Unfortunately none of our maps gave us any clue how far it was; it could be 2 hours or 6. Anyway, I felt awesome and this rocked. I pushed the pace hard to get there as early as possible and kept riding away from my group. It was all smooth gravel and tar sealed roads and I was really enjoying myself – I was coming alive again riding in the dark. At 10pm we showed up at a little campground in Jackson's just as the shop was closing. I managed to get a wee bit of pasta down but again had no appetite and started to feel the nausea again. So I went to bed and maybe managed 3hrs of sleep in a fitful night. The next morning we wanted an early start to be closer to a large group we had caught this day.

Day 5: We were straight up Arthur's Pass in the morning after another very small breakfast. This is a steep climb on the road – up to 13% I think! It was tough, but there was a cafe at the top and a planned break. We had caught up to some others and there was about 10 other breveters at the cafe. Again I had no appetite but got some toast and a soy latte down. The next 55km was all up and down staying between 700m and 100m and I had a blast. I was enjoying riding hard and putting some hard efforts in during this bit. I was out of the not-a-race at this point and I had no desire to go it alone, so I just enjoyed it. At 4pm we hit Sheffield and had our first and only tactical error: we had to get food for the next ~24 hours and the only shop in town as a (meat) pie shop with very little on offer. Anything else would have been a 20km diversion. Fortunately for me, we were not the only ones to make the error and my veganness was becoming known. An incredibly kind couple (Fat Dogs!) offered me their yummy oily peanuts and I managed to get so good grainy bread and apple juice. Those peanuts were the best food I had since the start and I managed to get a few calories and some fat and protein in and I had enough to survive through to the next afternoon. At this point it was cool and raining which was great for me. Next up was muddy technical single track and I enjoyed riding through it. Just at dusk we arrived at the backcountry hut. Some DoC workers were there and they were initially not very happy to see us but they eventually warmed to the idea and seemed to enjoy telling us their stories. Eventually 12 riders showed up at that hut and with the rain outside everybody crammed in the hut. It was STINKIN' HOT inside!! Again I managed a few hours of sleep.

Day 6: This day promised a wee bit of single track and endless climbing on farm tracks and gravel roads, much of it was through private land which we had special permission to go through. It was very beautiful and I was really enjoying it. Unfortunately in the mid-afternoon one of the two riding with me had a major mechanical and managed to rip his rear derailleur off. Not good at all. It seemed very odd, but we had to leave him to walk and hope that he would find the mythical farmer's wife. I continued to feel good and was pushing the pace. The only real issues were a constant pain from my lower back and just general fatigue. At 3.30ish we arrived and the Hurinui Hotel and I was STARVING!! What an excellent feeling to have after not wanting any food for days on end. I had the best tomato and onion sandwich I have ever had with a big jug of coke and was raring to go. For the next 50km I smashed it sitting at 35kph for some long stretches (hey, thats fast on heavy loaded bikes on tired legs!!) and did my best to make the Adventure Racers cry, I think I heard some sobs from Bill (after he attacked, of course). At 5.30pm we arrive in Hanmer Springs. After Hanmer is a steep 400m-ish climb and some more rolling climbing to the start of the Molesworth road. Nobody is allowed on the Molesworth except between 7am and 7pm so we decided to get a meal in Hanmer (friggin' fantastic Thai Fried Rice), load up with a bunch of extra food and to have a leisurely climb up to the start of the road so we could be ready to go at 7am. We had managed to catch quite a few who had been ahead of us the previous days – some who had been hugely ahead. We were starting to feel some competitive urges. The climb up was hard work, but we really enjoyed knowing we could only go so far and we made the most of it. We made it to the camp at 8.30, set up the bivis, washed my shorts in the stream and went climbed in the sack just as three others arrived.

Final Day. We left at 7.09, just a few minutes after 2 who had left Hanmer at 5am. This raised a bit of competitiveness in us and we chased them down over the next hour. The Molesworth road is a special one in very amazing and hard to describe enormous, desolate and barren country, surround by 12,000ft mountains. Unfortunately the roads are really rocky and slow; this was clearly a stretch were rigid bikes were a disadvantage. Anyway, it was beautiful and we made the most of it. We quickly realised there was no point in trying to race it but made sure we did enough to stay ahead of the others. Again, it was a day with endless climbing and no flat stretches for hours on end, but it was pretty special riding and we saw almost nobody for 200km. Awesome. Also, there were no water or food supplies, other than streams with water that must be treated. Again it was incredibly hot, but I managed to hold it together and keep my head in a good place despite this being the worst day yet for my lower back. We found a plum tree with beautiful red & yellow plums that were one of the highlights of the trip and we ate a lot!! Finally we hit the last pass with 26km to go which was directly into a roaring headwind. Frustrating, but what could we do... After our first navigational error with 9km to go we finally made it onto the bike path and we hit Seymoure Square Blenheim at about 7pm. El Jefe and a few others were there waiting for us and it was fantastic to be done and I felt very good!

Finish time: 6 days 7 hours.

Epilogue. Brevet is maybe not the right title for this race, but I am not sure what is: adventure race? Some did it on very little sleep (maybe too little based on the rules...), but most had a bit more. It was not “supposed” to be a race and it was kind of treated that way, but nobody wanted to be beaten either. It was over very difficult and slow tracks, paths, roads and terrain so all average speeds were pretty slow, but that is what is all about. It cannot be compared to a brevet such as PBP, it's an event of its own. An awesome event. Come do it. Just don't vomit on your bike. ...oh and James did actually find the mythical farmers wife, got a ride to get his bike fixed and finished not too long after us!

Destination voodo lounge

2010-02-12T08:21:00.001+13:00

Happy to be not doing another 200 today. We have had a great adventure. Never rode before 7am or after 11pm, and had big food breaks. Yesterday was different in that we only stopped for about 20 mins accumulated over the 11hrs. Its been a real boys own adventure and we all thank our spouses for letting us go. Time for breakfast.

Http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.com

Burrito!

2010-02-11T19:22:00.001+13:00

Rolled in at 5.59. Under 11hrs for 205kms. Caught 6 other riders in the process. A good day.
Getting some food down now.

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Some of...

2010-02-10T21:55:00.001+13:00

... What I will be eating 2moro

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Wet and cold in hanmer

2010-02-10T21:30:00.001+13:00

9pm. WharFdale was awesome. Lees valley was about 60kms too much gravel with many many short climbs. Nick has an icepack on his itb which is really hurting him. Probably an early start 2moro for the big push home. Not talking about a time yet. Charlotte should be in soon. She is a machine, no boy friend riding with her unlike the other ladies.

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Pies and coke

2010-02-10T17:37:00.002+13:00

.. At hurunui. Very tired of gravel. Hanmer tonite.

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Having a brew at..

2010-02-10T10:42:00.001+13:00

Wharfdale hut after 3hrs riding. 10.44am

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Fear and loathing on the inflamation highway

2010-02-09T22:08:00.002+13:00

214kms today but all gravel and tarseal. Some good tailwind thru the otira but a minor bonk for me on the viaduct. Legs are pretty sore and everyone has sore botty bits. An early nite tonite as we are camping in a domain near oxford close to start of wharfdale track. The next two days will be big ones.

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Grabbing kai at springfield

2010-02-09T18:43:00.001+13:00

Discussing whether or not to push on or not. Lots of sore bits today!

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Big day

2010-02-09T03:56:00.001+13:00

About 220 kms with the gnarliest terrain yet at waiuta. I pity the people that tried to do it in the dark. Big river was awesome and made me glad I was on a fully, not that I was even descending as fast as nutter jonty on his cross bike. We got into the ikamatua pub for a pie and beer at 9.30pm where we met patron who knew my parents and grandmother from 50 plus years ago. 30kms later we had booked into the blackball hilton and were having a beer with trev, barryn and charlotte. All the other riders already in bed. Your body kind of tells u what it needs and for most its chocolate milk, crisps and pies. Fish n chips good too. No xt network here so will try post on the next leg.

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Moving on soon

2010-02-08T15:04:00.000+13:00

Scott is here and is moving on soon too.

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2010-02-08T14:59:00.001+13:00

Just got to reefton. Had fun with a baby deer chasing us at 50kmh

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Enjoying some Shade

2010-02-08T12:58:00.003+13:00

Approaching wakefeild

2010-02-08T12:53:00.002+13:00

Day 2, part 2

2010-02-07T23:36:00.001+13:00

We had to make some tough calls today. Matt was doing it hard and decided to stay on in st arnaud, as did 2 of the revolution crew. Jonty nick and I decided to press on and try to reach murchison. We had some awesome riding. The porika track was one heinous climb, and the descent wasnt much better. The braeburn seemed to be fast wide and downhill, and by this time, dark. Awesome. The last 1.5 hours into murch was done with our lights on. Holed up in a backpakers now.

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Brevet food

2010-02-07T17:24:00.001+13:00

Just got to st arnaud. Might go on from here. Not sure.

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A tuff day

2010-02-07T08:00:00.001+13:00

Matt suffered with a bit of heat stress thru pt underwood. We soldiered on and camped with the revolution crew at murderers rock.1st thing this morn we hit the steep part of the ride. Now in cafe in nelson!

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The day before

2010-02-05T22:38:00.001+13:00

Fun times on the straightsman with bill
B, jo, dave, gordon and matt. Lots of adventure racing tips.

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Thats good, no thats bad!

2010-02-05T08:54:00.002+13:00

I got up this morning to see if my front wheel had decided to "seal" properly. Its a Stans Raven running on Stans rims with Stans Latext sealant in it, so you dont need a tube, and no chance of pinch flats. It had lost air for the last couple of days and I was about to just stick a tube in it. But hey presto, it was up and looking good. Not so the rear! It was flat as, but it was running the normal tube/tyre combination. It turned out to be a patch on an old tube giving way. Phew. Better now than later.

Its a bit risky, but I decided to change my rear tyre from the old Michelin jet semi-slick I was using to a newer Specialized Captain Control. Its a lot heavier, but more robust and given that my bike fully-loaded is now more than 41 pounds it means I can descend with a bit less caution.

There was a great buzz at Jontys shop (Revolution cycles) last night where many of the Wellignton riders went in to pick up their spot trackers. It was interesting looking around at the different bikes. A lot of them on 700c wheeled cyclo-cross styled bikes, and very very few of them sporting suspension, front or rear!

This is the special tracker

2010-02-04T21:09:00.001+13:00

Small eh.

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Web 2.0 experiment

2010-02-04T09:49:00.001+13:00

If you can see this then my most recent experiment in web 2.0 technologies has been a success, as I have just sent this email via my cellphone. It can also be seen on my blog and facebook. I hope I have enough energy to keep you in the loop. Wish me luck in the brevet. Jeff

Http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.com

Brevet tools

2010-02-02T20:40:00.000+13:00

Heaps of patches and 2 tubes of glue. Scalpel blade and duct tape.

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Big Coast - loaded

2010-01-27T10:34:00.012+13:00

Last saturday was a chance for us to check out our rigs with a bunch of other like minded Brevet riders and a random sprinkling of adventure racers. The "Big Coast" ride is about 120kms and takes in quite a variety of terrain including about 4 abandoned railway tunnels on the Rimutaka Incline. Unbeknown to myself and Mister Cleetus, we were the only ones riding with full brevet kit! DOH!

We started at Trevs place where we hooked up with Jill, Jerry, Colin, Paul, Dave and Barryn, I think that was it, and headed off into a damp and stiff southerly. Trev has the most elegant stainless steel aero-bar in the world, and it came in handy as we hunkered into the teeth of the southerly near Pencarrow. You are kind of committed to the aeros though... theres no taking your hands off to grab the flats when it gets a bit sideways!

We ground along in our hi-zoot Ground Effect tops, on state of the art full suspension 29er wheeled cad designed machines, sipping on hi-energy Gu's and electrolyte replacement bars, paragons of hi-tech. Then, around the corner came a young guy on a warehouse bike with a pink helmet. Then a few minutes later was a young girl, then another. What were these kids doing out on a day like this in their t-shirts? After about 10 minutes the queue dried up the last one came through. I said hello. And he said "Hi Jeff". It was Leon! Leon is our painter (I fully recommend him) Hes a staunch member of the Mormon church and this little ride was one they did from Ocean Beach each year during the holidays. Awesome.

The bit across the river beds was a bit gnarly and a couple of the guys got punctures. By the time we had got off the coast it had started to rain in earnest. The good news was, it wasnt cold unless you stopped pedalling, so Cleetus on his wagon wheels went to the front and we sat on 40 plus kmh for a very long time along the side of the Lake to Cross Creek. A firm tail wind helped.

After another short food stop at Cross Creek we headed off to the summit. There was a cold wait there for a while as Cleetus had punctured right back at Cross Creek. Watching how these adventure racing guys keep warm was worth seeing first hand and duly noted.

After regrouping we headed back to the Hutt, which was a lot warmer than the other side of the tukkas! Down the Hutt River trail to town, and my brakes exploded about 2kms from home. Well timed. A good ride with lots of really good tips picked up.

The photos are from Paul Chaplow. Thanks Paul.

First loaded ride on Brevet bike

2010-01-22T12:30:00.007+13:00

I did my first real ride on the Brevet machine this morning, with its likely payload. Another 16.5 pounds on the bike. (thats Marcos whole bike!) A total of 40 pounds rolling.

I commuted to work via Belmont trig, Baked beans bend and Mill Stream. I was surprised at how the extra weight caused completely different sensations in different places. I can see now how seat comfort could be an issue, where as before, even though my seat is pretty minimal, it never even looked like bothering me. I took a bit less than another 4 mins to get up the trig, and given that the track was quite damp, and it was the first time I had ridden the new freeload rack loaded, I took it pretty easy on the descent.

By the time I got to the end of Mills stream I was feeling pretty comfortable with it, and as I read somewhere else, on steep descents, where you hang off the back, you kinda feel the rack underneath you, and although you dont sit on it, it lets you control the rear of the bike a bit more directly.

Freeload bike rack

2010-01-16T18:19:00.013+13:00

My new freeload bike rack arrived today, so armed with the confidence of knowing that I once assembled a kids "Warehouse" swing and slide set, I started to put it all together. Being the geek I am, I had my camera on hand, and a good thing I did.... because, although the assembly of the unit was a complete doddle, when it came to strapping it on my bike I came unstuck. I had been messing with the webbing straps, and they had unravelled from their correct locations : (
I was able to re-thread them by referring to the camera's images.

The top "deck" caused me some grief, I thought I had it installed as per instructions, but noted that I could pull it off the alloy frame quite easily. After some frantic phone calls to Mister Cleetus, we found that he had not installed his correctly either. There are two parts to getting it right. 1. The curved alloy frame's end needs to be bottomed out against the green toe-piece in a horizontal plane. 2. Some downward force needs to be applied to the deck directly above the little green catches, which are underneath it. There is a resounding click when this happens.

As suggested, with bikes running brake lines on the top-side of their "seat-stays" you will need to pull them up, to give some room for the mounting hardware. I had heaps of spare brake-line so it wasn't a problem. I did move the mounts as far as I could down the seat-stay though, so that there was no chance of the rack coming into contact with my seat under full suspension bottoming. This has yet to be tested in the real world. Maybe one day this summer it will stop raining.

So far the contact I have had with the guy at Freeload (Tim) has been very helpful and friendly.

How much is too much fun?

2010-01-15T20:49:00.006+13:00

The last time I had anything to do with Mount Climie, it was watching the helmet cam video that Ed showed me of himself nearly running over an old lady walking her dog up it! Like all DHers he was in full control and she had nothing to be worried about.

Team "Go vegan's" Mister Cleetus decided that it would be a cool idea to ride up Mt Climie (860 metres) four times... I think he got this twisted idea from reading Sifter's blog about him and Simon's equally crazy adventures involving altitude.

Being gullible and easily led, I too thought it seemed like a really nice way to spend the crappy rainy friday, which I had foolishly swapped for a handful of beans, and probably the best sunny friday we have had in Wellington since I returned from my holiday in Nelson. Anyway, it was a good test for the Singular Gryphon which is Mister Cleetus's new Brevet machine. See some pix of the Mythical Gryphon grinding up and down the hill.

The Xmas break report

2010-01-13T22:38:00.008+13:00

I am not long back from a pretty awesome holiday in Nelson and Marlborough. I was lucky enough to get shown the amazing trails that the locals have over there.

On boxing day, ex Wellingtonians Gazza and Susie Milbanke-Wood invited me along with a group of their buddies to do an ascent of Fringe Hill. Its about 800 metres in height I think, and seems to be the start of many good rides. At the top it was out with the scorched Almonds, chrissie cake and and all the goodies. Very civilised.

All was going well until my "Cuz" (who we actually met going in the opposite direction and joined our ride) showed me a short-cut down the hill... You remember that big storm that hit Nelson 18 months ago?
It knocked down trees that had been standing for over 100 years. Well those trees are still all over the trails.
To cut a long story short, I ripped off my drop-out and had to free-wheel down the hill minus chain and rear derailer.

Luckily for me I had the direct dial to the Stylianou Mansion on my bat-fone and by the end of the day had the entire NZ supply of Santa Cruz Superlight drop-outs in my hot little hand.

The next day, once again, purely by chance I came across Cuz, this time in the company of "Coppermine Classic" organiser James Hufflet. Where were they going?
To pre-ride the Coppermine of course! As Stylie was at home sick he was spared the job of showing me around the course as earlier promised.

I didnt notice at the start but both Paul (Cuz) and James were riding big-hit bikes with 2.3 wide tyres... I was on my superlight with my Brevet Aero-bars on! DOH!

The first descent of the Coppermine, from the top of the Fringe hill is the best part, ride able rooty drop-offs among the Beech trees, quite beautiful, but I am sure a handful in the wet. The next part was also very nice, taking in parts of the Dun Mountain Walkway. There were lots of new trails being built up there, but the one bit that I didnt care for too much consisted of nasty bowling ball sized boulders in a stream bed. I suspect that this is the "signature" of the Coppermine, but I have heard its being cut from the offical Coppermine course this year. No complaints from me but the local hardcore will not be happy.

The next day I was out again with Paul and James and we took in some pretty amazing trails from the entrance to Hira Forest, Kaka, Rimu, R&R, and supple-jack trails, to name a few of them. All of them real fun and some quite demanding singletrack in my book. They were dropping me easily in the descents as I was lacking in confidence on this style of track. Its not the groomed trails that you get in R-vegas or Makara, and after 3 days on the trot, I was also missing a fair bit of skin.
The weather was very hot in the evenings in Nelson but thankfully it was quite overcast during the days. Under the canopy of the exotic forest it was so dark at times that I nearly needed lights to see.

One day I snuck out to take in a piece of the Brevet course through the Wairoa Gorge road and Pig Valley, probably about 70/30 Tarseal to gravel.

On new years eve I ran into another ex Wellingtonian (Dave) when we stumbled across his bar while waiting for Minuit http://www.minuit.co.nz/ to play at the Catherdal steps. Dave was up for a ride at 11am the next day, despite only getting home at 4am. We re-rode R&R where I didnt dab, or crash at all, and did a whole bunch more trails.. Chings Highway, Tuckers Road... and many more that I have forgotten. What a blast.

Next up was a trip over the Maungatpu saddle to Pelorus and onto Moetapu Bay where some more Welly friends have a bach (hang a left at Linkwater). I was able to ride some of the Brevet course in reverse. It was very foggy going over the hill with a very light rain. I tried out my new breathable rain jacket which worked well. There were a couple of short walks on the ascent where the surface was steep and loose. I stopped for some photos at Murderers Rock and when I eventually got to Blenheim a few days later I read up all about the murders. It was a pretty gruesome affair in ever way, the murders, the executions etc and would it would be hard to find a similar event in NZ's history that would have had such a profound effect.

No sooner had we got to Moetapu Bay than our host Greg had organised a family ride, and the next day dropped myself, Alan and Ollie off at Punga Cove so that we could ride the Queen Charlotte Walkway to Te Mahia. Awesome! Its not the cruisey family ride I was led to beleive. Lots of straight up and straight down. I am not sure I agree with it being a mixed use track either. Walkers must get pretty annoyed at MTBers barrelling down the track all the time. We got to te Mahia just as it started to rain so it was very well timed.
We later drove into Blenheim and amused ourselves by PYOing 10kgs of cherries...

Marco's new rig

2010-01-13T08:47:00.002+13:00

IMG_0535
Originally uploaded by boogerbooger