Sufur-cycles

 20 questions – A chat with frame builder Rufus Wenlock from Süfur Cycles

Not many people race one of the worlds hardest bikepacking events on a bike with a frame they built themselves. Even fewer get on the podium. After battling illness part way through the 2024 Silk Road Mountain Race Rufus Wenlock bounced back and rode himself into third place in this gruelling event. His quirky "Süfur" frame design was turning heads with its unconventional design. But Rufus didn't just appear on the scene from nowhere. With his background as a world cup mechanic and bike shop owner he's been around for a while and had often thought about making some of his ideas a reality. What better place to test them than in the field. 

Podium finishes in the GB Divide, the Trans Balkan, and the Tour Te Waipounamu have only helped Rufus to solidify his ideas in a frame design that culminated in a custom build for his good friend Joe Nation. Joe had unfinished business after finishing 3rd in his rookie year in the 2023 Tour Divide and wanted to give it another crack. Rufus designed a bike from the ground up to fit Joe’s specific skill-set, and the particular demands of the 4400 km long event. Unfortunately, Joe's attempt finished with a scratching and suspected pneumonia, but there is a lot to know about the thinking behind Joe’s bike, and the bikes that came before it. Read on to learn more about the Süfur Cycles process and what comes next.

So, Rufus, I understand that the original Süfur design was partly an exercise in maximizing frame bag potential, did this philosophy carry on through to Joes design?

Yes, the idea was that I knew where I wanted my three contact points to be and as long as they were in place then the rest was just a matter of maximising storage capacity for bikepacking which followed on nicely into Joe's design. His bike was very much based on the bike I’ve been developing over the last couple of years.

Were there any downsides to the construction of the Süfur Divide's curved seat tube design, apart from the difficulty of construction? 

At the time of coming up with the first prototype I didn't have a tube roller so it was a matter of finding a local business that could do that for me. This proved tricky as nobody had the forms for the tube diameter I wanted to use, after a lot of hunting I found there was one place in the north island that could do it. I sent some tubing off to them and received a rolled tube that was quite far from the specs I gave them. I managed to use a few techniques to get it to spec. This made me realise a tube roller was something I would need in the future! Paying someone else to do a bad job really frustrates me.

Some people have speculated that the curved seat tube might be stiffer than a traditional design, is this what you have found? 

The initial idea was that the curved section would compress a little like a spring. The first version did end up a little stiff though. Subsequent versions are much better with some geometry and material changes.

It can be hard when you only ride the bikes you’ve built, your point of reference becomes more and more limited. It was very validating when I used this technique on Joe's bike and he mentioned it was super comfortable.

With the design of Joes bike for the 2025 Tour Divide you went big on aero. There are massive gains to be made in optimizing for aero even at very slow speeds, and the longer you are out there, the bigger the gains. You lowered the frontal area of Joes bike by dropping the bottom bracket down and running shorter cranks. Have aerodynamics always been at the back of your mind? 

I would say that aerodynamics is something I always consider but it’s not a driving force. The bike I built for Joe was very specific to him and the Tour Divide, we designed everything around him being in the aero bars as his primary position. Besides that, we were wanting to keep all his gear consolidated inline with the frame and reduce his frontal area as best as possible. There were a lot of ideas that we tried but never made it to the final design.

We weren't about optimum aerodynamics; it was more about how aerodynamic we can get whilst still being able to efficiently bike 20hrs a day for two weeks. Like I mentioned before it wasn't the driving force behind our decisions, a race like this is more about who can hold on for the longest rather than who is the fastest. You see a ton of people with crazy setups who are absolutely flying and then scratch after 5-6 days because they couldn't ‘hold on’.

It was more about striking a balance between aerodynamics, comfort and efficiency.

The "sail effect" is a well-known phenomenon in the time trialling scene where side wind against a wheel or frame can propel your bike forward. Joe's large full-frame bag cleanly surrounded by his frame would have been really useful for utilizing this effect. Was this part of your thinking from the start or just an added benefit?

Yeah, this was definitely the plan, we considered having a half frame bag with bottles at the bottom but decided to go full frame bag and have the lower half a separate compartment for a bladder.

Was the choice of a rigid fork on Joe’s bike to do with weight, height, or the ability to attach water bottles or accessories. Was there anything special about this fork?

There were a few reasons for the rigid fork. Joe wanted to keep it light and with his MTB background we knew he could still handle the bike fine in some of the technical sections with no suspension. Another was that with the bottom bracket and bars getting dropped the headtube was getting very short, the shorter axle to crown measurement of the rigid fork allowed a normal sized headtube and more front triangle space.

What were some of the other things you were trying to achieve with the frame design. You mentioned the dreaded peanut butter mud that can bring a bike to a standstill on the Tour Divide route. 

Peanut butter mud was a big consideration; Joe had an awful time with this on his first run of the TD. On top of making sure there was enough clearance I designed the bike so there was a little less clearance at the seat stays so that all the mud clogged up high away from the drivetrain and nothing caught down on the chainstay area.

How much is weight a consideration, obviously you don’t want something fragile, but did you go with any fruity frame tubing? Did you ever actually weigh Joes frame?

To be honest I have no idea how much it weighs, Joe was happy with the weight though.

I see you send your 3D stuff to RAM-3D. Is there ever any other work done by them after you have sent them the files or is it just printing? 

They do some finishing work to remove all the supports required during printing and then once I receive them, I machine all the high tolerance areas to spec as there can be a small amount of distortion with 3d printing.

3D printing seems like a real game changer to me. Is there a bit of snobbery among old school frame builders who might look down at the process at all?

I’ve not experienced it but I’ve certainly seen some snobbery out there. I just see 3D printing as the next evolution of frame building, there was a time where you weren't called a real frame builder if you didn't hand file all your mitres but now everyone has a milling machine for that and I think 3D printing will be the same.

What is it about the CAD work that takes up so much time when designing a bike from the ground up? 

It’s often hard to know exactly how you want a part to turn out. You might begin with a solid idea in your head or some rough sketches, but once you start designing in CAD, you see how every detail is referenced and affected by the rest of the system. It can take a long time before the design on screen matches what you imagined and even longer before it performs the way you want it to. 

Do you think it's possible to make some kind of a living in NZ as a frame builder?

This is what I’m working on right now. A little while ago I finalized the design I’ve been prototyping for the last couple of years and plan to bring it into production. I’ve spent the last couple of months establishing relationships with suppliers and trying to make everything work. Doing this from a small country with no industry is hard but I’m hopeful it will work.

The bike industry is in a strange space right now, I feel like there is very little connection between what something costs and its level of quality. I’m hoping to strike a middle ground with my pricing, considering all the frames will be made by myself they won’t be cheap but I wouldn’t consider them expensive either.

Is there a particular frame builder whose work you admire?

I like the weird and innovative stuff. To name a few builders like Crowe Rishworth, Drust, Creature and Bender, all get me thinking.

You’ve done some pretty gnarly bikepacking events by now Rufus. And I’m sure they are all hard in their own ways. I keep hearing that the GB divide is one that is often underestimated. Obviously, weather plays a big part in any event, but which one had you on the ropes the most?

Yeah, I’ve done a few now and they all leave their mark! I’d say the Trans Balkan Race well and truly had me on the ropes, I still didn't have a lot of experience at this point and was pushing sleep deprivation to the limit. I have a lot of wild memories from that one...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Rufus. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to what is coming up next from Süfur Cycles

Image credits to:
Anton McGeachen 
Joe Nation 

Read More

OPENING UP about my gravel bike journey

 “Getting the green light to build my dream bike wasn't all I imagined it would be.”  

I have always been more of a forager, building up bikes from other people's discards, as my reintroduction to cycling came at the same time as our first mortgage and a young family, about 35 years ago. Spending money on myself has always been hard. The stress of picking each and every component without boundaries was really getting to me and I could see my financier getting annoyed at the time I was spending on research.  

I had been initially talking to Dimitry at Triton about a custom Ti frame when I ended up chatting to Kashi Leuchs at Black Seal, the local importer for OPEN. I was Kashi's webmaster back in the day when he rode with Cadel Evans, Tinker Juarez and Christoph Sauser on the Volvo Cannondale team. This was my only source of fruity parts way back then; contra deals with Kashi. He offered me his demonstrator OPEN UP for a good price and my problem was solved or was it.... 

Outside the gun emplacements at Waimapihi

There were some issues. I wasn't a fan of many of the features that modern bikes come with out of the box. Internal cable routing, 1x, press fit BBs and sram hydro were all things I had managed to avoid up until then, or had bad experiences with previously. 

The first thing I did was to locate some left-hand shifter internals to turn it into a 2x. The good news is that Sram cable shifters are incredibly easy to work on, assuming you can source the replacement parts. A friend of a friend found some for me in Australia luckily. I replaced the rear 1x derailleur with a WiFli Force 2x variant, a road-link, an 11-42 cassette, and a 46/34 chain-ring combo on the front. Ideally an early model 10 speed exact actuation mtb derailleur from sram would have been great but the cable exit port position for the OPEN wasn't compatible. This was pretty common at the time, but I see a lot of the more recently designed bikes that support cable shifting have the cables exiting mid chain-stay rather than from the very endpoint of the frame which really “opens up” derailleur choice… 

Cheeky Quail photobombing at Waimapihi

Unfortunately, my next problem was chain derailment which happened a lot with the kind of riding I was doing, mostly trail riding, Cyclocross and some bikepacking. I got hooked on bikepacking in 2010 when Simon Kennett introduced the concept to Aotearoa after he did the 2008 Great Divide. I have only bikepacked on the OPEN UP a handful of times, two of them on the 800 km plus Renegades Muster, but I wanted the OPEN to be bikepacking capable if the course suited. The 2x set-up wasn't giving me low enough gearing on the steepest parts unfortunately the first time I did it. Common sense at this point would have been to go straight to Shimano GRX for the only clutched 2x system available at the time, but I was still persevering with the Sram ecosystem, and trying not to blow more money. 

 Ratio-technology from the UK had started building 12 speed upgrade kits for cable Sram shifters when it became obvious that Sram were not going to support the 12speed cable shifting at the time. Before long Ratio were also building extender cages for 1x sram derailleurs so I eventually went back to 1x and grabbed one of their long cages so I could shift into a 52 on the back if need be. I could have gone to 12 or 13 speed shifting with one of their replacement ratchets, but I stayed with 11 speed so I could keep my current wheels and installed a Garbaruk 11-50 cassette on the back. The lower gears were a big advantage with the type of riding I do. 

Ratio derailer extender cage.

Garbaruk 11-50 11 speed.

Being ideologically opposed to electric gears I still had one major beef with the OPEN's design. I hated the internal cable routing, having to remove the crank and BB just to replace a derailleur cable was not good for my blood pressure. Especially when the appropriate BB removal tool failed to budge the original creaking plastic BB. 

The fix came in two parts, a screw-together Wheels Manufacturing BB and full-length internal cable housing. The screw-in BB was effectively self-extracting with the un-screw, tap, un-screw, tap extraction method with a small rubber mallet. But to be honest, the BB shell does not need to come out now anyway, I just tap the bearings out if they need replacing. 

My next improvement came with the addition of some funky blue Growtac Equal cable brakes, at least the equal of my hydros, and when paired with Sram red cable shifters, a few grams lighter than the standard Sram Force hydros. I was super impressed with the brakes, the power, the light action, the adjustability, and the colour. My days of bleeding draggy brakes were over. I have been hammering these brakes for a good while now and really enjoy having the ability to adjust them on the fly if needed. It’s actually a feature, knowing if your brakes need adjustment, not something that you get a heads-up for with hydros which take up the slack automatically, until you hear that sound of metal on metal. The stock sintered organic pads last incredibly well. Normally I would only use sintered metal. 

Growtac Equal brakes paired with Sram Red. Light, strong, adjustable.

 When Growtac announced their new stepless (friction) drop-bar shifters on the Japanese domestic market I was lucky that a friend was in Japan and was able to snaffle me a pair. The ability to use any old derailleur or cassette with their shifters feels very liberating to me and so far, I have been very happy with the way they work. I really feel like they had me in mind when they came up with this concept. The levers are not unlike the Sram red cable levers I was using previously in that they are quite narrow, although the finish looks a bit like Campagnolo Ekar, and the inner shift lever also looks a tad Campy. Despite the hard edges on this inside shifter, it never caused me any issues with kit clearance or rubbing on my hands during the 4 days of the 830 km Renegades Muster. The shifting is surprisingly quiet, and you can adjust the amount of friction in the system. It is apparently possible to link up the left and right levers so you can shift up on one shifter and down on the other, I haven’t tried this, but Growtac show videos of it working.  

The initial set-up is a bit more complicated than a typical shifter installation because you are able to install different sized shifting drums, depending on whether you are using a road or mtb derailleur. I don’t know just how far the launch has gone in Japan or what the plans are internationally. I think the Japanese dollar might have had an effect. 

With the ability to run both 650b and 700c wheels on the OPEN UP I have a bike that can change from trail to commuter mode in minutes. It's not a cafe bike and gets a pretty hard time - mostly on the local trails on our weekend rides. To be honest it spends most time with the 650b wheels on as I have a bunch of old 26ers I tend to commute on. 

As mentioned I have done a couple of bikepacking events on the OPEN using different sized wheels each time, and I definitely prefer the 650b's. For bikepacking I throw on my dyno wheel, klite lights, B-17 saddle and aero-bars for the long days and go down on the front from a 40 to a 36-tooth chain-ring. For cross season the 700's go back on. 

Day 2 on the 2024 Renegades Muster

I've used 43 mm tires on the 700c wheels, although clearance officially maxes out at 40 mm. In 650b mode, 50 mm seems to be the max but you can go a lot bigger on the front. It's a shame that 650b has fallen out of favour but the difference in height between a 50 mm 650b and a 38 mm 700c wheel feels minimal, so I am always going to prefer that over a 700 c wheel that just gets taller or smaller depending on if you are running a 50 mm tire vs a 35 mm tire. 

I feel like the bike is pretty sorted currently. I could go back to 2x now that I have brand agnostic shifters but I'm probably just going to take the lazy option and go up or down on the front chain-ring sizing depending on what I am doing. 

I haven't ruled out externally routing the rear shifter cable housing for a better path, but with friction shifting, your gears are never actually out of adjustment anyway. 

The OPEN UP’s design is pretty old by modern gravel bike standards but somehow it still does a really good job of anything that I've thrown at it so far. I won’t be moving it on anytime soon. 

Details 

• Frame: OPEN UP generation 2 
• Shifters/levers: Growtac Equal Control stepless 
• Brakes: Growtac Equal 
• Rear Mech: Sram Rival with Ratio-technology SR52 cage 
• Front Wheel: Hunt 650b or Easton 700c or SP dyno hub in 700c with Stans rim 
• Rear Wheel: DTSWISS 650b or Easton 700c 
• Tires: Specialized Fastrak in 650b x 2.0/Raceking 2.2 or Rene Herse Barlow Pass  
• Cassette: Garbaruk 11-50, 11 speed or Shimano XTR 11-40, 11 speed 
• Cranks: Sram Force 
• Chainrings: 36 or 42 
• Pedals: Shimano XT 
• Seatpost: Thompson Elite 
• Seat collar: OPEN 
• Saddle: Specialized Power 168 mm or Brooks B-17 
• Headset: Cane Creek 
• BB: Wheels Manufacturing screw-in 
• Stem: Cheapie weener UNO 
• Bars: Ritchey Venturemax 

Read More

Urban Grinduro 2024

Urban Grinduro - October 27th, 9am Waimapihi/Polhill Te Aro

The Urban Grinduro is back for the 3rd time. Growing on its roots from the Hutt-based Boganduro it introduces riders to local trails, paths and alleyways they otherwise would not know about unless they were fleeing from the law ; )

There are a couple of completely new segments and some old favourites from previous editions. Strava tells me its 43% off-road and 57% on-road, that's in kilometres, not minutes, 46 kms long and around 1200 metres of climbing.

Files below were updated 10:10 am October 16th.

• Strava Segment link
• RidewithGPS route
• Download GPX file from Dropbox (updated with smaller file for older GPS's)
• Download TCX file from Dropbox
• Download FIT file from Dropbox

Notes

There is one place where the course crosses itself, so confusion could happen. This is where we first ride around Shelly Bay to climb up the trail to come down Jail Break, and loop back again onto Cobham drive.

Cafes

There are many cafes enroute if you feel the need to refuel. Quite a few in Island Bay, and one placed perfectly in Miramar after visiting the Wellywood sign. Little Bread Loaf is a good spot to refuel before the last section of the ride through Jail Brake and back down through Mt Vic. 

We finish at Shed 22 on the Waterfront.

Revolution Bicycles remain the gold sponsors.
Be sure to check out Jonty's shop at 69 Ottawa Road in Ngaio.

Previous events

• https://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2023/07/urbangrinduro-2023.html
• https://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2021/09/urbangrinduro.html
• https://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2019/11/boganduro.html
• https://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2018/10/boganduro-redux.html
• https://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2017/10/boganduro.html

Any questions, ask me here.

Read More

Growtac Equal Control shifter review

 When Josh Kato won the 2015 tour divide with the tightest ever margin of 46 minutes covering the first 3 riders, his bike was an exercise in mechanical resilience. He used a 3x crank, a reverse normal derailleur that would default to the lowest gear if he had a rear cable failure, with 9 speed bar-end shifters he could set on friction, to rule out any indexing issues. He also used cable brakes.

I get the feeling Josh would like the Growtac Equal Control stepless (friction) cabled brake/gear levers.

I have been using the Growtac Equal cable brake calipers since a friend got me a pair from Japan last year, and it just so happened that he was back in Japan again this year when they launched their new Equal Control brake/gear levers on the Japanese market. I got in touch with Growtac and I was very lucky to be able to purchase a pair and have my friend pick them up. He even got a tour of the factory. So jealous.

What makes the Equal Control Levers different to other set-ups? Two things. They are cable brakes, and they are step-less (friction) shifters. 

Why would you want friction shifting? 
Good question. The main reason is compatibility options. You are not locked into proprietary ecosystems by your shifters. 8, 10, 11, 12 or 13 speeds, it doesn't matter how many. You can just throw any wheel on the back and change your chain, or maybe not, depending on what you are changing from. 

The Equal Control Levers come with variously sized spools (winding-pullies) that you can install to enable different cable pulls. If you want to, you can run an MTB rear derailleur or a road derailleur. You might have to tweak the limit screws at the start and finish of the range just to be safe. It's just a matter of looking at their chart and installing the appropriate spool. Not having to adjust the shifters to keep them in tune might also be seen as an advantage.

Spools (winding pullies) in diameters of 17, 18.5, 20, 22 and 24 mm

Graphic from the Growtac website

How does it work?
It's not like a thumbie or a bar end shifter, the lever returns to the start after each shift, nothing like a Gevenalle shifter. I haven't measured it but you can probably dump about 4 or 5 gears in each direction with a good long push of the lever. There is no return mechanism, you just push back on the inside lever to change in the opposite direction. It looks a little like a Campagnolo set-up with the little lever on the inside of the hood.

Pull back the hood, unscrew the cover and insert your cable in here.

What else can you do?
Well, according to one of their video demos you can wire the left shifter to connect it to the right, so you can use the left shifter to change in one direction, and the right shifter the other. I haven't tried it, largely because I haven't worked out how to do it yet.... Plus, I may use my left shifter to go back to 2x. Of course there is nothing to stop you putting the majority of your gears on the left, if you wanted to, very handy if you had a disability with your right hand.

For those people who can't deal with the "step-less" life, you will be able to install indexing plates to get the clicks that tell you what gear you are in. At the time of purchase 2 months ago the SRAM 11 speed indexing plates were not yet available. I'm not sure if they are now, I am running fully friction and expect to stay with that.

Weight
The weight of the Growtac Equal Control levers is 210 grams each. Substantially heavier than the crazy light 140 gram Sram Red cabled levers that they replaced on my bike. By comparison a Microshift Sword lever is around 270 grams. Who else is making cabled drop-bar brakes? I'm not sure, Shimano 105 11 speed are 250 grams each, Ultegra 212 grams, Durace are 186 grams. 

Comparing the Growtac Equal Control levers to the weight weener standard Sram Reds.

Feel
The levers feel quite narrow. More like a Sram Red mechanical brake hood but with even less girth. They should work well for smaller hands. I was initially wondering about the amount of room for my thumbs on the inside of the hoods, between the levers and the inside shifter, but once I mounted them on the bike it was not an issue. The hoods material is nothing special, smooth and thin. The inside shifter has quite a sharp edge to it although I didn't notice it getting in the way at all.

Tuneability
Friction - There is a slot at the top front of the brake lever where you can adjust the amount of friction you feel in the shift levers with a 3 mm allen key. Growtac recommend riding with a tool at the ready on your first rides as the shifters bed in.

Graphic from Growtac website

Reach - The levers come with two little plastic shims that allow you to adjust the brake lever reach to varying degrees. The shift paddle reach is adjusted from just in front of the shifter, below the pivot.

Inserts to adjust reach. Note the different heights.

Location of reach adjustment inserts

Shift paddle reach adjuster

Materials
The brake/shifter body appears to be made from some kind of plastic with a similar surface appearance to a Campagnolo Ekar shifter.

Setting them up
The set-up is quite a bit more involved than most shifter set-ups, and you would have to say the process seems more aimed at the person who likes to do his own wrenching, or your local bike shop. There is a little plastic cable sleeve that has to be installed, and a small plastic guide you have to be careful not to dislodge, to help keep the action smooth. If you need to install a different spool for a different rear derailleur you will need to pull back the hood rubbers and get in there with a screwdriver to swap out the spool. You will need to pull back the hoods anyway to route the cable. The brake cable sits in a small alloy cup that needs to be installed when you install the cable. It fits into the moulded brake lever. I missed this and had to re-route my front brake cable again. So if you are not a home mechanic your local bike shop might be a better course of action. The instructions were all in Japanese on my set but were very extensive and easily decipherable using Google Translate.

Cable installation is slightly tricky compared to most shift levers. Note the short plastic liner.

How do they shift?
This is the most interesting part. You just assume that because there is no indexing that it's going to be a clunky gadunkadunka kind of experience but it couldn't be further from the truth. As my sceptical Di2 died in the wool buddy said in our chat group after a very short ride "Not what I expected, sits between mechanically indexed and di2 for the majority of the shifts for smoothness and a lot quieter than mechanical". 

It appears to me that the nature of chains and sprockets is that a chain will naturally find the teeth and just hook up, not getting stuck in between gears as you might imagine. You don't feather the shifts either as you might on an old downtube shifter set-up. You change gear positively and dump as many gears as you like. I find indexed gears very noisy now by comparison.

To date I have done a couple of months commuting, weekend trail rides and three Cyclo Cross races on them and have found them to be great. Hopefully I get a chance to do some bikepacking on them soon, or at least some longer rides to see if I have any issues. So far my longest rides are around the 3 hour mark on local MTB trails. Watch this space.

See below the official video from the Growtac Youtube channel.

Some videos I've done myself (below).

Link to Growtac's website >>>

Image from Don Johnson -
https://workingtechnology.pic-time.com/ - Huttcross

Read More

Sounds 2 sounds 2024

Day 1 of the Sounds to Sounds. It was a pretty dark looking trip out on the boat to the start at Ships Cove. Two boats packed full of boomers in bright orange Ground Effect Jackets. There were some very big rains that morning with thunder and lightning, during the Ships Cove Queen Charlotte Sound part. My first exposure to really heavy rain in a Bikepacking event. At least it was warm rain.

Ships Cove Jetty

There was some superb bush along that route. In particular the first leg to the Kenepuru saddle. I was very happy that we had the option of NOT riding the Queen Charlotte track proper. It annoys me that it's promoted as a family ride, it's not. It's a demanding saw-tooth profiIe and while I would have been happy to ride it if it was compulsory, like everyone else in our wave, I didn't. It would have been a wet slippery push for a lot of it.

The final single track into Anakiwa was lovely as always, and as I was approaching the Outward Bound Course HQ (which I attended in 1984) I saw an area labelled "Bike wash". Wow. A bike-wash in a Bikepacking event. I was very happy that I didn't have to wash down my muddy bike with sea water which I was planning on doing. A quick stop in Picton and on to Blenheim KFC for fries and burgers. I had ridden briefly with Mike Metz and Scott Pitkethley on the singletrack from Ships Cove but Scott's mad skills on his Canyon Gravel bike left me in the weeds, and Mike's off-road prowess is well known.

Heading to the Awatere

The Awatere Valley was lovely until a bit of a cold snap blew through at about 7pm. I stopped to put on a few more clothes and eat one of my KFC burgers. I caught up to Scott and Mike at 9:20 pm at Upcot Station in the Awatere for a pre-paid farm dinner, breakfast and lunch. Very rustic shearing quarter rooms but all the stuff you needed with a loaded fridge, and a kettle to make multiple cups of tea.

Awatere Valley

199kms.  3,425 m climbing

Day 2. Into the Molesworth. Breakfast was at 5am the next morning. It was superb with bacon and eggs, sausages and typical farm fare, and almost all grown there. I didn't have any room for the pre-packed lunch they supplied as I was already well equipped.

There was snow all around the hills and my hands were so numb I could barely operate my shifters. Couldn't tell if it was the cold or the 2 litres of water in my camelbak vest cutting into my brachial plexus nerve.

The Molesworth and Awatere roads were in great condition. Jollies pass, not so much! When in Hanmer I saw a chat from Matt, from Aussie, he was in the cabin next to me the night before the start in Picton. He had to replace his brake pads in Blenheim, resin pads are not a great idea for bikepacking, especially if there is rain. I decided to check that mine were all good before I left Hanmer. They were. There was a nice tailwind as I left Hanmer and then some pretty creative meandering to avoid the nasty main road. Sometime in the early evening there was a rapid 10 degree temperature drop and I had to put on some more clothes. Scott and Mike were ahead of me and had stopped for the night but I kept going until I got to Amberley Holiday Park. Quite a bit short of my goal of Christchurch. I was super glad to discover a manned 24 hour gas station. I paid for a tent-site but given its proximity to the main road I did a sneaky sleep on the kitchen floor and snuck out at about 5 am the next morning and went back to the gas station for a coffee to go! Check out this crazy noise I heard while riding along. I had to stop and check it out. I reckon it's Wapiti.

248 kms. 2,819 m climbing

Day 3. Amberly to Geraldine. Going into Christchurch saw a slight but very cold southerly wind which was dealing to my hands again. I think I had 30 kms on the others at the start of the day, but you all end up sleeping in the same place by and large most days anyway, unless you are going hard-out. It wasn't the most exciting part of the course and I swear I was on my aero bars at least 50% of the time. A 60 minute break in Chch central for some hot food and I was on the road again. My 90 year old friend, Bruce Arnst came out to see me again later in the day, as he did in the Tour Te Waipounamu. He's still riding bikes himself. Climbing out of the Rakaia with no shoulder was probably the scariest part of the course as the cars and trucks gunned it up the steep incline, inches away. I managed to buy a patch of dirt to sleep on at the Holiday Park at 8 pm. A pretty early night but nice to have some amenities and catch up with some of the first wave riders.
260 kms. 1000 m climbing

Downtown Rangiora

Day 4. Geraldine to Ohau.
There was a good bit of climbing early on and I was caught by Susie Bates, who was doing parts of the S2S, off the grid, on the way to supporting her partner in the Prospector MTB stage race. She was great company as we grovelled up the grunty gravel climbs. The nasty headwinds we experienced going into Tekapo were something else. We met Scott at a cafe. He wasnt too happy with the windy conditions, but ever hopeful, I suggested that they might die down. I talked him into carrying on to at least Twizel and hopefully Ohau. We got some seriously crazy sidewinds as we rode alongside the canal but it settled down and we had a pretty good run into Twizel and Ohau on the fun trails of the Alps to Ocean Course. We treated ourselves to cabins and a beer at Ohau at 10 pm.
212 kms.

Day 5. Ohau to Alexandra.
Poor Scott, I put a hex on him at Ohau by suggesting that Lezyne screw on pumps and tubeless are a bad combo. He promptly tore off his valve stem as he aired up his front wheel which had been losing a bit of air each day. I carried on. Another typically cold morning which saw me taking quite a while to get up to speed. My shocks decided to stop working not far out of Ohau. The Omarama saddle was a bit of a walk for me but the 31 stream crossings on the other side were pretty uneventful. No surprises there. I started by riding them but eventually I decided to take it a bit easier and just walk most of them. I got to Gilchrests store at Oturehua just before closing for a resupply. It was fun to ride the Otago Rail trail, having some great memories of riding parts of it with my family in 2007. Somewhere along the Otago Rail trail Scott caught me, having had a few punctures through-out his day, and we rode into Alexandra around 8:30 pm. Time for a resupply and a cabin where I briefly caught up with friends Susie and Gaz who were doing the Prospector MTB race. I probably should have carried on but I didn't want to ride the scenic Dunstan trail in the dark and there were limited options for camping at the other end by the time I started looking for them. 188 km. 1,798 ms

Alexandra to Coal Hill
I set off at 5am. Scott started later and did the sensible thing and got a new tube at Clyde.... which he punctured. This theme was to continue. I surmised, glass or a thorn in his tire, masked by being tubeless and not masked by changing to a tube, which continued to puncture on it.

The Dunstan trail was fun. I'd ridden it before with my wife in the other direction. The Nevis climb was awesome at 1273 metres. An even steady climb the whole way. My 22/40 low ratio was perfect making it completely rideable.

It was a very cold wind while riding up it though and a very long long drag out into a head wind on the way out on the Nevis road. I stopped on the main road to try and book a cabin and got a text from my 83 year old dot-watching mum. You seem to be going the wrong way Jeff! My GPS line was the same colour as the state highway and I had turned the wrong way as I came off the hill near Garston. Doh. I stopped at Athol for a big pub meal and waited for Scott to see if he wanted to get a Cabin at Te Anau and share a shuttle back from Milford the next day. Shuttles are super expensive and only 1 of the listed companies was interested. Wrangling this stuff while riding with patchy cell coverage is a challenge. Finally I left Scott on the rail trail when he punctured yet again. Thank god, he was hammering just to keep warm and I couldn't match his pace. I think it was about 4 degrees. He bivvied in a bird shit spattered little A-frame on the Rail Trail. I took off again with no cares other than a need to keep eating and drinking in order to power my dynamo lights. I had plans to make it to Te Anau (I was dreaming as it turned out) but bivvied in a shelter at around 2:30 am near Coal mine hill. I had broken one of the rules of the event by not stopping for 6 hours, but I had to get to Milford Sounds in time to be picked up by my shuttle. 218 km, 2,896 ms climbing

Alexandra early morning

The Dunstan trail

The Nevis climb. Glad to have a very low gear.

The Nevis Road

Coal Hill to Milford sound.
The last day. I had organised a shuttle to pick me up from Milford Sounds so I just had to get there. It felt like the longest day of my life. It was taking so long to get to Te Anau with all the cute little riverside trails I had to traverse. Milford was so damn beautiful but I was counting down the kms and it was very slow progress. The wind was brutal with a predicted apocalyptic weather bomb in the forecast. I hardly took any photo's for fear of not making it in time. There were tunnel closures to think about too. I was nearly taken out by two morons in cars who had crashed the lights to the Homer tunnel and the massive 900 metre 16 km descent had my uncovered knees screaming with the cold from the wind chill. I should have stopped to put on leg warmers but I was in reptilian mode.

I had done 218 kms with 2,900 m climbing the day before, then rode another 190 kms into Milford. I think I needed a different approach. Maybe to finish at Milford and get a shuttle the next day when there are others there? But then again the sandflies might have devoured me by that time.

Its a really achievable course with potential for a spirited run or a very relaxed credit card pub/cabin crawl kind of ride. I finished in 6 days 11 hours and missed very little scenic stuff with the limited amount of night riding I did. Would trade again, a very cool and achievable course.

190 kms, 1600 ms climbing

Milford Sounds

https://sounds2sounds2024.maprogress.com/

Read More