The Karapoti Blogs - a Wellington angle

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

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Undie 500 - part 3

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.

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