Wildgripper homage saddle

With the single-speed nationals coming up I needed to get a bike ready. I didn't have a lot of choice in the end and it came down to repurposing my 1993 Litespeed Ocoee. The Compass Rat Trap Pass tires had to go, and I figured the drops could go too. The obvious tires to use were the Simworks Homage's which were currently on my 26 inch Santa Cruz Superlight.

Once the tires were mounted it seemed fitting to me that I needed a matching saddle, and I had a dead Michelin Wildgripper that was screaming out to be repurposed.

I cut one up and glued it onto a spare carbon weener saddle that had been doing nothing. I thought it looked alright. The carbon base was very very stiff tho....

Michelin Wildgripper Homage version 1. Carbon base.

A couple of days later I decided I better do my first single-speed ride since the nationals in 2013 and I went out for a 3 hour ride with Mossieur Veganburger. I didn't use the Green saddle, but used a yellow Tioga Spyder knock-off. It was very very comfy.  What if I could combine the comfort of the Spyder with the looks of the Wildgripper Homage?

There is a lot less surface area in one of these saddles, so I would have to sew the pieces together first, with mint flavoured dental-floss, then glue it on.

It worked better than I thought. I'm not going to put Busymanbicycles out of a job anytime soon, but it was a lot of fun.

Michelin Wildgripper Homage version 2. Plastic base.

Instructable

Fingers crossed it hangs together for the nationals in Te Mata peak this weekend !

• Singlespeed nats in 2013.
• Singlespeed Worlds in 2010.
• More Singlespeed stuff.

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NZ Singlespeed champs 2013 - Pig and Whistle

Pre-race posers.

Last weekend was the New Zealand Singlespeed Nats. We loaded up the Camry with Cleetus, his family and his Fat Chance and went road-tripping to Rotorua, or Roto-vegas as its known. We must have got the last cabin in Rotorua as I had no idea it was a long weekend when I booked the unit 5 weeks out. It was by a fence, maybe 10 metres off the main road, and boy did those big trucks shake the house.

The company was good though and Cleetus's 2 year old Clem, and myself have a similar sense of humour.

The "help"

The Singlespeed champs is often described as the Rugby 7s without the Rugby, and its always a hard call as to whether you have more fun competing or watching. I had the Karate Monkey single-speeded with my giant Knard 3 inch tire on the front, and Matt had a new Eno rear hub on his vintage Fat Chance 26er hardtail. It was looking pretty nice. A failure with Matts tubeless set-up in the morning had us throwing in a tube at the last minute but other than that we were both very fresh and well rested from a lacking of training point of view!

We turned into the Waipa Mill entrance on the way into Rotorua and met up with Peter Colvin from Team RTD, (check out his pix!) he had just done a lap or two with Rosara someone and Gaz... I was all for taking the monster truck tire off the front of my Karate Monkey but Pete convinced me it would be superb, and it turned out it was. 

The race briefing was a laugh in its own right as the scary looking organiser (Rah) told us that if we had practised the course that was marked out the previous day, then we were sucked in badly. It was a decoy. The real course was marked in completely different markers : ) That was a blow to the hard-outs. Not that you can have a bad time riding any of trails in Rotorua. There are so many of them.

Race start: Images by Odile

Just to liven stuff up the organisers swapped the positions of all our bikes before our Lemans start so it was a bit like watching Zombies on crack as everyone panicked trying to find their steeds. Poor old Garth Weinberg got a very late start, but the riders made room for the man in the "Gimp suit" and before long the lead was his.

There was a fairly good representation from the Wellington/New Plymouth crew with some  minimalist costumes that caught the eye. Thomas Lindup seemed to attract a fair bit of beer on his ride which had a detrimental effect on his disc brakes. Jonny Waghorn's costume and his similiarly specced Singular Swift were also very well presented. Tom Lynskey had the Hello Kitty look nailed but was suffering from a bit of chafing by the finish.

Jonny Waghorn (The Flash) with his similiarly decked out Singular Swift: Image by Al Crossling

I had a great time dicing with fellow crusties Geof Blanc and Scott Emmens who I met during  the last Kiwi Brevet and their partners were fully into it with some great costumes and support (blood-bags, etc). See team US-Postal in Peter Colvin's photos, thats Scott's crew.

One thing I noticed that was completely different to the World Singlespeed champs held in Rotorua in 2010, was the design of the course. As Cleetus and I noticed the next day (sunday)when we stumbled across the old Worlds course, it had a very long climb in it. In 2010, this climb started about 20 seconds after you had just skulled your beer. Not good.... In 2013 you had a chance for your beer to settle before you got into oxygen debt. The new Nats course was a very user friendly affair with no heinous climbs, just a few short grunts.

Thomas - part man part Sasquatch. Als image.

I am not sure of the actual downside of drinking beer while competing, common sense would say it was a silly idea, but I don't feel that it hampered me in any way. I have no idea how long the race was because the only result they take is for 1st man and woman. The both of them immediately went under the "gun" as is compulsory for any winner, and within hours Garth and Erin were sporting new tattoos, Garth his 4th NZ champs one.

Lets hope Garth retires before he runs out of skin !

Dr Ferrari (Geoff Blanc) behind me making a move before pouncing down the nana line and getting in front. Luckily I passed him in the beer queue as he spent too much time savouring his Speights - the curse of the Southern Man.

Dicing with young Motorhead bogan for a couple of laps.
His gear was too tall for the gutty climbs but he got me in the end.

More links:
Al Crosslings Flickr site.
2013 Pig and Whistle NZ Singlespeed Champs Facebook page.

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Single speed worlds

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 Lecter 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

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MCM hammer.. Singlespeed version 3

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

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A slow learner

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.

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Cyclo-cross number 2, bike number 2.

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!

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

.... 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

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Single speed version 1

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!

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