Karapoti 2012 - tyred out

We were so lucky with the 2012 Karapoti take-2. For a starter, despite not being under any obligation to do so, race organiser Michael Jacques held the 2nd event after the 1st was rained out with a massive weather bomb. It felt like a very old-school race with the reduced numbers and the vibe was great. I guess it shows how many people come from outside of Wellington to do the "Poti" each year, when they cant make it back for the re-run. The weather was awesome all week and it didn't rain until the following Monday. With my knack of picking the crap years to race, it had been a really long time since I can recall blasting down the Big Ring Boulevarde in bright sunshine. My recently acquired BPPV had pretty much cleared up, unlike poor old KC so I didn't really have any excuses for a performance that was a bit under what I was hoping for.

I was really hoping that my Kiwi Brevet endurance would come to the fore a bit, but as I have always said, the Karapoti has to be raced like a sprint race, with the same sort of intensity that you let loose on a round of the nationals. Unfortunately I didn't do any of that stuff this season so I was missing a lot of top-end. I guess I should be happy with sneaking under 3 hours again; theres only a handful of us 50 plus riders who have, but Ian Paintin is so far ahead he is in another league. I was in touch with 2nd place getter Ant Bradshaw for the 1st hour until my body realised I was faking it. From there on I rode a bit with Steve Pedley from Crankit Cycles, struggling a bit on the slippery smooth rocky climbs as my 40psi tires struggled for traction.

I stopped at the top of the grueling Devils Staircase bike-push for a precautionary chain-lube and watched as at least 4 people passed on by, never to be seen again. The only one I saw again was Brett Irving who punctured trying to find a line around a slower rider down the Big Ring Boulevard. I felt for Brett who was denied his first sub-3 for sure. The rocks were flying out from under my wheels like rifle shots and one must have tweaked my rear derailler as it started jumping in my two lowest gears. At the top of the last climb up Dopers  I checked my splits (a pretty lame 24 minute climb) and figured that if I nailed it I could just break 3 hours. I did, but I wasn't the last person to do so, with Barryn Westfield rolling in and then Kim Hammer-Hurst coming in at 2:59.59 !

The most obvious stand-out performance to me was by 12 year old Eden Cruise. With a time of 2:46 he has thoroughbred written all over him. He's probably taller now at 12 than Anton Cooper is as well ! Lets hope it stays fun for him for many more years to come.

As always, Karapoti was a race of attrition.  I saw many people around me come to grief with punctures. There are many combinations of tire set-ups you can go for, so here is some anecdotal evidence of what worked and what didn't, lets just put them in the fail and win boxes.

These are the potential tire choices:
tubed/tubeless/ghetto-tubeless (ghetto tubeless is normal tires run without tubes, but using Stans sealant to supposedly stop punctures).
low/medium/heavy tire weights
low/medium/high air pressure
narrow/medium/large tire width

Fails
1 - got impatient balked behind slow ride down BRB and took a bad line. Puncture. Insert tube.
2&3 - tubeless ghetto-set-up, tire slowly loses air through pores in rubber and has to be re-pumped or tube added.
4 - Tubeless ghetto-set-up, slashes thin sidewall and has to replace with tube as stans juice wont seal.


Wins
1. Tubeless, Nobby nics, Snakeskin, 2.25 both ends. 600 grams, 30-35 psi, 26er fully,
2. Tubeless, Maxxis EXO Ikons front and rear, 30-35 psi. 29er rigid.
3. Tubeless, Maxxis EXO Ignitor front, Ikon on back, 590 grams for Ikons, 27 psi, (light rider) 29er rigid
4. Tubeless, Maxxis EXO Ignitor front, Ikon on back, 590 grams for Ikons, 29/27 psi, 29er rigid
5. Tubeless, Maxxis EXO Ikon 2.2, Conti Race King 2.2 racesport, 530 grams,  26er rigid
6. Tubless (ghetto) Maxxis Larsen/Crossmark 2.0 combo, 30 psi, 26er fully
7. Tubed Schwable Racing Ralphs 2.25 with removable valve cores, 25psi, and Stans sealant inside 26er fully.
8. Tubeless ghetto, Maxxis Larson TT front, harddrive rear, 40psi, 26er fully.

These are all typical of the choices many people made, with a lot of people still using tubed set-ups.

This year Maxxis Igniters and Ikons seemed to be popular combo. The trend is for people to run much fatter higher volume tires at karapoti than you would in a normal XC race. 2.1 to 2.2's instead of 2.0's. The Maxxis Larsen TT front and Crossmark rear have always been a popular combo in the past at Karapoti and are still quite popular.

I guess the bottom line is, if you want to get a trouble free run, don't skimp on your sidewalls, run a UST or equivalent tire, or run a ghetto set-up with a tire with stronger than normal casings. There are many things that can slash a tire in the Karapoti. Beefier tires also means you can run lower pressures for better traction and a softer ride if you are on a hard tail. Take a c02 and a pump!

See you next year.

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Karapoti check-list 2012

See below my simple Karapoti check-list.

I have done around 11 Karapoti's over the years. In at least one of them the weather was actually really good. In many its been a bit challenging; while  it's true that "it is the same for everyone", we all know, its not about beating your buddies, its about beating your best time! In order to beat your best time, you need to finish. Some of the tips below may be useful in helping you finish with fewer problems.

Keeping it clean
Crudcatchers, one on the fork, one on front tube above your water bottle. You can make them out of old plastic milk bottles or 2 litres icecream container lids. Look at the difference one makes here. (From the Crazyman).

Some people carry a water bottle full of clean water to rinse out their eyes/glasses as well as to drink from, you can't rinse your eyes with carbo drink. Put your carbo drink in your camelback pack.

A peak on your helmet is also a very good way of shielding your face from mud off the rider in front's rear wheel. Be warned though that a peak can trap condensation from your breath and cause steaming up of your glasses, if you wear them. This only happens in really cold conditions. I don't wear glasses myself. Contact lenses and crudcatchers for me. Sports glasses and normal glasses both can get condensation on them.Trying to clean them with muddy gloves is very tricky : )

Gloves
I prefer fingerless myself so I can do any repairs without taking them off.

Protection
Some of the crusties (masters) wear shin and or elbow guards to protect their old fragile skin !!!  ; )

Drive chain
Take oil and a rag for cleaning your chain so you don't get chain suck. The top of the Devils staircase, or the bottom of the Dopers climb are popular places to add some lube. Make sure that you go over your drive-train a few nights before the race, and with an old toothbrush pick out any "toe-jam" wedged between your chain-plates and on your chain rings. If you don't, you are opening yourself up to more dirt sticking and then the dreaded chain-suck. Chain suck... SUCKS!
Cleaning your bike with a toothbrush is a great way of finding stuff you may not have noticed otherwise : )

Spares
Brake pads, take spares; you should know how to change them. You might need a certain allen key? Start with new pads, sintered metal, not organic.

Tubes, I always take two. Patches and glue, not self-sticking ones. Take at least one spare tube if you are running tubeless anyway.

Inflation devices, two small c02s or one large, plus a working pump (dont store it on your bike, keep it in camelback pack to keep it clean). I heard three different stories of pump/tire interface failure (Ptif) in last weekend's pre-rides. You'd be surprised what can go wrong!

A tire boot is a really good idea, many people slash tires in the Rock-Garden and the tubless gizz wont repair them. Make one from an old piece of road tire or anything that works.

Brakes
Don't drag your brakes excessively as this will wear them out quickly if conditions are bad. Even when running or walking the bike it can be an issue.

Tools
Take a multi-tool with a chain breaker and/or power link.
Tire levers for if your tires are a tough fit, or you need to pry open disc calipers to replace worn pads. A spare drop-out if your bike has a soft (sacrifical) one.

Tires
Look on the vorb forum to see what the current trend is with what tires are in vogue. If you are using new tires, make sure you can mount them yourself. Take some tire levers, small plastic ones weigh nothing, sometimes the exertion of racing leaves you with less energy for changing tires by hand (without levers).

If you are using a new tubeless tire set-up with goo in them give yourself a week for them to settle down as sometimes it can take a while for them to seal fully. Do some commuting on them to bed them in and spread the goo about.

Write splits on handle bar or stem with twink pen

Cables
There is no doubt, fully enclosed cabling is the way to go. These days its common for bikes to come with no cable stops so full lengths of cable outer from shifter to deraileur keep the dirt out and mean you should finish the Karapoti with as many gears as you started with. In the old days you could end up with a three-speed or a singlespeed! The Goretex and Nokon systems both work brilliantly but they are quite expensive compared to just using normal full-length housings.

Splits
Write your splits on your handlebar with a twink pen. It wont wash off in the wet unlike paper ones cellotaped onto your bar or stem. See the Karapoti site for some useful split-points.

Pumps and C02's
I like the lezyne style pumps, like the pumps we had in the "olden-days" where you had an external hose. They stop you putting too much pressure on your tire's valve stem, and ripping it out, as I have done with the other "clamp" styles ones, which you have to use by holding the wheel and pump head in the one hand.

There is one important downside to the lezyne style. It screws onto your valve stem. If you are using tubeless wheels you will have "replaceable valve-cores", and its possible, that if that core isn't tweaked in tight enough, you might unscrew it, while unscrewing the end of your pump after adding air to your tube/tire!

1. Always tighten your valve cores to an appropriate level.
2. Always carry a valve core tightener. (A small piece of plastic) in your kit.
If you do 1. you will be sweet. UNLESS you use a "screw-on" C02 device to air up your tire!

C02s
Anything other than a press-fit or clamp styled C02 dispenser is a recipe for disaster in my view. When compressed c02 comes out of a cannister it freezes everything around it. If the end of your device is screwed onto a replaceable valve core, no matter how tight it is in there, you will probably wind it out while trying to detach your threaded c02 tool, and lose all your air. Use a press-fit or clamp one and safe yourself the grief.

This is my favourite and it has never let me down. The top is threaded where the head screws onto the actual cannister, but the end is press-fit, and its 100% reliable. Before I had this one I only had about a 33% success rate with C02 tools. Very light, one moving part, can accept different sized cannisters. Air chuck elite.

Mousses/tire-in-a-can
Zefal make one. Vittoria used to as well. Not that common in NZ, but more so in Europe. They all have different names so it can be difficult googling them. I brought an MTB one at Rotorua MTB worlds that I still havent used.


After the event
Take one big rubbish bag to throw all your smelly disgusting muddy crap in.
Also take a brush for washing your bike in the river, and a small plastic bag with a clean face cloth in so you can scrub up good on the podium! Also have a clean top from your sponsor if you are likely to be on the podium : )

Take a really good beanie to keep in the warmth after the event, a poly-pro top and jersey and a full length raincoat in case it is windy/cold/wet; something warm on your legs; a deck chair to sit on so you don't get a wet bottom.

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More handy hints from the field

Marco says:
Run through or around the bogs, don't try to ride through them.

Tigers tyre tips:
Tubeless - Tick (Make sure you do not run these too low as it is easy to burp your tyre in the Rock Garden)
Stans sealant goop - Tick (Have saved me from many punctures, SERIOUSLY)
Fast rolling - Tick
Exception Series - NOOO!!!!! not in this race anyway!!!!
Good hook up - Not essential, but helpful

Jeff says:
If you suffer from the cold, having an ear-warmer type of strip ready to pull down over your ears is good, in case you have to stop for repairs. Sweat goes cold very quickly and you lose a lot of heat through your head. Even a nylon shell in your camelbak could be handy on a really crap day.

Francis says:
Take a spare brake pad split pin. They will work in most brakes. A bobby pin or even a twig can work in an emergency if the original ever falls out.

Callum says:
Spray underside of frame parts with Silicone to encourage mud not to stick.

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Karapoti 2011

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 !

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Karapoti revisted

Its a hard road planning out your season. For the past two years I have watched in envy as every man and his dog are doing PB's at Karapoti. A weird desire to do my first poti since 2003 came over me and I decided to do a couple of races to reacquaint myself with the dirt.

My first was a PNP race at Mt Vic where I did my only ever face-plant in my life and smashed my lid. Then the next race was a Nats final, in muddy Mt Vic where my very rusty skills became even more obvious.

My ribs still havent recovered from being acquainted with my bar-ends there, and watching Geoff Notman riding away from me on his over-geared single-speed hardly built my confidence. I pulled out before I expired. A sad day. I blame David Blake for making me build a fence out the front of my house. Its the mother of all fences, and gets more complements than anything I have ever had anything to do with in my life. I burned a lot of matches with that fence!

You'll note I stayed well away from Makara Park races, where you have to know the names of all the tracks to have any chance of not getting lost, and I dont know my "uncle Bobs wheelie" from my "Leaping Gecko".

I had some good Time Trial form but I couldnt see how that was going to help me down the Rock Garden, and Google Street View isnt what its cracked up to be in the Akatarawas. Some Hill reps up Belmont Trig did me no harm but my technical riding was confined to riding up and down Danzig. When NIWA announced that it was the wettest February for some time, I knew that it wasnt gonna be a fast year. Too bad, I had already entered.

Karapoti 2009 - The didymo conspiracy.....
I reckon I had a problem with the didymo procedure. I got to wash my wheels with soapy water, which is what you do to seat tubeless tyres? I was tootling back to the car and ka-boomb! A gigantic hole 4cms long is ripped into my tube....

I walked back to the car, stressing as I only brought one spare tube. I ripped off my tyre which was a narrow-ish aggressively knobbed green michelin with big spaces between the knobs... I had once used it as tubeless set-up and there were remnants of dried latex crap in it. My tube had stuck to the tyre, and I believe it slipped on the rim after it was didymoed, tearing my tube to shreds. Crap.

I got a new tube and took off with the Pro men. I was having a great race, and had decided to pace myself for once. Not long after Ricky Pincot passed me in his big ring after Deadwood I had a nasty crash on the slick rock at speed. I banged my head, leg and ac joint badly. Had to reset mt head set and straighten fork and from then on rode even more like a complete nana.

My left shifter lever was torn off in my crash, but if I could find a 2mm stump to tickle to change down if I was careful, the upchanger was still there. My right shifter was barely working, but was very painful on my shoulder with the amount of force I was having to put into it.

The Rock Garden was hard work with my confidence and gone and my shoulder giving me grief.

A high-light was seeing an eel, or a trout jump out of a puddle at the bottom of the stair-case into the stream alongside !

Anyway, I grovelled up the staircase pushing (not carrying) my bike. The only person I saw the whole time was a very cheerful Craig Madsen snapping fotos. Some time later as I was tootling up dopers, I had just caught Scott McLachlan... ka-boom! My rear tube exploded on me again. Some how it jumped out of my tyre and wrapped itself around my v-brake mounts! What a mess. It had a giant split in it, just like the first one. My mousse would have been a useless on that kind of a flat. Traction was great everywhere I went (in pro) so I guess it was a combination of the slipping tyre (soapy water) - against the rim, the tube sticking to the tyre, and a very grippy tyre that was causing my problems.

If not for the mishaps it would have been one of my most enjoyable karapoti's ever. I can also reccommend the A&E in the Hutt hospital. The camaraderie amongst the Karapoti refugees in there was great. Very very quick to process us on a saturday night. According to the radiographer its way busier in Wellington than the Hutt on a saturday night. Keep that in mind if you have a choice!

Cheers
jeff

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karapoti 08

Jordan had a blinder at the "Poti" in the weekend. On a Santa-Cruz borrowed from his buddy Alex he came away with a 5th place overall and smashed the under 19 record by around 8 minutes. 2.26 is a time anyone who has done Karapoti would love to have in their palmares. The conditions were some of the best, if not the best we have ever seen, with a real lack of rain this summer. 2nd and 3rd places went to local riders Wayne Hiscock and Jord's VIC team mate Gavin mcCarthy. Gav has been on a roll this year, and its good to have such a high local standard for the younger riders to aspire to.

Next up is the Oceania champs in Nelson on the 14th of March. The aussie riders traditionally school the kiwis, but this year's national series and supporting races seem to have been laid out better to me, so maybe the kiwis will be in better form than in previous years?

The course is rumoured to be largely non-technical with wide trails and short climbs. In short, a bit of a roadies course. Fingers crossed the kiwi contingent can score some points against their trans-tasman cuzzies.

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