Being prepared.

I read where a runner broke her pelvis in the mountains and saved her life by virtue of a shower cap in her kit despite two nights in sub zero conditions. Then of course she was left with debilitating hospital fees to try and pay off. We don't know how lucky we are living in a country with a welfare state.

Read More

I told you it was random

Malcolm searches for his still yet to be found "conversation threshold". Roll on the next 70 years Malcolm. I found this roll of 120 film which had to be at least 20 years old. I loaded it into my Mamiya Press but this was the only useable shot I got.

A pensive moment for Mr Cleetus as he contemplates the pros and cons of multi-tasking and how it lead to a meeting with a bollard and the introduction of the new short wheel-base model Singular Gryphon.

Top left. 1-2-3-4 ! Port Underwood is calling our name. I love the way it gentley ramps up : )  - 2010 course.

Read More

A different approach for Kiwi Brevet 2014

For the previous two Kiwi Brevets I have gone with the comfort of a 26er fully. This time I am going with a 29er fully-rigid.  Roll-a-bility versus comfort is the plan. I'm also planning to carry all water on the bike rather than have 3 litres of it on my back, to cut back on "butt trauma". I am foregoing aero bars and bar ends for Woodchipper drop bars which also give a lot of different hand  positions. The KM might be a tad lighter if I manage to tubeless the tires.

2014 set-up. Surly Karate Monkey 29er. 

2010 and 2012 set-up. 26 inch Santa Cruz Superlight.

Read More

More wonderful than you can believe it

X-fusion Velvet RL2

In the world of cycling we are bombarded with more BS than we can deal with with regard to so called improvements in bicycle design, which in my opinion often serve only to further complicate what was in its original format an elegantly simple thing.

Extended seat-tubes, multiple bottom bracket standards, multiple head-set tapers and 11 speed clusters with crazy chain-lines.

The bicycle is going the way of the luxury yacht and when hydraulic brakes on road bikes became standard the average punter will be taking his bike into the shop for all maintenance I guess.

It was a real surprise to hear the other day that a company has finally started doing what they should have been doing for years, creating forks that will work on multiple wheel sizes. The X-fusion brand are building several forks that cover multiple sizes.  27.5 to 29 inch forks, and 26 to 27.5 forks.

Whether we really need a 27.5 I don't truly know, but when I finally had a gutsful of the worst Rockshock I had ever known, and I have owned 4 different models, I picked up a new X-fusion Velvet RL2 from Jville Cycles.  It comes with a straight steerered version AND a 9mm axeled version so its win-win for luddites like me. It also comes with the ability to set it (internally) to 100mm, 120mm and 140mm travel, plus have an internal adjustment for 27.5 wheel sizes. One fork fits all : )

So far I have loved it. Set with 120mm of plush travel it is very confidence inspiring, and I have spent the last couple of rides with a 27.5 loaner wheel from Francis on the front. Even without making the internal adjustment for the 27.5 wheel size it is really good, and you cant beat the price.

Running a standard 26 inch on the front at 120mm.

With 27.5 (650B) wheel on the front at 120mm, without internal adjustment for it in place.

Read More

Use-only-as-directed

I heard a very interesting podcast about the drug Tylenol the other day on This American Life. It is the over-the-counter legal drug that kills more people than any other in the US each year.

Image from BaldBoris

It struck a chord with me because I remembered seeing a tweet from Taylor Phinney about the widespread use of this legal drug in the peloton and how he didn't agree with it.

To some people he came across very preachy, but to me it gave hope for the next generation of cyclists who can look at someone like Phinney and know that you can race even without "legal" drugs.

As I found in the This American Life Podcast, the scary thing about Tylenol is its low margin for error. Twice the recommended maximum dose could cause you real problems or even death. Compare this to something like Ibruprofen which has a many times larger margin for error.

According to the This American Life podcast 150 people a year die from taking acetaminophen in the US (the active ingredient in Tylenol) but in a country where 1 in 6 take it at least once a year that's probably not seen as a massive problem.

What I wonder about is what happens when an athlete takes it and their body is already under massive stress? Maybe their high metabolism cycles it through and its not a problem.

What concerns me more is when NZ coaches and their riders are seen via social media promoting the use of legal pain killers as a legitimate option, just because it is not illegal.

Promoting pill popping is not doing anyone any favours and only encourages the "arms race" . Anyway, listen to the podcast, its very interesting.

Read More

New skinny tread - Conti SpeedRIDE

I just picked up a new tire from Jville Cycles and its worth sharing. Its the Continental SpeedRIDE.

I initially thought it was a Cyclocross tire, but in fact its more of a trekking/touring tire. It has the same tread as the Continental Speed Cyclocross, but is 42mm wide instead of the CX legal 33. The only other difference is some very faint tread below the shoulder knobs, that is missing on the CX version.

These tires replaced some very worn cheap CST tires that I was commuting on but the difference in rolling resistance is very noticeable.

With an IWR (Inflation to Weight Ratio - I just invented that, I think) of 1.4  (70kgs/50psi) it rolls incredibly well on the road but is still very comfortable on the gravel.  Obviously in the mud they are going to be pretty hopeless, but they are not designed for that. 50psi makes them very comfy but another 10psi should liven them up a lot more if necessary.

I get the impression this is going to be a great tire on hardpack and dry clay so I am looking forward to trying it out in those environments. They were purchased for a ride from Rotorua to Taupo through the new Geothermal Wonder Ride, but a crappy weather forecast dealt to that adventure.  I saw them as an alternative to Sammy Slicks but the tread is not as aggressive as those so it may roll even quicker.

Read More

Cyclocross in Upper Belgium - 4 years on.

My Singular Kite, a very fun bike.

We are pretty lucky in Wellington, well Upper Hutt actually, with a great Cyclocross series put on by the crew from the Bike Hutt. The series actually started 4 years ago. The first race had but a handful of CX bikes and most of us were on MTB's of some kind. I opted for an old  single speeded Diamond Back until the next year's series where I used my newly acquired  Karate Monkey with Cross tires. It was great fun but the Monkey is a pretty hefty bike to shoulder with discs. The next year I put my back out in the very first race of the series and was knackered for the rest. At the end of that year I took delivery of a proper cross bike frame, a new Singular Kite. I quickly built it up and have done some awesome rides on it of both on MTB trails and on Gravel Grinding rides.

Cross racing is unlike anything else I have done on two wheels, and I have done quite a few different things. It doesn't have the cut-throat style of road racing, or the same kind of intensity as track racing. It doesn't feel as serious as MTB racing and there is a real camaraderie amongst the riders as they battle each other lap for lap, until one of them blows, and they often do blow. There is no sucking a wheel in CX. There is mud, and spills, but injuries are rare. And afterwards there is always a heart-felt hand shake from the competitor you have been racing.

Why Cyclocross is a good idea
1. You don't need to do a lot of training, races are all under 1 hour, doable with a bit of commuting and maybe some running to boost your cardio fitness.
2. It's great to spectate at. Friendly sledging and cheering is encouraged.
3. You can watch the other grades race as well and get to know those riders as well as the riders from your own grade.
4. Because of the flat nature of the courses its very easy to include a kids race into the programme.
5. No matter what bike you ride, you will be welcome. No one will look down their nose at you if you don't have the latest gear.
6. You can be deadly slow but you will never finish more than 1 lap after the winner. (Those are the rules).
7. When you are not CXing your bike will make an awesome commuter and adventure bike. You may even want to do some Brevet style riding on it. It will also pass as a road bike with some slick tires one.

A good thing about the Bike Hutt series is that we have some very good photographers recording the racing and publishing or putting videos on line. 

Craig has also published a Coffee table book of some of his favourite shots from the last two years racing. 2012 and 2013.

Check out one of Ricoh's videos.

The as always immaculately dressed Gav flinches as Marcel
monsters past and roosts all over him.  Awesome shot Ricoh.

Ricoh's Flickr stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87550748@N04/sets/72157634518837849/

This year was the first year I have actually ridden a proper CX bike in the races and it makes it a lot more fun. I was actually planning to do a bit of training for the CX series this time around but we sold our house and moved into Wellington so there was basically no time. I had a race entry carried over from last years Night Time Madness night-running race so I thought I could probably train for that instead with a few lunch time runs.

A shot of the Harcourt Park final from Craig Madsen.

Here is my schedule in a bit more detail if anyone is interested. As I said it was a minimalist programme aimed at a running race, not Cyclocross racing.

Basically it was (weather dependant) 3 runs a week, one of them long and 3 commutes by bike on the flat. My commuter bike is a 2x1 with 50/36 - 17 gearing so it was mostly spinning. Before that, for maybe 2 months I was doing pilates once a week with 3 short runs and maybe one ride a week. Before that I was doing some pretty hard cross-fit sessions at lunch with one of my work mates. I am sure the core work is a great help. I think I got a far better return in my cardio fitness from the hill running as I would not have been interested in riding hard at that time of the year. The commuting was just enough to remind the legs that they needed to go around and around hard, once a week at a CX race on the sunday : )

M - Sa shift house
Su CX race 16th California Park


M 50 mins commute x2,
Tu 50 mins commute x2, 1.09hrs hill run
W 50 mins commute x2, 55 mins hill run
Su CX race 9th Moonshine Park


M 50 mins commute x2,
Tu 50 mins commute x2, 1.02hrs hill run
W 41 mins hill run
Th 1hr hill run
Su 2hr hill run

Tu 50 mins commute x2, 60mins hill run
W 2hr hill run
Th 50 mins commute x2,
Su CX race Nats round 9th O/A Blenheim


M 50 mins commute x2, 28mins flat run
Tu 50 mins commute x2, 38mins hill run
W 50 mins commute x2,
Th 2hr hill run
F 25min run
Su CX race 9th California Park


M 50 mins commute x2, 53mins hill run
Tu 50 mins commute x2, 39mins hill run
W 50 mins commute x2,
Th 2hr hill run
F 50 mins commute x2
Su CX race 8th Moonshine


M 50 mins commute x2, 42mins hill run
Tu 50 mins commute x2,
Th 1.38hr hill run
F 50 mins commute x2, 29min run
Su CX race 5th Harcourt Park

A word of caution, Cyclocross is a winter sport. If you put a lot of effort into it you may well find yourself feeling a bit fried at the time of the year you would normally be starting to get serious with some base training for your summer season.

See you next year.

Read More

Mainland weekender

A series of coincidences led to a sortee down to the mainland to compete in the Blenheim round of the Cyclocross Nationals on July 21.

De Snor, Alex Revell was keen to head down and asked if he could stay in the Voodoo Lounge. His fellow Revolution Cycles rider Geoffrey Notman had to head down south anyway to take photos for some painting he was doing, so it would have been rude not to fit in the race while he was there as well. For me it was a good chance to catch up with my family and bring back a motor scooter my brother had offered me, and obviously I would take part in the race too.

There was a taste of things to come when on the Friday morning as I was getting ready a particularly nasty quake rocked our house. It was a lot worse at my work where people were getting a bit more excitable, as is there job to. While I was sailing over the Cook Strait on the Bluebridge Ferry later on I got a text from my daughter saying another one had struck.

Alex roosts it up. Image from Sarnim Dean.
http://www.sarnim.com

Things seemed to cool down for a bit that night while my brother shouted us out to tea at the Redwood Tavern. The next day, Saturday, like a couple of gun-fighters, Alex and Geoff rode into town rather than accept the complimentary Voodoo Lounge flat-deck-truck pick-up.

They checked out dads latest "eagle" and made themselves comfy in the Voodoo Lounge. It was the first time for Geoff but Alex had stayed before and after the 2012 Kiwi Brevet..

We tweaked the bikes for the next day's event and after a wholesome meal topped off with a complimentary bottle of wine left over from the Grape Ride three years previous, we hit the sack.

Around 7am on Sunday we were awoken by a sharp quake that knocked a picture frame off the shelf. Hmmm. A bit of a swarm thing going on here.

I had first heard of Mondo Kopua at the inaugural Kiwi Brevet in 2010 and he seems to have taken up the role of introducing CX to the locals in Blenheim. They were very organized and I think they also had a points system for the non-CX class where they got credits for things such as skin-suits, costumes and leg-shavings.

Image from Bike-fit.co.nz

The course had some good technical bits and was quite a bit rougher than the manicured stop-banks and parks we are spoilt with in Upper Hutt, or "Upper Belgium" as its known. I was happy to be on my steel Singular Kite and wondered how much battering Alex and Geoff would have been getting on  their alloy Yeti's as they bounced over the myriad of cow-pocks that were in parts of the course. I don't usually race CX with gloves on, and this day was no exception but by the end of the event I had a very nasty blister from my cow-pock induced death-grip!

My speedy starts seem to be a thing of the past so these days I seem to be relying on a consistency that manifests itself in a 14 second spread on a long 7-8 minute course like this. Geoff and I were both racing vets men 45+ and I watched as he started putting putting a good 10 seconds a lap on me as he rode off leaving me to battle with the fastest ladies. Anja McDonald and Jenna Makgill were both riders I had heard about through mountainbiking and I knew technically speaking both of them would ride rings around me. Downhill, Cross country, fixed gear and Singlespeeding, these ladies have big reps, World champ and National Champs status across all codes, but I had no idea any of them were CXers. 

Me flying my Kite.
Check out the levers.
http://www.sarnim.com

I busied myself at trying not to fall off on the slimy off-camber and after a few laps I managed to haul Jenna back probably courtesy of my running fitness, up one of the grunty walking climbs. It was common for me to come a cropper at least once a lap, and to fail at reclipping into my pedals as my crash point was usually followed by a pocky descent that was bumping my feet off the pedals. Sucks to be a nana!

The race was to be a bit longer than normal at 60 minutes plus 1 lap and eventually I pulled back Geoffrey and started catching a few more riders and lapping a few more. The "other" Mike Anderson from Stoke Cycles was just around the corner and for two laps I tailed him and Anja as Anja's lap times started to blow out. On the last lap I made a move and somehow cleaned the technical bit that was stymieing me, dropped Mike and ran past Anja on the next climb. Great I had it nailed. Unfortunately the last zig-zag proved too much for my nana-skills and I lost the front-end yet again and with my levers getting progressively lower with each get-off there was no way I was going to make the time back with less than a couple of minutes to go!

Somewhere along the way we caught Jut Bishop who I remember from back in the 90's as being the area's top MTBer. Its cool to see him still out there giving it a crack. 

Geoffrey Notman with his racing head on.
http://www.sarnim.com

Alex was having it mostly his own way after his main competition, Logan Horn from Christchurch burped his tubeless tires twice on a firm part of the course, not that it meant that Alex slowed down at all, indeed he came a good cropper on the triple-set of stiles at the start-finish and scored a good haematoma for his efforts. It was great to hear some of Alex's tales from his CX racing in Europe last year.

We were late in starting the race so Geoff and I split ASAP when it finished to get out to his next appointment at Renwick where he was taking some shots for inspiration for his next series of paintings. Alex also took off so sadly missed the prize giving which looked particularly salubrious with some very nice bottles of wine and other goodies up for grabs.

After attending the Renwick Boar Slaying comp we realised what a completely fringe activity Cyclocross is by comparison. Thanks Mondo for lifting the profile!

After another wholesome meal from my mum I was contemplating jumping on my new scooter for its last ride on the mainland, to the ferry, when the next quake hit at 5.09. A 6.5 ! What a monster. I cant say I've ever been scared of an earthquake to that extent in NZ before. Suffice to say it was a busy week at work the next week.

We really enjoyed our brief shaky interlude down south and would recommend anyone to check out the CX events Mondo, Brent and his crew are putting on down there. We travelled via the Bluebridge Ferry which has free wifi and movies. Compare this to the Interislander Ferry where you have to pay for both of these, on top of a more expensive passage fee, plus The Bluebridge people had a half price deal on : )

Thanks to Sarnim Dean for the use of his awesome images on these pages. Check out the classic one below. This is Kim Swan (the one on the left ; ). She is a good friend of my fathers and has written many books on Pig-Hunting and horse riding.  For more on this theme check out Sarnim's pix in his Flickr feed.

Kim Swan, look harder, no, on the left ! http://www.sarnim.com

Results here.

Read More

When spray painting your dog....

When spray-painting your dog its important to mask out the eyes and ears. After applying a white base coat you can over-spray in the colour of your choice.

Simon and Dave discuss tactics

 This little doggie (Ducat) was very popular at the Wainui Worlds 6 hour event the other weekend. He pulled more chicks than a well-heeled dude with a 'Fat-bike" !

Four of us were riding with the Biketec Team, and our Team Leader Simon was doing double time on the Cycle Science Team. Our team consisted of Dave -  907 Fat bike. Chris - Cannondale Prophet and Simon had a Merida hard tail and a Transition Transam. I had my Karate Monkey and my Singular Kite, both running drop bars. There wasn't room for my fully in the end, and with the weather looking like it was going to be miserable it was probably a good idea to keep springy and pivoty things home in the dry.

Simon had been raving about his Transition 29er for quite a while so I was keen for a blast on it. I tried to encourage everyone to run the same pedals so we could swap about. One of the coolest things with teams racing is being able to try a different rig on the same course and compare it with the previous one.

Dave's Fat Bike was not idea for the conditons (no snow or sand to be seen) and I think the lap Simon did on it saw him come in with the reddest of all his faces on. I wasn't that keen and had my hands full with other bikes. Considering Dave's fitness he did bloody well to punt it around in the sticky mud.

Someone had to say it. Dave, your baby is FAT !

I did the first lap on my Karate Monkey with the Knard on the front and it felt like hard work. It does feel hard when you are not even keeping pace with guys who are supposed to be racing for 6 hours themselves, but ours was strictly a fun team so there were no big expectations. 

Airing up the Knard

 I eagerly grabbed Simons Transistion Transam for my next lap and was really impressed. Its the closest thing to a motorbike I have ever ridden that still had pedals on. It had a big-hit fork up front with a 20mm thru-axle and big fat Hans-dampf tires on it. It had monsterous bars, a tiny stem and it was very forgiving while also being quick handling. The geometry reminded me a lot of my Karate Monkey, with its shortish rear stays, but a quick check of the stats showed that it was a full pound heavier at 6.4 pounds, and the cockpit was a fair bit longer. This bike is bullet-proof. It was a real blast to ride for sure, but not ideal for the course we were riding on. Had the Spoon Hill section been in the mix this bike would have been in its element.

Karate Monkey and Kite

 My next lap was on my Singular Kite cross bike which I had just recently converted to single-speed. I was running a 34-18 gearing combo and it just flew up the climbs. It was the lightest rig by a long way at a sniff over 20 pounds. This lap was a real blast but I would have lost a bit of time on the lower Snail Trail on my 33mm tires.

When you are in a 4 man team you don't get that many laps, and my last one was back on the Monkey, this time with the Knard substituted for something weighing about a kg less. It was my best lap and I think it was a toss-up for which lap was the most fun. They were all different in their own way, but I am definitely a drop-bar fan at WTP. On these kind of courses you can run a pretty simple rig, rigid, drop-barred or single-speed and be giving away next to nothing.

In the end the rain cleared up about 30 mins before we started and the course held up beautifully, which apparently is more than you could say for the event it clashed with in Rotorua. The organisation was awesome and there was a cool very low-key vibe. It would be a great course to do a solo 6 hour on.

My lap times
1. Wasn't a full lap.
2. 26.57 - Transition Transam
3. 26.12 - Singular Kite Singlespeed CXer
4. 25.24 - Surly Karate Monkey

Read More

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.

Read More

Knard - WIZARD SPEAK KNOWLEDGE BOMB PUT THE TIRE DOWN AND PICK UP A BEER

Here are some first impressions of my new Knard 29+ 3 inch tire as fitted to my rigid Surly Karate Monkey. These tires are not supposed to be fitted on anything less than a 35mm wide rim, so the hell fires of damnation will likely rain down on me some time soon. The rim they are built to go with is the Rabbit-hole 50mm rim.

My rim is a Sun Ringle Equaliser. I have no idea how wide it is, but I am not someone who pushes the limits as far as bike handling goes, so hopefully the tire wont fall off. I have also run 2inch tires on Mavic Open Pro road rims with no problems, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I have seen elsewhere were people have mounted them to Stans Arch rims to give them a spin. There were certainly no issues with setting them up on my rim.

This bike is currently set up for this weekend's Single Speed nationals so I thought I'd sneak in a few rides to see how it felt. I started with only 11 psi in the front. Going was tough initially up Belmont Road Hill into a head wind with the low pressure but got better as I changed direction into a muddy cow-pocked climb up onto the Old Coach Road. Traction was great, the front didn't dig in, so the rear didn't slip under load. I wasn't expecting that.

I was really looking forward to the slippery rutted descent down the Maranatha Bridle track. I usually hate this track in the wet, but I was surprised to ride it with heaps more confidence than I normally would have on my 26er fully. I was impressed. The tire soaked up all the bumps and didn't once slide off the camber. If I could have fitted one on the back I would have been flying. Back on the tar-seal decent and the tire was inclined to steer very straight and not want to wander off line.

A seriously large tube

This morning I did a bit of reading and saw where most people seem to be running them at 19 to 21 psi, so I put in 20 psi and found it to be responding a lot more rapidly with side to side movements, like a normal tire. It felt similar to running a normal 29er tire with about 25 psi in it. Of course you miss out on a fair bit of the cushioning effect.

I haven't yet ridden up hill with the higher psi but I'm expecting it to roll a bit faster. There is no doubt its a very heavy tire; reported to be 1270 grams for the 27tpi wire bead version. The tube itself is massive and feels like it weighs about 300 grams. I would have weighed the tire but couldn't find anything big enough to contain it : )

Here is the most information I have found from a person currently using the Knard in its two versions.  The post is by Nurse Ben.

About to head down the slippery rutted Maranatha track

On the tar-seal

Racing Ralph on the back, Knard on the front

??????????

Read More

BCGG Spartacus challenge

After the heat (and worry) of the lunch time challenge had died down I was quickly hankering for a semi-organised Gravel Grinder. The invites went out on Facebook as I already had a route in mind. The tour de grace was to be the Puketiro Road climb which links the back of Moonshine, via Bulls run road to Battlehill Forest Farm. I'd done it a few times while getting in some miles for the Tawhio Brevet and figured it needed a bit more exposure to the skinny wheeled (cx) brigade. It developed a name; the BCGG (Boganville Casual Gravel Grinder) Spartacus Challenge,  in honour of Fabian Cancellara (nick-named Spartacus) who was doing battle in Paris Roubaix later that night. 

I got a good response from some of my old Kiwi Brevet buddies who are typically always up for a challenge. Two Owens, an Andy, Rico from Iride, Dave and a special guest appearance by the only sub 3hour Karapoti rider alive today, or in the past, and most likely the future (Peter Reynolds). In lieu of Cleetus who was suffering food poisoning, Calum took over the seismologist slot and we had a quorum.

Moonshine shines

All riders convened at the Kelson lights in deepest Boganville and we hit the River Trail of redemption looking for gravel and hills ! A short stint of tar-seal and a dive under the Moonshine bridge and we were onto the Riverstone Roubaix which is a nice little Upper Belgium secret. We emerged from the fun little segment of single track and exited out on to Riverside Terrace proper and then rolled down to the bottom of Moonshine and ambled up the steep side, a ride I was appalled to hear Andy had only ridden once before.

Calum on Puketiro Road Climb

After descending the other side onto Bulls run road we hung a left onto the Gravel of Puketiro Road, and made our way to the top of Battle Hill via some awesome wide logging roads. Pretty smooth and plenty steep. 12% for 16 minutes. All was going sweetly until the first little piece of decent when the go-fast crew; 4 of them scored 5 punctures on one corner ! DOH! Novices.

The downhill proper was a blast as we snaked down the eastern most side of the Battlehill loop amongst the pines; the surface was good, a bit loose but dry and fast. We snuck out of Battlehill on the periphery of a horse gymkhana. We hit the tarseal for the Belmont Road ascent which takes you from Judgeford up into Belmont Regional Park. Its a nice farm 4WD trail, a much more pleasant route than the scary Haywards Road.

By the time we were descending onto Belmont's Hill Road it was starting to feel like it had been quite a long day. In truth it was only 4 hours but it was a value packed ride with only three short downhills in it. I went home to recover while the more hardy (younger) dudes did the right thing - staying up into the small hours to  watch Spartacus smash them all in Paris Roubaix.

Dave Sharpe replaces some lost carbs - featuring the official coaster/pennant

Read More