I have now sold the Audi. I only got $800 for it, which less than I expected but I was happy for it to be gone and the money in the bank. 3 weeks ago I bought a 1994 Mazda Lantis 2 litre V6 4 door hatch back off of a friends mother for $4500 so I needed the money from the Audi to top up the bank account for future mortgage payments.
I also sold the Dawg frame for $355 a pair of old Dr Marten boots for $40, and old Suntour fork for $20 and pair of street shoes for $40, all on the trademe.co.nz auction site. I am going to flog off a few more items over the next few weeks and get a few bike repairs completed.
Today I bought new brake cables and pads for the single speed, repaired the broken spoke and had a new axle and bearings installed in the Cindercone front hub. I now have 2 working bikes. They sure aint perfect but they do at least both work....
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
2 good runs
Well both bikes have wheel problems now. The hard tail geared bike has a front wheel hub that at best could be described as utterly shagged and I have broken yet another spoke on the SS. I do have a spare front wheel I have put on the SS but the reason it is 'spare' is the hub in that makes train type rumbling noises when it spins.
The good news is I have sold the Kona Dawg frame and shock for $355 on tradem.co.nz so once the guy who bought it gets back from his holiday later this week I will get the cash and send the frame off. I will at least be able to get the 2 bikes back up and running again.
Had a good ride on the SS again on Saturday morning, when I broke the spoke. Quickish ride with Miles for 2 half hours. Rode Slipperies Delight for the first time in a while, it is a good trail. I was hoping to get out there with the spade but as usual circumstances got in the way.
I did get 2 good runs in though, one on Monday night and one today, Tuesday, which was Anzac day in New Zealand and a public holiday. Monday's run was started late afternoon and in the pouring rain, I did the 10km Titirangi Rd loop and completed it in 53 minutes which is the fastest I have ever done it in. Today's run was a 30:36 session of the Exhibition Drive track which was awesome - fastest ever, though I have done a sub 31 minute run before. The Exhibition Drive run is approximately 6.5km long, fairly flat but is very twisty and as is unsealed, so is a bit harder to run on than a sealed road.
I was really pleased with the times....
The good news is I have sold the Kona Dawg frame and shock for $355 on tradem.co.nz so once the guy who bought it gets back from his holiday later this week I will get the cash and send the frame off. I will at least be able to get the 2 bikes back up and running again.
Had a good ride on the SS again on Saturday morning, when I broke the spoke. Quickish ride with Miles for 2 half hours. Rode Slipperies Delight for the first time in a while, it is a good trail. I was hoping to get out there with the spade but as usual circumstances got in the way.
I did get 2 good runs in though, one on Monday night and one today, Tuesday, which was Anzac day in New Zealand and a public holiday. Monday's run was started late afternoon and in the pouring rain, I did the 10km Titirangi Rd loop and completed it in 53 minutes which is the fastest I have ever done it in. Today's run was a 30:36 session of the Exhibition Drive track which was awesome - fastest ever, though I have done a sub 31 minute run before. The Exhibition Drive run is approximately 6.5km long, fairly flat but is very twisty and as is unsealed, so is a bit harder to run on than a sealed road.
I was really pleased with the times....
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Night ride
A friend sent me a text late yesterday afternoon asking if I wanted to go for a night ride. I haven't been night riding for months so leapt at the opportunity. I had charged the battery a few weeks back so there was no holding back.
Arrived at the Woodhill carpark at 7.30 and it was heaving with riders. Had a pretty good ride. The brakes on the SS are shot from the clay after the Riverhead ride so I need new pads and a rear cable so I had a bit of trouble moderating my braking so the ride did not flow as much as I would have liked on the downhill bits but the climbing was all good and after 30 minutes or so when I was warm and in the groove it turned into a sweet ride.
Rode for one and half hours - nice way to end the day.
Arrived at the Woodhill carpark at 7.30 and it was heaving with riders. Had a pretty good ride. The brakes on the SS are shot from the clay after the Riverhead ride so I need new pads and a rear cable so I had a bit of trouble moderating my braking so the ride did not flow as much as I would have liked on the downhill bits but the climbing was all good and after 30 minutes or so when I was warm and in the groove it turned into a sweet ride.
Rode for one and half hours - nice way to end the day.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Easter riding
Considering personal circumstances I had a good Easter. The weather was really good for a long weekend with 4 days of reasonably warm and sunny weather, with just a smattering of rain on Monday afternoon.
I managed to get 2 mountain bike rides in and 1 failed road ride so I may as well start with the failed road ride. I got up nice and early on Saturday morning and planned to do a quick 2 hourish road ride on the Cindercone which had been recently fitted with slicks. I got out of the house on time and about 10km from home when I started hearing loud grinding/crunching noises from my front hub. The hub has been on the way out for a while and had finally decided to collapse. I managed to slowly nurse the bike back home again, and when I got off and had a look the wheel had about 2 inches of sideways movement at the rim.
Being broke at the moment has meant that bike has been shelved until I get some cash together to get the hub rebuilt. I am planning on a big sell up of old bike parts to see if I can raise enough funds to get my wheels sorted on both my bikes, along with 2 new speedos and a mechanical disk for the single speed.
Back to the real riding...
Friday morning I went up to Woodhill for a ride with the normal crew, for the first time in ages the whole team was riding. The Woodhill carpark had been moved about 4 km's down the road back towards the highway which has reduced the amount of driving on the metal road and increased the amount of riding possibilities. The one drawback or good thing depending on your point of view is the riding in the northern block is significantly further away, which means it will get ridden a lot less, which means the track extension I have put in will take longer to bed down.
From the new carpark there is about a KM of single track to the start of the forest and where you would normally ride up the Link and Cookie trails to get to the start of Big Mama and Spaghetti you are now right there. I stayed with the main bunch till the Big Mama jump and then Miles and I took off for a longer more XC friendly ride and left the huckers to it. Miles has just bought himself a new GT Ruckus single speed. It is a nice little bike, steel framed and 1 gear - lovely. We did quite a long ride up to my track and along the new section and back to the carpark, out for about 3 hours all up.
By Sunday I had the new Continental Explorer mud tyres on the SS and Miles and I shot out for a dirt session at Riverhead. Surprisingly when we got there at 9.00 AM there was no-one there. There has been a lot of talk about riding Riverhead all year round and not paying to ride at Woodhill etc etc so I did expect to see more riders than none... The weather was fine though it had been raining during the week. Riverhead is a clay based forest and is 'challenging' in the wet. It is very rooty, quite steep in parts and the tracks were not very well designed, leading to huge mud holes and steep off camber corners that are extremely greasy when wet. The conditions on Sunday were Ok. The motorbikes had been through the forest, seeing as they built most of the trail network, I cannot complain but they had chewed some of the newer trails up quite badly leaving thick gluggy clay which was tiring to ride through. Miles and I rode Pattersons 1 and 2, up Christ hill (I made it), Richies, Blackwood road, a trail I do not know the name of, but I call it the Rollercoaster, and back to the carpark, we got lost twice as I left the map at home. The riding was Ok, Rollercoaster was tough as you could not get the speed up on the downhill bits to easily make the uphills. There were quite a few bogs forming as well. I doubt I will be back too many times before next summer...
The bike after Riverhead.
I managed to get 2 mountain bike rides in and 1 failed road ride so I may as well start with the failed road ride. I got up nice and early on Saturday morning and planned to do a quick 2 hourish road ride on the Cindercone which had been recently fitted with slicks. I got out of the house on time and about 10km from home when I started hearing loud grinding/crunching noises from my front hub. The hub has been on the way out for a while and had finally decided to collapse. I managed to slowly nurse the bike back home again, and when I got off and had a look the wheel had about 2 inches of sideways movement at the rim.
Being broke at the moment has meant that bike has been shelved until I get some cash together to get the hub rebuilt. I am planning on a big sell up of old bike parts to see if I can raise enough funds to get my wheels sorted on both my bikes, along with 2 new speedos and a mechanical disk for the single speed.
Back to the real riding...
Friday morning I went up to Woodhill for a ride with the normal crew, for the first time in ages the whole team was riding. The Woodhill carpark had been moved about 4 km's down the road back towards the highway which has reduced the amount of driving on the metal road and increased the amount of riding possibilities. The one drawback or good thing depending on your point of view is the riding in the northern block is significantly further away, which means it will get ridden a lot less, which means the track extension I have put in will take longer to bed down.
From the new carpark there is about a KM of single track to the start of the forest and where you would normally ride up the Link and Cookie trails to get to the start of Big Mama and Spaghetti you are now right there. I stayed with the main bunch till the Big Mama jump and then Miles and I took off for a longer more XC friendly ride and left the huckers to it. Miles has just bought himself a new GT Ruckus single speed. It is a nice little bike, steel framed and 1 gear - lovely. We did quite a long ride up to my track and along the new section and back to the carpark, out for about 3 hours all up.
By Sunday I had the new Continental Explorer mud tyres on the SS and Miles and I shot out for a dirt session at Riverhead. Surprisingly when we got there at 9.00 AM there was no-one there. There has been a lot of talk about riding Riverhead all year round and not paying to ride at Woodhill etc etc so I did expect to see more riders than none... The weather was fine though it had been raining during the week. Riverhead is a clay based forest and is 'challenging' in the wet. It is very rooty, quite steep in parts and the tracks were not very well designed, leading to huge mud holes and steep off camber corners that are extremely greasy when wet. The conditions on Sunday were Ok. The motorbikes had been through the forest, seeing as they built most of the trail network, I cannot complain but they had chewed some of the newer trails up quite badly leaving thick gluggy clay which was tiring to ride through. Miles and I rode Pattersons 1 and 2, up Christ hill (I made it), Richies, Blackwood road, a trail I do not know the name of, but I call it the Rollercoaster, and back to the carpark, we got lost twice as I left the map at home. The riding was Ok, Rollercoaster was tough as you could not get the speed up on the downhill bits to easily make the uphills. There were quite a few bogs forming as well. I doubt I will be back too many times before next summer...
The bike after Riverhead.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
42nd Traverse ride
I have been a bit slack lately. Not really sure what the issue is but I am suffering from a motivational crisis that seems to be impacting on most things - work, blogging, bike maintenance, at the weekend even riding suffered. I am going to have to drag myself out of this rut I am sliding into. I mean this was an awesome ride, but it happened over a week ago
Last weekend was the Vorb "mobbing" of the 42nd Traverse ride. 38 riders from all over the North Island, mostly Vorbii, headed to National Park in Tongariro National Park for a sifty ride of the 42nd Traverse. My friend and I took a day off work and left Auckland in the Audi, earliesh Friday morning to ride "Tree Trunk Gorge" as well.
Tree trunk gorge is a shared walk/ride track 22 Km's south of Turangi. We arrived at the trail head in the middle of the afternoon, after a leisurely drive
on a very nice day.
The ride starts off with 5km sealed road descent down to the Tongariro River bridge.
There were 2 crosses at the bridge and a sign warning rafters to exit the river at this point. When you look down into the gorge you can see why, the river is very fast even though the water level is extremely low. Faster the bridge there was a further 500 metres of sealed road climb before the track began.
The track itself is only 4.7kms long and is primarily double track with some nice river crossings and rocky sections thrown in.
Even though the track is down inside the gorge the scenery is great, following the river through lovely native beech forest. The ride is generally downhill with a gentle gradient with 1 steep climb in the middle which we walked up. The track ends at a section of road that goes to the “Pinnacles of Hercules” bridge, sadly the bridge had been taken down when we arrived and a new bridge was to be built. The view from the bridge would be awesome!
This also left us with having to ride back the way we came, which was a shame. We did however use a piece of walking only track to avoid the road back the main track.
This kilometre stretch of tight, twisty, flowy single track was a highlight of the weekend for me – and we were not the first people to ride it either. The return trip through Tree trunk gorge was more enjoyable, the climb was easier and the downhill section was steep, rocky and a blast, so much better than the climb up. To cap it all off I got into a good rhythm on the road section back to the car and actually enjoyed the climb, my inner roadie was showing itself!
After the ride, we drove down to National Park, to check into the lodge and find some food, a beer (or 3), and some of our riding colleagues for the next day. We had a fairly early night ready for the 42nd.
Saturday dawned as a stunning day, completely cloudless sky, not too cold that shorts and short sleeved shirt would not be the perfect riding gear. Breakfast was had and by 9.00 AM the 2 buses and trailers with 38 bikers and their steeds were loaded up. (A good sign – we were on time, a rarity in biking circles).
We had a very slow 18km drive to the start of the ride, a few group photos were taken, a few warnings given about the nature of the ride, the conditions and how quickly the weather can change and we were off. I chose to ride with the fast pack and we quickly chewed up the first 17km to the top of the first of the steep downhill sections.
The trail is a four wheel drive track with a mix of rutted clay, large stones and gravel surface. I had a nice crash on the down hill, my front wheel shot out on and dropped into a clay rut and I was over the bars before I knew what happened. I lost a thin layer of skin in patches on both arm and legs but nothing major, after a quick lowering of the seat I was back on and off down the track again.
The downhill went on for a long time, finally ending in a great river crossing at the bottom of the valley. There were some awesome views of the park and surrounding mountains, and occasionally we stopped for snaps. After the river the track ambled up hill for 8km;s were there was a group stopped for ‘lunch’. At this point I found I had broken a spoke, so we I ripped that out, tightened a couple of others and took off after my friend. About 10km’s after that I snapped my chain and had to wait for someone with a chain tool to come by and rescue me. With 38 riders I knew someone would have 1… After a slow chain repair we took off for a final stop at the Owhango pub.
The pub is the official end of the ride and where the bus comes to collect riders and return them to the start. After 3 half hours of riding, 45 kms of track and a total of 900 metres of descending it was great to sit in the sun and sink a couple of beers.
Last weekend was the Vorb "mobbing" of the 42nd Traverse ride. 38 riders from all over the North Island, mostly Vorbii, headed to National Park in Tongariro National Park for a sifty ride of the 42nd Traverse. My friend and I took a day off work and left Auckland in the Audi, earliesh Friday morning to ride "Tree Trunk Gorge" as well.
Tree trunk gorge is a shared walk/ride track 22 Km's south of Turangi. We arrived at the trail head in the middle of the afternoon, after a leisurely drive
on a very nice day.The ride starts off with 5km sealed road descent down to the Tongariro River bridge.
There were 2 crosses at the bridge and a sign warning rafters to exit the river at this point. When you look down into the gorge you can see why, the river is very fast even though the water level is extremely low. Faster the bridge there was a further 500 metres of sealed road climb before the track began.
The track itself is only 4.7kms long and is primarily double track with some nice river crossings and rocky sections thrown in.
Even though the track is down inside the gorge the scenery is great, following the river through lovely native beech forest. The ride is generally downhill with a gentle gradient with 1 steep climb in the middle which we walked up. The track ends at a section of road that goes to the “Pinnacles of Hercules” bridge, sadly the bridge had been taken down when we arrived and a new bridge was to be built. The view from the bridge would be awesome!
This also left us with having to ride back the way we came, which was a shame. We did however use a piece of walking only track to avoid the road back the main track.
This kilometre stretch of tight, twisty, flowy single track was a highlight of the weekend for me – and we were not the first people to ride it either. The return trip through Tree trunk gorge was more enjoyable, the climb was easier and the downhill section was steep, rocky and a blast, so much better than the climb up. To cap it all off I got into a good rhythm on the road section back to the car and actually enjoyed the climb, my inner roadie was showing itself!After the ride, we drove down to National Park, to check into the lodge and find some food, a beer (or 3), and some of our riding colleagues for the next day. We had a fairly early night ready for the 42nd.
Saturday dawned as a stunning day, completely cloudless sky, not too cold that shorts and short sleeved shirt would not be the perfect riding gear. Breakfast was had and by 9.00 AM the 2 buses and trailers with 38 bikers and their steeds were loaded up. (A good sign – we were on time, a rarity in biking circles).
We had a very slow 18km drive to the start of the ride, a few group photos were taken, a few warnings given about the nature of the ride, the conditions and how quickly the weather can change and we were off. I chose to ride with the fast pack and we quickly chewed up the first 17km to the top of the first of the steep downhill sections.
The trail is a four wheel drive track with a mix of rutted clay, large stones and gravel surface. I had a nice crash on the down hill, my front wheel shot out on and dropped into a clay rut and I was over the bars before I knew what happened. I lost a thin layer of skin in patches on both arm and legs but nothing major, after a quick lowering of the seat I was back on and off down the track again.
The downhill went on for a long time, finally ending in a great river crossing at the bottom of the valley. There were some awesome views of the park and surrounding mountains, and occasionally we stopped for snaps. After the river the track ambled up hill for 8km;s were there was a group stopped for ‘lunch’. At this point I found I had broken a spoke, so we I ripped that out, tightened a couple of others and took off after my friend. About 10km’s after that I snapped my chain and had to wait for someone with a chain tool to come by and rescue me. With 38 riders I knew someone would have 1… After a slow chain repair we took off for a final stop at the Owhango pub.The pub is the official end of the ride and where the bus comes to collect riders and return them to the start. After 3 half hours of riding, 45 kms of track and a total of 900 metres of descending it was great to sit in the sun and sink a couple of beers.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Track Building
I have had the last 2 days off work on annual leave and have spent a few hours each day working on adding another 600-700 metres (my speedo wasnt working) of riding to the track I built last year.
The additional track has been marked out and raked and will now need to be attacked with a spade. I also need to bench a couple of sections and berm a couple of corners, one particularily needs a bit of work.
It was most enjoyable to spend some time in the forest in peace and quiet, just raking and digging.
The additional track has been marked out and raked and will now need to be attacked with a spade. I also need to bench a couple of sections and berm a couple of corners, one particularily needs a bit of work.
It was most enjoyable to spend some time in the forest in peace and quiet, just raking and digging.
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