Photos to come - for some reason I cannot post them.
Another Vaguely Organised Ride (Vorb.org.nz) for single speeders on the wonderful Rotorua single track. 10 riders from 4 towns said they would attend, but there is always more enthusiasm than reality on Vorb rides.
I wasn’t sure if I would make this ride either after being a bit down with a head cold earlier in the week. The weather forecast had not been that hot either and riders were starting to make noises about not going. My wife decided to come down wit the youngest and 1 of his friends and enjoy some of the other many pleasures of this wonderful adventure tourism town.
Saturday morning we work up at 7.00, 30 minutes late, and quickly piled into the car and took off 22 minutes later than planned. Stopped for breakie at the traditional MacDonalds stop, though I just filled the car with gas and didn’t even get my morning coffee. We were still running about 20 minutes late so but I wasn’t really driving too fast, tried to keep the speed between 100 and 110 km’s (speed limit is 100, but they ‘allow’ up to 110). But as always happens when my wife comes away on biking trips I got stopped for speeding, first time in 5 years. Damn $80 fine for 113km and another 10 minute delay. Stopped for a takeway coffee at Fizgerald Glade and rang the boys, I wasn’t the only one not there ! the Hamilton boys were late as usual. Finally got there 35 minutes late, Unloaded my stuff from the car and the wife and kids left me to it.
Amazingly almost everyone turned up. We had 8 singles speeders and 2 geared bikes. I have never seen 8 single speeders together ever. Awesome !
We rode the road as a warm up, of course there was a bit of racing going up the short climbs, but in theory it was a warm up…
The first trail we rode was A Trail, nice flowy single track – as is all of Rotorua, then the Tickler were we stopped for a munch and a photo before 7 of us took off for the ride up Hill Rd to the Rollercoaster, then Spring roll and Chop suey – or vice versa, not sure of all the names up there. I rode most of it, walked one small section, not realising the trail ended a few metres round the corner. The ‘back’ trails are just so wonderful, even after all the rain the conditions were generally firm underneath, with the soft section. We picked up the 2 geared bikes and the other single speeder at the start of Be rude not too (one of the best tracks in the forest), though the tank was starting to run low as always when we hit this trail. We ended up with a sore tired ‘sprint’ of the Diamondback trail, which is a fairly flat, almost rock hard trail with some nice big berms and natural(ish) drops and jumps. At the mid way point on the trail there is a gully that drops fairly steeply, and rises the same, we were catching our breath there when we heard the slide of brakes, a moments silence, the thump of a body hitting the ground and an ‘oooo’ from those who could see. We all rushed over to help/observe and saw and older guy in the mud on the ground. He was ok, (maybe bruised ribs) fortunately, lost the front wheel while riding the brakes down the gully. His mate had filmed it fortunately for us, and man it was a stylish over the bars dive !
Finished off the ride, and then met for a pre-ride scoff at Burger King before driving home.
Awesome ride, good company, wicked trails, no mechanicals and only one person fell off – getting on his bike at the end of the road climb…
Link to the ride post is here. http://www.vorb.org.nz/ftopicp-892978.html#892978
Listening to the Velvet Underground this morning, it has been a while and I am very much enjoying it.
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