My family are still mostly away so I met a mate after work for a couple of beers and then we went doen to Ken's Japanese restaurant.
We sat on stools in front of where the chef was cooking and drank a beer and ate. it was a damn good evening. I was a bit annoyed I had the car as I could have stayed there a lot longer eating this great Japanese BBQ food and drink Sapporo. The atmosphere in the place was so convivial. I am definately going back.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tuesday night ride
With most of the family away I took the opportunity to slip out for a Dodgy Tuesday ride. My intention was to take the AC out but it was still not in a rideable state. I got it back from the shop yesterday and the pivot bearings were all done nicely but the shop wanted the BB was pretty dodgy and it was making one hell of a noise. I was happy to ride with it like that but in the end I had to flag it as I could not get one of the pedals off, the crank insert came off with the pedal and there was no way I was going to ride with flats so the trusty DMR was loaded into the car again.
The weather over the past few days has been gorgeous and as I was having one of those days at work when I could just not focus, I got a good lunch time walk in to stretch my legs out, it took a while to open them up so I am glad I got out prior to the ride. I arrived at Pete’s place at Murawai and there was a good crowd already there, nice mix of teenagers and older folks and there was another single speeded DMR as well which was good, all up 9 of us rode, the biggest crowd yet.
We rode up the road as normal and down the walking track then back to gannet colony and down the steps, traditional start and I am getting more and more comfortable with the steps though I am still one of the slowest riders down both those trails. I have realised that compared to the other riders my home made lights suck big time on the down hills. I am just not getting a range of light that makes me comfortable to hit things at speed. They are ok in the tighter slower stuff or on trails where I know every corner and every root, but for speed in not too familiar territory they just suck !
In the forest we rode up past the start of Dan’s track which we normally do to look at a new trail being built by one of the young guys. It was steep and short with a number of lethal looking jumps. I like steep and short and I am not opposed to jumps, but what pissed me off a bit on this trail was the first jump I saw had a small sand kicker to a steep bank tranny, nothing wrong with that you might think, except the mong had dug a pit on the transition forcing it into a step down. If I had been coming down the hill I would have hit that jump as it was tiny and then landed front wheel first into the pit and brained myself. Given that we are not supposed to ride here and the land owners seem to tolerate sensible trails and well designed jumps – and there are some big jumps here, building something stupid that some one is going to get hurt on is brainless. Anyway….
We rode back and did Dan’s trail which is a fun and well designed short downhill trail and then rode the riverside trail as normal. We then rode back up to the top of AFL through the back road, I haven’t ridden this road for a while and got a bit of a sprint on one of the climbs until I realised/remembered this was the start of the climb – I ended up walking the top of it, it just seemed to go on and on (we are talking Auckland climbing here folks so on and on is not much !)
AFL is such a fun trail to ride down, I really want to do it during the day so I can see here I am going and get to learn all the corners and where the jumps are. I missed one corner and went straight off the side of track, but it is just scrubby cutty grass so no injuries.
From the end of AFL we rode back to the cars and went home.
The weather over the past few days has been gorgeous and as I was having one of those days at work when I could just not focus, I got a good lunch time walk in to stretch my legs out, it took a while to open them up so I am glad I got out prior to the ride. I arrived at Pete’s place at Murawai and there was a good crowd already there, nice mix of teenagers and older folks and there was another single speeded DMR as well which was good, all up 9 of us rode, the biggest crowd yet.
We rode up the road as normal and down the walking track then back to gannet colony and down the steps, traditional start and I am getting more and more comfortable with the steps though I am still one of the slowest riders down both those trails. I have realised that compared to the other riders my home made lights suck big time on the down hills. I am just not getting a range of light that makes me comfortable to hit things at speed. They are ok in the tighter slower stuff or on trails where I know every corner and every root, but for speed in not too familiar territory they just suck !
In the forest we rode up past the start of Dan’s track which we normally do to look at a new trail being built by one of the young guys. It was steep and short with a number of lethal looking jumps. I like steep and short and I am not opposed to jumps, but what pissed me off a bit on this trail was the first jump I saw had a small sand kicker to a steep bank tranny, nothing wrong with that you might think, except the mong had dug a pit on the transition forcing it into a step down. If I had been coming down the hill I would have hit that jump as it was tiny and then landed front wheel first into the pit and brained myself. Given that we are not supposed to ride here and the land owners seem to tolerate sensible trails and well designed jumps – and there are some big jumps here, building something stupid that some one is going to get hurt on is brainless. Anyway….
We rode back and did Dan’s trail which is a fun and well designed short downhill trail and then rode the riverside trail as normal. We then rode back up to the top of AFL through the back road, I haven’t ridden this road for a while and got a bit of a sprint on one of the climbs until I realised/remembered this was the start of the climb – I ended up walking the top of it, it just seemed to go on and on (we are talking Auckland climbing here folks so on and on is not much !)
AFL is such a fun trail to ride down, I really want to do it during the day so I can see here I am going and get to learn all the corners and where the jumps are. I missed one corner and went straight off the side of track, but it is just scrubby cutty grass so no injuries.
From the end of AFL we rode back to the cars and went home.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Auckland Champs race 1
The weather for race day was great, the first really warm day of spring, maybe even too hot for racing so early in the season (especially the day after seeing a documentary about global warming…). There has been a warning over the last few days that the hole in the ozone layer has a temporary tear in it so today was supposed to be particularly hazardous with extreme levels of ultra-violet radiation.
The first round of the four round series was held in Woodhill forest so it was a good place for me to start as I am familiar with all the trails and will know how to pace myself against the rest of the riders in the expert 40+ class. I arrived in the forest with plenty of time to spare and got my registration completed with about any hassles. As always there seemed to be very few riders given that there are a few thousand riders in Auckland, probably only 150 across all the classes. This is a real shame as the racing is fun, it may be called the Auckland Champs, but a lot of the punters, like me, are only there for the fun of racing and testing oneself against peers.
The race was scheduled for 5 8km laps for the 40+ men with a lap cut off of 1 hour 45. I wasn’t 100% clear on that at the start as I had never experienced that in an event before, soon found out what it meant though! The course was supposed to be fast and for some it was, I thought it was tough for single speeding, but then I am not a racer.
The race village was next to the training ground by the old car park. The loop started with a 1km climb up to the top of Link, then down the fence line between the Travis trail and the road we just climbed. We then rode through the valley between Link and Upland and walked up the steep climb a the end of the valley towards Enchanted Forest, down Enchanted Forest and straight through the firebreak down the middle of the Haggis block. We then climbed No brakes – (this was going to hurt) down Conifer the wrong way up the nasty pinch climb and into Tree Huggas, then across the finish line and back up the hill. There seemed to be a lot more up than down… I completed 4 laps before being stopped on the way out for my 5th at the 2 hour mark. If I had realised I would have ridden harder on the last lap but I would not have made up the 8 minutes I was behind the single speeder who finished in front of me.
As there were a few single speeders riding the organisers, at our request, split us off into a separate class which was cool – and even better the class will remain through out the series.
I managed to average around 30 minute laps which was slower than the lap times for the Taupo race even though the course was shorter, it was definitely a tougher course.
In the end I came 6th out of 9 single speeders which I was happy with.
The first round of the four round series was held in Woodhill forest so it was a good place for me to start as I am familiar with all the trails and will know how to pace myself against the rest of the riders in the expert 40+ class. I arrived in the forest with plenty of time to spare and got my registration completed with about any hassles. As always there seemed to be very few riders given that there are a few thousand riders in Auckland, probably only 150 across all the classes. This is a real shame as the racing is fun, it may be called the Auckland Champs, but a lot of the punters, like me, are only there for the fun of racing and testing oneself against peers.
The race was scheduled for 5 8km laps for the 40+ men with a lap cut off of 1 hour 45. I wasn’t 100% clear on that at the start as I had never experienced that in an event before, soon found out what it meant though! The course was supposed to be fast and for some it was, I thought it was tough for single speeding, but then I am not a racer.
The race village was next to the training ground by the old car park. The loop started with a 1km climb up to the top of Link, then down the fence line between the Travis trail and the road we just climbed. We then rode through the valley between Link and Upland and walked up the steep climb a the end of the valley towards Enchanted Forest, down Enchanted Forest and straight through the firebreak down the middle of the Haggis block. We then climbed No brakes – (this was going to hurt) down Conifer the wrong way up the nasty pinch climb and into Tree Huggas, then across the finish line and back up the hill. There seemed to be a lot more up than down… I completed 4 laps before being stopped on the way out for my 5th at the 2 hour mark. If I had realised I would have ridden harder on the last lap but I would not have made up the 8 minutes I was behind the single speeder who finished in front of me.
As there were a few single speeders riding the organisers, at our request, split us off into a separate class which was cool – and even better the class will remain through out the series.
I managed to average around 30 minute laps which was slower than the lap times for the Taupo race even though the course was shorter, it was definitely a tougher course.
In the end I came 6th out of 9 single speeders which I was happy with.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Inconvienient Truth
My wife and I took our youngest son to the airport this morning as he is flying down to Nelson to stay with my sister and her young boys just out of Blenheim for the first 10 days of the school holidays. I think everyone is looking forward to his trip. My oldest son has moved out for a couple of weeks and is supposedly living with his girl fried and her family. I am not 100% sure, it is a major concern to us, but not something here. On Monday my wife goes away for a holiday with a friend for 3 nights so there will be me and my daughter home for a few days. I think I will squeeze a couple of night rides in
My wife and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth this afternoon, interesting movie, I liked it, Gore is a good presenter and covered the at times technical material in an interesting and easy to understand fashion. I will need to think more on the film.
Listening to some D and B - NZ band Concorde Dawn. I have never been a fan of D and B but I really like this, my daughter bought their CD.
My wife and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth this afternoon, interesting movie, I liked it, Gore is a good presenter and covered the at times technical material in an interesting and easy to understand fashion. I will need to think more on the film.
Listening to some D and B - NZ band Concorde Dawn. I have never been a fan of D and B but I really like this, my daughter bought their CD.
Friday, September 22, 2006
The week wrapped up
Well it has been a busy week since I came back from the Day Night Thriller, caught up on sleep on Sunday night after a family birthday dinner at my parents.
The first race of the Auckland MTB XC Champs is this Sunday so I intended on taking the exercise easy this week while watching my diet. Sadly I have managed over exceed in the taking it easy part but have stuffed my self stupid with all sorts of crap all week – a real chocolate biscuit blow out. I am looking forward to the race even though I am doing it on the single and really expect to more last than first. There are some quick guys in expert 40+.
The Auckland DH series schedule has also been posted and I am sort of interested in having a go in one of the easy races. I will at least turn up for practise day and see how I go. I will ride this on the AC, though it is no way near a DH bike it will be heaps quicker than the DMR. I have taken the AC into get the rear swing arm pivot bearings replaced. Hopefully that is all that is wrong with the bike as I do not want to spend too much money on it. It has only been ridden a couple of times this year as number 1 son is not interested in riding any more. I plan on riding it on Tuesday night for my first Dodgy Tuesday ride in a while.
Went for a run last night, did the Godley, Portage, Astley, Taupo road 8k, loop. It was OK, I haven’t run for a while. I neglected to stretch after and later in the evening I really was quite tight.
The race is coming along nicely. I have had enquiries from over 30 people now, quite a few I have never heard of before so I am getting a bit excited about the whole thing. I have also had some spot prizes donated by the NZ Fox clothing distributor which is very cool as well…
The first race of the Auckland MTB XC Champs is this Sunday so I intended on taking the exercise easy this week while watching my diet. Sadly I have managed over exceed in the taking it easy part but have stuffed my self stupid with all sorts of crap all week – a real chocolate biscuit blow out. I am looking forward to the race even though I am doing it on the single and really expect to more last than first. There are some quick guys in expert 40+.
The Auckland DH series schedule has also been posted and I am sort of interested in having a go in one of the easy races. I will at least turn up for practise day and see how I go. I will ride this on the AC, though it is no way near a DH bike it will be heaps quicker than the DMR. I have taken the AC into get the rear swing arm pivot bearings replaced. Hopefully that is all that is wrong with the bike as I do not want to spend too much money on it. It has only been ridden a couple of times this year as number 1 son is not interested in riding any more. I plan on riding it on Tuesday night for my first Dodgy Tuesday ride in a while.
Went for a run last night, did the Godley, Portage, Astley, Taupo road 8k, loop. It was OK, I haven’t run for a while. I neglected to stretch after and later in the evening I really was quite tight.
The race is coming along nicely. I have had enquiries from over 30 people now, quite a few I have never heard of before so I am getting a bit excited about the whole thing. I have also had some spot prizes donated by the NZ Fox clothing distributor which is very cool as well…
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Day night Thriller 12 hour race
Stayed the night at Nici’s family’s bach in Kinloch as we are down in Taupo for the annual Day night Thriller 12 hour team race. I am in single speed team riding under the Essence Bicycle banner again. My normal event buddies Miles, Nici and Graham are riding in geared teams. This is the 6th time I have been down for this race, though it is my first year on the single speed.
Had my usual pre-race really bad nights sleep so got up when I heard noises coming from the kitchen about 6.15. Had breakfast and a couple of coffees with Miles and then we drive to race site meeting some of Miles team mates on the way. Their teams had sites in block A but I was way the heck up in block C. So after helping put the tent up I humped my ten tons of crap over to my team. We had 2 teams of 4 single speeders racing in the open mens 4/5 person class. All the usual suspects were there plus a couple of guys I have not raced with before but had met at previous rides. We had riders from all over the north island riding with us which was pretty cool.
The race itself started at 10.30 AM and our first rider completed the first lap in the chaos of 400+ riders on a fixed gear bike – the nutter came past in 38th place, setting a big challenge for the rest of us. Apart from some screw ups with the timing system that saw us, plus others lose laps the race went well. We were not overly serious about it all, but every dug it in for their laps and we ended up 22nd out of our class of about 120 teams with the other teams not far behind in 27th place. We completed 28 of the 8.2km laps with only 1 lap over 30 minutes long, my longest lap was 27 and something minutes so I was very pleased. I have never done 7 laps before and never have all my laps been under 30 minutes, I am getting fitter and faster !
From our site the course was flat on a dusty/sandy path for about 100 meters then it shot down a grass hill with a tasty off camber corner at the bottom that was sure to see some carnage if it rained. After a further 200 metres of open riding the track started a gradual climb into an open pine forest. The single track of previous years had been widened the whole way to double track to allow for easier passing it had also been extended by quite a bit as well which was cool. It was not in any way a technical course, but it do have some small pinch climbs, some down bits and some flat bits so it was fun in the forest. After the forest there were 2 nasty little pinch climbs that I managed to ride up very time, though it was close a couple of times and then there was a kilometre or so of riding through the camp sites and over the timing line back to the site were you changed rider.
Not sure where we came out of the whole event as the results and timing was a bit screwed this year, normally it is fine so not going to whinge too much.
I left my team as the last rider crossed the finish line and made my way back over to Miles car and he drove us home. I had to be home as my youngest did not organise himself somewhere to be on Sunday when my wife went to work and I believe it is unfair if I tell where to go just so as I can go off and have fun. Miles was happy to drive home as well so we did. My wife decided not to work and went with the youngest and stayed the night at a friends place – oh well. I Got home at 2:30 AM, had a shower and went to bed. Slept till 6.30 and work up starving and 1 year older. I am 44 today. I got up at 9.00 and made myself eggs and baked beans on toast, as that was kinda all there was.
Went and picked my wife and youngest up and had lunch with friends got a couple of good books for my birthday so spent most of the afternoon reading and dozing.
3 rides in 3 different locations in 1 week - Awesome !
Had my usual pre-race really bad nights sleep so got up when I heard noises coming from the kitchen about 6.15. Had breakfast and a couple of coffees with Miles and then we drive to race site meeting some of Miles team mates on the way. Their teams had sites in block A but I was way the heck up in block C. So after helping put the tent up I humped my ten tons of crap over to my team. We had 2 teams of 4 single speeders racing in the open mens 4/5 person class. All the usual suspects were there plus a couple of guys I have not raced with before but had met at previous rides. We had riders from all over the north island riding with us which was pretty cool.
The race itself started at 10.30 AM and our first rider completed the first lap in the chaos of 400+ riders on a fixed gear bike – the nutter came past in 38th place, setting a big challenge for the rest of us. Apart from some screw ups with the timing system that saw us, plus others lose laps the race went well. We were not overly serious about it all, but every dug it in for their laps and we ended up 22nd out of our class of about 120 teams with the other teams not far behind in 27th place. We completed 28 of the 8.2km laps with only 1 lap over 30 minutes long, my longest lap was 27 and something minutes so I was very pleased. I have never done 7 laps before and never have all my laps been under 30 minutes, I am getting fitter and faster !
From our site the course was flat on a dusty/sandy path for about 100 meters then it shot down a grass hill with a tasty off camber corner at the bottom that was sure to see some carnage if it rained. After a further 200 metres of open riding the track started a gradual climb into an open pine forest. The single track of previous years had been widened the whole way to double track to allow for easier passing it had also been extended by quite a bit as well which was cool. It was not in any way a technical course, but it do have some small pinch climbs, some down bits and some flat bits so it was fun in the forest. After the forest there were 2 nasty little pinch climbs that I managed to ride up very time, though it was close a couple of times and then there was a kilometre or so of riding through the camp sites and over the timing line back to the site were you changed rider.
Not sure where we came out of the whole event as the results and timing was a bit screwed this year, normally it is fine so not going to whinge too much.
I left my team as the last rider crossed the finish line and made my way back over to Miles car and he drove us home. I had to be home as my youngest did not organise himself somewhere to be on Sunday when my wife went to work and I believe it is unfair if I tell where to go just so as I can go off and have fun. Miles was happy to drive home as well so we did. My wife decided not to work and went with the youngest and stayed the night at a friends place – oh well. I Got home at 2:30 AM, had a shower and went to bed. Slept till 6.30 and work up starving and 1 year older. I am 44 today. I got up at 9.00 and made myself eggs and baked beans on toast, as that was kinda all there was.
Went and picked my wife and youngest up and had lunch with friends got a couple of good books for my birthday so spent most of the afternoon reading and dozing.
3 rides in 3 different locations in 1 week - Awesome !
Friday, September 15, 2006
Whirinaki Ride
The track is in the Whirinaki National Park which is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). It has only been very recent that DOC have started to allow mountain bikers back into selected wilderness areas so we were keen to show our support for this initiative.
I would like to say I have been looking forward to this ride for a long time but since I only read about it in the June/July NZ MTBer magazine and the trail only officially opened in mid-August I could be called a liar. I can say I have been looking forward to this ride for a very short time, but I have been really really looking forward to it! The review in the magazine and the feedback I have read from other riders suggests this 2 or so hour ride in virgin native bush is just stunning so it sounded like the perfect warm up for the Day Night thriller 12 hour event the following day.
My normal riding buddy – Miles (I am going to use names from now on) picked me up at 7.00 AM Friday morning with coffee at the BP being the first stop for the day. We had an uneventful, and quite fast trip to Rotorua arriving about 30 minutes earlier than expected so we stopped in for a coffee at Fat Dog, met up with Brent who was riding with us and then went looking for a bakery to pick up some lunch for later on. I spotted a bakery and noticed it was next to a new bike shop Kiwi Bikes, owned by Jeff who custom builds bike frames. I have never met Jeff before but have seen his beautifully crafted steel frames under a number of fellow single speeders, in fact there are 2 of them in the Essence Bicycle SS teams at tomorrow’s race. Jeff is a pretty cool guy, had a good chat, rode his SS around and got measured up in case I want to order a frame ! – which I do. This could be the plan for next year. While I love the geometry of the DMR it is a bit too small for XC racing, a frame an inch or so larger but keep the style and geometry of the DMR would be perfect. We then carried on down towards the Whirinaki forest, I have not been down to that part of NZ in well over 20 years, it is quite rugged, quite beautiful and for the folk living there, quite poor, verging on Deliverance country. We got to the car park earlier than expect and had to wait around for a while for Colin who was coming up from Wellington.
Though the day had started off wet and cold, by the time we hit the forest the clouds had parted and we spent an hour waiting here ;
Could there be anything better ? I really regret not having a decent camera, my next purchase major purchase, even before bike stuff, is going to be a camera.
Once Colin arrived we set off on the ride, the trail was wonderfully crafted, a fairly gentle gradient led the way up into the hills. For most of the rise the track was fairly wide single track, well benched and with a number of water bars, there were a couple of fire road sections and one log ride over a gully. The whole track was easily rideable, though I chose to walk a couple of sections to avoid blowing out the day before a race.
At the top of the climb we stopped here for photos and a snack.
The forest was incredible to ride through, sub-tropical native bush full of massive Tawa, Kahikatiha and Rimu trees (I think). From the mid-way stop there was a 1-2km downhill that was grin inducingly good, not steep, just long and swoopy, fast but not furious – oh was I smiling when it ended…
There was another longish climbing section out of the park, which reduced the width of the grin a bit but it is such a lovely place that even climbing was good.
After 1.45 we popped out of the forest and into the car park and into the waiting arms of 2 DOC workers. These were the 2 guys who built the track, neither were bikers – they said so, but you could tell by their size ! They had had some guidance from one of the local Rotorua riders but the rest of the trail was there own work. It was hard to believe that this trail had not been built by riders and experienced trail builders, it was so well constructed. They were so keen to discuss the track with us, their enthusiasm was quite infectious, we discussed various sections of the trail and why they did it the way they did and did we like the log, and were the water bars too intrusive. Great to see such enthusiasm for delivery a quality product from DOC.
After they left Miles and I took a slow drive down to Taupo and purchased some supplies for the race tomorrow. We then drove out to our Friday night accommodation with Graham and Nici at Nici’s family bach in Kinloch, had a beer or two and went to bed.
It was a great day !
I would like to say I have been looking forward to this ride for a long time but since I only read about it in the June/July NZ MTBer magazine and the trail only officially opened in mid-August I could be called a liar. I can say I have been looking forward to this ride for a very short time, but I have been really really looking forward to it! The review in the magazine and the feedback I have read from other riders suggests this 2 or so hour ride in virgin native bush is just stunning so it sounded like the perfect warm up for the Day Night thriller 12 hour event the following day.
My normal riding buddy – Miles (I am going to use names from now on) picked me up at 7.00 AM Friday morning with coffee at the BP being the first stop for the day. We had an uneventful, and quite fast trip to Rotorua arriving about 30 minutes earlier than expected so we stopped in for a coffee at Fat Dog, met up with Brent who was riding with us and then went looking for a bakery to pick up some lunch for later on. I spotted a bakery and noticed it was next to a new bike shop Kiwi Bikes, owned by Jeff who custom builds bike frames. I have never met Jeff before but have seen his beautifully crafted steel frames under a number of fellow single speeders, in fact there are 2 of them in the Essence Bicycle SS teams at tomorrow’s race. Jeff is a pretty cool guy, had a good chat, rode his SS around and got measured up in case I want to order a frame ! – which I do. This could be the plan for next year. While I love the geometry of the DMR it is a bit too small for XC racing, a frame an inch or so larger but keep the style and geometry of the DMR would be perfect. We then carried on down towards the Whirinaki forest, I have not been down to that part of NZ in well over 20 years, it is quite rugged, quite beautiful and for the folk living there, quite poor, verging on Deliverance country. We got to the car park earlier than expect and had to wait around for a while for Colin who was coming up from Wellington.
Though the day had started off wet and cold, by the time we hit the forest the clouds had parted and we spent an hour waiting here ;
Could there be anything better ? I really regret not having a decent camera, my next purchase major purchase, even before bike stuff, is going to be a camera.
Once Colin arrived we set off on the ride, the trail was wonderfully crafted, a fairly gentle gradient led the way up into the hills. For most of the rise the track was fairly wide single track, well benched and with a number of water bars, there were a couple of fire road sections and one log ride over a gully. The whole track was easily rideable, though I chose to walk a couple of sections to avoid blowing out the day before a race.
At the top of the climb we stopped here for photos and a snack.
The forest was incredible to ride through, sub-tropical native bush full of massive Tawa, Kahikatiha and Rimu trees (I think). From the mid-way stop there was a 1-2km downhill that was grin inducingly good, not steep, just long and swoopy, fast but not furious – oh was I smiling when it ended…
There was another longish climbing section out of the park, which reduced the width of the grin a bit but it is such a lovely place that even climbing was good.
After 1.45 we popped out of the forest and into the car park and into the waiting arms of 2 DOC workers. These were the 2 guys who built the track, neither were bikers – they said so, but you could tell by their size ! They had had some guidance from one of the local Rotorua riders but the rest of the trail was there own work. It was hard to believe that this trail had not been built by riders and experienced trail builders, it was so well constructed. They were so keen to discuss the track with us, their enthusiasm was quite infectious, we discussed various sections of the trail and why they did it the way they did and did we like the log, and were the water bars too intrusive. Great to see such enthusiasm for delivery a quality product from DOC.
After they left Miles and I took a slow drive down to Taupo and purchased some supplies for the race tomorrow. We then drove out to our Friday night accommodation with Graham and Nici at Nici’s family bach in Kinloch, had a beer or two and went to bed.
It was a great day !
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Oropi Grove ride
I had a work trip to Tauranga booked in today, conveniently one of the Vorb Tauranga locals had a bit of free time in the afternoon so we planned to hook up for an afternoon ride at Oropi Grove.
Had a painfully slow drive to Tauranga in the morning, I left home at 6.45 AM thinking I would miss the worst of the traffic, damn road works proved me wrong, it took me an hour to get to the BP fuel stop on the motorway, get a coffee and back on the road. 3 hours to Tauranga – slow !
However, work went pretty well, I had the audit complete by 12.00, the network upgrade went pretty good at mid-day and most things were wrapped up by 1.00. I went to catch up with a friend for a coffee at 2.00 and then managed to clear the office by 3.30 to go to Oropi for a ride. I have been pretty lucky with getting rides in when I go to Tauranga on work trips, and you would think I could find the damn place…. No ! I had instructions from a guy in the office plus instructions from the guy I was meeting; they sort of conflicted so I ended up getting quite lost. To compound this my horn started to go off kind of randomly, which was a bit embarrassing as it hooted at the car in front of me at a red light. Luckily I found an auto electrician who spent an entire 10 seconds disabling it for me. Once that was sorted I got new directions and soon found my way to the bike park and met my riding buddy.
The weather was good but there had been a bit of rain over the weekend, so the tracks were a bit greasy in places, most of the track was pretty good, but I did slide off once when I my front wheel did not go round a corner at the same pace as the rest of the bike. We rode at fairly decent pace, not too fast but definitely not slow, we also hardly stopped so it was quite a good pre-race build up ride. There is not a lot of trail at Oropi, In the 50 minutes we were riding we covered most of the trails and one section twice, nice mix of short climbs and twisty downhills. It is a fun place to ride with heaps of little (and not so little jumps and drops to play on).
It was a good ride, I felt good getting back into the car for the long drive home.
No injuries and no mechanicals, though I do need to buy some more brake pads before I go away at the weekend.
Had a painfully slow drive to Tauranga in the morning, I left home at 6.45 AM thinking I would miss the worst of the traffic, damn road works proved me wrong, it took me an hour to get to the BP fuel stop on the motorway, get a coffee and back on the road. 3 hours to Tauranga – slow !
However, work went pretty well, I had the audit complete by 12.00, the network upgrade went pretty good at mid-day and most things were wrapped up by 1.00. I went to catch up with a friend for a coffee at 2.00 and then managed to clear the office by 3.30 to go to Oropi for a ride. I have been pretty lucky with getting rides in when I go to Tauranga on work trips, and you would think I could find the damn place…. No ! I had instructions from a guy in the office plus instructions from the guy I was meeting; they sort of conflicted so I ended up getting quite lost. To compound this my horn started to go off kind of randomly, which was a bit embarrassing as it hooted at the car in front of me at a red light. Luckily I found an auto electrician who spent an entire 10 seconds disabling it for me. Once that was sorted I got new directions and soon found my way to the bike park and met my riding buddy.
The weather was good but there had been a bit of rain over the weekend, so the tracks were a bit greasy in places, most of the track was pretty good, but I did slide off once when I my front wheel did not go round a corner at the same pace as the rest of the bike. We rode at fairly decent pace, not too fast but definitely not slow, we also hardly stopped so it was quite a good pre-race build up ride. There is not a lot of trail at Oropi, In the 50 minutes we were riding we covered most of the trails and one section twice, nice mix of short climbs and twisty downhills. It is a fun place to ride with heaps of little (and not so little jumps and drops to play on).
It was a good ride, I felt good getting back into the car for the long drive home.
No injuries and no mechanicals, though I do need to buy some more brake pads before I go away at the weekend.
Monday, September 11, 2006
A rare sunday ride.
My wife worked Saturday this week so I was able to do a Sunday ride with my old buddies, it was good to ride with them again so soon after the last time. It was lucky really as the weather on Saturday was just awful with really heavy rain, Sunday was no summer’s day but at least the rain held off for the ride. The great thing about Woodhill is it sand based so the really heavy rain does not cause too much damage to track or create miles of bog land. The tracks were the wettest I can remember though with some massive puddles. So bad I had to clean my bike when I got home, which is really rare after a Woodhill ride…
For various reasons only 2 of the Sunday crew turned up, along with my normal Saturday riding buddy there were just the 4 of us. With all the miserable weather the car park was quite empty as well which is pretty unusual for a Sunday.
I was still getting over the head cold so the first climb up to the main riding hour was almost a struggle. The old Sunday crew are a pretty slow bunch, so I was fairly settled into a slow ride with lots of breaks, which really suited how I was feeling. We meandered along through the first few stage of Spaghetti and then took a run down Afterglow. I dropped my seat for the down hill section and really had a blast riding down it, took all but the big jump at the end as well, so really getting some confidence back in the air. I think once I get the AC all fixed I will take some time and go do some jumps and try to get into doing some of the bigger ones again.
Took a bit of a slow grind out through Fattucine and then I did a sprint up the link trial because it was there. Slow meander through Cookie and another sprint down Raceface down back to the car.
Not a bad ride, nice to see the guys again and good to blow some of the last of the head cold out.
For various reasons only 2 of the Sunday crew turned up, along with my normal Saturday riding buddy there were just the 4 of us. With all the miserable weather the car park was quite empty as well which is pretty unusual for a Sunday.
I was still getting over the head cold so the first climb up to the main riding hour was almost a struggle. The old Sunday crew are a pretty slow bunch, so I was fairly settled into a slow ride with lots of breaks, which really suited how I was feeling. We meandered along through the first few stage of Spaghetti and then took a run down Afterglow. I dropped my seat for the down hill section and really had a blast riding down it, took all but the big jump at the end as well, so really getting some confidence back in the air. I think once I get the AC all fixed I will take some time and go do some jumps and try to get into doing some of the bigger ones again.
Took a bit of a slow grind out through Fattucine and then I did a sprint up the link trial because it was there. Slow meander through Cookie and another sprint down Raceface down back to the car.
Not a bad ride, nice to see the guys again and good to blow some of the last of the head cold out.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Sick
Bugger I am sick again
Second time this year, I am never sick more than once a year. So far just a crappy head cold and nothing too bad, though I did not ride tonight on the normal dodgy Tuesday ride.
I am hoping to sneak out tomorrow night if I can though the forecast is pretty average, well it is for rain..
I bought the new Drive By Truckers CD yesterday with the CD vouchers I got. It is not bad, but I think I prefered the early darker stuff. I havent had a good listen yet though.
Second time this year, I am never sick more than once a year. So far just a crappy head cold and nothing too bad, though I did not ride tonight on the normal dodgy Tuesday ride.
I am hoping to sneak out tomorrow night if I can though the forecast is pretty average, well it is for rain..
I bought the new Drive By Truckers CD yesterday with the CD vouchers I got. It is not bad, but I think I prefered the early darker stuff. I havent had a good listen yet though.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Sunday run
Sunday was Fathers Day – so naturally there were no children about to welcome in the day with me or make me breakfast. I had a few wines last night so the day started slowly. I couldn’t be bothered riding which was a surprise. I had breakfast about 9 and got out for a run at about 10.00.
I ran up through Titirangi and along exhibition drive and back, about 13.5k with a nice hill to start. Felt Ok though my time was a bit slow at 1:11.
Though in the day I started to come down with a crappy head cold, so I guess that was a key to my average run.
Got a nice stainless hip flask and cd vouchers for Fathers day.
I ran up through Titirangi and along exhibition drive and back, about 13.5k with a nice hill to start. Felt Ok though my time was a bit slow at 1:11.
Though in the day I started to come down with a crappy head cold, so I guess that was a key to my average run.
Got a nice stainless hip flask and cd vouchers for Fathers day.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
A normal ride for me and my various riding crews is to ride a trail, usually as hard as possible and then stop at the end of the trail for a chat and wait for the group to reform. The plan for this and next weeks Saturday morning ride is to do 3 x 30 minute non-stop sessions as a final build up to the 12 hour event in 2 weeks. Most of the trails in Woodhill are about 10 minutes long so I am very used to a 10 minute ride, rest, another 10 minute ride. While I can now do these rides at a reasonable pace, I need to be able to easily sustain 30 minutes at pace.
It was another good riding day, cloudy and cool with no wind. 3 of us rode this morning same as crew as last week. We took the first climb up Powerball at a leisurely pace as a warm up and then started the first 30 minute ride on Big Mama, I tried to keep to a fairly regular pace along the trails and was feeling good at the top of the Big Mama hill, possibly the easiest I have done it on the SS. By the end of Big Mama I had a bit of a gap on the other two riders, so I dropped the pace a touch as we went into Big Mama’s tail. I haven’t ridden that trail for ages, may even be the first time on the SS, the trail starts off quite nice with a swooping twisty ride down hill before rolling up and down for a lot longer than I remembered. Pretty much hit the 30 minute mark at the end of the trail. I have developed a really bad habit of riding with fingers over the break levers – I have dropped this to one finger now. But what this means is I feather brakes going into most corners, whether I need to or not, this is very very evident on trails I do not ride much. Today I really focused on keeping all my fingers around the bars except on down hill sections where I tried to brake as little as possible. I think I succeeded, I definitely went into some corners faster than I felt comfortable with but I never came close to crashing so I have new boundaries to push in my drive to be faster round the track.
Next ride was Upland, Lightening, Enchanted forest, all of Haggis and Tree Huggas. It took just over 30 minutes. I stopped briefly on Haggis to make sure my riding friends went straight ahead rather than taking the turn into Conifer. When we stopped we got passed by a rider who was hitting a nice fast pace so I caught him and hung on his rear wheel for most of the trail until he ducked off near the start of No Brakes. I did get run down and passed by a fast rider at the end of Haggis though. Man I haven’t been passed while riding for months, it sucks…
Next lap was a quick ride to the end Link, Cookie, Off Piste 2 and Raceface down. I haven’t done Off Piste for months so that was kinda fun. This last section took almost 30 minutes as well, though we were chatting as we rode.
Good ride, 3 30 minute rides as planned.
I have been listening to a bit of Slayer lately, really liking them at the moment.
It was another good riding day, cloudy and cool with no wind. 3 of us rode this morning same as crew as last week. We took the first climb up Powerball at a leisurely pace as a warm up and then started the first 30 minute ride on Big Mama, I tried to keep to a fairly regular pace along the trails and was feeling good at the top of the Big Mama hill, possibly the easiest I have done it on the SS. By the end of Big Mama I had a bit of a gap on the other two riders, so I dropped the pace a touch as we went into Big Mama’s tail. I haven’t ridden that trail for ages, may even be the first time on the SS, the trail starts off quite nice with a swooping twisty ride down hill before rolling up and down for a lot longer than I remembered. Pretty much hit the 30 minute mark at the end of the trail. I have developed a really bad habit of riding with fingers over the break levers – I have dropped this to one finger now. But what this means is I feather brakes going into most corners, whether I need to or not, this is very very evident on trails I do not ride much. Today I really focused on keeping all my fingers around the bars except on down hill sections where I tried to brake as little as possible. I think I succeeded, I definitely went into some corners faster than I felt comfortable with but I never came close to crashing so I have new boundaries to push in my drive to be faster round the track.
Next ride was Upland, Lightening, Enchanted forest, all of Haggis and Tree Huggas. It took just over 30 minutes. I stopped briefly on Haggis to make sure my riding friends went straight ahead rather than taking the turn into Conifer. When we stopped we got passed by a rider who was hitting a nice fast pace so I caught him and hung on his rear wheel for most of the trail until he ducked off near the start of No Brakes. I did get run down and passed by a fast rider at the end of Haggis though. Man I haven’t been passed while riding for months, it sucks…
Next lap was a quick ride to the end Link, Cookie, Off Piste 2 and Raceface down. I haven’t done Off Piste for months so that was kinda fun. This last section took almost 30 minutes as well, though we were chatting as we rode.
Good ride, 3 30 minute rides as planned.
I have been listening to a bit of Slayer lately, really liking them at the moment.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Thursday quick run
In my effort to capitalise on the 2 solid weeks of gym work I did last month I really want to get a couple of runs in each week as well as my 1 – 2 rides. If I can get an hour long run and a shorter run once a week I will be reasonably happy. My original plan was to do at least 1 morning run a week as I did get used to getting up at 5.30 to go to the gym. 2 weeks later I have failed miserably to get up before my normal work time of 6.48 – damn.
I did however go for a quick run last night. My goal was to the gently rolling 4.2km return run down Godley rd in under 20 minutes. I started off at a good pace and was 200 metres or so into the run before I realised my watch was not going. Arse. I ran the rest at a decent pace and set my watch at the half way point to see how I would have tracked, the return is slightly more up hill than the first leg so it was not a great test. I completed the return leg in 10:38 which could have been an under 20 but I doubt it. I did struggle a bit on the return. I really do not like running after a meal and I had stomach pains which I do not normally get.
Next week I focus on a morning run..
For this Saturdays ride I am planning on doing 2 or 3 30 minute non stop bursts to start getting used to short bursty rides before the day night thriller in 2 weeks time.
I did however go for a quick run last night. My goal was to the gently rolling 4.2km return run down Godley rd in under 20 minutes. I started off at a good pace and was 200 metres or so into the run before I realised my watch was not going. Arse. I ran the rest at a decent pace and set my watch at the half way point to see how I would have tracked, the return is slightly more up hill than the first leg so it was not a great test. I completed the return leg in 10:38 which could have been an under 20 but I doubt it. I did struggle a bit on the return. I really do not like running after a meal and I had stomach pains which I do not normally get.
Next week I focus on a morning run..
For this Saturdays ride I am planning on doing 2 or 3 30 minute non stop bursts to start getting used to short bursty rides before the day night thriller in 2 weeks time.
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