General update

The Loaded Hog fun run season started again on Tuesday night. The weather wasn’t too bad, cool and a bit of a breeze that seemed to drop before the run started. There didn’t seem to be as many people as last year, but there were 109 runners so that is not too shabby. I was expecting to do a 23 minute 5km but ended up with a 21:34 which I was more than happy with and came 47th, top half to start the season is pretty good.

Though Tuesday nights are starting to get a bit crowded with the dodgy night ride, Hog runs, Adidas have a run on Tuesdays with 3 distance options, and there is now a spin class in a hall in Titirangi, which looks fun. Will try and do the dodgy night ride next week if I can.

The bike is pretty much ready for the race this weekend, will tweak one of the wheels either tonight or when I get there tomorrow morning. I was going to swap the cleats in my shoes but I cannot one of them out so will run with the old cleats, or maybe swap shoes to the Nikes, which don’t fit as well but do have new cleats plus a better sole for walking, and there is going to be some walking in this race. The course has 2 big climbs, neither of which I have ridden all the way to the top of before, but then I have done one of them in a race situation either.

I am expecting some of the riders from the world champs to be racing as well, as the worlds are next week, it would be great to be in a race with a world champ. Must remember to take the camera.

The social race is taking shape, just waiting on clearance to hold it at Woodhill at it will be on. Have had more interest than I thought with a few emails from some absolute strangers…

The SSWC06 is on this weekend – one year I would love to attend this, sounds like a blast.

Bike maintenance

I must admit I suck at maintaining my bike. I can do the basics, but I do not have the tools to do the bigger jobs and well I am just not that good. One of the great things about the single speed is there is just so little to go wrong. I have taken this to a bit of an extreme and have got a bit slack at cleaning and lubing – though I do look after the chain.

Last night I went around to visit my buddy - he is an awesome bike mechanic, to get one of those once every few years jobs done which was replacing the BB. He installed a new, though, cheap bottom bracket in the DMR. I was given a Raceface BB with flogged bearings, which I will still use one day, but in this instance it was cheaper to buy a new BB.

Also replaced the chain, I did not get a test ride in so tonight I go for a quick zap around the block and make sure everything works, adjust the brakes and lube the chain. Tomorrow night I will try and get a longer short ride in to stretch the chain a bit and get the cranks going so I can make final adjustments before the 35km race on Saturday.

Final gym session

Got up at 5.35 and went to the gum for my final free session.

Had a good spin and did a few of the weight machines. I think I am stronger than when I started, I sure hope so. I managed 12 out of 14 days, had 2 Sunday lie ins.

At least tomorrow I can stay in bed until 6:30... Yahoo.

Nice and quiet at work this morning, so listening to some Clutch

Riverhead trail digging

Friday I registered for the 35km leg of the N-Duro Marathon race. I will do it on the SS but I believe I am going to be broken at the end. There are 2 good climbs, neither of which I have ever completed on the bike. There is also some nice single track with the inclusion of Hot X buns this year as well as Be rude not to which is still one of my favourite Rotorua trails, even though I am always half broken when I get there.

The MTB world champs are in Rotorua the week after the race, with the race being the first event in a week of MTB stuff happening in town. I really wish I had got my shit together and organised to go down for a few days. I know so many people taking the week off and volunteering during the week day events for free entry in to the big weekend.

I had a good morning at the gym, got a decent ride and some weights in, it is my second to last free day and I don’t think I will join.

After the gym I went straight to Riverhead forest for a trail scoping exercise with James to try and find an old trail to be cleared as part of designing a course for the last round of the Auckland champs in December. Riverhead is a commercial pine forest that has been half felled. The area we are looking at was felled about 2 years ago and 10 ft pines are starting to grow. Unfortunately the gorse has been rampant and it is incredibly thick and well over 6 feet tall in places.

Riverhead has long been an Auckland mountain biking institution though there have been access issues over the past few years with the previous forestry company. The new owners have yet to decide on what access they will allow the various interested parties and where and how they will allocate access, so we are all being cautious and following the basic trail building rules.


He was looking for a ‘trail’ that he had seen from overhead photos, the aim was to scope the trail and see where it ends, clear the worst of the gorse so that a trail cutting crew can go through on Sunday with scrub cutters to start cleaning the mess.

The weather was not the best for scoping at Riverhead, or in fact for doing anything at Riverhead. It rained on the way up to the forest but luckily it did not rain while we there. We walked up one track clearing some of the worse old gorse until we hit the top and then climbed the road to the top of Pattersons. There was an old fire trail off to the right that had been widened into a full forestry road and at the top of that an old bit of single track headed off down the ridge. We cleared the entry into the trail with the loppers and opened up the first 20 ft or so before heading down the trail clearing the worst of the old hard gorse as we went, leaving enough space to walk down without getting too scratched. The track was fairly greasy and in parts was over 6 inches deep in muddy water, there will be quite a bit of drainage work needed as well to prevent large ruts forming before the race. We realised time was moving away from us so really started to only clear the really thick stuff that would prevent a larger gang from seeing the track. About half way down the gorse cleared a bit and we had a good run to the end of the trail, before walking back to the car.

There is going to be a lot of work needed to complete the trail before any racing can be done it, gorse and cutty grass needs to be completely pushed back, otherwise it will grow over the trail again, the major ruts need to be taken out and some decent drainage put in. It will be a fun trail when it is finished though and is another option in quite big loop.

No cable - no ride !

I left work early to rush home to get the car back from the shop, it did not cost too much to get the electric window repaired, but any money spent on the car is money wasted.

Made it home by just after 5 which was enough time to get changed, load the car with bike and bike stuff, ram some bread into my mouth and hit the road to get to Murawai for a sifty illegal Tuesday night ride by 6.30 PM.

I managed the get changed bit, the start to load the car bit, before realising I did not have the bit of cable that goes between light and battery. It got left with someone at the Woodhill 12 hour. Shit bicks, unloaded car, got unchanged and sat in the lounge.

I did go round to a mates place to talk about replacing bearings in the new old BB I was given. I will check out bearing prices on Wednesday, but it could be cheaper to buy a new BB.

I have had 3 good gym sessions so far this week, getting the intensity level up, it is feeling just right now, mixing the bike one day with a run the next. 4 more days of free gym to go.

SS Poker race

Had a day off from the gym yesterday, just didn’t get around to going in the morning and then I had the youngest and his cousin for the day so couldn’t go till my wife got home from work at 7.00 and then it was dinner and then yada yada.

I did get up at 5.30 this morning though and got in a reasonable session before work. With the car off the road until I get the window repaired tomorrow I did not want to take it to work so caged a lift of an old colleague and caught the bus home. The bus ride was OK, not too crowded and relatively quick, took an hour but that is tolerable. Will be bussing in and out again tomorrow, as well. Thank God for MP3 players though !

I have decided to organise a single speed race at Woodhill. I have posted on a couple of forums and emailed a few single speeders to see if there is any interest. If I can get 10 definite starters it will be on. Tentative date is Oct 7.

Going to be based loosely on Bike Poker. There has been some reasonable interest so far, including a few people who are happy to help out with the event.

A good rainy ride

The gym has been going well, 5 days in a row and lifting the effort each day by a tiny amount. I still wonder if I am whimping out a bit though with the weights, but I am happy with what I am doing. I even went this morning before mountain biking.

The drivers side electric window in my car has broken, unfortunately it is in the full down position and for the first time in weeks it is raining solidly. Luckily I got a ride to the forest today otherwise I would have been unable to ride.

The plan for the ride today was to do a fire road loop and get some consistent hill work in – though the hills are not big, high, steep or long. With the rain and wind we decided to go straight into the forest. Rode Powerball, Spaghetti to the start of Afterglow, quick break there to take the rain coat off then a fast zap down Afterglow and the down Tortellini to the car park. Over the road and up Upland straight down the Lightening and Enchanted forest and brief break at the start of Haggis. Kept riding at a reasonable pace and was aiming to stop as little as possible. Haggis was great, cleaned that again without getting out of the seat, then the same on Northern exposure. Had a quick 5 at the start of my track and then rode up that, again sitting down for as much as possible. Had to stop in the middle a shortcut line had started to appear that cut a good 250 metres out of the track. I closed it off with logs and trail trash as best I could and we rode on. I guess one of the good things about people putting short cuts in a track means that it is a challenge to ride and they have failed to meet the challenge, which makes those who meet the challenge are the better for it. Shit the track ain’t that tough, I can ride the whole thing on the SS and I am not that good a rider. We rode the first section of Ironhorse then dropped out and finished Conifer loop and Haggis the rode the road back to the start of Raceface down and back to the carpark.

Fitness wise, I rode extremely well today, I felt good, kept a reasonable pace up, rode as much as I could sitting down. I am not sure of I was going to quickly or the conditions were a bit slippery, but I felt like I was riding like a muppet, washed out the front wheel, slipped on wet roots, Pity I cannot get skill and fitness all together in the same ride…

I have decide to do the 35km N-duro race in Rotorua in 2 weeks, will do it on the SS and it s going to be the longest SS ride I have done.


Listening to the Misfits this morning, I never really liked them that much but have borrowed a bunch of CD’s from a friend to see if my tastes have changed at all. They are still only OK.

2nd day at the gym

Hit the gym again this morning, got there 10 minutes earlier than yesterday at 5.45 AM but had a better idea of what to do so did not feel so stupid standing there staring vacantly at the machines. Jumped straight on to the bike and did the hill climb ride again for 30 minutes. Slightly higher level this time, and the one I will stick to for the next few days. Though tomorrow I may run instead to break up the training a bit. I followed that up with 8 minutes on the rowing machine, I wanted to do 2km but on this particular machine I could not work out how to change the view to show distance. I feel so stupid.

I did get to use some more of the weight machines today, there were more people there so I could sneakily watch how they used them and then follow. I did get stuck on one ugly piece of machinery that I gave up on. I now have 3 leg exercises sorted and 1 upper body pull down thing.

I appear to be really weak compared to other gym users as I cannot shift some of the weights the machines are set to.

Listening to some Skatalites this morning. Oh Yeah – the music at the gym sucks terribly.

12 Hours of Woodhill

I have been looking forward to this event since the team was called together. We have a 4 person SS team entered in the 4/5 person open team category. I have ridden with all the riders before, 2 at the Moonride 24 hour in May and 1 from N-Duro 24 hour in Feb. I am the only local which makes it all that much cooler. I have team leader and his wife staying at my place for the weekend which is cool, nice to be able to assist out of town racers for a change. We are all Vorbers... We are racing as Essence Bicycles Singole Velocita and now have matching shirts so really look the part. Though of course we are all riding different bikes.

Saturday morning dawned extremely foggy, though the forecast was good. Team leader went directly to the site where the other guys plus a couple of other Vorb related teams had set up and camped overnight. I went into town to pick up another out of town Vorber was racing 6 hour solo women. The 50 minute drive out to Woodhill saw the fog dissipate and nice clear sky come through for by the time we arrived at 9.00 AM. We left the car at the top car park and I took 2 trips to hump all my crap down to the site, man I am a heavy packer…

The main site
 













By the 10:30 race start, the bike had been tweaked, though I had horrid noises coming from the BB, I had sifted around and said hello to numerous riders I knew and had a good cup of coffee from the on-site cart. I felt for the organisers as sod all people turned out for the event. I am not sure of exact numbers yet but expect less than 1 third of the maximum was there. Really disappointing as there are around 3500 riders in Auckland more could have turned out to race. At least the traffic in the forest would not be too bad.

Our site

 












For a change I was not the lead rider, team leader took that honour which was great as it started with a 500 metre run to the bikes. Our plan was to take this event at a gentle pace and have fun and aim to not come last. Team leader came out of the forest 8.5kms and 28 minutes later in 7th place !

Team leader on the trail
 















which sent number 2 rider off at a charge. I took a couple of photos at the end of the single track and there was a steep sandy descent that was screwing people up on the first lap. It was going to be fun later in the day when it got really carved up. Team leader and No 2, both looked pretty broken and when it was my turn to go out I determined to take a slow ride up the hill and conserve energy for the rest of the lap, I also had a reasonable idea of the course and knew areas where I could gain an advantage on other riders if I had the grunt left in my legs.

A broken rider 2

 














The lap started with a 200 metre ride up and metal road and into the single track, going up Raceface Down the wrong way, turning off and down a narrow wooden bridge to the new section of trail we dug a few weeks back, the trail meandered up the hill with a couple of tiny pinch climbs but mostly doable seated. We then went over the road into stage 1 of Big Mama, then down into a tiny section of Cry Baby, popping back out onto the unsealed road and then back into Cray Baby and down all off Cookie. I nailed it in Cookie, patience on the climb meant I had plenty for this slightly uphill but wide, twisty single track. At the top off Cookie we crossed back into Spaghetti into one of my favourite sections of really twisty, slightly rooty single track, perfect for SS, couple of small jumps and some ride-alongs. I was starting to pass people from the end of No 2’s lap and aimed to nail all the slow ones before the tight decent as that was gong to be one of the fun parts of the track, fortunately no one held me up on that and I popped out at the bottom of Granny Hill. This was a bit of a grind – didn’t really need granny, I expected this to go through to the tent site, but it popped back into the forest again for another 500 metres of single track, then out and down the steep sandy descent, up a short climb then out into the tents, and a 29 minute lap done. I was happy…

Lap change Over

 
















No 4 went out for his lap and we were all settled down relaxing when 17 minutes later he came running back into the site pushing his bike with the chain dragging on the ground. We quickly sent rider no 1 back out while rider 4 lay collapsed in a fetid heap on the ground. His tensioner gave up half way into the forest…

My BB was making really awful grinding noises so too fix that I put the MP3 player in my pocket and turned the punk rock up loud…

My next lap came around all too quickly, so I cranked up the volume and took a nice slow ride up the first climb, passed a group of 5 solos just before hitting the single track and had a fairly steady climb, surprisingly I passed a few people on the way up. I held off a guy behind me most the way through the top single track though he finally got me just before the top of the Cookie trail, I kept him well in site as we worked through the next couple of kms, pushing the pace a bit to try and pass as many of the slower riders as I could before the tight decent – mainly because it is way more fun at speed. I got behind the guy who passed me just as we hit the steepest section and he went sideways off the side of the track allowing me to shoot past and down to the bottom of Granny Hill. I kept a fairly static pace up the climb, passing a few walkers !!! (this early in the race) on the way up, then down through the last section of forest and back to the tent site. 30 minute lap. I thought I was faster than the first but had dropped a minute.

At this point in the race we were 1st out of 20 in our category of open 4/5 person team – this actually showed how bad the field was as we would normally expect to come around half way through the field. Especially as we were on single speeds. Though we did realise we had 17 minute lap when we were averaging 29 minutes. We went and told the organisers so they could pull the lap from our results, which would add to the challenge, but this still left us in 3rd place.

In between laps I had a quick feed of some homemade chicken pasta, a couple of bars and a lot of water, it was quite warm considering it is still winter, I was in a short sleeve riding shirt and still sweating.

Lap 3 I started out slowly again, aiming to pace myself for the expected 6 laps and allow plenty of room to hammer the top trails. The field was quite spread out so I did not really see anyone on the road climb and passed a group of 5 slow riders in the forest section of the climb. The top section passed by in a blur of old school punk rock and I was soon passing the odd slow rider prior to hitting the descent again. Got most of the way down the descent, till the steep sandy section where 2 riders had got themselves a bit tangled up , 1 managed to clear himself off to the side and the other started to tripod his way down before running off the side of the track, I don’t think I had to slow down at all and I am wondering if I scared them off a bit… Got to grant hill, took the right hand line and it was so much smoother than the left, managed to get most of the way up sitting down. Saw a group of riders ahead that were struggling a bit and knew I had to pass them before the next downhill section as they would be too slow and would ruin the enjoyment of riding down hills. I managed to catch them before the single track but could not pass them before the descent. I picked off 1 on a bit of single track and as we approached the final steepish and very sandy section I saw a new line had been made high up on the left bank, I shot up their past 2 of the slow people, hopefully not cutting them off as I got back onto the main line. The last 2 held me up on the final very short ascent, I was going so slowly I had to struggle to maintain balance – so much harder on a single speed. Into tent city and off the bike in 31 minutes. Dropping a minute a lap – damn. I thought that last run was good.

When I got back to our site I had a few missed calls on my mobile, including 1 from my wife. After calling her I ended up having to go home half way through the event for a family situation – fortunately not as serious as it could have been. Luckily there was a friend lurking about with his SS looking for a ride so he stepped into my place in the team and did my remaining 3 laps. Bummer of a way to end what was a good morning and should have been a good evening.

Apparently the rest of the event went well, the weather stayed good and lap times dropped a little bit as night set in and the course got a bit cut up in places.

Next event for me could be the 35km N-duro race in 4 weeks, will do it on the SS if I can get the BB replaced in time.

The gym

I have never been one for gym's, I would rather be out on the street in the 'fresh' air than stuck inside an air-conditioned room listening to loud music, but my youngest son's school has a fundraiser supplied by the local gym so off I went.

Every time you go to the gym in a 2 week period from the day you sign up the gym donate a whole 1$ to the school for sporting equipment. It is free to use the gym for that period. Now 1$ is not much but it is worth supporting, and 2 weeks worth of free gym is exactly what I need right now to kick training along.

I am thinking about doing the 35km N-Duro 3 race in 4 weeks on the single speed, it will be a tough event for me so anything I can do to build some leg strength for the hills will be all good.

I aim to go to the gym at 6.00 AM evyer day for 2 weeks, donate an entire $14 to the school and get some base in.

Hopefully if I can achieve that then once the free 2 weeks has finished I will be motivated enough to get out and run first thing in the morning. I just do not like road riding in the dark, especially at that time of day when drivers are going a bit faster and are a bit less focused.

I did my first session this morning, 30 minutes on the bike thing, with a nice climb program, 1km on the rower and a couple of weighty type things. As this is a free session I did not have a program and as I have been to a gym in 5 years or so I had very little knowledge about how the equipment worked. Will work out some more tomorrow. The musix was crap and too loud - louder than my mp3 player, arse.

I am happy !

Updated DMR

Finally got the DMR all ready for the race yesteday.

The front mechanical disk installed and the cranks on and running.


















The seat is not at a weird angle - honest...






















Really need a new BB as it is making some awful noises.

Afternoon off work ride

Our illustrious team leader of the single speed team for the 12 hour event this weekend has come up to Auckland early and I volunteered to take the afternoon off work and show him the pleasures of Woodhill mountain bike park.

The weather was not bad for a ride, little bit cloudy and a little bit cool, but certainly a good winter’s afternoon. The park was pretty empty as you would expect mid-week, though the event organisers were there taping up the course.

We started riding up the road towards the trail block but saw that the event trail was being marked out next to the road so jumped the fence and started up the hill, the climb was not bad and well suited for a single speed, gentle climbs for a 100 meters then flatting out and then climbing again, climb was probably a km all up, with over half of it on single track, some on the new trail we had been digging – with some nice rooty bits to keep it honest – though it was an all skill level event. At the top of the hill we had to guess which way the trail went (and I think we guessed wrong) and we headed down the spaghetti trail, this was a great section for racing as it is quite flowy, some nice turns, some rooty corners but plenty of room for passing. About ¾ of the way through Spag stage 1 there was a newly dug and very narrow descent back which aimed back to the carpark, we shot down there to the bottom and then cut into the end of Charlies Angels and pushed up the hill back to Spag and off the event course. Had a flier down SPCA , so much fun and then took the road up to and I showed my guest Northern Exposure and my trail, then down Python, end of Haggis, Enchanted Forest the wrong way, up Link to Cookie. The Cookie trail was marked off for the event which was really pleasing as it is hard packed fairly fast trail with a couple of small jumps, plenty of passing room and I can do it in my sleep at reasonable pace. We picked up another SSer who I had never met before, who was young and fast, so we chatted to him for a while and he followed us back down Raceface Down to the carpark.

Nice ride, good last minute preparation for the race on Saturday. The bike rode well with its new cranks and brakes. Few minor adjustments to the rear brake, a re-tighten off the cranks and she will be ready for the race.

I would so much rather be riding than working.

New old cranks

Well the cranks arrived at work today so I had them on the bike about 15 minutes after I got home, got the XC SPD’s screwed in, ripped open the little chain bit I bought to replace the quick links I lost and bugger it - the guy in the shop gave me a link that was too small. I told him it was for a SS chain… so no test ride tonight.

But I did pump the shocks, pump the tyres, adjust the hand grips and brake levers so it was not a complete dead loss.

Race in 3 days…

Loaded the old 256mb MP3 player with 256mb of punk rock…

Yay for Vorb

Just secured some second hand cranks off a fellow Vorbii for an extremely good price, event better he is going to courier them to me today and I will pay him at the weekend when he is up for the Woodhill 12 hour event.

I love Vorb ! and its network of extremly cool mountain bikers.

Bugger bugger bugger !

In preparation for the team 12 hour event I am doing next Saturday I pulled the SS to bits and gave her a good old clean. I haven’t even had the rear wheel off since the race in May, and cleaning has been more of a wave the hose over the worst of the dirt since then as well.

As well as cleaning and lubing the bike I intended on swapping the platform SPD pedals for the XC spuds, as well fitting the front disk brakes with new pads and putting new cleats on the Nike shoes.

So yesterday afternoon I took the wheels, pedals and chain off and gave her a good clean. gentle brush, rag, toothbrush for the nooks and crannies. She was looking pretty clean by the end of it.

Today after everything had dried off I started to reassemble, first the chain, wiped it down after it had dried off and found I must have dropped the quick lines into the soapy water bowl with the chain. Sadly I threw the dirty water into the weed patch behind the shed yesterday afternoon, quick links – long gone…. OK, I thought, not a biggie I can pick up some more Monday, I will just get the chain back on and carry on assembling and getting things ready.

Next up pedals. Hmmmmm next issue – the crank was pretty old and had already been stripped once and had an insert put in, this was also pretty much wrecked and I could not get the pedal in… Shit. OK, I will swap the cranks from the Cindercone, rang a friend and drove round to get his crank puller. Pulled the square splined crank from the SS and then found the Cindercone had a isis crank. Shit shit shit. Time for a new plan…

Well I go the brake pads changed successfully anyway…

Now I need to find cranks or arrange to swap the BB and cranks between bikes by Thursday when I go riding before the race on Saturday.

I should have stayed in bed.

Saturday morning Woodhill ride

Had a good ride today, went out with my normal riding buddy for a SS thrash at Woodhill.

It was very cool this morning, around 3 degrees, but it was another crystal clear day so riding was going to be good.

We road up the new PowerBall trail to Spaghetti along Spag to SPCA. SPCA was riding so nicely, 1 or so Km’s of gentle downhill a fun fun ride. Wicked.

We pushed up the hill from the end of SPCA through the old car park and then up Upland, I struggled a bit on the climb which was unusual, shot down Lightening and Enchanted Forest to the Haggis. We were riding at a cracking pace and by the time we were halfway up Haggis I was really sucking air, definitely not as good as last weeks ride. This week we rode all of Haggis and did not cut out to Conifer loop and up to my trail. I so rarely do the full Haggis loop which is a shame as it is a neat trail and the back section that we miss is 1 of the older sections of track in the park. After Haggis we rode Slipperies delight and the climb at the end, even though it is not big damn near killed me, really was feeling the ride this week. Tree Huggers was next and then up the Link where my riding buddy slayed me on the climb and left me a wheezing struggling mess by the top, I killed him last week so it was definitely his turn. We then rode the side of Cookie and down into the new section of trail back to the carpark as I wanted to bed the trail into my head before the race next weekend as the new trails are supposed to be in it.

Not a bad ride, definitely not as good as last week though.

I did ride with the HRM and hit 100% at times, sustained 101 going up Upland, so will definitely adjust that a bit. Set max heart rate from 179 to 187 and see if I go over that at 100%

Spinning

Still spinning, had 2 more sessions on the bike this week. Monday night for about 30 monutes before I was interupted by a visitor and then last night I got a good 45 minutes in at a decent pace.

Hope to get back on the bike again tonight and give it a good nudge, just had a massive lunch with the old work crew so need to get ride of those fries. Then a gentle spin Friday night before Saturday mornings ride.

Sadly my bro-in-law wants the trainer back after the race next weekend so that is a bit of a bummer -gues I could buy my own ?

Hope to put the disk brakes on the DMR tonight as well, that will be the first job I do when I get home.

Tuesday night in Area 51

I had a really good ride last night. I hooked up with some people from the Freeride’n store and hit some ‘illegal’ trails up at Area 51. I do not normally condone illegal trail riding, but in this case most of these trails are in a publicly accessible forest, and there used to bike trails all through this section of the forest, untill things all got a bit commercial – enough said trying to justify myself, I really shouldn’t have been riding there anyway, but I did and I probably will again.

There was 7 of us riding, 3 groms and 4 adults. I took the SS though I wasn’t sure what the climbing would be like and from experience of riding there in the past when it was allowed I did expect to have to walk some sections.

We met at 6.30 PM at the home of one of the rider leader and then pedalled for a KM or so up the road to a downhill walking track. The track was fun, though I am always a bit nervous riding downhill trail for the first time in the dark, especially when it is A) designed for walkers and may have steps and B) I suspected it was close to the edge of a cliff. It was a nice wide trail and pretty tame, be a lot more fun next time. At the bottom of the track we rode some more sealed road the hill to the gannet colony track. I haven’t been there for a while and was surprised that after a 100 meters of gentle climb to the top the track had been stepped all the way back down to the bottom car park. The steps were in sets of 4 with about 4 metres of flat between them, there was probably 10 sets of steps down which was the longest run of steps I have done, enjoyed it, though I will say I was a bit worried about blowing the rear tube as I was running very low pressures from riding in the sand and was not expecting to be riding more wooden framed steps.

After the steps we rode back up the road and into the forest itself, having a bit of local knowledge certainly helped as I have always gone in from the bottom road which has meant a steep climb/push to the top, but we snuck around the easy gradient sealed road and in the back way almost at the top. There has been an awful lot of trail work in this end of the forest, seeing as we are not supposed to be riding there a lot of effort had gone into developing some gnarly short downhill tracks with some quite carefully constructed jumps, including road gaps. We did not do anything that serious and soon dropped back to sea level and rode some very vague tight twisting shingle track back to the beach road and then back to the cars.

All up it was a 2 hour ride, damn good fun as all rides are, cool to ride with some different people and some different trails and not take any of it too seriously. I will definitely be back for some Tuesday night rides.

Listening to some old "shoegazer" bands - Chapterhouse and My bloody valentine today.

hmmm - 107% of max Heart Rate

A stunning late winter day today. Crystal clear blue skies, gentle but cool breeze, so I stayed in bed till 9.30 then went round to briefly visit my parents before they went on their 5 week trip to the UK.

I picked up the DMR from the bike shop after having the BB re-greased, the mechanic says the BB is just about totally shot – it is 6 years old so fair enough, but I want it to last a few more weeks until I can get the cash to buy another one. This week I am buying some almost new Shimano pedals and cleats from a fellow Vorber so need the cash.

Started installing the front mechanical disk brake but found the outer cable I had was not long enough so used what I had and got the rim brakes running sweetly for this weeks riding and will have another go at the weekend.

Went for a run up Exhibition drive. My plan was to do a fast lap then a slow lap. At the halfway point on the first lap I was hitting a reasonable pace and then realised had not set my damn watch, I tried keeping up the pace on the way back, but had really lost the motivation to push for a record time. So basically gave up, dropped the pace to slow and jogged back.

About 1km from the car I put on a good burst to see how far I could push the heart rate over 100% got up to 107 at 189 bpm. I will change the HRM to reflect the higher heart rate as I do worry that even on an average run I spend too much time over 85% of max.

Mechanical disk brakes.

I have been thinking about buying some second hand mechanical disk brakes for the DMR for quite a while and have been keeping a casual eye on a couple of forums and the trademe web site.

Finally someone on Vorb posted their old Shimano mech. disks for sale and I leapt in and accepted his price of $50. To make this the coolest thing the seller said he would gift them to me for all the work I have been doing track building.

In return I gave the $50 to Vorb and became a foundation member.

We were all winners.

Here are the brakes, I went to put them on the DMR today but the outer cable I had lying around was too short, will get some fresh cable tomorrow and have a crack tomorrow night.

A good ride

Had a pretty good ride at Woodhill today. Rode with a friend who was on his fairly new GT single speed, and on his second ride after knee problems. The weather was not too bad, cloudy and cool but no rain.

Unusually we rode up the road to the start of the Big Mama track and then dropped in for the first half of Big Mama. I was riding Ok, we rode up the Big Mama hill and I was feeling pretty good at the top which was way better than last time I rode it. Sadly the top 2 jumps, which I have always felt comfortable doing, have been changed.

Historically Woodhill has had most of the smaller, and even some of the bigger jumps, with flat landings, bad design in an era of ignorance. But they have been like that for an awful long time and while some don’t like them I was used to them and it meant that I could hit them at a speed that suited me, slowly ! Now they have been rebuilt with wooden framed landings and I am sure if I hit them I would case the landing and trash my rear wheel. Which means I do not jump much any more as there are not too many jumps that do not have newly built landings. This pisses me off a bit as I did enjoy doing the jumps I did in the way I did them… oh well, back to the ride.

We dropped down the last section of Spaghetti to the old car park and then did more road work up to the start of Haggis. I had a great ride up Haggis, I really hit the groove on that track, first time I have ridden the whole first section fully seated, I do believe that some of the trainer work and the session at Rotorua has built a bit of grinding strength. We then did Northern Exposure and then hit my trail again. The new section is bedding in well though there was one bend that just does not flow for me, I have gone over the side both times I have ridden it, so I will take a spade up and widen and berm it. We the rode down Ironhorse which I have not done in its entirety for ages and then back up Anaconda, felt good on that trail as well which was a first.

Back up the side of Conifer and Haggis then up the combo trail which was a bit of a grind and then down through the new trail which has bedded in well. This section of trail is in the race in 2 weeks so I will ride it again next week and get the layout firmly bedded in my mind.

All up a really good ride, things glowed well though my rear brakes need a serious adjustment and the BB was squeaking like mad. I dropped the bike in to the LBS and they said they would do re-grease and pack the BB ready for me to pick up tomorrow.

Woot woot - The Buzzcocks are coming to town

Just read in the paper today - The Buzzcocks are playing a gig on September 10th at the Saint James Theatre in Auckland.

I am very excited. My favourite band of all time, though I have never seen them, they played in Auckland once in the 90s but I was out of time on a family holiday and couldn't go.

Yes they are old, and yes they have released a new album that is probably awful, though I will purchase it, but they will play old stuff.

Yahoooooooo

Spin spin spin

Had 2 good rides on the trainer this week.

Wednesday night I did a good hour long session, worked up a massive sweat even though the tempreture was below 10 degrees. good mix of spin and digging it in.

Spent the hour listening to Dead Kennedys "Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables" LP followed by some Clutch as that was the next CD in the stacker.

Thursday night I did a 40 minute light spin, watched an episode of Prison Break to keep me amused. So far I have not been bored on the spinner ! Will aim for a 2 hour session one night next week.

The 12 hour race is 2 weekends away. team of SSer's - I am looking forward to to it.

Listening to the Buzzcocks - Singles going steady

Today's run

Had a quick road run this afternoon. 10km 56 minutes.

Did the Titirangi Rd loop, not the best time, but I felt very flat for most of the run and there was quite a strong head wind up Titirangi Rd. Still it was nice to run again and to follow up yesterdays ride with a run.

World cup final tomorrow morning so up early. England did not make it again, out on penalties as usual...

Listening to Built to Spill after a good write up in the paper.

Rotorua Sifty Single Speed ride.

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.

Rip it up and start again

As the new car does not have a cd player and the radio has not been converted from Japanese frequencies to New Zealand so I only can pick up 3 (awful) stations, I have been listening to a lot of cassettes lately.

I have about 100 old cassettes stored out in the sleep out, some of these are just awful, some do not work but some are just fantastic. Most of these were either purchased or recorded in the early 80’s, though there are a few from the late 90’s before I had a car cd player. It is the late 70’s and 80’s stuff I have had the most pleasure listening to, old Wire, Joy Division and New Order, Killing Joke and obscure New Zealand bands. This has also inspired me to go back to my vinyl collection to record some mix tapes, especially the 45’s which I tend not to play when I do throw vinyl on the stereo. It has been a great musical re-education, there was so much good music happening back then, and a lot of it was so fresh.

I have been off sick from work for the past couple of days with a head cold that laid me down on Monday afternoon. Tuesday I had to go down to the local library to get some reading material and found a new book called “Rip it up and start again – Post punk 1978 – 1984”, it is quite a weighty tome, coming in at over 550 pages. A lot of it is full of twaddle with the author showing off lots of big words and name dropping all sorts of artists/activists etc etc, but it is a very interesting history of that immediate post punk period when I was a teenager. It also arrived at the time I have been listening to music from that period again. A recommended read.

So today I am listening to a whole range of fairly obscure artists from 78-84 – Swell maps, Throbbing gristle, Cabaret Voltaire etc etc

Sick

Been sick the last few days, no work, no ride, no run.

stupid head cold.

Have been reading books.

A great Woodhill ride

The last week has had some stunning winter weather, crisp and cool with cloudless skies and no wind – it was also the officially coldest June in since 1972. The forecast for the coming week is not so hot unfortunately with rain supposed to settle in this afternoon, luckily my head cold chose this week to start so I am not going to miss out on too many crystal clear nights.

Had a most awesome ride on Saturday – for a change I rode with 2 other single speeders and no geared bikes. We all had different gear ratios, levels of fitness and abilities though when everything was all added together we were reasonably compatible and I think everyone felt as broken as me at the end of the ride. I had ridden with 1 of the riders before as we are both Vorbii but the second guy was a complete stranger to both of us, but we all got on well which was good.

We rode up Powerball, down Spaghetti to Afterglow, Afterglow, then up the road to Northern Exposure then onto my trail – No Brakes. Someone had changed the entrance to the new extension on the track, using a couple of small logs they had blocked off the existing trail forcing people to ride the extension - I wasn’t complaining as the track needed wheels on it to bed it in, I hadn’t even run my own wheels over it since I had completed the grooming. The track rode well; only one corner that felt like it needed changing so I will wait a few more weeks and then re-evaluate it.

After that we rode Python, Anaconda and back along the fence line to the top of Cookie then back down the new part of the Raceface trail that I helped dig a couple of weeks back. That trail has had a lot of bikes over it and is really well packed in – rides quite nicely. Not sure how many KM’s we did, but all up we were out for close to 3 hours and we were not riding particularly slowly either.

One of the great things about this ride is I spent a bit of time following the new rider, who has been riding single speed bikes for quite a few years. He rode his bike exactly how you read it the magazines so I tried to emulate him, follow his lines and body positions as we rode the tracks. I think I learned something !

Listening to Film School today – never heard of them before – quite like it so far.

Back on the bike

Finally got back on the real bike last night and took the ingle speed for a night ride up at Woodhill. Rode with a couple of guys I have not really ridden with before but we were fairly compatible pace wise and I had a good night. The conditions were perfect for night riding, still and clear, cold but not too bad and the tracks were firm.

Rode up Powerball, then half way along Big Mama before one of the guys lights burnt out, smoke and burning smells and everything. Turned round and went back down the road to the carpark were he had some more lights. Back up the road and then down Afterglow and Tortellini – I have never ridden either of those at night, I had forgotten what an awesome trail Afterglow is. Back up the Link to the Cookie where the other riders light started to fade really badly, he went back down the road again and I shot down Raceface to the carpark.

Out on the trail for about an hour and half, it was a good ride. I started off riding like a muppet and fell over once and dabbed a couple of times on roots on the climb up Powerball, once I had my balance dialled in again things went well.

Though I didn’t stat for the post ride BBQ I was talking to 1 of the old school riders after the ride and he passed on a second hand comment on my trail extension. Earlier that night he had been speaking to one of the original trail builders from the bike park, the guy who built all the great trails, he had ridden my extension that day and had commented that it was good… now that is what I like to hear…

Trainer bike

I have borrowed my brother in laws mag trainer again as he has finished with it for a while.

I have set the Cindercone up on it and took it for a spin last night. I hadnt been on a bike for 5 weeks and my thighs were still sore from the night befores run.

I did a nice 40 minute session, I didnt work too hard, but steam was coming off my arms before I had finished so it wasn't too light either.

I aim to get back to doing 2 hours sessions once or twice a week and at least 1 or 2 shorter sessions. I now have a lot more video to watch so it shouldn'get too boring for a while.

Test run for the new shoes

I finally took the new shoes for a test run last night. It was a very cool night, but no cloud and no wind, so nice for running. Though I did find all the wood smoke from home fires to be quite annoying.

I did the 8.5km Godley/Portage/Astley/Taupo route as it is a good tester when I haven’t been out for a while, though it is one of my least favourite runs. The run started off well I had a good pace going down Godley Rd, hit the first Km mark at 4:43. I pulled the pace back a bit as I knew I could not sustain that for 8.5 kms. It the 4.4 km mark at 20 minutes which was still too quick. Dropped the pace up the Astley hill as I was starting to feel the affects and all those parts of me that can hurt during a run were hurting all at once. I picked the pace up again when I hit Godley for the run home. Ended up doing a 43:30 which I believe is the fastest I have done that loop. Though it felt very slow in the middle.

The shoes were Ok, I had a bit of pain in 1 foot, but I am not sure of that is shoe related or just the fact I hadn’t run or a few weeks. I also had

Sore lungs and throat from the cold air.
A really bad stitch at the 3 km mark
Sore legs, thighs still tender today
Sore chest muscles
Sore ears from the cold as I had just had a haircut.

The price I pay for running!

I have borrowed the bike trainer from my bro in law again and have the Cindercone all set up, going to give that a go tonight.

4 weeks till the Woodhill 12 hour.

New running shoes

I finally caved in and bought some new running shoes - Asics Landreths for $230. it hurt...

I have had them for 4 days and have yet to test them out. I was going to run saturday afternoon as the weather was superb but when I returned from track building I was under orders to go out and we didn't get home until after 23:00.

Nice day today (sunday) and may try and squeeze a quick run in this afternoon, but I also have to be home with number 2 son who is grounded and take a quick ride down to the motor vehicle testing station to meet my daughter who is taking her car for its first warrant of fitness.

damn - will have to watch football.

Track extension is now finished

Yesterday I went back up to the first and finally I have finished extending the No Brakes trail, there is now a very fresh additional 700 metres in the middle of the trail. I am pleased and 1 day I will even get to ride it.

Yesterday was another 'official' bike parks digging day so I rocked up early and was given the use of a bike parks grom to help finish off the last section of my track, so with the extra help I was done in an hour and a half.

The grom and I then joined in with 4 others to help build a few extra bits of track for the Woodhill 12 hour event at the end of July. It is going to feel good racing on tracks that I have help build. Much as I love to ride single track, we made these short sections fairly wide to give plenty of passing room. The section we were building is going to be a downhill section in the long term but for the event it is being used for a short and not too steep climb, hene the width. Designing uphill and downhill is quite different though so it was quite interesting trying to look at how the trail would be ridden to design the best lines when it is going to be ridden in different directions.

I am 'racing', maybe I should say, riding in the event in a 4 man single speed team. All guys I have ridden with before, 1 from the 24 hour of N-Duro in Feb and the other 2 from the Moonride 24 hour hour. Really looking forward to it, though I have not been on the bike in 6 weeks so really need to kick the training off this week.

Its winter - laziness has struck.

Well it has been a fairly busy few weeks with work and an extremely lazy 2 weeks when it comes to any form of exercise. I have barely moved at all in the last 10 days. The weather has really packed a sad and my big plans to get out and run have just not come to fruition. I have sort of been blaming this on a lack of decent running shoes as my current pair are stuffed, but I know even if they were in the worn in comfortable prime I would still be sitting on the couch in the evenings and not getting out in the cold wind and rain for a run.

Last weekend we had our work mid-year function and I drank way way way to much. Felt like absolute crap all day Saturday, did not even move for a coffee until 1.00 PM. I have now vowed to not drink until the end of July at the earliest. It can only be a good thing ! I am so so glad I stuck to white wine and nothing else, 1 whisky and I think I would still be suffering.

Sunday I went out looking for running shoes, I know what I want and I really do not want to have to pay $250 for them, but it looks like I am going to have to. – Damnit

Watched lots of world cup football though – go England

New seat post

I finally got around to collecting - and paying for - a new seat post for the single speed. I bent the original DMR post at the Moonride a few weeks back. I have kept the old one in the spares box as it is only slightly out of straight, just enough to make it tough to drop and raise the post.

The new post is a Phillips. It is about 2 inches longer than the DMR post which means I can raise it to full XC mode and leave enough in the seatpost tube to not put too much strain on the frame, guess I am more likely to bend it like that though. It is also a twin bolt tube which I do like. The DMR post did not allow me to move my seat forward much below horizontal, though I do like to have the seat a couple of degrees below that.

I took it for a test spin around the streets on Sunday and it felt so nice, high and positioned nice. Hopefully get to take it down to Rotorua this weekend for a run on the single track.

And yet more digging

Went back up to the track again today and got another good 3 hours of raking and digging in. I took the old work digital camera up and snapped a couple of out of focus shots.

I took the rake as well as the spade up to day and it was very useful in clearing the pine needles from the trail.

My plan was to leave the spade on the track and then start walking and rake the trail debris until I hit a patch that requires spade work, then walk back to the spade marking the edge of the trail with logs as I went, then walk back to the rake clearing anything that needed clearing. The plan worked well and I got an awful lot more work down than last week. The most time consuming part of the work was finding decent enough pieces of wood to mark the edge of the trail.







I had to redesign a couple of corners that just did not flow well and I also built a couple of small berms on off camber corners to keep the flow going.

I raked out and marked the trail to completion and kinda left it obvious to riders that there is a new bit of trail to ride.

When I got home I made a couple of small signs to stick on the start and exit of the new section from a couple of liberated old real estate signs.





Sadly I will have to dig again next week, but that should be the end of it and I can go ride again.

South Island work trip

I had a work trip to 3 of our South Island offices last week. I flew into Christchurch, drove the 2 hours to Timaru with the Christchurch manager and back again and then flew to Invercargill the next day and on to home.

It was a good trip, the weather on Thursday was just stunning, crystal clear cloudless skies on the way to christchurch afforded stunning views. I spent 2 hours in the Christchurch office which was good and then we dove down to Timaru, nice trip, flat straight road for 2 hours - luckily the Chch manager was good company. enjoyed the Timary visit and the lift back to Chch.

Thursday night I went to a bar in Chch to meet with a few of the South Island Vorb Mafia, who I had never met before. 7 of them turned up ! had a great evening. I like Christchurch more and more every time I visit. I have long thought that Aucklanders are an unsocialble lot, there would never be 7 Aucklanders turn up to meet a fellow biker from another town. There is also some awesome riding to be had around there as well, way way way better than here. Good on ya Christchurch.

Fridays trip to Invercargill was Ok, flight there and back was a bit choppy and cloudy. Spent 3 hours in the office and they were a pretty good bunch as well.

it was a pretty good trip.

Football world cup

Well we had a long weekend in NZ this weekend, Monday was Queens Birthday so we all celebrated in style, I got out of bed at 11.00.

Well I initially got out of bed at 3:25 AM and went around to a friends house to watch New Zealand get beaten 4-0 by Brazil in a pre-Football world cup friendly match. Apart from that the weekend was a waste. I spent all day Sunday waiting at home by myself for someone to come and pick up the bunk bed they have bought of us - som miscommunication means they are not coming around till next weekend. I did get out for a run yesterday and planned on doing 13-14 km but it rained really really really hard so I went home after 6.5 kms'. And that was it for training or any other sporting activities this weekend. 3 whole days off work squandered, and today was a nice sunny, though cold, day. Family day !

The Football world cup starts next weekend and being English I will be watching as much as I can. so I expect to not get a lot of running or riding in over the next month. Though next Saturday I do intend on doing some more track work...

Dig dig dig

Went back up to Woodhill again today to carry on working on the track extension. I haven't done any work on this track for a few weeks and the pine needles were thick on the ground again. I seemed to spend more time clearing the trail so it is visible than actually doing the work I intended which was building a sand 'bridge' over some imbedded logs that I could not dig out, realigning a couple of off-camber corners and smoothing some climbs.

The problem with Woodhill being sand based (and very easy to make tracks in) is if you not get lines right or leave downhill corners off camber then you get a lot of nasty wear on the track. Hopefully as this bit of track is quite a way from the carpark it will only be ridden by reasonably experienced riders who will not brake through bends and knowhow to ride the pinch climbs without digging holes in the surface.

I was hoping to get most of the work completed today, but finished about 100 of the 700 metres of track. I walked the rest though so the line is still sort of visible though I do need to more clearly mark it out as it is in quite a dense part of the forest and a lot of needles and brances fall.

Went home after 3 hours which is when I promised my wife I would be home, she was out with number 2 son and when they got home they all disappeared again leaving me home alone... I could have finished the trail if I had known.

Went for a sifty urban spin on the single speed for 40 minutes, it was good to be back in the saddle again.

Plan to get up and run tomorrow morning though.

Mid-week runs

After my weekend run and my decision to try some electonica to run to I threw a post up on vorb.org.nz asking for thoughts on good electronic music for running to. Being an old punker I had no idea what artists – DJs – whatever fit into any genre that would be good to run, I do know that drum and bass wouldn’t work and that is it. I did get a whole bunch of suggestions, including a few not too obvious ones like old industrial bands like Front 242 and KMFDM.

I found a few “samples” on the internet and loaded up the MP3 playing phone and took off for a 10k night run on Tuesday night. I was planning on doing the last of the "hog" runs but my daughters car broke down so I had to pick her up and go wait for the tow truck, luckily the repairs only cost $45 - new fan belt.

The night was cool and clear with no wind, a perfect night for running. Some of the music worked and some didn’t, but I kept up a good pace, including the climb and posted a 51:21 – the fastest I have ever completed this loop in ever. Do not know if the music worked or not but after I had warmed up I quite quickly got in to that place where the mind goes blank and I can just run without thinking about anything except the rhythm of my breathing and running. I love a run like this, I am just so mentally refreshed when I get back – invigorating !

I followed that up the next night with a short run home from the salon where my daughter works, 23 minutes, not sure of the distance, felt good again but decided to take today off and aim to get a 20km run at the weekend.

The one issue is my road shoes are stuffed, my left shoe squeaks really badly and is quite annoying and I am starting to ‘feel’ the road through the sole as well. I have been looking for more road shoes but at $220 - $250 for a decent pair of Mizunos or Asics I am going to have to wait a few weeks. Will aim to do an “off road “Exhibition drive run at the weekend where I can use the Vasques without wearing them out too much.

Listening to bad Techno now to find appropriate vocal less tracks.

Track digging day

I did not get out for a ride again this weekend, this is getting to be a bit repetetive, but that is life I guess.

I had a good reason this weekend not to ride as I did go track building up at the Bikepark on an official track building day. Considering that it had been hammering down with rain for the past week and was raining at the scheduled start time it was amazing that close to 20 people turned up to help cut a new trail.

The Bikeparks crew had marked out the basic plan so it was a simple matter of following along the path with a rake and a shovel. I was in a nice small crew building berms at the tail of the group. The Woodhill forest is sand based so trail building is a relative breeze, and building berms is simple...

I spent half a day there and had a good time building berms with a couple of riders I know well. The track is going to be really good once it has been completed.

Went out for a run in the afternoon, ran from home up through Titirangi and out along Exhibition drive. I had had some yoghurt for lunch a couple of hours before and it really did not sit well in my stomach. I was burping the whole way and was really quite uncomfortable. I did keep a reasonable pace up considering so was fairly happy.

I have decided I am going to try running with some electronic music with no vocals. I find that I spend too much time singing in my head to the lyrics and not concentrating on what I am doing. I also pace myself to the song which means I am sometimes going too fast for the run. For the longer runs I do need to hit that magic pace and then zone out, I am hoping that listening to some repetetive musix will allow that to happen. I am not sure if I can do 2 + hours of running with no music - though running to electronic dance music could be interesting as I am not a fan.

Loaded hog run - again

I did the Loaded Hog 5km fun run last night for the first time in weeks.

The weather had been dubious all day but it did not actually rain until I got out of my parked car just up from the Hog. In the end i decided to run without a rain jacket, which was the wise decision as it stopped raining 10 minutes into the run.

I felt good for most of the run, I thought I had kept a consistent pace throughout the run, but half way split was 11:08 and my full run time was 23:01 so a minute slower on the return leg. I was hoping to do under 23 minutes and was a bit gutted to do 23:01. Oh well...

next week is the final run for the series so I will dig it in a bit harder and get that sub 23 again.

Bought a live Get up Kids CD, yesterday it is pretty good, needs to played at some volume though.

Listening to Monster Magnet tonight.

Quick zap around the bike park

I got up this morning with aching legs and stiff hips, I had not felt this bad after a run for a quite a long time so it was definately a good wake up call if I am planning on doing any long runs this winter. I wasnt sure how the ride would go so planned on taking it easy. I had not arranged to ride with anyone nd was hoping to see some one in the car park to ride with, but having said - I do like to ride on my own.

I was a bit stiff getting up the entrance trail but by the time I got to Spaghetti my legs had freed up and I was ready to ride comfortably. There was two events on at the park today so the place was a bit of a zoo, at the end of the Spag. trail I had to ride the road up to the northern end as the middle block was closed for a race, I also found out that most of the northern block was closed for an event as well so I did a sneaky couple of trails between races and then shot back out on the road for the long haul back to the carpark.

So a short ride, mostly on the road, but my less felt OK, though they have tightened up now.

I discovered yesterday when I was getting the bike ready that I have bent the seapost on the DMR. It is a very thin post at 25.8 - so I may have a bit of fun finding one. I tried the Freeriden shop on the way back today but they didnt have one. At least it is rideable.

19.5 km run

I was intending on getting some trail work done this morning and finally finishing the addition to my old trail, but as usual time and family conspired against me. I spent the morning doing odd jobs around the home and cleaning up the trenches that had been dug in my front lawn by various cars over the past 7 days. I did clean the single speed from last weekends 24 hour ride and have that ready for riding tomorrow.

After dropping youngest son off at a friends house so he can go camping tonight - (man that is going to me cold) I went up to Exhibition Drive to get an afternoon run in.

The weather was almost perfect for a run, cool and cloudy but with an unwelcome light wind that hit at the depressing 500 meters to half way on each lap point. I intended on doing 2 laps of the 6.5 km circuit, but after lap 1 I was feeling good and decided to go for 3 laps if at the end of lap 2 I was still perky. Lap 1 went in a respectable 35 minutes, for the first half of laptop 2 I ran about 50 metres behind a girl for the whole way, I just couldn't catch her but did a reasonable time and ended up with a 36 minute lap. I started lap 3 feeling good but about quarter of the way round really started to feel it in my legs, I made it to the end without stopping, but it was a tough run, the last lap took 39 minutes. Total for 19.5 km was 1 hour 50 which was Ok considering I have not run that sort of distance for probably 10 months.

I am thinking of doing my first half marathon in almost a year at the start of July so now I know I can do it, I will squeeze in some decent training and it should be easy. Except for the climb up Mt Wellington ! Am thinking of doing the full Auckland marathon in October - but I thought that last year and ended up doing a 12 hour solo mountain bike ride instead.

Also going to do the 12 hours of Woodhill race in July in a team of 4 Single Speeders. All ready have Mikey from the Moonride signed up and the mad 24 hour solo SS'er Paul keen to do a team race. Will train for that to...

Quick ride in the morning as I have to pick up number 2 at 12 so car is packed and ready to go.

Listening to The Get up Kids again, havent listened to them in a while, they are so cool.

Moonride 24 hour event

The Moonride 24 hour and 12 hour team bike race is an annual event in Rotorua. Last year I competed as a 12 hour soloist – it was my first attempt at a solo 12 hour and it went well- I didn’t come last !

This year I organised a single speed team in the 24 hour event, the intention was to have a team of 5 but after 2 drop-outs we ended up with a team of 4 with a couple of people who were in geared teams volunteering to do a lap for us on a single speed. Our team site was also hosting a 24 hour single speed soloist and his wife who was crewing. I was the oldest guy in the team by 10 years and had never met 1 team member before so it was going to be an interesting weekend.

The week before the race the weather was pretty lousy, heavy rain across the north island and Friday dawned cloudy, when team member number 2 arrived in his rented camper things were looking decidedly average. The forecast was good for the duration of the race, though I took a ton of gear with me in case. Rider number 2 had decided to rent a camper van with 3 beds, cooker, fridge etc so we would have a bit of comfort for the event. We loaded up my crap and the mighty DMR and left home at 9.30 AM to pick up rider number 3 in Hamilton, about 120 kms away. The drive to the Tron was wet and windy with some very heavy rain storm! After picking up rider 3 we continued heading south towards Rotorua, luckily the weather got better and better as the further sough we got. We had a quick stop in Rotorua for a BK power lunch and then shot out to the site to pre-ride the circuit as the event starts at 10.00 PM and we wanted a quick squiz first.


As we found out at the race briefing a few hours later, the course had to be redesigned 2 days before due to the rain so there was a lot more fire road than we and the designers would have liked, but the single track that was there was just lovely. The course was just over 8km long with a gentle 1 km climb and a correspondingly sexy downhill! Towards the end of the single track the trail took a sudden hard left turn and I commented to the others that someone would take out the marker tape on the first lap and chaos would ensue – sadly I was correct ! The course was fun, but I think we were all glad we pre-rode it before the night time start.

After the pre-ride we went back into town to complete registration and then headed back to the site to find a spot for the camper. We had the perfect place, on the hard park car park, 20 metres from the finish line, with a portaloo hidden behind some other caravans about 50 metres away. Mad solo turned up soon after us and we got the site set up with an easy-up next to the caravan and a ‘borrowed’ bit of fencing that made a great bike rack, until the race organisers took it back just before race start. We were onsite at 4.30 PM though the race did not start to 10.00 so there was a quite a bit of sifting around chatting to old friends for a while. Ride number 4 turned up at 8.00 PM and we were ready to race.

As always I did the first lap, it does not bother me, but most people just do not seem to like doing it. The lap started with a 1600 metre ride along a flat tarmac road which just sucks on a single speed with 32:18 gearing, when we did hit the forest I was closer to the back than the front. The first lap went Ok until we hit the section of trail with the hard left and the now missing tape. The group I was in got lost and we ended up back on the up hill fire road and went back to the start line. The first lap took me 33 minutes which ended up being consistent with my average so it was not too bad. Mad soloist got lost in another group and ended up taking 45 minutes and a rider from our neighbours got lost in further group and was gone for an hour 15. We were lucky… I did a double lap and then got back to the camper for some rest. All the other riders did single laps so I was back out sooner than I wanted to be and it was starting to get cold, down to 1 degree at 5.00 AM. The night laps were fun, I did 6 laps in the dark. On my 4th lap my light went and I could see nothing, the rutted bumpy downhill in the dark was a real challenge. I did not get much sleep during the night, it was cold and I was out riding every couple of hours.
The day dawned sunny and soon warmed up, this certainly raised everyone spirits. The 12 hour teams started at 10:00 AM and we had the deck chairs out by the start line to heckle/cheer/jeer friends and soloists as they went past.
Our guest riders did their laps during the day so I got some nice length breaks, and mainly did single lap circuits as well, trying to post the fastest lap, rider four got the quest in at 27 something and it was close who came second or third with two of us posting times in the mid 29’s.

I gave the bike its one and only service during the day and apart from some clogged up brake it worked very well.

Mad solo bugger
By the end of the day the mud was getting very sticky, there was one point just before the start of the climb that became un-rideable on the single speed, the mud was just so sticky that all momentum was lost and as it was the start of a light climb I ended up getting off and running up – it was quicker.

My 11 and 12th and final lap was started at 7.30 and I was pretty broken by the end of it, I walked the ‘big’ hill and was passed by mad soloist on his 34th lap still riding….

The team did OK, we came 32 out of 56 in the open category which was Ok considering there was only 4 of us and we were on SS’s. Mad soloist came 3rd in his category which was very cool for him, though he has sworn to never do a 24 hour single speed again.

49 hours till the Moonride

49 hours until the start of the 2006 Moonride 24 event. I can never really call these things races as I only ever intend on finishing.

This year we have a team of 4 single speeders, was meant to be 5 but 1 team member disappeared. Last year I did the 12 hour solo, so this should be a breeze.

The DMR is going well, it is cleaned and lubed and the bike box is packed, so I am half ready to go. Friday morning I am being picked up by Thorg a fellow Vorber from Whangarei in a rented camper and we will head to Rotorua.

Forecast is average, Friday showers, Saturday fine, Sunday rain. Hopefully Sunday's rain will not come early as the race finishes 10.00 PM Saturday night.

I am reasonably pumped for this...

Dirty Riverhead Winter Ride

Had a most awesome ride today. Organised by the Freeriden shop guys, the first of,what will hopefully be, a series of Riverhead rides. The weather had been pretty bad during the week with some quite heavy rain - Riverhead is clay based and does not like rain, Saturday however was a great day for riding, sunny with a gentle breeze. 21 riders turned up for the 18km afternoon ride which is a large number by Auckland standards.














The ride was a mix of slippery, gluey, dirty generally downhill single track and nice stony climbs. The single speed worked a treat and I managed to get up most of the hills, some of the greasy clay was impossible (for me) to climb, in fact it was hard to walk in some places. Though I easily cleared this climb, but the boys on the heavy free ride bikes with an extra 5 kilos of clay stuck to their wheels did not find the up hills as much fun as me. 1 of the back 2 riders broke his rear free wheel so had no pedals. We had 1 read deraileur snap off and 2 flats, but apart from that it was an injury and damage free ride.













I walked down 1 steepish section but otherwise stayed on the bike for the rest of the ride.Thats me at the top in the black shirt













It was damn good dirty muddy fun...













The bike the next day before it was cleaned. The big chunks were scraped off before I put the bike in trhe car to come home.

The Stairs

I work on the 18th, and top, floor of my building. Well my empoyers are only on that floor so it is hardly the whole building. The main foyer is on level 4 and this week I have started walking the stairs with an aim to walk them at least once a day. So far so good - I acheived that goal succesfully last week with a slightly better time each day, I am sucking serious air at the top of the 14 flights though.

Old cassettes

The Mazda does not have a cd player and the radio is tuned ex Japan (though it has been in NZ for 12 years). This means I can get approximately 2 radio stations and both are shite. On AM I do get National radio which is good at times but I cannot listen to it all day.

It does, however, have a cassette player so I dug out my box of old audio tapes and there is some damn good listening in there. This week I have been listening to, and enjoying, Bitch Magnet, Southern Death Cult, Wire, Head like a hole, Helmet and a whole bunch of old Flying Nun bands.

There was some good music in those boxes that was just not getting listened to.

Sales and purchase

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....

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.