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.