A typical Sunday in Wanaka

Got up late - well if you got a nipper - 9 is late.

Keighley is entering the culinary phase of her pregnancy - so pancakes, bacon, pears and maple syrup for breakie.

Then up to http://www.thelookout.co.nz/ to swap out their coffee machine. This is a great place for a group get together. We have the Blueshark dealers conference there to showcase all the new and exciting mtb bling every November.

Emily was tuckered out, so we took her for a drive - well she slept and we drove down to the Mt Burke station on the Northern edge of Lake Wanaka.

Mum thought she was so clever when we got home - as if Emily would just go back to sleep after waking up in the driveway.......

I got 1.5 hours break to go riding. So, a quick double espresso and a Mark Inglis energy bar and I was off. Like a robbers dog.

Down the street (2 mins) alongside the Clutha River to the Outlet campground and along "Western Heights" to the main meeting place on the western side of the Sticky Forest - "The Hub"

The forest is basically a bunch of up and down trails leading up to "Easy Street" running along the top which joins the east and west sides together and lets you catch your breath if you've just come up or take a deep one if you're heading down!

So up "Tunnel of Love", down "Koozer" which has ten double jumps in a row which get a little bigger towards the bottom. Thanks to Callum I can now ace the last the lot. Well except the monster in the middle.

Then back up to the top and down "Sick Boy" which has lots of blind uphill turns in the middle of some sweet swooping downhill.

Up "Scooby" to the top, down "Venus" which is a great downhill flowing track with berms to hold you up in the corners. Back up to the top via "Cranking Fine" takes about 7 minutes and has as many uphill switchbacks to keep you honest.

A quick check on the time saw me with about 50 mins left on the meter - so off to my new favourite downhill track - "Ballantis" the Foes just loves it down here. It's the business.

Back to the camp ground, along the sidle track and back along the river to home.

All that and only 3 km on the road.

I was on time ! I know, I surprised even myself.

Keighley had made pita breads from scratch for tea - our own little kebab house.

Yum.

This does not mean there will be a third child.

May the great food long continue. :-)

Disc brakes on a 1990 mtb?

Thanks to Haircut at the local Shimano importer here in NZ, I am now the proud owner of a vee brake to disc adaptor arm thingy.

Funnily enough it won't be straight forward.

1) The threaded hole in the frame drop out is 4mm diameter.

2) The threaded hole in the arm is 5mm diameter.

3) The hole in the Vee brake stub is smaller than the corresponding bolt provided with the arm.

4) I'd misplaced my box of discarded Formula disc brakes-finally found it in the last box I looked in......

On the positive side, the rear wheel fits in the frame with clearance.......

So at least something is going right.

That leads me to the forks; as if no disc tabs would be a problem at this stage.....

Just swap the forks out I hear you say - 1 inch steerer tube hombray. No joy.

I think I'll have a look at Keighleys Klein Attitude with Rock Shox from the same era and maybe reallocate her lower legs. Sssssh, it's a secret.

Stay tuned for more stupidity from the garage in the near future.

No more riding in Auckland for a while

This report coming to you from our new home in Wanaka.


Been here a month: in the first week I went night riding with some locals, then out with the family on Saturday morning, back out with Al. & Multi (my boss and his neighbour) in the Avo and then played mtb tour guide on Sunday; to our new friends Bernard and Fenella who moved to Queenstown the same time as we moved to Wanaka.


So as much riding in four days as I would normally do in a month in Auckland.


The following weekend I unpacked the Merlin (now with XTR 8 speed retro groupo) and rode along the Outlet track and carried on round the lake into Wanaka town. Very nice in the afternoon sun. Oh, a lot of the track was still covered in snow - kind of like riding in sand but with less control. Broke a spoke in the back wheel, so didn't venture into the forest. Haven't fixed it yet, so had to grab another bike:

Not my usual choice, but I can hardly tell the bikeshops how good they are without riding one can I?

Well I'm impressed. Handles great, pedals surprisingly well, looks cool - I call it Dukes of Hazzard orange. And it comes with built in confidence on strange trails too. Callum could only watch me go down "Ballantis" today in the sticky forest - normally I see him at the start and then the finish of a trail.

Rides are generally timed around the warmest part of the day-after lunch but before 3 when it starts to cool off even more.

I think it got up to 3 degrees today!