Queens Birthday Ride 2009 (and more)

Saturday - deliver kids to neighbours.

Go riding with Marc (yes he is a C kind of a guy - not a K) and Hannah - no she isn't riding a 29er.

Collect Callum, Leighton and Pauline; who graciously tore herself away from work to join us.

Wanaka's Stickey/Plantatation forest is riding just mint after the trees got thinned out and tracks cleared.

I think this guy had a hand in it?

Thread the Needle track has been modified and is now my new best favourite track. Basically it climbs UP over the top and then back on itself with a few potential heart stopping moments depending on your level of warp drive.

Thanks to young man with blonde hair who's name I forget and assistance from Wanaka Cycling Club the return passage is now able to be traversed in a higher mode of stupidity.

This was our view - I grizzle constantly about getting it upgraded, but we make do.

**** Introducing something new here after reading PRO review in undisclosed mtb magazine:

Hits:

Go riding with the Mrs - doesn't happen very often - very cool.

I wasn't on a Satan's Cruiser

Mid winter weather was cold, but sunny

Didn't crash

All riding from the front door

Not waiting for a crowded shuttle bus

No mud to speak of.

Misses:

I wasn't on a Satan's Cruiser (I am drunk, it's OK)

Camera didn't take very good pictures, but that's ok because all you can see are Satan's Cruisers; 6 of them !

Ok, so that was about Saturday done, Sunday we did not ride our bikes; had visitors from out of town which meant more fantastic home baking and cooking c/- the lovely Mrs.

(I tell you single men out there, check the cooking skills of any prospective two year + potential LTRs)

Monday dawned cold, but clear.

Hugh texted saying he was bringing his singlespeed out, so I thought it would be charitable if I rode my cyclocross bike and informed Leighton as such...he has just bought this:

Reality check.

Hugh had geared his bike up from last ride - 32 x 14 for the day. Yes he blew.
Leighton caved in and rode the Nomad.

I had a ball on the Cannondale and will go out on a limb and say it was easily as much fun as the Karate Monkey and way more of a handful, which made it all the more enteraining.

Hits:

Leighton hit the ground ( I mean that nicely but it is a hit none the less)

Meatloaf for tea

Watching Hugh slowly disentegrate due to overgearing oversight

Misses:

Not riding a Santa Cruz 29er or cyclocross bike - if I did ride a Santa Cruz cyclocross bike I would have to abbreviate it to CX to be hip.

Oh, nearly forgot the (and more) part I pre-ambled....

My new favourite blog - some recent highlights here and here and here

Hugh called this morning and said we should take a spin alongside the Clutha River that has had about 36 hours of near constant rain....
I think it was just a great excuse to have a pre ride coffee and for Hugh to show of his newly "singled" Orange..

After some fettling in the garage - washers under the too wide chainring bolts & a longer adjustment screw to gie him an easier gear, we donned jackets and headed off.

Within about 400 metres of home the track was under water;

Then we found a little stream to cross - this is normally a damp patch of ground you can walk through in jandels and not get your toes wet.

Today was different however:

Just before Hugh took this pic I had a brief panic as the camera wasn't attached to the handlebars anymore ...."oh crap, it's in the river"

But luckily it had just fallen on the track...

After the submarine impersonation the batteries died, so that was it for pics.....

But we did carry on towards Wanaka township - no more underwater adventures with Captain Nimmo however.

I'd have to say my legs stung like all buggery in the shower....ah, yes brings back my yoof days of road racing when it was a winter season - what was with that ?

The Merlin has since had a soapy bath (as opposed to a river bath) and is drying out in the garage ready for the next installment of madness.

Which could be turning this pig into a singlespeed as well:

Naseby 12 hour Teams Race 2009

Returning from a four year hiatus, Team Redwood decided it was time to “have another go” and face the 12 hour teams race demons once again.

Now there’s four of us – Keighley, myself, Emily (3 years old) and Charlie (1 year old) and with Naseby forest just up the road we talked the Browns into joining us on their Satan’s Cruisers.
MarkyMarc from Dunners was also on the roster in between feeding his girly Hannah who was doing her 1st 12hours solo….

Charlie woke at 5am, so I made him watch 24-solo as a pick me up for the coming 48 hours…

Friday afternoon we departed Wanaka, set up camp with Henderson Cycles from Alexandra in the sponsors area and enjoyed the hospitality of Cameron’s dad – Jeff who bought his work trailer fully decked out with bbq, toaster, jug, booze, tunes, work bench, vice – everything basically – this man is organized.

Off to Ranfurly for tea and our luxurious cabin for the night – oops I mean Stalig 13.
Mate, it was sparse. 4m x 4m. double bed and a single bunk on top. A little fan heater. That was it. No wonder it was cheap.
Kids wouldn’t have a bar of the porter cot / single bunk. So it was 4 of us in the double bed and the little one said roll over, roll over and Mum said this sucks and Dad said this sucks and then morning arrived and the kids were ok and Mum and Dad were pretty bloody average really.
Hardly the sort of start that Craig Gordon would have had is it ???

So, off to race I mean event village – dropped everything off at tent, parked truck in a great spot just outside gate – can’t believe no-one else had grabbed that spot.

Our tent was brimming with talent and scuffers alike.
Coffee van right next door.
Commanding views of start finish straight.
Sorted, we are.

Race briefing I normally shun, but it was over the PA. so there you have it – I was there.
Le Mans start I do not do at all. So I walked. All around the whole camp ground/pit area.
Got my bike and went the wrong way, because there was no one else to follow.
Bugger. I overheard someone say “short lap for him” and knew something wasn’t right, so ducked under the tape and headed off in the right direction.
Lovely course; Naseby and I have not had a strong love affair in the past – felt like all the tracks were backwards.
Not on race day because the course flowed like an oil tanker spewing its' precious load all over a barren coast.
Passed about twenty punters, not because of my rippling muscled legs, but because they were punters and I am a seasoned veteran and was sure I could bluff a 12 hour in my sleep.
Pulled into our tent ready to hand over the mantle to my team mate; Leighton who was not ready. Not by a long shot. Not even. So the twenty people passed us back again. Not what Craig Gordon would have done. No no.

Anyways, we were under way and the laps dropped like flys. Pauline was out, then Keighley.

I changed my back tire with the help of Emily.

Then Mark who in a total bowt of over achieving enthusiasm declared he was doing two laps back to back. WTF I thought and said yeah sure what ever.
He gave me instructions on when Hannah would be in, what she would need and what to do in case of emergency – jelly snakes apparently. And then he was gone.
So I’m looking after the kids and Hannah. Great.

Hannah roars in – I ditch a kid and say what do you need – “water” – so I change bottles and push her off up the gentle hill and she says I want something savory next lap.
WTF ? Savory – what is savory ? Pizza ? Bacon and egg pie ? Sausage rolls ?? Savory I say !! Holy crap.
Think man, Mark gave you 400 instructions, somewhere in my brain was the trigger I was looking for and on the ground in a pile was 10 red R & R Sport bags and in there was something savory – I didn’t care whose bags I was rummaging in, the women said savory and that’s what she would have.
I found some cheese sticks and decided that was it.
Now how to hand them over ? Greasy little suckers they are and I wouldn’t fancy them jiggling around in my back pocket….over to coffee guy to procure an empty paper cup. Stuff it full of cheese sticks and instruct other team mates to stick in Hannah’s back pocket, right hand side, just like in 24-Solo – that’s how Chris Eatough does it.


And then took off for my next lap which was great as I now knew which direction the course went.
I rode around, passed some people, some people passed me.
The bike (Karate Monkey 29er) was going great guns. I sucked. Felt like my cranks were made of glass. I cursed Leighton for telling me how much better it would be if I slid my cleats back on my shoes, ‘cause that’s what Gaby and Dodzy do, so you can float through the rough.
I bet Craig Gordon doesn’t have his cleats in the wrong place, but I digress. I’d made the decision and that was that.
I could have ridden in jandels and not improved any.

Back to the pits – excellent changeover – Leighton was there and ready, except apparently there was a red snap wrist band that you had to wear and it was in the red bag and, and , and “just get out there mate, don’t worry about it – the timing is manual” So off he went. Phew.

Hannah thought the cheese sticks in the cup was really cool.
And Mark got slower on his 2nd lap, so that proved my theory, but he has since come up with a raft of excuses…..

The weather was warming up and looking promising. The kids weren’t blue any more and Charlie was in full swing bludging food off anyone he could.
Emily amused herself on the playground, reading stories and hanging out on the couches.

Camp radio was also not bad – 1st 12 hour I’ve been to that played Hunters & Collectors – bonus.
Normally it’s Murray FM and man does that guy have bad taste in music.

Whilst waiting for my next lap, I took in my surroundings – a man ran past with a bike over his shoulder sans wheels; rules say you must finish your lap with your bike. I guess he did.

An Asian man wearing pink bunny ears, tutu and masquerade mask roared up on his Salsa La Cruz cyclo cross bike (fully rigid and singlespeed), stuffed a can of creamed rice down his gob and took off again.
Apparently he is a PHD honors student, so you’d think he would know better, I’ve since discovered Mickey has quite a following and his reputation precedes him – Bushloveracing fears him so I’m reliably informed.

The NZ 24 hour solo champ; Tony Hogg was well on his way to completely smashing the field in the dog all day and in doing so, completing 24 x 10 km laps. Very slick. His wife was running the one man pit crew and had it completly dialled; radios with earpiece and microphone for them both meant there was no guess work or chance of missing out on that mochacino at 7.30 pm........
Fair to say there was no pizzas or beer mid race for that boy...

So the day unfolded in a similar fashion and I called it a day about 6pm. I’d just gone out with my lights fully charged just in case someone threw a switch and I was enveloped in darkness in the 30 minutes it took to do a lap.
I did try and turn the lights on for the last stretch of single-track, but a connector had been bumped off so that was that. Wing it.

Markymarc knocked out two more laps in the dark, Leighton, Pauline and Keighley all did 3 laps each and we all had tea, coffee and desert to finish of a lovely day.

So, just a great nights sleep with the kids in the bottom bunk again – Keighley called enough and got the top bunk and then it was morning again.

Peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast back at Naseby while packing up tents and chairs and then off home to unpack, put away, clean and have the neighbours over for a farewell dinner as they are moving round the corner.

Would we do it again ? Yep.
Have we been doing these events for something like 12 years ? Yep.
Was this the best one yet ? I think so -
Low key, great course, well organised, good tunes, lucky with the weather - last year it snowed and even with the nippers going ape all day we survived.

Pictures are here Results are here We are called Albert town Banjo racks, under mixed teams.

My next bike; 29 inches of Foes goodness

This prototype features Foes single pivot/swing link suspension design with the Curnutt damper, much like the 2:1 XCT-4 26″er. No word on travel, availability date, or prices. However; the frame is indeed headed for production, and will be offered in Foes signature red color with other colors available upon request.

I borrowed the fine words from Guitar Ted - thanks..........

Last Day(s) at Coronet Peak for 2009

So I got a leave pass.

Wicked.

Can you hear my tail thumping ? Yes I was excited.

Weather: overcast, intersprersed with cloud at the top of the chairlift.

Yes, a chairlift ride to the top of the hill.

I should mention a big UPS to Doug Hamilton for the one day pass that he gave me - cheers)

And I helped a guy called Grant who should not have been ridng down the DH track....he was walking a rock garden and fell over and is in hospital tonight with a broken leg. Bugger.

I was first on the scene, so went for help - fortunately only 4 corners from the top.

Then we helped him to the access road acting as crutches so he could give that bottle of antipain a good thrashing while been driven down the hill - Hope you're doing ok.

It was the usual who's who of local bike shop people later in the day......

Particular mention to Tony Moore who didn't need any encouragement to lead us off piste down some dodgy access road/ski run which was like ice and glue all the way to the bottom off the chair lift.

I called it a day after I think, 11 runs.

Best not to chance binning it on the last day of the season.....

Who writes this stuff ?

This one time on Trade Me, I found a very funny advertisement.

I wish I had the same level of commitment to my marketing program.

Check him out here

And this photo has nothing to do with that guy but I think it deserves a mention for nearly making it in to the latest edition of spoke to accompany an article I wrote about having too many bikes.

Who would have thought ?

My Waitangi Weekend

Friday I did stuff.

Which really means it passed in to oblivion and I can't think of any remarkable events that happened.



Saturday was this: www.brakeburner.co.nz



With a great synopsis here (thanks Tama)



We (Blueshark - my employer) helped sponsor the event for the 3rd year running and fielded an all male team in the mixed vets class as we had a pull out in the weeks leading up.

So Multi rode for Nancy and it seems the results probably didn't change anyways....15 laps would have put us second in the Vets males.

There may be some photos once I've collated them.