Another perspective on the weekend's ride

This just in from our newest contributor - yeah, the guy about to whack it into the hammer....

"Attached a photo from the weekend if you need a contribution to the wettest story of the year - this what the front looked like 15 seconds before it went single file gutter."

Thanks Scotty.

92km of yeah well, you know.....well "fun"

I think it only fair to say for starters I'm not really one for setting long term goals and whatnot - imagine the disappointment if you got run over tomorrow and you hadn't ticked them all off.

But I did say late last year that I'd (like) to do the "fun ride" round Lake Dunstan and then I promptly ended up on death's door before Christmas with a head cold/sinus thing that would have laid up even swine flu itself.....

So I kind of said yeah nah.

Right up till yesterday infact - even after I'd installed the new (wider) handlebars (check it out man, I'm riding a 31.8mm stem now.....), changed the seat, cleaned the bike, fiddled with the seat height a few times, took it for a test ride in the new kit and still, I was to coin a DB phrase - ambivalent about forking out $35 + 10 bucks late fee to ride round a lake that is only 30 minutes away and I could ride round it anytime I like!

So, fast forward to this morning: woke to rain - oh goody I can sleep in.....

Still looking for inspiration.........................................................

Found this on the interweb last night and after that I thought :

"If Andrew Meo can still lay the smack down at 47, I can bluff my way through a 92km fun rideat 40"

Rain stopped: bugger might have to go and do it - plenty of time to make it - yeah lets go.

Coffee x 2- check.

Bin full of stuff - check

Bike - check

Shoes - had to stop 10 km down the road: to....... - check.

Forked over the money, much relieved that they did this:

-instead of pin holes thru the new jersey.

Got changed, went for a roll to suss out the finish - like I'd be featuring, but at least I'd know when to slow down...and then the wind changed to a Southerly and it rained.

Crap.

Money down, must ride now.

It's been a while since I've turned up at a "fun ride" seems that the guy who invented carbon must be laughing all the way to his big fat bank.

Even in the deep south, the fashion setters make an appearance:

Then we lined up, started rolling and it rained.

Riding, riding - it rained heavier.

Riding riding then it really rained a lot and we weren't even out the neutral zone.

I knew we were out the neutral zone because Scotty from Outside Sports got things going in the tailwind at 60km.....

My grupetto was a little more sedate, but the big ring it was in and before I knew what was happening I was bridging a gap and moving through the field and feeling ok - well I wasn't puking at least.

Thanks tail wind - you rock.

And no one was in toeclips !

A couple of old steeel frames, but I was on my new to me but 5 year old carbon Trek, so no time to mix and mingle discusing friction shifters buddy - I've moved to nine, yes nine of the finest on the bars !

Cross wind section from Taras to Maori Point Road; I was the man and pulled the bunch on through - I thought I was just riding on the front, but some guy said "nice work there" and he looked like he'd conservatively done about a million km's in his day - same Sidi shoes as me too.

I commented of course that I thought I had the oldest shoes, but no, we had matching it seems.

"Got them in '94" he said.

I replied that mine had been riding with Johan Museew when Smile Upton owned them.

Anyways, Luggate came and went 50 km's from the start in 1hr 20 mins...........pretty good.

Then it was head wind to home (42km) and rain and a bunch that couldn't really organise a piss up in a brewery.

So I sat in, had lunch and then it rained - a lot.

Like if you were driving in your car, you would have slowed down to 60km/h and put your lights on too.

It was the most wet I'd ever been riding my bike.

Then we had thunder and lightening as well. Wicked.

At least I didn't have a mortgage payment of carbon wheels out there in the deluge.


I was pretty glad I had my knee and arm warmers on...and my vest on under my jersey, and a merino 1st layer - ah, I can hear Andrew Meo's words now "always wear a woolly layer even in summer - can't go wrong"

This was true as it was indeed summer and fortunately the sheep have become softer and market themselves better these days.

Andrew was also reknowned for issuing red cards for infringements over incorrect sock length, missing a turn on the front, letting a gap open up.........once when the boys were racing in the Top of the South Tour, we spent a whole afternoon driving around Blenheim looking for a good coffee.

We'd do a drive by then send in a scout on recon, filter machines earning a "no way in hell" and a dirty machine a similar response.

But I digress - do check out Slims blog tho, he had quite the day today.

Somehow I ended up last wheel in a beautiful echelon of five riders spread across the road past the Cherry farms - it was a thing of greatness as everyone else was strung off my wheel unable to organise another line.

Ah, it was the sort of thing even the Ariostia team time trial would have been proud of.

Shame my sodden gloves and hands couldn't feel the bars or that my ankles were part of my body at this point....

We even collected up another small bunch - life was good.

The finish line was looming after a left hander in the industrial area, 4 guys jumped, I didn't.

Well until two bloody school girls who had wheel sucked their way around the whole way tried to roll me on the line - I don't think so.

"Stop riding like a pussy" was all I could hear from Slim at that point, so I fed it to them and finished 4th in our bunch of maybe 30 riders.

Stats:

Race distance 92km,

My time 3hr 1 minute.

Winning time 2hr 20 minutes by the young junior who won 3 golds at the Track Worlds in Russia last year.

I finished 29th overall in the 35-44 year old age group and 79th overall out of 243 riders, so just squeaked into the top 3rd off the field.

I ate 2 bananas, 1 muesli bar and drank 1.5 bottles of water from my bottles and must have swallowed another 16 gallons of wheel spray.

1 cup (more or less) of dirty water emptied out of the frame when I got home.

90 psi in the Conti 700 x 28 tires made the big chip that much more comfortable - poo poo the nay sayers.

At prize givinh I picked up a flyer for another race in 2 months time from Queenstown to Wanaka and return over the Crown Range and thought yeah that wouldn't be so bad....

Which is good as I've finished other "fun" rides previously and wanted to sell the bike.

Didn't get a spot prize, but never mind that's racing.

A ride with John in mind

You've read about it in a magazine - here's my take on going riding with this guy:

I'd like to keep this brief; but won't.
They say it's all in the details - and there's a bunch of important stuff here.

Grab a cuppa and settle in.
No names have been changed to protect anyone- they're all real people and more than likely some professional courtesy's and client confidentiality will be breached.
So; I'm at work talking to a guy on the phone about stuff and he says John Tomac was in his shop yesterday, cause his son is racing in the World Junior Motocross Champs the following weekend and he might get to go for a ride with him on the Monday.

Holy Crap I'm thinking - could I wrangle a quick trip to Taupo to go riding with John ?Too right I could.
But after careful consideration it was too rushed and damn expensive.

So I found a way cool picture of John on the drops from back in the day and emailed it up to my un-named contact and asked if the man could sign it for me instead.
By chance I was talking to the same guy the next week and asked him how the ride went with John.

"Didn't go - he's too busy with his son's MX racing, but he might be going riding on Monday with one of the MTB magazine editors"

Holy Crap I'm thinking - could I wrangle a quick trip to taupo to go riding with JOhn ?Too right I could.

How to stealthfully find out which magazine was riding with John?
Caleb didn't mention it the day before, so emailed Bruce - he said Carl might be onto it.

Carl asked how I knew about it and wasn't thrilled about a million gatecrashers at his party.
After some too-ing and fro-ing and my insistence that I wasn't going to let a ride with John slip through my fingers twice in two weeks, Carl offered me the last seat in the Falcon departing Wellington in two days....

This time, I just looked the other way when I booked my airfares online after asking the boss if I could bunk off for a couple of days - he said it was a must do and a good one to tick off the list.
Wifey said go for it (expletives removed)

I sorted a loan bike from Taupo and even better than that I could catch a lift to Queenstown airport with the Boss the next day.
Those of you who know my boss know he is reknowned for his timekeeping.

My flight was at 10.30, his appointment was at 10 - he arrived at 9.05 and it's an hours drive from here.

We got to the airport, (with a ticket along the way) by 9.50.The nice Copper was OK with posting the ticket as he could see we were in a hurry!

So, Wellington here we come.

Big Brother (mine, not the State) collected me and after forgoing the Friday drinks with Jonty and Oli we went for a great ride around, up, down and along the ridges of Wainuiomata.

My folks joined us for dinner and luckily we ran out of booze, so hit the hay before things got messy.

Just like to point out that it's my brother who has an affectionate relationship with the bottle - not mum and dad.

The early departure turned into a mid afternoon one, introductions were made and off we went; the four guys, with bikes, in a big car loaded fully to the roof and a ride with John in mind.

The towns passed us by, not much to report other than the weather was pretty average through the Desert Road and Taupo looked promising for dinner.
Carl said he couldn't wait till then and how about Turangi ?

"Anyone eaten in Turangi? I think there's the Fish Restaurant behind the gas station, but the service could be slow"

Josh said he'd had a good fish burger at the chippie - thinks it was called the Grand Central Fry....

"Sounds great, take us there Josh"

"It was 9 years ago - might not be there"

A collective "crap" was uttered.

So we turn in, take a right and well blow me down with a feather there it was. GCF.

$6 fish burgers; 4 pieces of fish in each, so freaking big you couldn't close the lid on the box if you tried.

The best fish burger I've ever had, possibly never to be surpassed.

Off to Taupo to collect the bike, then onto Vegas and the Thermal Motor camp and two of your finest little log cabins if you please.

Carl bunked with Josh, I bunked with Warwick who it turns out is a retro MTB grouch just like me.We carried on a like a couple of school girls (not like that Aaron) reminiscing about various races we'd done and the benefits and downfalls of bar ends, drop bars, Onza porcupines and Ringle bottle cages.

Finally we shut up about 1 in the morning and got some kip.

Sunday - hello Sunday, hello rain, but hello Zippys and the cooked breakfast and strong coffee.

It was the kind of day that if you were local you'd flag it and watch a re-run of Bathhurst when the Ford Sierras and Godzilla ruled the roost...we didn't have that luxery, so we saddled up, rugged up and hit the trails.

I could bore you with a blow by blow account of them all - but lets say A trail, Tickler, Direct, Frontal Labotomy - that's more climbing than I do in a month.

Josh's Pivot and Warwick's Spider weighed maybe 5-6 pounds (each) less than mine and let face it - I suck riding up hills.However, point the Foes FXR down Billy T and I was off like a robbers dog.

It was mighty slippery and adhesion was not a strong point of any of our tires, but who cared ?

Our brakes cared - they wanted to know why we let all the brake pads run down to the metal....oops;

and with Split Enz, Pondy and the Chinese Menu on our dance card, it was looking like a noisey trip home.

We hosed our bikes off, and retired to the showers, walking in fully clothed and rinsed all the filth off everything - shoes, helmets, gloves; the lot.

The Fat Dog called for dinner and we met the guys from Tomac bikes who had made the trip from Christchurch.

We were all pretty toasted so didn't drink ourselves into oblivion and besides; Carl would have had a confirmation email from John waiting back at the campground.
Good news awaited. we were on.

Monday: Zippys again, then Bike Culture for brake pads which we were all freaking out about - imagine us paying retail for new pads x 6 pair!Mike came to the party and hooked us up, then let us fit them as well. Cheers Mike

Hanging out at the carpark waiting for John to arrive was a jovial affair with much rehersing of our opening lines which mainly consisted of jibberish, followed by more stuttering.

Actually I kept it together and told John he was pretty lucky to be going for a ride with us as it's not something he would get to do every day.

Ben Townley tagged along too - I got to carry his I-phone as he didn't have a pocket (I think he really did, but I can understand his excitement about letting me carry it)
Business first, introductions, discussion of the game plan and off we go to the first of 3 photo spots.
Warwick lent John, his wait for it, Tomac signture Oakleys. He was like a schoolgirl.
John popped his carbon signature XC bike up on the back wheel and mono'd down the hill effortlessly - I was suitably impressed.

2nd photo spot and John and Ben are egging each other on to hit up a gap jump.....Ben is on an Epic, John has Sids on the front.

It wasn't a problem.

Everyone was impressed.
Even Josh the uber cool xc weenie had his tail wagging by now.

Everyone wanted to ride next to John by now - I got to see the back end of the group - all my mojo got chewed up the day before, but before we turned into Split Enz, Carl said I should slot in next to John and hang onto the master.We ambled along chatting about Bob Roll (go and Google him now if you need to) and John's previous career as a roadie in Europe....then it was a pleasure to watch him carve up the trail like he'd ridden it every other day.

After a little regroup I dropped my camera and that was that; my moment of riding next to John was done and dusted.I think it was probably just as well he didn't ride with us the day before as things might have been different - but really I think that's the camomille tea talking.

Back at the carpark John had time to change - yes he was wearing cowboy boots and then he was bombarded with us groupies asking for most everything to be signed.Helmets, t-shirts, jerseys, bikes, cards, you name it.Funnily enough he didn't ask for my signature.

Mike May joined us on the ride with this Yeti....very cool.

And noticed a crack just behind the chainstay - wouldn't that rip your knickers after figuring out how to make a titanium insert that splits so you can mount the belt drive.

Back to zippys for farewells and coffee then it hit the road jack.
GCF was calling and once again it didn't disappoint.

I drove all the way home which ws probably about 250 km's to many, but hey we got there without any tickets or eviction from the pilots seat.
All too soon Monday was there, but luckily big brother has a single group Faema and an excellent recipe for porridge.

Dad ran me into the airport, this time through the Mt Vic tunnel as opposed to round the Bays with the clock ticking....
Family collected me on time and I didn't leave my helmet and Ground Effect top on the plane this time - bonus.
Everyone was pleased to see me, I was pleased to see them, I'd been riding with John Tomac; life was good.
An here's an interesting fact - Cinelli custom made the drop bars John used to run as he wanted a really deep drop section.....

He was pretty impressed when I asked if they were custom.

Who's the man?

Actually I think it was Carl this weekend - just coming right after Glandular Fever, certainly not 100%, but he pulled it off and got it all jacked up.

Cheers Carl.

Cheers John.

Star on Saturday - Sucked on Sunday

Yes, hi folks.
Coming to you live from high in the hills of the 473 (that would be Dunedin)
Locals of the 443 would get that line...

Anyhow, we rolled into town with the banjo's blazing on Friday (being from the country and all) after a reasonable trip across from "Central" what with the scone grabbers in tow......
Chuck had face planted on the playground in Roxburgh, across the road from Jimmy's Pies - hey what's a bleeding chin between social workers these days ?

Keighley had a bunch of moms to talk to about reusable nappies, so the kids and I collected Marc; our host with the most and went to Mazagran Cafe which is indeed sensational and minimalist - 1 x counter, 1 x coffee roaster 3 tables inside and 3 outside and the coffee should be licensed to thrill - phew !
These cats sre so cool they don't take eftpos - cash mate, yep, folding.
So, to speed things along along, had Japanese for tea from The Jitsu - fantastic and Emersons dark beer - variety TBC (London Porter - mmm).

Saturday was a trip to the Farmers Market at the Railway Station - if you live here and don't go- well you're missing out.
Then around the shops and as a special treat in the avo, the merry trio of myself, Marc & Hannah rode up Nicol's Creek (40 mins approx) and then gently rolled back down at a sedate pace.
Actually I told a lie.
I would have been convicted for failing to stop, speeding, reckless use of a vehicle and plain stupidity.
I instantly gave it a 20/10 on the rideometer and a gold star + it is now my new best all time favourite track to ride.
Fresh Fish for tea from the aforementioned market - another fantastic meal.

Sunday, I had the crap beaten out of me by Hannah and Marc with a few laps up and around Signal Hill.
For those not knowing this riding gem, it is up and down and all around and brutal.
Lots of rock sections just waiting for you to ragdoll ............
So, to sum up -
Great food, the weather behaved this time and awesome riding - once again I ruled on Saturday and rolled on Sunday.
Which reminds me of another away weekend I had recently, but I cannot divulge the contents of that one just yet, for fear of all media whore privileges been revoked.......

New Tools Like

So, this geeza says he's got a few tools and would I be interested in taking them off his hands ?

Sight unseen like.

Sure mate, send them on down, I'll have a look.

So this arrived and I promptly lost it completely for the rest of the avo.

A lucky little piggy one could say.

New Stuff in the House

Well, the Garage......

1st up - Middleburn cranks 94 bcd/175mm for the 29er.

After reading an article in Dirt Rag (which I can't find online, but try this instead)I thought the 20/30/40 chainrings would bring the gearing back into the range I can pedal....

I put out an ABP to all the bike shops we deal with thru work and had the offer of these gems, if I had something cool to swap in a 170mm, which I did (Suntour XC Pro).

Blackspire came to the party with the chainrings - thanks for the hook up Aaron

Needed a wider bottom bracket - yes, square taper and looks promising so far.

Front Derailleur still needs some attention to drop it down and I may have to relent and make the Struthers family just a bit more financial.

Next is the new 15mm QR Hadley front hub to complement the 2010 FOX F29 forks.

Solving the issue of how to how to hold the wheel in the truing stand - thanks to a few knackered Specialized Brain reservoir internals we have a solution...

A new standard for headsets meant some oversized cups on loan from the Barnyard.

The loose caged balls were stuffed so a new set of Hope sealed races top and bottom means my rough as guts headset curse might have taken a turn...(no pun intended)

Oh, it's on a new Intense Tracer VP frame with a bunch of new components on the drivetrain and brakes.

For those trainspotters out there - the white polytetraflouroethylene white washer between grip and shifter is indeed a Fox Float shock glide ring.

The Fuji needed some loving too, but how hard is it to find a period correct piece of bling?

Thanks to a quick pop quiz with Oli and a moment of rummaging in the corner of his workshop we have the the clip on mudguard circa late 80's ...

After all this fettling I deserve a nice sunny day without inversion layer cloud cover and something warmer than 2-3 degrees.

This is the first winter I feel like it's so freaking cold that leaving the bike parked up for a while longer looks like an option.

Mini Randonneur ride - or ride to the pub

You know when you get out on your bike and then realise how farkin' cold it is ?

But you're too far from home to turn around and grab some more gear ?

Yeah, well that wasn't us today - with a predicted high of 2 degrees we already knew it was fingers burning and can't feel your toes stuff before we left my place at 10am sharp - well ok, we had a coffee first.

So call it 10.30.

Plan was to meander towards the Wanaka Airport via a couple of gravel roads, head down towards the Clutha River and make our way along a dual use trail to Luggate - Yes that Luggate.

The one famous for a meat processing plant owned by Sir Tim Wallis back in the day when catching Venison by helicopter was in it's infancy.

Oh, and a big red bridge and a really nice pub.

We chose the pub and beer and chips and some big rolled arm red leather couches in front of a roaring fire.

Fair to say we'll be returning.

One beer was a great start, so we had another - glass jug mate - beat that.

I know that's not a jug in the picture, just saying the beer was carried from the bar in a glass jug.

Anyway, before it turned into three and a lift home we wobbled up the hill and then a few more gravel roads to home.

Keighley had whipped up bacon, leek and potato soup with fresh bread for lunch which was, wait for it, fantastic.

So although we had a good time albeit a cold one, the kids had worn the Mrs a bit thin and consequently I was not flavour of the month upon my return.

Luckily we had hatched a plan whilst enjoying a beer, that one day soon, Leighton & Pauline will take the kids to an agreed location (pub I hear you say) in the truck and Keighley and I will have ridden the Tandem there.

Brilliant.........well until you fill the pilot up with beer it sounds ok :-)