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!

Cannondale XS 800 good to go

Got a race, oops I mean event this weekend - http://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/HunuaClassic.htm

Time to break out another bike I haven't used in a while. For those interested in such trivia this bike used to belong to Clint Jackson-the X (note the X!) world singlespeed mtb champion 2003.


The left hand STI shifter wasn't working properly, so

I pulled it off, degreased it, prayed to the Shimano gods and somehow it now works. Sweet.

Took it for a spin down the Onehunga walkway on Saturday, then got down to some serious transplation on Sunday morning.

Took off the 105 Octalink cranks with the 24/39/48 chainrings. Tried to put on a set of LX mtb cranks, but the bottom bracket axle was too long.

Plan C ended up putting my 98 XT cranks (22/32/42) mated to a Dura Ace 103mm bottom bracket. works sweet.

New to the bike but old 8 speed cluster 12-28 teeth.

Mavis Cosmic Elite wheels - bugger all spokes but should be ok......famous last words.

New Thomson seatpost and Kevlar topped saddle replaced the plumbers pipe and Turbomatic 2 that was on there....much better.

New, well old second hand chain (couldn't find the one I took off) and a new to me set of SPD pedals which I swapped as part payment for a coffee machine...

There could well be a picture and report after the race....

*****Here is the update: I didn't do the race. I had to trim/hack/cut down the massive hedge running an easy 14 metres down the side of our section. After hanging on the end of a 3 metre extension petrol powered vibrating sword of death I was too shagged to get on my bike......making it down the three steps to the bathroom was bad enough.....................

And it rained too. Not that I'm made out of suger or anything, but it's normally bathed in sunshine. So no thanks.

Oh in more breaking news the family is moving to Wanaka.********************************

Any advertising must be good they say

So with that in mind, I present the latest and greatest:

Bike of the week: Klein Rascal circa 1992

The history of this bike goes way back.
When we would go away in the bikeshop van to races there would be at least 8 Kleins piled in. They were the thing to have.
I've owned it from new, the two previous frames developing a fault and consequently
replaced by the importer.
So a new frame every year for three years
-pretty happy about that.
Suntour XC Pro groupset (pre microdrive). When you unwrap this
groupo it includes the seatpost, pedals, headset and even the handlebar grips!
One piece aluminium bar and stem combo.
Customised 7 speed (all steel) cluster on the back 13-26 teeth.
Rear entry dropouts - I know not why. Tricky to get the wheel in and out I tell you.
This was my trials, cross country, downhill, uphill and dual slalom bike all in one. I might have slipped the seat down an inch if it was a big down hill, but that entailed carrying two 10mm spanners for the seatbolt. Best we just leave it up then.
23 pounds as you see it.
As much as I don't want to say it: I feel compelled to mention this bike (as shown) won the 1992 national dual slalom championship at Spa Park in Taupo. Oh, it would have had Ritchey megabite tires on it.

New to me, but older road bike added to the stable today

An old mtb mate rang last weekend and asked if I wanted to give his old road bike a new home.

It used to be owned by Simon someone or other who was a bit of a gun in his day I'm told.

This Biddle frame is the second one I've seen in NZ - Wayne Morgan from Wellington used to have one (when I was a nipper just getting into road racing) I think he took his to Europe when he went over with Nathan Dalberg.

It used to have Dura ace down tube shifters and brake levers as well, but the bike shop "lost" them when they changed to the STI set up shown. Shame on you bike shop.

The frame at least will no doubt find it's way to DB's place - if it was 57cm square that would be a different story......

Cheers to Graham and Helen for not throwing it out in the trash !