Let me start by saying, there are many other things I should be doing right now but for one reason or another im just not. Some of those things include, cleaning my chain, swapping my grips over, cleaning out my ride bag, fixing my CV up, riding?
But nope… Im sitting at the computer desk, grinding up some coffee… scratch that, its 4 mins later and im now drinking coffee… I wish you could share smells via the internet because this smells mighty flippin good.
Moving right along, So Ben and I made a plan about 2 weeks ago that when off work before xmas we were going to do a Karapoti training/scouting mission. We were to do the full 50km loop at a slow pace to gauge the event etc… It turns out Wellington was not on our side, we had rain for the last 6 days in a row… the entire track would have been one big mudbog.
We decided that despite the rain and wind we would still ride however opting for some trails a little more groomed and suited to wet weather riding, This being Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park. So after a morning of mucking about fixing up bike bits, having coffee and generally talking rubbish before heading off we finally arrived at the carpark.
We decided we would do 3 laps of our version of the grand loop, well that was the idea anyway. So basically… up Koru, Sally Alley, Missing Link, Aratihi and down Northface, Ridgeline extention and home via Swig/Starfish.
Ben managed to keep a good pace for the first 3/4 of the climb however I think he got a little bored and after being told by me to go for gold he drove on ahead at his own super-fast lighting pace. We hit the cloud line around the halfway point on Aratihi and visibility was limited to about 20 meters from about this point on, there was so much mud/dirt/fog my glasses were doing more harm than good and it was raining hard on and off.
I finally broke out the top of Aratihi into the extreme wind that many Makara Peak riders know all too well, almost blowing me off my bike… I locate Ben, Leaning up against a small hill sheltered from the wind. After a quick nod to indicate all is well he is off again for the last little climb up the 4wd track and down the other side to the entrance of NorthFace.
I arrive at NorthFace again being almost blown off my bike, we take a quick 30 seconds to comment “farrrrk its windy” or something similar to that. Ben offers to take the point and off we go… the downhill is pretty slippery and with Northface still being quite a new trail its not quite well drained or hardpacked yet so making for a challange in some places, as per the norm I managed to say on Bens tail prettymuch the whole way down.
We promptly cleaned up that one then did the short climb back up and over to Ridgeline Extention however on the way back down to the start of the trail I completely overshot the entrance and had to hop off and turn around. By the time I got to the start of the short .8 km trial Ben was out of sight so I attempted to ride hard to catch him, I think this only made things worse as I some how managed to screw up every single corner/tree root/rock for the first 1/3 of the trail.
This made me a little angry at myself but I somehow decided that I just needed to sort my shit out and get on with it, this worked because by the time the trail got to that bit… yaknow the really rocky slight left hand turn part before the switchback then down toward the small jump? I had caught upto Ben and was right on his tail again, after the BBQ table we shot down to the end, Ben having a small slip along the way.
As we entered the little link track between RL ext and Swig I asked if I could take point for Swig/Starfish… I just LOVE that trail. I burned off ahead at the start of the trail and dont think Ben saw me from the first corner onwards, I rode prettymuch like it was dry and hammered my way to the end. Ben arrived at the carpark some 30-40 seconds later.
So after that one lap things were pretty well covered in mud, Example one: my bike
Example two, Me:
Example three, meet Ben and his bike! :
After a quick bathroom/snack/chat stop we took off for lap 2, same route as last time and I went at much the same pace, we got about 2/3 of the way up Koru and Ben stopped… there was something not quite right with his forks… we both haad a quick look over them but could not decide exactly what was up, they were kinda sticking on the way back up but not compressing nicely either… almost like there was not enough air in them? or something? We had a chat and decided we would finish off Koru then take the bike down the the local bike shop Mud’s Cycles. At the top of Koru Ben opted for the slower/more laidback route of lazy fern and I got to do my favorite Swig/Starfish.
When Ben finally arrived at the bottom we shot off down to Muds to borrow a shock pump and get their opinion on the issue, unfortunately this didnt help much as the shocks had prettymuch the right amount of air and the guy at the shop just wanted to send them away to be rebuilt!!! So at that point we called it a day and packed up to go home and get dry.
That was pretty-much it for yesterday (bikewise) other than going to Bicycle to pick up some valves but getting the wrong ones.
So post finished, my bike still needs sorting out and its now 10pm, im just going to go to bed because I feel grumpy.
Later gaters
Sam
p.s.
Im just going to place this here
