Posts tagged nz mountain biking

Queenstown Day 5: Making the most of it!

October 30, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday was my last day in Queenstown for riding on this trip and I wanted to make the most of it. We planned Friday night to get up early and try and get in as many runs before I had to head to the airport at mid afternoon.

I awoke to bird chirping, sunshine and blue skies at 8:30am it was straight to breaking down camp. No time to laze around. I packed up all my gear; tear down tent, prep bike for day of riding, find some clean clothes for flight and pack it into the car. Then it was into Bob’s Weigh for breakfast to charge the fuel tanks for a fun fuelled day of downhilling. After some eggs benny and a couple coffee’s it was off to the skyline for some riding.

We were first riders up on the day! Just like the other days it was non-stop action. We managed to squeak in 12 runs in just 4 hours. I wanted to hit each track at least once more and we easily did so. No crashes on the day either, which is always good for the last day of a bike trip. The bike gods were taking care of me!

At 2pm I had to get ready for my flight, so we went downtown to grab some lunch and then I went to the park to break down my bike and get myself ready for my flight. My mate left me at the park and he returned back up the hill to ride – lucky bastard. I broke down my bike for the airplane, changed out of dirty/stinky riding gear and into jeans and a t-shirt for my flight home and then caught a bus to the airport.

Once at the airport I checked my bags, had a celebratory beer, read my book and then it was time to board the plane. On board I easily fell asleep dreaming of returning back to Queenstown to ride once again. I should be back in Jan or Feb to ride again… it cant come soon enough.

With this trip now done it is time to start planning the next. So what is next on the ride radar? Of course there will be a tonne of rides around Auckland; Woodhill, Riverhead, Maraetai and hopefully Dome Valley. But I really want to make a long weekend trip to Rotorua and Taupo in the near future. Ive ridden Rotorua heaps, but Taupo is completely new to me so it’s on my ride radar!

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Queenstown Day 3: 20 Runs & Rinsed

October 25, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Before I even arrived in Queenstown I was a little apprehensive when it came to camping. When I flew into Queenstown there was a cold front coming through and it was snowing/raining, but thankfully that first cold night I was in a hostel. Last night though was my first night camping and luckily I managed to stay nice and warm in my tent. I had the thermals and was rocking a toque as well, which kept me nice and cozy all night long.

I first awoke at daybreak to the chirping of birds – as you do when you are camping! I grabbed my ipod and tossed on some tunes allowing me a couple more hours of sleep before getting up for good! I crawled out of my tent at 9 am ready to go. We cleaned up the bikes, loaded the car and went into Queenstown for breakie. After a quick bite to eat we hit up the skyline at 10:30 am to start a great day of riding.

The weather was a bit overcast and there was a chance of showers, but the rain seemed to hold off  for the most part and when it did rain it just made the tracks sticky! There wasn’t a track we didn’t ride! I ended up hitting some tracks that I didn’t really mean to hit. I thought they were a bit above my ability but I pulled through. Basically I was just following my mate and then all of a sudden it was drop after drop after drop through narrow trees… there nothing I could do but ride it out. There was no where else to go but down so I just rolled with it. When I came to the end of that track there was definitely a smile on my face – I survived ahah! After that it was game on for all the tracks; Vertigo, Hammy’s, Shit Sandwich, Thingymajig, Armageddon, Rock Garden, Drop Garden, Ants, Grundy.. it was steep and gnarly. Fawk yah!

We had a lunch break at 1pm and then back up the skyline. We rode until the days end and managed to get in 20 runs and we weren’t even going that hard. It was a casual 20!  Everyone we spoke with thought we were completely mad for doing so many runs in one day. I would say on average people will ride 8 runs… smoked them all. When you are visiting from out of town you def want to make the most of your time.

At the end of the day we definitely deserved a beer! We headed into town to grab some Indian for dinner and then out to the house to drink some beers and play some ping-pong. My body was feeling pretty good; the only thing that was sore was my hands. It was an early night to bed as I was rinsed. The rained and wind picked up throughout the night, but it didn’t matter I managed to keep warm and sleep through the lot! Another epic day of riding! My riding has improved ten-fold… man I love this place!

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Queenstown Day 2: Prayers Answered

October 25, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My prayers were answered and I awoke to blue skies and sunshine on Wednesday. The lifts weren’t opening until 1pm, so I lazed around as long as I could at the hostel and then went back to the library to jump on a computer and read.

At about noon I headed back to the hostel, changed into my riding gear, built up the bike and then it was off to the skyline for an afternoon of riding. Being that it was mid-week there wasn’t too many people out riding so no waiting to get on the skyline! Last time I was down I managed 12 runs in a half day so that is what I was shooting for.

My mate wasn’t arriving until the evening so I rode solo just getting used to the speed of riding downhill again. Around Auckland it is mostly single track so it does take a few runs to get used to flying down a hill with trees, roots, rocks and drops all over the place. I warmed up on Hammy’s track, which is the easiest, but one of the most fun trails. It is pretty wide trail, but it littered with HUGE berms, lips, tabletops and jumps to pop off of. Also hit up Vertigo, Armageddon, Original, Shit Sandwich and Thingymajig. I managed to get in 11 runs in about 4.5 hours. Not bad, just one short of my goal of the day.

At 6pm the skyline stops taking mountain bikers up as it gets pretty dark in the forest, so my day was done. Complete success, no crashes just heaps if fun. My mate arrived just at 6pm and met me at the bottom of the hill as I was coming off the trail. He was all geared out and ready to get up the hill, but he missed the last run of the day.

Hungry from riding we hit up Fergburger for a feed and then we head out to our accommodation to set-up our tents. We are staying on a mate’s front lawn about 20 mins outside of Queenstown. The location is stunning – over looking the lake surrounded by the mountains! One of my favourite things about this place is the outdoor shower. Nothing beats a steaming hot shower while gazing up at the stars.

Since my mate didn’t get any laps in he was itching to ride so we quickly tossed up our tents and headed out to 7 mile to get some runs in. We were told of a short cut to the trail head, but in typical fashion we ended up in the middle bush just making our own track through the bush. We ended up going to high in elevation and had to ride our way down which was an adventure in itself. We soon found our desired track; Kochong, which is one of the best tracks at 7 mile as it is super flowy with jumps. We were able to get in 3 laps as the sun fell. Once back at home we drank some well deserved beer.  I was beat and was wondering how my body was going to feel the next day. I had a full day of downhill a head of me… fawk yah!

What an epic day – 11 laps at the bike park, 3 laps at 7-mile. Sweet!

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Downhill & Dirt in Queenstown: Day 3

March 26, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The view from the top of the hill! It was amazing in the morning/avro, but by the evening the clouds rolled in and skies opened up...boo!

Today we woke up to blue skies! We were planning on trying to ride a full day of downhill, but we woke up at 10am so that kind of put the end to that plan. On a previous trip to Queenstown Mark ended up doing 24 runs in one day, which is a course record and still stands. If you’ve ridden downhill you know how crazy 24 runs in one day is!

Since we woke up late we made a pretty big breakie – steak, eggs and mushrooms! I hadn’t showered the night before so I took advantage of the outdoor shower. Whenever I get a place of my own I think I would like to have an outdoor shower – so nice!

My mate’s house had a ping-pong table so our warm up of the day was an hour or so of ping-pong. I had a ping-pong table growing up and it is always a blast to bash a ball around. After that we cleaned our bikes and prepped for the afternoon of riding, aired out the tent and just chilled out.

The gondola runs in two timetables – morning runs is from10am to 3pm and the avro runs from 3pm to 7pm (8pm in the summer). At 2:45 we were sitting at the bottom of the gondola waiting to purchase our lift tickets when a group of professional riders rocked up. It was the Athertons from the UK. They are a family of riders who are hell fast and super talented. There are 2 brothers and a sister and I guess they are down in Queenstown warming up for the upcoming race season. I only saw them ride one section and was pretty blown away at the speed they ride. On a course that takes me 12 mins to get to the bottom they will ride it in 4min ahah. That is how stupid fast they go.

Today we rode the same tracks as yesterday, but tied in a couple news trails. The Original is blue track that bermed out, steep and fast. It has a couple good sets of jumps as well. Grundy was another new trail we rode today and I think it was the steepest of them all. Had lots of drops, some of which owned me. This was def the hardest day on the bike for me. I came off a handful of times! Another fun trail was Thingymajig. All of the tracks are pretty tight and off camber – there were def some holy shit moments, but if you just keep rolling it usually works out in your favour. There were sections/drops/jumps that were above my head, but like any good trail there is always a nana line so you don’t have to hit the big big stuff. Another nice feature of riding in Queenstown is that there is a bar at the top of the gondola. So mid way through the day we stopped for a beer.

We managed to get 14 runs in today. It was funny that on the first day after 8 runs I was beat to hell, but a day later I almost doubled that. I guess I knew the tracks a bit better and was feeling a bit more comfortable on the bike.

After riding we hit up Fergburger for a bite to eat. Fergburger is an institution in Queenstown. They make the best burgers Ive ever had and Im a burgeraholic! The place is always packed and I heard about it before I even came to NZ. So when you are in Queenstown you must visit Fergburger – you will not regret it.

By the evening the clouds had rolled in and the skies opened up. It rained hard. This was a little discouraging, as I knew the tracks would be shut down. Looks like tomorrow would be a rest day.

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Things to come: Downhill & Dirt in Queenstown

March 13, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This week I am off to Queenstown to ride the gondola and shred some downhill! Pretty stoked to get down south and on the bike. I was in Queenstown last year for work, but it was only a day and I didn’t have anytime to ride or play! I haven’t ridden in Queenstown yet, but from what Ive heard from my mates, it is the place to be! This is the first year in while they’ve had the gondola running taking riders to the top of Bob’s Peak! STOKED! Ive got the bike in check – new break pads, fresh bleeds, new tires – should be good to go! I have no idea where I will be staying. I do know Ill be camping, which could be a bit cool as they had some snow on the ground in Wanaka last week. Brr. I know it didn’t stick around, but it could be chilly in a tent.

My mates from down south spent a week riding in Queenstown about a month ago and have raved about it. They managed to get 27 runs down in a day and want to break the record on this trip. 27 runs is CRAZY! I have no idea how I will hold up, but Ill give it a go! I believe we will be hitting a couple other spots while in Queenstown. Im hoping to get up Cornet Peak and maybe over to the Sticky Forest for some single track riding as well. Im sure whatever is in the cards will be gnarly, sketchy and heaps of fun as that is how these trips usually go.

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Woodhill Bike Park – Iron Horse

March 7, 2011 · Filed under AUCKLAND, MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This past weekend it rained, so woodhill was prime! Ive been given the green light from my phyiso to start to hit some jumps again. Here is a short video I made of me riding at Woodhill on a track called Iron Horse. Pretty easy track with xx-xxx jumps, so it’s a great place to start  doing some jumps again. This is a pretty typical track in Woodhill – short downs, wooden structures, pine forst, sand based so good in the rain!

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Bike Down & Out in Nelson.. Argh!

January 15, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tahuna filled up on New Years Eve!

Now I havent been on my bike in a week and a half since it was christmas, so i was keen to get out for a ride. Nelson has some amazing tracks and I had already researched 8 or so that I wanted to ride. Day 5 was my day to get out on my bike and enjoy. I had been looking forward to this since we decided to come to Nelson for the holidays.

I woke up early to the birds – this happened everyday so far – argh! The sun comes up, the birds start chriping and I get out of bed to make coffee. It wasnt a struggle to get out of bed today since i was excited to get out and ride. After a small breakfast I loaded my bike into the car and I was off. The tracks were only about 15 mins away. As I approached the park I was stopped by security to ask if I had a permit to ride. I told him I just got to town and didnt know i needed a permit. He let me pass but told me to stick to the dirt roads and not to ride the tracks since I didnt have the park pass. Yah right. I agreeed to it knowing all well that as soon as I came to the track enterance I would be in the bush riding.

After reviewing the trail map board and knowing the tracks I wanted to hit I headed up! As I started to ride up the hill I noticed the bike wasnt running right. There was a knock in each peddle stroke.. i couldnt peg what was wrong but my initial thought was that I snapped my lower linkage.. FUCK! This isnt something you can fix on the trail. Acutally it is a design flaw with my make of bike. Ive been reading about other riders with the same model as mind the Giant Reign X series who have snapped there lower linkages under peddling duress. When i orginally heard about the problem I went to speak with some Giant retailers who said that if it did break it would be warrantied. Great, but if i am in the middle of the wop-wops riding and I break it my ride is fucked. Not good. I wasnt 100% sure that was it, but since I was now at the top of the hill decided to ride the downhill track down. Wholy fuck – steep and rocky as hell and toss in some sharp turns and you have yourself one amazing downhill track. It was great fun to ride!

I come out of that track pumped full of adreniline and then head to ride some single track. I rode Supplejack, which is a technical single track with rocks, roots and switchbacks and runs down throuugh a rocky creek bed.

After tha track I hit up Matai which runs down through native forest and like Supplejack is filled with rocks and roots.

I also rode Sharlands Creek Track which has several creek crosings and a couple carries as well. It was a fun track.. farily easy.

The final track of the day was R and R Rush. This trail had a couple different sections. You start off on some single track. It does get a little trickers as the track narrows and gets a little more rocky, and also has a pretty good drop on one side of the track!

The tracks were great, but to be honest I didn’t enjoy the ride as much as I would have liked since the bike was working to well. It was a pain to peddle, so by the last track I was ready to quit. I would be keen to come back to the Hira Forest to ride again. They have heaps of trails to play on!

The day before I popped into a bike shop – RIDE – to talk with the mechanics about trails and places to ride so I headed back tothe shop with my broken bike. I walked in and told the mechanic what i thought it was and it said ‘naw man it is just the i bolt here on the shock -$20 fix and I can have it back to you in a couple hours.’ SWEET!

I left the bike in his hands and went back to the park to grab michelle so we could get some groceries and chill out in town. We hit up a couple shops, Michelle picked up a nice hoodie, we were able to skype my brother from a Star Bucks and then I headed back to the bike shop to pick up my bike.

Well, I was right. The mechanic told me I had snapped the lower linkage on the drive train side and that there was really nothing I could do. He is not a a Giant retailer so he wouldnt have the parts and plus since it will be under warrenty I will have to hit a giant dealer. My riding for this trip was over. FUCK! I really didnt even scratch the surface of what I wanted to ride, but what are you going to do?

In the avro we had some in wine and cheese. This is gormet camping!

After returning back to Tahuna the park had filled up even more. I guess lots of people planned to do some camping over new years as most of the sites were now gone. In the avro we hit up the beach and then chilled at our site. It was New Years Eve so Michelle and I had some sausages and sald plus heaps of beers and ciders to consume. We cracked the case of cider and i mourned for my bike ahaha. It wasnt long before we struck up a conversation with our camp neighboors – Tony and Lynn from Invergargal. We brought 2011 in together having a wee yarn and some good laughs.

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Mountain Biking in the Hunua Ranges, New Zealand

December 20, 2010 · Filed under AUCKLAND, MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The weekend after I got back from riding on the west coast I was inspired to check out some other local tracks in the Auckland area, rather than just hit up Woodhill Bike Park. As I have said in earlier posting, Woodhill is sand based so it is great when wet but pretty shite when dry. When dry it is just a tough slog through all the sand. Ive also rode at Riverhead, which is in the Auckland area and found that it had some decent tracks. It also has some pretty stupid tracks, meaning stumps in the middle of transitions, dumb ass jumps and gaps… just some stuff that really isn’t very well thought out. As for the good, they are spread out and have to be ridden in the dry as it is clay based and if you choose to ride when wet you will be slipping and sliding everywhere. Not to mention a good two hours cleaning your bike. Now that winter has passed I will be heading out their a little more often, but want to give it a good month to dry out. The week of constant rain hasn’t helped that plan! The new tracks I was going to check were in the Hunua Ranges.

Ive researched these tracks and they sounded ok, pretty much some single track in native bush. I set off to Papakura which is about 35 mins outside of Auckland. Once I found the car parking lot and the tracks I set off on Moumoukai Farm Track & River Track and also hi the Mangatahiri Challenge Track. It is tight winding single track that twists through forests and fields with some gravel road riding in between. There were some steep ups and downs too. Maybe it was because I was spoiled from the west coast riding but I was not overally impressed with the tracks. I didn’t like how they laid gravel down in some areas. Too easy to wash out on and I much prefer sticky earth and the natural soil to the area.

I don’t think I will be heading back to these tracks, just wasn’t very impressed. I will hit up Riverhead once it dries out. Woodhill is great when it is wet and will pretty much keep it as my local riding spot. Next I think I will hit the Whitford Forest, which is supposed to have some decent trails. I of course will be hitting Rotorua as much as possible as nothing in the Auckland area has anything that can compare with those tracks.

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West Coast Mountain Biking: Day 7

December 15, 2010 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today there would be no riding, which I was ok with since I was exhausted from the 6 days of straight riding. I had to be at the airport around 2ish and Mark had to take care of his radiator problems. After breakfast Napalm showed off his collection of bikes – he had a variety of hard tails and a couple downhill rigs. Napalm will ride a down hill rig everywhere. Cross-country, single track, downhill, to work or the shop – anywhere. Downhill rigs are usually about 40lbs and now known for being easy to peddle – they are built to huss down a track fast and take a lot of punishment. I think you have to be a bit mental to ride around a bike like that – of course he was a bit of a nutter and he proved that when he took the corner at Craigieburn way too fast and went flying off the track. He is working a new build and told me how he scored a 2010 Giant Faith frame for $100. It was dented along the down tube in the earthquake so they couldn’t sell, so he picked it up cheap. That frame is usually worth a grand or so. The dent really wasn’t that bad either. It wouldn’t really compromise the ride or the strength of the frame.

I then had my first shower in 7-days. I thought my fellow passengers on the air new Zealand would appreciate it. Once all cleaned up I packed my bags and had Mark drop me at the airport. I was there way too early before my flight, so I was unable to check my luggage. For the first hour I broke down my bike and then I just people watched until I was able to check my bag and bike. Once everything was checked in I headed to the bar for a couple pints and a burger. The trip was over! Overall it was an amazing week of riding. We managed to do 2 rides a day – which was pretty tiring, but well worth it.

My favorite place to ride was Craigieburn and Kirwans. The day of shuttling the walking path was pretty crazy too. One thing is forsure, this trip has allowed me to see a totally different way of life and ride some of the best tracks a long the west coast of New Zealand.

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West Coast Mountain Biking: Day 6

December 13, 2010 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Craigieburn campsite

I woke up early to the kea’s squawking. Thankfully they didn’t see the bikes and hadn’t picked at them. One was picking at our cast iron pot from last nights dinner, but better that then my bike! On one of the trips to craigieburn earlier I guess one of the guys seat was pretty much shredded by these pesky birds!

The Edge runs a long both of the mountains.

Today we were hoping that two of Marks buddies, Dave and Napalm were going to join us for a ride. We waited until 9 and then decided to head up the hill, as we all thought they just couldn’t make it. We rode up to the trail head and then down the Dracophyllum track to a gravel road. The Dracophuyllum track was like the luge – through native beech forest, winding your way down the hill through forest – sweet! Once we hit the gravel road it was a half our ride to the Edge. The Edge is a hairy track that is steep, with sharp corners and steep drops, shingle rock scree slopes that were sketchy as. The scree slopes were totally open and off camber. You had to keep you speed up to roll over the rocks and if you fell off to the left it would have been a 300 foot tumble down rock scree until you hit the bottom. It would have been a helicopter ride to the hospital if you fell. This track had about 4 of these sections.. I rode 3 of the 4. The one section sketched me out too much and I walked it. There were also hair pin corners with rock face on one side and drops on the other. Take your time, pick your line well and concentrate. It was some of the most intense riding I have ever done. After the first time around we were having a breather on the gravel road and Napalm and Dave came flying down the track. They made it down and luckily enough caught us before we headed up for our next round. It was great to have these two show up. They brought a lot of new energy to the ride – which we needed after 5 days of riding. On our third lap of the track Napalm ended up taking a spill on one of the corners. He managed to grab on to a tree on his way down, but his bike was another story. It took 5 of us holding on to trees in various spots and passing it a long to one another to get it up. If you were to ride there a lone and were to take a spill, it would have been a lot of work to get the bike back. We rode the edge 3 times. It was gnarly and I can’t wait to hit it up again!

Our last track for the day was the National Downhill track from 1996. It really isn’t open to the public, but one of the guys knew of it so we jumped a fence and pushed our bike for a while. Once at the track it was a little over grown, but still pretty mint. It was steep as, to begin with but opened up nicely, which allowed you to huss it. The track was overgrown in some spots so it was bush/tree branch face slapping fun. Half way down Dave got a flat so we all waited for him to fix it. Once we started to ride again, I found I was done. I was tired and my focus wasn’t there. Up until that I was riding real well, but after I felt like I was just hanging on for dear life. I was happy when the track ended.

We rode until about 4pm, so it was a pretty full on day – 7 hours on the bike. We headed back to camp site and had a couple beers. After a couple we took down our tents, packed the vehicle and headed back to Christchurch.

Once back in Christchurch we dropped off Hubby and set off for Napalms place were we would be crashing that night. A couple more beers and it was bedtime. Today’s ride was the sketchiest, intense, extreme and fun ride of the trip. Day 6.. fuck`n eh!

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