Sunday, August 26, 2007

Meremere Road to Blue Mountains


Lea's Bike of course!
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.
I had to lead with a photo of Lea's new bike. Weighs 9.5 kilos, carbon fibre, xtr etc.

Today myself, Lea, Kerr, and Peter set off from Hanaia and picked up Mike at Tirohanga Dairy and set off up the Motu Road where we turned off at the 19k bridge and began the relentless grind up Meremere Rd into the Blue Mountains. Took us 45-50 minutes of granny gear, but we all rode to the top. What do you reckon, Barry! Lea and Pete both took a bit of a stumble and ran out of traction and took a bit to get going.

It was great to see Mike lift his bike over the 2m gate and then see Kerr open the gate and wheel his bike through!

The views were stunning as you can see if you follow this link to the photos. The downhill home was awesome, but the tracks are all bouldered up as a result of the forestry going on in there which is a bit of a pity.

A big cheers to Jarrod (note spelling) and the crew organised by Headley who spent the day clearing the top part of the military track. Sorry fellas, had to go to work.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Back On Track






I am sure you have been worried about the long period of silence but minor anal !!!! surgery kept me out of the saddle for a few weeks. You will be pleased to know that the rules committee met and allowed 20 minutes of weights to count as exercise in my attempt to not miss a day. As a result today was the 126th day in a row!!!

This weekend had been full of highlights. Lea spent more on her Mountain Bike than most of us spend on a car. Got a great deal from Hickey's so all you Opotiki people make sure you see them when you want to buy.











Today we had a big crew go MTB up the Motu. The Boss, Peter (newby) and myself turned around at the top of the Meremere and had a solid 52k ride - taking 36 minutes to climb the hill which is my fastest for a while. I'll let you know how my bum is in the morning. Lea, Brian, George, Barry and Destry carried on to top of Papamoa (George turned around early as he had a paddle date). Good 65-70k ride for them.






Yesterday was the working bee on the track. It was amazing the number of good excuses that came out today! However, Jarred, Kate and Lyn and I worked like Trojans and have completed the full circuit. It will still need manicuring to make some corners rideable etc but the back has been well and truly broken!After a half dozen beers to refresh Jarred decided to ride it in the rain, on soft dirt etc and made the whole thing apart from 3 corners which I will work on. See him in action in these pictures. Jarred, Kate and Lyn have life-time exemptions from the gold coin koha box to enable all you other buggers to ride.