2W Gravity Enduro

On Saturday (5th Oct) I raced in the second ever 2W gravity enduro held in Rotorua's Red Wood forest. Although it is the end of winter, the tracks were dry and dusty and the day was warm with blue sky and no sign of rain! We had 5 stages to complete inside 5hours including riding to and from the start/finish, which was a short ride from the forest. I rode most of the day by myself catching up with different groups of mates in between stages. We could either catch the shuttle bus up to the start of each run or ride, I decided to ride up to my first run and managed to beat the bus up the hill to be the first on that track (C gunna gota-Paddys run). After a clean run (although I felt like I could have gone a bit faster) I moved on to the far side of the park and caught the bus up to do the long run, (A Billy T- roller coaster) As it was a small climb to the start of the run I was first from our bus to the start. I cranked into it and felt like I had some good flow, then my chain some how dropped off and jammed in my chain guide.... Once I had it out I decided to cruse the run and use it as a "look lap" lucky as the same thing with my chain happened a few more times......... I thought I had fixed it at the end of the run so I jumped back on the bus and decided to do the (B jumps track) run as it was shorter and I wouldnt loose as much time if the same thing happened again, Feeling good on this run and hitting the jumps and burms well I made it about 3/4 of the way down the track before the chain jumped off again! I was far enough down the track that I knew I could coast and only loose a couple seconds. This time I spent a few dollars and had Ed (the event mechanic) to have a look, we adjusted the gap on the inside between the chain ring and the chain guide. As we put the back wheel back in we noticed the clutch in my rear derailer was not working properly and allowing the chain to jump around more than usual, I went up and had another go at (A) this time making it down although the chain still wasnt 100% so back to Ed and he was able to adjust the tension on the clutch which fixed the problems. With coffee in me and my bike sorted I was off back to the other runs that I hadnt yet done, as I cut my way through the forest I decided to ride up to the top of the next run (as the way I was going bought me out 1/3 of the way up anyway). Next up was run (D Corridor) I managed to take off just before another rush of riders after they caught the shuttle up, An "ok" run with a few small mistakes but nothing too major until I plugged my transponder into the timing box at the end of the run and it snapped off..... I had to smack the bottom of the timing box to get my chip back out and put it in my pocket from there on. I rode back to the top of the hill again as I knew it would be quicker than going back to the shuttle pickup, Run (E) was down Tukairangi and up the road onto Challenge track. I managed to get the transponder to work without dropping it in the timing box but still had to make sure I put it in my pocket safely before taking off, another "ok" run but trying to find the timing chip in my pocket (with full finger gloves on) and then put it in the timing box wasnt the easiest. I decided I had enough time to do one more run before heading back to the finish, after waiting in line for a few minutes I decided to ride up one more time!??! 4 times in one day up the same gravel road almost reminded me of doing reps for xc training although this time I was on a trail bike..... Once at the top I decided to do my first run of the day and see if I could improve that time, I was getting a tad tired by this stage though and crashed part way down then "blew" shortly after that, so just rolled out to the bottom and made my way back to the finish for a beer and some pizza!
Although I did 7 runs only the best 5 counted so I finished up 14th over all with 2 older hammers being ahead of me meaning I was 12th in my age group. A good fun day with about 34min of timed (and counted) racing and about 4hr 45min all up. Rumor has it that the race in Feb with be on tracks that are a lot more challenging so I cant wait for that!  

Cougar Chaser

Ok people, here it is! An xc mtb race to blow the cobwebs out, the weekend before the Whaka 100km in Rotorua. The distances are short but the tracks will test your fitness!

Dawn2Dusk

July 13th I raced as part of a 2 person team in the Dawn2dusk 11hr Gravity race, The race was based at the bottom of the "National DH" track in the redwood forest, Rotorua. The race was being used as a fund raiser for a couple guys heading to world champs in South Africa. 

 We caught the Shuttle bus to the top drop off point and had a bunch of tracks tracks that we had to complete through out the day before we could choose which ever runs we wanted to do, 3x National dh, 3x jumps track, 2x corners track, billy t- down to moonshine and then part of chinese menu, Hotxbuns onto bunny jugs. 

I ended up sleeping in a wee bit on the morning of the race, Jumping out of bed at 6am smashing some food and a coffee back (cant leave home without either!) I jumped in the ute and shot over to the race arriving as the first riders including Lester. The tracks were a bit damp/wet as we had a bit of rain in the days leading up  but the new GEAX GOMA tires I am running were amazing! totally predictable and never letting go. My first run was down "jumps" Im not sure why but jumps track is one of the tracks I havent really done much yet with national dh track being the other track (to be honest I I did my first run down national dh in about 6years just the weekend before the race) I found my way down with only one small mishap finding a large hole and almost going over the bars...

As the day went on we were picking off the runs leaving national dh to last, Both Lester and I only had out trail bikes (both on 650b wheels) unlike other teams that had both trail bikes and dh bikes to use throughout the day, both of us were finding our way down national dh but as it was the fastest way down we kept making our way down the dh track. At the end of the day we managed to pull off 2nd in the two man teams.    An awesome day and good luck to the guys off to world champs 

Below is my second run down Jumps track  

New rubber!

It looks like the team at GEAX have been busy doing what they do best! Yep they have come up with a new tire to take on every thing the new world of GRAVITY ENDURO racing will try throw at the riders. They have called it the GOMA and it is to be part of the 2014 line up. I have just been sent a pre-production set to try, the set I am trying are 27.5 (650b)x2.25 They will come in a range of wheel sizes and in two widths.

I fitted them to my bike tonight but didnt make it out for a ride, I will be putting them through their paces and will be sure to let you all know my thoughts on how they preform. Below is a link to inform you a bit more on these new tires 

 http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Geax-Goma-Enduro-Tire-Sea-Otter-2013.html

Over the weekend I also "blinged"out my bike a bit more, taking the dual chain rings off and fitting this new straight line chain guide a red chain ring and bash ring, Im now thinking its time to go racing!!! Maybe the dawn2dusk will be a go.....

"One of those days"

The final round of Sean Clarks dirt guide series was on the 15th June and it turns out it was just "One of those days". I had to work in the morning and things were going fine until we were almost finished,  as we turned the water back on we had a small leak that had to be fixed before we could leave... Once we had that sorted I was off out the gate with about 1hour before the start of my race. A 20min drive then go enter the race, get changed and down to the start line. As I rode down to drop my gas off in the pits I herd the gun go off for the first wave, I arrived on the start line and turned my bike off about 10seconds before the gun went for us. I had a good start and got into the track in the top third, I was holding my own until about half way around the loop. I went to change down at the bottom of one of the big climbs but as I tried to nothing happened, I ended up having to stop on the side of the track stuck in 4th gear and my gear shifter had "flogged out" stripped. After a few minutes of rocking the bike back and forwards I was able to get it into 2nd, this was enough to get going and up most of the climbs but as I was going along a road section I hooked up another gear into 3rd, this was ok until I caught up to some traffic in tight "single track"I was able to get past a bunch of them as we neared the end of the lap and I decided to pull into the pits and see if I could tighten the pinch bolt on the shifter, A couple guys gave me a hand to try fix the problem but still no luck so we swapped it with a spare one they had but it was for a different brand of bike and about 1km into the 15km lap the same thing happened again..... I limped my way around the lap and decided to call it a day and prevent any more damage to my bike. As I was making my way back to load my bike up I had a quick chat with Sean Clark and another guy, turns out the they had a bike in there trailer that had a shifter that fitted my bike! We swapped the shifter onto my bike and I was going again. I was no doubt last but I decided to get out there and have some fun and at least get some more time on the bike. I managed to get two more laps in and pass a few riders in the process.
Its pretty cool how people at these events are keen to help out from helping fill the petrol tank to offering to clean your goggles and even lending parts out to complete strangers! if any of these people read this then THANKS again.
Oh and to top it all off, as I loaded my bike up after the race I noticed I had a flat front tyre.....

  

Mt Vic Super-d, Wellington

rocking my ADIDAS goggles and
 new BELLWETHER clothing

I had been toying with the idea for a couple weeks and late last week I decided to head to Wellington to race in the third edition of the Mt Vic super-d. It is about a 5&1/2hr drive each way so I it the road around 8am on Saturday and had a few stops along the way to brake up the drive, I arrived about 230pm and headed straight to the track. Mt Vic is on the edge of the city CBD, over the years I have raced many cross country (xc) races here and had pretty good results along the way even claiming a couple National titles. The easiest way to describe Super-d is its a tamed down down hill track with a couple climbs along the way to test the legs, lungs and see whos got a bit of fitness! Over the years (1996-2013) we have used most of the hill to hold our xc races so I had raced on about 2/3 of the track we were using at some point, although I only had about 100mm of shock travel on the front and my seat was always up! now I have 150mm of travel front and rear and my seat can go up and down at the push of a button!!! The parts of the track I hadnt ridden had some cool sections including some "ski jump" step downs and some freshly cut off chamber tree roots, the track went from the top of the hill to the bottom with a good mix of every thing. I rode to the top on the road and did a look lap then repeated to climb the road and increase my pace a few more times on the Saturday as I knew some of the top locals had been riding the track most of the week. Race day, we could catch the shuttle up a get a few runs in during the morning and get all the lines dialed before seeding. I had a good clean seeding run and was a bit surprised to be the fastest in "MASTERS 1"in 5min30.0 and had the second fastest time out of every one 6sec back, I knew I had to keep it fairly clean and tidy while pushing hard during the race run as there were a few guys in "M1" that used to race pro elite down hill a few years ago and have a bit of fitness to get them up the climbs. We had no idea who had finished where until prize giving although second seed and the one I knew would be my biggest threat "THE WEAZEL" had counted when he crossed the line until I crossed the line and had 27sec so we knew it was close, so we hung out and talked smack about our runs while watching the other grades come down on there race runs. Prize giving revealed all and it turns out I had managed to take more time off my seeding run with a 5min25.8 but "THE WEAZEL" is a bit slow at counting, he finished 1.8sec ahead of me and taking the fastest time of the day in 5min24.0 I had the second fastest race run (with the fastest seeding guy going two sec slower in his race run) Turns out both the fastest race runs were from  M1 and neither of us are locals! so much for home town advantage.......

Thanks to SPOKE magazine for being up there taking photos all day

Dirt series round two

With the wether forecast being right, saying there was a wether bomb due to hit the night before. Its an under statement to say we had some rain leading up to round two of Sean Clarks dirt series race at "old tar hill" a few km south of Tokoroa. The track had been shortened 5km to a 15km loop before we started, we started in the rain and on the red clay around that area it was always going to be rather slippery and hard work to get up some of the climbs. With 103 starters the tracks were going to get ripped up rather quickly. I got an ok start again sitting mid field and slip sliding my way along the tracks holding it up rite, things were going ok until we hit the first big climb. As I started the climb I found a bunch of bikes stuck in the quickly forming ruts and had to wait my turn to have a go at getting up. I spotted a different line than the one everyone else were trying to take and as soon as the gap opened enough for me I had a crack at it making my way up and past a bunch of riders, by this time there were a few marshals including Sean Clark digging at the sides of the ruts so the bikes wouldnt get so stuck..... Once I was clear of that hold up I had clear track and I was making the most of it but it wasnt to last very long at all, I soon found another bottle neck of bikes. This time there were twice as many and the climb was twice as long!People were trying all sorts to make it up including going bush and making there own way up and working together to get each others bikes up the climb. Once I finally made it past that climb I once again found I had clear track for a bit, well thats until I came across a few more bikes stuck on a small but steep pinch, once the pinch was clear on one side I had a crack but the ruts were too deep and I also got stuck.

After a while of trying I ended up working with the guy next to me (who had been near the front until he got stuck at this point), this was the last big climb of the lap although with the conditions and soil type what would normally be simple, had big ruts to get stuck in or it was just slippery and you had to be on your game the whole time. Lap one took me 1hr 15min and after stopping for more fuel I headed out for another lap, the lap had now been shortened a lot more with the major climbs being cut out! This didnt mean it was going to be easy now, as I found out in the very first corner turning off the gravel road getting stuck in a rut so deep my back wheel was off in the air. It took two of us to lift my bike out of the rut before I could get going again, From here I only had a few more issues with getting stuck or cross rutted and ending up on the ground taking about 40min to do lap two (Im picking about 7km) I still had a few minutes left if I wanted to do another lap but decided to save the bike (and my bank account) for another day. I finished mid field with a lot of riders only completing one lap and some not even making that!    

I have spent about 6hours so far stripping and cleaning then putting my bike back together after the 2hr race but thats all part of the fun!!!