Apart from the weather it's been cool, though. After escorting Bodhi on his Tour de Botanical Gardens on Saturday, I managed to get out for a sifty Sunday blast on my MTB for the first time in months, which totally rocked. Nice to reconnect with the dirt on my GT I-Drive. I rode Mt Albert and Mt Vic and cruised home through the Basin Reserve, where I stopped to listen to a young woman playing the bagpipes (!?) superbly in the late afternoon sun. This was followed the next day by a fun road ride around the Bays on my Hillbrick, which was only slightly marred by the wind slowing me to a 12kph crawl around Point Jerningham!! "There is always wind on the road" is there, Jacques?
The shop is still cranking, and among other jobs this week I especially enjoyed building a set of 1570g MTB wheels for a friend. They had supplied me with an XTR rear hub and an XT front hub, and a pair of 32 hole Mavic XC717 disc rims, then I used DT Competition spokes on the rear and DT Revolutions on the front with aluminium nipples all round. Lovely! Lightweight without losing strength and durability for a hard-charging downhill oriented XC racer...
I also had a nice time today fettling my friend Nick's Litespeed Vortex by swapping out his 1997 original edition 9 speed Dura Ace for a 2007 10 speed version of same. The bike is finished with FSA's cool shallow drop handlebars with Fizik gel tape, an FSA carbon post with a Fizik K:1 saddle, Bontrager carbon cranks and a wicked pair of Real Designs carbon/aluminium clincher deeps. I've posted a pic of this lovely bike below...
Lastly, but by no means leastly (?) I wanted to give a massive shout out to Welli's own Garry Humpherson who just won the World Masters Championships 70+ Individual Pursuit Gold! This was a Champion ride by a Champion bloke. After the impressive feat of setting a World Record in qualifying, Garry had to come from being down at the start of the final to finishing clearly on top and winning the gold medal! Absolutely brilliant, and thoroughly well deserved by this multiple (both title and discipline) New Zealand National Champion. I'm proud to have one of Garry's National Champion jerseys hanging in Roadworks and you can be sure I'll be badgering him relentlessly for a loan of his World Champions one...
Ciao, Oli
