I didn't ride today...

I didn't spend all week working my arse off and busting for a day that wasn't too busy or too climatically challenging or both, and I didn't take advantage of a cold but gorgeous Wellington Saturday by chucking my bike on my rack and rendezvousing with my good buddies Alex and Matt.



We didn't saddle up and ride up the delightful Cemetery Trail, and we didn't marvel at the constantly changing character of this sweet singletrack.



I didn't start out with a hiss and a roar before tapping the depths of my climbing fitness after the first five minutes...Matty didn't take over point, and Al didn't clear the entire climb despite this only just coming back from a pair of nasty injuries.



I didn't go anaerobic trying to wrestle my camera out of my shorts pocket as I wasn't riding to take shaky photos of Matt and Al climbing away from me as I went deeper and deeper into oxygen debt...





We didn't collect ourselves at the gates and we didn't decide to carry on and ride Johnson's Hill back down to the Cemetery. Our cheery greetings also weren't ignored by an ignoramus heading past us back down to the Cemetery. HEY WE DIDN'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU ANYWAY, BUDDY!



Next we didn't ride up to Skyline.





By now you're probably getting as tired of this lame schtick as I am, so when I tell you that we didn't run into some old MTB friends out for a walk who didn't pull out some inane calls on me then you won't understand?!?

My somewhat bitter "humour" is directed at the two things people I bump into when I'm out riding seem to say the most; "I didn't know you rode off-road?", and one I've unfortunately had cause to mention once or twice before which is, "Your bike is so clean - you must never ride!" Both of these calls were pulled out on me in quick succession, and the best I could come up with in return was to hassle them for losing their bikes...why do the best comebacks always occur 10 minutes after you need them?

Firstly, anyone who actually knows me knows that when I do have a chance to get out I ride my MTB far more than my road bike these days, not to mention that I've ridden mountainbikes (poorly, I'll admit!) since 1992. Secondly, I find the utter inanity of hassling someone about not riding when they're out for a ride very odd indeed, not to mention extremely impolite.

After this frustrating encounter we set off again south along Skyline, around the clever cyclist-friendly stiles, until we hit the turn off to Johnson's Hill. The climb up to the trig is a toughie and we all walked a fair bit of it.



Unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice, but the view south was spectacular with the Kaikoura Mountains crystal clear in the distance framed by Makara Peak and the hills out towards Cook Strait.





Al was riding on his classic old steel KHS hardtail with v-brakes and early Marzocchi Bombers, but he out-rode Matty and I with our 5 inch travel trail bikes on most of the steepest technical stuff we'd encounter on our way back down the Hill.



The view out west has been irrevocably altered by the windfarm that's being erected. I have no problem with the site or the intent of the thing, but I can't say I prefer the sight of the windmills over the bare hills.



Matty flowed down the stairs while Alex and I followed carefully.



We took a turn-off that Al and I had regretted passing the last time we were up here - this trail started out with some rooty, slippery goodness, before taking us down some steep pine-needle covered zig-zag action, where Al expertly slalomed us through the trees - it wasn't until later that it was revealed it was because he simply couldn't stop! Lucky for us he carried it off so well...

This was much steeper than it looks!



Matt in a techy steez.



After much slithering and sliding and some mad skidzzz, and only a couple of minor offs for me, the trail took us eventually down to the Cemetery. We got back to the cars buzzing but, as we still had some daylight and didn't feel like the ride should end, we decided to give them the swerve and keep rolling - Matt hadn't seen the new Karori Park pump track, so we headed along the Main Road.

After a wicked blast through the traffic I hit the Park but somehow I managed to take the wrong way up not once but twice! I arrived in time to watch Matt roll adroitly around the pump track...





...before we ped-surfed back around the Park and fanged hard back through Karori, finishing up with some awesome judder bar air.

After reaching our vehicles and farewelling Matt, Al and I drove back to the Bay where I couldn't resist taking a couple of shots of the full moon rising above Tapu Te Ranga Motu.



Then from up on the ridge...amazingly, it was raining heavily about 20 minutes after I took this last shot.



Home in the bosom of my family, with the rain starting to fall. I love my bike and, despite the scepticism I seem to face from some people with no idea how I live my life, I really, really love riding it...



Another great ride with great friends - cheers Al and Matt!

Of course, if there is a reason that I don't ride bikes as much as I should, it's because fixing them dominates a huge chunk of my week. As that is actually the real reason for these long-winded diatribes I call a blog, I thought I'd better show you a couple of the bikes I saw this week.

Before I do though, here's a shot of Grant's sweet new Cotic Soul. You may recall I built up some wheels for Grant a couple of weeks ago for his Great Divide ride from Canada to Mexico, so here they are fitted on his weapon of choice by the guys at Taupo's best bike shop, Top Gear Cycles.



As the week began I had a couple of jobs to finish off, the first of which was Blair's Scott. I tubelessed the tyres and fitted the rotors and cassette to the wheels I built him last week, before installing them and giving the bike a service.



Next up I cannibalised the chain, front derailleur and cable set off this lovely old Raleigh...



...with cool 50s transfers...



...to enable me to complete Dan's lovely Colnago Technos. I think it turned out very nicely indeed.





Check these pics out of some more of Dan's impressive quiver of retro steel rides, which I haven't had the privilege of fettling yet but definitely hope to get my hands on over the course of time!

Raleigh.



Roberts TT bike.



And his brilliantly restored Mercian...



Links to more pics of these fine machines here: Raleigh, Roberts and the Mercian.

I next worked on a slightly more modern rig. Matt's (a different Matt!) Opera (a Pinarello subsidiary) was having a chainset transplant. The recent advent of the first ever Dura-Ace compact chainset meant Matt's old 7800 53/39 DA was being ditched in favour of more knee-friendly gearing.

7900 Dura-Ace chainset.



The Opera before removal of the 7800 chainset.



Matt has fitted some interesting and very light Zero Gravity brakes to his bike.



As well as doing this, the Opera required some tender ministrations - as did the AC420 wheels. Soon enough Matt's race bike was ready to rock.



Lastly, I'll show you Andrew's lovely titanium Everti hardtail MTB. Bought for a relative song off Everti's designer/builder Kurt Knock, this sweet rig is a 24lb XC race machine. It just needed a good going over after a few months of riding since new.



The welding of this Canadian designed/Taiwanese built frame is faultless, and the ride apparently smooth and fast.



That's all I have for this week. The upcoming week holds some more interesting projects I will be getting on with. Until then, thanks for reading. Cheers, Oli

Trailer Park Thrash!

The recession seems to be biting the New Zealand bicycle industry hard right now, with the sad news of good shops closing down occurring on an almost weekly basis. I feel very fortunate indeed to have found a wee niche for myself where I won't get rich but seem to always survive, but my heart goes out to those friends and their families affected by these harsh times...

As well as the recession, the big news of the moment is the so-called "swine flu", which oddly makes me visualise Inspector Clouseau cursing his fireplace. The friend of mine who owns the Condor I showed last week has been hard at work at the swinish coal face in his professional capacity, but is now winging his way to Europe to ride some of France's magnificent Cols and hopefully catch a bit of the Giro d'Italia. My first job of the week was to box up his precious steed for the long flight(s) to his base in Morzine. At the same time Mike picked up his reserved Roadworks kit - the last of the current stock. I'm looking forward to some pics of him wearing my kit while riding on the roads I've dreamed of riding since I was a boy - one day, Roger Fitz, one day!



I'd just finished this off and was back at home doing some orders on the computer when I had a great visit from my mate Stephen Taylor and his friend Marty. Stephen is the manager of the Ultimo Cycling Team, which grew out of the Delmaine Team of 2008. I was supposed to be a part of the Delmaine team at last year's Day/Night Thriller but family circumstances conspired to keep me away, but Stephen was kind enough to bring me in the jersey I was supposed to have worn in that event. Cheers Stephen, and all the best for the season with Ultimo!



Talking of jerseys, I am going to have to make some room in the Wall of Fame not only for my Delmaine one, but also a very cool Australian National Champion's jersey winging it's way across the Tasman Sea. Bridie O'Donnell is a legend in Aussie cycling, with many, many prestigious race wins in her palmares. She was the 08 Aussie Time Trial Champion, is the current Oceania Champ, and recently demolished the opposition in the UCI Time Trial that preceded the Tour of Chongming Island.

I'm not really sure I deserve to have my name on this jersey, as it was my friend and co-conspirator Paul Larkin who was the one working his arse off for the MB Cycles Team she was riding for at Chongming, not me! However, I'm very honoured that he and Bridie seem to consider me enough of a part in their success to include me on the jersey. Thanks, guys!



And here's a shot of Paul's well set up Roadworks Service Course in the underground car park of the Tian He Hotel in Nanmen. I too worked in this basement when I was there in '08, but only lasted one night as the oppressive dark, freezing cold, and pervasive smell of excrement pushed me out and into the comfort of my hotel room to service my bikes. Looks like the lighting had been sorted for this year, but no word on the pong.



After wasting time dreaming of international racing and the smell of pooze, I next built a pair of wheels for Blair. A 1750 gram set of go anywhere hard out XC wheels should hold him in good stead, as well as lightening up his bike a bit. I'll be tubelessing them when I fit them to his bike next week.



Next I had to sort some troublesome gears for Matt. His derailleur hanger had been bent, so it was out with my lovely Campagnolo derailleur hanger alignment tool...sorted!



While I'm on the subject of Campagnolo tools, I finally bit the gold-plated bullet and stumped up for the new UT-CN300 11 speed chain tool - not cheap, especially when added to the two almost as expensive versions of the 10 speed tool I've had to purchase in recent years! I always swore I would hold off getting this tool until I was doing my first build with Campy 11 speed, and the time is finally nigh...in the next couple of weeks I will be building a Colnago C50 using this cool tool, so keep your eyes peeled for that project. The tool is the usual faultless quality that Campagnolo are renowned for and I'm looking forward to using it!



I gave Daryl's cool Kuota Khan a tune-up. Nothing major required, just a bit of love.



The Colnago Technos project is coming along, although not complete as I hoped. We're still waiting for some parts to arrive, but while I am waiting I rebuilt the rear wheel. As I mentioned last week, it's a classic Mavic GEL280 rim built up onto a Campagnolo 9/10sp Record hub. I rebuilt it 2 cross using DT Competition spokes, rather than the lighter gauge ones used previously - this will have added a few grams, but will hopefully hold together better. As it is, it's still a super-light 780 grams! In my youth, 28 hole wheels were purely the preserve of the time triallers or the very lightest climbers - the low spoke count rim technology of the 80s simply wasn't up to par for the bigger, more powerful riders, and 32 or even 36 hole rims were de riguer. It will be interesting to see if this rebuild holds up okay for Dan, but we have a heavier GP4 to fall back on if the worst comes to the worst.



You may notice the criss-cross scratches on the rim surface - I painstakingly etched these in with a sharp screwdriver to provide a rough surface to help the tubular glue adhere. I glued the tyre using two coats on the rim that I let fully dry, then added a last tacky layer before rolling the tub back on. I also fitted the 9 speed cassette adapted to 8 speed by removing the biggest cog and using Campagnolo's own spacer kit.



My friend Dave dropped me off some very cool Pegoretti catalogues he'd been sent. If bikes can be said to generate porn, then these are the stickiest porno mags you could possibly find. Cheers, bro!



My highlight job of the week though was this beautiful Serotta TiMax 29er. Colin picked it up for a Highland song with bag-pipe accompaniment in bonnie Scotland recently and has been thrashing it around relentlessly ever since, so it was in dire need of a full service.

I revived the Fox F29 forks with new wiper seals, o-rings and oil, stripped and serviced the headset, bottom bracket and hubs, adjusted the brakes and topped up the brake fluid, replaced worn gear housings and tuned the gears, as well as fettling anything else I could find. Once it was purring in the stand I chucked my helmet on and took it for a good ride around the 'hood. 29ers amaze me with with their innate ability to roll - the good ones just feel like they want to go fast, and the Serotta felt faster than most! The spring and snap of the titanium frame felt awesome, and I just wish the seatpost had been a bit longer so I could have taken up Colin's kind invitation to take it into the hills for a proper ride...

The beautifully machined and welded bottom bracket.



The head area, featuring the cool ti Moots handlebars.





The complete bike in all it's glory. Very nice indeed, and it should serve Colin superbly well in all the adventure races he competes in.



I'll finish up with a quick description of my only ride this week. A week of foul weather, combined with a busy shop, the onset of family sports, household chores and the usual chaos of life hadn't allowed me the time to slip out even once, so when Sunday dawned a sunny, still day me and the Three Amigos saddled up the Sex Wagon and moseyed on up to Makara Peak.

We arrived to find the Carpark full, so we parked nearby and unloaded the bikes. A quick safety briefing (not THAT kind - these are my kids I'm talking about!) then we set off up Koru for Bodhi's first time up there since I took him up there in the baby seat when he was only just three.

On that occasion after a lovely ride we foolishly decided to exit the Park by riding across the old Koru Wet Feet (Wetteh, as Bo calls it...), which ended up with me stalling, my foot slipping on the wet stones, and toppling us both over sideways and dunking Bodhi briefly! This time we were all able to safely take advantage of the swell new bridge the MPS and the WCC have built...

Bodhi was surprisingly easy to tow along - in fact his surges of power were instrumental in us getting around some of the hairpins. We had to stop several times to let riders go by, but we needed the breaks anyway!



The trailer bike concept is so cool for being able to chatter away at each other. It's really nice to be able to share time with the boys at any time, but even nicer when you're moving through beautiful regenerating native bush, surrounded by ferns and lush vegetation and listening to the sounds of tui and other birds.

At one of our brief stops a call of nature resulted in a close-up view of one of the cuter (though less welcome) representatives of nature, as a cheeky rabbit eyeballed us from a metre away. Yes, there IS a rabbit in this shot...swine cellphone cam.



We reached the Skills Area without problem, but we didn't have time to go much further so we decided to head off down Lazy Fern.



Harry took point, as his confidence and desire had been re-ignited by our Mt Albert mission last weekend and he was ready to shred. Me and Bodhi followed, with Kester sweeping. Harry was gone in seconds - keeping up with him wasn't an issue as the care I have to take of Bodhi precludes any sort of real speed, but we were quite content to meander down this beautiful trail anyway as he recited Winnie the Pooh songs and asked me lots of questions.

We got to the car feeling tired and happy, recharged for the week ahead. Kester is loving the riding so much he is talking about doing the Makara Rally Peak to Creek with me as a Team! How cool would that be?

Cheers, Oli