Autumn Classic.

I love riding in the forest at this time of year. Some of my favourite times have been on a late autumn afternoon by my self out amongst it and today was no exception. Riding to and from the trails makes it more better also in the riding more harder department.
In order; Challenge Red Tank Rd. Direct Rd. Frontal Lobotomy Billy T G Rock Chestnut Link Roller Coaster Old Chevy about 100m of Dipper Tokorangi Pa rd. Gunna Gotta Turkish Delight Exit jumps Old exit. By Gunna Gotta all I was thinking about was cake.

Grateful Bros.United.

Damian and I took our bikes and our beards for a zany type single speed themed adventure on Sunday. On the way we collected a librarian and proceeded to tear hither and yon for the next three hours, up hill and down dale in the forest. It was a fantastic (if not so cold I could feel my bad lung)morning and come midday I was left full of regret that I had to peel off and head home so I could get to work. My days have been somewhat hermetic at present as the family are back in the old country, however I'm catching a bus up on Thursday for a wedding. I can't wait to see wife and things one and two. I've said several times on this thing that for the last 6 months I haven't had access to a car for day to day personal use. However, with the family and our only car gone I really don't have access to a car for bugger all. It's liberating and forcing a shift in mind set with planning errands etc that I'm enjoying greatly. I've rode my bike to ride a bike then ridden home to ride my other bike to work and ride home from work more than a couple of times and it's feeling great. I've kept up with the running also, today the first time that I've felt there's been any flow to the ordeal, which is cool. It actually felt..mmm..good? In closing I would like to recommend
The Bike Show .Podcasts about Kraftwerk, Rolling interviews and a refreshingly multi dimensional view of cycling culture. Yes please.

Giving it to the man

With the other members of my family travelling to the old country for the Easter break Saturday after work looked ideal to venture back onto dirt and Give it To The Man in the process. The ‘Man’ In question whom I was going to “Give it to” were in this case two men. One, an actual ‘Man’ known here as “The other Weinberg brother” (who in a parallel universe kind of way ISNT a past SS champ and gets around on an xc dual suspension bike). The other, not really a ‘Man’ at all but a mountain, Mount Ngongotaha to be exact. If it was an actual man or a metaphorical man-mountain I didn't care. Whatever the case there was going to be some giving it to going on.

As this was a casual ride I dressed appropriately and headed off towards ‘the man’ er, men. To give it to them. My first act of non conformist defiance upon arrival at our rendezvous was to immediately suffer a flat, thus holding up the ride (scheduling be damned)and showing The other Weinberg brother just how we do things one speed. Suitably patched and booted (hey, bitch..In my world UST stands for Unattached Sidewall Technology, ok?) we headed out. What followed was a pleasant spin up Mt Ngongotaha, with it's stunning vistas of the caldera (no real camera to speak of, though so no photos)we wound up and up, through farmland then into calming and cool native bush which did the job admirably of erasing the terror of my day, we carried on going until finally our destination was reached.

Now, you can imagine my excitement when the other Weinberg brother suggested riding a trail named Jubilee, right. I mean, you know..Jubilee means PAAAAAARTY, right? As gutted as I was to realize at the top that there was no actual party going on (apart from the one in my head) I was consoled by the fact that the little guy riding a bike in the picture had a line through it, so whilst not actually being a party it was illegal and even if we met no men on the way down (we didn't..ladies either for that matter) I was assured that my very act of getting rubber side down would be giving it to someone, somewhere..who was probably a man. With that cheery thought in my heart we got amongst it, what followed were 2.4km of twisty, tight, technical, rooty downhill goodness. About two thirds in the trail smoothed out some and got some more flow on and spat us out minutes later at the base of the mountain. Feeling suitably victorious in giving it to the man(mountain) the other Weinberg fellow and I headed our separate ways. I had meant to "give it to" my geared compatriot in some form or another however I couldn't bring myself to as I've known him for 10 years and the man is a Hessian. Knowing that I'd have points deducted for "colluding with/not giving it to the man" I headed off, spinning madly with my head held high, not giving a damn (which, strangely would have cancelled out the points taken off as my act of not giving a damn was giving it to the man. Even if this "Man" was the SS nation) Next time, perhaps.