Finding Dirt in the Big City

[dirt] road bike - Centennial Park, Campbells Bay

The last few days I've been riding the Cross-Check with knobblies fitted to determine if it's capable of finishing The DUAL. Well I know it's capable, more to the point is can whether I can ride a rigid cyclocross bike with drop-bars and relatively skinny tyres off-road for 50km.  

With this in mind I've been searching-out every piece of ridable dirt, gravel and grass as I ramble around the North Shore of Auckland.  

It's amazing how much is out there when you look for it. Not a lot of technical singletrack but loads of gravel paths and grass for Africa. 

So far, so good. After a handful of two hour rides I'm getting a little stiffness in my neck and wrists but no other aches or pains to speak of. I think my hands are slowly getting accustomed to the different angles of a drop handlebar.

I took these pictures of some of the varied riding surfaces I found in suburbia. Most of them are taken no more than 20 or 30 metres from a main-road or housing but you could be in the middle of nowhere. 

Pupuke Golf Course

Rosedale Road Wetland, Albany

Long Bay Reserve

Dropping down to Long Bay on the cliff pathway

My local loop - The missing photos

The holiday period has seen me on my bike a lot more than usual. With my wife not working I've been able to duck out for a few hours here and there and start to get my legs in shape for the The DUAL at the end of march. 

Today when doing my usual loop I took the camera to capture some of the places I missed when my battery died on the last ride of 2009. 

I only rode for two and a half hours today but got quite a work-out as the rolling resistance on those knobbly Panaracers is something else on the tarmac. They make a thrumming sound like a 4WD tyre on the road and it actually feels like you're riding with your brakes rubbing. Once you venture off-road they roll fine and provide a welcome bit of cush through the bars.

Overlooking Pupuke Golf Course. My house is about 1.5 kms past those trees and probably 200m closer to sea-level. I never ride on the fairways during the day, only late at night when I'm coming home from work. It is public land and you are entitled to use it, but I don't fancy collecting a golf-ball in the side of the head.

My old high-school, Takapuna Grammar. It's an impressive looking building and despite the name is a public school for everyday people. Funny how in England they call "private" schools "public", I've never understood that one. 

My mother died in the Mount Erebus crash the first year I was there so it doesn't hold many happy memories for me. Wagging school to smoke dope and make home-brew under my friend's house was probably the highlight.

Narrow Neck Beach. My parents briefly ran the dairy (milk-bar) here in the 1950s.

Fort Takapuna. This wonderful old command-centre is built below ground level for protection from naval artillery. There are several gun emplacements on the cliff edge in the distance. Most of these european fortifications like North Head and Mount Victoria were also Maori ones in the centuries beforehand.

Cheltenham Beach. Nice town-houses, but with your front door about a metre above the high-tide line I'd be looking for alternative accommodation when the next Tsunami hits.

Cheltenham Beach again viewed from halfway up North Head. Half an hour from low tide. View large and you can see the previous town-houses at the end of the beach.

One of the smoother tracks on North Head. Great riding but you have to watch out for walkers.

The last remaining "disappearing gun" on North Head. Most of the artillery was melted down for scrap. There are lots of tunnels connected to this that you can explore. As a teenager we would wait in the darkness for mothers with young children to walk in from the sunlight and then blast them mercilessly with our pea-shooters before their eyes adjusted. Screaming kids would run in all directions and the mothers would often cower in fear or start crying. There is nothing as ruthless or cruel as thirteen year old boys!

Downtown Auckland in the distance across the harbour.

The Devonport Naval Base.

Victoria Road, Devonport's main street, with Mount Victoria in the background. We spent our wedding night in that hotel on the corner. It apparently overlooks Devonport wharf and the harbour but I don't remember the view. 

I just love Devonport to bits. The yuppies are slowly taking over as property prices are sky-high, but it is still very charming and holds a lot of appeal. 

I rode a considerable amount of grass today and sections of sand, shell, gravel and dirt. The bike was very comfortable and sure-footed. I wouldn't say no to a lightweight road-bike but this kind of all-rounder is so versatile and immense fun. I love the fact that I can jump a curb or ride down a flight of stairs if it takes my fancy. That's the mountainbiker in me talking. Just as well I built this thing with 36-spoke wheels ;^)

The DUAL 2010 - Pain to follow...

Despite a distinct lack of post-christmas funds I have gone and entered The DUAL for it's second running. At NZD$145 it's a bit of a rip-off but the organizers have to shuttle several hundred bikes and a couple of thousand competitors across to an island in the middle of the gulf, so it is a logistical nightmare. 

Supposedly some of the profit goes to the Motutapu Restoration Trust which is a very good cause after all. Motutapu means "Sacred Island" in maori and it's a special place with lots of maori and european history. It's also unique in that it's joined by a natural causeway to a young volcano and they both have quite different personalities.

I'm doing the 50km race again but they've added a 30km event this year for casual riders. The terrain is very hilly and you spend the second half of the race climbing in and out of valleys on farm-land. Very energy-sapping as a lot of this is on grass, not a trail as such.

For this reason I plan on taking the Cross-Check. I'll be much slower on the down-hills and will get beaten-up on the skinny tyres but can make up a lot of time if I can ride the whole course. A 36lb singlespeed fatbike was not the best option for the constant climbing involved last year. Most of the riders around me on much lighter geared bikes were walking the steep sections as well, but I reckon with a bit of training they are doable and I won't be stopping to take photographs this time! 

With this in mind I threw the knobblies on the Cross-Check yesterday to get a feel for riding it on rough terrain. My main concern is whether my hands and wrists can take 3-4hrs in the drops at speed. It felt decidedly more plush riding a 45mm tyre @50psi than the usual 35mm/70psi combo. Only time will tell on this one. 

Phat...

...Phatter

Mountainbike?

My DUAL nemesis across the waters. Motutapu on the left and Rangitoto on the right. I can see that damn volcano from just about everywhere I ride!

I'm loving these Paul brakes but the Fire-Cross tyres are painfully slow on tarmac. Practical for off-road only.

2010 Singlespeed World Champs

WooHooooooooooo... I got an entry!

To be held a few hours down the road in beautiful, stinky Rotorua, or Rotovegas as we Kiwis call it. I raced the inaugural NZ Singlespeed Champs there on the Pugsley and had a great time. The trails are world-class and Rotorua is a very unique place.

One of the few sports that you can be crap at and still race in the world championships!

Last ride of 2009

I've been really enjoying riding the Cross-Check recently, even more so since I tweaked my cockpit. I'll use any excuse at the best of times to run an errand by bike but if there's any distance involved the Cross-Check is now the first choice as it's so much faster. 

The last day of 2009 involved a trip to the local library to return a (cycling) magazine before they repossessed my library-card. The library is only a fifteen minute ride away so I continued on to Devonport using the mainly off-road Devonport Cycle Route which I've been riding for years but is now "official" and has subsequently been sign-posted and had sections upgraded. 

I'm often blown-away by the stunning countryside some of my internet cycling friends get to ride in, but you don't always appreciate what you've got in your own backyard. Most of the roads I ride have sea views and you're never more than a kilometre or two from the coast. 

I borrowed my son's camera and attempted to capture some of my suburban riding environment on the way. 

We start at Campbells Bay Beach about 400m from our house. There are lots of well-off types on the North Shore of Auckland and by the number of people on the beaches on a warm (but overcast) summer's day they are all off at their holiday homes or out on their boats.

This is up the road at Kennedy park. I come here a lot with The Midget Assassin as it has a wonderful playground. The funny looking building is an artillery observation post from WWII disguised as a house. You can just make out one of the gun emplacements in the background which is about 10m back from the edge of a cliff overlooking the Waitemata Harbour. The North Shore is full of decaying military defenses but the majority were built to protect us from the Russians in the 1880s and the Germans in WWI. This stuff is a bit more recent to repel the evil Japanese. Now we spend all our time encouraging these people to visit as tourists. 

I then pass through Castor Bay. Not a soul on the beach today. Hard to believe there are over a million people living in Auckland.

Over the next headland is the Milford Marina. It's on a small tidal stream that exits to the sea at the north end of Milford beach. It's actually pretty scungy but does scrub up okay in a photo.

A couple of kilometres down the road is Takapuna. I was born and raised here but it's a bit of a shit-hole. Full of rich wankers and bars and cafés full of rich wankers. There is a move to rename Takapuna "Takapuna Beach". How wanky is that? Maybe London could rebrand as "London River"?

This photo is taken at the northern end besides the boat-ramp. The owner of this beautiful titanium and carbon Serotta prefers to drive it around town rather than actually ride it. Roadies... Doh. 

Takapuna beach again. Taken beside the yacht club. Rare sighting of an Aucklander actually on a beach in the Christmas holidays. 

I finally got to the library (which overlooks the beach) and took the bike inside with me as I was in a bit of a hurry after taking all these bloody photographs. Amazing how loud a White Industries freewheel sounds in a library, but I found that by avoiding all eye contact people could not see me at all. How convenient.

Past Takapuna on the way to Devonport is my old stomping-ground of Hauraki Corner. This photo is taken at a new and very impressive section of boardwalk suspended above the mangroves that enabled the cycleway to get a bit further around the coast and avoid a particularly nasty hill. I dread to think how much of my rates were sunk into these next 200 metres but it is a great resource and well used by walkers and cyclists alike.

Mudflats are a great place to play as a child. I used to frolic in the foreground mud with the crabs, smoke dope and ride my motorbike along the shell-banks at the waters edge and paddle canoes out there in the bay. Pollution, Life-jackets and helmets had not made it to New Zealand in the 1970s ;^)

This foot-bridge takes you across yet another mangrove swamp to the Belmont cemetery. It's build over a sewer pipe and really is as long as it looks. I found out today that my bike-trailer has one inch of clearance each side and that I wobble three inches each way when I tow it ;^)

Somewhat ironic that the cemetery is next to this lovely new bike path and not situated beside the main road where it is required.

Not far past the graveyard is this fantastic grassy downhill. This is where I proved my new handlebar set-up is perfect for flying down hills over bumpy ground at speed. I can even bunny-hop in the drops.

In the distance is Mount Victoria. Smack bang in the middle of Devonport and the half-way point where I turn around and head home.

"King of the Swamp"

The Sky Tower is behind the trees on the left and the Auckland Harbour bridge on the right. 

If you can't train your eight year old to pick up his dirty underwear he's never going to charge a camera battery so this is where our journey must end, with all the good photo-opportunities still to come. I'll take those on another day as the scenery in Devonport is really quite something.

I managed to coax one more shot out of the Sony when I got to the top of Mount Victoria. I got married right there in front of us in this "mushroom patch" by a TV anchorman. It was like a cross between a Tarantino movie and Alice in Wonderland. 

The volcano in the background is Rangitoto Island. I'll be racing the Cross-Check over there at the end of March in The DUAL 50km mountainbike race. Must get fitter!

Cross-Check Tweeking

This bike is taking a lot more dialing-in than any other I have owned. The Pugsley was the first bike I specced and built-up from scratch and it was a perfect fit from the start - I haven't changed anything apart from hand-grips in almost four years.

The Cross-Check has some stuff I'm just not used to, like drop-bars and bar-end shifters and I didn't get things right on the first attempt.

The first problem was the beautiful Thomson stem I purchased by mail-order didn't get the bars high enough for my liking and I felt a bit stretched-out as well.  The initial riding-position was no more severe than a typical contemporary road-bike but I wanted something a little more relaxed and suitable for riding off-road. It pained me to do so but I swapped it out for the ugly no-name stem on the Nasty-Evil-Bike and it felt better straight away.

Now that my position on the bike was okay and I was doing longer rides I was finding riding on the hoods was irritating the back part of my palm that rested on the bar. I would tend to move my hands from the hoods to the curve behind and then onto the flats and back again to get some relief. Not very satisfactory. I've cured that problem by rotating the bars up (and the hoods down) so the transition is dead-flat and also dead-level. I put an extra strip of cork tape behind the hood before wrapping the bars first in spongy cork and then a second layer of the original Fi'zi:k Mictotex. It looks a little portly now but is wonderfully soft and comfortable. I thought the angle the drop part of the bar ended up on would be a problem but it has proved fantastic going off-road on bumpy singletrack or grass, especially down-hill at speed.

Another thing that annoyed me from the start is that the cable-hanger for the front brake did not have provision for a barrel-adjuster. I ordered an inline cable-adjuster that is usually used for shifter cables on road-bikes and spliced that in while I had everything in pieces. These things are really easy to install and use and I'm very pleased with it. You could even adjust your brake or gear cables as you ride along.

I also bent the straddle-cables so they sat straight (this really irritated me) and increased the spring-tension on the Paul brakes so they looked better and felt a little snappier. You can see the difference in the photo above compared to an earlier shot below.

I am now a lot more comfortable on the bike and looking forward to some longer rides. I've not done more than two hours at a time which is not much of a test of long-term comfort.

Inflation? The price has almost doubled in two years and our NZ exchange rate is very strong at the moment!!!

Summer Wheeln'

In-between the spring storms we're finally getting some warm sunny days. I haven't been mountainbiking or beach-riding in weeks but have enjoyed commuting to work as usual and pootling around town with The Midget Assassin in tow. 

I took one of these girls home from the park 

(hope I got the right one)

The school unicycle club got invited to three Santa parades this year. The boys and I weren't able to go to any of them last year so we made the most of it this time and attended two. The first was a low-key community affair up in Orewa. Thing-Two and I did that one and it was a good introduction to parade riding. Only a few thousand people so we were more excited than nervous and the route was nice and flat for the dad who doesn't practice. The second was the Farmer's Santa Parade in downtown Auckland. This was a much bigger deal with 250,000 spectators and some really professional looking floats. We wear blue club t-shirts and big red cowboy hats so we don't look as spectacular as some of the fancy costumes but the crowd doesn't seem to mind. Children just love to see other children riding unicycles and clap and cheer like mad, it's a real buzz. Some of the smaller riders were pretty tired by the end but everyone had a ball and the lanky forty-three year old can't wait to go back next year either!

Waiting for the rest of the group before the start

Our local council held a Family Bike Fest in Sunnynook Park only a few miles from home. I dragged my boys kicking and screaming away from the Xbox and we rode over the hill to see what was happening. Well, what a well-run event, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Lots of activities based around bike-handling and safety and unicycle.co.nz had many and varied contraptions there for people to try out. My boys always get a kick out of being the only ones able to ride them, although a few children had a go on the custom made penny-farthing. 

Our family almost cleaned-up in the slow-races. Thing-Two won his age-group, Thing-One just put a foot down before the finish to claim second place and I won the dad's race. It was very hard to actually keep moving and not just do a track-stand. Every time the commentator would remind us we were not moving I momentarily released the front brake so my wheel would move an inch or two. So we rode away after a couple of entertaining hours with $40 in bike-shop vouchers, candy, stickers, a flouro-vest each (yay) and a nice cycling shirt. 

Thing-Two gettn' jiggy on the penny

This contraption was just weird

Thing-One on the giraffe

On Sunday I got a couple of hours to myself to get out on the Cross-Check. I'm loving the speed of the thing but still need to tweak my cockpit a little, especially for riding off-road. I'm going to rotate the bars a little more and move the brakes to get a flatter area behind the hoods for my palms to rest and an extra layer of bar-wrap is also on the agenda. The other problem I'm having is the axle sliding forward on the drive-side so my wheel ends-up crooked and the brakes start rubbing. This has happened twice - both times after tearing down the side of Mount Victoria on the singletrack. It's quite bumpy on 35mm road tyres and my watch was hurting my wrist as it jumped around with the impacts. I have the quick-release done up pretty damn tight so I'm not sure how to remedy this problem. It may come right as the powdercoat wears off the drop-out face and the quick-release gets some steel to bite into. I must remember to wipe any grease off the dropouts before I go out again. The Lycra-Cowboys were all off drinking Babycham somewhere so I had the road to myself. It was a great ride.

Facing west on top of Mount Victoria in Devonport. Time to head home before the sun gets much lower.