Monday, August 20, 2007

Can you dig it?

With Josh out being a roadie on his new toy, it was left to Yaz and I to get dirty at Makara's trail maintenance day. I also had the added carrot of testing out the new Enduro, and while I knew the trails would be still muddy from (weeks of) overnight rain, it wasn't my bike that was getting trashed, and helping out with fixing up the trails earned me good karma.


Straight away I was impressed by the Enduro's ride, climbing up Koru and Salley Alley with ease and no real noticeable effects of the added weight over my Stumpy. The frame is a medium, too small for me, but it still handled down Missing Link like it was on rails (my handling skills, however, are rusty to say the least). The colour isn't stock, it's the special Test Bike colour so no-one will steal it.


Yaz was slogging it up on her hardtail (Specialized, of course), peeling off layers of wool as she went, with the day warming up and no wind, perfect for a ride.

Aratihi is getting well and truly rutted out, and this one sucked my wheels in and spat me off into the gorse at the side of the trail. By the top of the Peak, I was starting to notice the extra heft of the bike, but maybe that was due in some part to the sticky conditions.

Once at the top, we headed down Zac's Track where the digging was taking place. Mike from work was there swinging a sledgehammer with authority. Yaz and I stood around watching for ten minutes, when the call of 'lunch' went out. We couldn't have timed it better! Hugh had a car full of goodies, bread, cake, drink... we felt a bit guilty eating after having not done anything, but that soon passed as we worked it off for the next three hours.

Zac's dog Bishop was chief supervisor and also drove the 4wd to get the buckets of gravel and rocks... he'd then chase the rocks as they rolled down the hill. Not setting a good example to the other workers, he'd also chase riders down the trail and piss wherever he wanted.

Coming back down Ridgeline, I thought the Enduro would really shine, but with the trail in terrible shape, it was more a case of hanging on and staying upright. I failed to achieve that, having a small tumble on a slippery uphill pinch. SWIGG and Starfish were equally treacherous, so I didn't get to fully appreciate the bike's assets. But I think for the trails and riding I do, it's a little bit of overkill. Not as nimble or fast uphill as the Stumpy, and a little slower steering of course(due to the slacker head angle). For an extra inch of travel, a extra kilo isn't worth it. But it soaked up a couple of drops as though they weren't there, and if I was into more 'daring' riding it'd be awesome. But for around Makara, Glenrock or Rotorua, it's just too much bike. A damn awesome machine though, which had me thinking seriously whether one should be added to the stable.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

too much bike for Glenrock -!!!! just not enough downhills . Hills are for Dills. On a side note ,I got spat off twice at the 12 hour -cracked rib ,endless ribbing -went home and ate ribs -seemed appropriate

Anonymous said...

sub 29 and hefty -what a world to live in

Anonymous said...

you can post and share your rides on http://www.monsteride.com

brettok said...

heftier... it's a great bike, just not for me.

Anonymous said...

" i hate arseholes that ride the trails when its been wet,they get ruined"i'm a gay fair weather rider"said Brettok 2007

brettok said...

I was doing trail maintenance, otherwise wouldn't have been there.

Anonymous said...

I thought that when i saw the picture of you tearing up the trail on the enduro!!!

josh said...

Give Brett a break; he hasn't touched the trails in months. Riding your bike to a work party entitles you to be there. Where were all of the other people who used this as justification for their all-winter-long riding on the Vorb discussion? From what I heard there were swarms of people wahooing around up there on the Sunday and fuck all other people at the work party.

brettok said...

read the Vorb thread

Anonymous said...

Blimey Josh,stop being such a gaylord,im just taking the piss out of the old fart