Mike's Maiden Voyage...

...On his new bike. Yep, Mini-Me has bought his third bike since starting working with us in August, this time a sweet new 08 Stumpy Expert to go with his Roubaix and Langster.
There she is (the bike, not Mike). The orange looks pretty cool in the flesh, especially when it's dirty (which Mike doesn't let happen often with his cleaning obsession).

We headed up to Belmont again, this time taking a different route up to the top of 'Danzig', with some cool views over the rural dwellings back to the harbour and city.

We could see over the valley to the Trig climb, 2.5 kms of granny gear grunt to the top.

It was pretty hot on the climb up in the areas shelterd from the breeze but exposed to the sun, so I needed a bit of a kip under a tree at the top... maybe I shouldn't have layed next to a stinging nettle bush though, as I discovered when I got home and found my arms covered in tiny blisters.

The last pinch up to the Trig.

The ride back down to Korokoro creek (river? looks too small...) is pretty cool, mixing steep, rutted sheep tracks with some rainforesty winding singletrack bits.

The ride along the Baked Beans Bend trail is littered with technical creek crossings, big rocks and rooty sections, which make for some challenging, fun riding.

There's actually a pretty wide creek crossing under that log to the left, but I couldn't coax Mike into riding it for the camera. "Ooh, my new bike might get damaged."

It's just not cricket/On the road again

The weekend weather was fantastic, with warm, sunny days conducive to riding bikes, drinking beer and watching cricket.

Sunday I headed out around the bays (which I hadn't done for a few weeks) with Mike, Grant and Kevin, for a nice 50km of singlespeedin (I thought that condsidering they were all on geared bikes, I was entitled to wuss out and run the freewheel rather that fixed).

Karen had scored Mike some free tickets to the cricket, so a couple of warm up Grolsch's preceeded an arvo in the sun on the hill. It's been beer of the week before and remains a preferred drop.

The game was a Twenty20 match, and abbreviated version of the short form of the sport, between Wellington Firebirds and Central Districts at the Basin Reserve, a grand old cricket ground. The CD's batted first, and with Black Caps players Ross Taylor and Jamie How belting them all over and out of the park, they amassed a big total of 225-odd. Me and Kevin, meanwhile, where amassing a huge total of beers consumed, and our eyeballs were getting sunburnt looking at all the fine talent on display off the pitch. Oh yeah, Wellington batted like crap and fell well short of the total, and I got a good dose of sunburn that I didn't notice for some reason.

Monday was a public holiday for Wellington Day or something like that, so I hit the road again, this time with Josh, and I had a real-proper geared bike, courtesy of the Big Kahuna Nigel... what a great boss, loaning me his bike like that (cheque's in the mail). A sweet ride it is too, an 08 Roubaix. We headed over Makara hill, around the backroads to J'Ville and back through town to finish up with a short ride around the Eastern bays. I think it's time to get my Tarmac sent over.

Short but sweet

With Josh and the crew slogging it out around Karapoti, Mike, Rich and myself headed up to Wainui to do a bit more exploration of the new singletrack network under construction. The weather looked dodgier the closer we got to the hill, and by the time we got on the bikes it was drizzling.
We climbed up the fire road, a nasty way to fire the legs into action. I nearly fell off just after taking this shot and trying to turn around to snap a pic of Rich. The track traversed the ridgeline for a little way, then we took what we thought was probably a wrong turn, and doubled back.



After some more uninspiring fireroad, I finally recognised where we were, and we rode the tight, gravel-topped singletrack of Labyrinth, then onto Jungle Gym.

With the drizzle just enough to piss us off, and spat out back at the bottom of the hill, we decided against the tchnical rooty trails on the other side of the hill and headed back to Welly to hot food, cold beer and an arvo of TV. I wonder how the others are going miles from civilisation....

The neglected 'B's

While the title of this blog states that it's content consists of bikes, beer and beats, it has been mostly devoid of the latter two ingredients of late, so I thought it was time to right the wrongs and give heed to said neglected 'B's. And in an act of redemption for those 'B's, this week I have been mostly neglecting the bike, taking the soft option of the car to work while the rain has come down and the wind has blown. Having said that, I did get out for a good ride last Sunday with Mike and Grant up at Belmont, another nice B. We managed to work out a good loop after our debut foray last week, riding all of Danzig and finding a better, more fun way down from the trig. But since then it's been all beer and a lot of beats. Here's a brief rundown of what I've been imbibing orally and aurally.
This one I got hold of while Andrea was over. Pretty bland for a 'premium' beer, but it did have a 6% kick which redeemed it after a couple of bottles. Probably won't buy again.

A mixed trio this one. Stella is still one of my favourite beers, not in the James Squire Pilsener or Little Creatures class, but with those two beauties as rare as rocking horse shit over here, it's my staple brew when there is nothing else to tempt me.

The Hoegaarden was a little treat I had before Xmas, a nice whitbier from a brewer who does some wicked real Belgian ales that are way too expensive and potent to drink on any sort of regular basis. But nice nonetheless.

Oranjeboom, well, the less said about it the better. Actually it's not that bad, after taking a week to get through the first six bottles I started to warm to it a bit, especially if I drank a Stella after it to flush out the citrusy taste. Won't spend my money on it again, although Richard seemed to like it at the Xmas day lunch, so I left the rest of them with him. Cheers, Richard!

Calsberg is another beer touted as one of the 'best in the world' that always underwelms me. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it is crisp and easy to drink, but it just doesn't have that extra pizzaz that could put it up there with the great brews. But hey, when you've been riding the best trails around, and you're kicking back on a secluded lake beach, life is still good.

Now this one impressed me a bit more. A nice pilsener from a top NZ brewer, though Macs Hop Rocker still has the edge on this nonetheless hoppy offering from Monteiths. And when it's been donated by a customer, it tastes even better.

Now for some beats...

Last night I went to the Opera House to see Swedish singer/songwriter Jose Gonzalez perform. (That's right, Swedish... Hey, there must be heaps of people in Mexico called Bjorn.) I'd won a ticket from RadioActive just before Xmas, and so off I trudged, not being able to convince anyone to go halves in a $60 ticket to come along. I'm pretty glad that I didn't pay sixty big ones though...
Not because he sucked, far from it, he was pretty damn impressive I must say. But after 45 minutes, when he announced that he'd be doing 'one more', I bet a few people felt a little short-changed. He did return to round out an hour, and most of his songs are fairly short so it seemed like you got more than you actually did. And the crowd didn't seem to mind a bit, lapping it up in awed silence as he showed his virtuoso guitar skills and unique voice. He was joined for the majority of the set by a female vocalist and a male percussionist/voclaist, giving extra depth to the vast, open soundscapes he laid down. A big sound from a small ensemble in a grandoise setting. And anyone who can pull off covers of Massive Attack and Kylie in one set is OK by me. Have a look and listen here.

But this is what's really been doing it for me recently. The legend, the enigma, the man... Nick Cave. He's just brought out a new album, but this one from 04 has been on high rotation in my earphones. A 2 CD set of the highest quality, the depth of his lyrics and the musicianship of the Bad Seeds is second to none. A artist truly deserving of such a title. People who don't really listen to him often say he's depressing, or dark, or dire, but if you really listen, get amonst the layers, disect the lyrics and absorb yourself in the music, it's one of the most uplifting experiences in any musical landscape. Check out his new video and stylin' moustache here.
*hint, let it load up first.

Happy new trails

Rather than stay with the masses in Welly and spend hundreds on a hangover, Josh and I trekked north to Vegas to see in the New Year with some sweet singletrack. We loaded the Starship Laser to the gills and left early-ish Sunday morning, full of caffiene and anticipation.

Mt. Ruapehu still has a lot of snow on it for January.

Mt. Ngaruahoe looked like it was erupting, but it was just a cloud positioned perfectly. I imagined what it would've been like to witness it forming, spewing lava out of the ground all those hundreds of years ago. Josh summised that we would've been dead if were were this close.

First stop Taupo, and the Craters of the Moon trails.

Fun, but less fun each time I ride them. But a good pre-cursor to the riding ahead.

Our first day in Vegas, we met up with Welly mate Karl (not Carl) and put together a good loop of some of the best on offer. Karl is great to ride with, we are all roughly the same fitness and ability levels, and he's a good laugh to boot.

We were having way too much fun to stop and take many photos. This is on Exit trail, nearing the end of day one.

Josh on the drop on Tickler. We hit up Billy T on the first day, and then our first taste of Split Enz, a new trail which had us in raptures with it's long, fast, smooth, bermed traction-fest.

Karl drops in on Tickler, day 2. We checked out another new trail, Tuhoto Ariki, which was awesome, all techy roots and twisty and a hoot, followed again by Split Enz, a great combination.

A good way to relax after a hard day's riding. Blue Lake. On New Years Eve we took it pretty easy, not wanting to ruin ourselves for riding the next day, so we hung out with our Welly friends at their campsite.

Josh looks on in disgust at some guys who are too lazy to ride uphill, and too stupid to ride any other trail except the same one over and over.

Karl on the drop on Old Chevy, yet another new trail that has popped up this year. The amount of quality trails in the forest is amazing, just a pity the town is un-livable. But a great place for riding, I'll be back up there in April for the NZ singlespeed titles, though I'm thinking leave the SS at home and just enjoy the trails without having to race them.

Trig or treat

For the second time in a week, we ventured out into the unknown to forge new frontiers and discover new (to us) trails for the betterment of our biking souls. This time it was to Belmont Regional Park, some of which I'd ridden, but the majority remaining untouched by my tyres. Mike, Josh and I loaded up the Laser and the Subie and made a short drive to Petone, parked the cars that no-one would ever want to steal, and armed with a map I'd downloaded this morning headed into the hills.
The first part of the ride was along nice, smooth, flat singletrack to Korokoro Dam, bypassing the turn-off to Baked Beans Bend on my advice, at first met with consternation but later applauded by the masses.

This was a common sight for most of the ride, checking and re-checking the map and then on a wing and a prayer we'd proceed. Once I had control of the map again things were looking up.

We thought about our comrade Aidan (Nuts) up in Rotorua, and although he wasn't with us in body, somehow we felt he was there in spirit...

Arriving at a junction at the bottom of Old Coach Road, we took the left option, which resulted in a granny-gear/achilles-stretching-push up the bridleway, with some good views near the top, but not much else going for it. All part of the adventure though... (you can see the climb up to the Trig in the background)

The sky turned a bit nasty as we neared the airstrip (I wouldn't want to be on a plane landing up there) and only Josh had extra clothing... me and Mike hatched a plot to steal his jacket and eat him if things got desperate.

After about an hour of climbing grassy paddocks, then descending gravel road, then more grassy climbs, we were pointing back downhill when we happened upon what may or may not have been a trail called Danzig, which was one of the catalysts for our journey.

Whatever it was called, it was good, and it's amazing how some flowing, twisting singletrack can wash away the pain of climbing so quickly and completely.

At the end of the singletrack, we were back on familiar ground, where earlier we had decided to go left instead of right, and now another decision was to be made... do we go back along the road, or climb up to Belmont Trig? We could see the trail up to the top, and flashbacks of the Tip Track were foremost in our minds. We toughened up and bit the bullet and it was time to abuse our grannys.

The climb wasn't anywhere as bad as the Tip Track though, but still a nasty grunt, and I walked a couple of steep sections while the other two rode the whole thing... good on them!

Once again the pain of the climb was well worth the effort, as my map-reading skills pointed us along the Horokiwi Bridleway, and down, down, down a slippery, technical in places fenceline singletrack. Next thing we knew we were on the Baked Beans trail, with lots of stream crossing, roots, little pinches and some good fun all round... then it was back onto the Korokoro Strean track for some high-speed fun back to the car just as the storm was starting to get into full swing. As we drove off, we wondered what happened to the guy and his elderly mother we saw up the trail a bit, with a decent walk out ahead of them.

Tipped off

For some strange reason I had the idea that it would be good to ride the Tip Track today, and now I know why I hadn't ridden it since the first time; it sucks.
Look at that bastard... it's straight into granny gear at the bottom gate, and some sections I decided that it was just as fast to walk as it was to try and keep the front wheel on the ground and maintain traction with the rear. As I was timing myself I kept slogging away, and from gate to tar at the top it took a hair over 30 minutes. Not too bad, not too good, but I'm in no hurry to try and bring the time down.



At the summit I met Andy from Nottingham, UK, and after a chat while he fixed his puncture, we headed over to Deliverance, using the alternative entrance which is pretty techy and tricky.



Andy rides this sweet Cove Hummer, TI hardtail decked out in Hope bits (brakes, headset, hubs) and a Pace carbon fork.

Wet wet wet

What a shite 'band' they were.... anyway, I digress. U.S.-D.4, the finale, was run (swum?) on Wainui's Spoon Hill yesterday. Conditions were sloppy at best, and because I don't like cleaning my bike and with the prospect of carnage in the offing, I took the soft option and snapped a few pics. But seeing the way the guys handled the soap-like steeps made me wish I was racing with them.

Shiny, crappy people.

Tryfan nailed it for the win, putting his home-ground advantage to good use.

Callum hits hyperdrive and gets 'pic of the day.'

Will looks like he's in trouble, but made it easily on his hardtail.

Wellington's fastest Pommy downhilling rigid singlespeeder, Jim.

Caleb floats like a stone doesn't.

This guy decides that tree doesn't belong there...

Evidence (albeit blurry) of Ricky re-mounting after WALKING a section....

Aidan introduces his face to the Wainui flora after being startled by the Grim Reaper at the side of the track.

Aaron thought the crowd was screaming his name, but it was just someone saying "awwright".

Eyes on the prize... better than anything you get at a 'real' race.

The podium was pure class...

Until these guys got on it!

Hadley uses his preferred double-handed grip.