The resurrection is... not!

Well, well, well... they said it wouldn't last. And they were right. I gave it three weeks, Big Nath estimated two, but we were both way off the mark.

Josh's Stumpy singlespeed conversion actually saw the light of day, getting fitted first with a rigid fork and the wheels and cranks from his Turner, and some new bars, stem and tensioner to top it off. Then the hand of death, our inept bike builer James, decided that the tensioner needed a tension check, pushing it down hard until the spring bent. Josh cursed him and all that he stands for, but forged on like the little soldier he is, before deciding the rigid fork left the front end too low.

Cue the Marzocchi fork from the Turner... alright, blinglespeed. And then, the maiden voyage, up to Makara, in the mud, perfect conditions for a no-frills machine to excell. Or so you'd think...
Until, of course, the hand of death comes back to haunt you.

The tensioner decided to shit itself halfway up to the peak, leaving an angry soldier to scooter his way back down the hill, tail between legs. Well, I presume that's how it would've looked, as I actually wasn't there, but hey, I'll improvise.

Now, you'd expect that after putting so much time and effort, and some dollars, into a bike that was going to be "ridden all winter", that he'd be looking at alternatives for the job of tensioning the chain, and getting that SS groove back on ASAP, right? Nosireebob, it was in the stand and being stripped before you could say "Surly Crosscheck conversion", with the Turner regaining it's missing bits pronto. Total time in existence: A week (and that's being generous)... Anyone want to buy a Stumpy frame, hardly used?

The resurrection is nigh...

I'll admit it: I went soft this summer, taking the easy path and doing all of my mountain bike riding on a fully suspended geared bike. Although I flirted with the single speed thing late last year (briefly), technology lured me back to the "all the bells and whistles" fold. I'm not ashamed of that; even on my light and speedy Turner I was still coming home completely fucked from the mammoth suffer fests that Carl calls bike rides.

If any of you were wondering about what happened to the plans to ride the Surly off-road, that modification didn't last out the week - that bike's place really is on the streets, and it just feels strange setting it up any other way. Ho-hum. In the end I wasn't too beat up about not making it to the nationals; I still hadn't shaken a chest infection I'd picked up a few weeks before, and the SSSS was well represented by Bretto showing up on his crazy single-cross bike.

The need to faff with all of my bikes, complete and otherwise, combined with fond (and probably inaccurate) memories of my summer of single speeding glory in 2006 on this bike, has driven me to pull out the old Stumpy hardtail again for a makeover. Pictures to come soon, but for now I can reveal that this bike will be bringing the pain (and exorcising some of my softness) fully-rigid style; the cro-mo fork's just been fitted and the rest is nearing completion...

Single in Vegas

What a weekend! I'm broken, from being abused by a rigid cyclocross bike for three hours, and the requisite drinking before and after the race. And a brutal race it was, 45km through the awesome Redwoods, which just got harder with each lap. Everyone who rode it, includding SS animal and winner Garth Weinberg, declared it as one of the toughest races ever. I declared it one of the toughest drinking sessions ever...
The course wasn't revealed until we actually got into the forest, and it was a cool figure-8 layout, nothing too long and steep but plenty of technical challenges to punish the tired and/or unattentive.

Chris The Courier got a good start and rode with the big guns for awhile, and finished in 6th place... awesome ride CTC! He would fade later that night in the drinking stakes though, proving once again that the young guys just don't have the endurance.

Kah just about to put a move on me into the first corner, followed by me putting a move on him into the second corner. My bike got plenty of attention and cheers, probably for the "why the hell are you riding that?" aspect of it.

Cabin and Garth were like this for almost the whole race, with Cabin pulling the lead after a beer stop, then Garth re-taking him on the last lap, both doing a final beer-slam to finish off in true SS style. I was doing my beer stop when Cabin came in, and I was still there struggling to get down the Speights as he flew off back onto the course resplendent in his beige skinsuit (a la the NZ cricket team of the 80's).

The first two laps I was on auto-vision when light rain rendered my glasses useless.... I stopped and removed the tinted lenses after lap two, the rain stopped, and I could see clearly now.
Didn't stop me from crashing a couple of times though, the skinny tyres, rigid fork, beer-goggles and fatigue teaming up to slam me to the ground.

When it was all over, the real event began at the Pig N Whistle, where I performed a lot better than I had earlier in the day. The night ended up (in the morning) with some shenanigans involving some of the local wildlife, bourbon, and a spa pool... enough said. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Thanks to Chris The Courier's mum Robyn for taking the pics.

Langster gets cross'd out

Musical bikes knows no bounds. I've sold off my faithful Langster to Chris The Courier, and gained a new Tricross Singlecross. This bike kills two birds with the one stone... it'll do most duty as my commuter, running fixed, and as my singlespeed 'mountain bike', perfect for the upcoming NZ SS Champs in Vegas.

I've always wanted a cyclocross bike, and this was the perfect introduction, at the right price. Those tyres aren't as scary as they look. I took it on it's first off-road jaunt today at Makara, and it handled the singletrack with aplomb, and put the biggest smile on my face since Jesus rode a ProFlex. My back ached on the climbs and my hands went numb on the descents, but man it's fun. (I double-wrapped the bars as soon as I got back!)

And the looks and comments you get from mountain bikers is priceless. I'm running 38-18 gearing for off-road, and will revert to 44-16 fixed for the road, probably with smoother, narrower tyres. But then again, it could see a lot more dirt than tar this winter...

Any dentists in the house?

Big O's Langster, the most abused fixie in NZ, has suffered horribly again at the hands of the lanky one. He said, in all seriousness, "it was making a bit of a grinding noise..."

The bikes of Wellycats 2

The second installment of Wellycats was run tonight, on short notice and with a small but enthusiastic turnout. The concept was a little different too, with the first checkpoint at one of four choices, all gyms where we had to locate Jim. From there you would be pointed to the next check, and so on. Chris the courier used his streetwise-ness to full effect and took the win, five minutes(!) ahead of yours truly, taking a sprint-of-sorts from damn-I-can't-remember-his-name-Giant-rep. Once again my navigational skills (or lack thereof) let me down, when at the third check and with Chris just leaving, I thought I'd take a shortcut and not follow the courier, thinking in my head "Tinakori Rd" instead of the actual "The Terrace" which I'd been instructed. Lesson; always follow the courier. Second bad decision; I was going to zip-tie my camera to my bars and get some pics and video, but gave it to Mark instead, who was marshalling and took ZERO pics.

Here are some of the weird and wonderful steeds on show.

Paul's (the mastermind behind Wellycats) On-One.

The young fella who's name escapes me's Pinarello, with Chorus goodies... nice.

Jim's Cotic simple... does everything that machine.

Chris the courier's winning piece of cobbled together crap! Just proves that it's not really about the bike at all...

Kah's thing...not sure what is going on there!

More Kah-razyness.

Damn-I-can't-remember-his-name-Giant-rep's Giant TCR, lookin pretty good (for a Giant!).

And my trusty Langster, which copped a good rogering down two flights of stairs at Parliament.

Wellycats 2 is ON!

If you're in Welly on Wednesday 2nd (tomorrow) and you have a fixie or singlespeed, get to Emporio (behind it, in Walter St) at 6 for some fun.