Summer is here!

Been getting back into riding a bit more lately since the weather has been a whole lot better. Went out yesterday with some friends and had a bit of hoon around the Skills area at Makara Peak (NON skills area in my case!) Went back down Lives Wires which is an awesome little track that goes from the Skills area back down to Koru. Has both advanced and intermediate options so something for everyone. I chose the intermediate options :) Haven't ridden this track before so it counts towards my "new track" mission.

Gave bike a thorough clean last weekend so it's looking very shiny. Also put on a Marsh Guard I got from Mud Cycles to keep it and me a bit cleaner. Should have put one of these on ages ago but just never got round to it.

Hutt River Trail

A group of us went riding on a section of the Hutt River trail yesterday. This is a nice easy ride and like the Rimutaka Rail trail, would be a great ride to do with kids. We started at Avalon Park, rode up to Moonshine Rd, crossed the river and came back down the other side (River Road track) crossed back over the river and back the way we came. Worked out to be about 20 odd K's all up. According to tracks.org, if you rode from Petone to Upper Hutt and back, it's about 75km! Would be a good days ride :)

Updated Bike Specs

Thought I'd update this since it's changed a bit from when I bought the bike off Trade Me.

Size - M
Colour -  Black
Frame - ALUXX SL FluidFormed™ alloy Maestro 6.0” travel
Fork - Fox 32 FLOAT RL w/ 15QR axle and Tapered Steerer, 5.9”/150mm Travel
Shock- Fox Float RP2 w/XV sleeve & boost valve
COMPONENTS
Handlebar - Answer Pro Taper Aluminium 720mm
Stem - Truvativ AKA 60mm
Saddle -  Fi’zi:k Gobi XM w/Manganese rail
DRIVETRAIN
Shifters - SRAM X-5 trigger shift 27 sp.
Front Derailleur - Shimano SLX 9 sp direct mount
Rear Derailleur - SRAM X-7 9 sp
Brakes - Shimano XT M785, w/7” front & 6” rear 6 bolt rotors
Brake Levers - Shimano XT M785
Cassette - Shimano HG30 9 sp 11-34T
Chain - Shimano HG53 9 sp
Crankset - Shimano M542 22x32 (44T currently removed and replaced with Blackspire C4 bashguard)
Bottom Bracket - Shimano BB71, press fit
WHEELS
Rims - Easton Haven Alumium
Hubs - Fr: Easton Haven| Rr: Easton Haven
Tires - [F] Maxxis Minion DHF 26x2.35 [R] Maxxis Minion DHF 26x2.35

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Been wanting to bike the Rimuaka Rail Trail for a while and since it's in Wellingtons Best Bike Rides, I finally got round to it yesterday. Headed to Upper Hutt with a friend and parked at the Kaitoke car park. We biked up to the Summit in the ~130 KPH winds and at times, driving rain. It was warm enough though and the wind "pushed" us uphill (if you can call a 1% gradient uphill!) on the way to the Summit.. The way back was a bit more of a struggle with the wind nearly blowing me off my bike a few times. Had to be a big kid on the way back and ride through the stream at Munitions Bend a couple of times :) All up, it's a very fun ride and  a nice change to slogging it out on single tracks around Makara Peak. This would make a great ride with young kids with a picnic at the Summit and swim in the river on a hot day. Will definitely do it again soon and ride the Back Road track on the way back and then aim for an epic ride to Featherston and time it to catch the train back to Welly. More details on the track here

http://www.gw.govt.nz/Rimutaka-Rail-Trail/

Bike bling

Haven't posted  for a bit due to moving house\being sick\bad weather and not really having much to post about. Winter isn't my favourite time of year to ride so I haven't been out much lately (e.g I'm lazy). However, I have crossed one more track off my list, namely Deliverance. I have one word to describe this track...EEEKKK! It's advanced and I most definitely am not. When I wasn't hanging on for dear life and crashing (ouch) , it was actually quite fun so will be back...when it's drier :) *Note, elbow and knee pads are now on my "To Buy" list along with a Gloworm X2 light*

So on the bling front, I picked up some XT M785 Brakes (and Ice Tech rotors) a few weeks back. They are AWESOME! A vast improvement over the Elixir 1's (which were in turn way better then the brakes I had on my old Avanti). I also decicded to ditch my big 44T ring and replace it with a bash guard. No real reason, I just don't used it very often. I also picked up a Park Tools PC10 repair stand to make life easier when working on the bike and cleaning it. . Ummm...that's about it for now. Pics off my phone of the new stuff

Park Tools PC10 stand (and new bash guard)

XT M785..mmmmm

Salvation

Yay! I got the end cap for my Easton Haven rear wheel from Chain Reaction Cycles. Great service from these guys! So now rolling on matching wheels :) Will take some decent pics after I next clean the bike.

Yesterday I went for a ride from Fitzgerald Ave up Salvation and to the top of Wrights Hill with a friend and his dog. Back down the same way. First time I've ridden this track which is another one off the list of Wellington tracks to ride in 12 months (Feb 2013 to Feb 2014). It's a nice gentle ride up or down  Will be living near the top of Wrights Hill soon so will probably use this track a lot to get to and from Makara Peak park. Then today it was a quick ride up Koru, along the 4WD track, down Big Toms Wheelie and then down Lazy Fern. Technically, Big Toms Wheelie is part of SWIGG that starts across Snake Charmer from the Ridgeline Extension track. I haven't ridden down the Ridgeline Extension track so I wanted to ride this short (200M) piece of track so I can say I've covered the whole of SWIGG. I would have kept going along SWIGG but a group of about 6 riders went down just before me so I thought I'd take Lazy Fern to avoid the potential traffic (though chances are they would have left me in the dust\mud) The Makara Peak supporters guys were working on Koru as I went past and it's looking great. There's lots of track maintenance events coming up so I'll probably attend a session or 2.

Makara Peak Work Party

I attended my first Makara Peak work party yesterday. It was working on the Upper Leaping Lizard track I mentioned back in this post. I thought I can't complain about a track and then not help out when they're working on it! If you're a member of the Makara Peak supporters they send out Newsletters with the dates and times of the various work parties. You can join here. They also post details on their Facebook page here. The track is alot more rideable now so if you're heading up that way, give it a blast :)

After the work party, I headed on up to the Peak and then out via Zacs Track and Varleys. Both tracks have recently been worked on and are in good condition. Varleys has some quite tight switchback that slow things down but it's a track lots of walkers use so you probably don't want to be bombing down it anyway. I went across the road and then down Wahine to Karori Park and home.

Pics from my phone

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Signs at Makara Peak

Cool lookout at Makara Peak you can ride up onto with views of the windfarm

Bike with the Makara Peak antennae tower in the background

Doh!

Finally went to put my new wheels on yesterday and found that I didn't have the correct Torx bit to pull the rotors off the old wheels. I'm sure I had a set of bits somewhere but they must have gone walkabout. Luckily Mud Cycles in Karori are just down the road and swapped them right over for me :) I then put the cassette on the rear wheel and one of the new Maxxis Minion DHF's. Went to put the wheel on the bike and found the end cap is missing on one side..WTF?

Something missing here

The hub is a 10x135 QR so should look more like the other side

Drive side of M1-121 Hub 10x135QR

So this was slightly annoying seeing as I hadn't noticed before putting the tyre and cassette on. At this stage I searched the whole house for this little part to no avail (how many times did I look in the empty box!). My guess is that it was never there...I'm sure it didn't just fall out (maybe). I went back to Mud Cycles this morning and they kindly swapped the rotor back to the old wheel for me. I then emailed Chain Reaction Cycle and asked if they could send the missing end cap (I think that's what it's called anyway). Hopefully this doesn't turn into a fight!

So I put the cassette and new tyre on the old wheel and put it back on along with the new front wheel and tyre. Running odd wheels shows you mean business!

New wheels

The Easton Haven UST Wheelset I ordered from chainreactioncycles.com turned up on Friday (refer Sold! post). Such fast shipping from these guys! I've got a bit of a cold at the moment and don't much feel like riding so at least now I can tinker around and put these on the bike. I need to pull the cassette and brake discs off the old ones and bung them on. I ended up buying some Maxxis Minion DHF's a few weeks back because no where had any Ardents. They're not the "Tubeless Ready" ones that are coming out now but should go on fine with some sealant and soapy water around the bead. If there's any issues, I'll just use tubes for now so all good. The wheels are a bit...louder... then I'd like but it seems to be the way these days for every bike component to be over the top blinged out.

Easton Haven Rear 10x135QR 26"

Blingy hub!

Oooo errrr fancy

Quick ride today

Another post from my phone. Went for a ride in between the torrential showers here today. No new tracks as I really just wanted to get used to my new bars. Such an improvement! I feel way more in control and with the 1“ rise, they're alot more comfortable :-) I wasn't sure about the colour when they first arrived but it's grown on me now and nice to have something that's not black on the bike.

So up Koru and Sally Alley, up and then down the 4wd track and then down Lazy Fern. Bike is now suitably muddy.....

Photos taken on phone
 

Answer ProTaper bars and Truvativ AKA stem

Sold!

Decided to sell my old faithful Avanti Montari 3 and put the money towards a new set of Easton Haven UST wheels for the Reign. chainreactioncycle.com has good deals on Easton wheels at the moment. I was toying with the idea of putting some better parts or it or going Single Speed or.....something. Hasn't eventuated and the bikes has been sitting there (literally) gathering rust. Put it on Trade Me and it sold within 5 minutes! I think it may have been too cheap.....

New handlebars and stem

Posting from my phone so excuse the brevity.

New Answer ProTaper bars arrived today. Can't wait to put them on and have a blast! I also put a 60mm Truvativ AKA stem on last week as I found the stock one a bit long. Will do better pics once the bars are on

Swigg

Was such a nice day I decided to leave work early (the joy of being an IT Contractor) and go for a quick ride to Makara Peak. Up Koru and down Swigg and Starfish. This was the first ride since I put my new ODI Rogue grips on. I found the Ruffians are just too thin so they'll be going on Trade Me (New Zealands version of eBay). Big improvement! It's a never ending chain of upgrades with Mountain Bikes....

Makara Peak - Nikau Valley

Took the bike for a spin into the Makara Park again. Normal way up, Koru, Salley Alley, Missing Link, Aratahi. At this point I thought I should ride some tracks I've never done before so I headed onto Upper Leaping Lizard.

Now I'd say this particular track isn't going to be anyone's favourite. It's currently quite overgrown and just not the most fun track in general. However, it's fairly short and then you're on (Lower) Leaping Lizard. Now THIS is a fun track. I didn't encounter much of it today as I wanted to tackle Nikau Valley. I found this track to be quite a challenge. Very steep and rocky technical sections down and then a steep climb back out to the Missing Link track. I then made my way up to the peak via Aratahi and Tower 16 Connector. Had a rest here and enjoyed the view and then I headed down Zacs Track (the new bits are cool), down Northface (love this track!) and the 4WD track out to Allington Road. As a side note, all this linking to tracks.org.nz makes me think I need to log in and update some of the tracks on there.

So there we go, a tiring but fun ride. I won't consider Leaping Lizard ridden until I head all the way to the bottom. Strava map below.

Makara - 2nd and 3rd March

Rode from my place to Makara Peak on Saturday and again with a friend on Sunday. On Sat, I went up Koru, through the Skills area to Magic Carpet (very overgrown), back up the 4WD road and down Lazy Fern. On Sunday, up Koru, along Sally Alley, up the 4WD track and down Lazy Fern. So that's 4 tracks (that I've ridden many times) off the list :) Strava map from Saturday below.

New pedals

Got my bike back today from Mud Cycles, Wooo Hooo! Forks serviced, rear hub sorted and a few tweaks. Should keep it happy for a while.  I'd ordered some Shimano MX80 pedals online and they showed up today as well so I've put them on. All in all, a good day.

So now the bike's all sorted I thought I'd set myself a challenge for 2013 (Edit Feb 2013 - Feb 2014). Kind of a late New Years resolution perhaps? I'm going to try and ride all the Mountain Bike Tracks in the Kennett Brothers book "Wellingtons Best Bike Rides" (and possibly a few of the adjacent tracks). I'll (sometimes) use the Strava app on my phone to chart my progress and post the results. The times might not be the fastest as a) It will be the first time I've ridden most of the tracks b) I will probably try and take a pic or 2 and c) I'm totally unfit! So wish me luck :)

New bike (well...new for me)

First post! I've been riding for about 3 years on an Avanti Montari 3 but just recently bought a Giant Reign 2 off Trade Me. The Avanti is a good bike and all but this is definately a step up!

2012 Giant Reign 2

The bike was only 6 months old but it's had a hard life and some stuff was a bit worn out. I've installed new ODI Ruffian Lock On grips:

ODI Ruffian Lock On Grips

A Bionicon C.guide V.02. The 2012 Giant Reign 2 has a pressed Bottom Bracket so standard guides can't be fitted. This seems to be doing the trick and only cost $50

c.guide V.02

The Forks  (Fox Float 32) are leaking oil past the seals and the rear hub has a bit of play in it so I've dropped it off to Mud Cycles in Karori to get that sorted. It also needs new tyres but I'm having trouble tracking 2 x Maxxis Ardent 26 x 2.25 Folding (my favourite) ones down due to Karapoti being on this Saturday March 2nd and everywhere being sold out! This is also going to delay the bike repairs.....bad timing on my part!

If anyone cares, here are the specs when I bought it:

Sizes M
Colors Black
Frame ALUXX SL FluidFormed™ alloy Maestro 6.0” travel
Fork Fox 32 FLOAT RL w/ 15QR axle and Tapered Steerer, 5.9”/150mm Travel
Shock Fox Float RP2 w/XV sleeve & boost valve
COMPONENTS
Handlebar Giant Connect oversize alloy 670mm x 25mm rise
Stem Giant Connect oversize alloy, 4 bolt, 8 degree
Saddle Fi’zi:k Gobi XM w/Manganese rail
DRIVETRAIN
Shifters SRAM X-5 trigger shift 27 sp.
Front Derailleur Shimano SLX 9 sp direct mount
Rear Derailleur SRAM X-7 9 sp
Brakes Avid Elixir 1 hydraulic, w/7” front & 6” rear 6 bolt rotors
Brake Levers Avid Elixir 1 hydraulic
Cassette Shimano HG30 9 sp 11-34T
Chain Shimano HG53 9 sp
Crankset Shimano M542 22x32x44T
Bottom Bracket Shimano BB71, press fit
WHEELS
Rims DT 465D double wall, eyeleted, alloy 32H disc
Hubs Fr: Giant Tracker sealed cartridge 15QR | Rr: Shimano M475 9sp disc
Spokes 14/15G butted stainless
Tires [F] Maxxis Minion DHF 26x2.35 [R] Maxxis High Roller 26x2.35