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 :)