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crazychris
Scuffed
Joined: Jun 09, 2006
Posts: 487
Location: ho ho humbug (also Christchurch)
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 Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 9:23am Post subject: Kennedys Bush - Waddayarekon? |
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Looking to do my first up & downhill tandem ride this weekend. Having considered most of the roads up to the top of the Port Hills with a sense of dread, I remembered the Kennedys Bush track. I haven't ridden it for about 3 years, and it was completly engulfed in low cloud that day, so my memory of it is hazy at best.
What I want to know is - how many technical parts are there? Is it mostly farm track, or a mix of farm & single track? And how slippery is it in the wet (a bit of rain forecast for latter half of the week) becuase we have to come down it too!
"Why Kennedys and not Rapaki" I hear you ask? Simple. If/When we fall off, I'd rather have grass stains than gravel rash. We could also be going at some rather high speeds downhill so having a grassy bank to crash into rather than a cliff to fall down is also a plus.
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Trail
Thrashed
Joined: Aug 15, 2008
Posts: 1,134
Location: Chch
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 9:27am Post subject: |
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Mt Vernon farm track if you want a specifically grassy track to get up/down the hill. Rather steep and good luck stopping for the gate at the bottom!!
Kennedys you have the choice of going up the crocodile singletrack or up the road. The singletrack is probably pretty difficult to get up on a tandem (including a few switchbacks). The 4wd track is mostly grass. There are a few decent ruts along the way and there is a rocky techinical section up near the top... but it is not too long and being near the top you could either walk it, or just ride up to there and back down.
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crazychris
Scuffed
Joined: Jun 09, 2006
Posts: 487
Location: ho ho humbug (also Christchurch)
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 9:32am Post subject: |
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Wouldn't ride croc up to the track, can take the road up, much easier.
I have only been down Vernon at night at speed, and seem to remmebe rit having some nice ruts in it, kinda a grassy Rapaki track.
cheers, this is the kind of news I was hoping for
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Tinkerbell
made of metal
Joined: Jan 17, 2008
Posts: 1,780
Location: Chch
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 10:38am Post subject: |
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If its been raining there will probably be one muddy wet section where it levels out 3/4 of the way up. Its kinda rutty in there so you'll want to be controlling your speed on the way down. Plenty of lovely soft grass on the 4wd tracks at the moment. 
Good luck.
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swtchbckr
Worn
Joined: Mar 22, 2005
Posts: 576
Location: Chacha
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 11:15am Post subject: |
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| crazychris wrote: | Wouldn't ride croc up to the track, can take the road up, much easier.
I have only been down Vernon at night at speed, and seem to remmebe rit having some nice ruts in it, kinda a grassy Rapaki track.
cheers, this is the kind of news I was hoping for |
Vernon much steeper gradient than Rapaki... and brakes having to haul up the weight of two might get pretty darn hot.
Kennedies would be fine. quite techy rocky bit near the top might be tricky, but with the power of two you'll probably be fine. and yep, up road, not croc. no way a long wheelbase would make it round some of those switchies...
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crazychris
Scuffed
Joined: Jun 09, 2006
Posts: 487
Location: ho ho humbug (also Christchurch)
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 11:20am Post subject: |
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hehe, the long wheel base barely makes it around McLeans Island, I sure as hell ain't riding UP a single track on it for a while yet!
I guess as we head up, I can make a call on the rocky bit and turn-tail and run, or plow on through.
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Slim
Mangled
Joined: Aug 15, 2003
Posts: 16,717
Location: Opawa
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 11:22am Post subject: |
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I rode with some guys on a tandem in Hanmer a few years back, going down Joliffe saddle was funny, the stoker jumped off going round one of the switchbacks and the guy on the front rode the rest on his own with essentially no rear brake.
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ashesman
Worn
Joined: Jun 11, 2006
Posts: 591
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 11:59am Post subject: |
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Last time I rode up Kennedys I got passed by a dude and doris on a tandem so it is defintiely doable...
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crazychris
Scuffed
Joined: Jun 09, 2006
Posts: 487
Location: ho ho humbug (also Christchurch)
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 12:06pm Post subject: |
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That would most likely be the Templeton Two, Johno & Karen.
I hope you were riding real slow!
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mfw
Scuffed
Joined: Nov 22, 2007
Posts: 339
Location: Out of breath in the port hills
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 1:02pm Post subject: |
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You should go up Rapaki then down the Lava flow - momentum is your friend 
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Simonk
Ridden
Joined: Jul 22, 2003
Posts: 203
Location: Wellington, NZ
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 1:33pm Post subject: |
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You'd be surprised what a tandem will handle. My bro is fairly inexperienced on one and dragged me round Makara Peak OK (dab-free on Koru, SWIGG and Starfish). Similar stuff to Crocodile.
Watching a couple like Chris & Bob (who've done Karapoti in 2:59) on a MTB tandem is mind-boggling. Gotta have faith!
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crazychris
Scuffed
Joined: Jun 09, 2006
Posts: 487
Location: ho ho humbug (also Christchurch)
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 1:38pm Post subject: |
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I thik some of the more technical stuff requires 2 x sighted people, both of which have ridden for a while. I've been on a tandem since September, and this weekend will be the first real hill we have done together. Logan (the stoker) has done road-tandem before, but no offroad at all and I'm a newbie to the whole tandem thing.
We've done McLeans Island several times, and a few deep gravel roads for the sheer terror of them, so a hill is next on the cards. Apparently these puppies can fly downhill, and Logan is used to downhill tandems doing 90kph+ although I'll be going a little slower down Kennedys Bush track I recon!
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danose
Mangled
Joined: May 27, 2004
Posts: 10,986
Location: Nose City
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 1:45pm Post subject: |
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| crazychris wrote: |
I guess as we head up, I can make a call on the rocky bit and turn-tail and run, or plow on through. |
the rocky bit is nearly at the top (so you've got plenty of down to play with even if you decide against it) - and it's not that rocky (good clean line down the left heading down). There's actually an even better line avoiding it (stay out of the cutting and on the right) but it's got some big rocks to fly over
watch out for the lethal braking bumps in the ruts just before the gate at the pine trees heading down - they're what took me an stepinyards out (you'd be amazed how far you can go down the hill on your esra!)
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Simonk
Ridden
Joined: Jul 22, 2003
Posts: 203
Location: Wellington, NZ
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 2:09pm Post subject: |
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I reckon the stoker really needs great ears, and the captain needs to yell heaps. Short stokers can never see what the hell is coming up anyway. Got to rely on the captain knowing what they're doing, and it is certainly worth taking it easy for the first few rides.
Helps if the captain is reasonably burly, too. Older bro Paul once went with Gary Fisher as he was testing a new tandem on Mt Tam. Paul weighs about 66kg and Gary is a big guy. He was sliding the tandem sideways and just absolutely hammering the tracks.
The sighted rider comment reminds me of the time we did the Mt Climie Downhill on our Triple. It's about a 600m descent on a steep and loose access road (with some very, very steep fire road at the bottom). Jonathan on the front, me in the middle and Paul on the back. Paul and I had blindfolds on and a death-grip on the handlebars. Jonathan just kept calling every single corner, rut and rock the whole way down. Just about wet ourselves, but it was so much fun. Only crashed on the very last corner.
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davethemann
Ridden
Joined: Nov 05, 2007
Posts: 220
Location: The Paddy Wagon
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| Posted: Tue 14/Oct/08 7:29pm Post subject: |
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| crazychris wrote: | I have only been down Vernon at night at speed, and seem to remmebe rit having some nice ruts in it, kinda a grassy Rapaki track.
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I was doing laps up Vernon a couple of weeks back and it was smooth as except for the steep bit near the bottom. I do remember it being a bit rutted in the past so I suppose it gets bulldozed from time to time. If going down there at this time of year be VERY careful with the lambs about, they're unpredictable little basdrats. I've almost been taken out by them a couple of times.
(Only managed to get 2 laps in before the boss called and I had to go home and find out what one of our clients had done to their database  )
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