Good fun, passed a chap on a hardtail with slicks on! He was walking poor bugger, it would be hard yakka on those.

Just the daily commute today.

Quick trip in this morning with the wind behind, and hoping the forecast easing 'by evening' meant it would drop by 5:30 6ish.

Nope.

Blustery meant I needed to take a wide stance when stopped at the lights. Actually wider than that.

Gusts around the corners of buildings practically stop you on the spot.

And once leaving the city into the hill suburbs those gusts, clam spots and reflected winds giving a welcome push are driven by the gullies you ride past, corners you turn and ridges you crest.

You know it's a big wind day because of the branches ripped off trees that have survived years of ordinary windy days.

Not so pleasant while out there riding, but satisfying when you survive unscathed.

Had an excellent ride home via mt vic and mt albert. Was almost calm in the pines and super soft and dry - lots of newly fallen pine needles, and pinecones, and branches... Quite a bit more enjoyable than fighting the gusts on the road. Really glad I wasn't biking into the wind tonight - seems easier first thing in the morning...

Yeah I was happily spinning in the big ring down Cambridge Terrace and then suddenly almost went backwards when a big gust hit

Awesome ride day today: Up Parkvale Rd to the Skyline track; south to Makara saddle, up Varleys and Zacs, down North Face (is that a great track or what? every time I ride it the pixies have been through and made it more flowy!); down Ridgeline Extension, SWIGG & Starfish; up Koru, Sally Alley, ML, Aratihi; back down Zacs and Varleys; along Skyline and down Parkvale to home.

26.5km of intense bliss.

Interesting observation - going up Zacs I found the norwester kept throwing me off balance and made a usually fun climb into a bit of an epic, but coming back down when I was tireder and the wind was stronger it didn't seem to have any effect, I felt smoother and more flowy on Zacs today than I have for ages.

Makara Peak

Tracks are sweeeet

Nothface is nice - great work peeps

Happy

Craigeburn



Many thanx trail pixies

Back to Makara Peak

Northface again. Still nice

And multiple laps on the lower tracks (out of the wind). I think SWIGG / Starfish is still my fav

Excellent couple of laps at makara peak, first time down trickle falls which went very smoothly, I was expecting near death steeps but a nice run none the less. then back up for a northface-ridgeline ext run, beautiful

nice sifty around the sandpit today, well dry out there and had a little bit of rain which made the top layer uber sticky

Little Akatarawa ride, I'd advise anyone doing it to take a pair of secateurs for the supple jack as there is a lot of it encroaching on the track at the moment.

Hey AP, that photo is awesome - I bet the view from thetop of that track must have been incredible.

Another diddlybop in Makara - all the tracks are firm and dry, I think the rain last week was good for settling down the dust and bedding in the gravel a bit. Nikau Valley is now an awesome ride, having been cleared of grass and face-slapping ferns. Ridgeline Ext also much clearer now. North Face corners are getting ever flowier.

A couple of short but tasty rides on the Coast this weekend.

Fri - Drachophylum flats at Craigiburn
Sat - Denniston plateau trails
Mon - Lake Kaierre waterrace track, really nice bit of west coast native bush

Having the week off work hopefully can get in a couple of longish rides before the Hanmer 8 hour this weekend (surely its not to late to start training )

Nick_K wrote:Sat - Denniston plateau trails

We saw a lot of foreign mountain bikes around this weekend, didn't see any of them on the trails though.

We did the Lyell here on the Coast on Sunday and Denniston today.

Got a great ride in today
Creek, dipper (x2), fel laps of the radio hut rd pump track, Up to Gunna gotta, down, and into Katore steps, Tickler, Dragons tail, 8 mile rd, shuttled, 1000 jump, little red riding huck, Shuttled again, Billy T, G rock, chestnut, roller coaster, back to shuttle pickup, up th Be rude not 2, half of Pig, and back to waipa.
I'm stuffed