Every had one of those rides that are peppered with bad omens warning you to turn back? Todays ride started with some old women trying to make me her new bonnet ornament on a roundabout. Luckily it just resulted in a bent hanger and a slightly less than true wheel. I pulled the hanger back into line and continued on to do Major Aitkens.

Then up Mount Pleasant, once above the houses there are two copses on the left. Whilst unhappily staring at my handle bar clamp, I noticed the shadowon the road of a fully wing-spanned magpie, fark, quickly followed by the whoosh of a low level fly-by, the little bugger just kept swooping down on me as it hopped from branch to branch, escorting me off its patch. I was bloody glad to get the hell away from there I can tell you. Then at the next copse of trees at the top, that farking shadow was back again, swooping down on me.

That's it, that time is gonna stand for me until well after nesting season is over.

Needless to say, I decided I'd rather go the long way home and dropped down Summit road into Sumner, rather than run that gauntlet again.

Sounds like you had quite a ride there Rik. Not liking these reports of the Mt P maggie Might be waiting a while before taking that one on.
Meanwhile, I took a few seconds off my Kennedys time today. Thought I should do that before that fella with the wooden spoon posts a 'real' time

I suffered up Mt Pleasant today too, but no sign of Mr Magpie luckily.
A good number of people climbing up from the Sumner side today.

XCguy wrote:Sounds like you had quite a ride there Rik. Not liking these reports of the Mt P maggie Might be waiting a while before taking that one on.
Meanwhile, I took a few seconds off my Kennedys time today. Thought I should do that before that fella with the wooden spoon posts a 'real' time

That spoon is actually really quite handy. Think I might just hang onto it until I'm done making me summer jams and preserves.

Just thought I'd put up another time to make the folks at the top of the table feel good about themselves....

Mt Pleasant Magpie got me about 8-10 times on Friday. He's moved from the top trees down to the lower pines - gave me a fright as I was mentally preparing myself for possible attacks at the top like last year. At least the magpies here are tiny compared the aggressive mutants in Brisbane that hovered above your head for continuous attacks that often resulted in bleeding ears (and they are bloody protected there!)

Think I need more gears on my roadbike - I find MTB climbing so much easier?

got an email about this topic . so i took my road bike off trade me and threw down a few hill sprints at about 10.30pm last night. no wind assistance at all.

I did a run up the B'stard yesterday, but in comparing my time with all the others I'm wondering whether I'm recording it right between the right places. I took a good amount off my previous time showing on the chart, and it would put my quicker than everyone on the list (and I have my doubts I'd be the quickest by my times on other hills).

Am I reading it right that it's from the cattlestop at the Gebbies Pass summit, to finish at the cattlestop at the top just before you cross to the City side of the hill? There's the sign up there (Omahu Reserve?) and a hundred or so metres more of road before it levels out.

Could someone please confirm. Thanks!

FYI - on the way out to Gebbies i got tagged by a nasty Magpie near the end of the long straight after Tai Tap. He hit me 4 or 5 times - bastard!

Claude wrote:Could someone please confirm. Thanks!

Sounds right to me.
Should be about 45 sec faster than your (city side) Dyers time

Claude wrote:
FYI - on the way out to Gebbies i got tagged by a nasty Magpie near the end of the long straight after Tai Tap. He hit me 4 or 5 times - bastard!

sounds right to me.

a complete mother that one

That time looks about right for you Claude. You can ignore mine and Teresa times for comparisons. We've only rode that climb on the day we did all the climbs in one ride.

Thanks guys. It had seemed too good to be true and put some doubt in my mind - I couldn't remember my previous time and I'd been round to Purau as a warm up (via Gebbies) before coming back & hitting the B'std. Just hit the stop watch but it wasn't until Sunday until I got into Vorb and realised I'd knocked 1m20s off my previous. I think I could knock a bit more off it too if I was a bit fresher.

Must get up Dyers (lately I've always been dropping down off the Summit) and I'll test that theory re the 45s thanks MFW. But that seems a good rule of thumb going on what I think I did last year.

Cheers

I'm confused and losing sleep over where the Bastard finishes. I "feel" like it finishes when you cross the cattlestop and go through the saddle away from Lyttleton Harbour. But the climb continues through bush, then into the open and flattens out, before re-entering bush where Map My Ride shows the B*stard finishing.

Also, I'd like to complain about Dyers - Worsley. It's too long for me! I nearly passed out when I got home. Also Kennedy's Bush: too short and too steep! More climbs tailored to my middling ability (or lack of) please!

malcs wrote:I'm confused and losing sleep over where the Bastard finishes. I "feel" like it finishes when you cross the cattlestop and go through the saddle away from Lyttleton Harbour. But the climb continues through bush, then into the open and flattens out, before re-entering bush where Map My Ride shows the B*stard finishing.

The old leaderboard climb (as per the current climb description) is as you say, the last cattlestop before the top, it was picked for the finish as it is the last solid landmark before the summit rolls off.

The MMR ride was probably done without accuracy in mind, since the climb description is easy to follow.

Riks new leaderboard uses here -43.66193, 172.62311 if you're importing a GPS trace. Unfortunately google street view footage stops on the city side just short of the catttlestop, bugger!
I'm sure Rik will chime in soon to clarify things if his knee's not playing up