Today was my third consecutive day at Makara Peak. I did the three trails I’m familiar with and also cruised up the 4WD track to see what was a little further up the hill. I came back via Big Tom’s Wheelie which had a couple of fun features on it.
Going up was pretty straightforward, despite the track being very wet. I don’t think I stopped at all.
My time on the Magic Carpet Ride was a lot better than yesterday, although still above the average reported on Trailforks.
The thought of coming down Lazy Fern in the wet freaked me out, but it went pretty well. The straightish downhills were really fun, and the Roscoe was extremely forgiving. The switchbacks were much easier today, I was generally far more in control than the previous two days. If anything I was too slow, but that’s what I need to learn to do if I’m going to take on SWIGG. The technique I used on some of the switchbacks (that is when I was together enough to think) was to feather the rear brake in the turn, I think it made a huge difference in terms of speed and control.
When I got back to the car park and was considering going up again, I found myself thinking “that was AWESOME”!
After the ride I fitted the Cateye Quick Wireless Computer, aka a speedometre, which was a bit of a faff. I gave it a quick test and it seemed to work and be consistent with Strava. It’s cleverly designed, simple, provides just what I need, appears to be easy to read, and looks great too.
