Category: Lessons learned

Today was Fenceline to about halfway to Wright’s Hill, followed by the big bully: Car Parts, followed by Spuds (Upper Ikigai), then Ikigai, and finally Transient back up.

Car Parts gives me the shits. It is only a grade 3 but it is tough. I do like it though. But yeah, I find it hard going. I definitely need to practice more.

Fenceline was good training. It gets very steep in a few places and I involuntarily dismounted a few times to walk to where I could ride again. I can’t wait to get back to it.

Ikigai felt GREAT. It flowed more for me than it has for ages, despite the corners I can’t do.

As it turns out, I probably had a bung rear tyre which would have made things a little harder. The valve probably got bent when I tried to inflate the tyre near the top of Transient.

The big change in riding this time was nutrition: I had a gel thing that appeared to completely give me more energy – especially on the way down where I needed it most.

Great fun.

The rear brake pads were pretty close to shot so I did a quick change and general clean up while the rear wheel was off. I need to sort out the bottom bracket at some point.

This week I commuted a couple of times and things were generally feeling better.

I was a little apprehensive about hitting Ikigai on the Roscoe after the experience on the Pivot the previous weekend.

It was the first time riding from the end of Highbury Fling up to top of upper Ikigai, and it was a tough one.

The ride down was amazing, and fun, although my quads were burning for much of it. I had started at upper Ikigai which I’d never ridden before, and the geometry of the Roscoe felt unfamiliar after the Firebird. I remembered I needed to be further back and working harder than the previous weekend, and the first decent bump my tail was airborne. No harm done, but I was a little lucky.

Ikigai has three tough right handers. I want to get good at them.

The strange thing was the ride back up Transient was amazing – almost easy. I couldn’t understand why it felt so much easier than usual.

I’ve been commuting 3 or 4 days of the last couple of weeks, and a couple of times I’ve been able to get Ikigai into the mix in the afternoon. I haven’t ridden the last two weekends, but given how sore my knees have been that’s probably a good thing.

Did the Transient/Ikigai loop a couple of times; almost three, fantastic fun.

I had a wonderful day at Makara Peak, starting with a run up and down the green runs, Koru and Lazy Fern.

Back in the carpark I’d intended to take a Pivot bike for a test ride, but alas, my model had not arrived. I decided to make the most of it and go up again. I went up to the top, and it was muggy and so a sweaty struggle up, but well worth it.

The ride down Peak Flow was superb, for the first time it really clicked, all the switchbacks felt great and my confidence was much higher than ever. I put it down to the warm up ride down initially.

When I got home I finally got around to trying to sort my right hand pedal – I managed to get it apart, and realise that the bearings are probably stuffed. I sorted disassembled, cleaned it, and regreased it. There is a lot of horizontal play in the pedal since I loosened the nut, but we’ll see how it goes.

In the process realised I had some tools that were perfect for working on the bikes.