Category: Ride

Fantastic ride down the hill, I again had a clear run with no vehicles behind me. I was able to get a good line the whole way down, completing the descent in less than 2 minutes. The wind was behind me which also helped. According to Strava I clocked 60km/hr.

But it was coooooold, I was gloveless and my thumbs in particular were numb by the time I got to the office.

The ride up was OK, the wind was weird and I was buffeted a few times which I don’t recall having happened before.

Fantastic ride down the hill, I managed to sneak in front of a bus which held back the traffic and gave me the chance for a fast run. My confidence had increased and I’m far more comfortable zipping down the hill, and am nowhere near as reliant on my brakes.

I would have gone under 2 minutes except for a car that was blocking the road toward the bottom of the run with an awkward 3 point turn, it killed my momentum.

I also did pretty well with red lights and had one of my faster trips to the office

The ride up was coooooold, and reasonably uneventful.

Even though it was wet I managed to top 55km/hr on the way down the hill (if Strava is to believed).

The way up felt a little harder than usual, but was reasonably uneventful.

I was unwell for much of last week so avoided riding. Even though the road was wet (and it’s reasonable dark at 7ish in the morning). It was fun to be on the bike and an exhilarating ride down.

The ride up was quieter than usual, possibly because it was the school holidays. I made a point of riding pretty slowly, but somehow made one of my fastest ascents.

Nice enough ride down today, the road was wet at my place but dried out as I headed down the hill. I may have held up a car on the way down, but I was doing around 50km/hr for the half a kilometre that it was behind me, so I doubt it would have tried to pass.

The way up felt like hard work. The traffic is pretty steady again, and riding in rain has so far been pleasant enough, it is not so nice with traffic. I think my confidence is still recovering a little from the last two rides and the close calls.

A quick zip down the hill in the wet with a lot of traffic. To complicate things there were some pretty decent wind gusts. I was super careful until the traffic cleared about half way down the hill when I found I could sit in the middle of the lane and avoid slippery street markings. Nice ride overall, and once I was off the main street there was little traffic to contend with.

The ride up was a little wet also, but the rain had stopped. I went a little mad and decided to ride up the through one of the bush tracks through Central Park. It was much better than last time I tried in January, but I was forced to stop twice and walk.

The track was wet, with a few roots that I could feel my rear wheel slipping over, and the track was soft with mud and saturated leaf litter.

Traction was fine, but I was careful to apply low power as much as possible in a low gear. But the incline was too steep in places and forced me to stop. I’m determined to get up that track at some point, but even a seasoned mountain biker said that route was a tough one.

It’s another new challenge for me as I am determined to ride up it without stopping.

A quick blat down the hill today, I was a little cheeky and rode in the middle of the road, there was a car that was behind me most of the way but they seemed to be OK. I was doing 50km/hr much of the way down so probably wasn’t too much of a nuisance.

The ride up was WET. It wasn’t raining but it had been raining for much of the day. I think I coped with the hill a little better than last week, although I was pretty buggered at the top. I had a couple who had come right up behind me by the top of the hill which cramped my style a little, but it was only for a brief moment as far as I could tell.

After my experience losing a light in the tunnel on Saturday, I have ordered a big beefcake of a light, a Ravemen PR1200, which I hope will give me options to leave earlier in the day over the next few months, and provide backup for my little flashing lights. I’ll review the Ravemen in due course, as I also intend to review the Giant Recon HL 100 and the Recon TL 100, which are nifty lights, but it seems to need charging quite a bit.

I was pretty stoked with my effort today up the Remutaka incline section of the Remutaka Rail Trail.

The trail is a fantastic idea and so much vision and work must have gone into making it a reality.

I rode from Kaitoke over to Cross Creek and back. It took me a couple of hours to complete the ~30km or so.

The way up to the old Summit station from Kaitoke didn’t really feel like much of an incline, although I realised when I was coming back down the hill how fast I was able to go and that it was a bit steeper than I had thought.

The climb from Cross Creek – a grade 3 climb according to Strava – was daunting. But I cruised up taking it pretty easy and according to Strava it took about 30 minutes. It’s amazing seeing leader boards with folks who have covered the 3km ascent 10 minutes. I need to lift my uphill efforts!

The ride was pretty easy overall, I mean I could feel I was working in places, but it certainly didn’t feel hopeless at any point. The presence of many small kids on bikes was pretty reassuring to me too.

I only encountered very minor issues:

• my front light died at the pitch black entrance to the longest tunnel. Fortunately I had a good flashlight will me, but had to hand hold that through the tunnel. Some lovely folks let me follow them through the tunnels on way from Siberia to Summit which saved me a bit of faffing.
• I was unsure going down the Wairarapa side to Cross Creek how far there was to go, and nearly stopped and turned around. I’m glad I went on, it was not a particularly long descent, I just had no idea how far I had remaining. That descent had some pretty loose gravel on it, I dragged the brakes a lot, but didn’t want to find myself going too fast on that surface.
• The tubeless tyres were great, I was a little concerned that the pressure was too high, but it was just right for the conditions.

Overall it was a fun ride and I was pretty stoked that I was able to do it with no dramas.