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.

A couple of my fastest times on the downhill segments, probably due to the tyre pressure.

A slow and pretty unremarkable uphill, other than a game of chicken with a big dump truck coming up behind me in a narrow part of the road. It shows my confidence is growing, I could not imagine myself doing that even a month ago.

Definitely starting to notice the cold, even in the afternoon.

2nd fastest time up the hill. I put it down to the tyre pressure being up at around 30 PSI, it felt a lot easier on the road.

The service and tubeless conversion seems to have gone well. It is pretty amazing how much the plus size tubes weigh, it’s got to be close to half a kilo.

The folks at MyRide gave me lots of great advice, and I was very happy with the work they had done on the bike, I’ll be back for sure.

While I was there I picked up a digital pressure gauge, I’m unsure if I’m using it correctly as it appears to be showing much lower pressures than I thought were in the tyres.

Rode down to drop the bike off for a service, quick blat down the hill from school. What was interesting is that last time I took the turn onto Brooklyn Road from Washington Ave I got quite freaked out. It is a measure of my growing confidence that this time it was no big deal.

I imagined riding out to Tangihana-a-Kupe would be pretty cruisy, but how wrong I was. The storm a few weeks back had destroyed much of the four wheel drive track. It was hard going in many places with deep loose shingle or sand. I had to walk quite a bit. It was a good challenge though, and I was reasonably happy with how I was able to deal with some pretty rough and rocky stuff.

It was overall a very enjoyable hour, although slow going to cover 8km.

It was a wet ride down, with a few speed wobbles, but quite exciting. A car that stayed a good distance behind me held back the traffic, and have me a good run. I realised afterwards that I was going over 40 most of the way down Brooklyn Road.

The ride up was hard again, and I had been careful to eat during the day. It is strange how close some cars come as they pass you, and I’m sure some are doing 60 or more.

There’s talk of a cycle lane going in up the hill, but there is opposition to it due to the loss of parking spaces and a second car lane that is barely used, and is a hangover from when that stretch of road had a 70km/hr limit. I find the opposition ridiculous given that so few cars park on Brooklyn Road.

What a great ride today, I was on the bike for close to two hours which is the longest ride for me so far by almost double. I had not eaten before going and had half a snack bar I was saving for the end of the ride, so I was pretty knackered by the end.

According to Strava I rode for over 28km, which I almost can’t believe.

It was so great to be by the sea, and I really love the coast track from Eastbourne to Pencarrow Lighthouse.

Sights along the way included Lake Kohangapiripiri, Lake Kohangatera, the wreck of the SS Paiaka, and the stunning light on the sea and land.

Approaching Baring Head from the coast (not the hillside track) was beautiful, I rode until I ran out of road. I could have kept going if I had walked a little further, but I was pretty glad I turned around when I did given how stuffed I was on my return.

It was my first commute after the Covid lockdown. I left at sunrise, so the light was low, and I was very conscious of trying to be visible. It was a fun ride down the hill and not as cold as I was expecting.

The way up was OK, I left at 4pm to beat the worst of the traffic and the rain. As it was the Friday before a long weekend I also expected traffic to be lighter, and I think it was in general.

The ride up the hill felt slow, and according to Strava it was 12:33, my slowest time by miles, and actually 3 minutes longer then my last ride up the hill. It could be because I stopped before crossing the traffic to get to my street, as 3 minutes over 1.4km doesn’t seem right to me. But it did feel like I was riding slowly.

It was rewarding to do it, and the start to the day was fun.