We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten
Together, we’ve climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and ABCs
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees.

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out time.

Yesterday, I farewelled my trusty Superlight frame. And while the words of Westlife aren’t quite accurate (for some reason, that song keeps getting stuck in my head when I think about saying goodbye), we’ve had a great couple of years together. We’ve ridden all around the country – two seasons of the Nationals series, one Karapoti, one and a half PNP Series, a six hour solo, a few 12 hour races, Queen Charlotte Track… not to mention all the training and riding in general.

But it’s time to move on. No surprises that the Superlight’s replacement is another Santa Cruz – one that has done many more races and in further places than my Superlight has ever travelled. I had already taken it for a test ride before I bought the Superlight, so I know exactly what I’m getting and how it rides, and I’m really looking forward to it joining my stable. Pictures and words to follow next week.

The great thing about this time of year is that there are so many events to choose from. Unfortunately, sometimes there are clashes and last weekend was one of those weekends, with the Otago Peninsula Challenge, the Timaru X-Scenic MTB race, and the third round of the Mainland South Regional BMX Champs all on.

After a bit of indecisiveness, I decided that one XC race was enough for me this month, and I may as well make use of the BMX race license I bought. So we loaded up the car on Saturday morning and headed to Alexandra for the BMX Champs.

Only two days prior, I had my first crash on BMX on the Dunedin track – I screwed up the landing off a step-up into the face of the next roller during the first race of the evening. I ended up bruising and grazing my right side, with a bit of a bump to the head, and doing a bit of damage to my rear brake. I rode the rest of the races that evening but took it considerably quieter!

Since we were in Alex a day earlier, I decided to check out the track before Sunday’s race. I’d never ridden my BMX on tracks other than the Dunedin one, so the Alex one was pretty daunting at first – a steeper start gate, and lots and lots of rollers and step-ups – a little bit frightening given my new-found aversion to them. I spent about an hour out there rolling around the track, trying to get the body used to moving around on the bike, which had to move quite precisely over the terrain. By the end of the hour, my legs were getting quite tired from the constant bending (something I’m not used to doing so much) so I called it a day.

Sunday morning rolled around, and true to Alex form, it was going to be a hot day. My choice of predominantly black race kit turns out to be not particularly practical when it’s super-hot outside! Ah well. I registered and picked up the programme, then went and sat in the shade for a while. I took a look at the programme and found that my grade (17-29 girls) had been amalgamated, so I was racing in the 15 years + mixed category – 6 guys, and me.

Similar to club nights, there were five motos for each grade. Before we’d even hit the first tabletop in my first moto, I was already trailing behind. From that point, I decided to treat the day as a good skills/practice session, working on my technique and body position on the bike instead of speed. And without the pressure of competition as such (since I was the slowest rider in the group), I was having fun getting a feel for how my bike rode on the track. I also learnt how to start from a steeper gate than the one on my home track (turns out it’s slightly easier to balance on a steeper slope.. go figure), and how to use my arms and legs more.

Me on the far left

On the first tabletop

In the end, I came 7th out of 7 riders, but the position wasn’t something I cared too much about.  It was a great learning experience and it was good seeing how the other Dunedin riders stacked up against the others in the region – pretty quick it turns out! I’m looking forward to heading back to my local BMX track this evening to practice the skills I picked up this weekend. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I will have gained a bit more speed and skill for the South Island BMX titles.

As we get closer to the end of the year, time mysteriously disappears in a whirlwind of social functions, along with the gift-buying frenzy that takes hold of most of the population. Last weekend was spent doing a mixture of the above, and combined with bad weather on the Sunday, I never made it out for a ride.

This weekend, I was determined that it was going to be different. So yesterday morning, I headed out for a lap of the South Island XC Cup track at Bethunes Gully/Forrester Park. The weather hadn’t been playing ball throughout the week so the tracks were a bit greasy. I had the realisation as I was out there that it was the first time I’d actually been out on a MTB ride by myself in a couple of months. As much as I love riding socially, I quite enjoyed being out there on my own for a change. There’s something strangely appealing about only being able to hear the sound of your bike and your breathing as you move through singletrack. It started raining half-way through, and so at the end of the lap, I cruised on home in a muddy but happy state.

In the afternoon, I headed back to Forrester Park to attend a BMX coaching clinic. The clinic was taken by Ted Lucas, a BMX NZ coach, and I was eager to learn about the basics of BMXing. Up till this point, I had really only made it around the track with some basic fitness but very little actual skill. Ted taught us the basics of pumping, manualing, and gate starts over the course of 2 hours. By the end of it, I was feeling rather overwhelmed by all the information, and slightly embarrassed that everyone could manual on their first attempt except for me!

Determined to practice what I’d learnt the day before, I spent a couple of hours today at the BMX track to practice pumping. The final straight of the Dunedin BMX track is a series of small rolly things (Scotty’s gone out for a ride right now so I can’t ask him what the technical term is!), which I’d been struggling with all season. After repeatedly riding that straight this afternoon however, I think I’ve finally mastered the art of pumping them! Yay! I also worked on the first straight and am getting to the stage where I’m a bit happier with my wheels off the ground on the tabletop and double.

I finished off my little practice session with five laps around the BMX track, timing each one to see how much faster I could go. It was reminiscent of the Magic Carpet intervals I used to do at Makara Peak in Wellington, and it was quite cool feeling out of breath and slightly broken at the end of it! Of course, how fast I can get around the track means nothing without the context of other riders. I’m looking forward to the next BMX club night to see if the coaching and practice has paid off!

The Queen Charlotte Track is the longest piece of (legal) singletrack in New Zealand, covering 71km (according to DOC, 62km according to the Kennett Brothers) and located in the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island. Vorb (well, Tama really) has been organising annual trips to ride the Queen Charlotte Track since 2000, so this year marked the 10th anniversary of the Vorb QCT trips.

Always set for the last weekend of November, the main excuse used by riders for not going along was that they were riding around a big lake for 160kms (the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge). As a Taupo race virgin however, I have never been able to use that excuse, instead opting for boring ones like “I’m too poor”, “I’m too unfit”, and “I can’t go if Scotty’s not going” (yes, bleurgh etc). However, after kicking myself for not joining in the shenanigans the past few years, I decided that 2009 was finally the year to check the track out.

Scotty and I decided to do take a few days off on either side of the weekend and do the road trip up and down the country. We set off on Thursday morning from Dunedin, stayed the night in Kaikoura (where we picked up a dragon as our road trip mascot), and drove into Picton the next day. After killing time wandering around the streets of Picton (there weren’t many), we decided to check into the backpackers that Tama had booked and wait for people to slowly arrive throughout the afternoon and evening. By 10pm, we had most of our party of 25, a motley crew of individuals from Auckland (whose plane was diverted to Blenheim) through to Dunedin (Scotty and myself), bikes from all ends of the price range, and ages from 20-something to over 50s.

Dragon welcomes us to his home town of Kaikoura

Day One:

6am on Saturday morning and we were awoken by someone’s alarm after a restless night’s sleep (obviously, backpackers who party in the main lounge till the wee hours of the morning don’t know what “quiet time” is). After trying to hide from the outside world in my sleeping bag for 15 minutes, I reluctantly extracted myself from my warm cocoon and got myself ready. Because the start of the track (Ship Cove) was waaaay out at the end of a Sound (what is a “Sound” anyway?), we had to catch a boat (I’m on a boat! I’m on a boat!..) to the starting point. By 8am, we had loaded our bags and bikes onto the boat, and at 9am, we were off.

Bikes loaded on top of the boat

Yes, that is my  hand on the wheel!

Looking pretty grey out there!

The weather wasn’t being particularly nice to us on Saturday. On the hour boat trip, I hoped that the rain in Picton wasn’t also happening out on the track, but as we pulled into Ship Cove, I had resigned to myself that it was going to be a particularly wet day and ride. After briefly stopping at the monument for a group photo, we all set off at our own paces along the track.

Most of the group posing for a photo

Now, I’m the type of girl who likes a good warm up to get the legs moving and the lungs working before doing anything too strenuous on the bike, so it was with some dismay that I realised that the first part of the track involved a lot of pushing and climbing – on wet clay. However, once the track mellowed out, it was quite enjoyable going through native bush, and although the rain continued to fall throughout the ride, it added to the atmosphere. It also gave me a chance to work on my ascending and descending in wet, slippery conditions, and by the end of the first day (about 2 hours of riding), I felt like was invincible and could tackle wet roots and clay with relative ease.

The first day did take a turn for the worse for one rider who I happened to be riding behind at the time. He slipped while trying to get off his bike and fell down the bank on the side. I hopped off and helped carry his bike up the bank as he scrambled up saying “Oww I think I’ve got a bad cut on my leg”. A cursory glance down at the outside of his right leg confirmed that yes, it was a pretty bad cut – almost 10cm long and looked like it was at least a cm (or two) deep. Quickly, I thought back to the first aid course I did six months ago (DRS ABC – that’s no help right now!) and got him to sit down, elevate his leg, and hold the wound together while I rummaged around his first aid kit (thank goodness he was carrying one) for a bandage. A few pieces of gauze and a tightly wound bandage later, we realised that the only way out was to keep going until we arrived at Furneaux Lodge (a good 5km away from where he fell). I kept him company for the remainder of the ride to the Lodge, where he headed off on a boat back to Picton for medical care. Mend up quick B!

From Furneaux Lodge, we had two options – 1) continue to ride along the track until Punga Cove, then catch a water taxi back to Furneaux, where we were staying for the night, or 2) get out of our wet clothes, have a hot shower, change into warm clothes, and hang out at the pub. Guess which option everyone decided to take?

Me looking cold and wet at the end of Day 1’s ride

Day Two:

Another early morning start, except this time we were well rested from the super-comfy beds and the peace and quiet at Furneaux Lodge. Scotty and I (plus 11 others by the sounds of it) had decided to continue riding from Furneaux Lodge, while the remainder caught the water taxi to Punga Cove (about 1-1.5 hours along the track) to continue the rest of the ride. The contrast in weather between Days 1 and 2 was amazing – blue skies galore! We set off just after 7:30am, and by 8am, we were already taking off our outer layers of clothing. It was going to be a hot day!

Crossing the one person swing bridge near the start of Day 2

The aim of the second day was to get to Anikiwa by 4:30pm in time for the boat back to Picton. We weren’t quite sure how far along the track we had travelled yesterday (my speedo sensor kept moving out of alignment with all the water we were riding through, and I didn’t bother putting it back on for the second day). The track had markers every 5km however, and I think the first marker we saw on the second day was for the 56km mark. Yes.. that’s 56 km TO GO. It was going to be both a long and hot day!

The first part of the track was fairly flat and reminiscent of the “easy” grade singletrack at Makara Peak. Then came a steady climb up to Kenepuru Saddle, and along and up and along and up, and up, and up to the Bay of Many Coves shelter, where a few people had also stopped. We hung out there for a bit, admired the views, filled up Scotty’s camelbak bladder, then carried on. By that stage, it was around 10:30am, and we thought we had heaps of time up our sleeve. At some point, I was beginning to fade and stopped for some food. I was making a conscious effort to keep myself well-fed and hydrated (something I’m not particularly good at doing on long rides/races), especially as it was getting towards the hot part of the day. We were rewarded for all our climbing with a fun descent down into Torea saddle. Time update: 12pm. Distance to go: approximately 20km.

A little stop for something to eat

Resting at the Bay of Many Coves Shelter

What a view!

Here, things went steadily uphill in gradient, and downhill in energy reserves. Hitting the steep, long climb out of Torea saddle at the hottest part of the day was perhaps our downfall. A lot of sweating, stopping, resting, bike carrying, bike pushing, and swearing ensued, and the next 4 or 5 km probably took a good 2 hours. However, the track eventually mellowed out for a while, then pointed in a downhill direction, finishing with a nice set of switchbacks dropping us down to another tarseal road. Time update: around 2:30-3pm (I’m making things up here because I’m not entirely sure!). Distance to go: between 11 and 16 km (I’m pretty sure we’d passed the 16 km point somewhere along the way!).

The final sections were pretty flat and similar to the gradient of the first part of Day 2’s ride. On fresh legs, it would have been an awesomely fast middle/big chainring ride, but after 40-odd kilometres, riding fast was the last thing on my mind. At the 1km to go marker, I let out a big “woohooo! 1km to go!” yell, and sped up slightly to get to the end at Anikiwa. Final time update: 3:55pm. Distance to go: Zero! Yusss!!

Scotty devours a coke at the end of the ride

The boat arrived a wee bit after 4:30pm and we were all pretty quiet on the boat ride back. We said our farewells in Picton to people who we only just met a couple of days ago, and all went our separate ways. Scotty and I headed to Nelson and stayed with Tama for a couple of nights before making the road trip back down the island on Tuesday. We arrived home to a garden which had just gone berserk after a weekend of sun in Dunedin, and a very affectionate cat who must’ve been wondering where we’d disappeared off to for five days.

After such a long ride, you can’t help but think back and wonder what you’ve learnt from the experience. Here are some of my random thoughts:

• Always bring spare disc brake pads. Scotty ran out on Day 1. I ran out on Day 2. Guess the clay and grit and constant water running down the track took its toll.
• I am going to go shopping for a small first aid kit to put into my camelbak. Having some basic first aid knowledge is great, but having the tools to be able to do it efficiently is even better.
• Hydration is important. I refilled my camelbak at some point during the ride and drank more than I ever had on the bike. Yet, I’ve still had a fuzzy headache for the past couple of days.
• When you have to ride wet clay, roots, and rocks to get from point A to point B, somehow they become a lot more rideable. I hope some of this skill gained won’t be lost when I head out on my next wet MTB ride.
• My knee seemed to handle the ride OK – this is a pretty big achievement I reckon. 2 hours on Saturday, and 8 and a half hours on Sunday – OK, so a couple of hours of that wasn’t “ride-time” but still, that’s definitely progress from where I was a few months ago when I couldn’t ride an hour without my knee hurting. Which reminds me. I need to go to the gym and get back into my knee rehab exercises.
• For some reason, I am thinking about my next Queen Charlotte Track ride, and doing it in one day instead of the two. Call me crazy, but that sounds strangely appealing.

Finally, a huge thank you to Tama for organising the ride (even though he couldn’t ride himself). Cheers for the time, organisation, and all the stuff done “behind the scenes” to make the event such a memorable experience. If there is an 11th Vorb QCT ride next year, I want to be the first to book my ticket.

I’ve got the BMX racing bug.

It’s fun. It’s fast (well, sometimes). It’s competitive. It’s great for skill transference to the MTB. And BMX racing is strangely addictive.

With all that in mind, I decided to look into getting a race BMX. Now, my Giant BMX was a great bike, bought to see if I would actually enjoy BMXing (with the added bonus that it was pink), but it’s really designed for street/park/jump-style riding – and being made of chromoly steel, it was insanely heavy.

Armed with money from the sale of my Giant BMX and my Santa Cruz Chameleon frame (I had given up my dreams of singlespeeding some months ago after all the trouble it’s caused with my knee), the search for a race BMX began. Race BMXs tend to be lighter (alloy frames.. and that’s about as far as my research into them went). Unfortunately, they are kind of hard to come by in Dunedin. In fact, as it turns out, not many of the major bike companies bring race BMXs into the country, or even make them. However, I managed to get my hands on a 2010 Haro Pro race BMX:

And of course, with a new BMX, I just had to get some new BMX racing kit. So an order was placed with Sports Pro for a Fox MX top..

and matching MX pants..

Armed with a new bike and new riding kit, I headed to my fourth BMX club race last Thursday. I was feeling slightly self-conscious with all my new kit, but I needn’t have worried. The first thing one of the kids said to me was “oh! you finally got your own kit!”. Huh. Guess I was more conspicuous when I didn’t have the “right kit” on!

The new bike behaved well, and accelerated a lot faster than the Giant. In the past few weeks of BMXing, I’d been moving between A, B, and C grades, with my best being a 3rd in A grade, my worst being a 4th in C grade. Last week was no different really. It was quite a good confidence-booster winning my first moto of the night though! Go the new bikey!! I can’t wait to take it out tomorrow for the next BMX club night.

So my weeks of riding are getting into a bit of a pattern: Monday night womens ride, Tuesday night MBO Club ride, Wednesday morning gym rehab session, Thursday night BMX, Friday morning gym rehab session, and a ride (or two) in the weekend, with another gym session on Sunday. It’s nice having a wee bit of structure to the week, but it’s also fantastic that quite a lot of the riding I do nowadays is quite social. It sure makes a change from the last couple of seasons. From the race last weekend, I realised that to get to the fitness and endurance levels that I would like to be at, I have a bit of work ahead of me. What I don’t want to lose however, is the motivation to ride. So the emphasis this summer is going to be on fun. And if I happen to get fitter, faster, and stronger while I’m out there doing that, then that’s just a bonus.

Tonight was the first proper night of BMX racing at the Dunedin BMX club, and I have to say I’m beginning to quite enjoy this 20″ high-intensity sprinty madness!

I’ll admit I spent some time in front of our brick wall at home during the week practising clipping in and standing up with the front wheel perpindicular to and against the wall – I must’ve looked a bit strange to the neighbours who could look over the fence! After a wee bit of practise however, I was feeling more confident that I could clip both feet in at the start gate and not fall over sideways.

The weather wasn’t as nice today with patches of rain and sun, along with a chilly breeze, but there was still quite a good turnout at the BMX track come 6pm. I went and enquired about signing up and was pleasantly surprised that I get to try the first three club nights for free! Woohoo!

After a few practises at the gate (success! I think I’ve almost mastered it!) and a few times around the track, it was time for the racing to begin. There were five motos (apparently that’s the right word!) tonight, with 8 people called up for each grade. With each moto, the top two moved up to a higher grade and the bottom two moved down to a lower grade (at least, that’s what I think was going on! – there’s a lot to learn eh).

As a newbie, I started off in the lowest grade (D I think) for the first moto and came third (not surprisingly, Justin Leov kicked my arse..). The next two were more successful, with a first in the second one (and got moved up to C grade), and first in the third one also (and got moved up to B). I stayed in B grade for the final two, where I came 6th (I think) both times.

Leading D grade in the second moto

Woohoo! In first place! (yes, really I was. Although with no-one else in the photo, it’s hard to tell..)

So all in all, it was a pretty good night! I really enjoyed myself and it’s looking very likely that I’ll keep this up for the season. My weeks are looking busy now with the weekly womens ride on Monday nights, Mountainbiking Otago club nights on Tuesday nights, and BMX club nights on Thursday nights. Add in two gym sessions (knee rehab stuff) and my spare time during the weekdays are pretty limited. Thank goodness things are a bit quieter at work now so I have more time to spend out on the bikes!

Mini bikes – it seems to be a theme from the last week or so!

Last Saturday, I hung out at the Womens Lifestyle Expo promoting Mountainbiking Otago and the weekly womens rides to women – every now and again, I headed out on a lap on a kids bike, much to the amusement of the kids and their slightly confused looking mothers..

(this bike was surprisingly easy to bunnyhop!)

This evening, I headed out to the Dunedin BMX Club’s first club night of the season. The track has been redone for the 2010 South Island BMX Champs early next year, and quite a large turnout came along to ride and race on the new track. Yesterday evening, I rode around the track a few times to get a feel for it (for reasons both in and out of my control, the BMX hadn’t actually been on the BMX track before yesterday..). After yesterday’s “pre-ride” I decided to swap the baggy jeans (which got caught on the cranks) for shorts + knee/shin guards, and the flat pedals (which my feet kept flying off) for my trusty Mallets. Add my fullface helmet, my $5 Rockstar Racing top I got from R&R Sport during their fire sale.. and I was all ready for some vrrrm vrrrrm BMX action this evening!

Wind the clock back 6 years or so, and I was sitting on the sidelines at club nights watching Scotty race BMX. I hadn’t really started riding (in any form) then, and it was quite inspiring watching everyone, both young and old, parents and kids alike, make their way around the course.

Fast forward to today and the tables were turned. Scotty was hanging out on the sidelines catching up with lots of people he knew, and I was out there riding. It’s quite interesting how things have changed over the years.

About racing itself, there are a number of things I need to learn – the key one being how to clip in and wait at the gates. Of the dozen or so laps (what is the right word in BMX terms?) I did, about 10 of them started with my left foot unclipped for the first few metres as I tried to clip before the first jump. Hmmmm. For the other two laps, I was kindly “assisted” at the gate by one of the organisers who held my back wheel for me – cheers dude! There was such a friendly vibe at the club night, I’m looking forward to getting some more BMX riding in this season.

In other bike/riding-related news, my knee cap is tracking slightly better and I’ve moved onto a new knee rehab exercise programme. I’m also allowed to go on slightly longer rides as long as I take it easy on the hills – wicked! I also took the Nomad out for a short ride on Tuesday night and managed to fall off a see-saw onto my left shoulder (yes, I’m an unco muppet) but that hasn’t put me off my Nomad! It’s such a different feeling riding a bike that’s got lots of squish front and rear. I can’t wait for Scotty to get his DH bike back in one piece (he’s getting his frame powdercoated too) so we can go shuttling together.

So all in all, things are looking pretty good

It’s that rascal,
The Jitterbug!
Should you catch him..
Buzzing round you..
Keep away from..
The Jitterbug!

Yes, an obscure Wizard of Oz reference, to a deleted musical number from the movie. (For those who don’t know, I have a soft spot for musicals!).

So it wasn’t quite as magical is clicking my heels together three times and making a wish, but thanks to a wonderful husband of mine, my wish of giving the Nomad a make-over has been fullfilled!

Gone is the “black chrome” paint job (a strange chameleon-like colour that looked black, green, or purple, depending on what direction the light was coming from), and say hello to Cola Red! (perhaps it should’ve been called Ruby Red to go with the Wizard of Oz theme here?..) – Cheers Procote Industries! Complete with a Nomad 2 sticker kit, and a “custom”  CELIA sticker, made from a DAKINE sticker we had lying around. And to complete the red theme, we’ve even got some Santa Cruz Peaty lock-ons!

Component-wise, it’s running pretty much the same main parts as before, but has now been made more “downhilly”, with new tyres, a bashguard instead of my big chainring, and 8″ rotors for exxxtreme stopping power.

Those who are observant might notice that it’s missing a front derailleur cable (which is coming), but for the most part, the bike is now complete!

(For those that like before and after photos, click here for the before photos.)

So.. less sitting around blogging about bikes, and more riding I say! I’m off for a ride! Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm!