Paul Petch

Wharfedale track meets the Wolf

This weeks riding has been really sweet with a Port Hills ride with Spencer mid week and today we headed to the Wharfedale again. Spence invited two of his mates along which was great. I must admit though that I was a little nervous because as as much as I love the Wolf- I was not sure how all of the extra ‘beef’ would translate to the greasy and technical climbs found on the Wharfedale track.

Let me cut to the chase…THE WOLF ROCKED MY LITTLE WORLD TODAY…wow!

Rewind to Wednesday’s ride and I headed out with about 10PSI more on the rear and front to see if it would help with the low bottom bracket “annoyances” and to my amazement it really did help and it “just felt right”. I actually rode rocky technical stuff with alot more finesse than in past weeks… let us put it that way! I also noticed a big difference when I got out of the seat to power up stuff in that it responded better. Today was no different…. and I think that I’m now feeling really comfortable on the bike now that I have worked out the “sweet spots” and no so sweet spots on different terrain. It just felt “right”. What ever it is….. I’m blown away with this bike and I’m a convert… there… I’ve said it!!

Anyway, after some delays leaving Christchurch due to Spencer getting on route to picking his mates (Ben and Rory?) we arrived fashionably confused :D We also discovered that Ben could not drive due to being out until 4am this morning on the beer and was “still pissed”. The bike rack also had a weight limit of 40KG and my bike + spencers put it over 30KG so we had to be wise and use out Jedi instincts. Luckily Ben’s bike was a carbon Cannondale Rush and came in at about 10KG complete! so Rory’s Kona went into the back with them and bingo….there you have it. After sometime (and a few Nurofen for Ben) we headed off.

After stopping (some more!) for coffee and Sushi on route we eventually got to the 4WD track leading to the start of the track to discover the car scraped on the central part of the road due to the weight! At least we had the long summer days on our side so when it got to rough we got out to increase clearance! What a laugh getting there… but It was nice though to actually head off :)

With Spence on his Titus, Ben on his Rush and me on the Wolf, and Rory on his Kona hardtail we were off with some speed. Instantly the Wolf felt at home and I never looked back for the rest of the day. Interestingly, Spencer struggled today on the Titus due to the 6″ fork, slack (as hell!) head angles and the “new bike unfamiliarity”…..but he managed it… if not slowly. The downs were a different story…. he just ate them up! As for Ben and Rory (the wippets)….. they set a reasonable pace up front…. and amazingly I kept up until the climb out from the saddle with Rory taking off like a rocket on his hardtail. Ahhh.. the good old hardtail eh? :D

It was a great days riding for sure and I had so much fun on the Wolf that I just could not stop grinning…. it just rocked. I especially enjoyed riding up ledges and over wet roots…..it just stuck to the trail like glue. I got caught out so many times today with sections that just came up so quickly and I had to make a call….and I chose lines that I just could not have done on the Cove… period.
One thing of note (that I say every time I ride Wharfy) is that I MUST get a gravity dropper or similar….as Wharfedale has ups and downs and everything else in between  that really shows how much a static seat post sucks.

What a great ride…. now for some serious sofa time!

Related posts:

1. The Wharfedale Track – wet n’ wild
2. Return to the Wharfedale Track
3. Man down! at the Wharfedale Track
4. Mountain biking at the Wharfedale Track
5. Return to the Wharfedale Track

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with marin, spencer, Two Wheels, wharfedale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.