Paul Petch

One of those days….

Today Spencer and I planned to ride to Taylors mistake and meeting for 10ish off we climbed. I felt really good today even after tramping at Craigieburn yesterday, but Spence was not on form at all and was suffering on the climb. Once up the top we thought about heading to Vic Park instead and then do some shuttles…. but I was after some distance, so we rolled off to Taylors Mistake.

I nailed the Castle Rock like it was smooth…. infact I absolutely flew down it, but it still gives me butterflies all the way down…. I love this track :D Spence was not on form at all and was just on the track rolling down it…. you know what I mean… when Mr GNAR GNAR has gone on holidays? :D It happens to us all though and all you can do is roll with it and try and make it down in one piece.  I also made it to the bottom without a flat……which are becoming a regular thing for me these days on this stretch of trail.

Just before Greenwood we stopped for a lazy lunch and I took a few photos of Spencer doing a drop off onto a sketchy landing to say the least. He hit it fairly hard and made it….. and then rolled out into some tussocks and over the bars he went :D We chuckled as we noted that the drop was totally thought through, but the roll out had been slightly neglected. Thankfully tussocks are quite soft and perfect for our frequent “stunt moments” :D

Low and behold, half way down Greenwood just as my head was into it and things were coming together,  I got a freaking  flat!!! Gutted. Fixing it up in the sun over looking the ocean is not the worst experience to be fair… but the flow was dead, and a total crime on the Greenwood track…. it really is. Onwards we went and the flow was back…..and  I could hear Spencer on my tail coming into the traverse where the track meets the road….faster and faster we were rolling… and it felt great. Coming around the last left turn and a stones throw away from the road, the sound of Spencers Hope hub “clicking away” went silent. He had washed out the front tyre and gone down hard onto his left knee. Thankfully the worst of the fall was absorbed by his 661 knee pads, but they had spun so some skin loss was visible. His right ankle was also very tender and swollen with some blood on his shin. Aside from these scrapes he was all good though, and very thankful of the pads… as I doubt that his knee would have been there without them.

Heading up to where the Taylors track (?) starts near the road junction I stopped to let some air out of the PIKES as they had felt a tad harsh coming down Greenwood. While holding the front wheel between my knees I screwed the shock pump onto the positive valve and then dropped the plastic bag that I carry the shock pump in. Leaning down to grab the plastic bag before it blew away in the wind, the wheel slipped out from my knees and the bars spun around…… and the shock pump while screwed into the top of the forks hit the down tube of the Wolf….and cleanly ripped the valve off the forks!! F*&K!! With a “pfffffffttttttt” I had the shock and valve in one hand and a totally useless trail bike in the other hand….TOTALLY GUTTED :(

We had to call it a day there and then so cut the ride short and I headed into Sunmer by road (over taking roadies may I add :D) while Spencer hit Captain Thomas. Meeting at the bottom for a coffee at Sunmer we then headed back home with the Wolf’s fork looking very sorry for itself and sitting at about 50mm, which is quite interesting to ride I can tell you!  I’m not to pissed about being stupid, but more about having to cut the ride short and of course an unexpected cost now to get the PIKES all fixed up….and lets not forget it will be out of action for at least a week! Grrr.

Today was one of those days, but they do happen and I’ve not had a bad one on the bike like this for a long while. One thing is for sure though, I’m going to have to convert the rear wheel to tubeless ASAP.

Edit: Spencer just emailed me a photo of his ankle… which needed 6 stitches after saying hello to his outer chain ring! He is also on crutches for a week! Next thing on his list is a bash guard!

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Related posts:

1. Crater Rim ride at Port Hills
2. Richard’s visit. Ride five. Port Hills to Taylors Mistake
3. Mcleans Island mountain biking
4. Showing some more visitors around the Port Hills
5. Meeting Martin

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with marin, port hills, rock shox, spencer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.