Paul Petch

Mountain biking weekend. Porthills & Mcleans Island

Well, Spring time has indeed sprung and I met with Brent yesterday to ride Rapaki to Sumner via Captain Thomas and then today Spencer & I headed off for a social ride with a crew from the derailed forum as part of  planned monthly ride. What a great weekend to be out on the bike with some sun sun sun & meeting some new Christchurch riders! I’ve not seen much of Brent since last year too, and we have now ridden twice in the past 3 weeks which has been really cool.

The Porthills tracks are in mint condish with maybe a few greasy parts that don’t see much sun down Greenwood and Captain Thomas- but overall- they are fast and “rocky technical” as ever. Infact, half way down the Greenwood track it dawned on me (as I was on the edge of my skills) that I’d not ridden it for many months….as I hammered it downwards like a newb whacking into everything :D What a buzz that track is though! Thank you to the people who fix them up for lazy people like me to go ride and even though this is my third Summer here- I still fucking love these tracks!

As for the Mcleans Island meet up this morning- it was a casual and social ride, perfect for meeting some new faces as well as to flush out the legs from yesterdays ride. In typical NZ fashion there were all sorts of riders and all sorts of bikes- from whippet single speeds to 6″ duallys. Regardless of the bike and rider types- we all had a lap and soaked up some UV and talked bikes. The park was buzzing with people and with the sun shining, and with good company and bikes bikes bikes……it was a top way to meet some people. Cheers guys :)

In other news, I’ve adopted a bit of a reputation for killing pedals it seems….and yesterday, true to form, I managed to kill  yet another pair. This time they are the relatively new set of Shimano’s that have only been spinning for less than 3 months on the Marin. After having to get the bearings adjusted within a month of new, I thought that they would then be ok…..but…the spring that holds the pedal cage in place came loose and then the cage cracked in two. WTF? I don’t seem to have much luck with pedals it seems :( Luckily, I have a few pairs off Torpedo7 on the way…..but I obviously hit rocks more than I thought  :) Will I ever find pedals that I don’t kill?

WoOt! Spring is here & if I manage to stay injury free- this season will be the best yet!

Happy trails :)

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Related posts:

1. Mcleans Island mountain biking
2. Mcleans Island – Christchurch
3. Woodhill mountain biking. North Island trip. Ride one.
4. Mountain biking at Hamner Springs
5. Mcleans Island 12hr 2009

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with derailed forum, mcleans island, port hills, spencer, Trails & Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.