My favourite posts of 2009
Another year nearly over, and what an epic it has been at www.paulpetch.com! Some obvious highlights have been merging of personal blogs into one (that went problem free within 24hrs!), lots of riding, shed loads of running (61.7 KM ultra anyone!) and a rapid increase in internet traffic. The more subtle stuff of 2009 has [...]
www.paulpetch.com
Well. It has been on the cards for sometime and the majority of the posts at www.mountainbikingnewzealand.co.nz will shortly become part of my personal blogging rather than a fully dedicated website devoted to “two wheels”. With work commitments, more time doing “outdoor stuff”, training and a total change of attitude/ outlook to what cycling means [...]
The Poulter Valley Track – Arthur’s Pass National Park
The Poulter Valley Track is part of Arthur’s Pass National Park, access is via Mt White Road. Mt White Road traverses along tussock flats bordering the grand Waimakariri River, with wide sweeping views up the valley. Mt White Road turns off from SH 73, about 25 km east of Arthur’s Pass village. After a kilometre [...]
Bontrager Paragon 29er – First ride
I took the Paragon to the South Downs today for the first proper ride, just west of Findon to be exact. Weather conditions were about as perfect as they get, 27 degrees, no clouds, no wind, dusty trails. Seeing as I’ve already ordered Ergon grips and wider bars I don’t really need to mention how [...]
Some visitor statistics to this humble blog…
Backing up the database and files this evening I thought that I’d check how things were coming along with regards to traffic. Well here you go….boy oh boy that’s a lot of people, page views and bandwidth for such a humble blog! WoOt! A big thank you to you all- including the fantastic post contributions… [...]
2009 Magura Julie HP brake review
By the name of this product it is clearly not the same as last years Julie, in fact the Julie received a full makeover for 2009. HP denotes the change from low pressure to high pressure hoses. My past experiences with Magura have been inconsistent, some good and some famously bad. As a result I’ve [...]
Ergon GE1 Review
Thanks to fellow blogger DB I’ve been trying out the small size over the last fortnight as I had come to the conclusion that the large size was a bit big to use with gloves. I’ve been out to Woodhill a couple of times with mixed results. Super-comfy with my polyprop glove-liners but when I [...]
Kona Unit 29er – a 750km update
This is the third in a series of posts that describe my experience of owning this particular bike as well as my impressessions of singlespeeding on a 29inch wheeled bike in general. The previous posts can be found at Kona Unit 29er – my first single speed and Kona Unit 29er – ride two 750kms [...]
Surly Singleator review
The Surly Singleator is primarily designed for converting ordinary vertical dropout geared bikes to singlespeed without the need for horizontal sliding dropouts or an EBB. Most of the time it isn’t hard to get the chain length right and ride without a chain tensioner on a hardtail. However I was planning to put an internal [...]
Back to 27spd on the Giant Trance
Many 29er riders say that once you get a big wheel bike you won’t like your other bikes anymore. I’ve found that’s completely true but like it or not I’ll have to keep the Trance for a while so I’m trying to improve a few things that don’t concern wheel size. Summer is here, the [...]
Wintery Canterbury foothills
It is definitely winter down here in Canterbury! Dragging myself from a warm bed before it was properly light on a Saturday morning was kind of hard… and it was cold out! There was a crisp white frost covering the ground and I had to get a warm jug of water to melt the ice off [...]
Ergon GE1 ergonomic grips – initial impressions
Buying something you don’t need I saw these in the bargain-bin at a local bike shop. They were still there a week later and temptation got the better of me. I’ve been wanting to try the Ergons with the distinctive winged palm rest but they are an expensive purchase in New Zealand for something that [...]
Weekend of mountain biking at RotoVegas (Rotorua)
We have had a long weekend in New Zealand last weekend known as the Queens birthday weekend, and we all decided to take a trip down to Rotorua (us locals call it RotoVegas – Long Story). The forecast was not great at all for the weekend, and Saturday was wet most of the day with [...]
Auckland Harbour Bridge Getacross Protest Ride
It was a logistical nightmare for someone as organized as myself, but we did it, we rode across the Auckland Harbour Bridge! I had the bikes already mounted on the car and we awoke to a beautiful winter’s morning, cold, but fine and sunny. The kids and I drove down to Devonport to catch the [...]
A stunning Winters day at Woodhill
Woke to a very chilly Auckland morning, where it had got down to 3 deg C on the drive out to Woodhill, BUT we were graced with not a cloud in the sky, this is unusual for Auckland. The trails were in perfect order, and it was one of those days where the weather was [...]
Heli biking at Taupo – North Island
Well the weekend finally arrived to do our Heli lift downhill ride near Lake Taupo on the North Island, with Helisika. This was booked almost a year ago when I was still living in Spain, so was great to finally use it with Momentus. It was his partner whom bought it for him for his [...]
Ergon GP1 Leichtbau grips review
From my original blog post Why? There seems to be no end to the good things said about Ergon grips so I had to find out if there’s anything to all this raving. For years I was perfectly happy with my foamies but Bontrager seems to have stopped making the larger diameter version…one of the [...]
Kona Unit 29er – ride two
This is a follow up to my original post – Kona Unit 29er – my first single speed Second ride After it’s maiden voyage I contemplated making a few changes to the set up of the Kona Unit. The bike did feel large, forcing a very stretched and unfamiliar riding position so thoughts of installing [...]
Singular Swift single speed 29er – mini review
Original post viewable at my blog. I got there… It took about three months to get all the parts together but it’s finally built up and ready to ride, actually I‘ve taken it out twice now. The second time was up on the South Downs near Brighton so I got to test it out on [...]
Last of the summer mountain biking – Craigieburn
Summer As it comes to the end of Summer I always tend to be at the fittest point of my year, and while the days are still long and warm and the weather is settled it is the perfect time to get into the mountains for some epic riding. Here is a story of a [...]
April 2009 updates
Holidays What a week it has been here in Christchurch! Over the Easter weekend Amy and I hit the Little River Rail Trail, with some fantastic Craigieburn tramping the following day (so nice!). I then met up with Spencer on the Sunday for a spin in the hills….which was an expensive but memorable day. After [...]
Winter riding & the value of a Shimano Alfine internal geared hub
Winter is fast approaching our NZ shores and already the trails seem to turn to mush at the first downpour. Each year the single speed is the bike of choice for many winter warriors but what if we could ride our geared bikes all year without the cost of replacing many worn out parts come [...]
