November updates
Summer is here?
Eeek. Mid November already and the days are hanging on until about 9pm ish. Summer seems to have officially arrived and as odd as it sounds my mind and body take a while to adjust to having all of this extra light and seemingly more warmth (13degs with sun is warm for Christchurch!). [...]
Mcleans Island 12hr 2009
Take what seems 24+ hrs of solid rain and a team of three to ride for 12hrs and there you have our plan. Brent arrived at 8am and I was still in my dressing gown- while Spencer running more than 30mins late rocks up outside beeping his horn. As you can tell, our hearts were [...]
The GT Peace single speed is for sale
It has been fun, but the trusty GT Peace single speed is up for sale. For the first time in many many years I’m literally a two bike kind of guy at the moment. After picking up the Salsa Fargo some months ago to replace the SS commuter- the GT Peace has sat unloved in [...]
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
I’ve now [...]
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 [...]
My bikes. 2000 – 2009
Marin Wolf Ridge. Current.
It’s a six inch machine that rides and feels like I’m on a XC bike.
This is my current trail bike. It is a 2008 Marin Wolf Ridge with 6 inches of travel. I absolutely adore this bike as it’s light enough for 8hr epics, but it has enough boing and strength to [...]
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 [...]
Fixed city – yet another pointless fixie video
fixed city | Trailer updated! from fixed city on Vimeo.
How many pointless videos do we need of try hard pretty boy fashion victims, “skidding” wearing no helmets and chuffing on cigarettes looking like complete douche bags?
It’s like fixie riders invented cycling…..and we should all be in awe that they turn the cranks and the wheels [...]
BBB Ergo Sticks – bar ends mini review
Commuting comfort
The trusty GT Peace has been setup for commuting for sometime now and is working out really well with slicks and a ratio of 36 x 16. I’ve also added a rack and panniers to make the 30KM daily trip more bearable as the humble backpack is simply no longer large enough. Unfortunately, there [...]
Bottlelake Forest – Laughing in the face of Winter
I cannot remember the last time that I’ve ridden at Bottlelake Forest on the single speed and was very keen to get out there this afternoon with Spencer. With cabin fever peaking due to the worst week of weather I can remember in a long time my legs were just itching to get a few [...]
Bright Bike – being seen on the road at night
Bright Bike is a Retroreflective Vinyl coated bike. It is like coating your bike with a big sticker that turns ultra-brite in headlights.
“Right now we are in the prototyping stages, and hope to offer a DIY Kit soon. We just held a bike-wrapping workshop at Eyebeam’s Holiday Hackshop (you can see the video) and it [...]
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 a shorter [...]
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 some hills [...]
Kona Unit 29er – my first single speed
Christchurch trails
During the New Zealand summer time Christchurch is the perfect place for a mountain biker to reside. There are the excellent Port Hill trails right at the foot of the city with pristine alpine singletrack a little more than an hour’s drive away in either direction. However, when the seasons pass and winter arrives [...]
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 [...]
GT Peace as a single speed commuter
Until I’ve researched and built up a dedicated commuter / touring bike that has pannier mounts I’ve decided to enroll the singlespeed GT Peace for winter commuting duties. I picked up a new and swanky FSA front chain ring and a beefy BMX chain today and spent a few hours in the shed…to get the [...]
Autumn at Bottlelake Forest
Tonight’s ride was a bummer for Craig who had some serious mechanicals, but a gem for me as I had my camera and was able to capture the magic of an Autumn dusk in the forest.
Cove Handjob and Its rebirth ;D
A funny thing happened today as I was stripping and cleaning the Cove Handjob ready for its imminent sale……I noticed a mark on the downtube that I remember “inflicting” on its maiden voyage down the Greenwood track….. and I started to think of all our adventures together. I’m not usually sentimental when it comes to [...]
Single speed riding – trail rises
This is my second post in a series about my experiences on the single speed. If you are interested in my story about how I got into single speeding you can check it out here.
Basics
Lots of us can be lazy when riding a geared bike… and on occasion lazy works well for me :D I’m [...]
Single speed riding – an introduction
This is my first post in a series about my experiences on the single speed. If you are interested in how to tackle trail rises on your one geared friend, you can check my second post here.
I’ve received a few emails recently asking about what tyres and gear ratio is suitable for single speeding around [...]
Wooden single speed roadie
Susan Downy has one hell of an interesting bike here…..and I really like it! More images here.
Bottlelake Forest
After some emailing this week a few of us met up at the carpark for a Bottlelake Forest ride including Rick who has become a regular reader of the blog (cheers! :) Rick and I were on our trusty single speeds, Martin on his soft tail moots ti, Ben on his carbon Cannondale Rush [...]
