Tama’s Longest Day Ride 2011 Report
The Longest Day Ride for 2011 has been and gone and I feel a report on my attempt to mountain bike ride from sunrise to sunset is needed. It is important to learn from mistakes, especially if they’re someone else’s – like mine. What was Super Awesome If you’ve never started a ride as...
Final Countdown to the Longest Day Ride
72 hours from now I will be a couple of hours into the Longest Day Ride. This means that I’ll be riding my mountain bike somewhere picturesque and contemplating what lies in front. Our current planned route covers 130km from the Pacific Ocean through to the Tasman Sea and crosses two (off-road) mountain passes. Well...
A Month Until the Longest Day Ride
It is a month away from the Longest Day Ride which is traditionally the time to freak out about how unprepared you are to do it. Today is no exception – after a gallant start a few months back of riding every day to work and back (100km a week) and doing the occasional weekend...
A Lack of Motivation, or Playing “Let’s Pretend”?
I’ve ridden bikes since I got my first one at age seven. Since then, I’ve destroyed useless, steel-framed miseryboxes from John Deans’ on epic XC adventures as a teenager, tested exotic, XTR-specced cross-country superbikes for magazines and competed in almost every discipline of bike-racing there is. 2000 Mount Downhill I’ve climbed Alpe d’Huez, raced downhills...
A Dose of Life Reality, and a Cycling Challenge
Friday was the first official day of Spring, and with flowers blooming, lengthening balmy sunny days, and house flies coming out of hibernation it’s hard not to feel that we have started a new season. This got me thinking about the “Longest Day Ride”, a relatively new annual institution where cyclists go out and ride...
Pureora Timber Trail Revisited
Six years ago I headed into the depths of Pureora Forest in the central North Island with Hoz “of the jungle” Barclay and Caleb Smith. We spent the day mapping old tramways deep in the forest as part of a plan to build multi-day mountain bike rides in Pureora Forest Park. The New Zealand Cycle...
Riding on a Work Day
There’s nothing quite so indulgent, is there? Especially if you can time your departure to coincide with most people’s walk to work, so you can watch everyone heading into the office and feel extra good about the ride that awaits you. It’s also preferable to coming back during the lunch rush, when you’ve done 120km...
Announcing the Longest Day Ride – 22 December 2011
Ever thought of what it would be like to ride your bicycle from sunrise to sunset? Of course you have! The “Longest Day Ride” happens on the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere (22 December 2011) and is based around the simple idea of challenging people to ride their bikes from sunrise to sunset. You...
Tandem on Downhill Tracks in Vic Park
The video before has just popped up on my Facebook feed and I’m sure it’s going to do the rounds on Youtube for a while. It shows Jackson and Rose riding a tandem (two seated bicycle) through the tracks in and around Victoria Park, Christchurch, New Zealand. The difficulty of the trails step up through-out...
Measure Your Speed in Nanofurlongs per Jiffy
Ever felt constricted by the measurements currently offered for speed? No? Well bear with me anyway. Instead of kilometres per hour or miles per hour why not use nanofurlongs per jiffy? It sounds impressive, and scientific, and makes you sound fast. For instance I broke 1,200 nanofurlongs per jiffy riding to work on my bicycle. Here’s...
River Crossings at the Aorere End of the Heaphy Track
I’ve had a few questions about the river crossings at the end of Heaphy Track. There are 3 fords between Brown Hut and civilisation which are usually impassable after heavy rain. For people doing the Heaphy on a schedule this can throw plans into disarray. When we rode the Heaphy two of our group ended...
Mountain Biking vs Arthritis
I wrote the following story for Arthritis New Zealand, who do excellent work supporting people who live with arthritis. They published it in April 2011 issue of their magazine “The Juice”. As a teenager I discovered mountain biking and never looked back. After my first ride I enthusiastically embraced riding as more than just a...
