Off to the valley of the wind and back again
-
Poorly written story time!
Wake up. Coffee, couple Zoom calls back to the US, then it’s time to roll out! Pack the hardtail up for what will unquestionably be its biggest day yet and in fact one of my biggest MTB days save for a day of shuttling at home. 60 oz of water, some snacks, spare kit and clothes go into the backpack. Strava on, GPS beacon active in case things go wrong, lights out (on actually) and away we go!
Up first was a 7.5 mile slog of pavement from my home here in Christchurch to the trailhead. Not a bad ride, and one that made good use of CHCH’s very limited, but very good bike lanes. Riding urban here is a mixed bag, you either have great bike lanes or none, and sometimes the great lanes turn into none. Luckily this route turned out quite good. Soon the Jolly Green Giant and I had made our way to the foothills of the Banks Peninsula, an ancient (last eruptions ~6mya) doublet of a shield volcano that has long been eroded down and has some wild terrain as a result. We’d only see the nearside of the first mountain range today, as descending beyond into the valley beyond it would require a massive unassisted climb.
And climbing was NOT on the agenda today. After absolutely zero elevation gain on the ride over to the foothills, all the elevation gain today would be done with the help of a nice mechanical assist:
Yes a chairlift! I bought a 10 lap pass, to be used at any time, with the intent to do as many or as few laps as I felt like. In the end I ended up doing 3 laps. Trails here are LONG—1600’ of vertical ascent on the chairlift over about a mile, with 3-4 mile trails down. Loading and unloading was super easy—drop bike on carrier, hop on the chair behind the bike, and away we go. 10 minutes later, we’re greeted with a pretty amazing view.
One can even see the Southern Alps if you really squint:
And Lyttleton Harbor on the interior of the peninsula. This is actually a caldera:
Time to actually ride some trails! Quite the proposition when I haven’t actually ridden proper DH since before my concussion, probably february or march. But things came back very quickly and I remember why I love it so much. Flow trails are amazing on any bike. That said, trails here are steep and rocky with lots of braking bumps. Not exactly the ideal environment for a cheap Giant Talon with 100mm of very chattery coil fork. I played with preload (literally the only fork adjustment) a bunch throughout the day and kinda got no change, and by the end of the day the fork was making some very unhappy noises. I also had some clicking from the drive side pedal. I better fix this…
But cheap coil forks aside, and running with the knowledge that Keen trail runners + plastic flat pedals is NOT the most secure way to keep your feet on a bike going downhill, I got back into the flow of things. And my goodness was it fun! I started with a flowy blue trail, then ran a rocky blue trail, then back to the same flowy blue but starting from a slightly higher entrance gate. Things progressed and I got more and more comfy on the bike. The cheap Altus 2x9 drivetrain actually works fantastic and the Tektro brakes, while a bit low on power so I used two fingers on the brake levers, always brought the bike to a stop quite well, with nary a hint of fade. Amazing what $600 of modern 29er can do even on terrain suited for proper DH bikes. If only it had a better fork…
After the laps it was time for the 7mi back home. Possibly the hardest part of the ride just cause I was TIRED! As was the bike and it showed for us both. And I was very sore, still am. But eventually we got home, stopped Strava… 29 miles! About 14 was the ride to/from, taking a bit over an hour. 2 hours in motion on the trails, 5:30 total. Decidedly an Epic Bike Day if ever there was one. I got quite muddy as well, always a sign of a good time.
All in all a day very well spent. I have some bike cleanup to do and maybe minor repairs but I can’t wait to do it again the next time the weather is nice!
Ben out, cheers!!!
Ben | observer of rocks | VW Alltrack and many bikes
-
@spacekraken Thanks for the pics!
-
@spacekraken super jealous! NZ is a dream!
-
Looks like a great ride, excellent work earning those descents!
