Once is never enough

If you live in NZ, or more specifically in Christchurch, you'll know how windy it was that Saturday morning. I was seeing wind speeds of 40km and above, often, using the Christchurch City Council weather station. So, I bailed and we rescheduled for Sunday. I have ridden solo in winds that strong and nearly been blown off the road, and a tandem is just going to get more buffeted. Later in the day the weather swung to the south and rain pelted down, so I hid inside for most of it, hoping tomorrow would be a better day.

And it was! What a difference. A bit of frost in the morning always bodes well for a calm & sunny day. Due to family stuff Logan was not available for a morning ride, and I had a long and wonderful lunch planned, so we scheduled a ride for 4pm.

A little late, and full of roast beef, salmon, pork crackling, chocolate fudge brownie and a few glasses of pinot noir, we were ready to head off. As the rain would have created some puddles, and we had some k's to catch up on, we decided to head to McLeans Island and do the 10km single track.

We had done a small amount of single track in Bottle Lake - the easiest bit too. And we'd done some gravel and other soft surface riding on the river banks. So the last feather in our caps was to be a lap of the fast and corner laden single tracks. Now this is still classed as 'easy' in mountain bike circles, and would be classed as such by the cycling ninjas who scale impossible heights and descend lava tracks at impossible speeds. On a tandem, it's not as easy. Honest. There are about a million sharp corners, all with trees on the inside of the bend and my turning circle is bigger than a boat!

So, we peddle out there, following the road for expediency, and arrive at the gate in pretty short order. A gentle tail wind helps us keep a 30km average all the way there. Nice. I grab a quick drink, we get ready, then hit the track. I have done this track maybe 50 times on my own, so know it pretty well, and there were a few bits of it I was not looking forward to.

We headed off slowly, the first section being an easy 1km of corners but not much in the way of challenges (except the trees) and we hit the stopbank. Yay! This is the point we arrived at the last time we were here, except this time we're on the track itself!

It's this very next bit that concerns me most. Up the stopbank, down the other side, then a couple of sharp S-bends back up the hill a bit between the trees and mind the edges please. This is scary for the wife, and have done it several times before at high speeds, but not today! We safely negotiate the bends, hills, trees and corners for a while, and it's not till the chain slips as we climb a stopbank later on that we have our first real close encounter. When the chain slips, Logan's foot unclips and his knee bites the handlebars. Ouch. Lesson learnt? Nope, we do it again on the next climb. So we change from middle-ring to the small bugger, and after a small section of hilarity as we peddle like madmen going nowhere fast, we descend the bank, find a better gear, and get moving again, legs no longer spinning like a desk fan.

As we move through the forest there are several different sections, each with a different challenge, but all completed fairly easily, and only once did we go off the track enough to make me worry. However, the bit of track that followed that had me even more worried so my relative concern levels were low I guess.

It seemed like no time at all and we had popped out at the end. A quick discussion, a chat about light (daylight savings! One more hour before sunset!) and did we want to do it again. A vote was had, the bike computer reset, and off we went again! Second time through was a little faster, and we were getting used to the cornering a bit more. S-bends are still hard but not impossible. We even overtake a few people, always fun! We popped out the end, no accidents, and only one off-track (at the exact same spot as last time) with a lap time of 36 minutes. Not too shabby. Especially as we had a flat front tyre for the last kilometer and cornering was not great (ok, it was bloody awful).

We swapped the front tyre out for the spare Logan had (well, again, I removed the wheel, Logan did the rest) and the nice chap at the shop assisted with a good size foot pump to blow the bugger up. This, as it turns out, was probably the same tube we punctured the other night, and it quickly returned to flat. However, man in shop has tube for sale, so no emergency call to the wife is required as Logan yet again changes the tube, and replaces the wheel (I was busy too, honest) and we're off again.

Now however, the gentle tailwind is a 35kph headwind. Typical. We ride into the blustery nor-easter the 15km home again, not averaging very high speeds at all, but we have now completed our first real single track ride, and survived! 50km of ride, 20km through the forest, both alive, only Logan got injured, a good day all round!