patham

Trails were too wet today, so did a slightly soggy urban route. Nicest bike stand I have ever used- solid chunk of timber!

Pleasant morning in the forest.

I have done this and gotten NTN bearings (I think I had to buy a minimum quantity/set of 10 from a supplier in the Joburg industrial heartland when I only needed 8). That was about 16 years ago when I had a lot of time to kill doing all the research and homework needed. I think they performed better than the OEM ones, I used the bike for 4 more years, and the youngster I donated it to after that had it at least another 4. Would I do it again now - not a chance, when I got a new bike last year I ordered a spare bearing set from the manufacturer at the same time.

New toilet block construction at the local trailhead. Nice to see rates and taxes being used for our community.

No pictures and not me, but in the last school holidays my son experimented with building his own watches. Order a bare Seiko NH35 automatic movement, then combine kit cases, faces, hands and bracelet from online vendors and assemble with a cheap watchmaker toolkit so as to come up with something that is probably close to being unique. They aren’t Rolex’s for sure, but I think it would be quite rewarding to do something like that.

Wildlife was getting up close and cocky whilst I was catching my breath in the 88% humidity this morning at the one trail end.

Lug and tube construction propped up on lug and tube construction.

Some glamour photography, Fuji XT-5, 18-55 mm, post processing by my son in Lightroom.

Some local fields for glamour photography. I’ll drop some other pics in the Photographer thread.

Where did my bike get taken to today? Got spoilt with a shuttle morning at the local trails- the annual thank you day for trail care volunteers. Doing uphill in air conditioned comfort is something I can get used to!

Brand new trail at my locals given the finishing touches by us volunteers before despatching the youngest of us down it on their Spez after the ribbon cutting. Some history by the side of the new trail- my best guess from the rusted parts is the remains of a pre WW2 tractor. The area wasn’t always a forest reserve, it was logged up to 1950 (I think) and was an army and navy training area back in WW2.

Thank you, I have high hopes for this steed! As an aside, the Atherton sales consultant I dealt with there comes from PMB, so we were able to work out we only had a single degree of separation, having one person in common. Also, if you bypass the website and speak to them directly I found out it unlocks the secret MacDonalds menu options, and you have zero limits as to what you can spec. Great folk- nothing was too much effort.

A photo-essay. Big box arrived, from Wales. Unpacked in the multipurpose room and bike graveyard(aka the second lounge). Some assembly required. Excuse the poor photo framing- too exciting! The old and the new! Check how bike geometry has changed over the years.

There’s a trail under here? Aftermath of a supercell thunderstorm in my local trails last Sunday- 96 km/hr gusts, 4cm hail, and 60 000 people out of power (me included). The popular trails are cleared, the unpopular ones are impassable. My son and I moved some small trees off the track but some are too big. And another big storm predicted for this afternoon. On the plus side, the trail features I helped build last week came through great and ride well!

Not a pretty sight, but here I am doing my first ever stint as a dirt moving trail care volunteer at my local council owned mtb trails. Today’s task was formalising and improving what is an unsanctioned track that I didn’t even know existed. Called “Buffalo Girls”, presumably because it goes around the outside. Looking forward to riding it myself now, once my muscles recover.

If a tree falls down in the forest and there is no cyclist around to hear it…..

My merch and pre-emptive spares (pivot bearing kit) has arrived prior to the main event.

New Leatt shorts arrived in the mail. I thought they were pricey, until I looked around and found that most options that have decent pockets for trail use aren’t much cheaper. Nicely adjustable as well.

The bonus of having a teenager son. He scouts out a new way to get to the top of the nearby trails- a fire road climb to the top of the mountain, use the public roads on the mountain, then descend into the trails from the top. The downside of having a teenager son. The effort involved is calibrated to teenager heart and lungs, not mine that are past sell by date. The climb (and push) nearly killed me. But it’s good to see new things from the top!

Preferably along the lines of: Step 1: Get bicycle. Step 2: ……………….. Step 3: Profit and become nomads!

Cycled to the trailhead to get there at dawn- which in winter is a bit chilly. But the day turned out perfect, with the 2mm of overnight rain having cleaned off all the dust from the vegetation. Not pictured are the wallabies I encountered on the trails.

New climbing trail coming soon to my locals, should smooth out some steep sections on the jeep track that is currently used. OT- at the trail head today there was someone who’s new bike day was not going well. After coughing up the equivalent of nearly ZAR 300k, the AXS controllers of his S-works Epic8 were not synching to the actual mechanics. Not a good advert for tech. Smart looking bike though.

Very, very nice. Quite colourful for an old geezer. I don’t have a collection but I do have a soft spot for Seiko. Once a year or so I accidentally find myself browsing the Grand Seiko website, but have abstained from pulling the trigger (so far)!

Hi Patches totally not a financial services person. Do you New Zealanders have a stamp duty / property tax payable on purchase? Here in Aus, that adds an extra 4 or so percent up front to the purchase price. Add in the cost of conveyance, lawyers and estate agents when you sell that’s a chunk of fixed costs that we here would need to account for. If you keep the property for enough time they dwindle in relative magnitude for sure, but if you need to sell rapidly due to changed circumstances it could be at a loss. I have kept my spare cash to date in shares, to retain liquidity and to build up a reserve so that if plans fall apart I would not need to sell an investment property. However, it’s now probably time to take on the admin involved in purchase, renting etc. and have started researching in earnest. I’m leaning towards a single storey low maintenance townhouse that we can rent out for now, but can become a downsizer suitable for retirement & geezerhood later on in life. With room for an e-bike of course by then.

With some Mrs. Balls on the side just to round it off. Well done- looks like a great day out.