Table of contents for No.79 in Spoke

Inertia - a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged. I have to read the odd court judgment as part of my day job (the other, boring one that pays the bills). Mostly they’re pretty dry documents, with the judge waffling on about dusty precedents in unintelligible legalese, but every once in a while you get one with some real gems dropped in. Recently I came across one where the judge was clearly having a bit of fun, and one phrase in particular resonated with me. It read: “The significance of inertia in human affairs should not be underestimated.” What a wonderful line that cuts to the core of the human experience. Mr. Judge was saying that our tendency to put up with the status quo, or to do…

They say that if you rocked a trend the first time around, then you’re too old to rock it again when it swings back decades later. Well luckily for you readers, the Rodfather is a timeless icon and can make anything work at any time. You should see me in socks and sandals! Mullet bikes: yes, it’s stressing me out too. Business in the front, party in the back. It’s not new. There’s been 69ers for yonks and recently the Foes Mixer fumbled into the scene with a 27.5/29er. Even now the industry can’t decide what the numbers are; 975er? Let’s keep it simple: it’s a 79er. Is it better? Faster? Funner? There’s some unsupported data online that says it’s an improvement on same-wheel-sized bikes and the theory is good.…

Chapter 1 - Jump Start – The mission to the Trails Touching down in Vancouver, I was a bundle of nervous energy, excited to ride and race in one of the world’s most famous mountain bike destinations—but first I had to get from the city up to Whistler. What is, in theory, an easy task turned into a six-hour ordeal that still only got me as far as Squamish. Knowing that great New Zealander Tom Bradshaw was residing somewhere near Vancouver, I flicked him a text saying I’d shout him sushi (world’s best sushi in Vancouver) if he could swing by the airport and pick me up. An hour later a sweaty man in Kiwiana clothing rolled up in a Nissan Xterra and parked on an angle about two metres…

It was 5:19 pm on 27 March 1984 when Ernie Abbott, caretaker and hotblooded unionist, was blown to smithereens after he picked up a briefcase left by a man in a suit on the ground floor of the Trades Hall in Wellington. The bomb was sophisticated. It used a mercury switch to complete a circuit between two electrodes and set off the equivalent of several sticks of gelignite. It blew doors off their hinges and rendered facial recognition of no use in poor Ernie’s case—they had to identify him by his tattoos, matched to old photos. Thirty-five years on, the police haven’t closed his case, but they keep a watchful eye on a person of interest who fits all the right criteria. Circumstantial evidence, as they say. The Trades Hall,…

Transpyr is a seven-day mountain bike stage race traversing the entire Spanish Pyrenees mountain range. From the sunbathing beauties of the Costa Brava coast, the race crosses 800 kilometres of peaks and valleys to the Basque town of Hondarribia at the Atlantic. Now in its 10th year, Transpyr promised adventure and threw everything but the kitchen sink at us—to the finish line and slightly beyond. “Do you enjoy it? I mean, do you actually enjoy it?” Warrick asked with all the inquisition his weary mind could muster. Almost halfway into the race, the Brit was beginning to feel the strain from big back-to-back days in the saddle. Before we could reply, he continued, “I’ve put so much time in trainin’ and getting ready for this, ya know. I’ve missed some…

After a previous bikerafting expedition, Muel and I started map plotting for another more challenging route in the South Island. We have been adventuring together for decades both on the bike, on the river commercial raft guiding, and on packrafting trips. Muel is an ideal wingman, always keen to assist for the sake of the team and his jolly banter keeps the morale up during long days in the backcountry. For me this was a chance to revisit old haunts and link up the icons of the National park. Also to test the theory of carrying mountain bikes on packrafts down grade 3 rapids with all the gear required for an extended trip. A couple of members from the Waiau-Toa Odyssey team pulled out and I had a filmmaker then…

AEROE BIKE PACK BAGS Overnight adventures are rad, but lugging in gear can be a chore. Aeroe is here to make it easy with these waterproof, durable bikepacking pods that use an ingenious mount to quickly clip to and detach from a range of mount options. There are three convenient sizes depending on how much gear you’re lugging. marleen.co.nz CAMELBAK PODIUM® FLOW™ BELT 21 OZ For minimalists looking for maximum hydration this belt gives you 2 litres of cargo capacity and holds a 600 ml bottle securely to keep you cool on your hotlaps. camelbak.com EXT ARMA HBC V3 & STORIA LOK V3 SHOCKS EXT offers top-end coil shocks handmade in Italy. The company draws on years of experience in the race car suspension game. They offer all the adjustment…

My name is Mr B, and I have an addiction. It’s not a mental illness by the clinical definition, but is an insidious reliance that leaves me feeling hollow and melancholy without it. I’m talking about Strava, obviously. But I’m taking steps to regulate my behaviour. The turning point came in the same way as many moments of self-realisation do for those who’ve slipped into reliance on external stimulus for their supposed heightened sense of enjoyment. A single event that, upon reflection, made me realise I’d gradually shifted into a pattern of use that could be defined as addiction. I’d had a solid run of a few weeks with a light workload and good weather. That culminated in a lot of rides in the forest and I was in the…

It was two minutes after midnight when a violent earthquake rippled through the South Island, tearing huge cracks in the land, wrecking homes and changing lives in often unexpected ways. Though the huge jolt on 14 November 2016 was centred in a paddock near Waiau, North Canterbury, it quickly became known as the Kaikõura earthquake due to the devastating effects it had on the suddenly stranded coastal town. But in the quiet Clarence Valley, about 40 kilometres further north, the quake had its most dramatic effects on the local geology. The Papatea fault line caused some of the most impressive vertical displacement recorded anywhere in the world, with a wall of earth almost 10 metres tall shooting up in an instant on a rugged deer and merino farm called Middle…

Rotorua’s First Response Unit (FRU) holds a vital role in the wellbeing of riders in the Whakarewarewa Forest. This story is about those at the coal face—the medical patrollers working in the forest. The patrollers are part of Peak Safety’s team, with Mark ‘Budgie’ Woods, Henry Worsp, and Nick Morrison heading up the crew. With Peak Safety’s professional medics operating the service as often as the budget allows, the medic-trained Mountain Bike Rotorua (MBR) staff coordinate with the patrollers, working to cover any shortfalls. “We fill the gaps,” says Tu Mutu. “Peak Safety are the people who train us, they’re absolutely the experts in the field.” MBR staff are trained to PHEC (Pre Hospital Emergency Care’) level. “We contribute a service that sits in between, that covers some bases and…

It’s 4am and I’m wide awake in a rudely uncomfortable chair, wedged between the animated snoring of an older bloke from the isolated tip of the Coromandel and the relentless armrest of the middle aisle. But despite the intricacies of my current position, I’m content. These are the least of my worries, because at the end of this leg I will be in the Land of Maple Syrup—the home of the Chainsaw Massacre, Stevie Smith, and my home for the next 10 days—all in the name of riding bikes. It’s a place that has sat long, hard and not so patiently on my bucket list, as I imagine it has for a lot of mountain bikers. Canada is a curious place. On the surface it’s a beautiful melting pot of…

They spin in the wind, jostling to compete with cuddly toy penguins for tourists’ attention and money. Lured here by the romance of Patagonia’s Tierra del Fuego, a place popularly tagged ‘the End of the World’, eager adventurers queue for bus tours or to board vessels bound for Antarctica. Few cross the four-mile wide Beagle Channel to Navarino Island, a Chilean outpost that sits off the southern tip of South America. It’s a wild, remote place and on the wrong side of tourism’s most southern frontier; the island’s inhabitants don’t need postcards to remind themselves they’re living on the edge of civilization. On a day like today, as the sun burns into my bare forearms and dust hangs over each turn, it’s easy to puzzle as to why Navarino is…

I get to the forest for my ride and meet up with the group. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Charlie. Suddenly I have a spike in pre-riding nerves because Charlie rides right on my back wheel and it puts me under way too much pressure. These nerves take my focus away from riding and instead I start worrying about only going fast. So, what now? Pre-riding nerves can be explained as our performance anxiety response. Performance anxiety or performance nerves is a one-off response about the upcoming ride. It can be good, as it can help someone perform at their best—the perfect balance between too many and not enough nerves. Or, performance anxiety can cause someone to have stressful thoughts associated with the upcoming ride (ie…

The UCI Downhill World Championships at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada will be remembered for two things—Frenchman Loic Bruni’s enthralling defence of the rainbow jersey, and the horrific crash that left MS Mondraker’s Brook Macdonald to suffer through a prolonged and controversial evacuation process with a broken back. Now back in New Zealand and undergoing rehabilitation at Christchurch’s Burwood Spinal Unit, the 27-year-old is tackling this new challenge as he does every track he faces: head-on, sleeves rolled up, and with total commitment. We caught up with the Hawkes Bay native to get his thoughts on what happened on that Canadian hillside, his progress, and what the future holds. Cheers for the chat, Brook. First of all, how was your mindset that weekend of the World Championships? In practice and qualifying you were…

I knew it was in South America, and I knew Mateo, the man behind Ride Ecuador. So the day after racing the EWS in Whistler, I was on a plane to Quito with my bike and no idea what I was in for. A quick Google will tell you Ecuador is a country of 14 million people on the northwest coast of South America. Its position on the equator means sunrise and sunset are at 6:15am atnd 6:15pm every day of the year. US dollars are the exclusive currency after the country’s peso plummeted in 1999 due to hyperinflation. The main export is oil; a full tank of diesel for the Ford 150 we travelled in cost USD$13. Yep, $13, for 12 gallons (or 45 litres). The government is heavily…

SPOKE sat down with Finlay Woods recently to find more about his latest project, Sherpa Cycles. A high pivot, gearbox trail bike with a carefully considered aesthetic. What’s your background and how did you get into bikes? I grew up just out of Wanaka and spent every second I could in the outdoors or in the shed. We were lucky enough to have a bit of land so my brother and I, plus all our mates, would spend our days building bike jumps. Dad would help us build ramps and seesaws. It started where we could only just jump over each other but got to the point where we’d hire a digger for a couple of days to push up some decent booters. Between this and watching every New World…

New Zealand brand Zerode recently dropped its first fully fledged 29er, the Katipo, and also introduced the Mulét (with a 29” front and 27.5” rear wheel) to sit alongside the 27.5” Taniwha. We caught up with brand founder Rob Metz to find out more about how the Katipo, and the story of Zerode. I’ve known Rob for a long time, having raced downhill with him during the early days of the sport in New Zealand. He’s always been an intriguing character, with a lot of projects and passions on the go at any one time. His riding skills are next level, the epitome of smoothness, and he’s earned a reputation for finding creative lines. That ability, combined with his engineering talent and creative mentality, ultimately led to the ambitious goal…

It’s day nine of our Tour Divide race. I use the word ‘race’ loosely, as at that point the leaders were, distance-wise, on another planet to us. Sue and I had left Butte, Montana earlier that morning (having arrived in Butte that morning too: that post-midnight switchback-laden singletrack descent to town in the dark sure was interesting—and who was that guy wandering around up there carrying a soccer ball?) and we were now in the broad valley below Fleecer Ridge. Sue is sitting on the side of the dirt road, crying. Crying? I’m unsure what’s going on. Sue has never done this before. She tries to explain: “I’ve just got nothing left. My legs have nothing left.” In all our previous bike trips Sue just got on with the task.…

The many benefits of merino wool as a wonder fabric have been well documented during its meteoric rise to the top of the active person’s wardrobe. What’s less talked about is Merino’s Achilles heel - the wind. While the thin, lightweight wool that goes into our riding gear does a superb job of wicking moisture away and regulating our temperature, it’s pretty useless at stopping the wind, as those of you who have stood on a ridge in a howling Nor’wester will attest too. We combat this in other activities by adding a heavier windproof layer but when riding bikes this isn’t always practical. The designers at Mons Royale realised this and found a solution with a new range of long sleeve wind-proof jerseys. We were given the Redwood to…