Tour Aotearoa 2018

[RonK]

Calvin was making excellent progress but had some bad luck. A crash on a muddy corner saw a stick caught in the drive train and left him with a sheared inner chain ring and broken derailleur hanger, still some way out from Wellington.

The good news is he was able to get a lift to a bike shop and was able to convert the bike to single speed. So tomorrow he will resume the TA where he left off.

[cancan64]

That was short lived.
Crashed on the Timber Trail and broke the derailleur hanger...which is a 1 off and the spare hadn't arrived before I left. Converted to a single speed but chain was a bit to tight and ended up breaking the front chain ring. Coasted to the start of the Timber Trail and was lucky to get a lift to Hamilton with a school bus. Found a replacement chain ring and a shop managed to reset up as a single speed with a better fitting chain so back to the Timber Trail the next morning. Had to back off speed as the chain wanted to go up a cog and 8km in I had to apply some power to get up a pinch and bent the front chain ring again... straightened it and limped to the Timber Trail Lodge to find a way out. A friend ended up lending me his cannondale Lefty Single Speed which surprisingly fitted so after a few to many hours of sitting around I finished off the Timber Trail.
Next got to the start of the bridge to nowhere, bit of a sore Hamstring so lowered seat and then headed to jet boat. had a 2 hour wait to get on the 4 pm boat and then headed to Whanganui... was a fun 200km ride on the single speed and fastest Strava time on the Bridge to nowhere track for this years TA...so far. was a great day.
Next day back on the road which meant spinning but hamstring was twitching a fair bit so headed back to Whanganui and called an end the tour... not happy as I was going on track and felt really comfortable. Glad i got to do Bridge to nowhere, that was the 1 ride I wanted to do on the North Island and will now try and do the South Island later in the year.
People are already expressing interest in the 2020 tour and my brother is keen to come over for it so will try again then... but at a more leisurely pace

was fun whilst it lasted

[RonK]

Too bad Calvin, you were going so well. Too much power eh?

[cancan64]

Too bad Calvin, you were going so well. Too much power eh?

I wish... there were a few ideas on rigging up a tensioner to make single speed conversion more effective on facebook. I will test these out when I get my bike back in a couple of weeks ... just in case.

Phil Walter is smashing it, he will have to back off to be over the 10 day limit and Kerry (orange Rougy) is flying considering he is riding a 30kg fat bike.

[cancan64]

Derailleur hanger turned up this morning... will have other parts tomorrow... Thinking of restarting the ride this weekend which will give me a week to finish in the allowed time... its just getting back to Whanganui which is a pain and bike is in Rotorua which is also a pain and I need to put all the parts back on

[RonK]

Calvin, it would be great if you can get going again. Good luck with that and keep us posted if you do restart.

[cancan64]

Have confirmed my entry for 2020. My brother has bailed, a bit hard to get bike fit as he works in the mines in WA and then 2 days travelling back to Qld doesnt leave much bike time.
frees me up for a 14 day target although starting at 1pm so first ferry at Rawene will be interesting as I will have to pull my finger out to make it. will work out tactics when i know the other ferry times.
Have mapped a few rides building up to it, first 1000km plus one will be cape2cape (lighthouse by New Plymouth to lighthouse by Gisborne) in June.