I guess that my little whinge yesterday about everything not being perfect in NZ sent a message out into the universe that I needed to be reminded that it was actually pretty good… Yes, he who takes for granted the goodness shall get a fingering fairly quickly.

I’m not a rider who breaks stuff, ever really. You may recall that in Perth it was the first time in 20 odd years of MTB that I broke a spoke, well, today I managed to even the score on the road bike side halfway down East Coast park service road back here in the DN Global Hub:

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Actually fuck head, I WAS just riding along

Smooth road, 30kph, no power and didn’t ride over anything… Just a big PING and then an extremely out of shape rear wheel. Not just any wheel either, a fucking ENVE rim laced to a Chris King hub, face of HORROR! After 4 weeks back in NZ I had forgotten that I would face a robotic exchange when calling for a cab to try and get home. It went something like this:

  • Can I have a cab please, I’m halfway down East coast park service road
  • What is your post code?
  • There isn’t one, I’m halfway down East coast service road, near the marine parade fly over
  • Is there a post code?
  • No
  • We can not send a taxi sir
  • Why not?
  • We need a landmark or a post code
  • Please just send one, I’m stuck here and I will wave them down, just send them to the entrance to the service road by the Marine Parade fly over
  • We can not sir
  • Ok, what do you suggest I do?
  • ummm… do you have a post code?
  • Fuck
  • Sir?
  • No
  • Can you walk sir?
  • Yes, that is a cunt of an idea, thanks for being unable to deviate from process.

So, now content that I was black listed by the Taxi company it was an hour parked up waiting to flag one down, which was a lot of fun as I watched all the available taxis speed past on the fucking ECP freeway just over the fence:

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Give a bike a 4 week holiday and it goes to shit

Continuing the trend, building up the Back up Evo (I.e. the more reliable one), it was about time that the seat post collar bolt finally let go when tightening it up… Fair to say its one of THOSE days:

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Ahhhh… Better here than in Europe I guess…

So… about as bland as it can get really, but today did serve an important purpose in terms of reminding me to never whinge when you have it so good… Which is important to be reminded of from time to time. Sure, the roads at home were a bit rough and it was a bit windy etc, but it took all of 10 mins of traffic and lights every 100m to reinforce how good the riding has been on tour.

Back to the DN planning board here at HQ for the next adventure!

One Response

  1. Diana

    I SO know what you mean…I was a bit pipped about the wind at Stanmore Bay, so I drove over to Arkles…windier…bugger! But then I remembered we have 11 beaches to choose from and how many people live in a paradise where there are that many fabulous beaches on their doorstep?

    Reply

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