ajst2duk

Thanks Vette, nice post.
My wife & I went for what is now a traditional spin around the Airport (35km) on Christmas morning, followed by a slap-up barbie with a whole eye fillet and a bunch of other stuff, my family over from Aus and my wifes family all involved as well. A few rides on my days off, with my wife, taking advantage of my parents as babysitters!! but sadly back to work today. My birthday is on New Years eve so there will be parties galore, then back to work on 4th
On 15th we are setting up camp at Hahei beach for two weeks, fishing, swimming & cycling through the lazy days of summer. My wife uses this as her triathlon training camp, so I won't be able to quaff too many beers n stuff.

That's us, hopefully get around 1500kms of cycling done in Jan to start the year.

AJ

mathmo

Yeah, two double oh six!

NZLcyclist

merry happish new years... *burps*

mathmo

lol, mary drunken new year two U 2

yep, ole grammer an' speeling has got right out the window 4 now

Johnny_Monkey

It's not even lunchtime here yet. We've got another 12 hours afore midnight.

greywolf

All done & hosed here !!

mathmo

tauranga huh? You then would have seen the sun rise a few seconds earlier than even me in manukau!

62vette

I spent the night in Whakatane/Ohope, the sunrise escaped my notice though (albeit a second or so earlier than Manukau,) I was examining the inside of my eyelids at the time.

mathmo

Front page news of the nzherald site.

Hit-and-run blow to cycling champion

Also, Top cyclist injured in hit and run

So sad, happend to arguably our most in form cyclist in nz at the moment. Crash was just around the corner from where I live too.

Zub Zub

Ah aint the weather great at the moment? I had a fun day at the races yesterday with family and in the next couple of days they are going away so there'll be Me and my brother home. Yay. No partys tho. Ive got work. And I havnt been on my bike since taupo. Ive been working a 40 hour week!! Heaps of money tho. Pity i spend most of it. !! Hope everyone had a good christmas and all that.

Marie

62vette

Yeah, Gordy has been caning everything in the past 12 months, and now this. I hope the bastid gets caught

62vette

Anyone doing the Tauranga Half?

I'm going to be marshalling on the bike leg. Let me know your bib number and I'll give you a shout as you go by.

mathmo

Spending it all on bike bits I hope!

What he means is give me your number so that I'll be sure to look out for you to catch any and every possible drafting infringments you might do.

Didn't get around to entering util after the race had filled up, so not going to be able to do it this year.

62vette

I'm back at work and it's raining - perfect timing

Everyone else enjoying their holiday?

mathmo

Does anybody know of what shops sell Felt bikes in NZ?

Mainly I'd be very interested to know the $NZ price of this: https://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/feltS32.shtml

On a related strand, what would be the extra costs I'd come across from bring a bike in from oz (or anywhere else in the world for that matter)?

62vette

I've seen Felts at Hot Cycles and Multisport Bikes. MSB would be your best bet for a tri specific bike.

You'd probably just have to pay GST on the bike when it comes in.

ajst2duk

Happy NY to all of yooze. Hope sun shines and the tarmac is smooth for you all in 2006. I'm already struggling with my ambitious 1500k target for Jan, too many pizzas & beers & not enough cycling.

ajst2duk

Two of my work colleagues have bought Felts via MSB recently. They got great service & pricing and seem very happy with them. They sound like a good crew.

62vette

Yeah, they're a pretty good lot at MSB. I have to declared a bias as the owner of the shop is a mate of two of my colleagues, and one of the reward schemes at work is for gift vouchers at a number of retail outlets including MSB.

I had a good weekend, no crashes or major aggro on my bit of the bike leg for the Tauranga Half - I was running a 2km section of the bike leg with 4 side streets and one corner to manage with 9 marshals. I think there were only about three punctures in my section. I helped one rider change a tubular after a blowout as she was struggling getting the flat tyre free of the adhesive.

I collected quite a few dropped tubes, tubulars, CO2 inflators and other bits and pieces.

The road closure was only partial with residents allowed access, plus delivery trucks to a dairy, and one moving truck. Quite a few people sneaked in claiming residence but were just parking close to the beach for a swim. We had no major traffic problems though. I took my mountain bike so I could get around my patch and keep an eye on things at each intersection.

For the first time ever tonight I decided I would use my torque wrench to tighten up my seat post after I made a small adjustment. Nowhere near the limit I snapped the bolt As it turns out, it was past the end of the thread's travel before it hit max torque, so it just snapped. It has probably been overtightened in the past. At least it's just a bolt and nut to replace.

NZLcyclist

Picked up my new bike today

Uphill sprints it just FLIES

Will post more info later, I'm going to take a good ride on it tomorrow I hope.

Brendon

cabledonut

Kiwis!

Am going over to NZ from UK within next couple of months. Will be staying in Auckland initially - probably for at least 2/3 months. Possibly taking my road bike with me. What's the local riding terrain like? Is it easy to get out of the city into the countryside/quieter roads? Any road rules I should know about? I've heard one about giving way to oncoming vehicles making right-hand turns across your path?? Which sounds completely illogical!

Thanks for any advice.

62vette

I added some info in your other thread, but nothing about terrain.

There's very little flat riding in NZ with the geography being influenced by volcanic activity and with fault lines running through parts of the country. So you will find plenty of rolling hills and any number of longer climbs as well.

Check the events page on www.cyclingnz.com if you want to enter some fun-rides while you are here.

cabledonut

Thanks 62vette. Saw your other post on my other thread. Something else I wanted to know, do you drive/cycle on the left, like we do in UK, or the right of the road?

Also, what are the sunrise and sunsets times like? Do they vary from summer to winter alot like in the UK? For example, in summer here we get daylight until something like 10pm/10:30pm and the sun rises very early like 4am...well it does in Northern England. But, in the middle of winter the sun doesn't rise until about 8am and sets again about 3pm so the days are very short in terms of daylight. Just thinking ahead cos I wouldn't want to get caught out without lights if I went out late afternoon for example.

Read that link you posted about that giving way road rule. To be honest I don't quite understand it and it does seem very illogical! I think I'm going to have to watch and observe or go riding with some locals and see how it's done.

Thanks.

62vette

We drive on the proper side of the road (left) just like in the UK.

One major difference in driving apart from the give way rule is that both the standard of driving and level of courtesy is much lower than in the UK. You need to be both assertive and careful cycling in NZ.

NZ sunrise and sunsets vary with the seasons and with daylight savings. The southern end of the South Island is pretty close to London patterns as I recall - dark around 4pm in winter and still light well after 10pm in summer. Auckland probably compares to the south of France, dark by 5pm in winter and still light at 9:30pm in summer. daylight savings will finish in late March. Bring lights for the bike if your stay will have you here into autumn.

Here's a link with diagrams for turning left and right - https://www.ltsa.govt.nz/roadcode/giv...rsections.html

PartyPat

Hi all,
Just registered after reading the forums for a while now.
Good to see a Kiwi thread in amonst all the rest.
Anyone out there from the Manawatu region?