Last night, I’d mapped out my next 15 days to plan how I’m getting home to Lower Hutt. There’s no way I’m going to make the entire country in 30 days.
My best alternative was to cycle the North Island and save face.
BOLDLY GO
And today started off with so much promise. I got up at 5:50 at Miranda Springs, all refreshed and ready to go. After a little light rain, I left during the dark with lights on, hoping to put in a big day and get to Te Aroha.
But first, I thought I’d cycle to Jolly Cycles in Thames and just get my bike checked out and some new cycle pants. Jolly Cycles is one of the two full-service cycle mechanic workshop in the area, the other is Bob’s Cycles in Matamata.
HAURAKI RAIL TRAIL
The Hauraki Rail Trail goes from Kaiaua to Matamata. Being an old railway track, this trail is flat and straight, making for some excellent and very very easy mountain bike riding. So, today, I was hoping to blast out some mildly big k’s on the easy, and bank some time for The Timber Trail.
The trail itself is lovely, with regularly posted information articles on aspects of Hauraki’s geology, its history, its wildlife and its wet lands. Every now and then, you get to stop, rub your arse to get the blood going, and learn some thing about the Hauraki region 🙂
THE TIMBER TRAIL
The Timber Trail is THE big boogy part of the North Island part of the course. From Mangakino, the TA course climbs rapidly from 200 meters above sea level, up to 800 meters before decsending to 600 meters for the start of The Timber Trail.
After that, The Timber Trail climbs to 1000 meters over a 10km length, and is the second highest point on the Tour.
The Timber Trail is remote, and if you get into trouble, you’re quite screwed.
CYCLING INTO THAMES
The journey into Thames at 9:30 in the morning was lovely. I got into Jolly Cycles, and met Christian, Hannah and Neil.
My steering was a bit wobbly (which worried me), and the gears kept jumping.
DEATH KNELL TO MY JOURNEY
And that almost as far as I got.
It turns out, when I screwed up my pedals the mechanics at KeriKeri had to replace the crack shaft too.
They also had to replace the front ring because of the new crankshaft. The only front ring they had was second hand and fairly worn number. It was a calculate risk, but they thought it would last until at least Wellington.
It turns out the issues with my bike are quite dramatic. For the steering, I had blown some ball bearings in the steering and that was a major. My bike steering was just about to majorly failure.
THOSE DAMN PEDALS!
The front ring has become more worn over the last 400ish kms, and is now pretty marginal.
Jolly Cycles didn’t have a replacement front ring. They rang through to the only other cycle shop close to here – Bob’s Bikes in Matamata – who also didn’t have a front ring.
Jolly Bikes sells my type of bike, but because the crankshafts had changed, the original ring for my type of bike differs from what’s on new bikes of the same type as mine (Merida 200 Big Nine). They couldn’t swap the parts over and replace my worn front ring.
They’ve advised taking my bike as it is on The Timber Trail (which happens after the Hauraki Rail Trail) is dangerous. That front ring is very borderline, and if it fails, a crash is almost certain.
Christian tried everything – he rang around and together Jolly Cycles moved heaven and earth to help me. There was no workable solution.
I made it to Matatoki, where I met my friend Di.
So… that’s it. I’m out.
Tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to get myself and my bike home.
Journey over
😔
This time. 😘