Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

So glad it's worth it!

Super jealous, hopefully I will get there in the not too distant future.

Bike looks fantastic too.

Thank goodness!

Bike looks sick. How are the Michelins? I presume Qtown is mainly quite hardpack/dusty, although you mentioned some rain...

They’re great- on the damp conditions yesterday they had seemingly endless grip.

Meant to dry out today but it’s very overcast right now.

Looking up

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Broadsword calling Danny Boy

Coffee

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I’m riding the blues here and the contrast with (say) Swinley blue is extremely entertaining.

This place is steep, but also brilliant.

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Mmm, nice views.

Queenstown is pretty ... never ridden a bike there. Do you reckon it'd be good for XC?

I keep seeing people on trail bikes in the town- I can’t recall having seen an XC bike specifically but from a distance I doubt I’d make the distinction.

But I don’t know- however there’s what I think is an XC loop I was planning on taking some of today (on, erm, a DH bike) to access the easy jump trail, so I will report back.

160mm maybe?

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First run/green/washed out on a berm.

Ironic thing is I was practicing looking out of the corner and therefore don’t know what the wheel was on when it washed but I assume I didn’t have enough weight on it for the dusty surface.

Having a coffee to think about my life choices.

Yes, it's great for XC. I've raced at Coronet peak, great riding, although you'd get more out of a trail bike.

There's a trip to NZ on the map in the not so distant future. No way I'll ride anything gravity focused, but I'd be keen to XC around there and maybe Wanaka etc. also Dunedin because we have friends there.

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You'd be better off riding somewhere like Glendhu if you're after XC stuff. There are some insane loops there, and its not far from QT.

nipped off for two hours of peaslake earlier, trails are running juuuuuuust right

Since I'm now a dropper expert ROFL, let me tell you about this new one I saw

https://bikepacking.com/news/oneup-v3-dropper/

Ah my year in Queenstown was snatched by covid but went out for two weeks. Rode in Wanaka and Christchurch too, the bike up park up there is real good. Never got to do Rude Rock unfortunately.

"The new cartridge is supposed to provide smoother action, require 75% less lever force, and need much less breakaway force to initiate."

Both things I don't think have ever crossed my mind when using a dropper