New Zealand Road Cyclist issue 1

- 11 Nov 2010

The first issue of New Zealand Road Cyclist is in stores now and it's a great read.

The first issue has a review of a DI2 Wilier, a bit of history about NZ legend Harry Kent, and shows the awesome ride up the Akatarawa valley.

Also in the first issue is a Kickstand tutorial giving some tips and tricks for taping your handlebars.  Buy the magazine from any good bikeshop or magazine retailer in New Zealand.

Merv's sob story

- 03 Sep 2010

Hi Tristan,

You could say I’m a broken down marathon runner (2:38). At 40 the wheels fell off and apart from running a couple of New York marathons as a sighted guide for a blind athlete and trying to get fit enough to win the 50+ age group at Rotorua Marathon my running days are over.

Many of my running mates had progressed into mountain biking, so on a return trip from China I brought a Giant full suspension mountain bike back with me. It has proven a reliable steed for keeping, my now 57 year old body, fit and toned as I try to ride at least 3 times a week for an hour or more. Longest ride to date, The 42nd Traverse. Approximately five and a half hours. Gee the beers were good.

I always preferred the long slow distance on forest trails for much of my marathon training, so many of my mountain bike rides have led me back into this familiar terrain. Even veering of the beaten track in any suburban setting can offer variety and surprising challenges.

It was one such day while exploring in the Waikaraka Forest in Whangarei that I found myself on the other side of the black stump without a chain breaker.

The Waikaraka forest is a large area of pine which fans out and rises steeply from the suburb of Onerahi to the Mount Tiger road, that follows the main ridge line and boundary at the highest point.

It was a hot summers day, late afternoon. The ground was moist from the previous days rain, the humidity was high and the lure of shade an incentive to escape some of the heat.

I had ridden up Cartwright road and into the forest, grinding my way in granny gear past the water tank to the start of Trig Track. It was good to feel a slight sea breeze as I topped the ridge and the shade from the pines was a welcome respite from the hot sun. Trig track is an enjoyable ride that has some technical roots, climbs, boardwalks and steep downhills to negotiate before emerging from the trees and back onto a forestry road.

It had been some years since I had last run this area so to be exploring on the bike was an added challenge, knowing that the trail up to the Mt Tiger road was steep and likely to be slippery.

The first main climb that branches off from this road was un-ridable and I had to use the bike in full brake mode just to gain traction for myself to progress upward. Each downhill was short compared to the ups and as I steadily climbed the gorse on either side encroached upon the trail, until the way forward was blocked. By now I was back in the sun and the long since bulldozed track was deeply gouged and rutted by water and very worse for wear.

Before starting this climb I knew it would be a lung buster to the top as it always was (without carrying a bike), but thought that if the track was reasonable it would give a technical, thrilling, downhill ride on the return journey. My philosophy, whether riding, carrying, or walking, you are still pushing the bike and getting a great workout into the bargain.

As I reached the first gorse obstruction my return plans changed. “I would get to the top and ride back down Mt Tiger road to one of the other forestry roads, then home”.

Using the bike as a battering ram and my shin pads as extra protection I carefully maneuvered my way through the 200 meter gauntlet of gorse, until I reached the clearing at the top,  and the road to home only a few hundred meters ahead.

The view was worth the grind and the body was exhilarated by the challenge, but it was getting late and my time to reach the top had taken way longer than anticipated. Reluctantly I turned the bike away from the view  to begin the descent, when with the first downward stroke of the pedal, a chain clattering, sprocket graunching sound exploded, then silence. The chain had snapped!!

By far the shortest way home with the most downhill and the least uphill was the way I had come, but the thought of maneuvering back through all that gorse with its branches now bent towards me was not a pleasant one.

Thank goodness for cell phones (and coverage). ET phoned home with the news. “I may be late”, then with my disabled bike, I once more did battle with the gorse. I managed to ride some of the downhills, but after the first forced detour into the scrub, narrowly missing landing in a gorse bush, I decided safety was the key to getting back in one piece. From there it was a run, walk, slide, till I reached the forestry road and the roller-coaster downhill to home.

6 months later while riding with my brother in law on the Parahaki tracks (Whangarei) my chain broke again. Again no chain breaker. Solution. Carry and push the bike to the top of Parahaki so I could coast back to his place via the main road. On the flats he would give me a tow to the next downhill.

Maybe when this happens a third time I’ll be lucky enough to have won a chain breaker and can pedal  home under my own steam.

Yours in mountain biking.

Merv

Daryl's sob story

- 03 Sep 2010

Hi love the workshop section welcome Tristan
My story was have one of the greatest rides rode up to Billy t then
split enz in rotorua coming down the redesigned pondy down hill and
bang chain comes off front rings goes in the rear wheel rips off my x0
rear derailleur then it goes into the rear wheel to smash most of the
spokes no tool is going to fix that but cheers bike culture for the
awesome advice and $1300 later a better giant reign X0 plus 2k walk
back to the ute.
Hope you enjoy this mishap haha.

Daryl

Marcus' sob story

- 03 Sep 2010

To win the Park Tool prize in last month's NZMTBR magazine you needed to submit your best broken-dropout sob story.  You can comment on the stories on our Facebook page.  This is Marcus' story:

 Hello Tristan, I'm a keen reader of your New Zealan Mountain biker magazine.

Here's my sob story for the competition - it's even true!

Last year in the middle of winter, my wife and I and two other couples stayed in a flash crib in Tekapo.  Four of us, complete FREDs, had heard about a track called the dusky trail from a friend who has a house in Twizel.  We decided to do it, its quite popular in summer apparantly...............

I had a two year old avanti barracuda, this was the pinnacle of our technology amongst our motley collection of MTBs.  That made me the expert, TUIs moment - yeah right.  We duely arrived at the carpark off the Aoraki road to Mt Cook.  It was freezing!  We had this confirmed from one of the cars, which gave an outside thermometer reading of -4 degrees.

We cycled from the car park and shortly came across the twizel river crossing.  I decided to take my shoes off so I wouldn't later ride in blocks of ice.  I had to literally break ice at the edge of the river bank just to get in.  Ever had someone continually attack your feet with shards of glass?  That's what the water was like, I had to drag my wife across.  "Who was the utter idiot who thought of doing this?"  "..um, me actually.."

Frosty silence in a frosty landscape, appropriate somehow.

We got going and started to feel a bit better.  We then got onto a clay track leading to a uphill reentrant.  The clay had started to melt from the frost and became a gooey mess.  Knowing what I know now, I am ashamed to say we ripped up the track by leaving big grooves in the surface.  The mud stuck to our tyres making them look like balloon wheels from a moon buggy.  The track was about to get its revenge however.

The pedalling got harder, mud pushing against the brakes and forks.   I stopped to scrape some mud / an entire rugby field from my tyres.  "Go on ahead, I'll catch you up."  "sure thing hero"  Domestic bliss, you gotta love it.

I got back on my bike.  Something was very wrong.   I looked back, a piece of metal, I now know to be a derailleur hanger, was broken.  Hmmm, I know.  I had heard from my brother in law about shortening the chain to make a bike a single speed.  He owns a cannondale lefty, doesn't shave his legs - that sort of thing.  An expert if ever there was one.

Checked my pack, ancient chain breaker duely found.  Now, how do you...........?

20 minutes of cursing, ripped and freezing finger action later, I gave up.  I couldn't even budge a pin.  I squelched up the track to the others, who were just finishing their lunch.  "All good?"  came the breezy query.

"Ah no, its quite a complex job actually."

To cut a long story short I had to run / glide for 13 boggy kms until we ran into some other cyclists.  These guys duely produced another chain breaker, somewhat smaller than mine, and handed it to me.  Everyone watched.  No pressure.  The tool fitted my chain perfectly.  Unfortunately this tool didn't know what to do with it.  After I completely popped out three pins and couldn't get the links together again, my king saviour took pity on me and did the deed in about 2 minutes.  You're not supposed to fully pop out the chain link pins apparantly or you can't reconnect the chain - amazing what you learn...

Profuse and embarrased thanks and I was on my way.  Every bump knocked the chain off but it was quicker than running beside the bike.  Eventually arrived into the fridge that was Twizel.  I never seen icicles hang off trees before.  Sculled coffee and devoured sticky buns by a fire.  God I was cold!  Warmed up and did the shuttle run to pick up a car on my beloveds bike.  A short trip that turned into an epic because my tools were totally wrong for the job.  Lack of nous didn't help much either.

Since then I've brought a Specialized FSR (now discontinued - nice) and had two lessons with Zane of MTB skills - Gabby's crowd.  Thoroughly recommend them, great instruction.

Tools however, I've got some...not sure if they work.  Purty please?

Keep up the good work with the mag.

Cheers, Marcus

Megan's sob story

- 03 Sep 2010

To win the Park Tool prize in last month's NZMTBR magazine you needed to submit your best broken-dropout sob story.  You can comment on the stories on our Facebook page.  This is Megan's story:

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my husbands sob story, he would be stoked to win some good quality tools. Here it is -

My husband had in the two previous years completed the 24k and the 40k Colville Connection and had decided to support me in my first organised mountain bike ride doing the 24k Colville Connection. We started out great, he rode with me for the first 8k's which is about the top of the first downhill where he broke his rear derailleur hanger caused by lots of impacted mud around the rear deraillieur (it was a very wet and muddy year). As we didnt have a spare derailleur hanger it was decided after a quick discussion that he would simply break his chain and go single speed and he encouraged me to go on and he would catch up. For the next 16 k's unbeknown to me, Rich was coasting along with his feet in the pouring rain, as while trying to break the chain his chain breaker broke (thats what you get when you buy cheap tools). So i finished the ride in under 2 hours and had to wait for him for another 1 1/2 hours. He was given the opportunity a couple of times to get a ride back in a bike recovery vechile but he was going to finish the race. Funny thing was he didnt come in last either.

Cheers, Megan

Talors sob story

- 03 Sep 2010

To win the Park Tool prize in last month's NZMTBR magazine you needed to submit your best broken-dropout sob story.  You can comment on the stories on our Facebook page.  This is Talor's story:

I had been hanging out for a ride for weeks. Then I finally had a free weekend and rang my cousin as soon as I realised, I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride in the weekend and he was keen so we decided on a day. He picked me up in the morning and we got over to the Red Woods (the Best mountain bike park in the Bay of Plenty), they could not stop me from getting on my bike and into the mountain. We got the shuttle pick us up and went up the mountain. We went down Huckleberry Hound and then onto LittleRed Riding Huck one of the best tracks there. We did this 3 times, on the 3rd trip down my brake leaver for my back wheel fell down so I could not reach it. This was at the top of the mountain so I still had a fear way down to go with no breaks! I was only using my front brakes so nearly going over  my handle bars! If I had a multi tool with an allen key I would have been able to move it back and have fun on the rest of the way down. Instead I had to be a turtle and crawl my way down. I still had to get back to the car park for my ride home. Then to make this worse on the ride back, guess what I got? Yes that's right a flat type. So I did not had a patch kit or a new tube so I had to walk my bike to the car park. So that was my ride from HELL!!!

 

Thanks Talor

New Zealand Mountain Biker Magazine

- 02 Aug 2010

The Aug/Sept issue of NZMTBR is now out on bookshop shelves.

Kickstand is helping New Zealand Mountain Biker Magazine with the Workshop section of the magazine.  Each issue we'll be providing some help for some of the tricky and frustrating jobs needed to keep your bike running tip-top.

For this first issue we looked at what tools you should be carrying in your hydration pack so that mechanical issues on the trail don't need to be ride-stoppers.

Next issue we'll be showing you how to straighten your rear derailleur hanger without the expensive bike-shop tool.

If there are any other jobs you'd like help with let us know either by emailing workshop@nzmtbr.com or tristan@kickstand.co.nz

Also in this issue Carl rides a whole lotta Specialized bikes at the global press launch, a great interview with Ben Townley, and much more.

New shop opening

- 01 Jul 2010

The move to our new premises was a good excuse to get a few friends around.  Amy and Matt from Mount Riley sent up a few cases of their excellent 2009 pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay.

and Valentina from Cafe Polo put on some awesome nibbles.  With a collection of over-training cyclists in attendance the food and wine disappeared pretty quickly :-)

Owen and Jeff talk about woodworking and content management systems

Yep, real wood.

Kah pretending to do some work

Blair from Ocean Design trying on some caps.

Thanks to all that came for making it a great night!

Two more tutorials

- 01 Jul 2010

We've just published two more tutorials.

The first tutorial helps with the replacement of Shimano disc brake pads...not a difficult job but there are a few good tips and tricks.

The second tutorial helps with straightening a frame's rear derailleur hanger.  This tutorial uses the correct tool (such as the Park DAG-1) but we're working on another tutorial to do the same job for home mechanics without this tool.

SRAM mountain bike tutorials live

- 29 Jun 2010

We've finished up post-production and Burkes Cycles have added a range of our SRAM mountain bike tutorials to their website.  They've also added cassette removal and installation tutorials for Shimano and SRAM cassettes.

For a limited time the entire Kickstand range is available for free from Burkes Cycles with the purchase of a related product but this promo ends July 1st.

See the list of all our tutorials and let us know if there is anything you'd like us to add.

Vorb Promotion finished

- 24 Apr 2010

The promotion we ran with Vorb has finished - thanks to everyone who registered and we hope you're enjoying the tutorials.

We ended up giving out 212 free accounts and we've received a LOT of positive feedback.

Vorb Promotion

- 19 Apr 2010

We ran a promotion over at Vorb giving away 100 free accounts to say 'thanks'

These 100 filled up very quickly and the feedback we're getting has been great so we're holding this promotion open until we hit 200 accounts.

Thanks to all of you who have already registered for your free account - we hope you're enjoying the tutorials.

Rohloff spoke length chart

- 12 Jan 2010

Here is a quick-reference chart for Rolhoff Speed Hub 14 spoke length.

These calcs will work with disc or non-disc hubs - remember that all Rohloffs are 32 hole and to be laced 2x both sides.

If you're using spokes available in 2mm increments then round up to the next size, ie: if the chart suggests 261mm then round up to 262mm.

I've found that DT Swiss nipples work the best for the high exit angle caused by the Rohloffs large flanges and I generally avoid DT Swiss rims as I've found the eyelets restrict the rotation of the spoke nipple.

Rohloffs seem a bit intimidating to build at first but once you've done a few they're actually very easy - the symmetrical flanges and large distance between spoke holes makes them easy to lace and the flange spacing builds into a pretty stiff rear wheel.

-Tristan

One hour and 11 minutes to spare

- 14 Dec 2009

Owen had promised to have the website moved across from our development server to the production server - thus making our beta live - "on Monday."

Well it's 10:49pm, and sure enough, it's live.  A small php error and a hard-coded reference to the development server (opps!) are the only holdups.

We'll be able to do more testing tomorrow when these two issues are sorted out but the initial testing looks great.

Send me an email if you'd like to take a look for yourself.

Night,

Tristan

Better espresso through learning

- 28 Aug 2009

Kickstand is based in an open-plan office building with about 20 coffee addicts fans and a shared kitchen.

We're extremely lucky - in the office kitchen is an E61 Rocket espresso machine and Gaggia conical burr grinder.  The E61's group-head (the bit where the coffee comes out) apparently dates back to 1961 and is as perfect as perfect can be.  Over the years the only changes made to the machine have been around the electrics and boiler - the original used a manual spring loaded lever/plunger system to generate pressure.

The poor E61 in our office runs all day every day and it brews good coffee, even with me pulling the levers. This week I organized for Aidan Forrest to come into the office and give a presentation to all the espresso aficionados in the office on the finer points of perfect coffee.  Aidan has worked in the coffee industry for 10 years as a barista, roaster and coffee machine service tech - his knowledge and understanding of coffee is truly impressive.  Aidan talked for half an hour covering our machine and grinder, bean quality, how to make short and long blacks and also how to correctly prepare milk for lattes and flat whites.

Generally most of us had the right idea and were able to make pretty good cups, however the finer points were a real eye-opener to everyone.

The key points I took away were:

• Make sure the basket (where the coffee goes) is clean - really clean - and dry before you start.  Small bits of leftover coffee hanging around in the basket don't help the taste, and while this sounds obvious I didn't realize how much of an effect it had in making coffee taste bitter.
• Leave the basket in the group head when it's not being used.  This keeps the basket nice and warm. This is akin to pre-heating an oven so that when you start brewing the coffee the pre-warmed basket and handle doesn't absorb all the heat which should be going into the beans.
• The milk shouldn't scream when you heat it.  I'm a black-coffee kinda guy but plenty of people in the office add milk and the sound of screaming milk is often heard throughout the floor. This horrible noise is the milk boiling and is not conducive to a good coffee.  Keep the steam nozzle high up in the milk and get a whirlpool going in the jug to prevent hotspots in the coffee...when the base of the jug is too hot to hold for 2 seconds then your milk is at the perfect 75 degrees and ready to serve.

I need to say a big thank you to Aidan for taking the time to share his knowledge.  The positive comments that people have given me in the three days since his visit show that his skills rubbed off and that people in the office are enjoying better espresso.

-Tristan

Summer was so long ago

- 07 Jun 2009

You all miss summer yet?

Just a quick winter warmer, here are some choice shots pulled from a photo session with Neville "Butch" Guy (ace photographer) and Chris Kendall (model extraordinaire) and Tristan (extra model to make Kendall look better) from a few months back. Look at that blue sky!

Some of these shots are scattered through the website - it was so we have some photos in our portfolio that we can use. Plus who needs an excuse to hang out in the sun playing with bikes and drinking coffee?

Kah

New Frames! (well, paint anyway)

- 04 Jun 2009

So the Kickstand official painted frames are done in the Kickstand (or Molteni) orange for maximum "look-at-me" factor. The final shade is a little brighter than I expected, but it's still H-O-double-T. Gone with PPG paint for the best paint finish, and the bare frame being alloy we decided against powdercoating. The final semi-gloss works well too, giving just enough frame highlights.

Combined with the custom decals the Kickstand rigs are ready to rock.

Thanks for watching.

Kah

P.S. We even have a matching stand!

Leather, grease and espresso

- 26 May 2009

Kickstand is founded by two fellows who really like bicycles, Tristan and myself. We're not picky, between us we own full-suspension mountain bikes, single speeds, jump bikes, trials bikes, road bikes, fashion fixies,  cyclocross rigs...I've had BMXs and 24" cruisers and Tristan used to be a downhiller in his day. Cycling is a lifestyle, and we particularly like the aesthetics of road cycling of days long gone. There's a romance and history with road cycling that has this sense of old leather, old woolen jerseys, grease and espresso.

When picking our corporate colours we wanted strong colours with history - and what represents that better this shade of orange made famous by Molteni Arcore? 

These colours were rocked by none other than Eddy Merkcx in the early 70s as "the Cannibal" won everything in sight.

Photos from http://www.biketype.com and http://www.velogear.com

A beautiful counterpoint to that strong shade of orange is Colnago's homage to the great Giuseppe Saronni. Saronni obviously a great winner as well, and both colours care complementary.

Colnago Master Saronni images from Oli Brooke-White and washingmachinepost.net

I'll own one someday. Might have to settle for some red F:izik tape in the meantime...

These are two colours with heritage, and I'm proud to be using them as part of the Kickstand identity. Everything so far has been driven by these 2 colours supported by white and dark titanium grey: the website design, our business cards, the official company frames, our commuters (I commute on an old red Raleigh that's twice my age, Tristan rides an orange Salsa crosser), our lunch options...

Watch this space.

Kah