Merv'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 Merv's story:

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