90 mile beach to broadwood

90 mile beach to broadwood

Started the day packing up my tent trying to get rid of at less some of the sand that seems to get ever where (well I did spend the night camping on a sand dune : )  keeping a eye on what the tide is doing I wait a bit longer before starting the days ride - first up is a ok ride down the rest of 90 mile beach - at one point in time I spot some one walking with a pack on so I stop to say hi and find out where they are walking to - it turns out that they are walking to auckland along the te Araroa trail so we spend a bit of time chatting about the trail - as I'm doing this a rogue wave (a bigger then average wave that runs high up the beach) comes ashore getting me and the bike wet - hum I don't think that's going to be good for the bike bearings - o well it's about time the hubs needed looking at any way (im good at taking part and fixing bikes after so many years riding on the roads and trails all over nz much of the time a long way from any bike shop)

  after saying good bye to the person walking I keep riding down the beach with only the odd passing 4wd  - one did stop with the nice driver having a bit of a chat to me then about the bike ride I'm doing before give me some food . Then it's back to riding down the beach until I get to the road off the beach at ahipara where after cleaning much of the sand off the bike (the bike is well covered in sand from the beach from the wheels flicking up the sand also there is eastern wind?  Blowing even more sand on to the drive chain side of the bike) i do a bit of food shopping just as the rain starts coming down - riding in the rain is not that fun but on the up side the heavy rain is helping clean the rest of the sand off the bike and (waterproof) panner bags : )  as im leaving ahipara it takes a few mins to find the right road (foreshore Rd east then on to Roma Rd (Roma Rd is missing the road sign) 

Then it's time to start climbing up the first hill of the day - it's a hill I know we'll having walked up it on my north island te Araroa walk as well as being the main route south by bike for me over the years get the summit (where the te Araroa trail turns off and heads in to the bush I come to a slow stop as I look over the start of the down hill - there is on going road works (pachers of gravel) - it's still raining hard so deciding to go slowly around the bends in the road over the next few km I start on the down hill -

coming up to the first bend I pull on the brake leavers only to see then move all the way back to the bars with out slowing the bike down - at this point in time I'm all ready up to 30 km/h with the road only getting steeper - hum let's see I now have no working brakes on the bike  on a steep tarseal (and gravel in places)  road with tight bends in the rain - what to do?  I could try to ride it out but knowing the road and my own skills I'm not likely to make it down the road with out a high speed out of control crash so let's not try that - I could lay the bike down and hope for the best (as coming off at 30 km/h is some what less painful with the panner bags and bike taking a lot of the impact)  - not  the best ideas buts it's better then the first idea - in the end I go for plan c - first uncliping my right shoe from the peadel and start drugging the shoe (still attached to my foot) on the ground slowly putting more weight on it then as my speed slows I carefully unclip my left shoe (and foot) from the peadel and start dragging it also on the road - there is a risk that I might still crash but at less I'm in some what control as the bike slows then comes to a stop about 20 cm from going over a large bank - a quick look at my shoes would say that I'm going to to need new shoes sooner then planed (but then it's better the shoes are wearing out slower me down then the rest of the bike and my skin in a crash) 

Getting off the bike and walking to a safe place I start looking over the bike to work out what the cause of the brakes falling with no warning and it's still raining -looking over the disk brakes I see the rear pads are heavily wWearing - I do have spare pads so I deside to swap then over leaning about disk brakes along the way as well giving then a good clean and testing each part to work out why they failed doing the same with the front disk brakes (but keeping the same pads as they are still good)  Im more used to working  on v brakes (what's the type of brakes on my bike Friday) but after a lot of thought I do work out how the disk brakes should be working - looks like the sand from the beach had got in to the disk brakes and caused issues (easy fixed with a good clean and new pads in the rear as well as adjustment )   testing the brakes a few times before packing even thing back up and getting back on the road testing the brakes before the start of each down hill (better safe than sorry)

riding until I get to broadwood  (passing the site of where I got hit by a truck on the bike back in 2008)  at broadwood I stop for a break around 5:30 pm as I'm starting to get cold after riding in the rain for the last few hours - after some though I do a bit of asking around and find a safe place to put up the tent - at 91 km it's a bit short of what I would of like of done but risking getting sick because of the cold and wet weather is not ideal so it will have to do - life is what ever life is in that there is little point getting upset with what you can't change - as I'm setting up camp the rain stops (all ways seems to happen like that : )  after getting into dry clothes and into my nice warm sleeping bag I do a bit reading before heading off to sleep  for the night