Went for a little ride on Friday afternoon...

[marks]

The recent rain made the track a little wet in places...



But we soldiered on cause were tuff....(or stupid)





After a while we decided we needed a little hillclimb....



it got a bit steep in places..





by the time we stopped for a drink about 1/3 way up we were totally f*cked...



It was beautiful bush that we were riding in



On the way out my younger son Tim parked in some interesting places...





We completely drowned Tim's bike and had to push it out to the road....

I spent all this morning getting the water out and oil changing etc...

It was a heck of a fun afternoon...

[tri boy]

Wicked mate!
That is awesome country by the looks. Where is the area you were riding?

[notme]

AWESOME.

Your sons must think the old fulla is pretty cool....even if they don't tell you so to your face.

I applaud your fathering skills

[buggsubique]

Nice work mate! personally, I'm looking forward to things drying out a bit, heaven forbid even getting dusty!

[marks]

Wicked mate!
That is awesome country by the looks. Where is the area you were riding?

this is our normal play area - the Maungakotukutuku Valley - 10 minutes from where we live. We just found some new areas to explore (used mountain bikes the previous weekend to scout out new areas).

Its great having the chinese bikes to beat on - I would never take the wr or dt to half of these places. We must have dropped each bike at least half a dozen times on this ride - I'm sore as hell today

[tri boy]

Its great having the chinese bikes to beat on - I would never take the wr or dt to half of these places. We must have dropped each bike at least half a dozen times on this ride - I'm sore as hell today

Your photos have got me checking out the Shineray site.
What models are they, and how heavy?
Looks like alot of fun.

[onearmedbandit]

Fuck that looks like a blast. Cheers for sharing.

[marks]

AWESOME.
Your sons must think the old fulla is pretty cool....even if they don't tell you so to your face.
I applaud your fathering skills

Thanks Allun - they reckon I owe it to them after all the child abuse earlier in their lives....

Nice work mate! personally, I'm looking forward to things drying out a bit, heaven forbid even getting dusty!

I like wet conditions (within reason). following my kids around in dusty conditions completely screws up my sinuses etc - it would be alright if I was fast enough to be at the front...

Your photos have got me checking out the Shineray site.
What models are they, and how heavy?
Looks like alot of fun.

the little red one is a shineray 200 GY-IV which is a 3/4 sized bike (95kg) and has just about rigid rear suspension. Great for kids to learn on or for knarly hillclimbs.

The other two are 200GYE's - about 100kg with all the junk stripped off. these have had the shit thrashed out of them over the last 12 months and are getting towards the end of their life (engines are fine though). The 2 larger ones will become 1 sometime soon and hopefully well get another 12 months out of that.

The suspension on them is agricultural at best and going fast is painful but for mud bogs and 'slog your way up' hillclimbs they are great.

We paid $1500 each for them new. We've put cheap vrubber knobblys on and rimlocks etc and they seem to eat chains but for what we have spent they have been great fun per dollar.

[young1]

Looks like KDX country to me Mark!!

[marks]

Looks like KDX country to me Mark!!

A kdx200 would be just about perfect in these hills. However there is a certain 'relaxed attitude' that you get when you are riding a 'disposable motorcycle'. Its kind of like rental cars going faster in every gear than the car car that you own. Glen has certainly been riding his like he stole it lately.

would you do this to something you cared about (I had to clean the mud out of the inside of the air filter on Saturday and I've now got so much slop in the back wheel bearings that I had to bend the battery box further away from the wheel to stop it rubbing....).



cheers

Mark