Canterbury Trail Rides?

**Transalper** · 4th October 2013, 17:54

Not setting my alarm, will get up when I'm awake enough and do what I got to do, if I'm earlier then it's a bonus but that is my best estimate at this moment. Hope to find you there.

**pete-blen** · 4th October 2013, 18:27

Originally Posted by Transalper

Not setting my alarm, will get up when I'm awake enough and do what I got to do, if I'm earlier then it's a bonus but that is my best estimate at this moment. Hope to find you there.

No probs... I will drive past yer place about half 7 when I'm going to pick the bike up..
lay on the horn for a few minutes...
Always like to be helpful...

**Transalper** · 5th October 2013, 19:19

Pretty entertaining day today, met some people, lost some and caught up with others.
The laps were nice and short (I like the long ones too but today short was nice) and a bit slippery.
Only did two though, had a clean lap one, fell a couple of times on the dryer lap two, tweaked the sore thumb again so skipped a potential third lap and got home in good time for tea.

**Dent** · 6th October 2013, 14:08

It was very warm out there today, 24 by my car thermometer at approx 1 pm.

There were some quite muddy places to keep it interesting.
By the time I did a third lap it was getting very dusty on the open parts of the track.

Some of the ruts at the bottom of hills were getting cut so deep the bikes would end up resting on the pegs.
I took one enduro option on my 2nd and 3rd laps, which while steep, was at least not rutted and muddy like the main track at that point.

Overall not a bad ride, but a bit too open for my tastes, and no real forestry.

Amberley in two weeks should I hope be good.

**pete-blen** · 6th October 2013, 18:04

I bellyed the bike in a rut 2nd loop on sat , coming down hill into the first mud bog... It would have been
comeing out of the last bog 2day "sun" that would have been a shit of a climb today in reverse with
the rut so steped & muddy...

Done the 2nd loop with TA & Peteeny till we got separated early on..
It was a short loop... with a couple of stops only took around 60mins...

Nice laxed easy ride... But I to like the more tighter treey rides...

I will try for Amberley... sounds OK
http://www.myrides.co.nz/content.asp...469A5771F50E60

**Dent** · 7th October 2013, 06:55

From Grenville's email update, specific to Amberley:

Next Event Amberley Sunday 20 October
Progressing well I thought on the track clearing and then I got to the South boundary where all the trees in the bottom of a gully we ride through were tipped over. I guess there will be plenty of extreme enduro obstacles to practice on as it is easier to build a crossing over the really large trees than to cut them out. As usual there will be a number of options from ATV Novice & Children to Enduro only depending on the difficulty and the weather on the day.

**Transalper** · 11th October 2013, 05:56

Video from Balcairn....

**pete-blen** · 11th October 2013, 20:30

LOL..... your 2nd put down...
That little muddy stick across the track on a angle got me aswell on my first loop...

**Dent** · 12th October 2013, 07:22

Nice job on the highlights clip.
It certainly seemed wetter than the Sunday.

For a change I tried filming at 60 fps 720p on my GoPro Silver 3. The raw footage is certainly good, but the edit process to reduce to 30 fps (for YouTube, they don't do 60 fps) compromises the sound.

On lap two and three I took one enduro option, to bypass a rutted hill, which I show in my clip. I actually rode off it by mistake the first lap, and went directly up the hill, back to the main track.

I also had a slight off in a deep rut, shown at the end

http://youtu.be/auflQ34Caz4

**Transalper** · 12th October 2013, 09:10

I see where you went off the enduro track straight up the hill back on to the main track.
I got up that hill on my first lap and lost Peeteey at that point who took the enduro option after having problems with the slipperyness of the main track climb.
I'm using the GoPro HD1.
Unfortunately my gopro had a flat battery on the first lap, changed it back at the van to record lap 2.
I was using the 960p option to record this time, I think I like it, I feel it worked better than 720p with my current mounting position.
For your 60fps could you just upload the 60fps and let youtubes rerendering sort it?
I used to use the 720p/50fps (set my camera to PAL) and did my final export from Adobe Premiere with a 25fps rate, I never had any noticeable change in audio.

**Dent** · 12th October 2013, 09:47

Originally Posted by Transalper

I see where you went off the enduro track straight up the hill back on to the main track.
I got up that hill on my first lap and lost Peeteey at that point who took the enduro option after having problems with the slipperyness of the main track climb.
I'm using the GoPro HD1.
Unfortunately my gopro had a flat battery on the first lap, changed it back at the van to record lap 2.
I was using the 960p option to record this time, I think I like it, I feel it worked better than 720p with my current mounting position.
For your 60fps could you just upload the 60fps and let youtubes rerendering sort it?
I used to use the 720p/50fps (set my camera to PAL) and did my final export from Adobe Premiere with a 25fps rate, I never had any noticeable change in audio.

I'm currently using the GoPro studio s/w (free and recently upgraded to be reasonably good), then handbrake for final compression. I need to experiment with it more, and yes I will try uploading a short 60 fps clip to youtube. It was my first attempt at dealing with 60fps footage.

**Dent** · 12th October 2013, 11:24

Originally Posted by Dent

I'm currently using the GoPro studio s/w (free and recently upgraded to be reasonably good), then handbrake for final compression. I need to experiment with it more, and yes I will try uploading a short 60 fps clip to youtube. It was my first attempt at dealing with 60fps footage.

Both youtube and vimeo re-compress to 30fps. Vimeo does a decent job.
Short demo clip.

**Transalper** · 12th October 2013, 16:01

Both look ok to me except they both have a black boarder around the whole thing making true full screen impossible.
Previous stuff of yours appear to go proper full screen.

**Transalper** · 18th October 2013, 14:13

Had another newsletter from the Regional Park Ranger, Environment Canterbury regarding access and the tracks around the Waimak (both sides)...
*check their website for the latest on access and things like tree fall danger and flooding...

Good Afternoon Everyone,
As you are probably all aware we have had a huge flood come down the Waimakariri River this week.
Kaiapoi Island has been closed for most of the week. I have now been able to open up between the bridges so that jet boaters and general river users can access toilets and the river itself.

So for trail bikers…….
There was little damage at the trail bike area, we have pooling water, but I will not be able to do anything with that, until next week.
Access to the trail bike area from tomorrow, will now be from Taylors road for at least the next week
Hays road has had a lot of damage, in particular under the motorway bridge. I will be getting that repaired next week, along with the rest of the road.

Please can you pass the message on to all trail bikers that the trail bike park at Kaiapoi Island is Open and access is from Taylors road

Some of the previous one where everything was closed still applies...

What has happened:
Our Forests within both the Waimakariri River Regional Park and the Ashley Rakahuri Regional Park have had a hammering. We are now in clean up mode, BUT, it is going to take a long time for us to get through the amount of work in front of us. We have about 20% of our forest windblown and now have to try harvesting these dangerous logs.

Open area:
The only place that is safe for Trail biking at present is the Kaiapoi Island Trail bike park.

Closed areas:
All trail bike tracks on the South bank of the Waimakariri River are closed. There will be dangerous trees out there on and near the trail bike tracks for some time yet. Yes this does include the Car park at Weedons-Ross Road, heading upstream or downstream. The track upstream of Weedons-Ross road has been effected by flooding over the past week and there are huge washouts on it, so it also remains Closed.

We are regularly updating our website, so have a look here regularly as it will have the most up to date information.
ecan.govt.nz/advice/recreation-and-parks/Pages/regional-park-notices.aspx

Regards
Kate Gough