Mine came with an 8 speed I think. Still running fine 3000 (road) km later.

A 7 or 8 speed chain will be marginally heavier duty, dunno how much real-world difference it’ll make.

Unless your chainline is super-straight, I reckon a 1/8 chain might rub on the guards next to the sprocket…

A shower just before riding in works for me. Plus merino kit whenever possible. Helps that my colleagues don’t mind me working in my kit for a few minutes while I cool down…

Oh yeah, and buy the Kennett book. They’re great guys, and they list who to call to get permission to cross private land for some awesome backcounrty type riding.

Bad luck. Wellington has fantastic singletrack all around town. Take a full hour for lunch and you’ve got time for a decent ride even starting from the CBD. It did take me a while to find work here though.

Hope you get to Rotorua – fantastic trails there, very flowy.

I moved here two and a bit years ago. NZ’s short past does mean there isn’t a ‘pre-built’ set of rights of way, which is a pain sometimes, but there are point-to-point trails here and there to complement the ace trail parks.

http://tracks.org.nz is handy if you haven’t seen it already.

The cheap new Jetstar flights make Queenstown an interesting idea for a weekend too.

Wellington has some great riding. Makara Peak park and Wainuiomata trail project (which is smaller) are both easy to discover and have good networks of trails. Like this one

There is heaps of technical singletrack all round town. There are some epic backcountry rides nearby too.

The trails in Whakarewarewa (Rotorua) and Makara Peak (Wellington) are both good options for XC singletrack. Both are easy to reach from town (rideable from the centre) and can be plenty of fun without needing a guide or getting more epic than expected. Both have trails from easy through technical to downhill, clearly marked and graded. Rotorua hosted the 2010 SSWC, but Wellington has better beer 🙂

Mud Cycles in Wellington is about 200m from the trailhead (they just moved to a new shop nearer the trails) and hires basic but usable hardtails.

http://www.makarapeak.org/
http://www.riderotorua.com/

There are loads of utterly stunning epic rides (the Heaphy track is now open part of the year) but one of the trail centres is a better idea if you don’t have a guide, lots of your own equipment etc.

The towball weight assumes the weight will be right at the ball, I think. The height and reach of a bike rack mean you’d have quite a bit of the weight effectively at the end of a long lever.

I have a towbar rated for 65kg towball weight, and you can see it flex when you carry a couple of bikes on the rack. Nothing too alarming though.

Some racks allow/advise you to add a single strap from the top of the rack to the top of the tailgate. This cancels out some of the lever effect, but your case sounds like you will still be over the recommended weight.

I have an SLX dual-ring front mech. It seems to have a tighter curve to follow the smaller ring.

Mine is standard not direct-mount, so getting it at the right height was just a case of setting it in the right position on the seat tube.

The tracker app visualises the locations with reduced detail and only rough timings.

Apparently the data stored in the iPhone, or synced to iTunes, is more precise.

This:

The Gone-Away World
http://www.nickharkaway.com/books/

Or Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.

130mm Magura Laurins here are spot-on. They are adjustable travel but I have binned the remote because 130 was fine up and downhill.

22-36 rings up front seem OK although the chain can jam if you get chainsuck.

I have a 2.3 Geax lobo loco tyre the back and there’s heaps of clearance.

Trademe.co.nz or seek.co.nz for ones that haven’t left yet…

+1 for Audiolab 8000s. Listening to mine right now. Nice clean sound, I have seen one used as a cheapskate reference amplifier by people developing in-car audio.

I moved to Wellington last October. I'm still job-hunting, and have found the search a bit frustrating (a lot of weight is given to having NZ experience) but if you are a straight-ahead civil eng for roads, rail or construction then there are plenty of jobs about (have a look on seek.co.nz – you'll get an idea of salaries there too).

Wellington has worse weather than most of NZ but has good bars, restaurants and stuff to do, and still has ace singletrack on its doorstep (most of the riding I do here is steeper and more technical than anything I did before NZ, and there's a good trail centre at Makara Peak just out (rideable) of town).

I lived outside the UK before moving here; if you haven't there are other things to take into account, moving away from friends & family etc..

+1 for Makara Peak and some great techy singletrack nearby in Wellington. Some bike stuff is more expensive here so if you're flying straight(ish) to NZ and can add your bike to your luggage for a few quid extra that might work out well.

SSWC is in Rotorua in October in Whakarewarewa forest trail centre if you're into SS.

There are some epic wilderness rides to do too. Have a look at tracks.org.nz which covers trail centres and other routes.

I get great smooth foam out of my Silvia with its standard wand about one time in three. More practice needed!

I had the old style Hope bolt clamp, it had to be done up super tight to hold the post (and the post was a good fit). The bolt snapped when I was on a biking holiday in Spain, leaving the threaded part in the clamp so it was hard to get it out and replace the bolt.

I replaced it with a cheap one, didn't look as nice but better design (cylindrical 'nut' for the bolt so the bolt doesn't get stressed sideways when you do it up) and much better holding the post in place.

Our kitten bites people. I haven't kicked it yet though.

I get pretty good results with a Rancilio Silva and a rocky grinder. The Silvas haven't changed much for years so might get one s/h.

It holds its temp great during a shot and makes fine milk for a flat white or cappucino but it is a bit variable in between unless you start getting silly and upgrading the thermocouple or adding a PID kit.

If they're 460mm un-compressed then by the time they sag a tiny bit there'll be hardly any more difference than a thinner or fatter tyre would make.

If you find the steering too twitchy you can stick a cheap biggish volume slick tyre on, won't make the rolling resistance too much worse… I even have a spare pair but I'm in NZ so the postage would be a bit too steep :-/

..and the SLX double-ring one has a shorter cage so you don't rub the back inner corner of the cage on wide rear tyres when you;re in the granny ring 🙂 ..you can def get a different SLX 3 ring one too.

I got away without topping up my SLX ones. Did use new olive and insert though. The tricky bit was getting the new insert in without displacing too much oil.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Shimano_104_PCD_Deore_M510_4_Arm_Middle_Ring/5300004680/%5B/url%5D

Took a while, they are out of sock in most places.

Ah, found them on Wiggle this time. Sorry, checked before and only found others that were out of stock.

kthxbai

Indeed, and one of those would be fine. Does anyone know somewhere that has them in stock, and preferably will ship outside UK?