BUSY: The Waipa Mountain Bike Car Park is very civilised now with proper toilets and hot showers replacing the "ghastly" port-a-loos. PHOTO/FILE
BUSY: The Waipa Mountain Bike Car Park is very civilised now with proper toilets and hot showers replacing the "ghastly" port-a-loos. PHOTO/FILE
I've said it every long weekend this year as we've rolled into the Waipa Mountain Bike Car Park, halfway through a ride: "I don't think I've ever seen it so full."
It certainly was packed on Sunday, in the middle of Queen's Birthday Weekend.
Of course, it is so muchmore civilised now, with proper toilets and hot showers replacing the ghastly port-a-loos. And Mountain Bike Rotorua's offices and cafe are a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a mid-ride caffeine, carbo or sugar hit.
Sometimes the best parts of a ride are when you aren't riding. It's those moments at the top of a climb when you stop to catch your breath or admire the view. Or at the end of a long descent when the adrenalin is banging around your body, your eyes are the size of saucers and your arms and quads are screaming.
Or when you come across old friends in the forest or at Waipa and stop to catch up. It's all part of being a community. Get home and check the GPS three hours on the trails, 2 hours of actual riding. Those kind of days.
American comedian Milton Berle once said a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours. That has never applied to the committee of the Rotorua Singlespeed Society. Even with RSSS AGMs the goal is to keep them under half an hour. One even got in under 20.
The last committee meeting did run to 90 minutes. However, there were two separate events to discuss, it was in the very convivial surroundings of the Pig & Whistle and there was a lot of laughter.
A couple of months ago I was asked to write a short history of the society, mainly focusing on the 2010 Singlespeed World Championship. The story will be in the programme of the 2014 Singlespeed World Championship in Alaska.
It was easy to write 1000 words. The memories flowed and compiling a folder of photos just reinforced those.
We're also putting together a media and marketing plan for the Anzac Singlespeed Championship next April. This has a lot of the fine print behind the story and silliness of the past seven years. That detail is actually quite impressive, with a very, very experienced group of people behind the humour.
The Anzac Championship was one of the events discussed at the last meeting.
The second event is a little more informal: A Mid-Winter Magical Mystery Tour on Sunday, June 22. This is a club ride starting at the Pig at 10.30am to location X. This will be revealed on the day. Jo Corbett from Galaxy Travel will be there with a bag of numbered balls. Select a ball and then head back to the pub for a late lunch.
Jo will make the draw around 2pm. The prize is a five-day Galaxy Travel trip for two from Auckland to the Gold Coast. There will also be spot prizes of entry to the Anzac Singlespeed Championships.
