I have added a Travels tab in the menu above which will take you to a page with a number of my cycle tours around the world documented using Google Maps with photos from Gallery2, this will help organize things a bit better.

My partner has returned from Germany and she has brought with her a beautiful handcrafted CroMoly bicycle frame made by Patria, who have been building bicycle frames since 1898. This is the Ranger model which I bought last year on the German ebay, I have been waiting for it for a long time and it is finally here and I am starting to put together my new touring bike.

Here is an image of the frame:

Here is an image of my old touring bike:

This bike has a CroMoly Shogun SE frame, a Velotraum CroMoly fork with disk brake mounts, Rohloff SpeedHub, Magura Louise FR disk brakes(front) and HS 22 rim brakes(back), Brooks leather saddle and of course Schwalbe Marathon XR tyres. In the next couple of weeks I will be transplanting these components onto the new Patria frame to create a great touring bike.

The Ranger is a 700 bike while the Velotraum fork that I have is for a 26″ bike. After doing some test rides on the Patria with its own fork, I am looking to replace the factory fork with the Velotraum fork to make use of my disk brakes. The only thing is that I am not sure how different a 26″ fork is to 700 fork, if replacing the 700 fork with a 26″ fork changes the geometry of the bike too much then I will have to stay with rim brakes, but I am hoping that these forks will have similar lengths.

Well that’s the end of my North Island of New Zealand trip. I was expecting an easier tour but strong winds, knee problems and stuff at home, made this quite a testing trip. One thing is for sure, I definitely wont be flying with Qantas again, they seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for the cyclist. Anyway enough complaining, I’m looking forward to going home.

I don’t know where this dog came from but it appointed itself as my guard dog and watched over my tent all night. I gave it some cheese and cornflakes in the morning, it liked the cheese but too fussy with the cornflakes. I know a certain border collie which doesn’t mind cornflakes at all.

A church out in the middle of nowhere. I guess even out here you need something to keep the evil spirits away.

I spent yesterday reading my book in the tent while the storm tried to uproot and flood the tent (with some success). Today has been a different day, it has been the most pleasant ride of the trip. The road between Opotiki and Te Kaha has light traffic and nice views of the active volcanoe on White Island off the coast. There have been many climbs but not like the ones on Coromandel. The sky has been mainly clear and the temperature a pleasant 20 degrees. Plus I met the first cycle-tourist for this trip, I was starting to think I was the only one on the island.

Alright Mr Rabbit, don’t make me come in there and get you…

Here’s a wise fella I met on the road. I asked him why it rained so much in New Zealand, he said if it didn’t rain then the place wouldn’t be so green. Which makes sense… thanks Mr Donkey.

Why couldn’t I go somewhere other than New Zealand where there are not as many hills? Somewhere that I wouldn’t need to carry a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and the kitchen sink. I could be having breakfast at a market stall in Thailand before cruising down to the next town to stay at a very reasonably-priced hotel and then flip-floping down to the night market for some Pad Thai and mango pudding.
Oh well, better keep pushing.

The road is flat, the wind is at your back and the weather is perfect. But beware o cyclist, the bicycle gods like to soften you up before they throw in a couple of 3km badly-engineered climbs! (or maybe I am just out of shape. )