Last year we celebrated two decades of Nzo. That means this year marks the coming of age of our most unruly offspring, the shorts we call Dobies. That is Dobies. Not Doobies, as some of you would have it. And certainly not Dobbies, which has its faction but sounds like a bunch of horses. Dobies. Pronounced ‘dough’, as in doughnut, followed by ‘bees’, as in… well, bees. We were not the first to call them that. We did invent them, at a time before there were many ‘mountain bike shorts’, no industry standards, and only the most rudimentary internet to let anybody know what was going on anywhere else. We had a shop in the main street of Rotorua,...
Down in the South Pacific winter has turned the corner, and the days are slowly getting longer, but it’s still winter. Bike rides may be wet and cold, but they can still be had with a bit of cunning and accurate scheduling. Twice last week we sneaked out late in the day because our mate had a couple of images in his mind that needed to be enacted. One of them turned out really well first pop, and will be revealed at the photographer’s discretion. The other looked like it might improve with a return visit. For the view that he wanted the photographer had to go far off the beaten track. To be where he wanted me I...
A few days ago we received the first production samples of the Nzo Dusters, a pair of pants we created for 24/7 activity. They fit like they are supposed to, and I can see this sample pair getting an everyday workout as soon as they are dry from their first laundering. The special finish we gave the Dusters so they can be used more times between washes doesn’t cover the treatment I gave this pair on Monday - a lap of the local trails and their associated dirt and sprayed-on mud. The Dusters were designed to be a do-everything product, but we didn’t really expect them to be primarily for bike riding. We were thinking light commuting, coffee runs, that...
I managed one bike ride during a fantastic lap of the South Island. Great friends to travel with, no major mechanical malfunctions, almost perfect weather and camp spots that defy description made it an almost perfect holiday. Even the sandflies were off their usual game. But only one bike ride. Having a bike in the back of the van and no time to ride it is a bit annoying. Made doubly so by signs pointing at bike trails almost everywhere we went. Mountain biking is available all over the place, which is great, but what really amazed us was the proliferation of easy touring trails. We stopped for our only wet night at a place in Otago called Millers Flat....
Crankworx Rotorua 2019 has come and gone - the highlight for us was the Rotorua round of the Enduro World Series, and we proved to ourselves that it takes as much focus and single-mindedness to spectate as it does to compete. On race day we headed out on our bikes to intersect with some of the best bike riders in the world tackling three stages in the local woods. Well, we tried. The problem on the day was the weather. The only significant rain around here since the start of the year was the day of our friends’ outdoor wedding, and the dirt has long ago turned to dust. Bringing an EWS to town usually guarantees a deluge, previous editions...
