Backyard Events ride Ventana

Craig ready to ride

Half of Christchurch's Backyard Events is Craig Tregurtha, a trackbuilding legend and all round nice-guy.

I have personally witnessed the man take a boulder to the chest (with resulting rib injury) in the name of crafting the perfect singletrack corner, so there is no questioning his comittment to the cause of improving mountianbike riding in Christchurch.

As you'd expect Craig is also a keen biker himself, and has been rolling on a well loved Kona hardtail for some years. With a test El Saltamontes becoming available, we jumped at the chance to have a local hero jump aboard for a long-term test.

Bluey enjoys the view

Having not ridden a full suspension frame the comparisons with his antiquated hardtail are pretty interesting. This from after his first ride...

I did a good solid 3 hr ride today up and down all the trails out the Eastern end of the Port Hills (Captain T, Greenwood, Godley, Anaconda etc) to test out this new puppy on some good rocky stuff. I was blown away with how at home I felt on it. It just felt so good! Was doing lots of testing with the 3 rear shock settings to see what is best for climbing different sorts of trails. Riding down trails like Greenwood the bike just soaked up the rocks and bumps like I have never experienced before. It was fantastic.

Check out the Backyard Events website for frequent updates as he explores the trails in around our fine country on perhaps the ultimate all-day trail machine!

Mountain Pedaler out...