Cycling UK Forum

Meadow Park is one of the better ones.

Beware of old information about anything in Christchurch.

Many many things are closed or moved since the earthquakes.
Anything that was in the CBD will have moved or closed.
There is much damaged in the east.

The west of Christchurch has much less damage, but it is much busier.
Accommodation can be difficult to find and busy.

Still a very interesting place to visit. One of the safer places in NZ - its dodgy buildings have already fallen.
For biking the damaged roads slow the cars down and some roads are blocked for one reason or another.
So in some ways its better for biking.

Enjoy your trip.

Hi

As others have said take care to have everything clean.
But ex-UK will be less of a worry than other places.

They are quite friendly, so it's a good strategy to answer questions fully.

When I returned recently from New Caledonia, they asked about off-road use, and about mudguards.
I described what I had done to clean it, and they accepted that.

Enjoy your trip.

Ed

Hi there

I have used one of the early freeload racks, on the front of an MTB with suspension forks.
I had some old panniers that I used with it.

I used it for six days of back road riding in NZ and it performed well.

The tool for releasing the webbing straps is a bit tricky to use, but OK once you work it out.

Not many racks would work on susp forks. For general use, freeload racks are quite expensive and dont seem to offer compelling advantages.

On a recent ride, someone had a F rack with the side panels. A nut and bolt holding side panels together had come lose and been lost.
Freeload racks are not immune from bolts coming loose. It is often easy to find a spare bolt, nuts are harder to find. The freeload rack would be better if it used captive nuts.

Cheers

Ed