Main 12hr event doesn’t start till 10.00am so had time to thaw out, temperature about 1-2 degrees overnight. Temperature during the day rose to about 5 - 8 degrees. The organisers shortened the course to 6.35km because rain was predicted and a newer part of the course would have cut up bad. Course consisted of grass track through the tents, fast downhill into forestry area that had been logged where track wound up over pumice trail to highest point, some good cambered curves on this piece, down and along a forested fence line, some good air achieved here, then up to another high point and down through open area over bridge and short climb back up to where the tents and change over was. Most of track was single track which had turned into double track by end of 12 hr apart from the open grass part. Tony started on 1st lap on his 26” schlumpf muni and certainly gave a lot of mountain bikers a run for their money. He took the fastest lap of the day for our team with 22 minutes. Bryan took the second lap on a basic 29 with road tread tyre, which worked well during the day until the rain came. Sam did 3rd lap on KH 29” muni, these young blokes always show you up. We then took laps about throughout the day completing 23 laps in all during the 12 hours. I (Bryan) suffered the worse as when it started to rain I started loosing traction, (excuse for getting sore legs) I tried a lap on a 26” uni, but my times slipped as I have same cadence irrespective of uni, plus I face planted into a muddy bog (that’s what the track had turned into with the rain). My last lap on the 29’er was the hardest as traction was near impossible and I was getting tired, took 51 minutes (slowest lap of the day) and was very slippery, walking was frequent, however Tony and Sam were up to doing two more laps after that, a great day where unicyclists again were not the last. Our team had two mountain b*ke teams finish behind us. Our total km covered over whole time was 146.05km
It really was a fantastic event, I enjoyed it thoroughly 
(I am Sam btw). We drove to Taupo from Auckland on the Friday afternoon and arrived as it was getting dark. We set-up Bryan’s tent as the light was fading and the evening was growing chilly. This night got pretty cold brrrrrrr! Waking up after an okay sleep me and Bryan went out and walked some of the course- the temperature was better in the morning (although still very cold).
My fastest lap was my first lap- 24min on my KH05 without breaks- I added on about a minute to my time by going the wrong way at one point 
Laps became slower as I got more tired, my main fuel was chocolate and lollies On my second and third laps I had a stitch some of the way, It thankfully went away fully during the second lap.
Bryan did the first night lap as it got dark. My 3 laps in the dark were my first experiences riding at night offroad 
It was a great experience, and my new lights worked great! It was quiet surreal riding with lights with light rain getting lit up by the beam from my 900lumen light. On my second night lap I was riding along and I thought my nose was running so I went to wipe it away with my hand, but I found out I had a blood nose as I saw the blood on my glove haha. So I ended up riding the rest of the loop holding my bleeding nose with one hand. On of my night laps I did not have any upd’s so I was happy with that! I rode my 29 during the day laps (it was well suited to the fast track) and switched to my KH26 with a Maxxis 2.4 High roller 2 for the night laps for more comfort and ease of riding and better grip. On our teams last lap the track had grown quiet muddy at places- so I had to be careful not to spin out at a few places. It was a great feeling to finish!
Thanks a bunch to Tony and Bryan for a great weekend- and thanks a lot to Dean and Warren for cheering us on and for warm accommodation on the Saturday night- it would have been a miserable rainy night in the tent otherwise!
I will put up a few pics later.
Sounds epic. Thanks for the write up Bryan. Good to see you beat a couple of bike teams.
Sam- holding a bloodied nose whilst unicycling in the dark sounds pretty hardcore. Did you crash or was it just the cold weather?
I remember when we did this race every year…it was so much fun. Maybe we’ll have to get a couple of teams together for the Moonride. Otherwise I might have to join you guys in 2013
I didn’t crash- I just thought it was proberly because of all the exercise I did- I also got a blood nose riding up a steepish short uphill today.
I did take my hand off my nose for some of the tricker parts of track. I was pleased as although I got a blood nose one lap I still managed to stick to the 30min lap time in the dark which I did 3 times.
Also Tony put some pics up on his fb.
I won’t put any pics up cause there are only some average photos of the car trip- I didn’t think about taking photos during the race!!
I worked out I rode for 3 hours and 40minutes, and I had an overall average speed of 13.7km/h and an average speed (just including the day laps) of 14.4 km/h My average speed dropped to 12.7km/h for the night laps. I also rode 50.8km which is by far the furtherest I have ridden in one day
I am keen to do the 24 hour moonride in a team of 5, although it is a tad close to the Karapoti Classic (which I have wanted to do for years). It would be great to have you in our team Ken!
Come to Sydney…you know you want to…
Congrats guys, sounds like hard work but also a lot of fun. Can we convince any of you guys to hop on a short flight and join us for a 24 hour race coming up in December in Sydney? See this thread for more details:
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1537670#post1537670
Yes you should!
Jamey- I just posted in your 24hr thread. It’s seriously tempting, and might work as I would aim to fly back to Australia around about then. How many people interested? I usually do solo, but depends on what my fitness is like then.
Our placing just got better as they have now posted final results we as a team came 123rd out of 150 finishing teams in all categories
95th out of 117 finishers in the male category
and 17th out of 19th in the 2-3 person male teams offically giving us 126.5km in 11 hours 37.3m
That would be awesome- but costly so its not gonna happen for me!
Arrrrrr that is so fustrating/annoying how the course length is now 5.5km long when they had said it was 6.35km long during the event! 
So that means we rode 126.5km instead of 146.5km and I rode 44km instead of 50.8km, and my speeds would have been lower than I worked out 
My main goal for this event was to ride 50km.
Our lap times here: http://www.thetimingteam.co.nz/results/index.php?thread=1601060986&strand=1987868719&instance=690 note that these times are taken at the start/finish area after we switched at the camp site- so are different from our times taken at the tent.
Some photos up here http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/GMNZ/2012/Jamis%20Day-Night%20Thriller&match=690&name=Sam
Good photos!
Wish I was capable of riding a course like that.
Well done.