Bicycular Romanticism volume 2: Aniseed Valley. I'd raced ahead of the party and beat them to level ground by about thirty minutes, which is normally most unlike me. I suspected they'd got eaten by Taniwhaz, but they arrived in due course complaining about lack of brakes. I know the feeling. Which leads me to expound on brake pads for a moment. Now, if you've been reading this blog you'll have a handle on the kind of riding I like to do. So: it all becomes impossible if you cook your brakes and at NZ$60 a pair, Hayes mechanical pads are, like, way pricey. Naturally, your brakes get cooked if you drag them, as XC riders are wont to do. DH riders, conversely, generally ride bigger bikes which are more stable at speed over rough stuff and will tend to brake harder and later than if they were getting bounced around riding something light and nippy. Therefore, the limiting factor in how much brakes you go through on a hard ride would appear to be how comfortable you are descending over rough ground at high speed. My Giant ARSE is a good bike, but there's room for improvement. For someone considering a bike to tackle difficult NZ terrain, they could do worse than to try a Keewee cromoTOZE - like the Giant, but with twice the travel and Solid As! And made of STEEL so it won't disappear out from underneath you when you least expect it.