The week that was. But wasn't
It’s been hard to make plans in recent times, for all of the obvious reasons that have presented themselves to us in the last 18 months. New Zealand had enjoyed much of the freedoms that eluded the world until August this year, when Covid slipped through our tightly controlled borders and sent us into varying levels of lockdowns and restrictions which changed every week.
Aside from the well-known issues surrounding getting hold of a new bike these days due to shipping and production delays, organizing any mass event is just really REALLY hard. Which is why Crankworx was always going to be 50/50. 50/50 if it would run, 50/50 if it would look like similar to past events, and even 50/50 if it people were allowed to come if it DID run.
The Zerode team. All in the same place, at the same time!
So when the last minute call was made by organizers to have no spectators or expo, our plans (made months prior) to come up, showcase our range of bikes and allow people to demo them were thrown under the bus. But in typical bike company fashion, the (not so difficult) call was made to come up to Rotorua anyway, make a Zerode team week of it, and invite any and all Zerode bike riders to come and join us.
So while there was a live streamed international mountain biking event taking place just a few hundred metres from the Zerode House and no one there to see it (Quantum physics question - If a mountain biking event happens in the forest but no one is there to see it, does it make a sound?) there was only a few things to do - gather the Zerode crew together, book some private shuttles with the good folks at Mountain Bike Rotorua, ride all week, throw a BBQ and as an added bonus, surprise one every lucky local man, Murray, with a brand new bike after his wife secretly liased with us to get him a new Katipo.
That smile says it all. Murray after being surprised with his brand new Katipo.
In spite of not ebing able to attend or showcase our bikes at the event, what became apparent from early in the week, was that the Zerode and wider mountain biking community came out in full force to celebrate riding and bikes as shared experience, and that we should probably look beyond needing a big event to bring people together from far and wide.