Oh brother where art thou?

Mark's brother Michael was over from NI at the weekend so we took him out to sample some of our local trails. A novice by his own admission Michael tackled everything we threw at him and although the trail gods claimed some blood sacrifices he seemed to enjoy the experience on the whole! One noteworthy incident saw us gathering at the top of Deliverance, just to show Mike what it looked like. Also congregating at the top were a bunch of South Africans and Aussies who were doing a lot of talking and not much riding, presenting a gift-wrapped opportunity for Mark to bait some Colonials. Without further debate Mark grabbed his Trek off Michael and threw himself down Deliverance at top speed. It was all going so well until he realised he was going too fast to stop and piled into the strewn wreckage of the shack at the bottom, accompanied by various shouts and moans! Luckily a bit of blood was as bad as it got and after clearing the landing area we returned to the top where the Colonials were waiting, our honour just about intact!
We met a guy at the tower who runs this site for buying and selling bike/outdoor kit - might be worth a look: http://www.kitjunky.co.uk/
Also Head for the Hills are getting their '10 bikes in soon, look out for new Treks, Commencals and Nicolais. They're also selling their '09 demos so check out their website http://www.head-for-the-hills.co.uk/2009_bike_sale.htm for deals on the Ex8 (£875), Meta 5.2, Remedy (£1200) and Gary Fisher Roscoe (£1200). For anyone wanting a longer travel bike the Remedy and Roscoe are very good, proper All Mountain(!) and a bargain at those prices (go on Andy, Jim - you know you want to!).
Finally I've joined the light brigade - I've invested £50 in a Dealtime Extreme P7 900 lumen bike light. It's on it's way from Hong Kong so we'll see how good it is but I figure that for 50 quid you can't go wrong. You can read a review on the Muddymoles site http://www.muddymoles.org.uk/2009/08/p7_ha-iii_bike_light.html
Rich