Mr Mojo Risin'

Date: 29th October
Riders: XC Tom, Mark G, Rich
Location: Leith Hill

OK so I think we've established that I'm a bit of a fair weather sort when it comes to MTB'ing. After a couple of muddy rides over the past week the drier weather of the past few days and a clear evening had me all excited about last night's ride. Luckily Mark had the magic van so the trip up to Coldharbour was painless and Tom was already there. By 6.50 we were on Regurgitator, climbing into Waggledance before hitting the top section of Summer Lightning followed by the downhill jump bit. We then took the climb which Ben Tudor had shown us last week to the "Ghurka Trail" and bombed down the rocky and rooty blast to the Snake's Hill bridleway. We crossed this and took another new route Ben had shown us up towards the start of Windy Willow and past Donnie Darko, eventually climbing to the Tower. From here we turned back and headed towards the Quarry, taking in the play area, Dunnie's Agony Tree jump (Bish and Mark, at night, on hardtails? - tick) the "down and up the other side" bombhole and a couple of other technical features. After re-enacting Tom's wheelie incident at the quarry we rode Wonderwoman (ooh that sounds a bit rude) and sessioned the jump between the trees before heading back to the Tower via a couple of interesting little trails. We collected a couple of lost riders at the Agony Tree who needed guiding back to the Tower and chatted with them for a while. Our route back to Coldharbour took in Personal Hygene, No Cycling, the Cricket Pitch bombholes, Waggeldance and Crooked Furrow. At last I felt like I was beginning to find my flow again, popping off roots and little kickers, it must be the dry trails!
In the pub all the talk was of new bikes, a hardcore hardtail for Mark and a Five for Tom.
As they say "The Future's All Mountain, The Future's an Orange Five (with flat pedals)"

Slippery when wet

Date: Sunday 25th Oct
Riders: Rich, Dave, Tom, Wilf
Location: Leith Hill

I spent a few hours on saturday doing a bit of spannering - fitting a bashguard to my Cove and putting a casssette onto the new wheels I have bought for the Nicolai (thanks to Dan for the loan of some tools). Sunday dawned bright and autumnal and with the clocks having gone back an hour overnight we perhaps could have made an earlier start. Mark blew out early by text (it's becoming a bit habitual) - it sounds like his mother-in-law's 70th had been a riot. Andy is currently on the sick list with his damaged eye - good luck with the recovery, it sounds nasty. Coldharbour was so busy with a running event that Dave and I had to park down by Cream Egg. We rode up to Coldharbour and met Tom and Wilf who had ridden up via the Rookery. Despite the fine weather they were already looking muddy. We rode over to Redlands to show Wilf Wave of Mutilation (Tom getting stuck on the top of the fallen tree!)and then rode on down to the North Shore aka Mangrove Alley. It's already very wet and gloopy and my normal "pace" was much reduced trying to just stay on the bike over roots and through the mud. We walked the 2nd bit of shore as it looked particularly treacherous and the climb up from the bottom is almost unrideable already. We joined up with Sweet Sweet Bulbs, wet jumps taken with less confidence than in recent months and then climbed back up to Deja Vu - definitely a trail that will get easier with practice - momentum needs to be maintained to get through it without halting. As we finished this one Tom started to moan about how hungry he was so we started over towards the tower! We played about on Cream Egg for a while before taking the short downhill to soggy bottom and then climbing up again to Wolverns Lane, dotted with huge puddles now. We then took the rollercoaster and bombholes to the Cricket Pitch followed by the quick route to the Tower climb which we all dabbed on (Tom attributed his failure to bonking!) We joined the substantial queue for tea and cake at the Tower (or in Tom's case tea, cake and sandwiches). At this point Dave left us as he needed to get back and Tom declared that he had had quite enough riding so we headed back via Personal Hygene, No Cycling and the bombholes to Waggledance. Tom and Wilf then took the Summer Lightning route back to Westcott and I followed Crooked Furrow back to Coldharbour and on to the Car Park.
I have to say I'm not getting on with the winter riding yet - I'm frustrated by the lack of grip and correspondingly lower pace, the increased difficulty of climbs and the need to clean the bike when you get home! Also I've started using my hardtail for the winter and it's requiring some major adjustments in style. Let's hope it stays dry this week!

Too much time on my hands!

Wow, nice bike in the last post. I’m very jealous!! More so that I’ve missed out on the last few rides with you guys due to injury!

As Richard mentioned in his post "North shore for sure?" I did indeed fall off the North Shore at the bottom of "Wave of Mutilation", the second time round, while trying to answer the question “Why can’t you grab a handful of brake while negotiating NS?”

I learnt my lesson and am now passing this obvious gem on to you – Don't grab your brakes when riding NS. Luckily I only sprained my wrist. From the look of you guys in Andy’s videos, this advice is mute anyway, very nice... as was the combat roll Mark did off the bomb hole drop... impressed!!

Anyway, enough prattling on, the real reason for this post... I have not been wasting my time at home waiting for my wrist to heal so that I have enough strength in it to grab a handful when riding NS (I don’t learn) but I have managed to scrape some video off my phone I took of Richard and I at the Milton Gore jumps... It was such bad quality it could of been any of us, so I tried to pad it out and make it interesting with some post production work, make sure you have your speakers on... Enjoy

Mark G

Hi all,

Yes, after 5 months of not getting out on the bike due to a back injuriny and operation, today I ventured out for the first time on the new "Zesty".

Doesn't She look lovely. It's the small frame(42cm) in black and brushed silver.

I decided to totally ignore the Doctors and Physio's advice about staying on the roads and so I headed out into the local tracks on the outskirts of Swinley Forest. At first I stayed mainly to the fire roads and main trails just to see how the the legs and back would hold out on the first outing.

Both the back and the bike were going well so I ventured further and decided to try out some small bomb holes and downhill which went well. I really noticed the difference with the small frame which allowed me to drop back behind the saddle with ease and still have control of the bike, unlike the old FSR XC in the medium, it was a stretch to get back behind the seat and then I ran out of arm length which really did not help the handling. The only issue was when i got to the bottom and could not find a route out so ended up having to climb up the last drop with the bike over my shoulder - good job it's light.

I carried on futher into the forest a found a small single track which then lead up into some dense forest, on closer inspection the track had been well layed out with old trees marking the edges of the run and a number of jumps all the way down. I followed to route to the top to see where it started and then decide to give it a small go, Luckily there is enough space to the side of the jumps to go round - funny how they always look so big when your approaching them and then so small when you go round them. Will save the jumps for a few weeks and when I have got the forks set right, still some fine tuning required.

All in all a good first time outing and no issue with the back at all - that might change by the morning. Will ride this route a few more times and get a little road cycling in aswell just to get the legs back before I venture out with the big boys at Leith and neighbouring hills.

See you all soon.

Simon (AKA Bike Tart)

The one where we followed Tom's nose

Meeting at Coldharbour, Tom and I arrived at the car park to hear a car further away, blaring out the radio. Was it Mark? Was it someone else? We prepared our wheels.. got dressed.... lights on.... and still we discussed the bloke with the radio!!! Tom took a wander over and yes it was Mark!

We took off towards the bomb holes and Rich's Jump area and had a little play around our favourite kick jump. Once we'd taken our fill we headed off towards Leith. Without Rich's expert navigation skills it took us a little while to find the route – but find it we did! Onwards then and up towards summer lightening. The first section I followed the other two given my lights were the poorest, but frankly Tom was showing his lack of 3 months out.... way too slow!! The second section I took the lead... until 10m when when my light battery fell off... causing us all to pause until I could sort. Off again and we completed the section at speed.

After summer lightening, we headed on up towards the summit. We took a fork and saw a huge group of bikers pass behind us.... followed by a few stragglers, who proceeded to follow us.... thinking we were part of their group. Luckily their fellow riders called them back, and we headed off towards roller coaster and Deliverance.

Quick look at Deliverance and then on to the summit of Leith. None of us made it in the dark in one go – it was a case of feet down. Quick rest at the top and a decision on what to do next. We decided to try and find Windy Willows.... easier said than done without Rich. Off we trotted, and within 5 minutes were lost... It was at this point we started to follow Tom's nose.... the next 20 minutes was an adventure... this route, that route, let's try this way... don't recognise this..... are we going the right way? With all due respect to Tom's nose, we did make it back to the Leith hill tower.

Lights were fading, so we headed back towards the car. Getting off the summit, Tom's light failed completely, and mine was reducing fast.... We set off as quick as we could, pausing to tell yet another groups of stragglers on a big night outing, that we weren't with them, and they shouldn't follow us.....

Back to the car and into the plough for the customary pint of Crooked Furrow, and the rapidly becoming customary pack of scampy fries!!

North shore for sure?

Last thursday's night ride was sacked off due to various ailments, jogging commitments and poor weather. I had also missed out on a weekend ride as I'd taken my wife away for the weekend for our wedding anniversary. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy time with the wife but mountain biking it ain't.
So on arrival back home on monday lunchtime to bright conditions I was pleased to run into Mark G who despite various DIY emergencies was up for a blast.
We put the bikes into Mark's extremely handy "Bike Transporter" van and drove up to Coldharbour saving our legs and a fair bit of time. We parked up near Heads Roll and started off with a bit of jumping and dropping, sessioning our favourite kicker with Mark demonstrating his new skills on the 3 ft rooty drop into the bombhole. We then did a few door jump runs (It's set up on the bottom double at the moment) and I pondered whether to go for one of the big doubles I haven't yet tried. In the end the decision was to go for it so Mark set up his phone and prepped the medical kit. I hit the jump and managed to land respectably - and immediately went back and did it again.
We headed up into Redlands to ride Wave of Mutilation down to the fallen tree. I'd heard rumours and seen a photo on the Nirvana website of some North Shore that's been knocked up around there. Having spoken to Roger at HftH on friday I had a fair idea where it was and we quickly found "Mangrove Alley" as the trail is called. It's basically a loop back to WoM over some fallen trees at the end of a trail which used to just peter out. The first bits of Shore are fine, followed by a slippery, muddy climb and it finishes with a pretty hairy section of Shore with a 90 degree turn in it. As Mark painfully found out it's best not to use your rear brake as the risk is you will just slide off!
Next we picked up Sweet Sweet Bulbs and during the climb back spotted another trail we hadn't ridden high up on our left. We couldn't find the start of that one but did find another trail. This starts with rooty off camber singletrack, dropping into the woods before falling into a bombhole and traversing a series of bombholes and gulleys via a couple of big berms. We took it pretty easy but I think it could be a really good trail once you've ridden it a few times. We climbed back to the top of Redlands again and rolled back down to the road for a couple more jumps before packing the bikes back into the "magic" van and driving home.
Simon I'm looking forward to seeing the Zesty - definitely not designed for "bomb holes, drop offs or jumps"...........

Ranmore to Redlands

Attendance was very thin for saturday's ride - perhaps the last one in the fast and dry conditions afforded by a dry September. Andy had issued a long and boring "dog ate my homework" excusemail on friday, Tom had the usual technical/awaiting replacement part issue with Trigger's Broom and Mark cancelled at 0800 on saturday due to illness. So as the overnight drizzle subsided just David and I set off for Ranmore. We climbed the Pilgrim's Way and onto White Down via one of the footpaths - luckily our encounters with dog walkers were all non-hostile. From there we took the singletrack featuring 4 ft log pile which I cleared and Dave made a good stab at but just got caught on the top and toppled off, slo-mo comedy style. Next up were Numbskull, Abba Zabba and Blind Terror 1 & 2. Dave made a good job of tackling all of these, keeping his wheels rolling through each section - very impressive for a first timer on these runs.
From the bottom we cut through the Deerleap woods across to Westcott and took the Rookery climb up to Wolverns Lane. The Rookery is riding very easy right now due to the lack of rain and must be the easiest way up Leith Hill. We hit the first section of Summer Lightning and then the Downhill jumps, where Dave had a bit of an off on the rooty section.
We followed this with a long climb back up to the cricket pitch and my legs were starting to burn - I was looking forward to sustenance at the Tower but Dave seemed to accelerate as the climb wore on leaving me a long way back. Via our usual route we arrived at the bottom of the Tower climb - It's a long time since I "dabbed" on this climb (the dry conditions have more to do with it than my riding ability) and I made it again, as did Dave. Tea and Eccles cake at the top, just beating the rush as about three groups of riders turned up behind us.
Refuelled we took Chocolate Jesus across to the top of Donnie Darko and then turned left to Windy Willows. We stopped halfway down to session the cracking jump in the trail, hitting it about 5 times each. Then onto the end where I rolled the big fallen tree for the first time. After that we followed the road down and then up to Bossanova, via the big bombhole which we first tried last thursday on our night ride. This time we took the harder option (it was dark last time after all!) - all I can say is you need to commit, hang on and steer straight!
Fillings duly shaken we climbed back to the Tower for a quick blast down Personal Hygene (both hitting the jump line) and back towards the cricket pitch via the unnamed trail which is running brilliantly at the moment. Through the bombholes to Deliverance which Dave has never ridden. He still had a bit of a block on it but I tried to build his confidence by pointing out that he had already ridden more difficult stuff today. It seemed to do the trick as he piled down, not the most elegant descent but he got to the bottom without major incident!
We then took the road through Coldharbour across to Redlands and down Sweet Sweet Bulbs. Dave hit the two jumps either side of the bridleway shaming a number of our regular riders (you know who you are!) who haven't yet ridden these jumps. We then climbed up and took a trail I'd spotted a couple of weeks back but haven't ridden. It starts pretty gnarly and then opens out into a pretty boring run through bracken in an open field - I recognised it from some of the Nirvana vids as Foot and Mouth. A final exhausting climb back towards the covered resevoir followed and a final blast down "Tom's" trail. No wonder I was knackered and top marks to Dave for sticking with it through the difficult techy stuff and some tough jumps - the gauntlet has been thrown down!