New Arrival!!!

Dunnie's 4-5-6 was finally completed today, in beautiful brown and gold, weighing a solid but respectable 26 lbs 6 oz (including pedals). Proud father doing well. Should be out and about next week....

Isn't she nice?

(And now I want to build another - what about a big downhill rig.....?)

Alpine build latest

The wheels have arrived!! :-) Hope pro 2 hubs with Spank Subrosa rims.....

Andy Blue Bear Says 'Where's Bish?'

A top team from OTH met at the Brockham Beer Festival on Sat 23 October.... Andy, Mark 2, Dave Edwards 1, Dunnie and Andy Blue Bear.

Andy Blue Bear missed his mate Bish... we tried to console him with solid reasons for Bish's absence, but he wouldn't believe us. According to Andy Blue Bear, no-one who sent out such e-mails as....

All
Some of you will no doubt have experienced the unique delights of the Brockham Beer Festival.
Mark 2 and I are assembling a crack squad of drinkers to attend this years festivities on 23rd October - let me know if you can attend
Rich

...and (in relation to Andy's previous visit to Brockham BF)...

To be fair he did find the beer a little "strong" last year and got a bit "tired and emotional" so perhaps the fear is understandable.....

...would possibly be absent on such a flimsy excuse as' I've invited some mates round for canapes'... However hard we tried, we could not turn around the belief of the little chap that his hero had turned into a shandy drinking poof... By the end of the night, Andy Blue Bear was inconsolable, taking his solace in strong ale.....

Silver Machine

It's here...my new toy
so how does it ride? - it's fair to say it wasn't built to climb but it nailed GA right enough and ripped a little bit of singletrack, then we took it to its natural habitat, the dirt jumps, where it proceeded to demonstrate its credentials on some doubles and the 4X track. So will I be abandoning the night lights and waterproof for jeans and a pisspot in future? Nah probably not but one thing's for sure - it's gonna be fun ;-)

Cycle show 2010 @ Earls Court

What a disappointment!!!! :-(

The two of us!

Date : 7th October 2010
Location : Colley Hill
Riders : XC Tom, grievous Andy

A night ride with two of us. Started off ok, I guess!! We found our little local jump area and proceeded to session a few little jumps and berms, but the ground was very "claggy", as they say up north, and quickly filled the treads on our tyres, turning them into slicks!!! :-(... It was at that point my helmet torch failed - 10mins if light is all it gave out tonight - cheap chinese rubbish I guess!! The ay-ups are looking more and more attractive!!

After one particular jump, I landed and was sucked in, hook line and sinker, by a tree cunningly placed in the exact spot my bike wanted to go (my mind was telling me the tree was not part of the trail... it was incidental....... It soooo was part if the trail, hence the headlong crash into it - one handlebar light bracket bust!!! Bugger!!! However, I managed to retrieve the rubber o-ring and secured the light back on. We decided to start riding a trail instead....

Off we headed up to Colley Hill, through the thick mud, and off towards Fizers!! We found the "jump" area Tom had been looking for, but without the jumps!!! So disappointed, we decided to head for home - with Tom's handlebar light now on amber...

Along the bottom of the downs - with half the downs attached to our bikes - we headed home.

The ride necessitated a bike hose down when we got home, transforming them from the weight of a hefty and portly 45lb downhill rig, back to the lightweight trail busters they actually were!!!!

We've had better rides!!!

Earth Carving

We are now in full decent towards the mud churning, root slipping rides of the Surrey Hills in Fall... hailed in by the screech of our contaminated brakes, as we dab them at every turn desperately trying to scrub off speed, as our well ridden trails go from dry grippey rail riders to slippy side ways riding bogs =(

For sure the seasonal transition is a difficult process. I looked out of the window the other day at the sight of heavy mist slowly drifting to the ground and I’m thinking.... “F**k it! I can’t be arsed”

But don’t despair because I have a plan. A plan to pay back my debt to others. A plan to make this winter and next summer better. A plan to carve the earth...Oooooo!.... Anyway enough pouncey writing – The f’ing plan involved me and Richard doing some trail maintenance.

A corner that I have always failed to ride with style, and I felt needed some work. The ground soft and spade, axe, builders gloves in the car, I got Richard who brought some rose clippers... hummmmm... oh and a wealth of experience at berm whacking. And we headed to a trail we all know – I took a before and after picture for moral boosting reasons, as after 2 hours of hard graft we barely scratched the surface of what we set out to achieve. We returned the next day to continue what we started and get the corner to a rideable state. Here are the pictures for you to laugh at and wonder what exactly we did for two hours. Enjoy.

Before

After

Enthused by our corner shaping skills we headed to the other side of the valley at a well known playground to build a small drop in, followed by a step up jump. Stopped by the failing light it’ll be a week now before we can test out our trail building skills.


Anybody who has the urge to to get stuck into back spazaming earth shifting, let me know and maybe we can organise a day where we can all get stuck in.