South Downs Way (or flint, flint and more flint)

Day 1

So the South Downs off road ride finally arrived.... Roy, Nick and I met on board the train from Woking to Winchester, and steeled ourselves for the 60 mile ride ahead – the first day's challenge. We left Winchester station at around 08:20, and immediately took a wrong turning!!!! We back tracked to eventually find the start of the South Downs Way. The weather was favourable, and whilst it was still early morning the sun was quite warm. We made good progress and arrived at Winchester Hill to search for the marked route to the top. We bumped into a runner looking for the same route!! Thankfully we passed him on the ascent (but more about him later!!). Just beyond Winchester hill we bumped into a couple asking the route we'd just done. After a bit of a chat we wished each other luck, and given the bloke looked a little portly, we set off quick in front of them. After about 2 miles it soon became apparent that they were not slackers – and were more than keeping up with us!!!. Being gentlemen we let them go in front, to see that the “portly” bloke was in fact riding a single speed – and was faster than we were!!! Respect!!! And his mrs was quite good too.... Riding up Salt hill, we all got stuck behind a few young riders on horses... including single speed man!! The narrow track didn't allow us to pass easily so we were comfortable behind them – gave us a bit of breathing space anyway!!! We then heard Nick deliver the loudest fart you have ever heard..... following the curry he'd had the night before. He assured us it was the horse in front of him!!! Nobody was quite sure!!!! The girls on the horse giggled!!!

We arrived at QE park after the infamous downhill – touching more than 40 miles an hour... cool!! Stopping at QE park for a bacon sarnie or two – we took a well deserved rest. Within about 15mins of sitting down, our runner friend arrived that we'd passed before!!!! and proceeded to tuck into a nice sandwich and a salad!!!! Roy asked him where he'd come from – Winchester (25miles back) and he started only 30 mins before we did!!!! About 3 hours 45mins to do 25 miles, off road up and down... respect!!! Looked as fresh as a daisy too!! and about our age. Amazing thing was he was continuing to Amberly... another 25 miles – 50 miles in total!!! BIG RESPECT!! We finished up and got on the trail before he started – save the embarrassment of him beating us to Amberly!!!!

The next 25 miles were tough – lots of flint!!! But the weather was good.

We completed the second 25 miles and arrived at Amberly to look for a quaint English tea room.... and we found one... quite by chance!!! But boy did we need it!! Banana and cherry loaf, tea cake, chocolate cake and 3 cups of English breakfast tea.... perfect!!!

We headed off for the last 12 miles to the b&b and arrived at the A24 near Washington ready for the infamous climb to the Chanctonbury ring!! So far no mechanical problems through all the flint and boulders we had to negotiate, until we came across the hard smooth tarmac of the A24.. and Roy managed to get a puncture!!! How does that work then? So with only 6 miles to go to the B&B we ended up changing our first puncture.

We arrived at the B&B about 18:00 for a well deserved shower and clean up!!! Once clean we headed off to the local hostelries for a well deserved pint and some carbs!!! First pub we entered, Roy bumps into a work colleague....small world!! After getting our fill of food and beer, we set off back to the B&B... at 21:30!!! All in bed by 22:00 – well... we were tired!!!!!

Day 2

Sore legs, sore bum and back in the saddle by 09:00. We set off for the first big climb of the day, as the introduction to the 40 miles for the day. The second day is always nicer, but takes a few miles to warm up. It was cooler today – the sun hiding behind the clouds. Nick started the day with his jacket on – sensible... Roy and I succumbed to an extra layer once we arrived at Ditchling beacon. All 3 of us were flying on the second day... so much so we kept pushing the boundaries.... we made it all the way to Alfriston – about 32 miles - to discover another quaint English tea room – and a fantastic round of home made ham and tomato sandwiches!!! Just the job after 5 hours of pushing in the saddle!!!

Last two climbs and only 7.5 miles to Eastbourne... but the climb out of Alfriston was a killer – a gruelling climb on chalk and flint which seemed to go on and on and on and on.......... We all made it without getting off though – a great achievement after nearly 95 miles in the saddle!!!

We arrived in Eastbourne to the finish of the route.... shouting for Nick to come back to the official finish so we could get some pics...... he'd been so focussed on his downhill technique, he'd completely missed the sign for the finish!!!

A good ride – thanks guys....

Sneak Preview - Simon's New Bike

Discovered at 79 degrees north in Longyearbyen - a secret development facility, and Simon's next evolution in his race to be King of the (All) Mountain .....

Headcam Trial - Summer Lightning 12 Sep 09

Well the AT1 (supplied by Dogcam.co.uk) has arrived, and after sorting out a few mounting issues, Bish & I went out on Saturday to trial the quality. Generally it is good (for £125), but some niggles - picture breaking up slightly (I think this is something to do with either movement or the wireless link - I am going to look at a pouch strapped across my daysack harness to see if it improves. Failing that I may go for a wired link); and light resolution (bright sky/dark subject matter). Having said that, the remote unit makes playback possible, and the camera unit is really light, and quite small (about 25mm dia x 75mm long).
Any way, have a look -

Dunnie

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

Max XC

With only 2 weeks to go until the South Down's Way, I thought I'd better get some mileage under my belt by way of some sort of preparation!!!So...... much to Tom's delight, and Rich's disgust, I donned my full XC lycra and fingerless mitts and cracked out a good 35 miles off road, with only a 5min sit down in the middle. It felt better than expected... thankfully!! All completed in the space of just over three and a half hours.... not too bad. But, don't be concerned Rich..... I'm not favouring XC over All Mountain......

My son's first crash!

Not content with videoing our own escapades out on the trails, I thought it would be a good idea to video Josh on his bike... and the first video also resulted in his first mtb crash – all caught on camera... Puts Mark's fall at the back of the list I reckon!!!

I'm very proud!




and just to prove he's from his father's mould.... he got back on the horse that threw him......

That's ma boy!!

3 Oldies and 3 Newbies

Jim, Rich and I met at the Milton Heath Car Park and we were joined by three new members of the team. George – who works with Rich, Mark – who lives next to Rich, Dave – Mark's Brother-in-Law... although Dave did have to think about that for a while.... recent marriage Dave?

We set off around 09:30 having left time for George to pick up a bike from HftH. We set off across the back of Westcott and up through Squires farm. Mark's favourite uphill section, provided the first real big challenge for us. Resting at the top we saw a number of groups come up behind us – clearly there was a big event today which we'd not heard about.

Not letting that get in our way, we headed off upwards again and picked up the trail which took us to the bottom of Summer lightning. More up hill to find the start of summer lightning, and introduce George to what this mountain biking is all about – and why we have to do the uphill in the first place. Summer lightning was good – nice and flowing, and generally dry, given the little bit of rain we've had! With summer lightning complete we headed back up to the roller coaster and to the summit of deliverance – just to show the boys who've not seen it before!!!! After the sight seeing we headed up to the tower. Mark and Dave canned it to the top... but took the easy route!! I elected for the hard route.... and failed.... the foot went down... twice!!! Bugger!! Couldn't see what happened to Rich and Jim – they were eating my dirt!!!! Probably!!

Much needed cup of tea at the top, and eccles cake, then a discussion on what next. Suitably refreshed we headed off towards the quarry, taking in Mark's infamous jump! Jim did it...... I waited for a gap in the pedestrian traffic, and then showed everyone how it shouldn't be done!!! On through the quarry to High Ashes farm, and along the trail to Holmbury. Up Holmbury hill and down to Barry Knows Best. BNB flowed well today with some nice jumps and everyone enjoyed the trail.

Down into Peaslake, everyone had descended onto the General stores, so we gave the tea a miss, and headed back up Radnor road, back to the summit of Holmbury - missing out the log pile, because someone was sitting on it!!! Over the summit and down Telegraph, past the Youth Hostel and past the Volunteer, to head back up and towards Abinger. Through the Abinger Roughs and back to Westcott and on to the car park. A good 4 hours ride with a good group. Good to meet you guys, and hope we didn't put George off the biking game too much – look forward to the next outing with you all.

A Grand Day Out

Only "Arctic" Mark and I today. Rumours of an appearance by Jim turned out to be unfounded...
No word from Tom since Wales either, we can only assume that he has been consumed by lycra-induced XC shame or that his rotator cuff tear has taken longer than the anticipated 3 days to heal.
After a visit to Head for the Hills for Dan to inspect Mark's dodgy fork seal we were on our way. We decided to try something a bit different so we climbed up the Pilgrims Way to the top of Ranmore to ride the "Log Pile of Death" and then gave Mark his first taste of Abba Zabba, a tricky technical series of steep, rooty drops followed swiftly by Blind Terror, Blind Terror 2 (as the names suggest) and Numbskull. These are a series of linked technical challenges and not for those of a weak disposition so hats off to Mark for getting down them all in one piece.
We then took the Abinger Roughs and crossed the A25 over towards Holmbury, ascending the hill via Control Car Park 9. We rode "Resevoir Dogs" which was wet and gloopy and then our favourite "Barry Knows Best", getting plenty of air off the little kickers. A rest stop at Peaslake Stores for tea and cake and a chat with "Dave and Dave" one of whom turned out to be a fellow Ulsterman. We had a look at Pedal and Spoke, the new bike shop in Peaslake selling various accessories and more interestingly hiring out Head Cams which sparked Mark's interest...I'm sure he'll be trying one soon. We chatted to the owner who is a local lad and his mum who was trying her best to embarrass him. Good luck, I think he'll need it when the winter closes in and the mid-week trade dries up.
Back on the bikes we rode to the Pitch Hill summit via the little gap at the top. Mark cleared it at the first attempt before cursing me for not telling him it was a "Feckin' gap jump" - although as I pointed out if he had known it was a gap he probably wouldn't have done it! We took the trail from the summit which includes the rooty descent and stone platform jump, now with a low hanging branch to make it more interesting! One more climb to do the trail with Tom's infamous pile in jump on it. I also tried the table top diversion in the middle but it's very tricky to get enough speed to really fly it.
We then began our journey back to Dorking, via Telegraph Road and through Abinger again. The final incident of note was Mark coming off quite hard on the rutted bridleway down to the A25 and hurting his back. It didn't make him feel any better that I had pointed out that the track was quite tricky before we started. We finally rolled into Dorking at 2.30 for a couple of well earned pints outside The Star.

It wasn't meant to be

So... we were due to meet tonight for another evening ride. However, a combination of incidents conspired against us. Rich had to work late, and wouldn't be getting back to Dorking until late. Mark was still up for it.... but discovered he'd locked his bike in the car and lost the key... meaning he'd now have to drive home to get the spare... and the M25 was looking it's usual self for a Thursday evening. The weather was glorious all day.... until about 17:00... when the rain came. So everything transpired against us, and we felt that for tonight it just wasn't meant to be.

Mind the Gap

I thought as it's Andy's birthday we should give him a day off from posting - Happy Birthday Andy! Don't worry he's not totally out of the picture as I'm sure he'll add a couple of videos to this post.
Tursday night saw our regular-ish meet at Coldharbour, after my usual warm up climb from Dorking. We headed over to Heads Roll for some jumping practice. We started by messing about on the kicker we know well then over to the bigger stuff to hone our skills on the "Door Jump" (see previous post).
After several successful clearances I suggested we remove the door and ride it as a proper gap. I gave it a go first and cleared it and then it was Andy's turn. I could see from his run in that he wasn't going to stop and the determined look on his face said "I'm going to conquer this before I'm 40!" - Sure enough he cleared it at the first time of asking, no dramas as Mark would say!
Pumped on adreneline we took the little downhill across to Wolverns Lane and rode Summer Lightning, including the downhill jumps then through the bombholes and down Deliverance, both of us a little too quick and cocky, almost running out of room at the bottom. Finally we dropped down to The Plough for a pint of Crooked Furrow. Totally Stoked.