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.

Aren't they lovely?

The latest addition to the Alpine build....

The King of Bling

Sadly I won't need to explain to any of you what these are

...and something very nice is arriving tomorrow

Can you tell what it is yet?

..And One Of Bish, Too... (just to keep him happy...)

Apologies, I seem to have forgotten to put on any footage of Mr Bishop! .. See the clip below for a fine bit of jumping...

Jumping with Bish's Downhill Mates

Great ride today - 6 riders out, excellent weather, and some good jumping sessions. Attached are a few vids of the better ones. (Unfortunately both big wipe-outs were missed, due to camera not being ready.)

Nice one, chaps....

Richards New Bars

Date : 11th September 2010
Location : Leith Hill
Runners and Riders : Bish, Dunnie, Mark2, Andy

Richards new extra wide bars were nice....but having to stick to firetrails all day because they were too wide to go down single track!!! Well that sucked!