The Beast

It was big as a house with teeth the size of cars, I could feel it's roar, like hot breath on the back of neck and could hear the clatter of a thousand claws on the road as it chased me... all I could do was pedal faster in the vain hope of out running it and make a feeble attempt to defend myself...

But I had no hope that day, my time was near, luck was my only saviour............



Mark2

Aston Hill - for a change

Date : 10th April 2011
Location : Aston Hill
Riders : Grievous Andy, Simon and his mates!

The weather today was awesome - nice and sunny and dry, meaning the trails were spot on. For a change, I joined Simon and his mates at Aston Hill for a little jaunt and a trek around a new park, which none of the guys had ridden.

We set off from the car park at around 1030, and followed the XC loop which contained some nice flowing single track and a decent downhill section. Hitting the lowest part of the hill meant a big climb to come - and boy was it a climb. Tom would enjoy that one, lots of twists and turns.

Next we decided on a proper downhill track and hit a medium difficulty trail. Challenging it was!! Nice and quick at the top section and about half way down a drop onto a rooty section. I was leading and there was no rolling this drop - this was a drop!! I had no choice but to push the bars out and go for it.... made it..... only to hear a yell and crash behind me. Mick following close was not going fast enough at the drop and the front wheel dropped over (a la me on Grievous Angel!!!), straight over the handle bars and landed on his head. Slightly concussed, he eventually made it to the bottom of the trail.

Next came the Four cross track, rolling into the green DH3 trail, which was a nice flowing downhill. After which a number of the guys bailed and so left around 9 of us. We enjoyed that so much we decided the next route would be the full green DH3. Fun!!

3 more bailed at that point and the remaining 6 hit the red route down. Nice and technical without being too tricky.

A good day out, and a good alternative to try for the over the hill crowd. There are a number of other downhill routes which I think we'd all enjoy. Sufficiently technical and challenging for us - definitely worth a day trip - or at least a good 4 to 5 hours.

Check out the website :- http://www.rideastonhill.co.uk/

GoPro

I couldn't wait any longer for Andy's video of Dunnie crashing into the tree on Milton Gore to appear on "You've Been Framed". And then for us to be £250 better off. The money I hoped to put towards a helmet cam that we could film more comedy crashes on, but too many are slipping though the net now.

So I bit the bullet and bought a GoPro helmet cam. A bit bulky, looks like a small brick on your head. Everyone gives you that "What a prick!" look as you ride by... (I have proof on video funnily enough!)


Me, I don't really care... I'm use to the "What a prick!" look... I've been getting ever since I took up mountain biking.. what I do care about is the awesome footage I'm getting off this little gem of a brick stuck to my head.

Check it out below!



This is the first video from the GoPro of a new trail (I'll leave it unnamed for now) and snippets from the rest of the days riding.

If you haven't checked out my last video "Kick Gap Drop" where I put my crappy filming skills with the Cannon 550D to test and my crappy jumping skills, go to my YouTube Channel and check it out.

Laters

Mark2

Shocking!

Just thought I'd post a quick pic of my recent Nicolai pimping...It's now fitted with a CCDB (Cane Creek Double Barrel) coil shock, 1 x 10 XTR transmission (including a slightly ridiculous 11-36 cassette), PointOne podium pedals, Race Face SixC 740mm bars and a 50mm stem. It rocks!

Peaslake Drop

Note: I've re-edited the video from the original post, to add in some more stuff. Watch again if you've already seen it.

As per Richards post below, here is a quick video of last weekend. We did a load more stuff but I'm working with a new camera, so a little behind... more to come.



Mark2

PS I've now also got a GoPro head cam and the footage off it looks awesome... get ready for some new videos soon.

Big Bikes Rule

This weekend I've been mostly riding with Mark2. We managed to get out on both days and have been stoked by (generally) dry trails and spring-like temperatures. Whilst the rest of the OTHers have been notable only by their absence in the last month I've been reacquainting myself with my Nicolai and Mark2 has been getting used to his Scratch.
It really is amazing how much pilot error can be compensated for by 7 inches of travel!
We've been hitting a few choice features as well as plenty of new trails, hopefully Mark will be along soon to post some video highlights.
Maybe see you guys out there some time?
Rich

One down from riding - Fettling

There is only one thing better than spending a warm sunny spring morning stripping down your bike, digging out the grime from the deepest depths of the bottom bracket, cleaning everything with copious amounts of GT80 (Not the brakes Dave) applying fresh grease and rebuilding the bike to within an inch of its life....


.....and that's riding your bike on a warm sunny spring morning!

Why Cake = Fat

Just thought I'd let you know that there is a medical reason as to why I have become a lardy fat-boy cake-snatcher over recent months, and riding like a hippo on a unicycle on the hill.

It turns out that I have a problem with my thyroid, which is not working. This is serious but treatable. I have some tablets to take (for ever, apparently), and these will return me to my svelt and racing-snake previous self over the course of the next few months, whereupon I will return to mercilessly taking the pish out of fat people again..

It was a close run thing... with my weight rapidly approaching 14 stone, and having just bought a load of bigger-necked shirts (none of my work shirts button up without me turning purple and eyes popping out...), I was in danger of having to follow my own beliefs and shoot myself in the back of the head before boiling my own lardy arse down for soap.

In the meantime, no more cake, thanks.

PS - in reply to Bish's comment below, yes, I am painfully aware that 'thyroid problems' are the favoured excuse of the 20 stone pie brigade..... and frequently have I responded with 'is that your cream bun gland then, the one that means you can't walk past a home bakery without emptying the front window, you lump of lard' ... So perhaps God is a fattie, and this is divine retribution.

I Gotta A Itch (and it’s not an STD.... this time)

OK, so I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately. You see about the beginning of February some scum bucket unbolted the wall anchor in my lean-to and stole it... despite the fact my bike was attached to it didn’t seem to hinder him and the wall anchor has never been seen since. Darn.

So this somewhat accelerated my plans to replace my bike, which I was planning to do in the near future anyway (5 – 10 years?).

Three weeks later I got myself a (used) Trek Scratch 2010... no idea what it was but it looked f**king cool.

Three weeks later and 1 day I have been bullied and threatened in to going out in the rain to take and post some pictures... enjoy.

Attack Mode

XC Mode

Some HOPE and KS dropper post is what I need to ride this thing up hill hehehe (Tom, the blue clamp is for sale if you want it... £100)

Ready to Ride (once it stops raining)

Apparently I'm not allowed to keep it in the bedroom, toys, no matter how sweet, big and knarly stay in the toy room with all the other kids toys... booo

Mark2

Cwm Carn - What a Blast

Riders, Roy, Simon, Mick, Nick and Keith

Left the beautiful South at 0700 to head for Wales and Cwm Carn. RV'd at Reading Services for a spot of breaky, more later, and then on M4 to the Valley's. On the hill at 1000 and what a hill it is!! Grinding up and up and more up, after an hour reached the top. Then we realised what all the fuss was about. Terrific XC run down, with a few runs of the top two sections before returning to the centre for the obligatory lunch. Unfortunately, Keith was suffering with the sh*ts and after 6 runs into the woods, called it a day. we think he had a dodgy bacon roll at Reading. Beware!
After lunch, we took the uplift to the top of the Downhill run. Best £3.50 we have spent in a long time. Drop after drop with good surface, even after the rain, and the chance to take lots of air. Even if we didn't, the opportunity was there. Worth the trip for this gem alone. Simon went down even though his Alexis conscience was bugging him. Nuff said. A 3 hour trip home rounded of a thoroughly enjoyable day.