Add this to the “places I want to ride at” list. Whilst it’s not in a beautiful forest with amazing views, it looks like a superb spot to spend a few hours on a warm evening just riding it until you get it dialled. It also look enormous and a real challenge to make it round, let alone with any sense of style or tweaks over the jumps. Some of our previous attempts at riding pump tracks have been fairly pathetic but I put that down to doing a 20k ride before. The setting next to the flyover kind of makes it too. A friend of mine lives in Bristol so hoping to make a trip soon.
It’s been captured superbly by Bristol photographer Adam Gasson.
Nicely shot video of people having fun on the Surrey Hills. Recognise a fair few of them and think I’ll be going back soon to ride them. Nothing super crazy but just people having fun on bike in the mud and the rain and that’s gotta be good.
Makes me want to go and ride right now. Shame the creators don’t allow embedding on Blogs though. Click on the image below to take to the video.
Off to Wales tonight. Looking forward to throwing this around a few corners at Brechfa. Could have done without riding it from Peckham to Camden this morning without any air in the shock. Sllooooowwwww and the bars are far too wide. Think it’ll be much more fun on a trail.
…is here and looking lovely. Pleasantly surprised at how nice it looks. No garish graphics etc and looks like a similar feel to the Kobe in terms of size. Lovingly built by BC Bikes earlier and was waiting for me when I got in. I can imagine they enjoyed it as a change to the usual commuter bikes. All I had to do was cut down a seat post and we’re ready to go. Due to get a good test this weekend at Brechfa and Afan.
I’ve been talking about it for a while but I’ve gone and bought a full suspension frame 2nd hand off eBay in apparently immaculate condition. I’ve been riding her since around 2004 time so counts as the longest time I’ve owned a bike. I can’t bring myself to sell or give away to anyone so she’s going in the loft to one day be used again perhaps. I’ve ridden a lot of miles on this bike and enjoyed every moment of it. From the Surrey Hills, Wales, Scotland and even to Les Arcs in France. All has been great fun.
Anyway, I think I need a bit of spring in the rear (snigger) these days to take the sting out of some of the trails. So here’s the last few moments in tasteful black and white – an excuse to use the camera really.
I sometimes feel I’m watching this effect with some of the bikes locked up on my commute to work. A particularly sad looking one on Waterloo Bridge at the moment.
Nice to get out for a ride today down at Stamner Park near Brighton with Finn, Stu and Matt. New trails to me and Matt but these are the local ones for Finn and Stu. Slippy and slidey as per last weekend but also nice and fast in places. Nothing too steep or techy but just a nice loop. I managed to fall off a few times so plenty of bruises appearing in the morning. Still not managed to take a riding shot with the X100 either. No ride next weekend but hoping to go to Swinley the following. Loving being back on the bike.
Great to get out today for a ride with Chrissy, Joe and Finn (and others) from Brighton for a ride around the Surrey Hills today. 2011 hasn’t been a massive riding year for me so it was nice to get out on the bike again.
As expected I had lost all sense of riding skill, riding to work on a road doesn’t really help, which coupled with the wet sloppy conditions met for some ‘interesting’ moments. Lots of ‘front wheel washing out un-expectedly’ then regaining grip at the last second, riding through muddy troughs which shows you where they want you to go rather than your steering pointing you in the right direction but nonetheless it was great fun. Good to get some fresh air and blow a few cobwebs away too. Plenty of stopping and chatting and the usual banter as well as a stop at the famous Peaslake Stores. Hoping to spend a lot more time in the saddle in 2012.
One of the things that got me into back into photography a few years ago was the desire to take pictures of me and my friends mountain biking around Surrey Hills or Wales. I even went on a course to learn a bit more about it. At that time I had a slightly knackered D70 which then turned into a D300 and then onto a D700 which is my current camera. All the time the cameras were getting bigger and more expensive. So I ended up with a full frame camera, 28mm prime and SB-600 flash with remote triggers in my bag along with water, tools, jacket, food etc. Not that much fun and I didn’t enjoy riding as much with it – heavy and worrying about damaging the kit. However I do still enjoy taking riding photos and the ability to have a little off camera fill flash certainly helps.
As I’ve just got the Fuji X100 I thought I’d have a quick try of the remote flash. The eBay trigger fits on easily and I tried it out with an old SB-24 I have. I tried it at 1/200s then 1/250s (my D70 could sync this fast) and then thought I’d go for 1/500s to see what happened? Perfect flash sync at 1/500s which is brilliant. Will make it much easier out on the trails. Shot this quick picture of my F810. Lovely and sharp and also very impressed with the lens so far.
So now the only problem is that the flash is bigger than the camera! Might try and get a smaller Chinese no name flash unit to take with me. All it needs is manual controls and a PC sync port & it’ll be golden. That and a few ball bungees to hold the flash on the nearest tree and I’m set.
Although the 35mm lens isn’t the widest as favoured for a lot of MTB shots I think I can probably make it work. It’s not that far off the 28mm I’ve been using recently.
I’ve been meaning to write a few words about this for a while now but other things have been preventing me, work, work and more work really.
Graham, Matt and I recently went away for a few days to reacquaint ourselves with our bicycles and each other. The idea being that we would ride some “dusty trails” as the subject of Graham’s email. I was pretty sceptical seeing as the summer had been fairly poor, however a plan was formed. Early start on the Thursday for a ride at Cannock Chase, then head over to do Llangelda on the Friday and finishing with a natural trail over at Long Mynd on the Sat with a drive back to London that evening to spend Sunday with our respective partners.
Our first port of call, Cannock Chase, was surprisingly good. I’ve heard it mentioned many times over the years on the various internet forums I used to frequent. It’s a firm favourite of many people living in the middle bit of the country apparently. It turns out that choosing a week day to ride there was a very smart decision as it was still busy even on a Thursday. We were all pretty impressed with what they’d managed to achieve there with two small hills and a lot of effort in terms of trail building. You never felt you were climbing then descending like Whites at Afan but it flowed a lot more. Just one constant trail which felt great. There were parts which were like an enormous BMX track mixed in with the tress. And surprise, surprise it was dusty! I was having so much fun that forgot to take any pictures of us riding. Still here’s Matt & Graham posing on a rest stop.
We ended up staying in a very reasonable little bunkhouse which was a short walk over the fields to a fairly lively little town. Here’s Matt & Graham on their way through the fields. This photo could have been perfect if they’d just held hands for a brief moment.
We also met a few friends on the way who came running towards us when we approached their little enclosure. A good night in the pub as well as a feed in the local curry house and back through the fields for a good sleep.
Next day we hit up Coed Llandegla for a trip around the Black Run which always satisfies. Again, amazingly dry and flowing. Hardly a soul about on the trails even though the car park was busy. I think we’d all warmed up from the day before and things were a bit faster. Some serious grins at the bottom of some of the runs. Again, I as having so much fun I didn’t take my camera out but Graham did get this shot of me on the berm at the start of the first fun bit. Proper lean on it and all!
At the end of the trail there is a small skills and drops area as well as a fun little pump track. Here’s Matt showing how it’s done. Looks easy from the video but it’s hard work not pedalling and just pumping through it, especially when you’ve just ridden 25k off road.
Rather than spend another night at the curry house we had an improvised BBQ and fire outside the bunkhouse. Being the aspiring middle class tossers we are we managed to find an array of posh BBQ treats rather than basic burgers. Just look at that feast.
We also had an additional guest join us for the evening, Jenga, the campsite dog. And what a sweetie. She wasn’t after the food but just a stick or two to be thrown and all of us were happy to oblige. Back into town again to the same pub which was even livelier on the Friday. We also went past a round bowls pitch being used which I’ve never seen before. They play across the pitch which all looked very odd but plenty of people getting involved.
Next day was a natural trail from an old issue of MBR which Matt had researched. I’ve long been a fan of the trail centre since I’ve had access to a car and longer travel suspension forks. You’re almost always guaranteed a decent ride whatever the weather and there’s often a cafe at the end. However it was great to make a return to some of the natural stuff. I definitely regretted the removal of my inner ring on the front. Fine for trail centres but a bit grindy for the open moorland around Long Mynd we were riding. Lots of exposed and fairly barren landscape with a few fairly decent climbs.
Once we’d got all the climbing out of the way we managed to lose the trail slightly around an airfield at the top. Fortunately a friendly local rider got us back on track and we were treated to a spectacular tight single track descent. Narrow as hell and rocky, root and very twisty. Also with a drop to one side and a few section where the trail was washed out we were all pretty pleased with the end result. The climbing was forgotten at this point. A bit of a slog back to the car along a road (we may have missed the last bit) then back to London.
What a weekend! Thanks to Matt & Graham for organising.
