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If
you ain't riding you ain't nuthin!
Date:
3rd December 2005 We head over to Swinley again which is a bit soggy after all the rain this week but we still manage to piece together a good ride. The rain has scared off the kids and I am able to have 7 or 8 uninterrupted (and unwatched) runs down the gulley. It's much easier without 20 teenagers sniggering at an old man's feeble attempt at sessioning the run which the rain has made pretty slick. Another good ride and unusual in that Huey managed to take a number of photos and a short video of me in the gulley. They are quite nice but still not conclusinve proof of me getting any air! The boggy conditions were causing chainsuck when in the granny ring. I need to service/replace the drivetrain soon. Lee huffed and puffed his way around behind us (he's a big lad as you can see) and kept telling us to leave him and he would ride around on his own. But we won't abandon anyone and he actually coped well for a beginnner. We may see him out again. I'm still not quite there with the layout of Swinley and often find myself exiting trails that I have been down before but not having a clue how to get to the next trail. Look at the trail map taken from Huey's GPS to see how we wandered around in circles. It's available in GPS standard or OS format. Oh well, perhaps next time I will be able to follow someone who knows the trails well and can put them together into a sensible route.
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Date:
8th December 2005 A lot of rain last night and the near freezing fog that has rolled in means that the roots are more slippery than a used car salesman juggling soap in a tub of vaseline. Both of us end up going sideways numerous times and Mark almost loses his front wheel right in front of me. Trail 1 and Christmas pudding are great fun plus a quick climb and then down Barry Knows Best. The first time I have done that at night. While I was going a lot slower than usual, it's still just as much fun. Night riding gives an edge to all the normal trails. We ride for 1 hour 45 minutes and then head off for home.
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Date: 10th December 2005 I fitted the Fox Vanilla 125R's onto the Prince Albert today. I bought them second hand off dialled mike and they should improve the feel of the PA for Sam as he has been using the 100mm Marzocchi Bombers up to now.
The Prince Albert with Marzocchi Bombers. You can tell a teenager rides this by looking at the height of the saddle!
The Fox Vanilla 125R's fitted and the saddle a sensible height for me to test ride it
Sexy view Date:
11th December 2005 Rob has been keen to visit the Summer Lightning trails so we head over there this morning. Only trouble is that Rob was out for a Xmas party last night so doesn't make it! But that's no problem, because Jason has decided to join us having got bored of riding around trails by himself. The weather is great and even the massive explosion this morning at the Buncefield Fuel depot and resulting smog doesn't spoil the day. I haven't ridden at Leith Hill for a while and it's nice to rediscover the trails around there. I noticed that the chain is missing it's rollers on two of the links - that obviously won't help me with the chainsuck that I have been getting recently. After a good couple of hours around the various trails, Huey and I ride back to our houses - roading it to Dorking and then around the back of Box Hill, up Mickleham Down and across to the back of Epsom Downs, dropping back down into Ewell which took us another couple of hours.
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Date:
18th December 2005 Rob is leading the way today, taking us on an extended loop around Banstead Downs, Woodmansterne and Chipstead Downs. With little rain this week and a hard frost last night the trails are perfect; rock hard and dry and we set a blistering pace. The frost has meant Sunday football is cancelled giving Sam a chance to join us with Grant. The route turns out to be a bit of an epic with 20+ miles covered and the vast majority of the trails are new to me and all within riding distance from my front door. The pace and the distance begin to tell on the youngsters and they are hanging on to the back of the pack, being encouraged by us all. But fair play to them and despite pushing up a few climbs they make it all the way round. To repay their efforts we stopped at the small kicker on Track 40 to let them session the jump, get some air and have something to talk to each other about later on MSN messenger! Huey has provided a GPS map of the route and here's some ride statistics: Distance:
22 miles
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Date:
28th December 2005 I played football on Christmas eve - Dads versus kids (an Under 15 side). It seemed a good idea at the time but today is the first day over the holiday that I haven't woken up aching everywhere, so I decide to go riding. We are joined by Pete and tackle all the usual trails. There's a light dusting of snow on the ground, making it sketchy in places but the cold weather means that the trails are mainly hard packed and dry. I didnt actually realise how nice it was until got home - as I unloaded the bike I realised that I had clean tyres and not a spot of dirt on the frame - awesome!
READ MORE: Christmas saw the usual flurry of new bike bits and money wend it's way towards me and no sooner had I received it than it was on it's way to chain reaction. So the new bits arrived this morning and I spent a wet day in the garage carrying out some maintenance. First off it was replacing the middle and inner rings on the XT hollowtech II cranks. These have been slipping for a couple of weeks and were in need of replacement; don't worry, I replaced the chain at the same time. Next was a new headset for the Prince Albert. Yes, that's right, Sam rides it and I buy the parts to maintain it. The 2nd hand Fox Vanilla 125R's that I bought from dialled mike a few weeks ago haven't been happy with the shonky headset that was already in the frame and so it was time for a new one. I chose the WTB Momentum headset due to the good service I have had out of the same headset that is on the ti frame and that at £25 that is a reasonable price. I also went for a metallic blue colour. I think biking fashion is moving away from the stealth look of last year where everything is all black and back towards the anodised purple look of a decade ago. Just look at the new 'grape' colour hubs that Profile have just released - cool. First off I had to remove the existing headset - an easy job if you know how. And then fitting the new headset. Quite straightforward once I had realised where the orange rubber seals were supposed to sit. Finally I fitted the WTB Rocket V Race saddle to the ti frame. Once again sam benefits from the trickle down effect as I upgrade the saddle on the P.A. for him. READ
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XT Hollowtech II cranks dismantled
replacement chainrings from shimano
re-assembled crankset
drifting the old headset out of the head tube
using a home made headset press to push in the new headset cups
finished - I like the way the metallic blue colour matches the top of the Fox forks. The orange ring is a rubber seal
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February
2010
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all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 | |||||||||
