2nd January 2005 - Team dialled bikes - Pitch Hill

dialled Mike has organised a ride and the four of us that turn out are all on dialled bikes - 3 Prince alberts and Mike on his faithful Kobe Ti. With two of us wearing the downhill jerseys too we look a bit sad as we depart the car park but do we care?

We take in all of the best that Pitch Hill has to offer plus we get to meet the legendary trail builder Oink and his crew who are responsible for amongst others 'Christmas Pudding'. They give us a personal tour of their two new trails named T1 and T2 (T3 is in the planning stages). Both trails are in a pretty raw stage at the moment and need a good bit of riding to bed them in.

That's it from me this week - the pictures tell the rest of the story and don't forget to check out the two videos. I wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope that your resolution was to get out there more this year.

Shaun demonstrates the rear wheel hop - right click and save target as for the video (3.3mb Quicktime)

Ratboy executes a perfect double on Pitch Hill - right click and save target as for the video (1.4mb Quicktime)

Gary - straight off the pages of this month's MBR and onto this site (February 2005 - page 85)

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Routes on the Surrey Hills

Fox Vanilla 130R Forx

9th January 2005 - Trailbuilding - Holmbury Hill

Those good folk at Redlands Trails had organised another trailbuild today. But not on any old trail, oh no, it was on everyone's favourite trail, Barry Knows Best. Barry's has been suffering from overuse and abuse during the last 12 months and has cut up badly in places.

The choice of trail obviously had the right effect and the great and the good of Surrey Hills riding were out in force. It was amazing to see 45 volunteers turn up through the day to assist.

I actually arrived late as I had decided to get the train to Dorking and then ride over. I roaded it to Westcott then off up Rookery lane and left at the top. From here there is plenty of singletrack that you can follow over to the Summer Lightning set of trails. Then over the top passing Leith Hill tower, down the other side and then up Holmbury hill.

This took much longer than expected, circa 90 minutes and that was before I started digging.

There were 8 or 9 separate groups working most of the length of the trail from the roadside entrance right down to where the trail crosses a footpath just before the final descent.

Initially the top layer of loamy soil was cut awat to get to the underlying sandstone. Once that was reached the trail was shaped and drainage channels were built on the downslope of the trail whilst the upslope was cleared of debris and shaped to prevenet it washing onto the trail.

Berms were built on some corners to direct riders onto the newer sections and the idea is to restore the trailt it's glory years of tisting singletrack descent rather than a dead straight dive down the side of the hill.

At the end of the day the trail looked considerably wider than before but once the riding line beds in and the foliage starts to grow it should stand up well to the weekly battering it receives. It will also make it more obvious where new work is needed.

Three hours later Mark gave me a welcome lift home.

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Routes on the Surrey Hills

Fox Vanilla 130R Forx

16th January 2005 - Richard - Epsom Downs circuit

Trouble clipping in lately?

Well I have had and looking at the state of my cleats I'm not surprised. Actually, I'm a bit embarrased because I can't even remember the last time I fitted a new set. I know that the set I have just removed is only the second set I have had since buying my SPD's in April 2001. So that's just under two years per set - not a good move.

For those of you using cleats/SPD's I would recommend an instant review of the state of your cleats. Even if they aren't worn I would loosen them and refresh the grease on the screw as I had a really hard time removing my set, skinning both knuckles on the sole of my shoes in the process. First off, you will need to remove all the grit and muck that has built up in the screw holes so that you can get the Allen key into the screw.

So, back to riding. The Rough Ride has announced it's date for this year (June 5th) and after skipping it last year I have sent my entry off for 2005. Good to see that the official site is still using my picture as the main header and linking back here. Click here for my report and pictures from the 2003 Rough Ride.

I couldn't get anyone interested in riding this morning so headed off for one of my old favourite routes -the Big 8. This is pure XC and allowed me to cover 24 miles with just a quick stop for some bread pudding at the NT cafe at Reigate Hill.

Right at the end of the route I saw David and Keef just turning up in the car to do the same route. Oh well, I preferred an earlier ride time anyway.

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Routes on Epsom Downs

Buy some new cleats

Fox Vanilla 130R Forx

22nd January 2005 - Richard, Mark, Jim, Glover, Cas and Gary - Pitch Hill

A good ride today in perfect weather - winter sun and dry trails.

As well as Mark we were joined by Jim and Glover who haven't been seen out on the trails for some time as wel as Cas and Gary, two forum regulars who hadn't experienced the gnarlier side of the Surrey Hills (well, until today, that is).

We did all the usuals with a final trip over to Holmbury Hill to try the newly renovated Barry Knows Best. This rode very well and didn't feel so wide as it did when I left the dig last week. All the muddy sections have been cleared down to the underlying sandstone and even the berms have bedded in well. The new corner just prior to the footpath flows well and actually improves the flow of the trail. Even the rooty sections are nicely challenging. This will continue to bed in and more work is planned for the future.

Right click picture and 'save target as' to see a short video clip of the new corner leading to the footpath. Note the berm that flicks you up around the tree stump redefinining the line before the corner (avi file 3.4mb)

Glover

Cas negotiates the rooty section on his rigid carrera

Richard

READ MORE:

Routes on Epsom Downs

Buy some new cleats

Fox Vanilla 130R Forx

30th January 2005 - Richard and Alan

A quick spin around the Big 8 again this week, or it would have been except for the confusion over the meeting place.

Nevermind, once we met up we set a fast pace, only pausing for breath at the top of Reigate Hill for some cake at the NT cafe.

The trails were atrocious. A seeping rain had been falling all week and the mud was inches thick in places. I finished the ride looking like a dalmation dog.

It was Alan's first off-road trip and he seemed to enjoy it - we hope to see him again and maybe head to some drier trails next time.

Now onto more serious matters. Following on from the great trail building session on Barry Knows Best a few weeks ago, confusion has reigned.

There has been lots of discussion over whether the trail alterations were the right thing to do, or not and new lines have been cut into the trail.

Now I'm not interested in saying who is right and who is wrong on this but it has been suggested that a good way of improving the profile of mountain bikers in the area is to make a financial contribution to The Hurtwood, a Registered Charity who own a lot of the land we ride on in the area. It needn't be a huge contribution and if you consider this against the amount of enjoyment we get from the trails each week it seems like a reasonable investment.

If you feel like contributing, it's also a good idea to write a covering letter commenting how you appreciate the Hurtwood Control support for mountain bikers, and support and appreciate the work being done at Peaslake on the Barry Knows Best trail and hope it can continue to completion.

Here's some background information on Hurtwood

Here's a map of the area owned by The Hurtwood

Here's a printable form to donate to The Hurtwood

READ MORE:

Contribute to The Hurtwood
Routes on Epsom Downs
Buy some new cleats
Fox Vanilla 130R Forx
Kit reviews
Buy an MTB DVD

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