Diary of a Mountain Biker

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If you ain't riding you ain't nuthin!

Shopping Partners

3rd July 2005 Richard, Magnus, Sam and Grant - Pitch Hill

Magnus has joined us again today after a month or so's absence together with Sam and his mate Grant. We head ver to Pitch hill yet again and follow all the old favourite's and a couple of newer trails too.

Things are going well until Grant's mechanical front disc brake decides to, well, break. Actually, the issue is that it doesn't brake anymore. For God's sake, give me a break from this wordplay.

He bravely decides to carry on and rides for the next 3 hours with only a rear v-brake to stop him.

This is the start of a bad run as Magnus decides to take a spectacular dismount over Sleepy Hollow, performing at least two somersaults and a half-pike before picking himself out of the shrubbery and then Sam going over the bars at the end of Barry Knows Best.

Despite all this, everyone enjoys the ride and we arrive back at the car-park weary and hot but talking excitedly about the great riding.

Grant on Holmbury Hill

Magnus in the leafy shade

Grant

gettin some air

more air

cycling in Surrey, a tandem, geraniums and a volvo

Sam

Monumental

Achievement

a packed car on the way home

6th July 2005 Richard and Cas - Banstead Downs

A quick spin around Banstead Downs with Cas on a wonderful, warm summers evening and then back to Cas's house to drink muchos beer and eat all his potato chips - and did I mention I'm going to the Alps this weekend?

Cas

Richard

Cas

9th to 16th July 2005 Richard, Elliot, Dave, Will and Mike - The Alps

For the detail of each day's riding see a full report of our Alps trip.

For all the photo action see the Alps July 2005 photo album

For the video of our Alps trip...

... download the Alps Video right click and 'Save target As' (7.8 mb WMV file)

moo-ve out of the way

24th July 2005

No riding this week as I only got round to unpacking my bike bag today. I dumped it in the garage on my return last week and haven't felt like going in there since!

So today, I unpacked the Enduro and rebuilt the ti prototype which was missing the Fox Vanilla forks and the XT Hollowtech crankset that had both been used on the Specialized Enduro out in Morzine.

Cas also came round on Thursday evening to show me his new ride having finally made his mind up on which bike to splash his cash. A very nice looking Klein Attitude with Fox 100RLT forks and full XT groupset including Shimano's paddle brake lever/shifters.

nice bike Cas but lose the reflectors eh!

31st July Mark and Richard - Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill

It's been a while since Markonthedowns and I have ridden together and as usual I ask him to lead the ride. It's always nice to follow someone else's route even if you already know most of the trails.

Starting from a damp but humid Holmbury YHA we take some of the singletrack climbs and then descents heading towards Peaslake. After another great run down Barry Knows Best we head up past the back of the church towards Pitch Hill.

We venture onto Trail 1.5 which proves to be extremely overgrown with ferns and after fighting our way through we exit onto the bridleway to see a guy pushing an old Cannondale Jekyll towards us. Landing a big drop on it has totally exploded the rear shock with the top of the shock blown clean off.

Back onto the trails and we explore a number of trails including Xmas Pudding. Heading back towards Peaslake, Mark puts on a bit of speed to catch 3 guys ahead and as I start to put the power on I lean into a right hander and suddenly lose the front on a long wet root that crosses the trail diagonally. I go down quickly landing on my side and feeling the wet earth on my cheek but it's a fairly soft landing and after a quick brush down and straightening the seat I get back on.

After the usual stop at Peaslake for refreshment we climb back up Holmbury Hill taking the path that crosses the re-modelled section of BKB. Up to the top and then after some more messing around on trails it's down Telegraph Road. Again, I lean slightly too much into a left hander this time and another wet root sees me down again.

I think my tyres are probably too firm, as I had them rock hard in the Alps to prevent pinch flats. They aren't gripping but just bouncing off the roots.

Which reminds me, I was looking in one of my son's books that detailed things to do in the summer holidays and a whole section was dedicated to getting out on your bike. It ended up with the line - "Remember, when out on your bike, make sure you look cool at all times and if anything goes wrong always blame the bike." Sound advice if ever I heard it.

hidden singletrack on Holmbury Hill

looking like a beach but actually the viewpoint at Pitch Hill

An overgrown Telegraph Road

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