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Date:
2nd November 2008 It's a dry morning but the torrential rain yesterday has left the trails very wet and muddy. We toil round the usual suspects albeit in a different order to normal. Niall and Grant have joined us for the first time in six months but Niall soon loses a crank (loose tension screw on the HollowTech II) and they head back for the car. Tony is riding a very nice looking Singular Swift rigid 29'er singlespeed with drop bars (surely that's enough niches for anyones book). As usual he is powering up all the climbs although Dave on his singlespeed Marin Rocky Ridge gives him more than a run for his money. We pause for refreshment at Peaslake Stores covered from head to toe in mud but a few of us decide to push on to Holmbury Hill for a finishing run down BKB before heading back to the cars. A good ride in great company with the entertainment provided by Colin as he binned the landing twice on the same small kicker although a few too many of those type of soggy trails last year led to me getting the road bike so here's to more dry days over the next few months.
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photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 Date:
16th November
2008 After all the recent rain I decide that the trails will still be in bad condition so have an outing on the road bike with Cas, Rob and Lee. It's great to see Lee actually out on his bike and we put in a fair few miles in dry weather before Cas has shooting pains in his right knee and we limp back to Rob's for Rob to give him a lift home in the car. Typical, Cas must have smelt the rain because just as Lee and I started up Pebble Hill, a nice 16% climb on the way home the rain starts to come down. It's not too heavy though and we complete the ride. Circa 45'ish miles for me in just over 3 hours.
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 Date:
21st
November
2008 Winter Curry Night!
Date:
23rd
November
2008 After going to bed last night expecting the forecast heavy rain I think we were all a bit shocked to find it snowing this morning as we looked out of our respective bedroom windows. So that's the third time it has snowed in 2008 after a heavy fall in April and a light dusting in October. Needless to say, it's cold on the hills with the temperature at 1°C as we set off heavily wrapped up. We are joined by Darren who found us on the website, liked what he saw and joined us for a ride. In view of the conditions I wanted to keep the ride fairly short but fun and decided to wend our way round all the singletrack on Holmbury Hill of which there is literally mile after mile (if you know where to look and luckily we do). It made me laugh about halfway through the ride when Terry described the ride as a "typical Richard ride". That's right! 90% fun singletrack with as little climbing as possible making full use of the trails to traverse along the contours losing as little of that precious height that we mountain bikers constantly struggle so hard to gain. After a soggy stop at Peaslake Stores we headed back up Holmbury just as the rain started to fall heavily. Trails that we had ridden just over an hour before suddenly became rivers and Telegraph Road was the wettest I have seen it and the water started to pour into my previously toasty warm shoes and inside my sealkinz waterproof socks. Luckily the cars were at the end of Telegraph Road and we were soon on our way home.
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 Date:
23rd
November
2008 I love to ride new places with new riders and after receiving an invite from Sussex Muddyarse to join them on a guided ride with the Tunnel Hill Trolls around their local trail I was very interested. I was even more interested when I learnt that the trails were free-draining and had names like Pants Down, P45, Over the Top, Quality Street, Lemon Tart, Chop Suey, Rollercoaster and No Quitting Corner. So Sunday morning found me parked up at the unlikely venue of Basingstoke Canal Visitor centre, a seemingly non-bike friendly meeting point. After a while the group of 23 riders assembled and we set off for the trail head led by Jay. We were soon straight into the singletrack and this didn't let up for pretty much the whole ride. The forest is very similar to Swinley in terms of the innumerable pine trees and the fact that it all looks exactly the same wherever you are. The bike was handling much better than usual. For the past month my rear pads have been low on the Hope M4's and I finally got around to replacing them and taking the opportunity to bleed the rear brake too. What a difference that makes! We visited all the trail named above and it was a pleasant surprise to find a lot of low-level North Shore hidden in the woods too. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious, wet and bitterly cold but my various waterproof layers did their job, at least until half an hour before the end of the ride when I started to get cold through to the bone and it took an age once I had reached the car for me to warm up again. A great ride and I look forward to visting again.
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photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 |
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2010
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