|
Disclaimer | The Alps 2007 | Ride with us | Rough Ride | Swinley Forest | Links |Contact me | Site Map | Shop |
|||||||||
|
Date:
8th February 2009 I'm always pleased in anticipation of getting out on the bike but it's with an even greater sense of excitement when you are heading towards new trails and know that every inch, foot, yard and mile (or centimetre, metre and klick) that you ride will be totally new to you. So as we rolled into The Inn on the Pond at Nutfield the excitement was palpable. This was heightened further by Dave who had bought along his tricked out sky blue Mark III Prince Albert recently purchased from occasional forum user and even less occasional rider, Niall. And second up the presence of mountain bike royalty in the form of His and Her Maj's Huey and Sue riding their single speed Love/Hate frames. Having recently trashed his Santa Cruz Blur in a roof mounted rack/height restriction barrier interface Rob was on his orange Mark II Prince Albert which added to my titanium framed ride made it a total of five dialled bikes frames ready to roll. I'm telling you, dialled Mike must have felt a shiver run down his spine wherever he was at shortly past nine o'clock that morning. Lee, Tim, Felix and our guide Gary made up the group and we set off after minimal faffing across the road and straight onto flattish trails heading for Chaldon. It was at this point that I realised that Chaldon is at the top of a largish hill that looms up ahead of you. (Un)fortunately the off-road route was apparently trashed and so we took the road which obligingly kicked straight up taking us to colder climes as we started to encounter black ice and packed down snow on this little used road. This was less than two miles into the ride and everyone was struggling as our cold muscles shrieked for release from their pain. We also spotted the company 4x4 from Mountain Bike Rider magazine sporting the personalised plate '1 MBR' driving the opposite way to us. No doubt they were scouting out some new places to ride too. Back to the climb and I soon recognised this as the climb that Cas and I had done on our road bikes back in August, you remember, the one that has a right hand turn that looks like a wall in front of you as you approach the corner (see location below). Once we had cleared this hill we stuck to the ridge line which gave great views back towards Reigate and negotiated some flowing if rather greasy singletrack. However once we hit the woods there was still plenty of snow on the trails and it was firm enough to roll along easily enough although there was one long flat section that was a real strain as you had to put expend a lot of energy to go very slowly indeed and all the time you were fighting the bars to keep the bike pointing straight ahead. There
were a couple more
nice long single
track descents which
finished with steepish
roll in’s and
two stepped descents
where I managed
to slip onto my
side on the banked
edge of one of them
but still completed
the section (although
every ride recently
I seem to shatter
Lee’s illusions
of me as a half-decent
rider just that
little bit more…) A loop around the far end of this before we headed back towards the starting point just in time to see the illicit lovers meeting in the car park (the way they were all over each other they certainly werent married; well not to each other anyway). A very hilly 22 mile ride round the other end of the North Downs Way. Thanks to Gary from the Redhill and Reigate MTB'ers for the guiding and despite there being a lot of surface moisture that left us looking besmattered the going was actually a lot firmer than some doubters would have you think. If you think the pictures look slightly strange I have de-saturated them to give them a wintry effect; Do not adjust your sets. Hope you like them.
Check out the latest videos we have uploaded
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 Date:
15th
February
2009 I love it when I am feeling really fit. You know, that feeling that you can just pound out the miles no matter what and you leave others trailing in your wake. But sometimes it's also just good to ride with your mates and take in the fun parts of the trails and that's what today's ride was about. Hence we had a number of riders along that we haven't seen for some time and all riding under the banner 'we won't be going too far or too fast will we? But we want to have some fun'. So that's exactly what we did. A leisurely ride around Pitch Hill, visiting most of the trails that gave us a chance to pretend we were at best in 'The Collective' or at least one of the interminable 'NWD' series. I had decided to ride the Specialized SX today and so spent an hour or so yesterday removing the DH tyres and tubes and replacing them with the same off my titanium hardtail and reducing the overall weight from an Alpine 38lb's to a more respectable 36lb's. And yes, every ounce of that 2lb's saved was from the rotating weight making it a much easier job to lug the SX around the trails. I have to say that the Pedro's tyre lever makes removing the DH tyres much easier than last time I did it. I shot plenty of video today too and so expect to see a new video posted below shortly.
Check out the latest videos we have uploaded
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 Date:
20th
and
21st
February
2009 Cwmcarn It's been far too long since my last visit to the trail centres in South Wales being some 23 months since my last trip in March 2007. Love 'em or loathe 'em you have to go a long way to get that level of constantly challenging trails packed into such rideable loops. Friday morning of half-term week saw Rob and Lee roll up to my house shortly before 9 a.m. and we assembled the tetris like puzzle of 3 bikes and 6 wheels in the back of my Zafira plus assorted bags, Camelbak's, lids and other gear necessary for an overnight trip. A good run round the M25 and down the M4 despite those damnable 'average speed limit' cameras on at least four sets of roadworks and having waited ten minutes at Junction 27 for Terry and Gazza to catch us up and we rolled into the Cwmcarn car park just before mid-day. A short period of fettling, checking the Fox Vanillas that I stripped, cleaned and rebuilt earlier this week were in working order, a pee-break and a coffee and cake for some of the group and we set off round the Twrch trail which is the XC loop. It was Terry and Gazza's first visit to a purpose built trail centre and they both found the first few sections tough as there is no warm up as you go straight into a winding climb up the hill and the rocks and roots are pretty overwhelming for someone used to the generally smooth and loamy trails of the south-east. But they hung in there and despite an uncomfortable fall off the back of his bike on a steep section for Terry we found ourselves at the start of 'Airstream', my favourite section at Cwmcarn. I was slightly disappointed to find that the freeride/black section was closed for maintenance and more so when I found that the next section was closed too due to logging and you spend a frustrating couple of minutes descending on a tarmac fireroad all the while thinking about how you are losing that hard earned altitude. But on with the show and the next section that starts by one of the wooden statues made up for it (I think it's the Odin section) and from hereonin despite a small climb there's only one way to go and that's down hill, very fast. The final couple of sections are firstly rocky, stepped and steep and fast and the final descent across the fireroad has been re-shaped and is frankly dangerously fast and I took full advantage and full enjoyment from knowing that the car park, rest and refreshment is within sight as I flew down this section getting air on the kickers and scaring myself stupid. Pulling into the car-park Colin arrived with his brother Roger and Jem in tow with roadie Tony turning up separately and after more fettling we set off for another loop. The first loop had tken the legs out of us so we insited on taking the fireroad climb up to the start of the 'Giant's Finger' section before rejoining the trail and repeating the whole experience with the others in tow. Back to the car-park once more and everyone was buzzing with adrenalin from the final descent again and chattering excitedly "did you see me take that corner" or "I nearly lost it on that section" or in Roger's case he did manage to lose the trail before 'doing a Lance' and popping out back on the trail some metres further down to the surprise of his bruv. Here's the Cwmcarn pictures and don't forget to scroll down for the report on the Afan trails ridden the following day with even more pics.
Afan After spending the night at a bargain priced Travel Lodge in Pencoed (have you been to a Harvester before?) and keeping the bikes in the rooms a few more riders arrived on Friday night and we met a whole host more of mainly South African riders who arrived with Gary and Warren. After waiting for the cafe to open at the original Afan centre and a glacier like service we set off on the Penhydd trail. The original trail and still one of the best this was great fun. I was riding well, climbing much better than usual and descending without fear and this trail passed by in a flash. We had lunch at the drop-off centre (a nice welsh rarebit with ham), loading up on carbs with a few energy bars and drinks and then set off to cover White's Level. There was a funny moment at the start (a re-shaped entry from previously) when a small group of more free-ride types paused to enter the trails and we jumped in front of them, all 20 of us! Their faces were impressive although we didn't see them again on the long, long 6km climb up the sheep track to the top. Although I was feeling good at the start I was struggling on some of the numerous rocky ridges that line the trail. From being near the front of the pack I started slipping backwards and by the final ascent I felt the dreaded bonk coming on. Rob was close up behind me and I was spinning in granny gear. "Am I going slow Rob?" I asked to which he unhelpfully replied "No, you're fine" which meant I carried on to the top although let his small group pass. At the top though all the group were sweating buckets and we had a long rest whilst I crammed a banana, an energy gel, another energy bar and anything else I could find into my mouth. This seemed to do the trick and I was fine for the rest of the trail and I really enjoyed the second half of the trail. The new(ish) energy section is awesome "just attack it" was the advice from Colin and it has loads of different features from table tops, to whoop de doos (as I think they call them in Scotland) to boardwalk/North shore sections and more. Then onto the final thrilling descent via Goodwood and Darkside floating down and over rocky steps that really test out your suspension set up. This trail is a real killer; ride it!
Thanks to Davebus for pictures 23 to 35; he retains copyright on these. I shot plenty of video this weekend and have about ten minutes worth of footage to edit and post on vimeo later this week. Whilst you are waiting for that check out the latest videos we have uploaded.
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010
|
June
2010
| ||||||||
|
all
photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2010 | |||||||||
