Tag Archives: brightonmtb

Stanmer’s European Single Speed champion

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Chris Noble used to ride with us every week when he lived in Brighton and still returns occasionally to re-hone his Stanmer skills. He was 5th last year in Big Dog so not much honing required really.

http://www.thebicycleacademy.org/2012/04/20/exposure-24-a-race-report/

 He has sponsorship now and writes up his race report at the new link above. Bike magic has a full race report too.
Obviously his success is not just talent, effort and dedication but due to playing in the dark on his bike with us.
Well done Chris from all of us.

First group ride…

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First group ride ever so wasn’t sure what to expect. Met at sussex uni sports centre car pack, i was early but before i knew it there was 16+ riders all padding up and looking eager to ride.

After a few quick hellos, we’re off!! Great

Nice gentle climb up onto the downs with all manner of lights beaming around like something out of close encounters ;-)

Can’t remember if the sky was clear but air was really nice and fresh, bit of wind to cool us down as we went.

First mini loop to get a quick hit of action. A short section of twisty single track before we carry on up.

Right out in the middle of nowhere now, the guys know all routes. Some bigger loops with longer runs. Man this place is rooty! Sus is doing overtime as we bomb along with some more technical woodpiles to navigate and drops to make.

Somewhere up high we all stop and Ronnie breaks out the sweets, nice! and we get a little rest before hitting a fast decent taking us round to some seriously off camber tracks with, yep, lots of roots. Bike was struggling to find the grip and after a number of near fun misses we’re through.

Quick climb up and we’re on the home leg, few sections of trail yet to hit. One quite quick one with a wall on one side and some nice challenging drops. Groups spread out a bit now and everyone hass found their space, big smiles when everyone re groups

Before i know it, we’re back having riden 10 miles and ascended some 1700ft acording to googles mytracks. A good Thursday night!

Southdowns has loads to offer and a really friendly riding group. I’ll be back whenever i can :)

Piers

First impressions on Brighton MTB from a newbie!

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Recently I moved from London to Brighton, to among other things rejuvenate my mountain biking enthusiasm/skills – I then did what we all do these days…..and Googled mountain bike clubs in the area.

I quickly found out that Brighton MTB (http://brightonmtb.org/) seemed a friendly bunch, and after exchanging a few emails had arranged to meet at Sussex University on a Thursday evening for a spot of night-riding.
Lacking suitable lights I was also offered the chance to borrow some impressive Exposure lights (courtesy of Freedom Bikes), and so on that Thursday evening I set off into Stanmer Park woods with 10-15 other bike nuts!

The biking itself was superb – a combination of challenging singletracks, obstacles to jump/ride over/avoid, and even some Northshore thrown in for good measure.
The group seems to be led by different people each week, with someone also at the back to ensure that no-one gets left behind, and the guys have excellent knowledge of the local routes available!

Based on my experience with Brighton MTB, the warm welcome I received & the quality of biking I’ve done so far, I would highly recommend this club to anyone who wants to get off-road again!

 

Ben

Epic Epping

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We had a recent trip to Epping which may not be the best known singletrack destination but it had an endless number of trails.

The day started badly with me getting lost on the way despite using sat nav and everyone waiting around until I eventually found the car park. Within a minute of arriving we were off and instantly into the first trail. With less elevation that our home ground everything was flat and twisty and ideally suited for a short thrash bike. My Mojo was over kill but some locals had brought out bigger rigs for riding and wheelies and balancing and even the odd fall in front of watching motorcyclists.

We rode trail after trail with friendly folk keen to show us the best of their area which felt generous every time you turned into another new trail. Dry conditions showed it well but flat ground meant pedal all the way. Continue reading →

Something old, something young, something quite different

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July 7th 2011 marked my first ride with Brightonmtb. I must admit I was pretty nervous, and rightfully so, as when I arrived I was by far the youngest attendee. After a few brief introductions and a casual ‘you’ll pick up names on the way’ from Ronnie, we were off and riding.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with regards to the riding style. I’m used to flowing singletrack and wide bridleways, uphill and down. But this was something quite different. Continue reading →

Another sting in the tail

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So, for the second Thursday in a row I would be spending the evening with a bunch of guys in muddy woodland, last week 180,000 at Glastonbury, this week 20 at the weekly BrightonMTB meet.

The night began as usual in the car park at Sussex uni, greeting a few new faces and comparing new kit. Time to choose a ride leader, and after a little persuasion Rob was volunteered… I think he realised he wouldn’t have to ride UP as much singletrack if he was leading the group! This was the first night ever I had forgotten my pack, so I was half expecting to get a puncture before even leading the carpark.

Off into Stanmer park we rode, up the usual firetrails until we reached the first group of trails at the top. We warmed up with a couple of old favourites, before riding a trail with some nicely built features, first a nice log pile followed by some nicely shaped doubles and berms. The route out of here was a little narrow and more than one person suffered a “bike, tree interface” as Mike likes to call it. Continue reading →

Fort William downhill

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This is a report from my second visit to Fort William’s World Championship in DH.

Initially we spent some time around Scotland and punished ourselves by walking to the summit of Ben Nevis on Saturday. 2h:07m is certainly not the best time in the world, but I overtook most of the people going up and managed to do it without one single stop – it is shame I can’t pedal up hills with the same enthusiasm. Then we celebrated our existence with a couple of litres of vodka, gin, vine and others….

Sunday – the big day!

Arriving at World Cup village at around 11am, we started cruising around the exhibition stands.
One thing that has caught my eye – an all mountain bike frame machined out of single block of alloy – no welds! (see picture A). The complete bike is around 14kg and the price of the frame is around £2500. The guy told me that it takes 25 hours of machining to make the main part of the frame – what a job!

This year I decided to do it opposite way – walk up the hill and take the gondola down for the descent (saving painful knees from the day before). Good idea it was – no queueing for gondola at the bottom and no sliding down on extremely messy and muddy paths around the course.

Immediately after the race started I realized that racing times were longer (+15secs) than the last year and I wondered why….
The course went through few changes just before the World Cup and those changes made it quite brutal. Seeing the course last year and being riding for the whole year, I was under impression I might be able to do it, but…

NO mate! NO way!

Continue reading →