Thursday 11th June 2010, my second ride with Brighton mtb. Having not been on a bike for over 6 years now, and finally blowing the cobwebs off my bike 2 weeks previous I met the guys in the usual Stanmer Car Park for another fun fuelled evening.
To my complete surprise, I appeared to have lost most of my fitness and bike skills – the fitness and skills I thought would just still be there on tap. Continue reading
This was my first ride at Stanmer Park and I’m still grinning in disbelief at the amount and quality of the single track. You know how it is – the hype becomes more real than the riding -well not this time. Endless ribbons of twisting, turning, feed me faster corners and fades, flick-flacks through trees. Testing all your riding skills. Cunning mixes of flow, power and commitment and the childish chase to keep the rider in front as close as unsafely possible. Pay back time after slogging through the winter mud and cold. Can you tell I had a great time!
Continue reading
Last Thursday I joined up with the Brighton MTB for one of their now infamous Thursday night rides.
With a slight degree of nerves – this was my first night ride in a long time – and a large bucket of excitement I arrived at Sussex University Sports Car park. I met Simon – who I’ve ridden with a fair number of times – and got my bike ready. As the clock ticked towards 7pm, various people showed up and did the same with various people introducing themselves to the new faces – mainly myself.
With everyone ready, we set off into the woods. We did lots of nice climbs and some dusty single track. Compared to what I had been used to recently – mostly open tracks and muddle bridleways – this was a breath of fresh air. Continue reading
We arrived at Sussex Uni car park on a very sunny Saturday morning ready to take on some new trails and tricks we’d learnt on the skills course with Astounding Adventures. Having ridden the trails at Stanmer Park the week before, I knew they would be super dry, so I couldn’t wait to get out there.
We were greeted by Ronnie and Mike and after a few more bikers turned up we headed off into the nearest tree line. It immediately felt good to be out with like minded people, and the pace was relaxed. We ducked into a trail and wound up through the woods, straight away I was on a trail I’d never noticed before, I must of ridden past it dozens of times… this was going to be a good day. Continue reading
It started with a couple of people meeting in the car park but slowly it turned into a small crowd.
Lots of faces turned up, some old, some new, at least one with something borrowed and one with a great coloured tyre. Continue reading
We went out on our bikes actually. Continue reading
Should you go out on a Tuesday night or a Thursday night. Well the answer is obvious Continue reading
Mojo has returned
All this wet weather has been keeping me off the bike recently. Work, family and training for a marathon have also had a part to play but if I’m honest the mere thought of venturing out into the cold, wet and muddy abyss has been the real reason. I just haven’t been able to summon the enthusiasm. My last ride involved rain of biblical proportions and more comedy dismounts than you’ll see at the circus. That was 2 or 3 weeks ago. For a regular rider like me 2 or 3 weeks off the bike feels like a lifetime. I was worried I might have lost my mojo and terrified I’d dump riding altogether in favour of World of Warcraft or some other geeky indoor weirdness, where the only chance of my heart rate increasing was if the curry delivery was late. I had to get out on my bike!
So on Thursday with the weather forecast looking good, (crikey no rain for a whole 24 hours!), I ventured out like some beast awakening from its hibernation. A quick check of the bike and it looked ok. I even remembered how to switch on my lights and turn the pedals. This was a promising start. Riding over to Stanmer I encountered the first muddy trails of the evening and my heart sank a little. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I resolved to stay positive.
Arriving at the car park and my spirits raised as I spotted all the regular faces and before I knew it the banter had started and my decision to ride seemed totally validated, and we hadn’t even hit the trails yet.
The ride itself was pretty hard in places but great fun. Some of the trails were in awful condition but it didn’t matter. I was enjoying myself and so it seemed was everyone else. Except for Ronnie who lost a pedal then spent an hour looking for it! He did find it though but it involves a conspiracy theory which is too complicated to explain here.
We rode some of my favourite trails which had taken on new dimensions thanks to the mud and wet roots. Slipping and sliding is great fun when your head’s in the right place. Don’t worry about coming off that’s all part of the buzz. Rather than finding it a chore, simply turning the pedals and “getting through it”, I relished these added elements. I even managed a few jumps in places, which feels weird on skinny mud tyres but I didn’t care!
We finished the ride on a high. The last two trails of the evening were relatively dry and were done at a good speed before we dropped into Sussex University campus for some BMX Bandits style action. I played Eddie Fiola and Steve was my Nicole Kidman (with a beard!) as with lights blazing we flew past befuddled students on our way back to the car park.
I finished the ride exhilarated and pleased to have made the effort to ride. My bike was filthy. I had mud in my teeth. But I was smiling because I’d got my mojo back. Winter rocks!
Mark
Alice experiences the magic of tangfastics
My first ride with you guys, feel pretty nervous, number one priority is to not make a fool of myself……….like almost passing out at the top of the first hill!! What a way to introduce yourself to a group (not one I intend to repeat, note to self to carb load next week and not to go out boozing the night before)!
A few Tangfastics later and I’m back to full steam ahead, the group have finished laughing at me and its time to carry on riding in the beautiful sunshine. Unfortunately as it is now 2 weeks (sorry, you’ll soon realise that I’m not the most organised type) since my debut ride, and I’m also totally unobservant, details of the ride are somewhat sketchy. We started off at the University of Sussex car park and headed up onto the South Downs (I think), had a fight with some very overgrown vegetation on route, lost and then found one of the group, and ended up in Stanmer Park.
Then came some awesome single track through trees with lots of obstacles to have fun with – highlights for me included getting over the row of logs (I’m sure there is a technical term for this, hopefully that bigs it up a bit, but I’m not sure what it is!). It was a case of third time lucky and the reassurance of having some strong hands to catch me if I flew off sideways that gave me the confidence to do it. Boosted by this success I also went over what looked like an impossible bit of tree with a ramp down the other side without falling off and felt pretty chuffed.
All in all, I had a totally fab ride and was made to feel very welcome by everyone despite the slightly flakey start. Looking forward to joining you for some more rides soon.
Alice
Brightonmtb.org 