I am intending to resurrect this site if I can return to the saddle but first I need to carry out some bike maintenance which I may share here if I can remember how to fix things.
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“you’re doomed”
This was the unexpected answer to the question from the recently returned in-house physiologist. Last Thursday was the driest ride for some time but we only mustered a semi dirty half dozen which was the lowest turnout in several years. Continue reading
Winter Thursday
Last week’s ride was not typical. Carl and I were early and headed out to check the trails before the ride at 7pm. This bit was typical. I had set up ready for a cold, frosty ride with lots of layers and a fat tyre on the front but it seemed slightly mild.
Mind the gap
I had missed loads of Tuesday rides due to broken wheels, broken frames and getting stuck working on something on a Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading
Fork in mud
Lots of newer rides this year are encountering the delights of Stanmer in winter and asking about the right kit and maintenance. Continue reading
Tuesday’s ride – painful with a difference.
It started off as a regular Tuesday ride with Tom’s warning of gales and mud reducing the field to half the regular size. With Ash in puncture land somewhere on the SDW Tom re-jigged a route to allow a rendez-vous and avoid a headwind or the remnants of the travellers and their detritus. So tarmac, orchard, hill that hurts, horseshoe and another hill that hurts. Definitely not a Thursday ride but not getting dropped and not everyone else found the pace easy. Finding Ash we turned with the wind and rode the ridgeline. Continue reading
Porc racing
On Sunday Aron and myself headed to Kent to compete in the first round of the PORC DH race series. Neither of us has much experience racing and we’re certainly not downhillers. We don’t even own DH bikes, never mind race them. So turning up on our trail
bikes we did feel a bit out of our depths. It turned out we weren’t the only ones on little bikes. Whilst the majority of the field was a sea of Santa Cruz V10s, Giant Glory’s, and Nukeproof Pulse’s all armed with +200mm of travel and built for the sole purpose of getting down a hill as quickly as possible. A few had arrived on short travel bikes and even a couple of hard-tails were present.
Continue reading
Hadleigh
Having been on a few Tuesday and Thursday Stanmer rides, Ronnie mentioned this Essex away rid
e that might involve some of the Hadleigh Farm Olympic course. It sounded interesting. Continue reading
Play day
As there have been a couple of training days this SATURDAY’S ride will be a play day. This will mean stopping and practising technical obstacles and not covering lots of miles. So if you wish to improve your singletrack speed or improve your jumps come along and play.
For those of you who wish a bit of a blast then tonight’s ride should be nice and dry.
Getting the ‘Mojo’ back
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
Brightonmtb.org 