Thursday 24th June.

On a balmy Thursday evening I turned up to Sussex University and as I pulled into the carpark I noticed lots of excited looking people and a couple of guys dancing to Yazoo hits beside their car. No it wasn’t an 80’s night but my first ride with Brighton MTB! There was excitement in the particularly warm air and why wouldn’t there be on a beautiful evening like this with the thought of riding lovely dry trails after the recent bizarrely generous dry spell we’ve been having! Around the carpark people were making final adjustments to bikes, riding up and down practising some skills, having a good chinwag or dancing to yazoo?!

As riding time drew closer the group started to assemble until the final figure of 17 riders with various pieces of bike porn were ready and raring to go. As we set off someone asked whether everyone could swim – what have I let myself in for I thought! Luckily nobody needed to swim as we did laps of a concrete pond with sloping sides, although I think it was hoped that somebody might provide some entertainment by pushing there luck a little too far and going for a swim – a camera was positioned ready!

After the pond we continued on up the hill to a section of singletrack full of jumps of various sizes, I was asked by Ronnie whether I had done much jumping, I haven’t and I think my inexperience showed! The guys very kindly guided myself and Caroline (who was out on her second ride) through and gave us pointers so that we made it through in one piece. Most of the jumps were rollable save for a couple which could be avoided. Halfway through this section somebody snapped their chain but Ronnie had a spare powerlink and helped them fix it. This happened next to one of the biggest of the jumps so the more experienced riders had a chance to session this (interesting to watch) which gave me and Caroline a few more tips on jumping.

Mechanical problem fixed and off we went, the rest of the ride consisted of miles of amazing single track, a few more jumps (and crashes!) and some exciting technical obstacles. Particularly good was a track which I think was named ‘Tank Track’, it was a real roller coaster and at one point had a section that required riding along a fallen down tree and down the ramp at the end. I didn’t manage it as my front wheel slipped on some moss – next time!  The final part of the ride consisted of loads of nice fast winding single track to really get the adrenaline flowing and smiles widening. Another highlight was a fallen tree standing around about 5 foot off the ground with log ramps on either side so it could be ridden over, this was left to the more experienced riders and it looked quite tricky judging by the number of near misses!

As it started to get dark we blasted through the last bits of singletrack and headed back to the carpark, I can remember some kind of large critter bouncing off the back of my throat and being sucked down my windpipe before I had the chance to spit it out – Oh well extra protein is always good!

All in all it was a really enjoyable ride, I never knew what amazing riding we have right on our doorstep and I don’t think I ever would have without coming along on this ride. Everyone can ride at there own pace, with no pressure and everyone is friendly, helpful and happy to offer advice if needed. A big thanks to everyone, they  do a great job of organising the ride and route and really look out for you if you’ve not ridden with them before.

See you all again next Thursday!

Dan

I’d officially like thank the random person who I met on a random ride about 4 months ago who told me I should come along to the Brighton mtb club rides on a Thursday night. I have no idea what his name was or where he came from, so for want of a better imagination, will have to call him “Whats his face” for now! Anyway “Whats his face”, I finally made it to this ride last night and I have to say it was the most fun I’ve ever had on the South Downs!

I was a bit nervous when I turned up at the car park, and my nerves weren’t assayed when, surrounded by a bunch of very fit looking young men, I tentatively asked “Do you get many girls coming along to these rides then?” To which the reply was, “Urm, well we do get the odd one”. Chuckle, chuckle! “They don’t come back then?” “Oh yes. We have a couple of regulars but one has gone to China for 6 months!” Jesus, surely it can’t be that bad I thought to myself. And then, “they are mad – downhillers, turn up fully body armoured up and are faster than any of us”. Oh great – that’s really helped calm my nerves!!

So feeling confident (!) and wondering what was in store for me, we set off into the woods. Although it was a fairly big group (there were actually only about 15 of us) it didn’t feel big and we were quickly riding loads of twisty, flowy singletrack with optional jumps and mini drops interspersed with some tricky turns and dodgy cambers! Mike was hanging back to look out for me and was really encouraging, explaining a few techniques which I tried to follow and copy. Well that is up until we reached a collection of logs where he said “Right on this one, just go at it fast and keep pedalling”. It made sense and what a fine demonstration it was Mike! But I’m afraid I wasn’t feeling brave enough to copy your unusual, yet very impressive landing! I know – that piece of wood had been left in completely the wrong place!

We were out for a good couple of hours, although it didn’t feel that long and we covered a fair bit of ground (seemingly mainly going down with no climbs – amazing!). It was a steady pace but everyone could go as fast or as slow as they liked on the singletrack, and even though I was the slowest, at no time was I made to feel like I was holding anyone up which was great!

There was quite a mix of bikes on the ride and I was intrigued at Steve’s single speed mountain bike as I wasn’t sure of the benefit of only having one gear. That is until the 3^rd time he had to fix a gear problem and Andy commented, “I can see why you’ve only got the one gear then, imagine the time we’d spend waiting for you if you had any more!”.

So all in all, a really friendly bunch, with no massive egos (maybe a few bruised ones) and just a lot of people who love having fun and riding single track. Would be good to have some female company next time, but if not I’ll just have to man up a bit on those drops and stop wussing out at the last minute! Thanks so much for introducing me to all that singletrack, and thanks “Whats his face” for telling me to come along in the first place – wish I’d gone sooner – it was ace!

Bring on next Thursday!

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!
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