Ride Report 26th September: Brighton

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Alice experiences the magic of tangfastics

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

Ride Report: Kingley Vale 3rd Oct

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Snack Stop

Snack Stop

I’m not usually the person you want doing the ride reports for the simple reason, as Rob will attest, I can’t remember most of the places I go to! But I have actually done this route with Rob before and a lot of it is familiar from years gone by. Here goes with memorable moments from Saturday’s ride.

Started with a hard, grassy climb up the Vale, into granny ring almost straight away; the quick, chalky descent out of the Vale was rudely interrupted by a maggot infested, decaying deer carcass. Constant strong winds make conversation difficult on the top of the downs.

After a brief snack stop sheltered by a big log, I’m sent down a fun, superfast, rutted, drop off the downs, on the way down I almost run over a pheasant and am almost run over by a rampant, Yeti wielding Paul; an evil road climb back up onto the Downs follows. We make our way to Harting and can see Portsmouth from the top of Beacon Hill; only one person cleans the vicious climb up to the top of Beacon Hill (me!) and then I’m impressed by the speed Brian, Pete and Paul come into view after the big descent down the other side.

We leaving Harting by way of a weave through a nice, meandering tree lined alley; and make our back up to Kingley via Stoughton and a rare tubeless puncture. I think this is Alice’s first big-type ride and she does well to keep with us, downing the Tangfastics to keep the energy up. A big climb follows and we head for the Kingley Vale downhill course.

The DH is a nice well-crafted series of big berms, kickers and bigger jumps,  not being the jumpy types Rob and I head for the bottom, enjoying the berms and wait for the rest. There are some nice features to play on, which Pete, Brian and Paul make the most of. Paul gives Alan a bit of instruction and encouragement and Alan then frightens himself with the speed with which he approaches the big wooden jump but he decides to stop in a cloud of dust and leaves it for another day!

A great, old school style ride, with a good bit of man-made trail as the final cherry on top. Back in the car park, Rob hands out some free ales and everyone heads home very happy!

 

Ride Report: Whiteways August 09

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Off Piste

Off Piste

Extreme Gardening:  Whiteways Ride August 09

Hectic single track, a tree stump, braking, lost it, over we go (only the third time today).  Felt quite safe for a fall – must be something to do with the adrenalin rush – also felt shunt moving me forward.  Metallic noises (rider behind forgivingly non-vocal).  More metallic noises (likewise newest rider).  Sorry guys!

My abiding memory of my first  Brighton MTB outing? – not at all.

I’d seen the network of bridleways in the forest area west of Whiteways on the map.  It looked interesting.  I hadn’t seen the Brighton MTB site and the Whiteways meet until the day before.  Great thing the interweb.

On Sunday I was belting down single track created specially for bikers out of forest.  I’ve seen such things in the Grizedale Forest in the Lake District, but they seem a more commercial thing.  The single track was technical and exciting to ride.  The heavy rain the day before helped!  Scrapes one and two were over fairly promptly after the start.  No damage done and it felt as though I’d got the hang of it.

Where did we go?  No idea at all.  In the car park before we set off, I mentioned the bridleways I’d seen on the map and was a bit mystified by the response, “We won’t be using them!”

Some parts were very overgrown and speed was the only way of making sure the branches and brambles didn’t get a complete grip and slow you to a standstill.  This results in scratches and blood, but Savlon cream was on tap.  Later we rode tracks we were told were very overgrown!

I was probably the oldest biker on the day and definitely suffered several decades on some.  But someone was always with me to ensure I didn’t drop off the back and get lost.  Four hours into the ride I was given a gel shot by another friend (note to self: I must remember people’s names).  How I’ve avoided gel shots all the years, I don’t know.  True to predictions, the shot gave me the boost I sorely needed to get me to the end.  The group was friendly, fun and – most importantly – forgiving of a less fit and able rider (thanks all round).

The mystery for me is not where we’d been but more how the ride leader gets to know the single track routes.  I’m only guessing here, but this may be explained if they are one of a band of dedicated extreme gardeners, locked away in the forest creating bike paths, complete with tricksy bits.  And that, I’m sure, is quite another story.

Thursday Evening Newbie

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Night Riding

Night Riding

I have been lone riding for a couple of years and just recently starting looking to join a MTB group – then happened across Brighton MTB whilst out walking in St Leonard’s Forest.

After chatting to a couple of the guys, I met up with the whole group on a Thursday night ride at Stammer Park. I was warmly welcomed by all & learned that there is a good mix of abilities and ages, with around 10 riders in total (more at weekends).

The group has set up some brilliant single-track trails around the stammer park area, which luckily (I think!) are not well known enough to be wrecked by inconsiderate riders…. The jumps and rolls are enough for intermediate riders to handle at slower pace, but have enough about them to be challenging for advanced MTBers if taken at speed.

No-one was left behind & the advice given about upcoming trails was excellent. I could tell that the experience levels were good, as all the riders chatted about everything riding orientated whilst mid ride (lights through to bikes, through to events) & gave some good tips on techniques and equipment. (Decent lights and a good helmet are pre-requisites for night riding with these guys).

Even with the off I had toward the end of the evening – (I was warned by Sam to mind my head….) I had a cracking time (hope I didn’t hold anyone up!!) and will definitely join up with them regularly.

Cheers Fellas!

Rob

Brighton Big Dog 15th August

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big dog

The weather was its usual sunny Brighton self, Stanmer seems to have its own micro-climate as even when raining and the ground is slippery it is rarely cold.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped out. Lugging boxes, erecting tents or finish lines, directing cars or standing for hours without a break trying to prevent the odd fool from killing themself.

Feedback from those competing or just taking part was very favourable and the riding was considered some of the best on the UK race scene, this is great news as at the end of the day those competing are the most important aspect of a mtb event. It seems us regular visitors to Stanmer don’t know how enjoyable our little playground is and it takes others to point it out. The use of some of our singletrack on the course was also gratifying although we will have to accept that it is no longer secret!  Why did some complain about the wasps nest? be thankful, we  have a section of singletrack called ‘Sting-in-the-Tail’, it wasn’t used but is named after the flying fiends. Some of the descents witnessed chaos and plenty of tumbles, hopefully no was hurt (including the guy from Oxford who we took to first aid and was instructed to go to A&E) and everyone will be back next year.

The high marshal turnout from Brighton mtb was very much appreciated by both the competitors and the organising committee who are planning a show of thanks during the coming weeks so watch this space.

Plenty of the Brighton mtb gang took part (apologies if I’ve missed anyone):

Mark and the ‘Bongo Pedallars’

Pete & Brian as ‘Brighton mtb’

Alex and Rob as ‘Where’s the Beer’

Mr Donne and Gez as ‘Are we there yet’

Sam in the solo event

Jo in the Oneder Dog

Jimbo from Sussex-mtb in the solo event

However, pride of place must go to Gill and her team ‘3 Pedigree Bitches’ who won their catagory, no pressure to defend it next year then girls.

As a first event to be organised by a bunch of amateur mtb enthusiasts the excellent vibe together with unanimous competitor feedback shows that the Big Dog  09 was a great success. The good bits of 2009 will be built upon and areas for improvement have been noted. The plan is to make the 2010 event one of the best experiences on the mtb calendar for both competitors and all those involved in organising and staging the event.

Keep checking the photos as they will be updated during the course of the next week.

Ride Report: Saturday 1st August

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Procession

Procession

3 weeks ago I had some kind of brainstorm about my present physical activities as I spend a lot of time behind a computer and my belly is getting bigger, hands thinner and head heavier. Outcome of that was the decision to buy an MTB! And so it happened.

2 weeks ago I bought my first MTB bike and searched the internet for places where I could go and start learning and riding. I came across Brightonmtb.org and here we go…….. a bunch of enthusiastic riders, who will never leave you behind, are willing to help with everything related to MTB and most importantly doing 3 rides per week regardless the weather. I contacted them and a couple of weeks ago joined for my first ride. I have no skills whatsoever but my first outing with them was a nice fluent ride (in my opinion).

Saturdays are “made” for less experienced people (none in my case) with a focus on practicing technical riding skills rather than a fast and furious ride. We slowly rolled through some hand-build tracks in the forest, practising techniques how to get over simple obstacles like small rocks, logs and fallen trees. The guys took me to a nice spot for bit of jumping practice (one foot high jump). After a couple of demonstrations and words of encouragement I had a go and a few attempts later and I managed to “jump” and land safely on both wheels at the same time. Great, first success!

The whole session took about 2 hours and 30 minutes, the guys were great, the weather was good (at least in the morning) and the whole experience was positive so I am looking forward to next Saturday and possibly even Thursday, to try to add some speed to it.

I also realised that wet roots are not MTB rider’s friends.

Cheers.

Oh and one more thing. It seems to be that right now I am the only one non-UK MTB learner in this group so if there are any more foreigners who would like to join. Just do it (Nike) – no problem at all.

Martin Pelikan

Thursday Evening Ride: A Different Perspective

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'Ill-in-the-head' trail

‘Ill-in-the-head’ trail

Now that shouldn’t have happened now should it? … I’m flat on my back looking at the tree canopy as my fellow riders check I’m OK… The evening had started so well too.

I would be in Brighton for a three-day conference at the University; an enquiry on Singletrackworld had been met with a number of responses recommended a spin with the guys from Brighton MTB on Thursday evening.

Continue reading →

Just another Saturday

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As this was an extra trundle only four of us pulled on rain jackets and spun out over thee grass. My choice of dry weather tyres seemed challenging as I spun on the very first, tiny slope. Neil was on a borrowed bike and immediately had to cope with two problems. The Suntour fork was somewhat bouncy compared to his usual fare and we could not swap the pedals as despite all our efforts they were well and truly stuck. Neil claimed that they were greased but Hercules would have failed to get them off.

Straight into single-track, then instead of a fire road climb a new trail to try.

Eventually after a few linked trails we arrived at the logroll. It looked a bit slippy and was despatched with ease by some but Neil who rides every obstacle with ease on his Commencal explored the absolute limit of a hardtail and a bouncy fork.

A slip, a slide, a bounce, a rear wheel easily a metre in the air with the forks fully compressed as he managed a virtual handstand.

Anyone who was not either a gymnast or a madman would have bailed off but he landed albeit with less grace than usual. He did not want to ride it again so probably not a gymnast.

More trails, a short climb, a fast run trail, another new trail, some minor repairs and a super twisty trail. We met up at this point with alone rider who joined us for a trail or two. It is always difficult to ride a new trail for the first time but newbie Jim even managed the big log in Sanatorium so hopefully he will join us for a full ride next time.

A bit damp, a bit slippy but fun for all.

I will change tyres now as obviously summer is over.

New Faces

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For those of us with grey in our hair this used to be the name of a talent show, and on Thursday night’s showing the stream of new talent continually joining us is going to make life harder for some of us. Even the ride organisation will need reviewing  if we always get twenty hardy souls on a dark, winter’s night. Continue reading →