hello motec

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goodbye kona

The old grips have served on the old bike and the new one but the rubber is worn out and one of the inner clamps has split. They have lasted well, never slipped and been on and off a few times for cleaning and shifter swap duties. I have soft hands and always prefer softer grips as a general rule but the Kona ones replaced some very soft WTB ones that wore out within a few weeks.

Overall 8/10 as they were a little hard and I prefer the raised shapes to fit my hand rather than spell the manufacturer’s name.

The new grips are on and the plastic clamp seems kinder to carbon handlebars than the Kona metal. Instead of a solid inner tube they have a cut out section which allows the grips to deflect inwards which feel softer.

Curiously there was no orientation diagram on the packaging but the website has full instructions. It seems a simple thing but I wonder how many people would rotate them by 90 degrees to move the clamps forward for easy closure rather than correctly underneath and in the way of my shifter levers.

On the up side though I have a reason for another tool in the bike shed in the form of a computer in order to cross-check manufacturers instructions. On the down side my neatly filed box of all my bike bits instructions has become extinct.

Head on

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A versatile term which might reasonably be used to refer to when Mark has his video camera attached to his helmet, it’s rolling and he’s
getting great trail footage.

Well tonight Mark had his head- on….but the video was nowhere to be seen.  Shame really as it could have been some spectacular footage…….or a spectacularly smashed
camera.

Six of us set off from the car park roughly on time having not let
Ronnie’s new toy distract us too long.  Well it doesn’t take long at
all to realise you can’t just hop on a unicycle and get going.  I look
forward to seeing Ronnie juggling firesticks while slaloming round

our parked cars at the start of a ride in perhaps a few weeks (I mean years don’t I?). natural ability

Our route took us through upper and lower Stanmer trails with every
last one of them proving bone dry and fast rolling.  It was a mix of
increasingly familiar single-track but laced together in a different
order.  Add in the ever extending daylight and it seemed like a fresh
new ride.  Maybe this is what got the adrenaline flowing but one way
or another we were in attack mode and eating up the tracks.

Tucking into the ‘nadgery’ section that Mark has called T&C he commented that he’d been using this trail a lot recently and was getting very familiar with it.  He then missed a turn enabling me to take the lead.  Congratulating ourselves at our
speed we continued on aggressively, Mark back in front and flying, literally
flying……..a major front flip over the bars, between two trees and
slapping down on his back, the bike pivoting around the front wheel
which appeared to have stopped dead on the trail for no apparent
reason.  It was pretty high speed and violent so the fact that man and
machine were ok was lucky (actually I’ll bet he’s feeling it a few
hours later).  Turns out he’d got just a few inches off line and hit
a stump hidden in the undergrowth head-on.  It might as well have
been a brick wall.

Later on we discussed disgruntled walkers attempts to booby-trap the
woods, dogs that bite cyclists and how tonight an eerie quiet had and
stillness to it…..oh and madmen with axes.  The fact that only 3
out of 6 starters arrived back at the cars wasn’t due to any of the
aforementioned thankfully, the others just peeling off early.

To reassure any newbie’s nervously considering night riding don’t worry,
a ‘madman with an axe in a wood at night’ is more likely these days
to just be an ardent trail builder, rather than a good old fashioned
‘madman with an axe……….’

MD

Ride Report Thursday 2nd April

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Stanmer at night

Stanmer at night

Tonight was my first ride with the folks from Brighton mtb. Graham ,who I ride with in the Dirt Devils, had told me about the night rides around Stanmer but it was another mate, Paul, who had said lets go out with him rather than slogging up to Holmbury on the North Downs the night before. As it turned out Paul didn’t make it this evening but a mutual friend, Gary, came along with me. Continue reading →

Ride Report: St Leonards and Tilgate Forests 29th March 09

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Jane making short work of the stream

Jane making short work of the stream

Many Rivers to Cross!

The first day of summer dawned an hour earlier than expected, and at a freezing 3 degrees I was tempted to roll over and pull the duvet back up. But the BrightonMTB lot had been very encouraging so Stumpy and I headed out for the day.

Met at the car park to see 7 fit, fast, young-looking guys with some nice bike porn between them and within minutes we were twisting and turning through some fun, fast-flowing singletrack through the trees with nice little root obstacles and a fair splattering of mud. The guys were going a pretty good pace but always checked that I was hanging on ok.

Then came the first river crossing, this had caused traumatic nightmares for one of the group who dreamt of slipping on the green, wet slab and going over the bars into the stream. Sounded bad. But when we got there it looked tempting, a nice little rooty slippy descent followed by a twist into the stream and shallow line across. Pete showed us all the best line and we all got across dry and intact.

More fun twisting and turning and by now all ideas of being able to come back another time to ride these trails on my own were gone. I had no idea at all where we were. On asking the guide, Pete, where we’d been he wiggled his finger around in circles over the map … so not sure he knew where we were either!

Next, we crossed over the M23 and more flowing single-track around Tilgate Forest until we spied some freshly built jumps and berms. We all had a bit of a play until out of the trees came a tiny little guy on a very large Orange he was the track builder and gave us repeated demos of big leaps into the air. When he took his helmet off for a chat we found Captain J who was well into his forties; had a body made predominantly of metal pins; and very few of his original teeth. Clearly this jumping thing is harder than it looks.

And so to the third of the river crossings, the exit looked easy but the entry point was difficult. There were 2 options, a gentle but very rooty drop in or a steeper but rootless drop in with a turn on exit. All stood around to inspect, discuss and ponder when suddenly Ian and Brian invented a new route taking a running jump off the 3-foot edge straight into the river and then pedalling out the other side, respect! Pete cleanly demonstrated the rooty entry, Graham the smoother entry and that left Alex and I. I knew I would endo the rooty entry but Alex very kindly did that for me catching his front wheel on an underwater stick and ending up as a slightly bedraggled but smiling heap in the river. So, I took the smooth line, successful entry and crossing but dabbed on exit.

The rest of the ride included more flowing singletrack, some nice undulations; slippery roots; more mud; and a jump park at which Ian got some big air impressing us all and Alex got some big air impressing himself.

All in all, a really good ride, really high percentage of singletrack, very well guided by a colour co-ordinated guide, very friendly bunch, nice distance, felt nicely tired at the end.

Everyone was very kind, thanks guys

Jane

Ride Report 12th March

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Most haunted?

Most haunted?

After discovering Brighton Mtb Club via a review of a bike I decide to attend a night ride. The night was dry and mild, I met up with the club at Sussex Uni, where I met a really nice group of guys and bikes. After some discussion of how they were expecting me to be faster than them we set of on the ride.
The pace was mild and relaxing to begin with, after a while we took off down some almost hidden technical singletrack.  It was a really good change from my usual riding, help and directions were always available through the more technical parts, that are maintained by the members. The ride always seemed to be heading downhill which was nice. After a few loops of singletrack and no major mechanicals we headed back down through Sussex Uni, not too muddy and looking forward to the next ride on Thursday.

Chris Noble