Mark M has help to set off alarms at airports due to riding much too fast and dropping nearly everyone behind.
Luckily it is not as if he has to go through airports every day or anything like that………..
Culture for mountain bikers
Art for Art’s sake and money for God’s sake goes the tune but this art is free. John rides Tuesday and Thursday and finds time to be creative in between cleaning the mud from the bike.
He has an exhibition on at Ropetackle in Shoreham (ropetacklecentre.com) until June. His website is john-north.com.
I chose this painting as it is titled the Art of Falling which is a subject well known to all of us. I have only reached craft level of falling which is roughly GCSE but with extra practice during summer I expect to improve towards journeyman. This is falling and jumping back on quickly and hoping nobody notices.
Obviously if John falls now we expect full on grace and elegance and he is not allowed to fall on his own as we need to be nearby to appreciate the art.
There are lots of other paintings on the website including more that are bike related but may be quite difficult to spot.
Amazingly we have a rider with talent…
Tuesday night rides
Each week the regular Tuesday riders receive a prompt to come and ride. These can vary from begging letter to wild promises of new snow, no snow, dry trails, freedom of rain guarantee or even a song like this.
I posted the real lyrics below to help you sing along.
Ash did.
He sang the song to his wife.
She took away his beer.
So if you want to come along and sing tonight be there at 7pm
There’s a reason for the sunshine sky’s
There’s a reason why I’m feeling so high
Must be the season when the trails are dry all around us
So let that feeling grab you deep inside
And send you racing where your fear can’t hide
And then go riding through the moonlit night like no other
Just let your ride flow like a mountain stream
And let your fun grow with the smallest of things
And let the brakes go and you’ll know what I mean it’s the season
Let the bike fly like a bird on a wing
And let it take you past dangerous things
And let your heart sing and you’ll know what I mean that’s the reason.
Facts about Fat
You can ride a bike fast, chase people up hills so by default you are healthy – maybe carrying a few extra pounds but you can ride so you must be in better shape than your average Jo.
Not necessarily – If your diet has a lot of the ‘bad’ stuff and not so much of the good, your insides might not be in as good a shape as you think. Continue reading
Jones Ti Spaceframe
Looking at the current STW thread on Jones, now topping 130 posts is easy to forget one thing, the Jones is a just a bike, nothing more, nothing less, it’s not a magic bullet, it’s not a cure for cancer or create world peace.
Ok now we’ve got that sorted, here goes………
Continue reading
Devinci Dexter
Coming fro
m having only ridden hardtails (mainly due to the high cost of full sus frames) I decided to take the plunge into my wallet and buy a new frame. The hardtail I had was a Yeti Arc, although fast light and great for Stanmer trails, was aimed at the more xc end of riding.
I wanted a stronger frame I could take most places and not worry about breaking it, or myself, in the process, plus the 100mm of travel up front limited me to what I rode and how fast I rode it.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Padded shorts is a regular subject that always arises as a point of discussion for NO reason. Discomfort, rubbing,chaffing, hotness or blood running down a leg are NEVER mentioned but chamois cream seems to be familiar to some riders; not them but somebody they KNOW. Continue reading
Not just for tonight
So you finish your ride : you are freezing and starving. The first thing you do is jump in a hot shower, eat something sugary whilst simultaneously reaching for the most instant dinner you can think of.
None of this however will actually help you feel any better past the immediate effects – you will still wake up starving and sore tomorrow wondering why you do it. Continue reading
Rob’s epiphany
First, overcome fear, put on bike gear, get the shiny new 29er out of the shed, go and 
meet a group of guys you’ve never met in a car park and follow them into a dark, wet, wintry, unlit wood…… Literally the best experience I have had off-road in ages. Continue reading
Chris’s ride report
I lived in Brighton a few years ago during my university placement and it was where I learnt to ride technical trails. I still come back each summer to race at Brighton Big Dog
I have kept in touch with Ronnie who has supported me in the world of racing over the last few years and as I had a local visit planned it seemed a good excuse to come back and ride on a Thursday night ride with Brighton Mtb.
Meeting up at Sussex uni it was nice to see such a variation of bikes, gear and riders, from flowery helmets to fat bikes they had it all. After a quick chat about bikes and riding with journalist Tom Gallagher and Jimbo (Sussex mtb/SouthDownsmtbskills/Quest) we headed out in Stanmer wood and we quickly hit the twisty single track Stanmer is known for and where I was promptly dropped by Ashley on his Jones, damn! Being fast uphill can’t help me here.
The Stanmer trails were sticky but still running well for January I thought; my local riding has suffered badly over the winter. With a high concentration of riders the best single track gets a hard time, with little maintenance the single track rapidly turns into double track.
I usually ride long countryside routes, linking forest areas together, this helps my general fitness, but riding more technical singletrack with varied trail obstacles like Stanmer would help me b
e a better all-round rider, even if we only managed 11miles in 2hours!
It was refreshing to ride with a group that managed to keep up a good pace, with stationary time kept to a minimum, riders could skip sections to recover or chase faster riders up the hills or through the single track.
Riding Stanmer with Brighton Mtb would make any keen or novice rider improve; it sure showed me that my technical riding skills need work before the summer season if I’m to ride efficiently.
Chapeau guys! keep up the good work and I’ll see you in the summer, if not before.
Chris Noble
(link to Chris’s racing site is on the sidebar)
Brightonmtb.org 