Face Plant Trilogy +1 (names remain hidden for ego sake).

Tea tasted good and apparently the cake tasted good. The soil and grass however, certainly did not it tasted horrible. The route included some familier singletrack and 3 new runs;  ‘tank trap’ a devilish off camber descent with the usual fallen trees and built up bits, ‘hole in the wall’ and  ‘ill-in-the-head’ a brand new trail with two huge ramps. The result, six riders and 4  face plants.

The first off came at the drop through the hole-in-the-wall before a fast descent over a line of jumps, no damage done. After a climb we ended up beside a patch of nettles, the guys turned right through the nettles, down a steep descent and onto ill-in-the-head (how do they find or decide to make these trails!). The trail was a ribbon of singletrack through the trees and we were told it was only finished two days earlier. The singletrack ended with a narrow descent onto two very big ramps over fallen trees the scene of 3 face plants.

The first plant was amusingly achieved by the architect, engineer and trail builder, followed by my good self and then a fellow rider. Those of us at the top didn’t see the first face plant, we just heard a shout and some laughter followed by the instruction to “keep right, keep right”.  I took the first ramp with some confidence and relative success (more guts and stupidity than skill) and had the words keep right keep right fresh in my thoughts; I peddled hard to gain the necessary speed and momentum. However, not until I was eating some grass did I realise that the words keep right were obviously off my radar. I hit the first gap between the down side logs, then the second and then the final third. The result was pretty obvious a very poor superman over the  handle bars. I cannot claim it felt like slow motion, because, well, there wasn’t any motion. Fortunately, the only damage was loss of breath and damaged ego. This fortune continued when a third rider achieved exactly the same result. Hilarious, it looked a whole lot better than the actual experience. Boy, I laughed. Tip for others,  keep right keep right.

Another highlight for me was a steep decscent with a large tree that needed avoiding, especially at speed. I was not aware that my bike could travel at such speed with the brakes full on.

Very nice ride, with a nice cuppa to finish the morning off.

Cheers guys, enjoyed your company. After some discussions I’m going to join one of the longer Sunday rides soon.

James

Longer evenings and dry tracks  seem to eat up the trail miles and with more and more riders we seem to need to ride quicker too. Continue reading →

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 →

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

Mark cruising 'the lump'

I had been looking forward to tonight’s ride at Stanmer Park all week.  The sun is shining and the trails are dry.  Continue reading →

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