A day spent not pedalling

Johnnie went and signed us up for an uplift day at Ae Forest (scotlandshire) think he just wanted an excuse to visit the motherland. Mark, who hates riding uphill, unbelievably couldn't make it but Ryan the part time downhiller took his place so along with Si the 4 of us headed up there. With the exception of Ryan we had the weediest bikes there but with his full facer and borrowed body armour Johnnie looked the part - if you ignored his tights. First run down we were advised to go down the shredder but we had been warned thee were some do or die sections on bot runs and they weren't signposted (gulp). Shredder is like llandegla or lee quarry on steroids, bigger drops, bigger jumps, steeper switchbacks but similarly flowy and eggs you on to go faster. We saw the DHers ahead stopped at the fireroad jump a 4-5ft drop where you tired to clear a fireroad and land on the downslope. We watched a DHer come up short and bottom out very harshly on the flat (on an 8" travel bike) hmm. 2nd run down on a whim I went for it, again came up short and bottomed out big time, got full travel on my forks (1st time ever!) and tweaked my knee. 3rd time I didn't bother but Ryan did, he was short too and slammed down, Johnnie came round the corner and stopped next to it, then Si came tearing round the corner I thought bloody hell he's going for it! Nope he'd forgotten it was there, too slow, nose heavy his front wheel pile drived into the ground followed by his head - not good. He got up feeling OK-ish but his glasses had cut pretty bad into his ear, tacoed front wheel, I stamped on it till it was true enough to roll, helped him fit a new tube then he minced down and off to A&E. We were late for the uplift so I charged down, properly quick, barely in control but made it back incident free and in time for the bus.

The downhill run was more technical, rooty and rocky with some tight switchbacks oh and a HUUUUGE stepdown which we looked at and said no way. It was good to see that on the tech stuff similar to what we normally ride we were a similar speed to the downhillers, then on the silly big drops and jumps they kept going while we minced. After 7 runs down Ryan was threatening to sit one out as he was tired....tired he's 22 he should be able to sit on a bus and ride down a hill FFS. Actually by then my hands were getting tired, braking was hard work, anyway we persuaded him mocked him till he relented. We did the shredder again and this time tried the log ride, Ryan went 1st I followed, from the start it was looking bad, was going to fall to the left but hung on and recovered then started to go right argh, tried to keep on but no chance, so jump off bike or ride/drop off? Jump/drop/jump/drop eek, I dropped, nearly landed it too but bars twisted and threw me off, Ryan cleaned it git! The last few runs we had it dialled and ripped down, really good fun, DH was good but shredder was better, so many jumps/drops to fades where you seems to be in the air for ages then touch down smoothly and I was getting some proper height and length on the tabletops. Managed to clear the fireroad gap on the last run aswell. Feeling rather battered today but will be going back next year, maybe a trip to innerleithan aswell.

Proper night riding

Tuesday night ride was cancelled so yesterday afternoon me and SI decided to nip upto Cragg Quarry after work, he's not been before. Drive upto his then set off, 40minutes in I realised it's a lot further to the top of rooley moor road from Si's than I remembered, getting pretty cold too. Eventually got to cragg and managed a loop in the dying light, good stuff, pedally but quite flowy, there was a lot of really good bits I'd forgotten about but I had other things on my mind last time. We had a second lap in the dark, much harder work, taking the downs a bit slower so even more pedally. Few near misses as I was coasting around the top of the berms instead of carving the start and cutting in. Ended up running out of berm a few times. Dunno how anyone would manage with just bar mounted lights, you can hit the berms so fast you need to look wayyyy ahead and scan the trail up down right and left, if you got the choice helmet mounted lights are the way to go. Was funny, stopping and looking back along the trail for Si and just seeing his light shining out above the hill he was climbing, very "close encounters" We split after that lap, he had a long downhill home I had a bit more testing route. Stupidly I did more of the loop again instead of going straight down RMR. When I did depart the loop RMR was no where to be seen I just had a rough idea of direction and a faint sheeptrack to follow, the track twisted and turned and then dissappeared. I looked ahead still no sign of RMR and no chance of tracing my route back - gulp! Started getting worried, didn't wanna get lost on the moors. I forged on and fortunatley found RMR close by, phew! Remembered the route back to sandbeds lane and over to holcombe moor OK, pretty good considering I've only done it once. It's a bugger of a climb onto the moor but I managed it and was presented with a nighttime vista different to the usual from rivi. I headed to crowthorne round the horseshoe, a bunch of bikers passed me at the maggot farm (particularly pungent!) My legs were fading fast so took the road home mostly downhill. A pretty hard route for a night ride, I was shattered at the end but it was a good blast.

Chilled

Really nice chilled offroad commute this morning, sun was out (eventually) bit of mist, trails in good nick, think I saw a fox (well i saw a flash of red fur). Caught up with a guy bimbling along some very narrow singletrack so I just coasted, patiently waiting for a chance to pass, he was hardly looking at the trail just checking out the view through the trees down to the river, just soaking it all up and that reminded me what a nice xc commute I have. Got to agecroft there was still a bit of the pink of sunrise in the sky, beetham tower was rising out of the mist on manchester and a squadron of canadian (iirc) geese flew passed and landed on the river next to me - very cool.
Forgot that xc takes 20mins longer, oops, will have to set alarm earlier tomorrow.

3T backwards

So we've got a reprieve on winter for now, lovely day yesterday, I was unsure where to go, fancied a biggish ride but didn't have a load of time. A slightly slimmed down 3towers I thought, aim for 4hours. Setting off I'd initially planned to go trough the jumbles, I normally do this early or late and in minging weather so no bother but there were so many people out on the trails before the jumbles I swerved them and headed up the road to Holcombe....along with a monster headwind. At peel tower I saw a couple of guys headed over the moor, I thought they'd know the trail back to the horseshoe so I chased and caught up with them, unfortunatley they didn't, they were just exploring so I turned back. Met Mr Sparkle and friends at the bottom they'd come from Darwen over hoddlesden moor and the area Lowey was exploring a few weeks back, there's a decent route there apparently.
We were all headed to Darwen so we had a natter and Simon showed me a few new trails round there including some lovely singletrack. Simon was showing up my lack of fitness, I was ok at powering up short steep sections but on longer stuff he was leaving me for dead. Roddlesworth was busy so I was on a go slow, was a bit boring going back to rivi TBH, it was getting on and my legs were fading so I didn't do great hill was tempted tho. Rivi was packed, picked my way up the hill, the last stretch to the pike was murder, wind was back with a vengeance, getting blown all over the shop. Headed home via georges and chorley old rd as I was running late, just managed sub 5 hours. Conclusions, seems my knees are a lot better just not 100% yet, my cold still hasn't buggered off, I don't need to eat as much as I normally do (didn't eat at all during the ride) I need a new back wheel for my RM, the old one off the HT I'm using is proper heavy. 5300ft is not a lot of height gain for a 41mile ride.

That's why

Dunno who this guy is but I like his SS write up.

Berming the midnight oil*

Johnnie fancied a change of scenery this week so me and Si met him at Lee Quarry, I have been up here on an evening before but it was only just getting dark as we left, last night was a proper blackout from start to finish. Nice night, it clouded over after sunset so not too cold but no moon or stars and we were the only ones out, had the place to ourselves, perfect. The newish rocky singletrack climb was hardwork in the dark, dabs all round, and the steep roll-in is a lot harder when you can't see anything until you've gone over the edge but we made it to the skills area relativley unscathed. Did the ace big bermed red run there a few times, first time down was dodgy my lights weren't setup right for it, but then again it's not often I've got too look way up, above head height to spot my line (those berms are HIGH). With my lights set higher the next runs were better. We did the rest of the loop, coming round a corner at the far end of the quarry there was an awesome view, dark to the left and right, bit of trail ahead illuminated by my hopes then the blackness of a drop and the lights of Stacksteads close but way down below us. I've never done a nightride on such a precipitous trail before, pretty cool. The ginnel and the jumpy bottom section were a lot more involving in the dark. I held the gate open at the very bottom, bad move, Si tried to corner on the loose gravel and binned it. Another quicker loop followed, I rode the optional black drop offs again - with my forks locked this time Doh. Had a go on the pump track, all of us on full sus made it very hard work. Hit the jumpy bits harder this time and managed not to die. At the bottom again I held the gate open this time Johnnie tried to make the corner....and didn't. A nice change to the usual rivi run and a reminder of what nightriding can be like, depending solely on that little illuminated spot infront, we know rivi so well there's not a massive difference doing it at night. Good stuff.

*sorry best I could come up with

September

Bit of a mixed bag really, kielder and quite a few away rides was rather good, Kielder eating my knees, me breaking my backwheel and mental rain turning the trails to mush wasn't so good, as born out by the pathetic 316 mileage (and a third of that was 1 ride!). I've rested my knees since ambleside but the gentle commute this morning showed they still aren't 100%, fingers crossed they are sorted soon.

Aims update, a few things ticked off, looks like 3000 xc miles is out, I've not broken 2000 mark yet and only 3 months to go, stw weekender never happened, coast to coast hmm we'll see, doubtful tho. Maybe if I commute xc for the next 3 months I could crack 3k, cleaners would probably ban me from the building tho.