Hammers

"Got everything lads" Oh yeh yeh sure. Good one. I swear me and Jol double checked we had everything buy of course he didnt have his goggles and i was missing a shinny.....


A half 7 start saw the dhp van head up noorth towards Hamsterly. First stop was Rotheram to pick up Mo, note : poundland is the way forward for bungie cords. Aftwer wacking on an episode or two of family guy on jolleys laptop, the journey up the Msomething lasted no time at all. We had to make one last stop at the services to catch up with Dom (and his kid Sam), whos one of the top dogs over at www.grangers.co.uk who make the best waterproofing gear in the business. If your off up everest or just attacking your local muddy trail, this is the stuff to be wearing, check it out...

After the over 40s meeting had finished we headed off on the final stretch towards Hamsterly. Climbing up towards the pinnacle of the hill, your hit with a view across the valley, which just shows off the potential this place could have. But it's one side of the hill where interested in today.

Kitted up and ready we hit the main track which is infamous amongst downhillers. Hit the first left hander and float the first step down into the bombhole, making sure you avoid that gruesome looking root on the right.

Pin it through the trees and through those first flat out berms and into the open slightly. Sky or tuck those first 2 small drops and hit those next two catch berms mach 10 with no hope of slowing down into "that" tabletop. Coming out of that last berm your faced with a mother of a booter at the end of a intimidating straight. Jolley was hitting this flat out on his hardtial all day, skying it into the rocks afterwards and only coming off once! Good effort mate, definetly one to look out for in the hardtail cat this year.


Video of the tabletop in videos section....

Skim or sky your way thorugh the next rocks and take a left leading you towards the halfway hut (which makes a mean sarny btw)and pop over the road off the kicker, sending you into a mother of a man made rock garden.


It looked a bit tamer than last time i headed up here, but at speed it still sends you everywhere.

Duck your way round that tight left hander and shoot down into a right off camber setting you up for a rock fest that would challenge woodstock. Wherever you go here your going to get preety beat up, so hold on and try and stick in your line and hope for the best more than anything. Those last few switchbacks get better and better everytime i go here. The slight improvement to the last corner had over the bars brusing my ass! By the end of the day.... Style the last jump or hang on for dear lif ein jolleys case and there you where!

There are so many other dh tracks at Hammers and from what we saw of them they looked top notch, especially the newest one, which with a bit of bedding in will prove an awesum race track. Watch out for the last drop though shes a steep'un!

Onto the 4x....

Holy cow it was windy, the second me jol and little sam got to the top of the start ramp we nearly lost our bikes. Pedalling into the first tabletop in a straight line was a mission in itself, sky this and ur on your way to clearing the first straight , styling it out into the last step up, you hit a mother of a berm and into a triple.

Pump or jump your way up the next few step up/downs and hit the sickest straight on a 4x track ever.

Littered with lines of tabletops, with tonnes of inside and outside lines which set you up in turn for the last berm sending you over the rollers and onto the finish line.


4x vid in the video section......

The duel is also like a scaled down version of the 4x with smaller jumps and tighter berms, all smooth as. Almost harder to ride than the 4x at speed..

Awesome day out.

Cheers to the over 40's and to Don and his kid Sam for making the trip up!