Articles

The ultimate uplift.

2007-11-05T10:33:00.000Z

In my opinion these is the ultimate uplift vehicle, capable of slogging the average trailer up pretty much anything, but it’s a good laugh to throw a few bikes in a little trailer, and rag this baby up the hill, or just forget the trailer and go for a good old bumpy ride, with a terrified passenger.

It all started a few years ago, when my uncle told me he was going to build a Land Rover, at the time I thought nothing of it, because it was just a set of axles and a few scrapped vehicles off E-Bay. Basically over time it evolved, with a shortened chassis, a big engine and a roll cage that was made from some scaffolding that was never returned.

When it was finished, it was brought up to the farm to pull trailers, the winch was used to pull down trees, and I learnt to drive it which proved to be lots of fun. As winter came along, it was given a windscreen and roof, and a heater for driving on those cold mornings. “The buggy” as it has been known is now an extremely capable off road machine, and lots of people who have had a try have always asked “how much can you make me one for?” but my Uncle currently isn’t building them on request, because of the amount of hard work put into it, and the fact that he loves the thing too much. But we all know that every man has their price…

For all you Landy tech-heads out there it has a shortened discovery chassis to around 80 inches, a 200 Tdi engine (I wish it was a 300) , A discovery gearbox, and random bits from a Volvo and other scrapped cars. Plus some fresh bits ordered in, tyres, winch etc.

If you come up to visit I’ll happily take you for a drive, but for the real deal you’ll have to let my uncle take you out, on a the few occasions I’ve been a passenger, I’ve jumped out in fear of my own safety, as he almost rolled it once from trying a jay turn coming down a steep bank, now that was scary.

The sad thing is it lacks many things to pass an M.O.T test, so I wont be cruising into sixth from in this bad boy anytime soon. But you never know, with some indicators, mirrors, and other bits and bobs and it could be road legal, but it might take some bargaining with my mum before I‘ll be allowed to cruise around the valley. Also there are rumours of a new model on the horizon, with a pickup back end to accommodate bales and other farm stuff (read bikes). Lets hope so.

The best thing about it is it didn’t cost 30 odd grand to build, it has that ghetto feel we all love, plus its mega fun to drive and its bombproof as hell.

More articles soon…

Bringewood - Pearce Champs 07

2007-07-05T18:48:00.000Z

The rain from the previous week made clear to everyone that it was going to be a wet one . The ground was as a mud bath and riders and spectators were sliding around all weekend. Did i hear Glastonbury?

As i rolled up at 9:30 on saturday morning i knew i was going to have a fun time, the ground was wet and i was interested to see what the track was like. As i started to change into my race gear it started to rain. Not that i was too bothered as i knew it wouldn't really affect the conditions too much as it rained constantly the week before.

So as i got on the uplift it continued to rain and rain and rain....for most of the day. The new uplift trails that are used are alot better and the guys at Pearce's have got it sorted. There were rumours of a new top section, which many people questioned about when the ruts got bad. Why not use the old section?...Im not quite sure but it was all fun.

Ok then heres a run down of the track. From the start the track dropped into the new soft and loamy section which became hell by the time racing started on the sunday. The track then joined up to the older top section just before the road gap, although not many people wer bothering to attempt it as the run in was so bogged down with mud. After crossing the first small fire road the mud was alot thinner which meant that more speed could be carried through this section, i think that most people enjoyed this section as you didn't really have to pedal to carry speed....time for a rest....After this the deeply rutted switchbacks appeared which were alot harder to carry speed through but it was more of a case of staying on the bike. The "bomb hole" jump was awful all weekend and i didn't see many people attempt it, it was alot safer just to roll it and keep traction on the soft and squidgy floor. The next section dropped into a little bank and down a straight with a few roots starting to appear. Hop over the roots and slide into the right hander and try and keep on your line for the left hander that followed. A very tight right-left corner was next which also involved some very slippy roots. Over these and into a "V" shaped part of the track. many ruts appeared over the weekend which made it hard to go in the direction you wanted to... Turn one way...and go the other, i was a bit puzzled. the main aim for me in this section was to flow down it (well at least try to) and not fall off. I dont think i got it but it was all good fun. Round a few more tight corners and into the last section. I found this bit the best as you could pump it a bit and carry more speed without the need to pedal. Round a few tight corners...over a few roots etc and into the last few corners, the tight and steep corners were rode slowly by me all weekend. Round these and then to the little drop before the bottom table top, over this and a sprint to the finish.

Sunday was quite a bit different to saturday. The track became alot more rutted at the top and on peoples second runs we saw them running down the track. Looked quicker but why not ride?....Thats what we are there to do(Y) I think most people didnt really want to race and took it steady in parts. That was my view anyway, just to stay on the bike...i still didn't manage that. Ohh well.

Some people gave up and went home after the first run....Shame on them as the second run was so much drier than the first. Although it was drier my hopes of getting my top 20 were still not high. I managed to cruise down the track without pedalling too much. This stopped me from falling off which i think paid off in the end. I crossed the line about 45 seconds faster than my first run, i was well pleased. As i watched the faster boys coming down i knew my place would drop a bit. In the end i ended up 12th /40 with a 3:47 i n the junior catorgory. Joe Bowman came down the track with a 3.59 and came in at 19th place in the juniors...he claimed he had a bad run, im not so sure...u sure joe? I guess i beat him then but im not sure if il keep doing it haha. Hard luck, youl beat me next time.

Although it was a muddy weekend i think that everyone really enjoyed it and would have fun cleaning up all that mud. Thanks to Pearce Cycles who put on an excelent show as always no matter what the conditions and the new timing clock above the finish was good to see what everyone got.....:)

Tom

Northern series round 1..............Carlton Bank.

2007-05-07T12:59:00.000Z

Aaron Shearer on the team for 07...

The hint of a northern series had many of us dreaming of what could be a new beggining for dh racing in the north, the first round was held at Carlton bank, this is what went on....

Driving up the A1 in the team van, with Jeff from over at Monkeyspoon, primed with his camera. None of us knew what to expect. We' d seen the helmet cam, but we all know the camera does lie, so for a first race back we were all pretty eager to ride.

Turning into the car park , we dodged some funky looking ( inbred ) chickens and stopped off for a quick sarny in the grotto style cafe. From the window we could see that the the track was really open to the elements, which in the end, played a big part in the racing come sunday.

Parking up at the end of the track you could see it was freshly dug with lots of flowing corners and some small jumps. At first i thought we were in the wrong place, with there not being much sign of life... but slowly, a steady stream of riders began to unearth from there vans...

A few local yocals in the form of Dave Wardell and Danny Hart turned up to ride.. Both with fresh kit and steeds. That appalache was that light im suprised it didnt get blown off the cliff... seriously.

The uplift was a simple tractor trailor set up with room for around 20 people, which suited this grass roots race perfectly. Being in the same trailor as your bike works like a dream to stop uplift damage.. Due to the terrain you hopped of the trailor halfway up the hill, with a steady climb ahead of you to reach the summit... A few complained, but as it's a first race, new track and it being all about the fun this was no biggy.

On the saturday pedalling along the top and dropping in to the first corner was a 'breeze', but on the Sunday the word 'breeze' was an understatement. I swear down i saw a small child floating over middlesbrough... Good decision to start it on the second bend i reckon... Could of been a few deaths. Oh yeh the start marshall deserves a medal for staying up there for 5 hours? Without a warm brew? Nice one.

Anyway onto the track... Roll along the ridgeline before dropping into a sweeping left hander into a similair right and off a small drop. These were 2 awesome corners, but mother nature begged to differ come sunday. Onto the first straight of the track which leads you into a nice mellow double... check the pic.... On race day this was lethal. I saw at least 3 people make omelettes of themselves landing sideways because of the wind. Best off going round this i found...
Pin it into a big right hander and skip over some small rock sections, which set you up for an off camber left into a lush right berm.

Into the next left Jeff got some unreal pics >

Round the tight right hander and into a rock garden that claimed a few flats. Sweep round the berm and you had a choice, nail it through the rocks or jump onto the grassy bank... The grass was the best option, which set you up for the soft left hander jus right. The next step down was awesome fun on the saturday, but on race day for most this was a no go. I ate big doo doo off this, giving myself a new layer of skin to look at. The only other otpion was to hit the compression to the right flat out and hope for the best.

The next section of the track probably caused the most controversy all weekend. This rock garden was hated by most, so naturally a line around it appeared to the left. This later on was filled in with big loose rocks covered in fern?! Not the best idea lads.....

Keep it low over a small road jump and rail throough those awesome corners. Bets part of the track if you ask me. But like any other race it was faster to cut the 2nd which was a shame... Into a big compression which popped you over a track and into a big left hander, squeeze round the u turn and smile for the camera and you were on the home straight.

Finish line anyone? Pedal up the bank just to be safe....

So. For a first round there was obviously some good and bad points. The atmosphere on the hill was quality, everyone was just making do and having fun like it should be at this level.

But i think there are a few basic things the organisers need to sort out to make the rest of the series a sucess.
-Toilets?!?!!
- Timing.. Beg, borrow or steal a timing system. Stopwatches are good but i think proper timing would be worth it.
- P.A. Use it to instruct riders, when to go up for there runs and whats going on in general throughout the day... There was alot of confusion at times.
- Results. Podium? Allways good to finish the day off with prize giving e.t.c sends the day off with a good atmosphere.

Im sure these are just first round glitches, which will hopefully be sorted for the further rounds... Im glad racing is back in the north and lets hope its here to stay... Thanks to the marshalls, medics, Dad e.t.c who made this happend...

Results please!

All pics courtesy of Jeff over at mokeyspoon.com Tar mate!

DHP

Hopton round 3 Pearce cycles winter series..................

2007-03-28T21:17:00.000Z

It was winding up to be a beutifal summers weekend in the middle of march, the weather forecast promised us sun, as did the skys, and they certainly didn't let us down. Who'd of thought it in the middle of march we would be scouraging around in our sheds for minions and high rollers, instead of arming our bikes with custom innertubes and spikes.....................

I think we were all a bit optimistic about a 'new track' being built so soon to the race, rumours of a awesome mixture of flat out open sections mixed with technical root gardens and old school quarry drops littered the forums. I dont think anyone outside of the pre uplift day knew what to expect really, i was thinking the usual pedally hopton but with a few more jumps, but this course was far from it....

After blazing it from Little Chef we turned up to find dust clouds churned up from the tractors, choking passers by, in awe of what the weatherman was doing?! After a small walk to the uplift, you were greeted by more than enough trailors to get you up the hill. Most people were hitting up 7 practice runs on saturday.... Having a sore ass from the previous week doesnt help things, but you cant complain about the speed and quantity this time.

After a painfull 100m climb up, what felt like a minor mountian after a few runs.. The track kicked things off with a few tight root infested corners which caught more than a few out. Best line was to tuck inside on the first and hit the straight line skipping over roots as you go.

Peel round the corner and you hit a gud ol 25ft road gap, which is a nice addition to a midlands track. Good to see the barrier is being raised this year. Sky it or go round it, but watch out for the roots littering the next shaded alley whcih you hit at mach 10 everytime... Get that weight off the front son! Pump and hope or nip in to the right on a horrible off camber roots section, which layed claim to Burgs 40's and many other peoples paintwork...

Quarry drop up next, the best went high and the rest went low. This caught many people out with some 'thuds' heard from all over the hill, the key was to make sure you were straightend up coming off the drop or your going to go arse over tit. Float over the next double and step up, then get on the gas to carry you into the flat out open.

Pile your way through the first few whoops and trees and burst out into the open mach 10, drift your way round the first major right hander and you hit a series of awesome stump jumps. One of them which sends you into a catch berm swinging you left into a bus stop/hip jump, which only a few could make.

Pummel through the last few rutted open turns, which lead you into the switchbacks. Hit them too fast and you'd be off down the hill, but too slow and you'd be losing too much precious time. Hitting the high lines on most of the corners were key here as they swung you into the next and so on...

Enter the last arena area skimming through the tight trees, hitting the awesomely crafted berms which swung you into the penultimate feature. Stay left on the rocks and squash the last 'lethal' tabletop which claimed a few people on both days... Sprint to the line and gaze round to your right to find another new addition in the form of a clock, which showcased your time to the crowds.

Big thanks go out to Dave pearce and Ian White who headed the pearce cycles digging crew who made this track possible...

Podium time saw all 4 seasons hit one after the other. Blizzards,rain, sun the lot..
Tonnes of prizes given out with Burg handing out some produce for some select catergory winners, and tonnes of goggles and bike wash also donated.

Hard tail
GILLIGAN Ben - Brooks Cycles 2:57.956
WILLERTON John 3:07.383
BOLTON Max 3:18.335

Juvenille
FLOCKHART Sam - Descent-Gear.com/Astrix 2:37.407
PETFORD Sam Pearce Cycles Race Team 3:18.458
CARPENTER Alex 3:21.166

Youth
KERR Bernard - ExtremeMedics.com/Marzocchi/Bicycle Fairy 2:26.358
BREWIN Gareth Descent-Gear.com 2:26.839
THOMAS Stefan Ancillotti 2:30.284

Junior
Dale anhilates everything and nearly... everyone coming 2nd fastest overall on the day and winning his catergory overall.
DALE Sam - Solid Electric 2:16.588
GEOGHEGAN Jack - Ancillotti UK 2:23.433
SHIELDS Bradley - Pearce Cycles 2:27.167

Vets
HARVEY Trevor - Aston Hill 2:42.215
RAMSAY Seb - Ticket2Ride/Descent-Gear.com 2:44.042
SIMPSON Jono - Pearce Cycles Race Team 2:44.645

Masters
Congrats to Burg on winning the series overall.
JONES Sion - MTB-Direct/Santa Cruz 2:32.186
REED Thomas - Descend Hamsterley 2:34.592
WILLIAMS Colin - MTB-Direct.co.uk 2:35.832

Youth Women
ADAMS Monet - The Bike Cellar/Utopia 3:21.462

Veteran Women
DAVIES Lynda - Ticket2Ridebc.com/Descent-Gear.com 3:14.234

Master Women
OSBORN Suzy - Rave Racing 3:50.072

Senior Women
DIX Aimee - Team Skene 3:03.238
LEWIS Rachel - awcycles.co.uk 3:32.261

Elite Women
HORRIDGE Emily - Mountain Cycle/Marzocchi 2:56.198 2:51.866

Seniors
Timaaaay takes the overall, nice one mate.
YEOMANS Daniel - Curtis Bikes 2:25.511
PEARSON Tim - nocycling.com 2:29.022
BUDDIN Andrew - Descend Hamsterley 2:29.402

Expert
Ad Morgan ruled on a hardtail all weekend.
BRAYTON Adam - Keswick Bikes/Electric 2:19.186
WHILES Nikki - Team Skene 2:19.323
DAVIES Jason - Brooks Cycles 2:21.044

Elite
JONES Ralph - Dirt Magazine 2:16.520
DEACON Tom 2:19.
SORRELL Rowan - Orange Bikes 2:20.648

48 72

Hammers

2007-03-12T21:32:00.002Z

"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!

Weapons of mass destruction, explained....

2007-03-03T21:57:00.000Z

First. A definition....

The word in Old English is spaedu, cognate forms being Dutch, Swedish and Danish spade, German Spaten; also related is spoon.

Now if that hasnt enlightened you, well i just dont know what will. For many years the spade has been at the forefront of mountain biking if you think about it. Whistler didnt come from the heavens (has been rumoured...) and your local jump spot didnt appear over night. For a trailbuilder the spade is the first and last tool allways off the mountain, for some it is like a 3rd arm. Like a paintbrush for an artist a spade to a trailbuilder is a way for them to create their own piece of art. There is so many different shapes,sizes e.t.c these days so heres a rundown for you....

1.The classic garden spade

This needs no introduction. Classic shaping and bombproof design. Plastic handle with a solid timber stem branching out onto a steel digging head.

Ones to look out for: wilkinsword,spear & jackson

2. The border spade.

Not soo much use to trailbuilders,but a spade non the less. Think of this as the garden spade on the slimfast plan. Smaller narrower head to get into thoses tight spots.

3. The silver surfer

A chavved up version of the garden spade. You get a stainless steel digging head that makes dirt slide off your spade, like shit off a shovel.

Bonuses: No rusting. Looks pimp. One for your mum when she hits 50 fo sure.

4. For professional use only. "A professional gardener never blames his tools". You heard it here first. This work of art is practically all steel to give you no flex and no failures. Normally spades of this calibre come with a lifetime guarantee aswell so if you do somehow manage to break it then jobs a gudden.

5. Suspension. (oh yes)

When i first saw one of these i was in awe. I mean come on the handle flexs and everything. A true tool for the hardcore. One for all you dan cowans out there.

6. Personal favourite.

Read and weep............

Simple twisting catch allows handle length to be extended or shortened
Extends from 1.05m to 1.25m

Yes i thought it aswell. My god. If epic could be summed up in one object then this would take the biscuit. Im saving up right now....

Well there you have it, the most worryingly sad review ever. Most of you probably havent even got to this bit without falling asleep, but if you have just take a minute and think what your mates would think of you reading an article on spades.....

:)

Ghetto sites triumph

2007-01-22T19:47:00.000Z

Staying up till half 11 on a thurs night trying to botch together a hardtail makes you question why you do this sport. Nothing ever seems to fit, every brake has a different mount and the same goes for forks. Universal mounts anyone? Anyyywaayyy, after snapping robs fork axle (its in the post) and setting the record for the most rotors fitted in a night it was time to set off for Mss round 1 Hopton.....

After crushing Jeff in the back of the van with all our gear we naile dit up the motorway to burger king to stock up, and i have to say, mbuk has excelled itself with yet, another shocking issue! Gotta give it to the staff at the travelodge in Ludlow, not only did they make sam cry from laughter from their conversation with 'shelly' but the man there was like a walking toolbox! Cheers for the cable cutters mate.

In the morning it was off to little chef to savour the 'olympic' breakfast, which didnt really fill any holes to be honest. Swampthings or maybe spikes was the choice of tire for most over the weekend i think. With all the new regulations floating around about uplifts, saturdays wasnt the fastest of uplifts with most having to wait up to 40mins sometimes for a trailer. But this wasn't anyones fault really and it was all sorted towards the end for the day and throughout Sunday.

Now onto the track. From the mini hill at the top, which had a few of the smaller riders on there asses due to strong winds, you cranked down a muddy slope which resembled a 'slip n slide' and into the first woods. Over a small jump and rail two berms and hit the sunlight for a split second. Drop back into the woods and hit a short uphill section whihc throws you into a labryinth of roots. Float like a butterfly sting like a bee needed to be used to get through here smooth and the elites were looking rapid thorugh here all weekend. Dart through a couple more rooted truns and your out into the open, by now i had no chain so it was a hell of a long pump track to deal with. Skim the reall greasy roots n hit the two stump jumps into that tight right hander which caught even some of the best out this weekend. Pedal like crazy thorugh the next section, but the key was to keep it smooth through here i reckon to keep your speed. Out into the last open, you dart through some switchbacks and go for glory on the roadgap and pummel into those human size brekaing bumps. Ben Morgan in expert hit this the fastest out of anyone this weekend, landing preety much in the next corner and took half of the mud with it. Awesome. Hammer through the last switchbacks and pop over that greasy root on the last corner of the track which wiped the smiles off many racers faces, just in sight of the finish line. Pedal like a mad man through that greasy field and your home and dry.

Onto results and Irwin from monkeyspoon.com came in 47th with a 4.12
Josh, after having a nightmare with his bike came home in 30th with a 4.45
I pumped and shook my way down to 1st with a 3.47

I think jeff over at monkeyspoon took more pics than he can count and me and Sam got some awesome flukes (well mine were flukes) so ill get them up in the gallery a.s.a.p

Cheers to my dad for ferrying us around all weekend and to Rich Burgoin over at Burgtec. Shout out to Timmy over at nocycling.com who came 2nd in seniors who was flying all weekend.

The next round is over at Bringewood on the 17th/18th of Feb so we'll see you there with the full team this time. rumour has it Fabien Barel is even coming....

Morining Guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HARDTAIL

1 1414 BOWMAN Joe www.dirtyhalfpipe.co.uk 3:47.583
2 1403 BEATTIE Jonathan 4:29.297
3 1402 LINES Jack 4:40.022

JUVENILLE

1 1303 PETFORD Sam Pearce Cycles Race Team 4:14.515
2 1305 PHILLIPS Tom 4:35.790
3 1301 GLASS Alex 4:36.632

YOUTH

1 1102 BREWIN Gareth Descent World 3:24.744
2 1115 KERR Bernard ExtremeMedics.com/Marzocchi/Bike Fairy 3:26.928
3 1144 MOLLOY Harry Muddy Fox/Lifestyle Ford/Resurgence.com 3:29.835

JUNIOR

1 903 DALE Sam Solid/Electric 3:17.817
2 915 SMITH Joseph Ancillotti UK 3:18.613
3 914 SHIELDS Bradley Pearce Cycles 3:28.888

VETERANS

1 817 HARVEY Trevor Aston Hill 3:45.572
2 809 RAMSAY Seb ticket2ride/descent-gear 3:51.361
3 805 SIMPSON Jono Pearce Cycles Race Team 3:52.678

MASTERS

1 600 BURGOIN Richard Burgtec 3:33.332
2 630 LEWIS Alun AW Cycles.co.uk 3:35.678
3 623 WILLIAMS Colin mtb-direct.co.uk 3:36.163

TOP 3 WOMEN

1 1513 DIX Aimee Team Skene 4:10.824
2 1500 HORRIDGE Emily Marzocchi UK 4:13.804
3 1511 MAHONY Sue Psyclewerx Bristol 4:28.416

SENIORS

1 266 GRIFFITHS Craig Brooks Cycles 3:28.043
2 255 PEARSON Tim nocycling.com 3:29.465
3 263 TAYLOR Adam mtb-direct.co.uk 3:34.047

EXPERTS

1 115 BRAYTON Adam Keswick Bikes 3:15.809
2 108 MORGAN Ben Pearce Cycles Race Team 3:17.782
3 102 DAVIES Jason Brooks Cycles 3:23.915

ELITES

1 1 BRAITHWAITE Tom Giant Racing 3:11.489
2 5 SMITH Robert Electric/TitaniumRacing/Airbrush 3:16.958
3 8 JONES Ralph Dirt Magazine 3:17.087

Read this you might learn something....

2007-01-07T22:35:00.000Z

I sit here writing this with my ears red raw form having my headphones in them,too long,too loud and the music. Too heavy....

You know you've been sat on that shoddy ikea folding chair way too long, enduring that savage wedgie with your balls feeling like you've been on a bus journey to butlins and back. Youv'e been staring at that same spot on the wall for at least 10 minutes now and to be honest you can't even remember what you were meant to be revising.
From revsiing you can actually see life through a hardcore emo's point of view. You find yourself flicking thoruhg you ipod selecting the most morbid, whining songs which make you drift further and further into that static trance.
Every other hour you get that little window of hope when you get a break, but when you can finally do what you want, your too dried out to do anything and all you really want is your bed.
Over a day. Say if you were in your room for 4 hours 'revising'. I reckon if you added up the amount of time you actually spent doing work it wouldn't even come close to an hour.
God knows what your rents think your doing up there. Do they actually think your going to re enact periods 3 and 4 on a wednesday with miss alan. On a saturday? Didn't think so.
Some of the stuff you start to think about is so random. You no longer have a sense of humour. You start to feel tired constantly and you allways develop that, revision 'cough' which you never knew you had.
I think over these last two days ive decided, what i want to do after 6th form, i've realised how much i hate business studies, and planned the mother of all gardens over the road. Great how much work you can get done really isn't it?
You just know that there are hundreds of people our age sitting in their room saying to themselves ' what am i doing in here when it's the first dry saturday in months? ', whilst peering through their blinds like a convict.

Anyway rant over.

Head down.
Book open.
Pen primed.
Eyes drifting.......

Chicksands

2006-12-30T20:43:00.000Z

Couldn't of been a wetter start to the day, but still as we set off from Bens after some 'plumbing' issues we were well on our way down to Bedfordshire to the infamous chicksands.......

All pics by Domnic Worrel, cheers mate!

The journey down takes about 2 hours depending on traffic e.t.c or in our case my bladder which could be seen from the top of the duel track, i was that desperate! Car parking is easy once you get there, tonnes of space directly next to the mian features is a big bonus. The first thing you hit is the massive start ramp for the new 4x track which is unreal. Flat out and flowy the whole way and awesum fuun to race your mates down and is rollable so anyone can have ago. The big triple caught a few people out when i stopped to watch inculding me when i came up short on my front wheel. Definetly one for the dry.

Next up is the duel track just 50m away (conveinient?) This is like a mini a line with constant drops jumps tables and berms littering the two track which run paralell to each other down the hill. Awesum to race down and to train some good vids and pic sof it are up on www.disfunktional-dirt.co.uk, check it out!

Next up are some jumps which you will probably have seen many times in the identiti, dmr, 24 seven ads many times. Theres on huge set and a couple of smaller sets. NOt for the faint hearted with their almost vertical lips.

The place we spent the most time on was over at the freeride area, where theres infinite lines of north shore spread out alll over the place, you gotta see it to belive it to be honest, some real time and effort has gone into it. There are kickers, step ups and drops everywhere and we all sessioned this one drop, to step up then down into a double line for ages. Alex had some awesum x ups goin on off the drop and step up.

A big session broke out on this obe piece of shore trying to rid eit both ways, which got everyone who tried it a bit wound up. Shame about it being a bit greasy, but in the summer this place should be on top of everyones list.

After this everyone was pretty fubared and sacked it off back to the car. Cheers to Ben and Dom for sorting me out with a way of getting home or i could be typing this from a homeless shelter in sheff right now.

All pics by Domnic Worrel

2006-12-19T20:57:00.000Z

Download Festival 2006
9,10,11th June ’06 Donnington Park

FRIDAY
First thing I got asked when we got there: 'Is your boyfriend better looking than me?' to which I would have replied 'If I had one...Yes' if I hadn't been taken by surprise by some fat 40 ticket chavtastic tout.

After getting lost on the way to Donnington Park (pppffffftttt!) we missed the Audition but arrived to have a mooch around and check out what else was going off. When we walked in it was like woooooooaaaaaahhhh cos there were like TWICE the amount of people than there was last year. Like billions and trillions! Ok, maybe not that many but there were LOADS!....

Got into the pit for Clutch by accident because I got my times wrong and we thought we were waiting for Inme haha! Spotted Joey from The Audition from the side of stage but at the time I didn't know who he was so I just grinned back. Managed to escape the Clutch pit when the sign for them came down and we looked at eachother like 'WTF?!!?!' then went mooching off to the shops. Discovered the almighty fair ride which was a bit awesome.

At 6:30 we headed back to the Snicker's stage to see InMe. We missed them last year but saw them at Sheffield and they were as amazing as that night. We actually knew more than one song as well wooohooo! They had the crowd singing along to the classics like Just A Glimpse, Faster The Chase, So You Know and Seven Weeks as well as plenty more. They didn't sing Safe In A Room, though which Ash was pissed off aboooot.

Left during the last song to go and meet All American Rejects at the Kerrang Signing Tent. They were so so nice. You walked in and they all smiled at you as if you're the only person they'd seen all day. They all said 'Hi you Ok?' when you went in and I ended up having a short conversation with Nick but then had to go because I was pissing everyone else in the queue off haha! They didn't let you take pictures which was a bit rubbish but I suppose Kerrang have all the rights on them so look out for me in the magazine. I'm bound to be on at least one...spent enough time at the signing tent being the stalker that I am haha!
No idea what we did for the next hour or so. We didn't manage to see Atreyu though so we must have been pretty busy.

Headed back to Snickers Stage for the All American Rejects and got joined by a random (haha). Shout out to POL!! He's a skater from Scotland yay!
All American Rejects were amazing! I was pogoing like a kangaroo when they encored with Move Along. They sang quite a few old songs which was awesome because I'm not too familiar with the new album. I can actually remember their set list:
Night Drive, Stab My Back, Change Your Mind, Dance Inside, Dirty Little Secret, My Paper Heart, Swing Swing, The Last Song, Time Stands Still and Move Along. I think there were a few more actually but I've forgotten them.

Headed to the Snickers Bowl for a bit and said bye to Paul but the queue was massive to get in this year so I don’t have any interesting BMX stories for you guys…sorry!

Didn't bother with Tool, just went back to Ashley's to get some sleep for the weekend ahead!
SATURDAY
Got picked up from Ashley's nice and early so we could watch Johnny Truant, who we missed because, as soon as we got there we noticed a mahooosive queue outside the signing tent. Being nosy buggers, we had to find out who it was for and it happened to be with Ashley's (possible) favourite band, Trivium! So of course, we had to join the queue in the sweltering heat. I got a free Kerrang inflatable guitar out of it haha!

We've met most of Trivium twice before but never their frontman Matt Heafy who is Ashley (and Po)'s ultimate idol. So I'm there like 'Hey Matt hows it goin?' and Ashley's a nervous wreck. She came out shaking from head to toe like 'Oh my god I just met Matt fucking Heafy!!!!!!! *imense scream and victory dance*' Trivium don't impress me much so I was just like 'meh'

Went over to the Myspace stage to phone Billy during Exit Ten who were awesome by the way so thanks for that Billy! Rubbed it in that we met Matt Heafy because he came with us to the last Trivium concert along with Po. Rang Po who starting screaming 'noooooooo' down the phone but I promised he could have my Matt Heafy autograph.

We were meant to go and see It Dies Today but, again, for some reason we didn't. Met pro-skaters Christian Hosoi, Neal Hendrix and Tony Alva while waiting for Ashley to go to the loo. Got myself a new boyfriend haha. Alva had a t-shirt left and he was like 'You want a boys t-shirt?' and I was like 'Oh go on then' and he goes 'You can give it to your boyfriend…or girlfriend'. I laughed and said 'HEY! I would if I had one…boyfriend that is' and turned around and gave it to the guy behind who was like 'OMG awesome! Free t-shirt and I've pulled. I'm her new boyfriend apparently.' Haha shout out to YOU! Shame I never found out his name ;)
Watched Stone Sour and Avenged Sevenfold from the hill. Got rather burnt actually but it's all worth it. Can't believe how hot it was! Avenged were really good! They got two huge circle pits going and there was dust flying everywhere. Megaaaaaaa! They played nearly all the songs of City of Evil (?) and the cover they did as well. We sang along to our official download theme song Bat Country and then I abandoned Ashley to find The Audition (who were apparently doing a performance at the Victory Records stall tenty thingy) while she watched her Gods (Trivium) on Main Stage. I can tolerate them but, not that much.

The Audition didn't perform anything but they did keep me company for two hours. Along with three of the guys from Aiden which was a bit cool.

I know your jealous because we saw Darth Vader!

Can't remember what we did for the rest of the day. Lazed about in the sun mostly. Didn't watch much Metallica because mum came early to pick us up.

SUNDAY
Determined to get there for 11:00 to see Breed 77, Ashley legged it to mainstage while I went to the Signing Tent to see when Funeral For A Friend were signing. There were loads of people about so I almost had a panic attack, thinking I wouldn't get to meet them but they were all queuing for Aiden (haha they should have come to the victory tent on Saturday :p)

When I found her again I decided Breed 77 were actually quite good to say that they were the very first band on today (they get some right echo on their mics) and then we went on a huge trek all the way around the park to bits we'd not seen yet.
Watched some Dragonforce and went to the Signing Tent to meet Bullet For My Valentine. The queue got absolutely ridiculous because people were pushing and squishing everyone else. We were next to some weird guy in a leopard print dress who was wearing no underwear...It wasn't nice. They crowd surfed this little kid down the queue on an inflatable sofa...was hilarious!! haha! Extremely pissed off though because we were about to go in and they stopped us like 'they're not signing anymore' because their 40 minutes were up! If all those people hadn't pushed in front then we would have met them dammit!

Slightly angry at missing 36 Crazyfists, From First to Last and Bring Me The Horizon because of the Bullet queue we decided to start queuing about two hours early to meet Funeral for a Friend so that we'd definately meet them.

Hooray for us because we did! They were all really friendly and Matt Davies was really hyper yelling 'Hi! Hi! Hi!' at everyone who came in. I came out of the tent screaming 'OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAWWWWD I JUST MET FEEEERRRFAFFF!' I got weird looks off people but IN THEIR FACES! I'd just met Matt Davies! Woohooo!

Legged it over to Snickers Stage to see the end of Hundred Reasons. When I say end I mean like, a chord. We'll go and see them on their own tour anywhoo.
Then we returned to our spot on the hill to watch Bullet For My Valentine who were amazing! They played Tears Don't Fall which is my favourite so that was a bit good. They got three circle pits going at one point in one of the songs.

Abandoned Ashley on the hill to join the main stage pit for Funeral for a Friend.

Bounced and sang my heart out for 40 mins, which was actually meant to be and hour and 15 mins..grrrr!! Chris the guitarist's brother was in front of me and he gave this random kid a VIP wristband! Made his day the lucky get! Looked like he was going to cry...was so cute!

Crowd surfed at the very end and got did a somersault over the barrier...backwards. Knocked about seven security guys flying. All the medics came over and I was just sat there laughing my head off! I walked off and got patted on the back by every single security member stood at the front hahahaah! It must have looked really bad because they thought I was properly injured. Felt like saying 'Nah my face always looks like this. No damage done' LMAO!! Ripped the arse out of my favourite cut-offs though bah!!!

Ran off up the hill to find Ashley who'd been watching from a safe difference and I was stood there yelling 'I just crowd surfed the main stage at Download! HOLY HELL! WOOOHOOOO! Did a back flip ooooooooh yeah!'

We went over to the Myspace stage to watch Lordi...yes, it was hilarious and yes, they were wearing their costumes but they had this horrific sound effect of a child crying playing for ages! The tent was still overcrowded and people were stood outside it to try and get a listen. Then we ran as fast as we could to Main Stage when we heard the beginning of Welcome to the Jungle (properly echoed around the park...was amazing!).Guns 'N' Roses were on!

They may be legends but they got a bit boring. They stopped after every song so Axl could do like a ten minute solo on whatever instrument he prefered. So we headed towards the fair. Got spun on the Waltzer by guy in cowboy hat who thought he was cool and then almost threw up on some ride that flips you over backwards. I never watched it before I went on...spend a lot of time upside down on this day.
Went on the ultimate ride once again (the money they got out of us!) before we had to go.
Saw one of the guys from Aiden on the way out and then waved goodbye to Download for another year.

Had another amazing time.
Can't wait until next year when we get VIP and Camping!
WOOOHOOOOO! The review will be likely 10x better as well. This was a bit shit and boring to be honest.

2006-12-13T22:25:00.000Z

Autumn trails

Autumn is definitely the most picture perfect part of the year, but it’s also the season where days rapidly get shorter and cooler, the nights rapidly get longer, to the hatred of riders all over the world....

When you wake up, even at eight it’s still as dark as night, which doesn’t do anything for your motivation levels to get out there riding. When you do finally drag your ass outa bed, even the cold metallic feel of the key to your shed reminds you of what awaits you outside. However well you cleaned your bike after the last time you used it, it still somehow grinds and squeaks its way out of the shed door. The sound goes right through you making you cringe after every painful rotation, and it almost makes you feel like sacking it off and slobbing out instead, but remember you’ve just gotta grit your teeth and bear it for those first few cranks.
When your chains finally wet and it no longer embarrasses you because you can no longer see the rust that reminds you that sometimes you can even neglect the things you love most in life.
The cool air saps your breath when you make the first ascent, that in summer felt like nothing, but no it’s a whole different ball game. As you get to the top of the climb you start to get the “autumn sweats” that coolly snake their way down your face. Every time you take a lair off you suddenly change your mind as the cool autumn air hits you.
It seems that ‘easy’ Straight across the tops on the road in summer is no more, because in autumn wherever you go I swear there’s always a headwind battling with you.
Your favorite downhill which in the summer that you could hit flawlessly, railing every corner and skimming every rock garden, is now a completely different track. Every corner is a game of death or glory and rock gardens are now hidden, wreaking havoc with your mech. However well you maintain your trails, somehow that slimy, grassy surface mud (im sure you builders know the type) always seems to settle on top making it impossible to grip. The one thing that gets me the most though is leaves. It’s like riding on glass half the time and I don’t think anyone has big enough ‘guns’ to be raking them off the trail 24/7.
There may be many bad points about autumn that shadow the good, such as the perfect conditions for trial building, so come summer you can have it all pristine and ready to ride. Or the picturesque shots you can capture waiting for you round every corner, thanks to this season.
So next time you set your alarm for 9 on a Sunday to go ride, stick to it and haul yourself out of bed and onto the autumn trails.

From Somme to Sun

2006-11-17T18:03:00.000Z

Saturday morning 6am is a time to be sleeping not greasing. (That sounds so wrong) But anyway… 6am start for the DHP team as we finally got all our crap together and headed off towards round 6 of the midlands series in Kinnerton. Entertainment was provided by Robin, in the form of his new flashy laptop ‘’ queue oooos and aahhhs’’. But the battery packed in halfway there so we had to make do with just laughing at him instead....

REST OF POST
Cheers to the farmer and his cronies for helping us get into the field or we would still probably be there. After me and Rob got all our gear together, we were just about to set off up the hill and guess what…. My rear brake needed bleeding. So after 2 hours of searching round and round the pits I finally got what I needed and got it bled. Cheers to the Morgan bro’s, the Burg and Rob Breakwell for helping me out, you’re saviours.
Now, onto the track. First run down I’ve never hated a track so much in my life. The top woods looked liked they’d just been raked and left to be bedded in, meaning ruts bigger than my bottom bracket (cheers turner) opened up left right and center. But thanks to all the elites, come the end of practice day, these were dug out and the track turned into one of the most fun this series. After you’ve pinballed your way through the woods, and maybe even over the road gap?

I think I only saw about 4 people hitting this, very impressive.
You were straight out into the open where u could either hit one smaller double or one massive one which I don’t think even the best were hitting that weekend.Over some roots, and then pump or drop the next mound of dirt which engulfed more than a few peoples wheels including mine. Over the fire road and batter your way through a load more turns over roots and stumps, then hit a nice tree stump jump which could either be hit flat out to clear the slimy root on landing or a bit slower to the right.
Sam Dale was looking very impressive here all weekend, landing in the corner. Then into the last woods. These were very fast and caught a few people out who weren’t concentrating 100 %, over the last fire road and off a small drop, which the Morgan’s made look like a booter to sail through the trees. Pedal pedal pedal, skip the road gap and final hip by taking a new stump infested line, and bang you’re out in the open. Up the old step up and carve your way through the finishing field corners like a pro.
The off camber left caught more than a few out, especially one woman who I saw go down hard in the first runs. Hope she’s ok. At first I thought this track was really dyer like a lot did, but towards the end of the weekend when you’d had a look at the lines available and tried and tested, it became an awesum track. The uplift was on form, with Steve Parr doing an excellent job making sure everyone got a tonne of runs in on the Saturday and Sunday. I especially liked it when you got the kids driving the tractor, when they were racing each other like Gran turismo it meant we got to the top in record time.
My first run went brutally wrong when I found out my brake was pissing oil for the 3rd time this weekend and I had to do my run with just my front one. I think I counted 3 tree hits? Anyway the second went much better even though I got stuck behind someone for a loooonggg time, but hey that’s racing!

Results:

Hardtail: Once again my mate Jayden from the dis dirt team took top honours earning himself first place overall in the series.Check the gap out between first and 2nd…..

Jayden Waddington Dis Dirt / www.newhoneys.com 3:44.567
Edward Parkes 4:15.825 +31.258
John Willerton Astonhill.com 4:15.950 +31.383

Juvenile:

Brad Mather 3:35.581
Josh Hodgetts Somerset Bike Centre 3:39.967
Josh Swire 3:44.128

Youth: 75 entrants in my catergory, this only means good things for the sport… Sam Dale once again flying to the top spot , and getting 3rd fastest time of the day!

Sam Dale Goldtec 3:00.867
Joseph Smith Ancillotti UK 3:04.976
Gareth Brewin Fort Royal/Descent World 3:09.335

Junior: How close can you get??

Darrell Upton DDR/Electric 3:14.352
Jason Davies Fort Royal 3:14.453
Bradley Shields Pearce Cycles 3:14.463
Master: Col Williams charging on a chumba, paton having a stormer of a second run grabs second, Ian white rounds off the podium in 3rd. Rich burgoin just missing out on a podium coming home in 5th for burgtec ( cheers for the brake oil mate )

Colin Williams Yeti/Electric Visual 3:13.238
Simon Paton Descent-World 3:18.339
Ian White Pearce Cycles RT 3:22.806

Women: theres tooo many catergorys in the womens so ill just list the top 3 fastest times. Monet adams went down very hard in the grass, hope shes healing.

Aimee Dix Team Skene 4:00.193
Sue Mahony Psyclewerx.co.uk.Bristol 4:07.947
Lynda Davies Ticket2ridebc.com/NWMTB 4:12.084

Senior: Ben morgan screaming into first as usual, with a kieron mcavoy close behind in second riding for burgtec, and sams good friend tim from nocycling.com coming in in 3rd!! gud effort son.

Ben Morgan Pearce Cycles Race Team 3:05.914
Kieron McAvoy 3:08.136
Tim Pearson nocycling.com 3:08.592

Experts: Very close for first.. Rob Breakwell is a savior for lending me break oil.

Fergus Lamb Ancillotti UK 3:02.630 2 65
Alex Stock Descent World 3:02.879
Rob Breakwell Dirt Mag 3:07.066

Elite: Track builder matt simmonds made everything look uber smooth all weekend, sailing the road gap as if it wasn’t there…scary. Braithwate in second, iv’e got an unreal pic of him on the road gap, think blurry. Him and matt are the only 2 alll weekend to go sub 3. Rob smith round off the podium in 3rd.

Matt Simmonds Ancillotti UK 2:52.799
Tom Braithwaite Giant Racing 2:53.737
Robert Smith Yeti/Electric 3:03.684

Politics

2006-11-17T17:43:00.000Z

Important Rubbish

What’s the deal with all this government stuff going on right now? To be honest we at DHP don’t have a clue and to be honest I don’t think any of us will ever truly know what it all means or leads too half the time....

REST OF POST
All I know there is a pretty sound guy who looks like this:

And there is another bloke who runs this party called the Tory’s or something? All sounds a bit homosexual to me…. But he does ride a bike apparently so we’ll let him off:

And then theres this other bloke, well by bloke I mean granddad who kinda looks like he’s on his last legs. I swear there used to be a big aggressive, ginger Scottish bloke instead…? In this pic he looks like he’s trying to imply something, but what??:

ON the news all you here about the minute is all that bull about bluddy Iraq and terrorists. To be honest I think the terrorists and George Bush should all sit down and just watch Team America and settle their differences, now there’s a solution if I’ve ever heard of one!

On the news and on question time if you really are bored, all mp’s seem to do is just argue the toss for hours and hours and eventually come out with hating each other more than they already did. If they weren’t all so busy sleeping with each others secretaries and getting visas for their Russian brides, then I think we’d get a lot more stuff done around here!

To be honest all these parties above seem kinda a bit too serious about stuff, you could even say uptight. So why not join this patriotic, passionate and dare I say dedicated party and vote for the chance of making the UK into the worlds biggest floating party.

Which other party has its leadership left to a cat? I mean come on…..

http://www.omrlp.com/ you know its right…

From Haggis to Hills

2006-11-17T17:14:00.000Z

When my Mum and Dad said that we were going to Scotland for 2 days in November I couldn’t think of anything worse. I imagine Scotland in November being a mix of rain, more rain and a hell of a lot of wind......

REST OF POST
But I thought wrong. As me and my dad pulled up at the red bull car park, shadowed by ‘mt inners’, the skies were clear and it was even t-shirt weather! As a lot of you have probably seen there has been a petition on descent-world that has been signed by hundreds asking pleading for a chairlift to be put in, and for good reason. The push up is EPIC from the bottom switchbacks to the start hut, you wind your way up the hill, it even makes you start to think why you started this sport in the first place, and then you get to the top…
Fist off we did ‘make or brake’ from right at the top this time (the start hut). This track is classed as a red I think and involves tabletops, berms, doubles and many other features. Man this trail is fun, my dad was hooked. For people just getting into mountain biking this is the type of trail they need to be introduced onto, because I doubt they’d look back. Towards the bottom you hit some awesum switchbacks with rollers and fly offs taking you all the way down back to the car park. A quick refuel and back up you go, starting the epic trek up the hill again. Chairlift anyone? Someday…
Next track was the infamous nationals’ course; well at least I think I did it. This is named in conjunction with red bull I think and it’s a hell of a track. Out of the hut you fly over some roots and into the darkness, the overcast skies above me didn’t help in here either. Now the gradient drops, you’ve gotta pick your line carefully and watch for the off camber roots which nailed me into a tree.
Over a wall and out you come into the open down a steep rocky chute which you can air into. Hit the roadgap and land in complete darkness not being able to see anything, then just hold on for grim death blasting through the tunnel of darkness and hit a sharp left which takes you into a maze of trees which ping pong you around until you get it together. Some nice tight singletrack through the trees, traversing the hillside until you jutter your way down the lasts section of breaking bumps and out onto the fire road. Off a rock drop landing off camber and take a sharp left over some doubles and tabletops before hitting a awesum drop into the open, with a stadium like entrance. Fly down the straight and off the fly off landing somewhere near the take off of the next double. Straight over them in a blur and hit the gas over the last man made sections. Blast down the fire road skipping in and out of bus stops and hit the three big ass tabletops and fly into the last wooded section. Out of the infamous bombhole jump and fly through the tight switchback berms and sky the last few little kickers and your back at the car park to refuel. Me and my Dad repeated these two track as many times as we could manage to walk back up without passing out , I think we ended up going 5 times right to the top, which aint a bad effort for an old man. We went back to drop my dads bike back off at the hub café in Glentress, wow those guys have got it sorted there. It’s the best set up I have ever seen for a mountain bike centre. The shop alone is brilliant but the hire bikes are the best I’ve ever seen in the UK. Other places should take note.

I was only up in Scotland for 2 days so the second had to be spent doing something with ‘the family’ (yes how gay am I) But it’s not as bad as it sounds. I was guide for the day round Glentress trails. The weather had decided to try and drown us in the morning with my sis actually getting blown off her bike to eat concrete in the carpark! But we set off towards spooky woods along the steady climb up the fire road. The final part of the climb switchbacks up the hill and for this I borrowed my dads rental bike the Scott genius. One thing, that bike is actually genius. To be honest I don’t think those x country boys even have to be fit to do what they do with technology and such little weight on a bike! Joke. The wind was so powerful now that jumping was getting a bit scary but that trail is to much fun and the push up too big not too enjoy it to the max, regardless of the conditions. Pump your way down the whole track; rail the berms and air the tables before u get spat out into some awesum switchbacks. After all this we were so wet and cold we hit the escape route and headed back to the ‘freeride’ park. Now this places has had some effort put into it, with wallrides box jumps tabletops and ladder drops, but I can’t help thinking if they got a pro in to design it, it could have been made a hell of a lot better. A few runs over the box jump and off the drops and I called it a day because I could no longer feel my hands. So time to tutor the sister, firstly I managed to get her to go off the drops and she flewww of them from first to last attempt. After that she learnt how to jump properly on the tabletop line and I can’t tell you how impressed I was.

She had no fear and just went flat out into them nearly clearing some smooth. Finally I talked her into following me into the box, instead of rolling off the end she hit it too fast and hucked off it into a nose dive but just held it. I can’t tell you how dead I would have been if she nailed herself that time.
That’s about it, just one motherlord of a car journey home and tones of dirty kit to hose down, If you haven’t yet get yourself up to any of the 7 stanes you wont be disappointed I promise.

Trail Fairys

2006-11-17T17:10:00.000Z

Who in their right mind would plough all their extra time and energy into building a trail just to see it get knocked down, but then to rebuild it bigger, better and stronger? I bet you know a few people like that.....

REST OF POST
Digging is like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. I live with the usual situation where I love it but most of my mates hate it. If you get asked by people why you build trails in the most ridiculous conditions with the worlds shittiest tools, you can never really justify it apart from having that self satisfaction from riding something you’ve built. Which in my book, is better than any other feeling in mountain biking.

If you think about it, progression in mtb has only happened because of the progression in trail building. People like Riley Macintosh at Whistler Bike Park, Dan Cowan and Todd Fiander of the North Shore movement and many other unknown builders, commit part of their lives to developing and progressing the sport of mountain biking, by building more and harder stunts to push the limits of the sport.

When you go to visit a new track, trail or spot you can always seem to tell which one out of the locals is the main builder. He’s always the one fixing the lip or the transition when some ones had an off or cased it, even if it wasn’t him. For that builder, when you see a jump crumbling from a harsh impact, the feeling goes right through you. There’s nothing worse than seeing your hard earned work getting destroyed by a rich kid with all the gear but no idea.

Your local builder at your trails or local DH spot more than likely digs more than he rides. It kinda gets you thinking, because it’s obvious that person has bought a mountain bike on the intention of riding it and having fun on it, but instead he has spent most of his time building stuff to ride. Whether it be for him or for others. Once you finish this obstacle you’re never satisfied and you move onto the next feature without even riding the one you have just made. It’s like a drug. You want to keep pushing yourself as a builder just like you push yourself as a rider.

Don’t you love it when you turn up to your local spot or trails and discover that there is a new monster line or section to a trail... Don’t you love it when you turn up to your trails and all the lips are reshaped back to the knife edges they once were, and the transitions smooth enough to land a harrier on once again…

This my friends is the work of the ‘trails fairys’. These rare creatures are usually found lurking in small packs with a set of special tools, which they treat as if they were their own flesh and blood. Venturing out only at dusk or when the trails are quiet, they set to work on resurrecting everything, bringing it back to its previous form. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these at your own spot, try lending a hand once in a while. You never know you might just turn into one yourself if you’re not careful.

So to all you diggers, builders and trail fairys. Don’t let your ‘mates’ who don’t understand what you love about riding and trail building, get you down or make you feel sad and lonesome. Keep getting out there building, maintaining and creating those little spots of hope, because it is you, that is keeping our sport alive.

‘Over the road’

2006-11-16T21:49:00.000Z

I think we can all remember the day when we built our first dirt jump. Mine was probably no different; I’d just got my new bike and had nowhere to ride, so I wagged a day off school and decided to build on our little patch of land ‘over the road’. Thinking back now its scary how much time it took me to build up to doing that tiny jump, but yet I still get the exact same feeling every time I try something new even now……

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After watching Kranked 5 we were bouncing off the walls with adrenaline so we decided to build are first north shore style structure in tribute to Dan Cowan.

We even made a proper gap jump check out the gap on that!!! Gotta be at least 3 feet? Jump count in the garden now = 2. The garden stayed like this for a long time until we finally pulled our finger and got some digging done.

By the end of year 2 of building ‘over the road’ it looked something along the lines of this…

Quite scary seeing that pic, I think even my mum would jump them now?!?!

Anyway after pulling our fingers out we made the jumps grow a bit. Eventually they started to become an acceptable size. Lots of hard graft over winter left them looking like this…

It was all going smoothly, everything was getting that bit bigger each time we’d all meet up for a ride or a dig day. But then we started to use wood one day to build stuff? Don’t know what was going on there, we weren’t exactly ‘skilled’ carpenters. Heres what came out of that stage in life...

After this outburst of woodwork there was a big pause in construction. Nothing went on for a while, I don’t know if we’d given up after failing on many projects but everything seemed to be getting a bit overgrown.

That summer was one of the greatest of our lives. All we did was ride and ride from dawn till dusk. But we needed something else to push us, because I think ‘over the road’ was becoming a bit too tame. So instead of building in the winter like most, when you have soft ground and hours of time to pass, we started building in the summer hols. It could well have been a big mistake wasting all that time basking in the glorious sunshine , but in the end it resulted in the infamous ‘tabletop’ and many new lines.

There is a time where you think I’ve got to stop building and actually go ride, but there’s something that you get hooked on about it?? You always want to build something more creative and impressive than the last. We used this mindset to create a mini bike park throughout the winter of 05 and what we have to this day is an awesome training ground with doubles, drops, gaps, wallrides the works…

I’ve got to thank all my friends who I’ve known since like being 2?! Like Josh and Robin, together I think we’ve made something pretty special in a place where riding your bike is looked down upon instead of being accepted.

Brindgewood

2006-11-16T21:36:00.000Z

Shropshire is home to the most legendary band of all time led zeppelin, and to one of the greatest tracks of all time. Brindgewood.

Brindgewoods surroundings look like something straight out of heartbeat or Emmerdale. Deserted farmyards and baron fields litter the valley floor. The woods themselves give off an eerie sense, as if you shouldn’t be there; I swear I heard and saw a bear coming at me more than one point during the day…

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Anyway enough of the David Attenborough bollocks. The track we first hit up was the one used for the national champs when it was held here last. The last time I raced on this track was in the winter series round 3, when instead of dust we had snow… Its strange how much different a track looks without tape, I suppose it’s a good thing because it widens your boundary’s and allows you to get creative.

The first part of the track is fast and littered with braking bumps and roots. Weave in and out of the trees, over an annoyingly tricky rooty section (even in the dry) into a 90 degree right hander. Round a berm which leads you into a triple which you can either fully clear or jump then pump or in many peoples cases get bucked.

Pedal your ass off up the fire road for a split second and drop into a left hand catch berm. Somehow in my race run in the winter series race I managed to actually miss this berm, and for people who know which part of the track im on about, it’s a looooong way back up. Sprint until your legs are gasping for no more over jumps and off camber roots until you finally hit the big tabletop, sending you into the first woods.

By hitting this jump you can save a hell of a lot of time as me and Ed discovered when doing timed runs. I hit that jump and a few others in the course in my run which gave me an advantage of 20 secs up on him. Interesting… sometimes it is faster to go big than keeping it low.

If you ask anyone about Brindgewood and which part of the tracks they love the most I swear down 9 out of 10 will say the wooded sections. There’s nowhere else like them. The close knit trees with their timely matured roots provide you with a very rare and very unique terrain. You can pump your way through these woods like it was your local BMX track. The locals we met that day had many lines sewed up that I didn’t even knew exist. Once you stop and take a look around you start to imagine endless amounts of transfers off natural kickers and roots.

The bottom section is no different to the first wooded section tight and very flowy. If you can find the right line here you can really rail it. Pinballing off trees we made are way down to the final roll in to the infamous final booter. A well crafted tabletop which needed to be hit at warp speed 9 to have any chance of clearing. To be honest I think the only people I’ve seen clear it are the infamous Morgan bro’s Adam and Ben.

We did this track time after time because of the handy road that winds pretty much all the way to the top of the hill, Road + Dad + car = free uplift. Everything was going smoothly until I had my daily nightmare with my bike. The rear end was that loose that I cud literally fit my hand into the gap between my pivot and bb. Worrying…

We’d dragged my dad out for his second proper ride since he got his first big hitting bike. He seemed to be at home in the rough stuff, powering his way through using the beef. Ed was his usual consistent self constantly hammering in runs and sessioning sections until he could no longer move.

We ventured over to a bomb hole further down the top fire road and as soon as we got their a session kicked off jumping the step up hip and carving the natural bowl. By this time I could hear the sound of the golden arch calling, and I answered. We set off back down the smoothest, flowiest track I have ever witnessed. Popping in and out of trees and carving berms left right and centre was all we could do to make our way down the hill. Even my dad was starting to get the hang of this pumping the trail malarkey.

Sluggishly making our way back to the car in the blistering heat the usual talk of the trail quality began and I swear, I didn’t hear one bad word about this one.

Jam 1

2006-11-16T21:20:00.000Z

How hot? 27 degrees in England has surely got to prove global warming…

After a steady start the trails were finally watered and swept to get them back into something rideable. A steady stream of the locals started arriving, jonny robin, josh and later on Dan. Followed by are Shetland (shitland) island friend Ieuan!

Riding to music once in a while is a godsend....

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Everyone gets psyched listening to tunes while ridin, especially when there being blasted out from an amp. Of are neighbor nick is reading this I apologise, but to be honest you cut are tree down so pooschnaff to u!

Lately I’d just finished my ‘dads’ line’ which consisted of a step down to tabletop to kicker, or if you wanted you could transfer it to the far line landing which we found out later…

Jonny started a session off on the tabletop which must have lasted for 4 hours straight. Jonnys no footers got from mad to just a bit silly really. You can see in the pics that there not the most stylish things to do but man there impressive in real life. I think if you look close on one of the pics he’s doing a superman by accident which he somehow landed?! You never know what that boys thinking half the time, must be something to do with the water in Hathersage…

More and more lines were being discovered as the day progressed, the best probably being the hipped transfer from the middle to the far flow line. Josh started up a session on the oldest line near the wallride, which ended up in some sketchy take offs and landings. Me being one of the sufferers. Where a helmet kids you never know it might just save you…..

Minor foods stop aka pasta and water courtesy of the ‘mother’. Ieuan are shitland friend was all very new to this trails malarkey so he was a bit conservative at the beginning of the day but towards the end he was easily sailing over the tabletop and the new line. All this must be a tad new to him seeing as he lives literally in the middle of nowhere. Who’s heard of Walsay????

For the first time I witnessed the jumps starting to crack. Usually one douse of water from a watering can would do the job but for some reason the soil was eating the moisture like a fad kid in a candy shop. I even saw the lip of a jump completely fall off!

As the day wound down our childish and immature selves decided to gaffer tape josh to a tree…. Why you ask?? Who knows but I tell you now he got one hell of a wedgie when he was hanging out of that tree.

One jam down. How many more to go?