Singletrack Staff Blog

Ben, Matt and a bunch of the local riders went for a ride tonight - hey, it is Thursday - the night ride night of all nights… but were back in time for the unofficial UK premiere of the new Collective movie, ROAM. The big showing is going to be in a day or two at the Enduro Six event.

Needless to say, though, it went down very well before our small audience of eight or so.

Last ‘working’ day of the magazine tomorrow before the weekend. Sim’s going to be in working all weekend and I’ll be in on Sunday night after the Enduro Six and again on Bank Holiday Monday (what are they?) Ooh, you can feel the glamour from here.

Oh well, eh? Hopefully there’ll be time to ride bikes next week. Yay! Bikes are ace. Even when I don’t get to ride them much…

Back riding one of my own bikes again (as opposed to a test bike) and on my local trails around Hebden Bridge. A gorgeous evening, with the trails remarkably ‘buff’ considering the morning’s downpour - another indication that summer is coming. I rode with a ‘Tony Hawk Helmetcam’ strapped to my head tube and recorded some incredibly wobbly footage (with surprisingly good quality sound).

It was rather a technical ride - as usual when me, Craig and Felix play out - and everyone had minor tumbles. Not real harm done though. we linked together yet another great new way of getting down from Heptonstall (aka Trail Hub Of The Universe). Then it was back to the laptop until 2am trying to think of interesting things to write about GPS for the magazine. Ho-hum.

Went riding test bikes up in the glorious Swaledale this weekend with Craig and Juicy Jim. We got shown around by our old mate Stu from dalesmountainbiking.co.uk who knows where all the hidden ace stuff is. The ground was bone dry and the skies were blue - Dales riding at its finest.

We certainly made the most of the conditions and covered lots of ground (nearly 100km with about 8000ft of climbing). And we had ice creams on the village green at the end. We could have done without our B&B owner’s parrot impersonating a reversing HGV at 6am but other than that, a nigh-on perfect weekend of riding. More please!

It’s that week of weeks - the deadline week (which seems to last about a fortnight here for some reason) so everyone’s head-down working on stuff. Sim’s trying to design things I’ve not given him the words for, I’m trying to write things I’ve not thought about… That kind of thing.

All that and the pressure that everyone always reckons the last issue was ‘The best one ever!’ (dudes…)

And it’s even sunny and dry outside… Oh well eh? I’ll get to ride at the EnduroSix this weekend. Assuming I can find a bike that works…
Cheers all
Chipps

Went with Matt to visit Science in Sport today to get the very technical lowdown on their new Nocte sleep enhancing drink. It’s a drink you mix up hot or cold before bedtime to help you sleep and recover better and hence be better refreshed in order to train/race or whatever the next day.

We learned a lot - especially how considering the amount of coffee we drink each week from fresh beans in the office (about a kilo of beans between 6 of us) we are murdering ourselves. Got….to….cut…back….

Hey, I’m not hooked… I could stop anytime I wanted… I’m in control…

Yep, Saturday night we decided on a night time assault on the 48 mile Mary Towneley Loop - the circular bit of the Pennine Bridleway here. It’s long and rolling and doesn’t pass through too much civilisation, so it’s not too anti-social a thing to be doing late at night. Well apart from to the riders…

We rode from my house, up the road for about four miles and started on the route proper at about 9pm. Two hours later we were by the New Delight pub in Hebden and another hour after that we were by the Shepherd’s Rest, above Todmorden, having knocked out over half of the route. By then, though, it had started spitting heavily with rain (the kind that’s either going to stop after ten minutes, or is the precursor for an almighty downpour…) Seeing as the three of us were doing it for something fun to do on a Saturday night and a bit of a test of our legs for the upcoming Enduro6 event next weekend, we decided to cheerfully call it a night and retired back to mine for beers.
A great evening’s distraction. And considering we didn’t leave until 8.30pm, having done 30 miles before bedtime was a good achievement for the evening. Next time we’ll knock out the other half…

Just come back from a walk up to the summit of Pendle Hill. There were hundreds of walkers up there! Walking up was fine but we came down via what is essentially a flight of stairs down the steepest part. All the way down all I could think of was how ace it would be to ride. But it’s footpath only and hugely busy. Some bloke with no helmet was heaving an Orange Patriot up, which just rubbed it in more. Maybe a cheeky early morning sortee when there’s no one around? That would be naughty

At the bottom my knees were shaking and I had to sit down. Why do my legs feel so heavy?

CD covermount samples arrived today and they actually work! That’s a heck of a relief to be honest. Every copy of issue 28 will have one stuck on the front. That’s one to tick off my list.

We also took delivery this week of our new sound system that we will be using to blast out the soundrack of ROAM at the Enduro 6+ at the end of the month. We now have a 1300watt (RMS) amp punching out choones to a pair of Celestion 15 inch 300watt speakers :-). Bad news is the horn on one of the speakers isn’t working so it’s being collected and swapped on Tuesday. I just have to worry about rigging up a screen in the 40foot x 30foot marque we’ve hired. Also not sure what anyone will be sitting on yet. We are waiting to hear back from Pat Adams about straw bales.

Things I’m worrying about..

Seating in the marquee
If our new easy-ups will be ready on time
Will the projector be bright enough?
Refreshments
Will the preview copies of ROAM actually arrive on time (We still don’t have them)
Will we get the mag finished in time to be able to worry about all the above?
Will we be able to fit everything in a bunch of knackered cars?
I’ll let you know how they all go

I’m back from America. Two weeks, great fun but no riding. Pictures here.

Now I’m back it’s full steam ahead on the last few fixes to STW II. Wish me luck.