Unread, non-junk, emails that is… So that’s another day of wading through my inbox and getting back to people who wrote to me in September - and on top of that, I need to find a working bike (hmm…), lights, tent, sleeping bag, all my socks (and rainjackets, by the look of the forecast) ready to head down to Thetford tomorrow. On top of that, my car MOT has run out, so I’m having to hire a car. It’s all glamour in editor world. 
…but after five flights in 24 hours, I’m a bit whacked out. Just managed to sift some post and emails today after returning and that’s about it. I need to wake up tomorrow though as I have to put my Surly Karate Monkey back together in time to race at this weekend’s Marin Dusk Til Dawn at Thetford Forest. My favourite event of the year. Lord knows why though - it’s dark and cold and mentally very hard. Ace singletrack though and the world feels much better once the race is over
Mind you, I’ve not really ridden for four weeks, so it’ll be interesting…
Spent saturday in Ribbesford woods trying to learn how to leave the ground on a bike. I found that it was mostly a process of un-learning though really. My first few attempts at jumps had me putting my weight towards the back of the bike and also trying to absorb the jump with my legs. Which meant I crashed hanging off the back of the bike, a lot. Eventually I got the hang of standing more over the front of the bike (conciously trying to keep the bars high and close to my chest and not letting the pedals get in front of my c-of-g, sort of) and dipping the front of the bike down to ‘touchdown’ first etc.
Things progressed quite quickly after that and I was soon doing the less mentally sized doubles, step-downs and ’ski jumps’. I was still struggling with judging how fast to hit the obstacles (I hit one kicker double so fast I ended up shooting over the next berm and tumbling through the unergrowth) but I suspect that comes with practice and experience.
After a crap start (if I was on my own I would’ve have called it quits and gone home early doors) I ended up really enjoying the day and it felt like the first time in years that I’ve actively gone and acquired some new handling skills. Not sure these new skills will be all that useful at this weekend’s Dusk ‘Til Dawn race though!
I’m still in mourning for my Giant VT but the pain has been eased slightly by the arrival of my long term test bike.
For pretty much the rest of this year and a long way into next all of us in the office are getting a long term test bike that we will be reporting on and reviewing at regular intervals, either here on the blog, the main site and in the mag. The idea is that between us we will have a pretty good spread of bike options and we treat each bike as if it were our own, maybe changing the odd component to suit us or maybe even upgrading parts - you know, like what we all do eventually when we buy a new bike. We personalise it.
So, it looks like mine is the first to arrive and this will be my main bike for most rides I do through 2007. It’s a 17.5in frame (I’m 5′7″), with a whisker short of 5 inches of travel at front and rear. The frame is carbon with carbon bars and seatpost plus a veritable concoction of shifting a drive train components from Shimano XT through to both SRAM X9 and X0.
I took it out for the first time yesterday and without going into detail (how much detail can you review after one quick ride?) I’d sum it up as fast! It’s a less ’sit up and beg’ ride position than my Giant (It’s still mine even though some criminal is probably riding around on it!) and I think maybe that’s increased my impression of speed slightly. Whatever, I liked the feeling
I have to confess that when it arrived I instantly started imagining the changes I’d make - Bars with more rise, shorter stem, swap that saddle (I’ve never got on with Bonty saddles), change the X9 shifters for new 2007 XT, to name a few. But after my first ride I realised that was probably just because I had those bits on my Giant and just missed them. Now I’ve ridden it I think I’ll keep most of the bits as they are, at least for a while. That saddle has to go though. In fact it just has. There’s a good chance I could fall in love with this bike.
Oh, it’s £2500 RRP as is btw. Have a look at www.trekbike.co.uk for more details.
I´ve now been on non-bike related holiday in Mexico for one week - I´m not sure if I´m cut out for this relaxing thing. I lasted two days before I had to check my office email (that’ll be Saturday and Sunday then) and I´ve been staring at glimpsed singletrack and shonky bikes all week. Never mind, back to work on Wednesday and the fun begins again
Managed to get out for 3 rides over the weekend, 1st ride on Saturday was simply to use the bike to get somewhere, do my thing (take some snaps)Â and then get back, 30 odd miles, mix of on and off road, rain, wind and sunshine all mixed in, legs heavy at the end though, beer soothers required.
Sunday was an hour and a half around the singletrack at Delemere, had my ass handed to me on a plate by my mate and realised that any last vestige of fitness has finally deserted me. A fall into the lake early on did nothing for my confidence and I realised I was going to have another one of “those days”. Watching him scoot away on the hills meant only one thing, he had to be taken down the tricky rutted descent known as “son of no brains”, that’ll teach him, except I underestimated how loose and sketchy it was and visited the ground for the 2nd time that day 
My riding partner had to leave early so I went out again to get some miles into my weak legs, actually found myself riding better now and was pleasantly surprised to see so many folk out on the trails, for those who dont know it Delamere has a large network of lovley woodsy singletrack, you just have to explore a bit and follow the odd trail through the undergrowth 
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3rd ride was in the afternoon, got home to find an empty house, just a note to say we’ll be back at 6, yay !, quick bacon butty and out again, this time on local trails down the river, by now my legs are very heavy but what the hell, its all good and every mile means another chance to get stronger and fitter in time for D2D in 2 weeks time (gulp!)
Nice big moon tonight and a newly rebuilt and working Patriot66, a perfect combination for a night ride.
Stick-E tyres made the climbs hard going but seeing as I need to regain some riding fitness still that’s no bad thing. Seeing as I was on my lonesome I took the liberty of scouting a couple of new trails I’ve had my eye on for a while. One dead end but the second offered up it’s slinky, off cambered slimeness, it’s going to be a pleasure to share when the boys get back from London.
And with a full weekend of riding ahead the Patriot’s going to get another outing, I’d almost forgotten how much fun it is
Were trying not to forget the Flyers, the mouse mats , the banners or the computer.
Lincolnshire first thing in the morning to pick up magazines and then make sure Mark doesn’t eat any of the snickers off the front of them, then to London to set up. Time for a ride tonight of course ! ;]
Like most riders when I’m not riding I’m thinking about riding. If I’m not fiddling with bike bits Im thinking about what bike bits I need/want. This has been my life for the past 11 years or so.
And now thanks to the internet, and more specifically Google Earth, I’m trail hunting from my living room. Huge areas have been scoured for potential trails and a maker placed on the map to indicate where is worthy of further exploration. Every ripple, contour and patch of woodland is examined for potential, and the hope that a vague clump of darkened pixels means the start of a new trail. A hit-list appears, and I now have to go out exploring to see if what looks like the best trail in the history of the world ever actually exists or is merely a freak collection of rocks and shadows.
I really am addicted, and encourage you to become addicted too.
http://earth.google.com/
Well, Interbike finished last night. I’ve spent a lot of today snoozing, checking out of hotels and shopping for cheap Oakley jeans ($34… can’t complain) - I now have to keep editing the remaining 500 or so shots I have and get the stories up on the site.
I’ve also got a couple of bikes to test next week - a 2007 Fisher HiFi and a Maverick Durance. Now that should be fun…