Singletrack Staff Blog

It’s the Howies Dyfi Enduro this Sunday. Roughly 40 miles in one big loop.

Here’s my checklist…

• Force 10 Vortex tent.
• Klein Attitude.
• Kenda Dred Tred 2.1 UST tyres.
• Inner tubes (you never know).
• Ergon prototype carbon “suspension” flexy seat post.
• Torq energy bars and gel (just drinking water in my bladder - will have energy drink at feed stations).
• Prolink chain lube in a little portable bottle.
• Goretex shorts.
• Spare gloves.
• Spare socks.
• Deuter Race Air hydration pack.
• Sweets.
• Bagels with cheddar cheese, marmite and rocket.

My fitness is alright. And I’m mentally prepared for the seemingly endless gradual fireroad climbs.

All I have to do now is not get too pissed the night before…

…my knee that is. I’m going to test it out with a gentle road spin tomorrow with Jazzy Brian. Then expect me to be riding the easy bits of the SS UK race at Drumlanrig this coming weekend. Having raced all of the previous 13 years of the Singlespeed UK Champs, it would be silly to miss this one. Not that I’m much of a singlespeeder these days…

Oh, and I have a new trials hero on Youtube for you:

Danny Macaskill rocks my world.

Fitted Saturday night (eventually, they require superhuman strength and patience) first ride this morning..

bloody hell they are fast, even with tubes fitted (its a long story, dont ask) and kind of springy, which is odd, they have made my previously super stiff and fully rigid VooDoo Aizan into a sofa soft ride ?

More (and photo’s) next week after the first competitive outing at the SSUK08 funfest next weekewnd in Drumlanrig

 

Well, I’m back from the Sea Otter and back into the swing of things. Before I left, I’d been taking things easy as I’d been feeling under the weather. I’d only managed a couple of rides in a month before I left, and I didn’t ride while in California. So I was looking forward to riding last night. None of the locals were out, so just Jazzy Brian and I went out for a spin. We went up and over London Road, down ‘Hell Yeah!’*, past the pub, up Knott Wood and down ‘Vietnam’. Having survived all this, we deserved a pint in the Stubbing Wharf. And then riding home, my wheels slipped on a flowing canal spillway and dumped me onto my knee. I now can’t bend my leg, so no riding for me for a while again. Ho hum. Perhaps this wasn’t meant to be a fit year…

I’ll be down at the Enduro Six this weekend anyway though, I’ve gone from half of a pair, to a supporter for a solo. Never mind, Emily has a new Santa Cruz Blur XC that she can’t wait to ride a lot, so she’ll probably be happy. Now, do I take the guitar or not?

(*Not entirely its real name)

I’ve been after something new to play with since the Santa Cruz Jackal went back. It had to be geared, it had to be fun and ideally something that gave some trail feedback rather than the isolated feel you get from a lot of full suspension bikes.

With this in mind, and with an eye on a neglected Orange Sub3 that’s been knocking around the office for a while now, I gathered up a load of bits and set to fettling. New stem, tyres, wheels, brakes, forks and shock later and the monster has been created.

I went to the US premiere of Seasons last night, in the company of the filmmakers, most of the riders and half of the bike industry. The film was shown on a big screen, with 500 applauding viewers and a great sound system - the best way really to see a films with monster soundtracks. The film is split into four sections, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, with a smallish group of riders pictured in each one.

It starts off with Peaty in Sheffield in Winter - and does a great job of making riding bikes in the rain look exciting and something that you want to do… Other sections show riders like Cam McCaul jumping into his swimming pool off a huge ramp at his house in California - the film goes on to feature the different seasons, some big jumps, a feature on Mont St Anne and other Canadian hotspots, like the Shore and Kamloops. It’s different to Roam in that it’s mainly shot in Canada and there’s a lot more rider interviews interspersed between the wonderfully shot scenes. Fans of Ryan Leech will be sorry to hear that there’s no trials section, just full-on freeriding.

The film is shot very well, with a great deal of wire-work and the camera ‘floating’ above the trail. There are no stunning advances in cinematography - and we now take for granted that any new film will have wire tracking shots, 60ft jumps and a killer soundtrack. My one concern is that the extensive rider interviews between the riding won’t last up to repeated viewings - if the bit in Roam where Jordie Lunn’s dad is talking gets on your nerves, then you’re in for more of the same kind of stuff. However, look between the interviews and the voiceovers and there is some top notch riding and a very entertaining soundtrack. The DVD should be out in late May… And the UK will see a series of film premieres as seen in our story here.

All the tell tale signs that winter is over are now in place. Last night I noticed that the Curlew are back up on the moors; their tell tale calls are one of those little hints that spring is here (despite the snow).

Riding bikes has made me notice these things more, the smell of the Wild Garlic in the woods, closely followed by Bluebells and then Nettles. The arrival of the moorland birds, Curlew, Lapwing, Golden Plover, and Short Eared Owls all supplementing our stock of Red Grouse.

And soon night rides in the woods will mean dodging the bats, just like last weeks meant dodging amorous toads on their way to spawn.

These are all good things, and here the tree hugging tale endeth.

I’ve made it to California for this year’s Sea Otter event: four days of bike racing from road to downhill, XC and Dual Slalom. I won’t be watching much of the racing, though, I’ll be keeping my eye on the pits and seeing what’s new for 2009. Check out www.singletrackworld.com for daily updates on the hot new gadgets for next year. And if I’ve done all my homework by teatime, there should also be some movie premieres going on too that I’ll try and get to.

Let me know if you have any requests or manufacturers you want me to check out… I’m sure I’ll get round to everyone in turn though.

It’s all very well living in Mountain Bike Land(tm) where boxes of ace bikes arrive, ready for testing, and we can sit in front of our massive computer screens pretending to work while watching Chris Akrigg videos, but some bits of the Real World occasionally poke in and remind us that we’re actually office workers with reasonably regular lives (and some nice bikes with no time to ride them).

No, I’m talking about normal things like washing machines. And small bike parts like Allen keys. It seems that at some point, I’d had an Allen key in my jeans when I washed them. The Allen key managed to then force itself through the wall of the washing machine drum. Though it was only 10 months old, this counts as ‘customer abuse/neglect’ and isn’t covered under warranty. So, one Allen key, with the power to fix a bike, also has the power to ruin a washing machine. Ho hum… So, £239 later I now have a washing machine that looks just like the old one. And then, later, I have to go and get my car from Mario’s ‘Cash Only’ Garage. It’s a good job we’ve just all had a pay rise…

After what seems like a lifetime of not doing much riding I’m about to embark upon a training/get fit quick/lose fat quicker program.

For various reasons (life stuff) my riding has dropped to almost zero over the last year or so, sure I have still been commuting by bike but thats not for fun thats just what I do, but fun rides with friends, getting into the hills, and races have been even rarer and I’ve sorely missed all that, so this year after a few things have been sorted out I plan to return to the Singletrack fold. 

First off in March was to take part in a 30 in 30 escapade, a few of us agreed to see if we could manage to ride for at least 1 solid hour a day for 30 continuous days, easy peasy you say ?. Well actually no it wasnt, but a few people managed it and I’m sure you’ll be able to read all about it in an upcoming issue soon.

So, with that done what next ?, well one thing I know about is how to get fit and the best most efficient way I know is to ride long miles on a road bike as a starting point, so Kona have provided me with a lovely blue Kona Zing road bike, a few tweaks to the position, a change of saddle, some pedals and off I go. The cunning plan is to make the most of the new lighter nights by riding a well established route of 60 miles twice per week after work in addition to my usual commute.

This has several advantages, the first being the obvious long rides providing miles and saddle time, the second being that having a commitment to ride with others means I have to leave my desk at 4 at least twice per week when it is so easy to work through till 6 every night.

The third is the most important though, having ridden a long way means that I’ll be tired, too tired to sit in front of the glowing box that lives in the corner of the room, so it’ll be a quick bath followed by a recovery drink and then bed, I know from long experience that you only get fit when you are recovering, and that sleep is the best form of recovery.

So, where’s all this heading to then ?

Well, there’s the SSUK race at the beginning of May that I’d like to try and be at least a little bit competitive at, there’s a week long trip to Bike Verbier at the end of May to enjoy (long epic days in the mountains are the plan there) and then given that I have a new road bike to play on I suppose I should turn out for a couple of Wednesday night club tens and see if I can get in under 25 minutes ever again !

Of course there will be the usual Singletrack Towers mad cap adventures to do, the bus stop bivvy has got to be done this year Dave ;-) , and then there’s the “My name is Earl” list of other things to tick off in 2008.

Hopefully all this riding will give me back my cyclist tan lines and a chance to get back to testing some riding gear, the starting point for that is a set of Mavic Crossmax wheels in 29er flavour that will be going onto my geared 29er Indy Fab this coming weekend.

All in all 2008 should be a return to normality and once again I can call myself a cyclist, watch this space.