Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:40:59 -0800 forum@mtbbritain.co.uk (MTB Britain) IP.Blog 60
Buy a new pair of gloves before next winter.
Unbelievably my 661 gloves are still going strong so they get a big thumbs up (after the disaster that was the Kona ones - fell to pieces in a very short period of time). There not winter gloves admitedly and I do end up with small blocks of ice for fingers if its really cold but my recession busting solution to this is to wear some thin wool gloves (that I already had) underneath.

I've also been sporting some 661 Kyle Strait knee pads this year and again they have performed admirably for the sort of riding I do. OK so knees can get a tad warm on a hot summers day but to honest your going to suffer that with most pads from what I can see. I've not gone so far as a few of my riding buddies and opted for shin protection despite ripping three holes in my shin following a 'comedy' slippage on my DMR pedals.

What I do need to buy now is that waterproof jacket that I've been promising myself....

Buy some new riding shorts before mine completely fall to pieces (it appears my thighs rub off the saddle a hell of a lot!)
Can't complain about my 3/4 length Endura's which I bought earlier in the year so much so I got a pair of the standard length ones to reduce the amount of cycle kit washing cycles!

Make good use of my Swinley annual pass.
Since Feb 2008 i've ridden at Swinley 23 times (280 miles) so I think i've managed that more than adequately. Still love the place though.

Arrange a Forum ride in May/June in the Surrey Hills (Holmbury and Pitch).
Done a few of these now and will probably arrange another in the next few weeks possibly covering the three lumps (Holmbury, Pitch and Leith).

Try to get to South Wales
May was the month that a few of us set off to Afan for a few days riding arranged by the esteemed Dr Bike. Despite the extremely soggy conditions (not helped by my very un-waterproof waterproof) that we were presented with, this marked the highlight of my 2009 riding year. Great riding with great mates.

Work harder on my basic skills.
Still working hard..... My new mantra (from Richard Kelly of All Bike Up and the new IMB magazine Technique Guru) is 'Head Up, Heals Down, Hips Back' which is far better than my previous 'Don't fall off, don't fall off, f#£k I did!'

Try some more riding on the South Downs
Not managed anything this year but of course there is still time.

Start riding clipless pedals.
Tick....and I am currently suffering all the embarassing unplanned dismounts and sideways flops. Persevering though and slowly rebuilding my confidence. If all else fails my five-ten shoes and DMR's are cleaned, greased and ready to go

Think some more about doing the Pass'Portes du Soleil.
As before......A dream at the moment. sad.gif

The recession put me in the position of having to commute up to the big smoke for a large proportion of the year which in turn left me too knackered (and late home) to get my usual cheeky evening rides in for much of the summer. On top of this my trusty stead suffered a serious of costly mechanicals compounded by some incompetence on the part of one of my LBS's. Still, the lights are charged up ready to go and so let the winter mtb season begin.... ]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:02:10 -0800
The month of May marked the trip to Afan which despite the 'torrential' rain which plagued us turned out to be an absolutely superb few days of riding. It doesn't really seem that long since, Me, Dr Bike, Chrism, Sinful Hedgehog, Huw, Bob Osola, and the guys over from Belgium were firing emails between ourselves making plans for the trip.

Problem is since then i've not had as many chances to get out riding. Weekends seem to have been filled with all sorts of non-mtb stuff and the possibilty of evening rides have been few and far between as i'm temporarily working up in the big smoke. I just can't get back early enough to get a ride in and of course fulfil my parental responsibilities! On top of this I had a few weeks without the bike due to major mechanical issues. OK I have the 'other' bike but it's just not the same.

The lack of time has also meant (sadly) that I haven't been able to devote any time to meet up with the Hurtwood Trail volunteers. They are still working away up there most weeks and there will be something new and exciting happening later in the year/early next year. I hope to get back involved once more time becomes available, but if you do ride up there and spot the guys (and gals), offer a helping hand for a couple of minutes.

So my riding since may has been limited to one Swinley trip (I knew that would happen when I ordered my year permit), a single Holmbury/Pitch ride which is ridiclulous since I only live a few miles away and a scattering of more XC type rides along the North Downs and over to Newlands Corner.

My biggest concern is re-motivating myself when I can get the time. However, having just come back from holiday and seen quite a few chaps by the pool who have let themselves go and started to expand horizontally, I just need to keep reminding myself that this is not how I want to end up in years to come.

The forum ride to the Chilterns yesterday was my first 'proper' ride for some time and to be honest I was reasonably pleased that I could keep up (more or less) with the others after such a reduced amount of riding. I was slightly concerned on the first climb of the day that my heart was going jump out of my chest but I 'nearly' made it to the top without stopping. Of course at the back of mind I always have 'what goes up, must come down' so I knew there was likely to be some decent (South Eastern stylee) descent to be had, and the was! There is some great fun to be had in the Chilterns providing you know how to string the good bits together (thanks Chris & Andy) and thankfully things were a lot drier since the last time I ride up there.

Other news: I've been sampling SPD's but only in secret (i.e. when i'm riding solo). I've already managed a few comedy offs 'mostly' only witnessed by the trees and hills. Not wishing to provide the comic element to yesterdays ride I slipped the DMR's back on before setting off but I do love the greater sense of control I feel and the extra power I get with the SPD's.

Well that's about it for now.....]]> Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:51:29 -0700
To be honest, I don’t mind winter riding too much providing it’s icy cold and not wet, at least you don’t overheat. I had some great rides at Swinley on freezing cold days including an excellent snow bound ride with Andy/Dr Bike during this years earlier bout of snow. I also enjoyed my first ever night rides in the Surrey Hills this winter. The trick is to make sure you don’t approach that welcoming sofa when you get in after work, drop your bags, immediately chuck your riding gear on and get out and ride. I had fun even when the nozzle on my camelback froze.

The real problem comes when it’s difficult to tell whether it’s winter or summer. When the temperature is neither cold nor warm and it may or may not rain as is often the case about this time of year. I find myself continuously having to stop and remove or add layers or getting very wet because I had bet on it not raining. Kind of messes up the flow of a ride all that stopping, starting and adjusting.

I’ve renewed my Swinley yearly pass, the ‘fair weather’ regulars have started to re-appear after a period of hibernation and numbers have been bolstered with a scattering of newbies. Add to this the prospect of plenty of local Surrey Hills rides (with the call of yet more singletrack to search out) and the anticipation of rides further a field (Wales for one) and it would seem that the ingredients are in place for a summer of great riding.

So here’s to bikes, mountains (well hills, anyway) and riding buddies…..
]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:58:06 -0700

Earlier in the year I posted a list of to-do items, nothing special, but having spotted a post on the forum about 2009 goals it reminded me of it.


Buy a new pair of gloves before next winter.
I did buy some Kona ones which fell to pieces after not too many rides, absolutely useless. Got hold of some 661's which seem to be holding up better, although perhaps I should have got something a bit warmer for the winter.


Buy some new riding shorts before mine completely fall to pieces (it appears my thighs rub off the saddle a hell of a lot!)
The holes got bigger and then even bigger right up to the embarassing level so invested in some 3/4 length Endura's - love 'em.


Make good use of my Swinley annual pass.
Done pretty well on this in the later part of the year and still a few months left. Thanks to the mysterious navigational abilities of Dr Bike!


Arrange a Forum ride in May/June in the Surrey Hills (Holmbury and Pitch).
Yep - Did this (blog entry somewhere about it). Will arrange something else in the New Year but to be honest the trails are pretty trashed around here at the moment and really need to be rested. Way to many articles published recently about riding in the Surrey Hill's recently which appear to have increased traffic at exactly the wrong time of year. It is going to take some effort from the Volunteer's to get things back on track next year.


Try to get to South Wales
Yep a sneaky week day trip to Afan with Chrism last month when we rode The Wall - what can I say but superb! The best riding I have experienced in my short career. Look forward to getting back to Wales next year.


Work harder on my basic skills.
An ever ongoing effort but i'm pretty sure that my riding has improved over the year (well I don't fall off as much!) More prepared to try things now and got a better grip on balance and using my body.


Try some more riding on the South Downs
Superb ride from Butser Hill with Bob and Bhosty earlier in the year, sadly this was pretty much it for the South Downs this year.


Start riding clipless pedals.
Going to hold fire on this for a while, flats are the way to go! I'm sure I can put up with the gibes from my riding buddies for another year!


Think some more about doing the Pass'Portes du Soleil.
A dream at the moment.

OK, so nothing groundbreaking on this (2008) years list but who knows what next year might bring.... Will start thinking about it over the festive break. Need to include: Fitness (I can feel it dropping off already as riding has been more minimal recently), Skills Course, Loads more riding in different places, Wales and an endless selection of biking bits and pieces. I would add new bike to the list but SWMBO might be reading ]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:34:45 -0800
Met up the Chrism on Sunday for a Surrey Hills pootle with the idea being to do a bit of exploring over at Pitch Hill. Having parked over near Holmbury St Mary we did the up Holmbury Hill, down via BKB and back up to the summit of Pitch Hill. From here, rather than dropping down on the other side of Pitch Hill immediately by the quarry as my usual loop, we headed back down following a more northerly direction to find a lovely 'challenging but do-able rooty, short but steep' descent.

From this point we headed west (towards Winterfold Woods'ish) and found an excellent piece of singletrack which heads kind-of NW'ish. There's a great section that passes through a fir tree forest that has a real surreal feel to it. This is now set to be included in my standard Holmbury / Pitch Hill loop.

Heading partially back up Pitch Hill on the road to gain some altitude, we then rapidly descended back down towards the Peaslake car-park back on singletrack before slogging back up to the top of Holmbury Hill by road.

Stopping for a rest at the summit, it was agreed that we would go for Leith Hill as well (at least they have somewhere to have a cup of tea). I've never actually done all three hills in one day and tended to either concentrate on Leith Hill (ridden from home) or drive over to Holmbury St Mary and do Holmbury and Pitch Hills.

I have to admit that the old leg muscles were aching a bit as we heaved up there, but the reward was of course a rest with a cup of tea.

What goes up, must come down so fortunately the journey back to the car was all down hill. One quick stop for Chris to repair a snapped chain (and me to have another rest!) at which point bhosty from the forum came past with small group (it's a small world).

All in all another top ride!]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:42:51 -0700
All the other little annoyances will surface too. Like how many layers to wear (I always end up putting too much on and five minutes into the ride have reached boiling point) or the fact that I have never actually got around to buying any lights so midweek afterwork rides rapidly become an impossibilty. And is it really a good idea anyway to be riding the trails in the dark on ones own?

Riding in the recent weeks has been few and far between with weekends absorbed with various weddings and time for recovery from hangovers. The last group rides I was on was at the end of last month with Andy (DrBike), Chrism and and a school buddy of mine Matt C (Dr Bike has done a bit of a write up in his blog on this) in the hills local to me and the week before this Swinley Forest, but since then its been some solo rides up to Leith Hill (nearly getting caught out by the ever decreasing light in the evenings) and a bit of running (or probably better described as jogging or fast walking!). Although running doesn't have any real excitement to it like mountain biking it does enable me to try and keep some level of fitness up and avoids the need for washing and oiling the bike on what can be quite short rides.

The mud is slowly but surely coming back, so bring on the heavy wear on components! I do know of one person who puts their mountain bike away for the winter for fear of too much wear and jumps on their road bike but thats certainly not for me. At least with the slippery roots you get to practice your balancing skills!!

So hopefully I will be up bright and breezy tommorow morning for a decent ride in the local area and fingers crossed the weather is as good as today.

Maybe i'll get those lights one day........

]]> Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:19:31 -0700
The new chain got it's first proper run at Swinley this Saturday on a ride with Andy (DrBike), Chris and Max (Sinful Hedgehog) and it felt lovely and smooth on the gear changes so fingers crossed problem sorted.

It seemed like an age since I was at Swinley and by the time I got there at 8.40 it already seemed pretty busy in the car-park (that's Bank Holidays for you). Max was running late so we decided to do a short ride and get back to the car-park to meet him. Five minutes into the ride and we started to wonder what the click-click sound was that seemed to be coming from Andy. A bit of a look see and it turned out to be the spring between Andy's brake pads had gone and got itself into the disc. Half an hour later (yes, half an hour - due to the brake pistons not wanting to withdraw back into the caliper making trying to slide the pad sandwich in place a particularly frustrating exercise), Max had arrived and we were off.

The trails were nice and dry apart from the odd gloopy patch to take you by surprise every so often. But for me, everything seemed to flow really nicely, much better than some of my more recent rides. It's great that when you can get the trails to work for you, the increased speed you get gives you that bit more momentum to push you up the climbs making everything seem sooooo much easier. In particular Babymaker and the Labyrinth felt absolutely great and even the Corkscrew which has thrown me a couple of times worked out just fine.

We probably could have ridden for a good bit longer but everybody needed to get back for various non-mtb duties so it was soon time to load the bike back up and head off. Not even time for a bacon buttie.......

Can't wait to get back to Swinley again soon (whenever that might be.....)]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:49:24 -0700
MY FLIPPING CHAIN SNAPPED AGAIN, AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Funny enough, it happened near to where it happened last time, at the end of 'I should Coco' on Holmbury Hill. This bit is plenty bumpy with plenty of chain slap when you take it at speed......

So that's it, I'm going to try an alternative to SRAM and a KMC X9 is hopefully winging its way to me as I type. I would add that i've never had a problem with SRAM chains before, although the last bike was 8 speed and this is 9 - thinner chain meaning weaker chain perhaps?

At the start of the week I was again up with the Hurtwood MTB Volunteers and Redlands Trails refining and finishing a new high line above the pots on Yoghurt Pots to try and winterproof it. Those who do ride in the Surrey Hills and specifically Holmbury Hill will now find that the old entrance at the top of the hill (which was causing severe erosion to the Iron Age Fort) has been permanently blocked off by the Landowners.

But if you ride a bit further down you'll find the new entrance.......

If any Surrey Hills riders are reading this and have any feedback on the new entrance and the ongoing refinements to Yoghurt Pots I'd be really interested to hear (PM me or add a comment to this blog entry).]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:19:25 -0700
It was pretty cloudy when we met at the car-park just before 9am and whilst setting-up bikes and getting ready I decided to be optimistic and dispatched my rain coat back into the car. The weather men said the cloud would burn off so of course it would!

I was slightly apprehensive of the recent replacement components on the bike mainly because of who had installed them i.e. me! but all appeared to be working well and pretty much stayed that way throughout the ride. Well that is except for my chain snapping again (the last time was on the last Swinley ride I was on). I was quite thankful that I hadn't been pedalling hard and that I had got a feeling that summit was up. When I looked down one of the links was split away from the chain and was heading for the mechs. Near disaster averted! I'm really not convinced now by SRAM chains, when the last one was delivered it had a few stiff links. Luckily I had stocked up on powerlinks so all was again well within minutes.

We had a great ride taking in Holmbury and Pitch Hills with a sprinkling of Winterfold. A few of the old favourite trails and the new entrance to Yoghurt Pots (bedding in nicely!). It was Matt's first proper foray into off road riding and it surprised me when he didn't fall off at all unlike my first few outings!!! The only slight downside was the rain, that fine, misty rain that get's into everything. Who's idea was it for me not to bring the raincoat......oh, it was mine....Dam....!

Back in time for a slap up meal (A huge mixed grill) at the White Horse in Shere, a perfect day really.]]> Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:35:34 -0700
Firstly I noticed that my new SRAM chain had two stiff links but even after working them loose, no amount of trail side maintenance could get everything feeling right. To make matters even worse, every so often I could here the happy clinkity, clink sounds of mountainbikers riding the trails hidden away in the woods. I gave up fiddling, it was not going to be the glorious evening ride I had hoped for and I grumpily returned home.

So now a bag of bits is hopefully heading my way from Wiggle including replacement cables, a new middle chainring (noticed a missing tooth), some replacement jockey wheels and new cassette (I want to compare the last two items against the ones on the bike for wear and i'll just keep them for next time if OK). I don't mind doing a bit of work on the bike but it does eat into riding time. It looks like I won't be heading up with the trail volunteers this week to work on Holmbury Hill......
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