Innerleithen/Glentress trip May 3rd, 4th, 5th

Another top trip to Inners & Glentress the mecca of British mountain biking. Arrived late Friday night & slept in the Inners car park. After a forecast of pissing rain all weekend we woke to sunshine & did the big push up to the top of the Make or Brake track. I wanted to show my mate Chris what long downhill riding was all about. I had to convince him that the push up was worth it. After slagging me off plenty we reached the top. After this the riding would speak for itself & I knew I would be forgiven. The track was in superb condition, not too wet & not too dry.

We met the families at the bottom with big grins, had a bit of food & headed off to Glentress.

We drove up & parked at the Buzzards Nest car park.

After warming up a bit on the Freeride Park we then set off on a ride to the top of Spooky Wood. Not the easiest of rides on a Freeride bike but still good for the lungs. Down Spooky Wood Descent & Super G, picked up a bit of The blue Velvet to return to the car park.

Then we all did the green run for the kids. Ellis (my son who's 5) loved every minute of it as he whooped & hollered his way round the flowing track. Hats off to the trail builders as this route is a good introduction to trail riding through forests for kids & novices. It just proves that fun & safe is acheivable (not the usual safe & pretty boring family routes we have in England, with the odd exception of course). Ellis wanted to do part of the electric blue to the fire road. After being astounded by my 5 year olds speed through the pretty tight twisty trail we pushed back up to the car park. I finished off with the missus taking the van down to the bottom as I rode the Electric Blue & Falla Brae to meet her.

Back to the camp site in Innerleithen for a barby & plenty of beer.

2nd day much the same really with a leisurely start, again fantastic riding. Did some filming on the Freeride Park (click on the link if you want to see the edited version)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtKwkF6Nlz4. More food & beer.

Next morning awoke to unbroken blue skies, had breakfast & headed off to Glentress again. At the end of the day finished with another fast run down to the bottom.

Only the 4 hour drive home to contend with now. A clear run got us back to Leeds safe but tired after seeing plenty of big puddles in the fields from Newcastle onwards.

After such a bleak weather forecast it was another fantastic sunny weekend in Scotland with riding to match.

Ready for the next one.

Wharncliffe strikes again

Another sunny Wharncliffe visit yesterday amongst all this stormy weather we keep getting. Met up with a fair few Hamsterley locals which meant about 15 of us riding together. This normally means loads of hanging around waiting for people but not this time. Everyone was up for as much riding as possible.
First we headed off to the little jump spot for a warm up sesh. Quite a few riding like demons especially considering they hadn't been there before with quite rooty landings from the jumps.
Then off to the first downhill run of the day. A slippery push up the 'Fast Track' had me thinking it might be a bit of a slow route down but this was not to be. Speed was the key to keep floating over the rocky sections. This was until my 3rd run down just before the small double at the end of the rock section half way down. Lost my footing, front wheel slipped, bars hit a tree, bike stopped dead but I didn't & got flipped right over the bars, landing on my back I thought things might be ok. After sitting down for a few minutes I realised I couldn't put any weight on my left leg. Nothing broken but gave my Coccyx a right battering which sent shooting pains through my leg. Game over for the day. So glad I had my full armour & back back on. Hate to think what I'd have been like without.

So I crawled home & winced every time I had to change gear.

Report cut short by injury but hopefully all the others had a good trip down. I know they were heading over to the 'No Human' track to give it a bash.

Wharncliffe Sunny Sunday

Another top day at Wharny with the sun blazing & temperatures hovering just above zero which stopped the ground from getting too soggy.
Bit of a reccy mission this one - looking a bit beyond the stuff we already know of. We all need days like these but it does reduce the riding a lot.
First time I've seen & ridden the 'No Human' track. Not my prefered choice of track, partly because I stoved my head into the ground going over the bars & Rob thought the best way to stop after the catapult shaped tree drop would be to stuff himself into a tree. Both methods produced very short stopping distances but added a few aches & pains. I don't think Rob found it quite so funny, although he fell even more when climbing up tracks. Not much flow to this track just very technical & when you fall it aint pretty.
Other tracks were fine aside from the slipperyness in certain sections.

I thought I saw my old Spesh Enduro Elite been ridden by I presume the girl that I sold it to. Hope she's enjoying it.

The others decided to walk back to the cars after Aaron's tyre split so I went for one last run & decided I'd get some helmet cam footage. Plugged everything in & set off - not the best run of the day but thought I'd get some nice vid of a hip jump until I got home & realised the lead had unplugged the second I set off. I knew I should have checked the length of those leads.

Top day had by all!!

Ae Forest Freeride Film

A bit of film from Ae Forest in 2007.
Me & Aaron ripping a bit of the Ae Line & the drop near the end of the downhill track. Shame we didn't have the camera with us all the time. Unfortunately, filming does take up quite a bit of riding time.
There isn't loads of gravity stuff at Ae but what is there is a blast & I'm sure we haven't seen it all.
Hope you like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BvkB1oKucQ

Innerleithen Chair Lift Proposal

The Innerleithen chair lift proposal is still alive & kicking. Click on this link for the latest update. http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/6020/v/1?source=weeklyemail&attr=editorial1
This is the best news for downhillers since the rear shocker was invented. At the moment there is an uplift service run by Ae Uplift which is a coach & trailer run on a twice monthly basis. Hats off to Tally who runs it for his fore thought of giving downhillers what they want & some would say need.
Unfortunately, there is a big 'but' with this service. The fact that you have to book & pay for it up front & usually quite early due to demand. As we all know the weather in Scotland is a bit difficult to forecast & it has been known to rain & snow on the odd occasion, so a chair lift that you could just turn up to & pay for either 1 lift or a full day is fantastic news. For those that are accustomed to getting chairlifts with bikes in tow are fully aware of how much more (downhill) riding you can get in. For those that have not enjoyed this luxury beware that there is no looking back after you have experienced it.
The alpine towns in Europe & over the pond have really benefitted financially from using the ski lifts in the summer for bikers, especially with the recent lack of snow in the past years. I know there have always been the hikers & paragliders etc. but these towns are now bustling with people almost like in the ski season. Hopefully, this can also happen to the Borders & maybe even lead the way to it being a common sight in other mountainous or hilly areas.
The government wants us all to be fit & healthy so why not invest in sport in a way that I would presume is relatively inexpensive in comparison & also gets people outdoors. Rather than spending millions on painting extra lines on some of our roads & calling them bike lanes which then end abruptly because theres no room, they should invest in something that people may want to use & enjoy. Making fitness fun in my opinion is the only way to keep peoples interest high after the usual New Year resolutions & Xmas binge guilt trips. This sort of scheme can only be good for encouraging kids to get into biking as they are also talking of building more trails & a bike park.
My other hope is that England will catch onto the idea that we need to move forward with sports that verge on the extreme side & get away from the where theres a blame theres a claim culture & lighten up to Downhill Mountain Biking, surely by putting up disclaimers (which I have rarely seen) they would be covering their arses to some degree.

Road Trips

Another click on thelink film. This time various riding spots in 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBb_xDMLVeM

Wharncliffe/Grenoside 2007

Here's a vid of us in Wharncliffe & Grenoside in 2007. Just click on the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1YFHA06kww

Shock Shuttle Changes Spesh SX

I've just put the 'High' Shock Shuttle on my Specialized SX Trail to see what difference it made for just riding trails. I must admit I was surprised how changing the head angle by 1 degree, from 66.5 to 67.5 made it so much easier from a pedalling point of view but still leaving it free & easy on the drops & jumps side of things. For general riding I'll probably leave it like that & only change it when I know I will just be doing just gravity fuelled riding.

Chain Reaction make hay while the sun don't shine!

Not much to report I'm afraid. All this rain is not doing my biking quoter any good at all. Not that I'm a fair weather biker but too much mud is not good. So most of the riding is just getting out & about on hard tracks locally but thankfully jumps & drops can still be found with a bit of hunting around. Luckily Temple Newsam is close enough to ride to & those that have been there will know that it is all weather hard core so getting the wheels off the ground still keeps the springs bouncing & blood pumping. I don't think many people ride it regularly which is cool but it would be cooler to see a few more riders using it. The track is still in good condition, possibly due to the little use it gets. Credit has to be given to the MTB Leeds lads & all others that helped build it - a good job done. But be warned if you do ride here just keep an eye out for the chavs that every place like this seems to attract. Not so long ago one came at me with a stick but bottled it. I jumped off the bike & chased them but they soon dissapeared, but I have heard stories of young lads getting jumped & their bikes knicked. So just take a bit of care & maybe don't ride it alone (unless battering chavs floats your boat).

The main problem with this weather for me is that it doesn't do my wallet much good either with regular visits to the Chain Reaction & Wiggle websites buying stuff that probably isn't needed apart from the wet weather gear of course.

The pics are from Tempy quite a while ago. It was freezing cold & out doing a local route on my then Specialized Enduro. Hope you enjoy! I did!