October Ride Dates:

OPEN TO READ DETAILS ON ALL THE RIDES HAPPENING THIS MONTH – THERE’S LOADS!  Lisa

Ride Report: 27 Sept 09 – an idyllic Indian Summer’s Day

We met roadside for a change and the locals must’ve wondered what the hell was going on: school was out, no match on today, but as the Muddy@rsers kept decending (Bob?) we gradually took over the place. The predicted sun wasn’t going to let us down today, oh boy were we blessed with a cracking ride or what? Awesome!

Properly back on UK time after our holiday, Rick and I were really looking forward to today. After the arduous, technicality of Moab, we’d really missed our local singletrack. Realising how lucky we are to have these super trails on our doorstep (even if we’d ridden them a thousand times) today we were reminded: There’s No Place Like Home! So we took our favourite bits of local trails and jumbled them up into a new ride.  Feedback was it hit all the buttons.

Road 18 Trails: Fruita, Colorado

“18 Road Trails, also known as the North Fruita Desert area, offers four great trails with varying degrees of difficulty for mountain biking. Prime Cut is a perfect warm-up; Chutes and Ladders is one of the more exciting trails in Fruita, the ladders on this ride are steep and the chutes, well, what goes up must come down; Joe’s Ridge and its drops will give you a taste of what’s to come with Zippety Do Dah. The drops on Joe’s are steep; then head over to Zippety, which is a 6-mile trail for intermediate/advanced riders.  Narrow and steep in parts and nerve-wracking drops throughout, this trail is a must for all extreme riders.”

Howdie Cowboy!

We arrived at 2pm after hours sitting in the van; the heat was searing, enthusiasm was low to fry in it, but thoughts of lovely singletrack trails soon got our @rses out the van and ready to ride.

The Peaks Trail: Breckenridge, Colorado

I don’t know what I was excited about more, riding the trail or the prospect of buying loads of dirt cheap cycling clobber afterwards at the Pearl Izumi Outlet Store.  Actually, let me think about this a bit, hum har hum har; you’re right ….it was the shopping But I quickly remembered I was here to ride by bike and face my totally irrational fear of meeting a bear: where’s that rescue remedy!

The Peaks Trail is considered “an Awesome singletrack trail, lots of rocks, roots, climbs, boardwalks and some killer downhill. You can really get speed on some parts so be careful of hikers and other bikers as it’s a two way trail. Trail is cut out of pine and aspen trees, with incredible views of the surrounding Rocky mountains. Aerobic level may be higher for some – especially those coming from sea level, this trail head starts at about 9600 ft (Breckenridge), goes up to around 10,500 then back down to 9000 (Frisco)”…

Moab Rocks Holiday: Sept ‘09

It’s the night before our trip: bikes and bags packed, celebratory curry consumed, the excitement rising, we can’t sleep. 

 IMBA rate Moab as one of THE places to ride your bike on the planet and it has a huge variety of trails to choose from: scenic rides through beautiful canyons and mesa tops, to the challenge of the world famous, and highly technical, Slickrock Bike Trail, considered to be the ultimate mountain biking experience – Rick and I are about to find out if it’s true.   Let the adventure begin…  

September 09 Ride Info (updated)

13 September – Long(er) Fast(er) Hard(er)– The Lesser Evil Ride
20 September – Ladies Ride
27 September – Club Ride (updated with final info)

(open for full info)

Torq 12:12 – Exclamation Marks all Round!

The Gorrick 12:12 ‘Torq In Your Sleep’ is a 12-hour enduro, from midday Sunday 30th August to midnight. In its 2nd year, it’s an 8-mile loop of Minley Manor, off the M3 near Farnborough. Reportedly similar to Thetford terrain, it was a relatively flat, dry, loamy and seriously dusty course.

Helen and I (Jo) entered the Female Pair category, Michael the Solo Vets. Hels and I adopted a laid-back, see-how-it-goes approach. We rode a mix of single and double laps, with a plan to review after sunset at 8pm and decide if we felt like continuing. Hels was amazing. She drove to the venue from an 8am-1pm shift, zipped out of the car and straight onto the course to take over from my first lap. By 12.30am, she had churned out 7 laps, 3 of them consecutive when I was in prolonged recovery, many of them in an impressive 50mins; and as far as I could see, she never stopped smiling. And she’s gone to work today for 10am on Bank Holiday Monday, straight from the campsite! What a girl!

Long(er) Hard(er) Fast(er) Lost(ier) Hurt(ier) Hungry(er) Ride

Now that’s a mouthful, which is more than can be said for what we had for breakfast thanks to a dodgy KFC the night before, we hurtled into the CP  bang on 10.30 with a bunch of bikers hungrily waiting to hit the trails.  Within 10 mins we were out on our bikes; the 3 Peaks Challenge underway :-)

Starting in Peaslake we headed straight up onto Pitch Hill taking in the steep, impossible climb by the quarry.  Today was going to be a ride of technical, tight, twisty singletrack with mileage totalling approx 25, it promised to be a killer. 

Skills & Spills at Swinley

The ladies who’ve been joining me on rides throughout the year wanted some skills development so I arranged a day at Swinley with Rachel Davey from www.getagripmountainbiking.co.uk .  I’d previously had some tuition with Rachel and it’d worked wonders; I knew our new lady riders would feel the same and Swinley is a good place to hone those skills.

Meeting at Crowthorne Woods bright and early, and even after a 2hr drive, Lisa, Sue, Fran, Karen, Rachel and Evie were very excited about the day ahead.  A few partners came along too and Jay and Andy from Tunnel Hill Trolls MTB club very kindly wore the Boyz out with a 3hr non-stop blast round the singletrack. 

So with the Boyz despatched we trundled into the woods to play at a slower pace and get back to basics.  Learning how to brake efficiently with front and back brakes, moving about on the bike & body position, pedalling technique, hill climbing & energy efficiency, the ‘ready for anything’ position and the 4 C’s.  The girls deciding these were Commitment, Courage, Confidence and Concealer!  (the latter essential to hide unsightly bruises-lol). 

Ups and Downs of Owning a Maverick Speedball Post

Up and down with ease, that’s what it’s supposed to do.  Pucking out oil all over my house, wobbling it’s head off at the seat clamp and destroying some irreplaceable nobble inside itself was not in the marketing schpiel.  Funny that!

So after one complete rebuilt under warranty a year or so ago (at time of oil pucking), I was disappointed to find the bracket and nobble inside had greatly worn again on my Maverick Speedball post.  6 months of searching for a new bracket and nobbly bit: no joy - none available worldwide.