Sussex-MTB

I’ve never known anyone get through cars like Hoops. It seems that every nine months or so, he needs a new one. And, it must be a VW and it must originate from Milton Keynes. Which is great as Chicksands just happens to be really close by. Therefore, the inevitable post went up on the site (the one that was straightforward to use…) that a new car was required and a ride was in order.

For a while it was looking like not only was there going to be quality, but also quantity as many and varied names appeared on the list, and plenty of jostling for car spaces took place, but, cometh the hour, the throng melted away, and we were left with Hoops (obviously), the mighty Tony and my good self to wend our way up the M1 in blazing sunshine.

The plan was for Tony and I to go direct to Chicksands, with Hoops joining us later. There was a slight chill in the air on arrival, but (at long last) the sky was blue, and despite hysterical ramblings on the forum about needing mud spikes, the ground was dry and lush. The steeds were readied – myself on my trusty Ellsworth Joker and Tony on his Mythic Rampant and we headed off for a few warm up runs on the 4X track.

Joker at Chicksands

Tony's Mythic

We spent a while on the track, but I find it difficult to master and prefer the dual course, so soon headed over there to start sending it properly. Off the start ramp and into the first double (containing the one area of dampness we encountered all day) then on into the first berm and drop we headed, side by side, succumbing to the competitive urge and adrenaline rush…

Tony dual

Daddy dual

We rode the course over and over, gaining confidence and speed, jumping bigger, further and faster, and after a while a familiar character in a SMTB shirt joined us at the top of the hill. Hoops was straight into it and wanting to try out his helmet cam, so we continued to fly down the track and push back up, enjoying the fantastic conditions…

Hoops railing berm

Tony on start ramp

After a top session on the dual track, playing with the helmet cam, racing each other and generally looning, we decided to move to the freeride area. At this point I was happy to play with my dad’s SLR camera as my hand is still not properly fixed from my road crash and riding drops was not a great idea!

Hoops went straight for the big run – a large cut away drop into steep descent, straight into a very large double jump, completing it with ease, adding more speed and height. Very impressive.

Hoops drop in

Hoops high time

Meanwhile, Tony was sessioning a different line and building up his confidence to get airbourne – both riders in their zone and egging eachother on to bigger and better things. Tony went for a drop in, riding sooo smooth…

Tony drop in

Then Tony and Hoops were both eyeing a double with a difficult bermed entry and trying to work out the speed needed to clear it. After a couple of aborted run ins, all of a sudden Hoops came in, railing that berm and set for take off – clearing it with some style…

Hoops double

We were doing really well, the standard of riding was top notch and things were going great. There was one thing though. Hoops had something on his mind. Something that he couldn’t let go of. He kept going to the bottom of the big run and looking at the monster double that has been on his mind for a very long time. Last time I was here with him it was the same. Looking. Thinking. Looking. A few mumbled words – speed. Trajectory. Speed. I can do it.

All of a sudden the covert visualisation technique seemed to win out. There was light in his eyes. He had belief. After all, what was the worst that could happen? Actually, best not contemplate that – don’t want blood in a new motor…

Before I knew it, he was at the top of the drop in with fire in his eyes and I was lying on my belly, camera set up thinking that I’d left my phone and first aid kit in the car… He set off, tonking into the drop, carrying massive speed down the bank into the first jump, which he cleared easily. He carried his speed down the second slope and into the final berm, pedalling hard. He set himself, full commitment now – no time for backing out – and hit the take off….

Hoops big double

Hoops big double 2

KIN HELL!!!! That was awesome! He hit it perfect and nailed the landing on the downslope as if he’d done it a hundred times. Much respect to that man for that jump…. There was plenty of whooping and yelling from Tony and myself, and then the muffled and understated words from inside the full face lid… , “what a rush…”. Even the steady Hooper hands had a little shake going on!

He repeated the jump a second time, capturing it on helmet cam, and a third – at which point came the “I think it’s time to stop’ words from inside the lid as he dropped the nose big time on landing, using the full 180mm of travel, and now needing a new pair of pants.

Hoops double 3

After some collective gathering of breath, we headed back to the dual track for some final looning about, filming with the headcam whilst all 3 of us raced down, fighting for the same landing space, and generally having a ball.

We packed it in around 4 and headed our separate ways, it seeming fitting that the first thing hoops does with a new car is fill it with stinking bike gear and bung a bike on the roof. Nice one.

Now, there was a deal that whatever happened on the trip stayed on the trip, so all I can say about the journey home for Tony and I is…

How’d we miss that????

Big Daddy

I’m a bit late with this one so I’ll just say that it was an amazing turnout, 31 people! Probably rather too many for one ride, but we managed to keep it all together, although the puncture fairy was out in force

As per usual there was a nice wee climb in the route as well as some sweet singletrack

Big group

A nice route profile!

Climbalicious - few made it, but everyone gave it a good go

A few more pictures here…..

Phnom Penh

We started early on a Saturday morning and we were lucky with the weather as it was slightly overcast and not too warm. It took us the best of 15 minutes to get away from the hectic traffic in Phnom Penh before we hit the muddy tracks that immediately reminded me of APE.

Neil through another puddle

Oh, the villagers laughed when they saw us riding through the mud

Enjoying a noodle soup

Price $1

Most of the ride went on small tracks past villages, colourful Buddhist temples and miles after miles of lush green rice fields. As the morning went the weather got hotter and we ran out of water. Not a problem in Cambodia where you always can buy cold bottled water on ice either from a café or from one of the many street sellers.

Neil knew the route very well, but he hadn’t take into account  the chicken that ran out in front of his wheels when we passed through a poor village. He had no chance to avoid the chicken and hit it with his front wheel. The people in the village stared at us and I suggested we better left in a hurry. But Neil was a real gentlemen and offered to compensate for the half dead chicken. Initially, the villagers didn’t want to take the money but in the end he persuaded the girl to take  $ 2 (although he still thought it might had been too little).

Cows, too big to run over…

However, the run over chicken was the only accident we had during our 4 hour long ride. The last 10 km back to Phnom Penh was on tarmac. We didn’t mind, having already had our portion of muddy tracks that day.

Back in Phnom Penh

We returned quite muddy and so were our bikes. But no problem. At home we just handed the muddy bikes to the day guard who spent the next hour cleaning the bikes while we had a well deserved cold shower followed by a cold beer.

The day guard cleans the bikes

Great ride even though we hardly climbed any hills

There’s a few extra pics here.

Kim

This one was posted a bit late so it was no surprise that only 5 of us turned up at The Lookout car park on the outskirts of Swinley Forest, Bracknell just after 10.30 last Saturday. The weather was changeable and the remains of the previous 2 weeks snow was clear to see but looked to be melting fast so rain or not this one was going to be wet.

After my normal amount of faffing (double most peoples) we were ready to role and headed out of the car park and straight in to the singletrack which seemed to be a lot clearer than the fireroads which still had about 2” of snow across them.

Chilly riders

We started out along some of the singletrack that I had been shown by one of the locals when I did the Singletrackworld forum ride in November last year. This took us out towards “The Corkscrew” over Caesar’s Camp way where we stopped for a play on some of the jumps and natural drop ins and Hummerlicious got to grips with the Marin Attack Trail he had borrowed for the weekend from Quest Adventures and as his report shows, he quite liked it.

Jumpin' Jimbo

After a few photos and a bit of tuition from Hummerlicious we decided to head off and started out towards one of the newer trails that Swinley has to offer which I have called “The Berm Trail”. It’s not much to look at as you stand at the entrance but after about 500m of mud and roots the armoured singletrack begins. This has some fantastic berms and even a shore bridge in it and is worth seeking out just for the first of these berms which needs to be taken as fast as possible in order to be able to whip round the 2nd of the berms which comes straight after the first one. None of us managed to master this as the photos show.

CTD

Jo

Dougal

BigSi

Popping back out on the fireroad we hung a left then first right in to my favourite Swinley trail “Tank Traps”. It’s a nice long section of singletrack running round the side of a ridge. Open and flowing at first it ends in a series of switchbacks with exposed roots all over them and today a stream running along the bottom of the gully which meant that keeping speed was a bit of an issue.

By the time we had finished these sections the effort of pedalling through the slush and mud was starting to tell and Bikerbabe, who had not been seen on a bike since I don’t know when, looked like she needed coffee & cake. It was decided that we would head on over to “Labyrinth” and then back to The Lookout car park.

On the way over to “Labyrinth” we hit the singletrack that runs around the downhill course and I have to say it gets better each time I ride it although I think that I have found a weakness in the 29er. It doesn’t handle tight technical rooty downhill’s too well but that could just be the rider, still it’s a good excuse to look at getting another bike in the near future and yes it will still be a 29er.

Labyrinth

We finally make it to Labyrinth via the wall climb rather than the more acceptable but longer “Deer Stalker” trail. With hardly a break at the top we set off down the trail that runs to the left and has more berms but fewer jumps when compared to the right hand trail but we did still manage to find plenty of water in between the final two table tops. At the crossroads which signals the start of the long singletrack section I some how managed to get in front of Hummerlicious, Dougal and my other riding buddies, CTD & Bikerbabe. I was going to pull over and let Hummerlicious & Dougal past but instead decided to put the hammer down and see how long I could sensibly keep them behind me. I didn’t want to hold them up but I also didn’t want to let them past me before we got to the end. I soon found that I could pull away on the flatter sections but was being reeled in by Hummerlicious on the short downhill sections as he was really flying when the Attack Trail was pointing downwards. We soon got to the end with massive grins on our faces, soaking wet from the massive puddles we had been ploughing through and completely knackered.

Looking at my watch I was surprised to see that we had been out for 4 hours and were at the furthest point of the forest from The Lookout so there were no arguments when it was decided it was time for coffee & food. We pointed the bikes along the fireroad and headed for the cars.

30 minutes later we were clearing the café out of its cake supply & still grinning.

BigSi

During the start of this batch of snowy weather I was ill and missed out on getting some snowy rides in, so I was really looking forward to the Quest ride and getting myself bogged down in some of the stuff!

Although it was cold there was a good turn out down at Quest and the women’s ride was on the same day. As there was only the two of them this time they decided they’d tag along with us too.

Keen group

After a bit of indecision I decided to take the route up past Hill Barn golf course and the long bridleway up to Cissbury ring. Conditions were pretty good, the path had obviously been used a bit and there was a nice crusty line down the middle which allowed us to make good progress…..

Chilly!

….Until we got to the big climb in the middle! Amazingly the grip was actually pretty good up here. But about a third of the way up there had been an obvious thaw then a refreeze and there were a couple of tyre tracks that were un avoidable. These had pretty much everyone off and walking. A little further though and we were able to remount for the slog to the top.

Push time

A little bit of playing around occured further up. There were a couple of good drifts and a bundle developed! Then I stopped to take some pictures, only to have my bike buried when my back was turned! We continued through the top gate with the intention of doing the diagonal downhill to the right, but the snow was more than hub deep and it proved impossible to get any momentum at all so we gave up on that idea.

More pushing!

I decided that the lower singletracks were probably the best bet and we crossed Cissbury and dropped down the side into Findon valley. Once out the wind we realised that we were actually having a lot of fun and decided to continue for a bit longer. We crossed the A24 and climbed up Church Lane, which proved to be grippier than when there is no snow! We had to push through a couple of deep drifts at the top and then we headed back towards Salvington eager for cake!

Someone mentions cake to Uncle Phil

A quick cheeky descent and we were back into the valley and riding along the gallops trying to dodge the sledgers. It was great to get into Parklife and have a hot Mars Bar milkshake and a toasted cheese sarnie to warm up!

The rest of the photos are here.

Some pics on Martin’s photostream here.

Hummerlicious

A bunch of us hired out Skaterham, the indoor skatepark in Caterham. It’s always great to have the place to yourself and we had a good sized group today. A mixture of MTB, trials and BMX’s, it’s always good to push each other to try stuff you normally wouldn’t and help each other progress our skills a bit.

Mike holds it in

Stu switches off gravity

More photos here

As ever Disco Stu proved that it is indeed possible to cause a localised gravity distortion field and switch it off completely. Mike meanwhile very courageously put himself in the line of fire for Tom. Billyboy and I egged each other on to try stuff on the BMX’s that I haven’t done for many a year! So a good day was had by all

Remember you’re never too old to make a prat out of yourself on a bike with little wheels!!

Hummerlicious (41 going on 14)

Saturday morning and we were promised no rain till later in the day. I was pretty annoyed to open the front door and find it spitting all the way up to Quest then! As per usual a throng developed and by the time I stuck my head out the door just after 10:00 there was a healthy (in size anyway) group ready to get muddy. White is definitely the new black and a couple of fresh looking white bikes were rolled out. Secretly we all knew that after last week’s rain they’d all be a uniform shade of brown before too long.

Ride route

Winding our way up by the golf course we all chatted whilst getting warmed up, the chalk at the top proving very green and slippery required a steady cadence to avoid any sideways slips. Up the top Charlie decided to test the depth of the largest puddle with his arm before we took off up the permissive route across Cissbury ring and then re-grouped for the first descent.

Gaggle of riders

Turning right through the gate we headed down the first singletrack descent of the day, very slippy, the usual flat out approach had to be tempered slightly to avoid sliding into the bushes at the bends in the middle. All got down safely though and we headed along the bridleway and back up in the direction of the Nepcote Lane car park.

Steyning singletrack

Just how much water had fallen out the sky recently became apparent as we made our way north towards the South Downs Way as we part rode, part snorkelled through the first section of submerged bridleway. Onto the SDW and we turned right and made our way into the Steyning singletrack. This proved very slippery and there were a few offs and one example of ‘extreme jeyness’ from BigSi.

It was so slippy I decided the best option was to go back up the bridleway and rejoin the singletrack at the top. Back onto the SDW and we did something we haven’t done for ages, actually rode some of it! We stayed on the national trail all the way down to the river and crossed onto the far bank. From here we took the downs link down to Shoreham. I mistakenly thought it would be well drained but in fact it was mostly underwater all the way to Shoreham.

Over the old toll bridge and we headed up past Lancing College and up the bridleway to go over Lancing ring, the first part of the climb being yet another slippery chalk section where a smooth cadence was the only way of avoiding a lie down. Bikes and bodies were beginning to feel the strain by now from the bad conditions and we were glad it would be the “one last climb” – not that it was of course, but I like to keep people happy

Cake time

Down to the Sompting road and over the other side we took the bridleway back to Lyon’s Farm, one last sting in the tail. By now most were looking considerably browner than when they left and after a quick pit stop at Quest we headed down to Parklife. It must have been a good workout as I had a cheese toastie, raspberry cheesecake chocoate brownie and a hot mars bar milk shake and they didn’t really touch the sides. Lush!!

Hummerlicious

As I sit here, sore as hell, bloodied, bruised and scraped and cut, I reflect on my chalky adventure down south on SMTB’s home patch. It was Hoop’s idea.

He posted a very appealing looking ride at Whiteways early Sunday morning. I haven’t in this area since doing old school xc racing back in the day, 15 years ago, and was really tempted by the idea of revisiting the place and taking on the ‘masters of chalk’ in their own back yard. (Not that I’m competitive you understand… I spend most of my time riding the Surrey Hills and North Downs which are an entirely different surface to chalk, but, come on, how difficult can it be?

I knew from the last time I’d checked the post that Hoops, ASBO and Brian at least were in, so the standard of riding was going to be high, but hey, I can mix it with them, even on their terrain…

It was an usually late night for me Saturday night, and a 6am start, so I left home, in the dark, tired and a little concerned about the stormy weather, but the further south I got, the better the weather, and the anticipation of a proper epic of a ride grew as I drove.

On arrival I was greeted by more cheery Sussex boys than I expected – 8 in all, and after the minimal faffing and fettling we were under way, a natural order forming quickly with Hoops leading the way, me following closely with Brian and ASBO close behind and goading all the way, with the others following closely. The swoopy singletrack began instantly, and quickly turned up hill, wending its slippery way I’ve no idea where.

The ground was wet and slippery, but the sky was dry and the spirits were high, I was enjoying this! The banter was flowing freely and so were the laughs. We wound our way up and as the singletrack ended, we joined a double track and continued the climb away from the forest, surrounded by beautiful scenery, with Hoops and ASBO ahead of me…

…and Martin, Brian and the others not far behind.

After a while, and a warning about a really fast (in the dry anyway) singletrack descent, we turned left and cranked it up. Hoops led, and took off at a properly fast lick, I followed with ASBO behind. It was slippery, but staying loose and relaxed and flowing with the trail did the trick, although I did have an almighty sideways ‘brown pants’ moment that caused ASBO a great deal of amusement. I rode it out though and the confidence soared through this North Downs boy. ‘North’ could take on ‘South’, no worries… Uncle Phil continued to show us all his amazing style, fitness and finesse, Kim and Martin added fuel to the ‘hard tails rule here’ theory and Matt even managed to keep a big wheeler on the trail and make it go round corners…

All the while I had no idea where we were, but it didn’t matter – great company, great trails, banter and taking on the slippery chalk was what this ride was about.

We turned up hill again, a short but steep track to test the legs. It pains me to say, but ASBO proved that there’s plenty of power in those mighty calves as he stomped his singlespeed up the hill…

After a particularly treacherous, but quality fast descent,

…we were faced with a proper steep climb up to the SDW that forced all into a dismount, with the exception of Iron man Hoops, who got away with one dab (and a small push!)

We crossed a picturesque field, which was an opportunity to regroup and gather breath.

We continued on, the trails come thick and fast. After a couple of hours riding I was really on it, cocky confident with my new found ‘chalk wheels’. We all know what happens immediately after over-confidence…

As we turned down again, Hoops shouted a warning (or threw a gauntlet, depending on your perception…) that this was a fast and slippery descent that was awesome in the dry, but he’d never been down it in the wet. We took off, Hoops first and me following, closely at first, but he soon started to drop me. ASBO was giving it some close behind me with Martin and Brian on his tail. The trail was fairly narrow and wound its way through the trees and down the hill. It suddenly opened out and levelled slightly and passed a small derelict outhouse type building. As I went over an exposed chalky rough patch, the next thing I knew was I was bouncing on my hip, with searing pain in my thigh and knee.

It happened so quickly that I wasn’t really aware of what had caused it, but it became clear that the chalk had bitten back and caught me unawares, causing the front wheel to wash out in a flash. ASBO skidded to a halt behind, complained that my bike was in the middle of the trail, then found his compassionate side and tended to me. That hurt! Although I was cut, grazed and sore, the most painful bit was that I had been too lazy to put the camera back in my bag and had now fallen on it in my shorts pocket, breaking it and causing a deep bruise to the side of my thigh, which was really inhibiting my movement. Hoops was blissfully unaware ahead, so eventually, after a few moments of feeling nauseous and checking that my body wasn’t terminally broken, I was persuaded to get back on the bike and ride down (very gingerly!) to where he’d stopped.

He turned paramedic and patched me up very effectively (cheers pal), but I was in so much pain from my thigh and my confidence on the chalk shattered. After some recovery time, and the realisation that we were a very long way from the car, we headed onwards, and after a while I managed to settle into something of a rhythm. We climbed and descended on great trails for a good while, although I have to admit that my recollection of this last hour is mostly about pain and little about the route…

One thing I was aware of was how well Matt (I believe something of a newbie to mtb) was riding, and what mental strength and determination he has – never moaned once, always grinning despite obviously running on the reserve energy tank!

Finally we could see the masts that signified the highest point of the ride meaning downhill all the way, which was a blessed relief to this broken ‘Chalk Pretender’. We finished off on what was great singletrack (to the others – I couldn’t ride it for toffee by then!) through Houghton forest and back to the car park, just as the heavens absolutely dumped a torrent of rain onto us.

The final stats were 3½ hours of ride time, covering 28 km. It was great. I came south, gave it my best shot, and headed back North to Redhill broken and defeated. You guys can’t half ride the chalk… Respect indeed.

Sorry if you were eating!

Big Daddy

It had been a while since we’d done anything out of the ordinary and Hoops’ suggestion for a bonfire party seemed too good to miss. So everyone turned up with various food, drink and fireworks, not to mention various axes and firelighting equipment!

Ooh matron

So we set off on a short ride, first of all trying to re-aquaint ourselves with ‘Ray’s revenge’, but it proved to be too overgrown and unfortunately a fallen tree halfway along meant it was a no go. We retraced it back the other way though and the other part was still rideable

Run!

So we crossed the valley and did some stuff the other side before heading up Church lane and into the Cote Street singletrack for our pyrotechnics.

Fire

Hoops had already been forward planning and produced a load of firewood from somewhere and we soon had a roaring fire going. The the Cove and Surly frames were utilised for thier bottle openers and the party was in full swing. Beer, cider, whisky, mulled wine with rum, port, all the hip flasks were out. Marshmallows were toasted. Hoops produced pittas, then toasted ham and some sort of squeaky Greek cheese. Pete had flapjacks. Deadly had chocolate and Doritos. A right feast!

Beer

Marshmallows

Squeaky cheese

Catherine wheel

After and exciting firework display, during which no bikes or people were harmed, the fire was extinguished (don’t ask how!) and we all headed off the the Mill Lane singletrack and into the Beckett for another couple of jars.

Good times

Hummerlicious

For this month I wanted to do something a little bit different as we had been doing variations of fairly similar routes for the last few Quest rides. It was time to head west for some open downland action.

the route

The weather was pretty much perfect for this time of year with sunny skies, a bit of a breeze, but nothing too bad. It was surprising that given the volume of rain last week the trails were actually in an OK state. Muddy yes, but not as horrible as I thought they might be, so get out there – there’s still time before winter really hits hard!

We went up the Warren road bridleway past the golf course before turning left and dropping over the side into the Findon valley singletrack. The leaves have fallen and it was all a bit slippy, my favourite time of year for riding in fact. We took a short trip along the road before heading up Church lane, a rare ‘treat’ for Quest riders. It’s such a lovely climb

riders

After a refuelling stop at the top and a regroup we headed down towards Tolmare farm, before hanging a left onto the Monarch’s way. Again the mud in the dip was bad, but reasonably navigable. We all stopped to see if anyone would come a cropper and take an early bath, but everyone kept it rubber side down and muddy shoes were the only casualties!

At the road we turned right at the camp site and headed up the loooong climb up onto the south downs way. People were re-assured to hear it was the last real climb (tee hee, they still fall for it ) and we turned right onto the south downs way after a quick breather. A quick blast down to the A24 at North farm and we were climbing again up through the horse fields to the back of Findon village.

After a quick chat at Quest we headed down to Parklife to finish the day of properly with some well earned cake.

cake

Hummerlicious