Sussex-MTB

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…..

It’s come round again, this Saturday is the next Quest ride, all are welcome and don’t forget your cake money for Parklife afterwards

Last month's shortened ride

Pete relaxing

Phil

After last month’s snow related hysteria and general chillines I think this month will be muddy and normal service resumed, well unless we get more snow that is!

So get yourselves down to Quest Adventure in Broadwater on saturday at around 09:45 to roll out at 10:00 (or when my capuccino cup is empty, whichever happens first!). Thread here. Facebook page here.

As ever all are welcome and helmets must be worn.

Cheers,

Hummerlicious

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

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

It’s come round again, this Saturday is the next Quest ride, all are welcome and don’t forget your cake money for Parklife afterwards

Last month's route

So get yourselves down to Quest Adventure in Broadwater on saturday at around 09:45 to roll out at 10:00 (or when my capuccino cup is empty, whichever happens first!). Thread here.

As ever all are welcome and helmets must be worn.

Cheers,

Hummerlicious

This is a biggie, so apologies!…….

The weather has been so good recently, for mountainbiking it really has been one of the best summers in many years. The trails have managed to remain dry and dusty, even after rain showers and I reckon they are pretty much perfect at the moment.

We’ve managed to get a whole load of rides in over the summer in a variety of places too. This last week has been absolutely amazing:

I started off last Saturday with something I’ve not done for a very long time. A ride on my own! As the (dis)organiser for Sussex-MTB it’s very rare I ride on my own, in fact it’s probably been a couple of years. I like riding with people, the social aspect of what we do makes it a lot of fun as well as the act of riding too. So it was nice to have no agenda, I had a generous amount of time to get to Stanmer to meet the others. So I sat on the tops of the hills, ate chocolate, admired the scenery, chatted to passers by. It made a nice change to have no one to please but myself.

Up the downs

Stanmer singletrack

This way up

I met the boyz at Stanmer Tea Rooms and after a quick refuel we headed out onto the singletrack. We ignored a lot of the usual Big Dog stuff and did a load of the lesser known, more technical trails. BigSi managed to go over the handlebars and hit his shoulder. Fortunately these days he’s reinforced with titanium so it made no difference! Deadly also did a fairly spectacular faceplant on a log pile too, but although rather dazed, was unhurt.

South downs ride gallery

Wednesday night we met up at Whiteways, Dobby astride his new, very shiny, Hummer. No jealousy to see here, move along please. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours doing all of the fine, flowy singletrack. The trails were dusty and dry once again, it was a joy to be out riding!

Round and round

Whiteways gallery

Friday morning I got out of bed at silly o’clock to do a quick pre-work loop with my colleagues. The sun ride was great and it feels good to get a few miles in before work, even if you do end up starving hungry for the rest of the day!

Early riders

Friday Gallery

Saturday was Quest ride day for September. We had a good turn out of 17, a nice big group, but not un manageable. Dougal came all the way from Bristol, but he was trumped by our old buddy Dave ‘Bushlove‘ who had managed to slip over for the ride from New Zealand. I think that’s probably a record that won’t be broken!

I had a route in mind that I’d been planning for a few days. The long dry spell meant we could do the bridleway that runs to the North of the downs from Storrington to Washington, a bit of a rarity as when it’s wet it’s unrideable really. So I’d planned a decent length loop, but when it was time to head back we all agreed that we should stay out for longer as the conditions were so perfect. So it ended up being the longest Quest ride yet at around 26 miles. Everyone hung in there and we had a great ride.

Bushlove - still a tart after all these years! (edit: I just got some stick for not pointing out the roadie that somehow sneaked into the right hand side of this photo! - Jimbo)

Good times

Quest ride gallery

Sunday dawned all too quickly and I’d agreed for a group of us to marshal the ‘Petworth 10K race for life’. Mike and Tom were static marshals at a check point, Andy and I were lead riders for the front of the race. I reckon 36 minutes for an off road 10K run is pretty good, the eventual winner certainly pushed us up one of the hills when we struggled to stay in front! We didn’t see him on the downhill the other side though It’s a worthy cause though, so if you get a chance make a donation to cancer research……

Dodgy geezers

Race done we hopped in the car and headed to Leith Hill for an afternoon of singletrack and jumping. Tom once again showing the rest of us how it should be done, even clearing a few steep climbs this time for the first time too.

Mike

Tom

Andy

Sunday gallery

So as you can gather from all the above, the weather is great, the trails are dry, switch off your PC and get out there now!………

Hummerlicious

It’s come round again, this Saturday is the next Quest ride, all are welcome and don’t forget your cake money for Parklife afterwards

Last month's route

So get yourselves down to Quest Adventure in Broadwater on saturday at around 09:45 to roll out at 10:00 (or when my capuccino cup is empty, whichever happens first!). Thread here.

As ever all are welcome and helmets must be worn.

Cheers,

Hummerlicious

Every year the users of this site get to vote on the stuff they like and places they’ve ridden in the past twelve months. We ride a lot of different places and a few of the guys are compulsive kit purchasers, so it’s always interesting to see how it all pans out. This year was great as we had the highest number of voters ever

So have a look at the results below and see what you think, if you’ve got something to say, if you agree or disagree why not post a comment?………….

Best shop:

3rd Hafords / Bike store

2nd Freeborn

1st Quest Adventure

Best Cake Shop:

3rd Wiston Tea Rooms

2nd Peaslake Village Stores

1st Parklife

Best Crash:

Deadly

2nd Deadly at Pitch Hill

Headless Rider

1st Headless Slim

Best Trail:

3rd Anywhere on Pitch Hill

2nd Lion Trail / Anywhere in Morzine

Bubion, we love it!

1st Bubion / Spain

Best Bike / Component:

3rd Chameleon / Intense / Rock Shox Pikes

2nd Crank Bros Joplin seat post

1st Cove Hummer frame

The Spirit of Sussex-MTB:

This is always a hotly contested category and this year was no exception! There was only one vote between first and second! However Pete came out the winner and rightly so. His cheery disposition and enthusiasm whatever the weather are an inspiration to all. He falls off, he gets up and smiles and pedals off (most of the time). So I think he’s a fitting winner. Well done Pete…….

3rd Jimbo / Hoops

2nd Uncle Phil

Pete during some downtime in Spain!

1st Pete 

Despite the promise of awful weather I managed to find a slot in the showers to ride up to Quest and while my bike was being fettled to perfection (Cheers Darren) I waited with baited breath to see whether anyone else would turn out of bed on such a grotty day!

To my utter astonishment there was soon a throng gathered and once my bike was sorted there were seventeen eager faces ready to do battle with the weather. Amazingly the weather decided it would play ball and although we had a few short, sharp showers on the whole the ride was dry! I won’t go into a route description except to say I tried to keep it close to home in case the weather made a turn for the worse.

I’m sure everyone was extra greatul for the short, muddy, stinging nettle lined section too

So if that sounds like fun to you make sure you make it along next month. All are welcome (with crash helmets on!).

Amazingly another month has rolled around and it’s time for the next of our popular Quest Adventure rides.

As usual the rides are aimed at all abilities and the emphasis is on fun (and sweet singletrack of course!).

Meet outside Quest in Broadwater at 09:45 to ride at 10:00 and don’t forget to bring your cake money for Parklife afterwards……..