Sussex-MTB

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

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

Snow is forecast so put on your thermal undies!

Last month's route

Hopefully it'll be snowy not muddy this time!

After last month’s slog through the mud we’ll be hoping for snow and frosty singletrack…

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

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

While on holiday with the family on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy, I got the chance to sneak off for an afternoon of MTBing… so with much excitement I jumped into the hire car and sped off to the northern part of the lake, where the Alps meet the shores, and mountains tower above you all around.

This particular part of Italy is a bit of a Mecca for all disciplines of cycling and I had already enviously eyed large groups of MTBers, Tourers and Roadies over the last few days (yes, even the road riding in that area is epic and looked like a lot of fun) and was pretty exited that now I was going to get a turn. My plan was a simple one… Drive to Malcesine on the Eastern side of the lake, hire a freeride MTB, use the cable car with bike lift access to get to the top of Monte Baldo at 1700m and then nail it back down.

Roadie?

After speaking with the bike hire shop it became clear that they were not going to let me hire out a freeride bike to take to the top of the mountain; I think that they believed it would take me too long to get back down and they shut at 6pm, plus I don’t think they liked the fact that I was on my own. I briefly tried to convince them that I could get down in time, but I couldn’t speak much Italian and they couldn’t speak much English so I soon gave up on that plan and plan B sprang into action. This consisted of starting the post-holiday health drive early by hiring a hardtail and riding up into the mountains as far as I could before nailing it back down. They seemed to be happier with this plan.

The Ghost

So after being kitted out with a Ghost SE 4000 hardtail I hit the slopes and started climbing up and up on a combination of narrow switchback mountain roads followed by roughly cobbled cart tracks and lung-busting mountain tracks into the Pine forests that clung onto the sides of the mountain. Keeping an eye on the time, I was hoping to clear the tree-line and get up into the Alpine meadows near the summit before having to turn around and head back down… But it was very hot and the going was pretty tough in places. Despite this, my Ghost managed to “spirit” me up to around 1200m (but still within the Pine Forests) before I had to turn around and start the descent.

On the way up my trail radar had been in full effect and I had noted some very enticing entrances to single track trails that snaked off into the depths of the forest. It was fairly obvious to me that these were trails that had been carved out by MTBs, and were certainly not official as they were not marked on any maps. After a 10 minute rest I got ready to set off back down, but not before the safety reminders that I had remembered to recite to myself. Must remember: Your brakes are continental style, ie the wrong way round. You’re using V-brakes. You’re on a 100mm hardtail. You’re on your own.

Forest singletrack

I’m not going to bore you with every last detail of what came next, but I will say that I struck gold. The Alpine forest singletrack was among the steepest and most rocky trails that I had ever ridden. On some parts I was just a passenger on the bike but all of it was awesome. I spent about 20 minutes hanging off the back of the bike, weaving between rocky outcrops and trees and dropping off rocky step downs. I’d never managed to get a set of rims as hot as I did on this part of the descent… to the point where I could smell burning rubber and had to stop regularly to adjust the brakes.

Cobbled switchbacks

After a while the forest gave way to olive orchards, holiday cabins, small farms and spectacular views across the lake… Oh, and more steep, tightly switchbacked trails all armoured with baby-head sized cobbles, similar to some of the trails experienced with Freeride Spain (Imagine the Bubion ride on steroids mated with Brutus for Men). These trails were easier to stay in control on and just so much fun, but dished out a severe beating to the body and bike and went on for miles and miles.

Baby heads

By the time I rolled back into the bike shop I had pretty much melted a set of brake blocks, removed most of the oil from the forks, somehow managed to stop the fork lockout from working and given myself a serious dose of arm pump. €10 very well spent I think!

I’d certainly recommend the area to anyone wanting to get away, especially on a cycling break, or even to mix in a bit of cycling on a family holiday. I would jump at the chance to revisit the area with one of my own bikes…

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

I’ve been so tied up trying to get the Tuesday night two rides thing established I realised we’re well into our so called ’summer’ and we hadn’t done an evening ride up at Leith Hill. The forecast was good so it was time to revisit some of our favourite singletracks.

crew

Hoops, Marko and Tony were turning up early for a quick blast, then the rest of us would be there for 19:30. As it was in the end it was a good group with Me, Gravitor, Pete, Felly, Uncle Phil, Hoops, Tony, Tommo and JonB.

Tommo on high

We headed straight off into the lush single track and spent a very enjoyable evening blasting some slightly muddy trails We did ‘Summer Lightning’ twice as it was super grippy and running fast, even if there was a trafffic jam behind a slow moving JonB the second time

Happy with Summer Lightning

So have a look at the photo if you want to know where we went, it’s easier than trying to describe it! Highlights included Tony pinning it on his Singular 29′er with drop bars all evening, some smooooth jumps from JonB at the play area, being in a short sleeved shirt and not being cold at 22:00 and good company as ever.

We went where?

All finished off with Mozarella dippas, chocolate muffin and strawberry milkshake at McDonalds after

Hummerlicious

August 15th sees the return of the fantastic singletrack trails of Stanmer Park in the shape of a fresh and new 6 hour enduro for solos and teams: It’s called: “The Brighton Big Dog.”

It's a big dog

Feedback from the G2 Revolver “Long Good Saturday” event at Stanmer last year was massively positive. As such local riders have bowed to the groundswell of opinion and come together to put on a rider organised, not for profit, summer classic at the venue. We’ve taken a course described by many as the best of 2008 and added our own Big Dog flavour. Our dedicated team have been meticulously combing the park in order to unhearth new and hidden gems and we can proudly say that the natural flowing singletrack has been enhanced.

Whilst riders are railing the course those in the venue can enjoy music from our resident Brighton DJ’s, excellent food, retro bike parade, fresh from the barrel Harvey’s ale, a host of tea and cakes and most importantly a general top ranking vibe.

We reckon that for most riders a great ride just isn’t complete without a great night out and what better place than Brighton! Luckily The Big Dog ends not at the finish line but at closing time with any profits from the day going behind the bar at the post race party venue to make sure that you are rehydrated: “old style.”

We have called up all of our friends and also some of the coolest names in the industry to help make the event a reality with contributions and prizes. As such the fund is strong and includes goodies from brands such as Cannondale, Exposure Lights, Independent Fabrication, Gary Fisher, Skins, Apple and Morvelo.

The event offers some further twists with a dedicated pre-95 retro-category and the unique “Onederdog” cat. The “Onederdog” enables anyone; passer by, supporter or those who just want a quick burn to check out the singletrack for one lap at any time. For your £6 you’ll get free tea and cake and also leaderboard status if you so wish.

Aware of spiraling bike costs we’ve tried to keep entry fees reasonably tight – and remember the more entries we get the bigger the bar tab so enter as soon as you can!

Local rider and singlespeed maestro Oli Pepper has put together a stellar website with all the information you could hope for – check it out at Brighton Big Dog

We’ll also follow this up with updates on twitter and rider favourite websites.. next up live helmetcam footage!

Let’s make “The Big Dog” one big memorable day.

Pitch Hill lushness

Originally uploaded by www.sussex-mtb.com

Make the most of the dusty lushness guys, A few of us went to Pitch Hill this afternoon for a spin. Even the yoghurt pots were dry! You can see some more photos here.

Hummerlicious

After some lushness is Scotland the previous Tuesday & Thursday (see my other report) it was back to the normality of the sunny Sussex downs for this Tuesdays ride. As it was still hot, dry & dusty, approximately 77 riders were oop the shop, almost 90% of which were on Hummers. *Clears throat* BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Deadly had a new bike which he had kept quiet, for obvious reasons, so allow me to introduce the Surly Karate Monkey for him:

Karate Monkey

So, now we have two 29er bikes amongst the flock. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! A nice looking bike it is too, albeit from 200 yards in thick fog.

Dill was out on his new tea coloured Cotic Soul (BAAAAAAAA!) and had some last minute fettling before we set off. It was suggested that as Marko the SuperMario Look-a-like gay boy was out and he is apparently quite fast, we should split up. A few chuckles later, we all headed off together. Church lane it was where the fun began and I got caught behind Deadly AGAIN who was testing his new brakes out. They worked very well with him picking his line neatly, yet slowly. I pointed this out to him at the bottom much to my, and a few others, amusement (love you Dave).

From here we slogged out some miles on a bit of road, a bit of park, a bridleway or two, and up to the horse place. Then up to OTF after easing my way past the ex King of the Mountains Kim on the steep rise past the vineyard.

OTF always throws up a tale or two of a fall here and a crash there, and this week was no exception with our leader taking a tumble and head butting a tree. Fortunately his helmet broke, and not his neck. The line is not the best and some rumblings on the forum may see a huge swathe of angry riders go up to clear a new route, or more likely one or two will give it a go.

Always wear a helmet guys!

After some waiting we headed back up to the LT, and after some nose bagging (Tangs my fave, and some fruit pastilles thanks Damo) we hit it. Sweeee-eet! Fast and furious down there, but still cautious as only my 3rd run down, we soon pooped out the bottom. Back up we went as we wanted beer. On the way up, Kim’s chain broke – poor maintenance Kim, tut tut, and we also met the guys who were ‘heading off’.

A quick blast down the north side of Cissbury then back over to the rabbit run where ASBO ate dust – a full over the bars off with suspected broken ribbage, enough for him to have a good excuse to pull out of Mayhem at the weekend.

A fast blast to the pub on the Hoops Express where recovery food this week was a pint of Carling and Chicken & Mushroom pie and chips. Brian had 1p of curry sauce. Is it me or can Richard really neck a pint quite quickly?

The Brian express back to the school, then Andy Jones caught the Tommo Express back to Goring. Phew.

Pics this week are courtesy of Jimbo as my spy cam has dies. FFS.

Tommo