sunday 29th

Bikes ok now after a new rear mech - 9 spokes - mech hanger - chain ;-)

8 of us for todays ride

3 hours of singletrack/jumpy/droppy ... steep descents and steep climbs ....... what more can you say.

The weather was ace (apart from the dust in my contact lens)

Didn't want to go back to the car ........ but I'll be back for more soon .......

The commuting weather has been pretty good lately ........

Many urban runs ...... it's been hard getting home on time with the weather as good as this ...

Tried a few different routes just to add interest ..... still can't get home on time ......

Been having a good droppy/jumpy session in the hospital ........ at least if anything goes wrong I'm in the right place .... All the doctors/nurses/surgeons pop out for a quick ciggie in the bus stop so I'm not too far from help ...

April 22nd ............

nice local ride ...... the trails are dry ....... everythings going well ....... the rear mech looks different.......... don't know why ............ after an hour it decided to creep into the spokes and snap in two which locked the rear wheel solid!

I tried to stay onboard but twas not to be ;-)

All was ok though ... apart from the bike.

Managed to get the back wheel back on for a push and freewheel back to the car....

First time I've been home early on a Sunday for ages!!! ;-)

Loads of commutes and rides of late ............






The weather's been perfect for riding if not farmers!











Found some new ways to get to work which includes a nice little trail through some woods and a cycle path along the river. Still close to main roads but far enough away to be pleasant.....

weekend rides have been bl**dy ace. have been riding the same stuff for a while but doing a bit more stuff each time, sessioning different sections etc ..... making the most of the weather ...












A bit of singletrack here, a bit of jumpy/droppy stuff there ... all good fun and I've almost forgotten what muddy trails feel like (won't be for long though as the weather man has forecast a bit of the wet stuff )

The sub5 is over 4 years old and has had a fair amount of off road abuse, but has fared well with only the usual expected items being replaced (this doesn't include bars, stems pedals etc which have all been changed for a different bike set up).

The swing arm pivot bearings were replaced over 2 years ago and the time has come again. The back end has become a little wobbly recently. As the bearings only have to rotate a small amount, they tend to wear in one spot due to the small arc of movement (if that makes sense)

It was a nice sunny day so the bike came outside and with the help of a couple of allen keys, a rubber mallet, some gt85 and copper slip ..... not forgetting 2 cups of tea ... the maintenance was complete in what seemed a few minutes without a rude word uttered (unlike the first time I did them ;-)

Time to test the pivot on some nice trails methinks ......................

Thursday's commute home was in glorious sunshine only slightly spoiled by a puncture!

The usual urban assault commute was mildly hampered by a constant squealing of the rear brake which messed about with my concentration, but after a few wall drops and pedal wheelies on and off things I felt a lot better ;-)

A nice hour and a half ride home ..... far more pleasurable than being stuck in the car..............

couple of days off so after a bit of tyre pumping up, had a nice chilled 2-1/2 hour ride with my daughter.

She hasn't been out for a while but was ace ............ I also managed a few jumpy bits to keep my hand in ............... and we saw some ducks ..

Next day had a 1-1/2 hour urban play fest which included "bus stop wall" riding along/jumping off .......... cornering practice (cornering isn't my forte) ........ jump practice and wheely drops ....... and other general malarky ... all within a mile of my house ;)

Sunday 1st April ............

The weather is nice and crisp plus it hasn't rained for a while ......
Decided on the same loop as last week, plenty of time to session some of the jumps plus a decent leg workout joining it all up.

Had a good half hour with the full face on to see how warm it was....... warm but not as warm as I'd expected .... which was a nice feeling ........

3 hours of clean mtb fun ;-)

couple of commutes in the week both including a visit to the local bmx track (or pump track for mtbs as I've been told)
The track is great fun for learning how to use your (ones) body to move the bike along without pedalling. It's also bl**dy hard work and a good workout. I can't really manual but was able to manual roll a couple of small doubles which is a neat feeling when you get it right ;-)

I enjoyed myself so much that Fridays commute took 2 hours!

March 25 .......... It's officially British Summertime and what a way to start it ...

A few of us decided on an pre-Alps training loop (the word training to be used very loosely!)

Basically we wanted to get a decent ride in with a bit of droppy/jumpy sessioning stuff thrown in for good measure .....

The weather was perfect, it hadn't rained for a while and the trails were mostly dry (there were still some bl**dy big puddles around though!) Started off with a climb to the first singletrack run through the woods. A few nice drops were included and as I swooped through the trees thinking how great life was ....... someone put a tree stump in the way and i did a pretty good impression of superman! After what seemed a good half hour in flight, I gracefully touched down on the trail using my new arm pads as skis. Feeling quite impressed with myself having had my biggest off for a very long time, I got up to see what caused my dismount and noticed my leg had made contact with the stem ..... but I would live ... so I carried on smiling..

The next 2 hours were spent looping around and sessioning things ..... my favourite being the drop/jump from 2 weeks ago that I looked at for over half an hour! This time, a couple of run ups .... then go for it ..... ooh it felt good ..... so I did it 3 more times ;-)

A bit more looping and jump/droppy stuff and it was way over time to go home ....

A fine start to British Summer time .................

Apart from Friday I managed to commute all week and get a couple of decent urban blasts in on the way home ;-)
Plenty of wheeleeing onto stuff and wheeeleeeing off again ... a bit of skatepark stuff ... much fun ...

Getting lighter in the evenings now and even better after the 25th as the clocks go forward ...

Sunday 18th March ..............
3 of us decided on the local Castle loops as 1 rider hadn't been out for a while so would probably peel off after a while.

Was expecting an easy ride but we thought it would be a good idea to session some of the local jumps while looping around .................. Oh what fun !!! ....... we found a couple of jumps on a trail we rarely ride and managed a good hour of skills practice. My confidence on the jumpy bits had increased dramatically over the past month (after the cwmcarn middle ladder was conquered) although not being a youth anymore allows me to realise my limits and act accordingly (I hope ;-))

So .......... what I though was going to be a little pootle around, ended up being a good workout with a fair bit of air time ;-) ... big grin ....

March 11 Sunday ................

Just me today so I decided to have a few loops around the castle with a bit of sessioning jumpy bits.........

Started off with 10 runs of the nice rock drop/jump ..... the ground had drained nicely so mud was scarce.

Off for some singletrack fun then the "rocky streambed" descent at a nice flowing speed ...

Decided to pop over to the area with a few jump bits. As they're in the trees the ground hadn't dried out and the run ups were a bit soft and gloopy/slidey so I made a pass on the bigger one and the bigbish drop and flew off down the descent. Almost too much fun was had so I looped round for another go. I had another look at the jump and decided that I could handle it if it went a bit squirrelly!! A couple of run ups and then went for it ..... It wasn't that bad after all so I had a few more goes then made for the next drop ....... It's not as bad as the ones I did at Cwmcarn but after numerous run ups I decided today was not the day ............ It'll still be there next time though ;-)

Not a great deal of riding lately ........... although a number of commutes have resulted in a few plays in the skatepark (when the bmx chappies arn't there!) and a new path descent through some trees with steps made out of railway sleepers! great fun to see how fast you can go and a small amount of air can be had on some steps .... a nice way to end the run home ;-) and you can either loop it which takes 10 mins ... good for the ale credits ..... or just push back top the top for another go ........