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Post by muddyfox on Jun 8, 2009 17:23:32 GMT
Oh yes, an update on mechanicals...
At Kirroughtree Rob had a cartwheeling off, landing on his feet but he caught the saddle on his shorts on the way off and pulled the nose of the saddle off the rails. We zip tied it back on in a haze of midges but it was slipping allday and rob bought a new saddle at glentress the next day
My front brake pads got contaminated at some stage over the week and I rode the whole of kirroughtree without a front brake (pulling hard on the lever I could still roll the bike foward with very little resistance)
Needless to say I took some corners/descents very fast and Davebus caught me on video coming down a rock garden with very little control just managing to save it at the bottom.
I already mentioned davebus's freehub. When he got back to the bikeshop they had a load of work in front of dave but we had been talking to the mechanic earlier as rob recognised him as having worked in Nirvana cycles.
The workshop monkey saw the cycleworks sticker on daves frame and when dave mentioned he knew dave farmer he had quoted the magic password as said bloke also worked there too and daves bike went to the top of the list and was fixed inside 40 mins
Dave also bought a new bottom bracket as his bearings are shagged. I replaced this for him last night with assistance from dave W and also greased his flat pedals (DMR V12's) as they were bone dry and his bike sounded like a bag of spanners as he rode the trails.
After increasing the level of air in his rear shock and replacing the rear tyre which had ripped on a rock as well as replacing the pads in his brakes it was like davebus was riding a different bike today. (:uey would have been very proud of my mechanical skills).
Rob has just reminded me that on the first day we rotated Davebus's bars from flat to the correct position to completely change his riding experience.
Lots of flats as its so rocky altho stangely as I am the only one on a hardtail I only had my first flat post todays dalbeattie ride whilst having lunch in the car park. The valve had moved on the rim causing it to dig a hole in the tube.
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 8, 2009 18:26:40 GMT
Sounds like an eventful ride. Did any of you try the Darkside trail at Mabie? Would be interested to see what you thought of it. Sadly not, only Davebus is riding flats the rest of us are on SPDs. I may have given it a go if I had bought a different bike (SX trail) but the ti frame wasn't really the right one. We didn't even see the trails/woodwork so I can't comment on what they looked like
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Post by Huey on Jun 8, 2009 23:47:28 GMT
(Huey would have been very proud of my mechanical skills).
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 9, 2009 8:42:35 GMT
Mechanicals... How could I forget, Rob's Orange 5, not long out the workshop was shifting over the top of the cassette and jamming between the cassette and the spokes held in place by the cassette rivets. The first time it freed up after some severe wiggling (technical term), the second time required the chain broken in two places either side of the cassette and the third time I told Rob to adjust the high 'stop' or we were leaving him on the trail. (I ended up adjusting it for him and its been fine sice then. Last day today and we are heading to Whinlatter. Its not a Stane but its Britain's newest trail centre set in the lake district (where I have never ridden), features in this months MBR and is on the way home. Seems like too good an opportunity to miss.
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Post by Huey on Jun 9, 2009 13:17:36 GMT
Mechanicals...the third time I told Rob to adjust the high 'stop' or we were leaving him on the trail (cough) That's the low stop (cough)
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 9, 2009 15:03:27 GMT
Mechanicals...the third time I told Rob to adjust the high 'stop' or we were leaving him on the trail (cough) That's the low stop (cough) S'true Huey, that's what you get with these on the hoof updates. At least his bike works properly now tho, that's the main thing. So anyway what's with Whinlatter? (Nice use of alliteration). We turned up at the forest car park which is full of mainly the retired generation with a smattering of mtb'ers and got chatting to a local familiar with the trails, nice bloke. There is a visitor centre, cafe, toilets and well stocked bike shop. We set off on the Altura trail, North loop (red grade). It has one of the best starts of a purpose built trail I have ridden. As you already have plenty of height at the car park it uses gravity to best effect to have you immediately speeding through the trees on a rollercoaster trail. This gives you up onto a fireroad with a big shit-eating grin on your face and you cross the fire road and climb up a narrow exposed trail which twists up the hill giving some superb views of the surrounding mountains and lake below. From here there's another winding section thru the woods before a long, steep and challenging fire road climb. At the top you traverse the side of the hill discovering that the local slate used to build the trail is nothing like as grippy as the granite you have been riding all week long in Scotland. There's an unfortunate and frustrating loss of height on a plain fireroad but another singletrack climb gains height again for the main attraction of the day. The final few sections of this short 6 mile trail though the woods are great featuring tight corners, slippery roots where we all get a drift on, berms and rock drops before the final steep descent featuring doubles,alpine style steep bermed corners, tabletops and a series of almost a dozen kickers which enable you to get air without even trying but are perfectly built so that you are launched front wheel high rather than the normal rear wheel uppermost position beloved of you average joe 'wheels firmly planted on the ground' rider. Davebus and Terry decided to hit the long road home at this stage whilst Dave, Rob and I hit the blue trail. Recently built, this is best described as blue and a half as it features sweeping berms and swooping singletrack that allows you to really give it the beans offering plenty of opportunity to get air off strategically placed rocks whilst there are plenty of alternative trail features for those of you who like a challenge like the option to cut a wide flat corner by taking a shorter line but having to negotiate rock slabs deliberately placed there to test your bike handling skills. We paused for ten minutes to rescue a small group of geordies left stranded by a broken chain who seemed amazed at the fact that you could fix it with a powerlink rather than having to replace the whole chain... The blue finished with more bermed corners through the trees although I made it 4.5 miles rather than the advertised six miles. We still had a long way to go home and so decided to give the Altura 'south' trail (5.5 miles) a miss and we are currently powering down the M6 in Dave's wind assisted 2.4 litre Vulva. Look out for the photos and more video than you can shake a stick at coming to you soon.
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terry
FreeRider
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Post by terry on Jun 9, 2009 19:09:17 GMT
Many thanks to Rob / Richard / Dave and Davebus for a great week, injury or not I still had a great time just missing two days with what seemed at the time a possible week long lay off. Richard been loaning my camera until I get him a replacement so you should see lots of good photos including Dave doing some unbeliveable black drops yesterday. I can not hope to reach the skills level of Richard and Dave but never the less Glentress and the second bit of Ae where my highlights. Today the Red at the Lakes was really good. Once again many thanks to all for a really good week and Richard for a great Chilli Con carn. SDW in a day next in two weeks time with BHF.
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 9, 2009 20:09:17 GMT
A great week indeed, so much riding packed into it and we didn't make it home from the trails before 9pm for the first 3 days (even if one of those days did include a trip to A&E). Here's a few quick pics to be going on with Dave looks surprised on the boardwalk close up on Terry Richard on a berm groupshot at the lookout shelter, far point of Glentres black trail Dave n Rob entering the Altura North trail (Red) at Whinlatter, Lake District
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Post by robmanns2007 on Jun 9, 2009 22:37:50 GMT
Good work on the Crackberry (TM) updates Mr Fox !
Cant wait to see ALL the photos!! (and video)
Good news, thers £50 coming our way from the lodge
Awesome 5 days riding and a good laugh had by all back at the lodge.
Funniest moment for me (non bike related) was Dave in the Chinese takeaway asking
"Do you have any vegetarian meals?"
"Yes" came the reply, "we have chicken" !
"but chicken isn't a vegeatable.........is it"
;D
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Post by Huey on Jun 10, 2009 14:47:23 GMT
SDW in a day next in two weeks time with BHF. Mrs H. and I did East Meon to Eastbourne (80 miles of the SDW) on Sunday with our windsurfing friends. We set off around 5:45am just after a humungous rain storm has swamped over the trails. Thankfully the rain had stopped, and the going was better than expected due to the free-draining nature of the chalk downs, but we had another squally shower for an hour or so when we were overlooking Newhaven around 5pm. Finally arrived at Eastbourne after 13.5 hours (overall average 6.0 mph) to find a tasty Jalfrezi waiting Have fun when you do yours, have a HUGE pasta meal the night before, get early to bed and keep drinking that water and eating that food, whether you are hungry or not - there are plenty of taps along the way, a list can be found here!
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 10, 2009 21:41:38 GMT
just picked up some more pics from the two Dave's. Here's one that I took on Dave W's camera of Davebus on an open section early evening at Ae, c'mon, this is superb!
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terry
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Post by terry on Jun 11, 2009 16:52:40 GMT
Great photo that sums up the views and how lucky we where with the weather.
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dave
Endurance Rider
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Post by dave on Jun 11, 2009 20:51:30 GMT
Yes, a great trip. Thanks fellas. That's a cracking pic Muddy. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the pics and video. Dalbeatie and Kiroughtree were my fave trail centres - much more challenging and entertaining than anything at Afan. Can't wait to go back again.
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 11, 2009 22:07:02 GMT
righty-ho, I have edited the pictures but am still playing around with a new piece of software to see if i can present them any better than normal so you will have to wait until the weekend for those. However, I have edited the first cut of the video (I have lots of other footage yet so may have another go) and it is currently uploading to vimeo. So expect to see it in around two and a half hours from now (circa 1-30am) so it's likely that the nocturnal Huey and the antipodean Matt will be the first ones to see it. It should be on the top of this page and will unsurprisingly be called The Seven Stanes; An MTB film As usual, all comments appreciated.
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gary
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Post by gary on Jun 12, 2009 6:43:22 GMT
Nice video Rich - looks like an awesome trip guys!
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terry
FreeRider
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Post by terry on Jun 12, 2009 6:54:30 GMT
Excellent video Muddy.
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Post by davebus on Jun 12, 2009 7:33:59 GMT
Great Video Muddy, I love the first cut and can't wait to see more! Thanks to Rob for putting together such a great trip and to Muddy, Dave and Terry + Rob for being great company for the 5-6 days that we were away....can't wait to do it again!!!!
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Post by mat on Jun 12, 2009 7:40:00 GMT
Cool vid - still reckon the best riding I've done was at Glentress. I like the look of all the rock slabs. Which centre was that?
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Post by timk on Jun 12, 2009 7:45:51 GMT
Nice video. Forgotten how good Dalbeattie was.
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Post by beanarillo on Jun 12, 2009 8:12:39 GMT
really enjoyed that thanks and (for once) loved the music too!
Looks like a great trip and as for Mr Av A Go Dave - does nothing stop that man!
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easynow
Endurance Rider
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Posts: 766
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Post by easynow on Jun 12, 2009 9:15:18 GMT
Brilliant video. Im wishing Id taken the last place now.
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 12, 2009 10:26:50 GMT
Cool vid - still reckon the best riding I've done was at Glentress. I like the look of all the rock slabs. Which centre was that? Cheers Mat, the bigger rock slabs were at Dalbeattie, a great trail centre and my second favourite after Kirroughtree. We actually rode Dalbeattie twice (on separate days) so had a chance to think about some of the gnarly/black run stuff we hadn't ridden the first time and tackle it the second time around.
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Post by Huey on Jun 12, 2009 12:06:07 GMT
Hehe, thanks ;D but sorry, not seen it yet. [Thread Hijack] Busy busy ATM getting some work stuff tidied away before preparing to go on the 2009 BAE SYSTEMS Integrated System Technologies Loopy Loop 5-day charity ride for Sue Ryder Care that I am helping organise for the 3rd successive year. It's a cycle around our sites in the southern UK and is 578 miles long (that's 4 days @ 120 miles and a 'short' Friday @ 100 miles). I was only told at the 11th hour that I am able to go, so I'm all a-tizz with things to prepare now. Please sponsor Suey (who was going anyway as a support driver & cyclist) and myself - if you can - at www.justgiving.com/huey3. We raised over £11,000 last year, with the help of donations from people on this VERY FORUM ;D It's in the forum Calendar, so you can't forget You can track our progress here[/Thread Hijack]
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 13, 2009 14:34:48 GMT
ride report and pics now posted. I cheated a bit and just cut and paste the daily updates i have already detailed on the forum. I may update them again over the next few days but the pics are new for you...
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terry
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Post by terry on Jun 13, 2009 19:01:28 GMT
Excellent reports Muddy and some great pictures, some of which show how challenging the trials where in parts. Look forward to the next group ride. Did summer lightning today which seemed pretty tame after some bits last week.
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Post by robmanns2007 on Jun 13, 2009 21:31:10 GMT
Some great shots there and a good video too!
Just remembered..........I was the only rider not to have a flat - lucky i guess !
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Post by Huey on Jun 14, 2009 10:55:03 GMT
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Post by muddyfox on Jun 14, 2009 15:32:27 GMT
okay, thanks H. Have updated on my PC and will change it online later today/tomorrow when I do this week's report.
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