Monthly Archives: May 2011

Ride entry – 29th/30th May

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 50 miles, with stop for sleep
Punctures: one
Playlist: Rawk

Hunteryes, that is a ride entry across two days. After two days major garden reworking and clearing the horses meadow of ragwort I was due some leisure time as a reward. So once tea was out of the way I shoved everything* in a rucksack and headed for the hills. Such as there are in the Home Counties. Five minutes later I was back to fix two punctures picked up in the front tyre from the last ride.

Despite this unwanted delay a couple of hours later I stopped for a pint at Grove Locks on the Grand Union canal and started to think about where to sleep. To the South were the Chilterns and the start of the Ridgeway. I fancied a hilltop bivvy in case of a promising sunrise so headed that way. Another hour got me to Ivinghoe Beacon and a very cheeky bivvy.

Early morning panda
Early morning panda

Sunrise itself was disappointing. The sky was dull and grey and just lightened gradually. Setting out after tea and with the intention of picking up breakfast on the way I had no food or stove in my pack so was travelling plenty light (which you already know if you’ve been peaking ahead at the footnotes). So light I had plenty of room for something to read, courtesy of Bill Hicks. A lie in and a couple of chapters (I can heartily recommend it BTW) then find the nearest purveyor of bacon and egg sandwiches, and still home nice and early.

Breakfast
Mmmm, pork products

* mat, sleeping bag, bivvy bag, jacket, book, ipod

FFS

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2011 brings a new twist to the Polaris. We have noticed many riders new to the sport, using trail centers and pre-marked routes, do not enjoy, or may not have the experience for a full mountain navigation course.

Polaris website
So not only can’t middle aged IT managers who have spunked their wad on a £3 grand bike not ride the effing things they can’t find their arse with both hands and a map way around the countryside with a GPS and a map.


Sad nick just heard about the dickheads doing Polaris these days

Increasingly I am the sad hipster looking at the people taking up moutain biking these days.

Biorhythms & ankles

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I’m not a believer in biorhythms but I am aware that I have good and bad days. This was brought home over the weekend where I felt good, but not great, on Friday, then awful on Saturday, but absolutely fine on Sunday.

Years ago I used a training plan that used set patterns of easy, medium, hard and rest days working back from your race day so that you peaked at exactly the same time. If race day was Sunday then Saturday was a medium hard day. Which usually coincided with downhill race day. Not to say that downhilling isn’t a physical activity – back then it was often more physical than technical.

It’s a bit too late to try and reschedule my bodies rhythms now, but I hope that I can peak for June 18-19.

I’m finally used to riding with my cleats at the farthest away I can get them from my toes which I’m sure helps in technical riding and out of the saddle pushing. I badly twisted my right ankle in June last year, just rolling it off a kerb – and again in January this year. It’s still weaker than my left and a couple of times on uneven ground it’s nearly gone again. My right achilles tendon is now way fatter than my left, and I have very little lateral support. So little lateral strength in fact that I can no longer ride my horse in jodphur boots but have to dress “properly” in full length riding boots. I have to confess that I’m not looking forward to the run at Mayhem, or having to dab a foot to get round some numpty who bins it in the technical sections or who gets the fear and suddenly stops blocking the trail.

I will be taking lots of vetwrap.

Ride entry – 22nd May

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 2.5 hours teaching
Todays victims: Ali and Brad
Punctures: two

HunterMy sister in law has been asking me to take her and her partner mountain biking for a while now. Spurred on by the pictures of the full english I devoured partway round my ride on the 8th May we agreed to go for a session round Woburn Sands then too a suitable eaterie to devour fried goodness.

Provided we restored her ten year old Carrera Kraken* we had enough bikes to go round for me, Kirsty, Ali and her partner, Brad. Kirsty and I rode our singlespeeds, which meant was actually a little unfair as it meant the beginners had steering, braking *and* gears to worry about. Fortunately they both drive Land Rovers so the “left hand side is the High/Low ratio stick, and the right hand side is the gearstick” analagoy can be used and understood.

Riding the same trails I scouted out yesterday confirmed that the reason some of the climbs I struggled yesterday on were just down to feeling slightly flat. And that dragging brake. Today I flew up them on the singlespeed. Helped partly by not being able to just change down a gear when I felt things were getting a bit hard.

I let the newbies have a gently warm up on untechnical climbs then headed into the woods. Ali has a good sense of balance from her horse-riding background and required very little tuition. It was more a case of building her confidence than anything.

Victim
The look of fear

Experienced mountain bikers forget how mentally tiring it is to ride technical trails, and the newbies had soon had enough. They enjoyed themselves though.

Oh, and to the po-faced roadie who scowled at my superman impression lying on my seat riding back down the road, lighten up!

* Named because it weighs as much as the mythical beast.

Ride entry – 21st May

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Bike: Spot
Distance: 3.5 hours
Playlist: 101 Punk & New Wave anthems*

Spot BrandMore amazement at the differences in the way ostensibly similar bikes feel, and I always thought I “just rode”. The geared Spot today, which has shorter chainstays and stiffer finishing kit than the singlespeed version and don’t I know it.

Having gears meant I could push myself all the way with no relaxing. Hurty, hurty, hurty.

Then I boiled the rear brake fluid on the wooded singletrack downhills – not a fault of the brakes just a reflection of the age of the DoT fluid which is probably contaminated with water by now. You know how that goes. Brakes boil and start to bind, binding causes fluid to boil, which increases binding. It was like resistance training even on the downhills. And after two-and-a-half hours of pushing on every trail I felt the impending blood-sugar fall that heralds hitting The Wall. Cue wobbly diversion to the nearest newsagent for a much needed sugar rush. By the time I got there I couldn’t even spin the rear wheel for a revolution by hand.

TK-421 goes to Endor
Not a speederbike, a speedy bike

Taking my time to quaff** a large bottle of Irn Bru – don’t worry, I tempered the GI with some starch in the form of a large bag of crisps- had it spinning freely again. While the orange fluid worked it’s magic I rode the hour home with that aching leg feeling you only get when you’ve pushed it too hard too early in a ride. Still, it’s a feeling you get for about twenty hours of a twenty-four hour race so I’d best get used to it.

My reward for todays hurt was a top up of the cycing tan lines, a cool shower and barbecue in the horses field. Tonights choice of post ride beverage, Brugal and Coke.

* Elise: “How many songs are on that?”

** Normally only Vikings and Germans quaff, but I was really thirsty

Ride entry – 20th May

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Bike: Spot
Distance: 1.5 hours
Playlist: Two men and a drum machine*

SpotWhere did all the nettles come from then? Stingy legs.

Yes that thumbnail that shows which bike I rode is a little different today. It was back to the past as I went out for a ride on a Spot. In this case Kirstys, which I’ll be using at Mayhem so I wanted to make sure it was all in working order. Fettling last weekend had consisted of kicking the tyres and lubricating the chain. Singlespeeds really do take all the hard work out of bike maintenance.

Spot speed blur
Speed blur

Apart from getting used to the slightly bigger gear than my Hunter – back to the One True Ratio™ – I couldn’t believe how different the ride was from the Hunter. Now Kirstys Spot was always slightly more, well, comfy than my Spot as she ran a longer chain, hence wheelbase, and had shallower rims, smaller flanges and longer spokes in her wheels. But I hadn’t expected that it would be so noticeably, well, more twangy than the Hunter. Going into fast corners it was like sitting on the top of a twelve inch ruler being squeezed at both ends. It all felt like it was curving up slightly, then unspringing on the exit. Quite strange.

As I said, the biggest difference was the gear though. Much more suited to the long straight, constant speed sections, but just a little more work winding back up to speed if I scrubbed any off for any reason. It was good to have some variety though and surprise the legs.

I must ride this bike more before the race.

* Which reminds me, I must rip some Dave Howard Singers from vinyl to mp3.

It just works

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It just works
It just works

I’ve finally had the time to put in the hours I always wanted on my Hunter this year. You might have noticed that apart from the incessant references to effing bloody punctures I’ve barely mentioned the actual bike. Certainly since I replaced the slipping seatpost (it was 15 years old after all so maybe a little undersize by now) with something with some squidge in readiness for 24 hour racing I’ve forgotten it’s there. I’ve done no maintenance at all bar a little chain oiling and a tweak of the dropouts to retension the chain.

On the subject of which the Black Cat dropouts rock enormously. Loosen two allen bolts per side – proper gert big 6mm things too, not noncey 5mm jobs – adjust tension bolts to suit, retighten dropout bolts. Continue riding. Simples. They’ve also been a saviour given the number of punctures I’ve had this past two months. Far easier to drop wheel out and replace it than the old undo V-brake, faff with chain tensioners ect ect*

The actual riding of the bike though is a joy. I ride with the front wheel a little more weighted since going on my Achievable Rad training
day with Ed Oxley at Great Rock, and it’s made a big difference to my singletrack skills. Plant the front wheel, push it round, and the back end follows. I have had precisely one lapse when I went into a corner too fast and instead of committing panicked and sat back. Cue front end running wide and losing the line coming out of the corner. I’ve been back since and confirmed that with commitment it is possible to hold the right line with the speed I was carrying.

Apart from that once I really have just spent the rest of my time just picking a line knowing it’ll follow it, gazing around at the scenery and wildlife, or simply trying to hurt myself by riding as fast as I can, without even having to worry or think about the bike. I sometimes think that “a bike is a bike”, and these days that’s pretty much true. Spend three tanks of fuel worth of money on a bike and you’ll get something better than halfway decent.

But you won’t just forget it’s there unless you get something really special.

Of course now I’ve sung it’s praises I’ve cursed it and a wheel will fall off on my next ride.

* Molesworth, as any fule kno

Ride Entry – 8th May

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 9.5 hours, with breakfast and tea stops.
Playlist: New Wave Faves; Clutch
Todays Wildlife: Charlie, Red Kite, Arctic Tern

HunterI saw the other day that dR j0n has been putting in 8 hour rides. With less than two months to go to Mayhem I confess a pang of jealousy at that length of ride.

Today though, with Kirsty otherwise engaged supporting other family members at a horse show I had official sanction for an “all-day ride”. As we had to be up early for the show I was able to be on the trails just after 7.30.

After two months of dry weather we had a couple of hours rain in the night.

Rain
It’s rained

Cue hard ground covered in a thin layer of slippy, and above all sticky, mud. It was like rolling through icing sugar as with each pedal stroke the tyres just got bigger and bigger. Behind me I left a perfectly dry line in the soil.

Anyway, it was looking like it would dry up by the time I reached the woods, and at the top of each climb i was positively steaming. After slagging off the local all-mountain riders for their need to pad up for a ride round the woods I was obviously bound to hurt myself. In my case not on the downhill course I discovered – not that rad as it turns out and definitely not worth the inches of travel and amount of protective gear I saw being used, but riding back to the top. Comedy rear wheel slip, foot shoots to bottom of pedal stroke, Bike stops dead. Topple sideways. Fail to unclip. Lie there like a stranded turtle. And obviously this all happened in front of two – padded up – riders pushing their way up the climb 100 yards back.

Time to head for breakfast then. While waiting for the Full English I get out the rash kit and clean out the wound. This involved picking some quite large pieces of gravel out of my knee with the tweezers. Once replete I decided to test out it’s flexibility and make a call on the trip home after a mere four hours, or to carry on.

I carried on.

Another couple of hours mainly off-road ride got me to the in-laws and a welcome cup of tea. Or two. Then back the way I’d come for another two and a half hours home. The wheels finally stopped turning after nine and a half hours.

Now, if I can just do the same at night, and the same again the next day, I’ll be sorted.

Oh, and post-ride mojitos totally rock.

Ride Entry – 5th May

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 1.5 hours
Playlist: Random, Ipod went a bit punk

HunterJudging by the look of the four middle-aged guys on all-mountain bikes riding the other way this evening, and the evidence of their passing along other trails, there must be a local Thursday night ride. TBH I’m enjoying riding in solitude, and anything scheduled and regular always ends up losing my interest.

Anyways, fading light, must ride fast. Not much to report except a surprised muntjack deer.

Ride Entry – 2nd May

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Bike: Hunter
Distance: 3 hours
Playlist: Foo Fighters

HunterSince when did proper XC jey riders become less jey than “all-mountain riders”. By which I mean, since when did riders feel the need for all-mountain bikes and pads for a ride round the woods? FFS, HTFU.

I can however attest that white shorts are conducive to double esspressoe when attending the local cafe.