Al’s WebLog

Given the density of distilleries on Islay (and the closeness of Jura) it seemed silly not to take the bike with me when I was up there last week. I guess you could say its like munro bagging, but with distilleries. All in all it was about 130miles of riding, on road, but the big ‘ol Maxxis were handy given the general lack of road quality! I’m pleased to say the 456 was great and survived its first proper trip (and only its 3rd, and 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th rides) perfectly

My trusty Santa Cruz Heckler is almost 5 years old. Its seen a few changes in that time, primarily a change from a DUC32 to a Pike, but on the whole its been a great bike I enjoy riding. About a year ago I flirted with a Chameleon frame instead, but for various reasons, primarily trying to make it do to many things, I just didn’t get on with it, so it went and the Heckler stuck around. Since then I’ve been pondering a new Heckler, looking out for something else with a bouncy back end and generally thinking that actually the Heckler is great so why change it.

Fresh out of the box, looking quite lovely in blue. The new 456.

So then, why is it that there is a new On-One 456 frame sat next to me as I type this? Well, itchy feet really. Bob swapped her Yeti DJ for a Cotic Soul a month or so back and it got me thinking about trying a hard tail again. I’d been following Brant Richards’ new ventures too, and his Blue Pig made a lot of sense, and if it wasn’t for it not being available and being twice the price of the 456 (£55 cheaper these days than when I last looked is the 456! Cracking value!) I’d have had one of them. But, at 125 quid and just coming back into stock, I kinda half impulse, half plan purchased the 456. At the price if it doesn’t work it won’t break the bank. At 5.8lbs it won’t save me much weight, but that’s not the plan. The plan is to try something new, have a new riding experience, get back to more XC riding… we’ll see. Hopefully she’ll be built up by the weekend (just swapping everything over from the Heckler) and I can take her for a spin.

This last weekend was the first ‘dig day’ of the Black Canon Collective, which is a new club I’m helping with that was started to make the old unofficial Longleat trails official. Its been a fair while since Longleat shut the place down, for totally understandable reasons, and its been a fair amount of work for the club to get things organised and in place so that club members can once again go ride. This weekend though made it all start to feel worth it. Saturday saw the dodgy old building fenced in and the best track on the area not being felled, B.B.M.S., resurrected. A few of us went back Sunday but we slacked off the building and rode I’ve forgotten what riding tight rooty tracks is like and boy did I suck! It was a really good laugh though and with everyone giving each other encouragement and line/riding advice the achy legs from post drivering on Saturday were soon forgotten. I may have to start riding flats though….

After week of the weather “Will it? Won’t it?”, the sun came out for this years Bristol BikeFest. Last year Bob and I wandered along on the Sunday to watch Neil plug around for 6 hours solo and walked much of the course – it looked quite fun, though there was little vibe in the pits, but Sunday is apparently always quieter. This year Bob anf Colin entered the Saturday 12hr as a pair and I went along to ‘bitch’ (pit-bitch – fix bikes, keep an eye on laps and change overs, etc). Owing to Bob and Col going to the Foo Figther’s gig on Friday night, we didn’t arrive ’til after 8am, for a 9am start…

This year, due to “wild flower damage” last year, the main arena was now right next to the camping site, which, when we arrived, despite paying for camping, was full. We managed to squeeze the car into a small gap and Col quickly sorted his bike and went off for the start.

All told it was a fun course, but rather to short (several people got bored on Saturday and went home early) with a lot of singletrack. Now singletrack is usually good, we mountain bikers like riding singletrack, but in a multilap event with a lot of different speeds of people in, too much is a bad thing, especially with a short lap. From speaking to many riders there were a lot of rude, arrogant tossers riding, who would not ask to come by, but would barge past with no warning, or who would refuse to let anyone else past, even when asked. This, for me, is always what lets XC racing down. I know I’m not fast uphill, so I don’t mind letting people by, but I am faster than most downhill… end result, roadies pass me uphill and hold me up all the way down.

Sadly it all ended badly for Bob, as one of the aforementioned tossers held her up for most of the lap, then when he did say “come past on the left” he cut her up and put her into a tree, without even stopping to see if the girl he’d just put into a tree, at some speed and who was now sprawled across the track, was even okay. Thankfully two chaps behind stopped, helped bob to her feet and got her bike straight (thank you gentlemen!). End of race for bob, so with Col tired and still no camping spots, we headed home.

All said, not a great event. It should be though, but sadly it wasn’t due to the overly relaxed organisation and XC roadie tossers who take life way to seriously.

My mate Colin has a new helmet. Its rather spangly He’s not seen it yet, so for him, heree’s Bob modeling it for you.

Happy New Year. It is indeed 2008 already. I hope you had a good 2007 and here’s to a better yet 2008. That said, if you are 1and1 Internet, may you have a thoroughly miserable 2008. For some unknown reason 1and1 have delisted ‘southerndownhill.com’ from their systems. The domain is registered ’til April, there are no outstanding invoices on the account and there has been no email from 1and1 to say anything. Of course, its new years day now and they are not answering the phones. Joy. I think I’ll have a transfer auth code please!

Well, today was the end of it, almost. All the IT equipment went today, though oddly the chaps didn’t have room for the 42u Dell cabinet, so a quick call soon found it a new home up the hill at the CS department via the back of a Volvo estate! Rah! The last of the desks/chairs goes tomorrow then its lock up and drop the keys through the letter box and become unemployed. Until Monday at least. I had not realised how stressed I was getting about sorting everything out, but hopefully after Saturday’s riding I can zonk for a bit and get some proper sleep.

In other news my Mavericks have a new home thanks to EBay, which is cool. Still no sign of the new Bullit though. I must catch up with peeps soon, I have not seen many for to long!

I discovered this weekend why the area in which I now live used to be known as Westbury Marshes. After riding out to Rudge, my sister and I headed down to Clearwood and the south-west along the edge of Blackdog Woods, to the A36 where the bridleway became this…

Now it had been rather wet along to this point (see map of location here) but to find a lake was somewhat surprising.

We found a way around by climbing through the woods but I suspect we’ll not use that bridleway again till mid-summer

XC ride at Cwmcarn tomorrow, the weather looks a bit iffy but Cwmcarn tends to be mostly sheltered, other that the top skills loop. Hopefully I will not die of unfitness!

I went back to Mountain Ash yesterday for a Dragon DH uplift day. This is the track were, 4 weeks ago, I found a new hole and went arse over tit and couldn’t walk for a few days after. On the first run down yesterday, I stopped at said hole to have a look at where I should be going to get around it and discovered a chap lying there, deep in mud, bike wedged on said hole. I think I started a spot of bother Rest of the day was good, we even had some snow! Plastic suits are great and keep you warm and mud free (but not dry, think a personal sauna ‘cos plastic doesn’t breath). This morning though, I bloody ache and have a headache. Clearly exercise is disagreeing with me more as I get older. Ho Hum!