Category: Words

I’d been meaning to give Chilly some rep for his fund raising efforts last Friday for Comic Relief. The crazy fool decided to do a ride to raise some cash, but it was no ordinary ride. It was a monkey bike ride – check out the footage.

The event was the culmination of not-very-much planning and a beer fueled night in the pub. The video was filmed by Neil and is now up on You Tube. It’s 5 miles from the Island site to the Broadland business park but the ride started on the top floor of an office block and Chilly rode all the floors before getting outside, you can see from the film that he didn’t stop!

It’s no surprise he felt the effects the next day – he was riding for 3:20hrs!

Temperatures are rising. It’s noticeably milder outside and commuting is now requiring less warm weather gear. Spring is definitely here and that means that it’s time to do some proper riding…

Rode Snowdon for the first time today, thanks to some great guiding by Ali Chant. Up the main path from Llanberis and down the Rangers Path with some added extra good bits on the way back. It was grim at the summit with lots of snow and ice.

Cold fingers warmed up on the descent. It was technical on the wet slippery rocks and we both decided that it wasn’t worth taking any silly risks given the weather. Only saw two walkers with a crazy chocolate Labrador in the three and a half hour we were out on the mountain.

John Ross has just completed one of the most grueling endurance races on Earth: Iditarod Trail. The consequences of failure in this event are probably higher than any other. Other competitors were knocked out of this years race by frostbite.

As dr j0n has said “it sounds like it might be the toughest conditions for a long time. Maybe ever.” Oh and he’s done the whole race on a Singlespeed… what a legend.

As background, the race has never before taken the winner more than about 5 days. Anchorage cycling phenom Peter Basinger who I interviewed for the Owners’ Club last year, made it in 3 days, 5 hours and 40 minutes in 2007. By 5th March, competitors had been on the trail for four days and were only about halfway to the finish line with nothing but miles and miles of bad trail or no trail ahead of them.

Jeff Oatley won this years race in a time of 5 days, 19 hours and 34 mins. He was followed by Tracy and Jay Petervary and then Shaggy who arrived shortly after in fourth place. Pete Basinger was the first skier in taking 5th place. Cory Smith took 6th place and Phil Hofstetter 7th. Oatley came in at 10:04 and the others mentioned arrived between 19:28 and 21:48.

Jam sent over the photos below. It seems that Fred Williams Cycles doesn’t really do Christmas, in that they don’t sell childrens bikes or accessories. So no Barbie bikes, no Action Man bikes, no bells, no tassles, no scooters, etc. This year they had abit of time on our hands so we come up with an idea. It took a few days for Steve Williams to work it out and then we put the plan into action. Similar to an A-Team episode (except for the music and big gold jewellery) a bike went into the workshop as one incarnation and came out another.

Jam says he’s not going to say too much about this project as he’s going to put together a few video clips together to show it off properly but he hopes you’ll be impressed. Keep checking the website for more info…

It’s been a long time since any of my bikes have been shod with Wilderness Trail Bikes rubber (probably when Velociraptors were considered the ‘in’ tyres), but since the Nevegal death, I’ve decided to try a different combo on the Singlespeed for a while…

Weirwolf upfront and a Motoraptor for the back. Lets see how they cope with what’s left of winter and the approaching spring…

Saturday afternoon in Zermatt is a quiet time to be at the top of the highest ski run in Europe…

Friday 13th was fairly uneventful, but the following day was something different. The plan was to head up to Grizedale to introduce a friend to some trail centre riding. On loading the car up its noticed that the rear tyre on their bike was all split and cracked – Hmm didn’t notice that when cleaning it. So we stopped off at Wilf’s in Staveley on the way up for a late lunch and picked up a new tyre in Wheelbase.

By the time we arrived at Grizedale it was gone 2.30pm. The pay and display rates are currently £2 for 2 hours or £4 for all day. We had just over £2 in lose change, so decided to buy the ‘2hrs will be just enough’ ticket just before leaving the carpark. By the time the normal preride getting changed and ready faffage had been complimented with a tyre change and then a inner tube change in the same wheel due to a sticky valve leaking air, it’s nearer 3pm when we start riding.

Anyway off we go. The trails are easy going in comparison to some centres so I think it’s a good introduction to singletrack with some technical bits and boardwalk sections. Still I come around one corner to find my fellow rider tangled up in their bike to the side of the trail. Not enough momentum to get over a step up and they’d crashed out. No damage other than some dented confidence and we’re soon back on the route.

Progress was fairly slow, but steady riding around in the snow covered fireroads. Coming out of a singletrack section near the most northerly part of the loop a graunching noise from my rear wheel makes me think that the rear disc pads have picked up some grit. Feather the brake lever a bit and try and get it to clear as I climb up the hill and about 5 seconds later there is a rifle shot as the rear tyre explodes.

Another Kenda Nevegal that’s ripped through the sidewall just above the bead. Oh well no problems, I’ve been in this situation and done the repair before. Camelbak opened up to get the tools and food out. A wrapper from a bar will form an adequate tyre boot. So with the tyre off I set about putting some air into a new tube to give it some shape for fitting. About four strokes into pumping the tyre up, the shaft of the pump snaps off the piston. Bugger. My Mountain Morph’s been all over the world with me, but it’s just died in the Lakes.

So it’s 4.30pm. Light is fading fast. We’re in the middle of a forest in the Lakes. We’ve just realised that neither of us remembered to buy a car parking ticket from the Pay and Display, we’ve one bike between us, the other has a tyre with a hole in it and no means of pumping it up.

Just as I’m calculating the best way off the mountain, a horse rider turn up with a mountain biker riding along side. I do a Tinker Juarez and ask if he has a pump I can borrow and it’s with some relief that he says “yes”. We have some banter with our Irish rescuer who also donates a Park tyre boot and with the aid of some duct tape wrapped around the tyre and rim in the damaged section the bike is back in action. We part ways and trying to keep as little weight on the rear wheel as possible we make it into Moor Top carpark and begin the final and best sections of the North Face Trail back down to the Grizedale Visitors centre.

The fields are becoming misty, the light is disappearing and it’s with a woop woop that we make it back to the car to find that we’re escaped getting a parking ticket. Great day out…

Finally organised things enough to fit the new headset that had arrived at the end of last month. As planned it had the desired effect of releasing around an extra 10mm of stack height.

Wednesday off was a luxury this week and an opportunity to squeeze some extra riding in. I was hoping to get to Llandegla but the place is shut due to too much snow, so a local route was opted for. The Compstall Loop I’ve ridden before was chosen.

It was relatively mild in the City, but as the Peak District was neared and height gained the temperature plummeted and there was still plenty of snow on the ground up on the tops. Brake pad destroying conditions and some tripoding necessary to get safely down some of the descents that had been buried in drifting snow. It was great to be out though!