Aston Hill Black Run Race

No bike meant no racing for me, but I guess that was a blessing in disguise as in meant I got to brush up on my photography 'skills'. These are my first attempts at getting some riding shots for about a year. Last time I gave it a go I hated every second of it but this time I actually enjoyed taking photos!

I found a few nice spots, chose a favourite and waited there for my friends who were racing to come down so I could get some cool photos of them. What I forgot was they'd seeded quite high so I ended up with about 200 images of the same corner! Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyways, pretty happy we a few of them, and pretty keen to get out and try it again sometime. Enjoy.

Life Without a Bike

Sucks. Or at least that’s what I thought it would be like. It’s been a few weeks since the Glory was sent back to Giant and I haven’t got round to sorting a replacement yet, and if I’m honest, I’m not really in that much of a rush.

It’s still not massively warm here yet and it still rains quite a bit so the trails haven’t fully dried out. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself as I sit here almost trying to convince myself I’m not missing out on too much.

When I had the glory I was riding pretty much every weekend and if possible sneaking out for a mid week mess around. So not having a bike has changed pretty much everything.

With all this extra time I’ve got my social life back. At the weekends I can now go out and not force myself to have an early night because I’m going riding the next day. I’ve even managed to find the time to get myself a girlfriend. Mental.

As I’m not driving around all over the place at weekends my car seems to have a never ending supply of petrol. And with that costing a bomb it means I’ve got money in my pocket for the first time in months!

So do you really need a bike to be into biking? Thousands, if not millions of people across the UK are into Formula One, and I’m willing to bet good money that not one of them owns a formula one car. I’m still following all the latest news and watching all the newest videos so I know what’s going on in the world of mountain biking.

Of course every time I watch said videos I’m reminded how much I miss going biking. I need to sort my life out…

Kielder Trail Guide With Scott Bikes

Fun times this week heading up to Newcastle to have a look round Scott Bikes' new warehouse, ride on of their bikes and get shown around a brilliant track up at Kielder. It was one of the funnest trail guides I've done and once I've got a bike sorted I'll be keen to give it another ride, after all, it's only four hours away!

Rou got some great shots with his new 7d, although I'm pretty confident these ones won't get used as I'm not quite in focus and there's some serious fly catcher mouth action going on. Right, time to make a start on the write up.

Six Pack in Six Weeks

Also just spotted over on Rou’s blog that his next challenge is to get a six pack in six weeks. There’s roughly six weeks until the next IMB deadline when I’ll be down staying at his and working in the office.

Everywhere you go on the internet these days you get bombarded with adverts offering you to get ‘super ripped’ or ‘mega hench’ in a few weeks and I’m convinced it can’t be done.

So while he’s dieting and counting the calories, maybe even watching some ‘how to’ videos on youtube, I’m going to continue eating bread, pasta, potato’s and cakes. Come deadline week we’ll compare and see who’s got the best ‘abs’.

I’m not really sure this is going to prove anything, and I’ve lost where I’m going with it; I just like to winding Rou up. Plus this is great motivation for Mission 365!

Mission 365

February’s come to an end and with it so to has Rou’s ‘Mission 28’. For 28 days Rou set himself a challenge that everyday he had to ride a bike, kitesurf, or workout. Even with two magazine deadlines and a few press launches he managed it so fair play to him for that.

But 28 days isn’t really that many. I mean, February is the shortest month of the year so it’s an easy option. With that in mind I’ve created my own challenge, ‘Mission 365’. It’s a bit like Mission 28 except instead of all the faffing about with riding and exercising I just have to get out of bed everyday.

Obviously starting a project like this in March is a bit dumb so I’m going to back date it to the start of the year making today day 59 out of 365. I’m pretty pleased with myself that I’ve made it this far, and I’m quietly confident that I can use this momentum and build on it to wake up tomorrow.

Things are looking up for the rest of the year. Mission 365 is go!

Goodbye to the Glory

So, the day I've been dreading has finally arrived and the Glory has gone back to the nice people at Giant. But rather than wallowing in sadness and mourning, I'm going to try and remember the good times I had on it, so here's a few photos that should help.

IMB Issue 10 Goes Live

IMB Issue 10 is due to be released any minute now. Meanwhile I'll be on my way to the Merida Press Launch in Mallorca. Adios!

Once again somehow everything had been left right until the last minute and on Monday evening I honestly didn't think we had a chance in getting the magazine finished in time. It might not be the best magazine we've put together but there's a few features that I'm pleased with.

I was absolutely blown away when I saw the film Life Cycles so getting to interview it's director Derek Frankowski and seeing his photos in the magazine was amazing. Also this issue I wrote, photographed, filmed and edited an entire feature on trail maintenance. It also gave me a chance to relearn and get to grips with Final Cut Pro.

Having so much to do in just a week has left us pretty determined to work harder on Issue 11, starting straight away. On a beach. In Mallorca...

Morzine 2011

I got to travel to quite a bit last summer and ride loads of places but there was one place I didn't get to visit. I wanted to give Morzine a miss last year and find somewhere new to ride, but half way through the season I found myself wanting to get out there again.

So I'm pretty pleased that I've got a 10 day trip booked up with Riders Retreat in Morzine. As well as the main tracks I want to explore a bit more and do a day trip to ride somewhere away from the Portes Du Soleil region again.

Here's last years 'chalet boys' and owner Paul Thomas riding some of their favourite tracks:

Rogate DH

So, first off that isn't me in the photo, it's the Maidestone Massive's George Amos.

A big group of us arranged to ride Rogate a few weeks ago. But none of us thought to check where it is until the night before. Luckily we found the place and got in an awesome days riding. Rogate's kind of like the tracks at Woburn on steroids. Some proper sweet DH runs and some big jumps waiting for you at the bottom.

The top section features loads of loose, tight and steep corners, then the gradient mellows out and you get to enjoy some flowy berms and some small drops. The photo is of the bigger double at the bottom. You can either cut onto it from another jump or ride a hip line into it.

I wasn't too keen on the early start to get there but I can't wait to ride there again. If you want to give it a go hopefully the map borrowed from Google will help you find it.

Start As You Mean To Go On

This was my first weekend of the New Year (too much celebrating wrote off last weekend) so I was keen to get in as much bike related action as possible. The plan was to ride Woburn Sands on Saturday then help out at the Aston Hill dig day on Sunday. And that's exactly how things panned out.

So, Saturday I was up early and met Mark and Paul at Woburn. It was raining a bit on the way over and when I got there but when it stopped the tracks quickly dried up and started running faster and smoother. With no snow this time we rode a mix of everything, from all lines to new tracks

Amos was the only member of the Maidstone Massive to make it today. He left his at nine but thanks to traffic on the M25 didn't get there till just before three. Like a happy couple picking up their newborn baby from the hospital, Ben and Will spent the day picking up Will's new frame, a Morewood Makulu with a BOS Stoy rear shock.

Talking of rear shocks I played about with the Vivid Coil R2 on the Glory and got it set up quite nicely. Basically just stiffened it up and slowed down the rebound. Makes the bike corner better in tight turns and it jumps a lot better too.

As soon as Amos started riding the pace picked up; everyone started riding faster and jumping higher. I followed him down and did the large road gap, something I hadn't done for a while. I remember on Kona having to sprint like mad into it and getting bucked about on impact. On the Glory though I just had to put in a few extra cranks and the landing was smooth as.

We kept on riding more tracks and sectioned corners until we could barely see, then headed into Woburn itself for a post ride drink.

Still pretty tired from yesterdays riding I got up even earlier today and put a spade in my car along with the Glory, ready for the build day at Aston Hill. I ride at Aston as regularly as possible and it's home to some of my favourite tracks in the UK.

This wasn't the first dig day at Aston but it was the first one I've been able to attend and it felt good to help out and 'give something back' for a change. So I spent the morning doing some maintenance work on the 4X track; getting rid of the grass that had grown on the jumps and berms, moving fallen branches off the track and clearing nettles.

The work was done by about one or two and everyone was rewarded with cake and brownies back at the car park. I thought about putting the Glory together and going for a ride, but in the end I decided to head home so I could give it a bit of TLC in the light. Although I still forgot to sort out the front tyre, but that's another story...