Top 5 Riding Moments of 2010

Lazy Journalism. It's not the best journalism but it's definitely the easiest, and at this time of the year you see a lot of it, with everyone coming up with a list of the top events of the year. But rather than criticise I decided to jump on the bandwagon and came up with my top 5 riding moments of 2010.

No.5 - Hanchurch Woods, May

Hanchurch Woods up in Stoke isn't the best riding spot in the UK by a long shot. But this was the last time I got to ride with my riding mates at uni. The sun was out, the trails were dry and everyone was in good spirits. It was a great end to my time at uni, and my time in Stoke.

No.4 - Aston Hill, August

Aston Hill is my local riding spot. It's only about 45 minutes away from my house so I try and ride there whenever possible. On this day I wasn't riding too well and I was a bit put off after an ambulance had to be called out to fix a rider after a horrific crash.

But the whole day turned around when I saw an old riding friend and spent the afternoon riding with him. My riding instantly improved and I had a huge confidence boost when I found I could now keep up with him, albeit on tracks I ride all the tim. With the ride over a few of us went for a drink at the nearest pub. What more could you want?

No.3 - Peak District, April

A weekend riding in the Peak's completely changed my mind about cross country riding. I used to think it was alright, but all of a sudden I found it could be fun as well. Hugely challenging but fun as well!

The climbs on the rides were so tough, and the descents weren't much easier either. This was like no riding I had done before and it was so rewarding. The moment I got dropped back in Stoke I started the trail guide, trying desperately to recapture the ride, with a smile still etched on my face.

No.2 - Winterberg Bikepark, June

Winterberg Bikepark was somewhere I'd been wanting to ride for ages and the moment I booked the holiday I was looking forward to it. Thankfully it didn't disappoint. The park is home to one of the best downhill tracks I have ever ridden, as well as a host of other amazing runs and courses.

The riding was only half of the fun with Winterberg. The atmosphere in the town was great, as was the food and drink. Plus we couldn't have stayed at a better hotel, with a balcony overlooking the bikepark and all the surrounding mountains. The perfect place for breakfast in the morning and a beer at night.

No.1 Scotland, June

Every now and then a phone call changes everything. At the end of May I was pretty miserable about finishing uni and heading back home but that changed the moment Rou told me the next week we'd be heading up to Scotland for the World Cup at Fort William and to get in a load of riding.

And that's exactly what happened. I got to watch one of my favourite riders, Gee Atherton, win the race which was just incredible. A few days later we returned and had a go at riding the track ourselves.

We enjoyed it so much that when the gondolas stopped running we pushed up the Nevis Range for another go. It took two hours to get from the car park, to the summit and back down again but it was so worth it.

In between watching the action at Fort Bill and riding it we headed further North to ride Laggan Wolftrax, another absolutely brilliant track. At the end of the trip it rained so hard my tent leaked and we both ended up being eaten alive by midge's, but that's not going to stop the roadtrip to Scotland from being my top riding moment of 2010.



So with just a matter of hours left this year, here's to hoping for more of the same in 2011. Happy riding everyone!

Woburn With A Touch Of Snow

Something I love about mountain biking is the people you get to meet through it. I'm sure like many others, through biking I've been able to meet loads of people and made loads of friends. More often that not though these friends end up living no where near where I do meaning I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to.

Recently I've been going out riding on my own, something that might be an alien concept to some riders. I don't really mind it and with biking being such a welcoming sport you soon end up chatting to people and finding someone to ride with.

The weather at the moment is pretty grim. There's a thick layer of snow here and the forescast for the rest of the week is rain and fog. Normally with weather like this I'd stay indoors but whe I got a text from a riding friend saying him and his mates were heading to Woburn Sands there was no way I could say no.

Pete was also home for Christmas so I geared him up with some spare kit I've been testing for the mag, big thanks to Fox and Giro, and we were ready to go. Despite only living 40 minutes away I haven't ridden at Woburn Sands since the start of the summer and I didn't recognise any of the tracks.

I kind of thought that the cover from the trees would mean there'd only be a light dusting of snow but there was still a good few inches of the stuff. You have to completely change the way you ride with snow but it was so fun.

After a couple of runs we had two tracks working side by side for 'dual' racing but no-one was taking it seriously at all; it was all about riding with a smile on your face. The new tracks are great to ride and even in the snow the Maidstone Massive were hitting some of the jumps and drops with speed and style aplenty.

The snow did mean everyone was crashing every few minutes, and I think I found it easier to stay on my bike than I did to stay on my feet. I had a go on Amos's bike and his Wet Screams made a huge difference so a pair of mud tyres are now top of my wish list.

With the riding and snowball fights over we headed to the the nearest pub for some post-ride refreshments, a catch up and of course some rough love from Ben.

Merry Christmas Everyone

IMB Issue 9 Out Now

Deadline week is now over and IMB is out now! Every waking moment since Monday has been spent getting photos, writing articles or editing videos. Photographer Will livened up the office with his love for Elton John songs.

Getting to interview one of my riding heroes: Cedric Gracia was a real highlight of my time with IMB so far, and seeing it in the magazine was great. With the new issue out it's time to start thinking up ideas for issue 10, and hopefully there won't be such a mad rush to get it finished!

Night Riding

I've just got in from Light Test photo shoot number two and it was so fun. Until yesterday I'd never ridden offroad at night before and I can see it's appeal. Even in the pouring rain or snow it's a right laugh.

And more importantly Will got some amazing photos for the magazine. Check them out below and more here.

Bike Testing

Most the time when you tell someone you've got to test some bikes they think you're just going to spend the day riding and messing about on them. And they'd be right; that's pretty much all you have to do, aside from maybe get a few photos and video footage.

Here's the test videos filmed at Aston Hill of the Giant Glory and Cube Hanzz SL.

Ok, so it isn't all fun and games. It is pretty tough getting the right shot, and there's nothing worse than hearing the words: "That was great, but any chance you can do it again..."

A Year of Tweets

The other day I realised I've been using twitter for a year now. At first I didn't think that much of it but now I love it. It's a great way to stalk pro riders, get all the latest news and shamelessly plug the magazine and forum.

There's a box with my tweets on the side of the blog and if you want to you can also follow me here if you want to. Don't expect it all to be about bikes, there's plenty of random mutterings on there too.

IMB Issue 8 Out Now

The latest issue of IMB went live this afternoon and it looks amazing. There's a new designer and a great new look for the mag. This issue I came down to the office to help out and get more involved.

It was a pretty mad few days. We went out for a ride on Monday for the trail guide and on Tuesday the write up was finished complete with a video. By this afternoon the magazine was out and we were heading out for a ride.

Cycle Show

In case you missed it, or missed us, IMB had a stand at the Cycle Show in London. We turned up on Wednesday evening and started setting up our stand just as everyone else was finishing off theirs.

I was only there for the trade day, and I kind of threw up on my lunch break, but it was really fun promoting the magazine and talking to people about everything bike related. By the end of the show the rest of the team had managed to get over a thousand new subscribers and generate a lot of interest in the magazine.

When he wasn't handing out stickers or playing with the office iPad, Rou managed to get some photos of what everyone else was showing off so check out the Industry News section of the Forum.

Blag and Swag

Somehow I've ended up with this beautiful Giant Glory 1 to test for the next issue of IMB. Today was the first time I've been able to ride it and even in the grim conditions up at Aston Hill it was so fun to ride.

Also in for testing are the sinner knee pads from O'Neal with Sas-tec padding, some more knee pads from Fox and a ton of winter riding kit from them. It's going to be a warm winter!

Packing Fail

Laptop's are seriously handy pieces of kit. But only if you remember to pack their charger. Without it you're left with a glorified paperweight. I spent the start of the week at Pete's new flat and even after previously blogging about how important chargers are, I forgot mine. Again.

I was planning to kill some time at his playing about with some video editing and a bit of research for the shows I was going to, but instead just had to sit around watching daytime TV and 'wakeboarding' on the Wii. Lesson learnt? Hopefully.

Two's The Magic Number

Two downhill spots, two countries, two days. Also two broken rear mechs but more on that later. After numerous trips to Aston Hill and knackering myself out pushing up I booked myself and Pete onto uplift days at the Forest of Dean and Cwmcarn. It was such a good weekend.

I couldn't believe it only took an hour and a half to get to F.O.D. And that was in Ruby, my 14 year old Fiesta, so it's not as if I was ragging it to get there. I remember it taking ages to get home last time I rode there, but then I was pretty out of it on morphine. Definitely going to visit again soon now I know how close it is.

Even when we unpacked in the car park Pete thought the uplift was just going to be a tractor and trailer like at old races. He was pretty surprised when he saw the Fly Up Downhill van and trailer. The tracks at F.O.D are so fun. Nothing massively technical but lots of chutes, roots, berms and high speed sections.

Somehow I smashed a rear mech and hanger but the guys at PedalaBikeAway were able to sort me out with a new hanger and X7 and bent my chain back into place. Thanks guys for keeping me riding. Sorry I broke it all 24 hours later.

Cwmcarn was a bit of a shock to the system the next morning but by the second run everything clicked into place and we were grinning the whole way down. The track is pretty punishing on both your body and bike and on the 3rd run I smashed another mech hanger and bent my shiny new X7 rear mech.

I missed out on 2 uplifts getting a new mech hanger from PS Cycles but was just happy to still be able to ride. Even without any gears Cwmcarn is good fun. Which is handy because I really can't afford a new mech right now.

Over the last 18 months I've spent over £300 replacing five of them!

That's the same as:

142 pints of Strongbow at the student union

90 pints at the pub now I'm not a student...

252 Frijj milkshakes

152 packets of biltong

263 litres of petrol to get to riding spots (about 3,000 miles in Ruby)

12 uplift days

It's only the lower cages of the mechs that have snapped or bent so I might do a bit of research and see if SRAM sell replacements. Worth a shot. Don't really fancy taking that total to £365 just yet...

World Champs 2010

Yeah, this video from the Santa Cruz Syndicate pretty much sums up what the UCI are doing to Downhill. Cheers guys...

IMB Issue 7 out now

Issue 7 of IMB went live early this morning. Way before I was out of bed. IMB's been going for a year now and already has over 10 million page flicks. That's pretty insane. Only two articles from me in this issue, but hopefully it's a case of quality over quantity! I'll let you guys be the judge.

Check out the latest issue here. Links to my work are below. Enjoy. Hopefully.

"Cube Your Life"

"Park Life - Winterberg"

ICE Bike Winter

ICE bike is the trade show held by madison to show off their latest kit to dealers and the press. This year they deiced that one show a year wasn't enough so as well as their February show they held one in the summer. To show of their winter kit...

This time instead of just enjoying the free food and chatting to people about bikes I did something a bit more productive. Check it out here.

Graduation

Last Friday I graduated from Staffordshire University with a 2.1 in Journalism. Thinking about it I really don't know how I managed to get a decent grade. I started writing articles for IMB in December and found working for them much more fun than my modules so put everything off until the last two weeks before hand in.

I wasn't really fussed about the graduation ceremony beforehand but it actually turned out to be a really fun event. Even more fun was having a few drinks with some of my tutors afterwards and going for a night out up Hanley duck.

Video Editing

When I started putting videos together it used to take me weeks and weeks. Thankfully now it doesn't. One of my house mates taught me to be more brutal when choosing what clips to use and the best ways to link them. Now the hardest part is trying to find music to go with the riding.

I'm still using iMovie. One day I'll be able to afford a macbook pro with final cut. Until then iMovie works fine. Apart from it wouldn't load up the 'MTS' files that Pete's camera saves videos as.

If anyone knows how to convert files to '.Mov' for free without getting a massive watermark in the corner of the clip give me a shout. Here's a sneak look at the video for Winterberg. The real version will be in the next issue of IMB.

Trips Away

Holidays, I mean work trips, for the magazine are awesome. Packing isn't. This is how things were looking before my visit to the Cube headquarters in Germany. When going away the three most important things to pack are your camera charger, laptop charger and phone charger. Forget one and things get a bit tricky. Forget two and you're screwed...

And if you forget all three and your house key so you can't get in when you get home then you may as well just give up. Lesson learnt I suppose. Also if you're going to be testing bikes take your own pedals. No matter how good your shoes are you won't get any grip on plastic pedals.

Note Book

I know we're living in a world of netbooks, dictaphones and apps but having a simple notepad is seriously useful. Scribbling down a few words at the end of the day really helps when you come to doing a write up on what you've just been riding.

It doesn't matter if you're in the passenger seat of a van on the motorway or sat on a balcony overlooked by mountains. Notepads are awesome.

Winterberg Bikepark

Me and Pete got back from a five day trip to WinterBerg Bikepark yesterday afternoon. I'm about to start the write up for IMB so look out for it in the next issue. If you can't wait till August here's a quick round up:

It's amazing. So many fun tracks and all in the same place. Plus it's in Germany which is always good. Go now. And stay here.

IMB Issue 6 Out Now

Issue 6 of IMBikemag is out now so check it out here for free! This was such a nuts issue to work on. Myself and Rou went on a road trip to the Bristol BIke Fest to meet the Torq XC team then headed North to the Fort Bill World Cup. As the world cup circus packed up on the Sunday we headed even further North to ride at Laggan Wolftrax.

On the way home we stopped off for a few rides of the Fort Bill Red Run track, joining onto the Black run at the bottom. We got two runs in with the gondola then PUSHED to the top for another go! It took just over two hours to get from the bottom to the top and back. So worth it.

As well as all that I got to interview Max Commencal for our feature on Commencal Bikes, and British downhill riders Jack Reading and Thomas Braithwaite. So, click here to view the whole issue or follow the links below to see my articles:

"To the Max"

"Laggan Wolftrax"

"Torq Fitness" (warning: contains lycra)

"Jack vs Tom"

Resolutions - 6 Months In

Ok, so at the start of the year I set myself some challenges to try and improve my riding. Six months later here's a recap of how I've been getting on with them.

Learn to tabletop properly. Well, I'm about halfway there. I turn the bars the right way now which is a start. Now I've just got to work on getting the bike 'flatter'. I'll keep working on it.

Get faster. Yep. Don't want to sound bigheaded but I've managed this one. Taken a few crashes and had a few hairy moments but I've got my speed up.

Get fitter. It wouldn't have taken much to be fitter than I was on New Years Day. Gym sessions at uni, a few road rides at home and a few trips to the swimming pool have helped loads with my stamina.

Better bike maintenance. Well, my Kona is running better now than it has been for ages. In contrast my GT Moto is pretty ruined. As soon as I've got some money I'll start replacing the broken bits...

Find somewhere new to visit. Holiday to Winterberg is in a few weeks now. Had a great time riding in the peaks with IMB and have got a few more trips planned. Pretty sweet.

So there you go. Six months left to improve my tabletops and fix my Moto!

IMB Issue 5 Out Now

Issue five of IMBikemag has just gone live. It was a really fun issue to be involved with. I got to put my time in Morzine last year to use, spend a weekend riding in the Peak District and interview the owner of Solid Bikes. Check out the latest issue here, or follow the links below to my work:

"Peak District Punishment"

"Morzine Madness"

"Solid Bikes"

Foxy

A big thanks goes to Fox for sending over some kit for the trail guide at Laggan Wolftrax. I got soaked and covered in mud but it's somehow come out the washing machine looking clean and fresh.

Also check out the 'V3R' carbon helmet and 'The Main' goggles below. Look out for the reviews in a future issue of IMB.

IMB Issue 4 Out Now

Here's why I haven't updated the blog for ages. IMBikemag issue 4 is out now. Check it out and enjoy. Click here to view the whole issue or follow the links below to see my work:

"End of an era"

"Oli Beckingsale"

"Pedals"

"Go your own way"

Snow Joke

For the first time I can remember it properly snowed in the UK. I couldn't even get out the village let alone get anywhere to ride so just sat around doing nothing for two weeks.

Eventually it cleared up and I was able to get to Woburn and Aston Hill to do a bit of 'work' for IMBike mag. Check out issue four when it comes out for the article, pics and a vid. Big thanks to James for coming along and helping out.

New Tyres, Bearings and Spring!

I'd been wanting some new tyres for months so with the massive sale on at Chain Reaction Cycles it would've been pretty dumb not to get some. Everyone raves about High Rollers and after trying some over the summer it was easy to see why.

For Christmas Pete got me some Pedros tyre levers and they make getting tyres on and off rims ridiculously easy. I'd seriously recommend them to anyone who's fed up off snapping flimsy plastic levers.

After buying the tyres I had enough Christmas money left to get the bearings in my rear wheel replaced. Broadribbs in Bicester had the old ones out and new ones in before lunchtime.

And finally the spring is the one that originally came on my bike. As one of my neighbors pointed out I've "filled out a bit" and the lighter spring I fitted a few years ago just doesn't feel right anymore so I've gone back to the 600lbs spring.

Chicksands is hardly the best place to test new kit but my bike rode so much better. I really wish I sorted everything out earlier.

New Year Resolutions 2010

My hangover is just starting to clear up so before the tiredness sets in it's time to do some blogging.

Last year I made my first ever new year resolution so following on from the success of that this year I’ve pushed the boat out and made five! In no particular order here they are:

Learn to tabletop properly. For some reason when I switched to single crown forks I started turning my bars to the left when doing tabletops. It doesn’t look awful; just a bit awkward. It’s something I should have sorted out a while ago so this year I’m going to nail it.

Get faster. The only way to do this is going to be by riding more and practising key skills. Manning up a bit is probably gonna help too.

Get fitter. Getting faster’s all well and good for DH but I’m starting to enjoy XC rides as well. I’m just being held back by my stamina. One day I might even be able to pedal up the hills instead of just pushing.

Better bike maintenance. A bit of a boring one but I could d with looking after my bike a bit more. Starting with cleaning it more often and sorting things out before they become a real problem.

Find somewhere new to visit. Morzine is an amazing place to ride and there are still loads of tracks that I haven’t ridden or even found. But I’ve been going there for three years in a row now and it’s time to find somewhere new. Right now I’m thinking Germany but if anyone wants to fly me Whistler then be my guest.