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.

Last ride of the year

So much has changed at Woburn that I barely recognised it. Even with the cold weather and puddles it was a great days riding. But seriously who wrecked the hip jump?

Fixed!!! Well, it's rideable

The brakes have no power and the rear wheel bearings have just gone but it works. Just about. If the rain finally stops then I'm going riding tomorrow.

Snow ride

I'm back home in the 'shire and there's still a bit of 'snow' kicking about so I put some thermals on and went out for a little ride. It was so fun. Everyone should try it.

Christmas came early

A trip home at the weekend meant a trip to my local bike shop to pick up some new parts for my Stinky. I think I've got everything to get it going again; there's a mech hanger, a new mech, a new chain, new brake pads, a new skewer and new bearings.

There's also some new gloves but they're not going to help get my bike built. I've probably forgotton a load of parts but right now I think that's everything.

Interview ideas

How do you come up with interview questions when you have the attention span of a six year old? Well, first you put on a riding DVD, grab a pen and notepad and scribble down whatever comes to mind.

When the film's finished, type them up on your mac and get it printed off. Then cut them out and re-arrange them into an order that makes sense. Finally send them to your editor and hope to God that he likes them.

Crackers

This is barely news. And it's not even about mountain bikes. I just wanted to show off what I got in my Christmas cracker last night. Enjoy!

Cannock Chase with IMBike Mag

I was like the kids from the Disney Land advert last night. I think Rou had already woken up and set off before I'd managed to nod off. Rou had invited me to join him on a ride so I had to get my bike clean and fixed sharpish.

Cannock Chase is an amazing place to ride with something for everything. Check out the next issue of IMBike mag for the full write up and pictures of riding rather than my bike in the living room.

Learn with Laurence

Two years ago one of my mates announced that he couldn't ride a bike and never wanted to learn.  Over the summer he changed his mind and I've been helping him to learn. By helping I mean I've lent him a bike and laugh at him when he falls off. 

Laurence set up a blog about learning to ride which you can find by clicking here. By Christmas he wants to be able to take part in a charity ride so if anyone knows of any taking place in Stoke on Trent please let me know. 

Also if you're after movie reviews click here, and to read about someone giving up beer and fast food click here.

Twitter?

I'm still not sure about twitter, but it could be useful for doing really small posts on here. Anyway, I've set one up and there's a feed to it on here now. It might stay. It might not.