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Date:
8th October 2006 After servicing the Hope XC4 rear brake on Sam's Prince Albert (bleeding fluid plus new pads), Sam and I head over to Esher Shore to ride the planks once more. Sam's usual riding mates are there and we all get straight into the shore, polishing up our skills from the first visit. After re-riding everything I did last time I decided it was time to push on and tackled the large see-saw. I managed to 'own' this although I haven't conquered the whole of that trail as I still need to do the gap jump onto the table top and off the other side. Not content with this I also gave the smallest of the gap jumps a go and again, managed to town this too (once you ride it 3 times successfully it's time to move onto the next thing). Another good afternoon's riding with a couple of demon's conquered and looking forward to the next visit.
READ MORE: Single
speeding
Date:
15th October 2006 The weather's warm and dry and so are the trails as we tackle the usual suspects before finishing with lunch at the Peaslake Stores with about 50 other riders who alls eemed to have the same idea. Some good riding and nice to be back after too many weeks of not riding in this area. My legs hurt as I dragged the SX trail up the climbs - too much messing around on the Esher Shore!
READ MORE: Single
speeding Date:
21st October 2006 This week we are joined by Andy, long-time forum dweller who we have somehow managed to avoid riding with for about a year (not on purpose). The weather is looking dark and grey as we set off from Dead Man's bench for the Big 8, one of our staple xc rides making it difficult to get a decent photo (too much mist on the lens) but it slowly improves and we finish the ride in bright sunshine. A break for a cup of tea and refreshment at Reigate Hill before avoiding the low flying golf balls on the way home and back home in time for a shower and lunch.
Later on this week I also took delivery of the first of the domtb t-shirts. Well, I think it's nice!
READ MORE: Single
speeding Date: 27th October 2006 And so it's half term and I decided to take a couple of days off work to be with the kids. So after a few hours we were bored of each other so I resorted to riding my bike. Stayed on the road but was embarrassingly unfit last week so decided I needed a few extra miles under my belt. A lovely day it was too - I even stopped off to watch the ducks at Walton-on-the-hill...
When I got back I received a delivery of the majority of a new drivetrain from those lovely people at chainreactioncycles and built up the titanium frame that has been sitting unloved in the back of my garage since I last rode it some months ago.
After a good clean I fitted a new Brand-X inline seatpost to replace the layback post I had been riding. The old post had bent but I really wanted to replace it with an inline post to shorten the top tube which currently gives a stretched out, roadie type position. The new post also has two bolts to secure the post and adjust the angle. I found that the single bolt post wouldn't secure the seat properly and would allow the saddle to rear up to a strange angle.
A new chain, rear mech and cassette complete the set-up. The current chainrings are quite recent and don't need replacing so I stuck with these and I have also gone with a 34T rear cassette. Never ridden one of these before with 32T always having been the maximum. Will be interesting to see if it makes a noticeable difference.
Well it all looks a lot nicer now and so I took Ben out for a test ride round Nonsuch Park and surrounding area. Gears all work smoothly and no slippage or scuffage (Huey joke).
READ MORE: Single
speeding Date:
29th October 2006 Another ride round the Big 8 but this week I feel much fitter. Is it the fact that I am back on the revamped lightweight titanium frame (versus the SX trail last week) or is it the training ride on Friday? Either way, we set a very fast pace and keep it up for most of the ride. We only slow for Cas to dust himself down, after dusting himself up by endo'ing over his new riser bars whilst attempting a gnarly free-ride kerb huck and messing it up totally in front of about a dozen car's on the short road section on Reigate Hill. Rob has a mechanical when one of his disc rotors starts to rub against the caliper. Closer inspection shows that one of the bolts has worked loose and also made a nasty groove on the inside of his brand-spanking new Magura Odur forks. This is on top of the excess of oil that was seeping out last week. A phone call to the suppliers confirms that they 'over-fill' the fork with oil from new. I dunno - seems like a strange arrangement to me. So back to the ride and the trails are damp in places but lovely and fast even though the mild autumn weather has bought the world and his wife out on to the trails. Dog-walkers, horseriders, hikers, other mtb'ers, runners and even some screaming girls (well, they screamed when first me and then Cas flew through a large puddle near to them). Rob then showed us an additional trail to finish the ride and we headed back to my house for a cuppa and a bike cleaning session.
READ MORE: Single
speeding |
February
2008
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