Date: 5th April 2009
Riders: Richard, Lee and Rob but not Cas
Lomac, Box Hill, Norbury Park, Headley Heath and Stane Street
Weather: 14°C

We really have been lucky with the weather recently; even a small smattering of rain yesterday morning was burned off by the 20°C sunshine in the afternoon and the trails are firm and dry as we set out from LOMAC minus Cas who hasn't made it after a birthday celebration last night (although I was still up at 3-30 am this morning picking Sam up from a club in Kingston after his 18th celebrations; hero!)

We head up to Norbury Park and Rob is lagging behind and looking distinctly sorry for himself. After a few more miles he decides that he has picked up a bug from his baby daughter and after a few dry retches he decides to turn for home.

Lee and I crack on and head up the flinty trail from the bottom of Zig-Zag Road to the cafe at the top. More hero points for me here as I manage to clean this long drawn out climb in the middle ring; completely unthinkable a few months back.

Back to Headley Heath we get ourselves slightly lost following a fantastic descent but I manage to figure out the way back and we hit the Secret Singletrack which we loop round and ride a second time for good measure before cutting across to Stane Street and a final blast down Alsatian, back up to the dirt jumps, across the M25 and home.

Only 20 miles covered today although I can add 10 miles on for riding to and from the start point sets me up nicely for the forthcoming week's commute.

 

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MTB in Canada

external bearing replacement

Goodridge hose replacement

dialled bikes rough ride

7 Stanes riding in Scotland

Single speeding
Swinley
Buy some night lights
South Downs MBR killer loop
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Chainsuck
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kit reviews

---

I have realised over the last few weeks that fitness is not just a physical state it is also a state of mind. Eh! Rich I hear you say, what do you mean by that?

Well for the last five years or so since I last commuted to work by bike I have ridden once a week. If I missed a weekend I was gutted because I struggled the following week.

Since last March I have managed to sneak in one or sometimes two mid-week sessions on the turbo trainer and have already discussed the benefits of this.

However, since I re-started my commute to Canary Wharf my fitness expectations have increased in line with my mileage. On Easter Saturday afternoon I found myself worrying that because I had not gone ahead with the ride I had planned for that morning I was starting to lose my fitness.

But my next thought was "Now hang on a minute old fella, get a grip here". It was Saturday and I had covered 20 miles on Thursday evening which was less than two days ago! And this is not the first time I have had thoughts like this.

That's why I say that fitness is a state of mind. Despite being three or four times fitter than this time last year I am now worrying that I am spending too much time off the bike.

Back to this week and Cas and I popped out for our usual road loop that takes in Epsom Downs, Headley Heath, Juniper Bottom, Box Hill where we undertook the Box Hill challenge (a slightly disappointing 9 minutes and 3 seconds for me but hey, you never want your first time to be too difficult to beat do ya?).

After a brief pause we headed up towards the Smith & Western where I spotted Gazza on his small Giant road bike heading the other way out for a training ride. It didn't take much to persuade him to join us heading back the way he had come.

Then down Pebble Hill hitting 41mph, along Reigate Road into Reigate and then across to Merstham and then the climb up Park Lane into the back of Banstead High Street and then it's all downhill home from there. A nice little 35 miler that kept the legs going.

I also managed to video my morning commute into the City of London using my bodgetastic camera mount on the stem and it's here for your viewing pleasure.

Fitness, it's a state of mind!

Check out the latest videos we have uploaded

 

READ MORE:
watch my mtb videos
Tip of the week

MTB in Canada

external bearing replacement

Goodridge hose replacement

dialled bikes rough ride

7 Stanes riding in Scotland

Single speeding
Swinley
Buy some night lights
South Downs MBR killer loop
Buy an MTB DVD
Chainsuck
Buy some night lights
Buy an MTB DVD
kit reviews

---

Date: 19th April 2009
Riders: Richard, Mark, Rob, Felix, Davebus, Dave, Warren, Lee, Neil, Nick and Keith
Swinley Forest
Weather: 19°C

Mountain biking can be really frustrating sometimes. We had decided to ride at Swinley on Sunday morning and on Saturday afternoon I decided I would try to shed some more weight off the Specialized SX (38lbs a few weeks ago reduced to 36lbs by a tyre change and replacement of the downhill tubes I had in there) by swapping out the rear wheel from the bullet proof but heavy Mavix EX717 to the lighter Mavic FR519 that is usually on the back of my titanium XC frame.

This was because I find Swinley quite tough on a hardtail, I always wish I had a bit of bounce in the rear to smooth out some of the trails.

So I started to swap the wheel over and soon realised that I didn't have a Torq screwdriver to remove the Torq bolts retaining the 200mm disc. After a quick call to Huey my usual source of all things tool and realising that he was on a jaunt to Afan and couln't help I eventually found a neighbour that had a few different sizes including one that matched. Sounds straightforward but that took over an hour to source and change.

I also decided to swap out the rear tyre at the same time and removed a lightweight tyre from the front of the dialled bikes frame that has been sitting unbtouched in the garage pumped up and ready to ride.

I fit the inner tube and tyre, pump it up and go off to do something else only to come back half an hour later to find it flat. Now how did that happen? It had been pumped up and ridden on the other frame for over a month.

I found a small flat and repaired it but couldn't find anything in the tyre so I left it overnight. I had also replaced the middle ring on the SX which was made more difficult as I couldn't undo the Race Face X-type cranks and bottom bracket so had to take the bolts out of the bashring, middle ring and inner ring in situ and then manoevure them over the crank spider without removing the crank arm from the bike. It was like trying to complete one of those metal puzzles that you find in a Christmas cracker.

Sure enough come Sunday moring and an early pick up at 8 a.m. sees me in the garage at 7-45 to find another flat in the same tyre. I eventually found a small thorn embedded in the tyre and removed it but it had all been enormously frustrating.

Back to Swinley and Mark picked me and the now 35lb SX up for the trip to Swinley where we found a great turnout of eleven riders in the car park all raring to go.

Warren is a Swinley local and lead us on a great route of almost 18 miles of singletrack that took just over 3 hours allowing for the usual mechanicals. There were so many new trails that I haven't seen before as I don't know my way around well enough and tend to ride the same trails whenever I normally go. The newest trail, The Stickler Run is a great piece of work from Berks on Bikes and the warm, dry weather made all the trails a joy to ride.

Highlight of the ride was Keith's lovely looking Cotic Soda, a titanium framed, Fox Float steered ride adorned with Thompson stem and seat post and XT elsewhere, shod with Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1 tyres, a very nice looking bike and Keith seems really pleased with it.

Even though I had spent time lightening the SX and am now 'commuter fit' my legs still felt like they had been ripped off at the end of those 18 miles after lugging the SX around the trail and I resorted to pushing up the last few small rises but it didn't spoil the day, just meant I knew when it was time to head back for the car park.

I shot a load of video clips and have edited them into a short film; Swinley Forest.

Another in the ever growing series of "why weren't you there with us?" rides today.

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