London Calling

timothius

Just finished fiddling with the bike so I think I can make it tomorrow. (Unfortunately, if it is wet my front disc will scream until it dries out - I've been trying everything to fix it!)

I'll be the guy in the black ford Ka looking uneasy.

Richard2118

timothius wrote:

Just finished fiddling with the bike so I think I can make it tomorrow. (Unfortunately, if it is wet my front disc will scream until it dries out - I've been trying everything to fix it!)

I'll be the guy in the black ford Ka looking uneasy.

Have you met some of the guys before ??? Cooldad makes me uneasy

Andy Dobson

timothius wrote:

Just finished fiddling with the bike so I think I can make it tomorrow. (Unfortunately, if it is wet my front disc will scream until it dries out - I've been trying everything to fix it!)

I'll be the guy in the black ford Ka looking uneasy.

Check the caliper alignment along the radius of the disc as well, not just perpendicular to the disc line.

I had the same problem with a larger disc on my Rockhopper. Turned out to be a badly aligned caliper due to a cheap postmount adapter.

thel33ter

Stan Leigh wrote:

Woo Hooh ! It's all change again - I'm out to play tomorrow - yeah baby !

The133ter , we're talking Swinley or Surrey Hills Monday ?

I don't mind, both are similar distances, French Artistio was planning Swinley, so lets stick with that, I haven't been there for ages anyway.

popstar

Enjoy while its there and free, not for long I think ... Life Cycles

French_Aristo

Stan Leigh wrote:

Woo Hooh ! It's all change again - I'm out to play tomorrow - yeah baby !

The133ter , we're talking Swinley or Surrey Hills Monday ?

I am talking Surrey Hills as I am looking for a guide to the nice trails & it's on my way to Uckfield where I have to be before 1600 for a client site visit

@thel33ter & @ Cooldad: Are you guys still on for Monday morning?

popstar

FA ... I could join you this Monday. Either Surrey hills or Swinley. Got to finish ride early enough as 14.30 have Dentist appointment.

thel33ter

Fantastic ride today, MTFUed on drops, and now 3-4 footers are seeming not too bad. Timothius and Stan had some great crashes, but Plasirs mate (Buzz?) takes the win, with his over the bars/flip thing, finished off by catching the bike one handed as it flew through the air.
We also saw that guy with the Rasta style Enduro and 3ft long dreads 8)



Stan and I planned to do Swinley tomorrow at 10 till 1ish, meeting at the top of Deerstalker/Babymaker/The Labyrinth.

Thursday if anyone is around to do Surrey Hills, and maybe head towards Leith for a change.

@Popstar - Cheers for the link, Downloading now

French_Aristo

popstar wrote:

FA ... I could join you this Monday. Either Surrey hills or Swinley. Got to finish ride early enough as 14.30 have Dentist appointment.

Seems that we have people riding Swinley now so why don't we join them
If you want to start early, we could put some miles in before 10am and join thel33ter & stan on top of the Deer Stalker @ 10am
So what about 08:45 starting @ 09:00 from the lookout car park (Go Ape gate)
I will be the one trying to get her Dalmatian bitch to behave herself

popstar

FA if M25 traffic doesn't hit me will be there ontime. I take it meet the rider with a dog?

I can't believe Plaisir took Buzz to the trails, was itching to see the man. Thel33ter seems you lot started to ride Rad stuff? How and where did people managed to crash? I bet I need to start practising and MTFU.

Anyone heard how Bungalistic doing? Naveed should join us soon with a new SC Tallboy, I tell you -Hate all those car park poncers!

French_Aristo

popstar wrote:

FA if M25 traffic doesn't hit me will be there ontime. I take it meet the creature with a dog?

No problems. I will PM you my number
Call/txt me if you run into traffic trouble or just call me when you get off the M3. If I leave home then I will still beat you to the car park 8)

thel33ter

popstar wrote:

FA if M25 traffic doesn't hit me will be there ontime. I take it meet the creature with a dog?

I can't believe Plaisir took Buzz to the trails, was itching to see the man. Thel33ter seems you lot started to ride Rad stuff? How and where did people managed to crash? I bet I need to start practising and MTFU.

Anyone heard how Bungalistic doing? Naveed should join us soon with a new SC Tallboy, I tell you -Hate all those car park poncers!

A bit, mainly cause Buzz made it look simple, till he went home anyway, the other one just looked easy.

Timotheus crashed on one of the big drops I did, cause it had an iffy landing, if he had been on a full sus he would have been fine, and both him and Stan were flying all over the place on the 3 slippery trails off from Winterfold.

popstar

Looks as if riding FS is the future. I am a bit angry, why didnt you show me all those Rad trails? Glad to hear there competitive riders joining group, bet Cooldad is uneasy too.

Anonymous

These are wedgie-ish style trails. Easier but still very muddy at the moment which makes them all the more fun.

We of course did wedgie again (and me still walking most of it . Once it's dry I may have more confidence).

thel33ter

Didn't get round to it, they are on the opposite side of Winterfold, and one of drops was on a trail 5 metres long, between two fire roads. I rode Wedgie in one go this time too

denzzz28

I had a great time today guys. thanks a lot for waiting for us (most of the time! lol!). a little bit more practice and we should be able to keep up , I have a very funny video of the mate crashing at Barrys but he said he will kill me if it goes on youtube. LOL!

Andy! hope your finger is alright now, it looks like a nasty one.

timothius

Was great fun today. Thanks for the ride and showing me the trails. Woah, wasn't the ground slippery! That resulted in Stan and I having some rather amusing low speed falls. Still, the ground was rather comfy.

I really enjoyed the jumps at the end (especially that final big one). Nothing like going all out as a learning exercise! I can't believe I didn't stack it - I think I got lucky. Even so, I may avoid that rather scary drop in the future as that crash was a bit unfortunate, especially as everything is aching now! Need to figure out how to stop myself bounding off the pedals!

Dess's(?) skills were really impressive - managed to nail that drop twice..and all the jumps!

Looking forward to riding with you all again. Thanks for putting up with my lack of downhill steering skills and screaming brakes. I think I learned quite a bit. (Especially not to jam on the front brake when things go wrong - letting it roll can sometimes prevent crashes!)

popstar

You people had such an awesome ride yet I no see photos or videos? Popstar isn't happy. I wish I was there.

thel33ter

popstar wrote:

You people had such an awesome ride yet I no see photos or videos? Popstar isn't happy. I wish I was there.

It's cause we were actually riding for bits of it, not standing around like usual

Nice mixture of 1st and 3rd person in one phrase there too.

denzzz28

popstar wrote:

You people had such an awesome ride yet I no see photos or videos? Popstar isn't happy. I wish I was there.

i have some videos taken but they are all crap! its just a small hd cam that i improvised and attached on my rucksack strap and i didnt realized the once i start riding the cam faces downwards. so all i can see is my handle bar, shocks, front wheels and the ground .

next time ill save up for a proper headcam.

Atz

So where'd you go? I managed to sort out both bikes after I got back from the airport so next weekend is all set

Andy Dobson

denzzz28 wrote:

Andy! hope your finger is alright now, it looks like a nasty one.

Thanks for asking Den. When I got back to the van and took my glove off, the thumb was full of blood so probably best I bailed when I did (though I feel like a total wimp for doing so). Had to put a new dressing on it in the carpark before driving home as the old one had stuck to the inside of the glove.

Now it's throbbing like hell as I poured hot water over it sorting out a bedtime drink for my daughter :roll: .

Andy.

cooldad

Just meandered around Pitch and Winterfold, a run down Barry's, lunch in Peaslake, then back to Winterfold I think, pretty shagged by then.

@dennzzzzzzzzz28 - sorry about that we thought you guys had gone home, only when you appeared in Peaslake we realized you hadn't.

cooldad

@ Andy Dobson - not at all, Pain in no fun, and the blood would just have attracted the sharks.

denzzz28

cooldad wrote:

Just meandered around Pitch and Winterfold, a run down Barry's, lunch in Peaslake, then back to Winterfold I think, pretty shagged by then.

@dennzzzzzzzzz28 - sorry about that we thought you guys had gone home, only when you appeared in Peaslake we realized you hadn't.

no worries mate, i told DK not to wait for us because my friend knows some of the other trail so were better off riding on our own so we wont be holding you guys down.

Andy Dobson

Thanks to everyone for the ride today.

Sorry I ended it so early by being a wimp but it turned out for the best (see previous post).

However.....I learned several lessons today.

1; Prep and test ride your newly built pride and joy properly before going out for a long ride (especially when your out with people who are going to have to wait for you when you realise somethings wrong).

2; Don't try and ride hurt just because YOU think your group will think you're a wimp. Better for you and your group if you cry off and sort yourself out first. That way you don't ruin a great day for them or you.

3; Don't think that you can take a month or two away from riding and jump straight back into it with no ill effects. Trust me......WON'T HAPPEN.

4; Stop making excuses for your lack of skill and fitness and ride the thing to YOUR limits. Better that and have your group wait for you than ruin thier day (and your wallet) by over stretching yourself (and therefore the bike) by binning it big style.
That said, if you don't push, you'll never learn. The trick is to learn how far to push with every step.

I managed to forget every one of these lessons today in my haste to get out and ride and for that...I appologise to everyone out together today.

I'll be back out (if you'll have me that is), but probably not until after Xmas now. I need to sort out a new rear shock for the Marin and let my thumb heal, meanwhile spend some time on the rowing machine and the Rockhopper to get what little fitness I had back again.

See Ya soon and thanks again.

Andy.

Stan Leigh

Great day gentlemen , my best outing in SH by far . Didn't know it was possible to have that many wipe outs in one session & still find it hilarious .

Timothisus , glad you enjoyed the day , as you saw , some riders set the bar pretty high on trail skills ..... then others er um like me are at the other end of the scale !

Anonymous

thel33ter wrote:

It's cause we were actually riding for bits of it, not standing around like usual

Though apparently we rode for 2.45 hours, yet we were out from 10.30 until 4pm.

It was still more riding than usual though, especially in a small area as we stuck to Pitch & Winterfold mostly. Completely exhausted when I got home. Still managed to wimp out on all the jumps and drops though. It's the landing in sludge with fear of the bike just flipping over. Then again Stan managed that quite successfully often


@denzzz28 - just need a few more regular rides and those hills are no hassle. Then you'll realise we're not speed demons really. When you ride with proper XC race snakes then you realise just how unfit we all really are (well, I certainly am).

popstar

Woot woot? I hear some cries from rider? Where were people to encourage and brainwash Andy properly? Sounds as if the man didn't have a good help -mentally- wise?

No good.

Andy can you compare yourself to Apprentice ( his first ever riding on MTB) then transforming into This and finally reaping rewards and easily managing to ride Coed Y Brenin's red and black graded trails?

Sounds as if either you need to join boys and team up for skills course, or if you are brave and adventurous enough ride with Popstar.

Go either way, surely you will discover what's the flow all about and start ripping the trails!

Amen.

Atz

I think the SURE way to hurt yourself is to force yourself into stuff you don't want to do. A bit of a push is fine but there's a line between that and ruining yourself. Reminds me, need to book a skills course.