Muddy

Trying to get a few miles in, but it's hard work with all the mud. Some nice slippery descents out there though, which always livens things up.

Happy first birthday...

... to the Bike Shed's new premises. And thank you very much for the mixed grill.

Just riding along

I was, honestly. Not sure it will polish out this time - you can get spares for X0 mechs but this one has snapped the pivot bolt between the cage and the body. I nearly had a seizure when I saw the price of a new one.

Coast to coast and over the bars.

Si is riding the Welsh c2c on the road on March 11th - 211 miles and 13,500 feet of climbing. He's raising money for the Kidney Wales Foundation, and you can sponsor him here. Haven't ridden for the last week and a half after a late night crash on the way home after a night ride (and a few pints) has left me with a trapped nerve in my neck, which is taking it's time to get better. A very luckily escape for me though, I went over the bars at 20mph plus and escaped without a scratch or any holes in my clothes, apart from the aforementioned trapped nerve. Managed to mangle both rims on the Santa Cruz, but apart from that it seems ok... no more racing down that hill for a while for me, I think. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few miles in over the next few weeks as the Wentwood 50 is looming on the horizon and I don't want to miss it.

Dyfi 2011

We're in for the Dyfi Enduro, one of my favourite events of the year. A 35 mile or so (a bit longer if you count the ride back to the campsite) loop around the Dyfi forest north of Machynlleth, with some proper testing descents (there's nearly always a few people stretchered away) and 6000 odd feet of climbing.



I've done this one with Timbo four times now, and it's where we pioneered our revolutionary tapas and wine race food strategy. At the other end of the field there's normally somebody we know doing Very Well - Voley has had a couple of thirds, and Si and Rich have achieved a fourth and two sixths respectively on rigid singlespeeds. This year we will be having a few new Team Tapas members joining us at the back in the form of Hippy, Matt and Col. Team rules dictate that new riders carry the wine, so that's that one sorted then. Nice vid below of Stu riding the world cup descent at some speed:

Don't believe a word...

I've got a theory that the more bikes you have, the less chance you have of any one of them being in a rideable condition. So after the Puffer carnage (and a late night over the bars episode on the way back from the pub in the week) I was left with no working bikes. So I designated today a maintenance day - two wheels retensioned and trued, cogs refitted, brakes re-attached, tyres swapped and chains oiled. Then while I was making tea, the news came over the radio that Gary Moore had died at the age of just 58... even more poignant after watching a documentary about Peter Green a couple of days previously (Green gave Gary Moore the Les Paul that he used for most of his career).

Puffer '11

Bit late this one... the Puffer was awesome, despite precious little riding by me due to a chest infection rendering me unable to even walk up hills without getting out of breath. Too much happened to go into detail, but to summarise, miles of icy fireroad, lots of mud and bugger all daylight. Team Tapas were obviously excellent with a fine cheese board and a choice of wines. In the Proper Racers categories, our associates did very well; Mike first solo, Luke third solo, and Matt and Ricky first mixed pairs, snow globes all round.


Luke Morris (Picture by Simon Smith -click on the pic for rest of Si's fab pics)

In contrast, Rowan Sorrell has been riding some of our local trails, which are in awesome condition at the moment...

Rowan Sorrell - Urge Cabo Verde - Episode 2 – Normal Service is Resumed from Mojo Suspension on Vimeo.