First Class Dismount

No, the bike isn’t upside down for a puncture repair, this was a spectacular dismount. The technique is to hurdle the bars as the bike goes over and then hit the ground running.

Swinley Forest

According to today's Guardian, Swinley Forest near Bracknell is one of the best places to mountain bike in the UK. It features an 'expert mountain bike area' which is also highly rated by MBUK.

See the MBUK article and review here .

I think The CMBC should organise a visit and see if it meets our very exacting standards.

It is 30 miles / 45 mins away, and a £2 permit is required to ride in the forest.

One to discuss, fellas.

http://www.gorrick.com/swinley/index.php

Riding in the Rockies, British Columbia

Due to the harsh topography of the area, the riding here is almost completely a downhill/freeride affair. It is a case of loading the bikes in the back of the truck, driving up some hairy forest roads to the top of the mountains and then riding the downhill trails. Chocked full of steeps, roots, rock slabs, bridges, and airs, the singletrack here is "the epitome of trail riding in the woods". Despite a full face helmet and shin and knee protection, many of the dangerous stuff I left to the locals. Who are all complete lunatics.

The truck - a 27ft, V8 Ford F350:

Here's one of jumps that we all decided to avoid. It drops around 11 feet to the trail.


















More dangerous shenanigans:


















The highlight of the trip was riding a a 12km downhill trail called Oasis in Rossland, which featured over 1,100 vertical metres of vertical drop. 90 minutes of downhill riding. Quite possibly mountain bike heaven.
Check out a video of the trail here. In this instance ridden by competent riders.




And here's a brief, boring snippet of me in action:

West Witterings 20/06/09

Saturday 20/6/09 a group of 8 of us left Coombers at 7am for a spin down to WW this was to be a new route of some 37miles across the beautiful West Susses countryside and it did not disappoint. The ride take you from Coombers in Haslemere out through Marley Common down towards Elmers Marsh out towards Stedhamn and Hooksway and then you start to climb up towards the top of the downs from then on in there is some fast down hill and fantastic single track towards Fishbourne when you look at the map make sure you take a detour to the Devils lumps not sure why but everybody seems to. From Fisbourne you can then pick up the Salterns Way which will take you towards Dell Quay with a swift stop at the pub for a post ride refreshment you then pick up the Salterns Way again which take you nearly all the way to WW . Ride time is about 4hrs but allow 5/6hrs with stops etc. The route is saved on Trimble outdoors under West Wittering 20/6/09.

Mike ' GIBBS ' Scott

Uncanny resemblance or what?????

West Wittering Ride Easter Saturday

Set of from Coombers at 7.30am for an intrepid ride to West Wittering. Route took us round Blackdown towards Midhurst over Hewshot hill down to Goodwood then Chichester and finally WW. Just about 35miles in all in 3.35hrs riding but 5hrs in total inc stops. Route was wet but rideable for the most part, being a mountain goat does help for some parts.....this would be even better in the dry. There is a little road work but only in parts. Up for doing this again the girls drove down and meet us at WW with a BBQ which went down very well.

I have attached a couple of pics that Andy took.

Next Gorrick 19th April 2009 let me know if you are up for it.

Now have a just giving web page www.justgiving.com/nickdaniels1. We can use this as a team one if we want no big deal to me and we can change the name to CMBC. Let me know what you think.

Saturday feel like a long one as have not been out for what seems like ages........

At last....

I am finally Blogging!!

Gorrick Ride Report

Nick, Anthony, Angus and Rob, left Haslemere for Crowthorne Woods on a glorious morning to tackle the first of the CMBC Gorrick outings. Along with 80plus other fun riders we waited at the start gate with anticipation for the 12.15pm off. The course was a tricky 5 miles with a number of technical sections some lovely flowing single trax a couple of climbs and the 'corkscrew' which I am pleased to say we all concurred . Our training over the last year has paid dividends as Nick knocked over 30mins of his last effort in 2007 where he was beaten by a 12 year old girl.....in fact we were all around the hour mark, Nick lead the charge with Ants just behind in under 1hr and Rob and Gus just over the hour. Check out the Gorrick site for the results and pics.
The next one is 29th March Porridgepot hill lets see if we can a few more of us out.