Mountain Mayhem 09

The year has gone very quickly, it feels like only 3 or 4 months ago i was posting about Mountain Mayhem 08 , however next month Mountain Mayhem 09 rolls into Eastnor Deer park which is close to home, the Malvern Hills.

This Year MM is on from the 19th to the 21st of June. Sadly Giant is no longer the sponsors , therefore making the possibility of trying a new Giant Anthem out is very low. However there will still be other Mountain Bikes to try that people with mine and Uncle Wozzers budgets can only dream of owning.

There website is :http://www.osmountainmayhem.co.uk/index.html

Let me know if people are interested in going, might be able to arrange a group visit.

Benni

 

The Lost Art

Before I explain what art form I have re discovered today I will first give a quick overview of my day (relevant things only- not the most interesting post otherwise).

To start with ive had a cold recently , as many people i know have, and was to that extent struggling by the time i got to the top of my main climb this morning on the way to colledge. At this point I decided to raise the saddle a bit as i dont rid the apollo except when im going to colledge and this morning it felt a bit low. I must admit that it was user error, and the begining of my bad day, when i overtightened the seat post clamp -  thus snapping the bolt in half. Ive never liked the seat post clamp on the apollo as every thursday morning i have to raise the saddle , then every Friday morning lower it back down. This is because when im not riding it to colledge on thursdays smatt rides it too school, this would be fine except it takes a  while for me to get the high right on thursdays , and its not quick release which means i have to rummage throught my bag for the allen key adjust it, put the bags back on, then cycle on only to stop around the corner and adjust it again.

I decided while cycling back home down the hill ( it was much closer to home than colledge) that i would go to that Bicycle heaven , Halfords, after colledge as its just around the corner and would preferably get a quick release clamp.

I set off for colledge again this time on theGiant yukon, which i try not to ride to colledge. The ride to colledge on the yukon was uneventful, but actually quite fun.

After colledge some of my colleges didnt believe me that my airzound was LOUD (125DB -  more than a car)  so i let them have a go . Then set off for Halfords, however the route i chose made a rod for my back in two senses. The first senses was obvious at the time, the path was (and always has been) overgrown , and at the best challenging to ride on. The second was that after having been to halfords and descovering that they didnt have any sort of seat post clamp that was big enought i found half way home that i had a VERY flat tyre.

 

THUS THE LOST ART WAS DESCOVERED. This art form has not been lost. An self respectingly good Mountain Biker, or even cyclist, should  have the right tools  and knowledge to fix a puncture. The reason why i called it a lost art is because i dont believe that many people know how to, or atleast arnt confident or prepared enought, to do a Puncture repair on the side of a major road in a town.

This is what i had to do today. It wasnt much of a fuss for me, makes no diffrence if its a garage, roadside or hillside, however the looks I got from the passing general public were that of shock. They odviously were schocked to see a teenage boy with a mountain bike upside down on the pavement with the back tyre in his hands . I fixed the two punctures that i found, both about 10mm long -  probably from the thorns down the path to halfords. However the innertube has had a lot of punctures, and a lot of patches, so didnt like even more and decided to bulge in one spot, this i couldnt solve so gave in and managed to get a lift.

The final part of my slight rant, the most ranty part, is my slight shock at how many people walked, drove and even cycled past without even asked if i was alright, yet alone offering help. But hey, theyd probably never seen a roadside puncture repair beore , lol.

Benni

I have to say I agree

Before MyCycles closed down i visited a couple of times. Once was for some more patches, we were in the Link and i thought i’d have a look at least. Talking to the guy, he revealed that he coudl mend punctures in mere seconds now, so many people brought bike in with a flat tyre. Without the kit, skill, ‘time’ or all three, they preferred to let a shop do it.

Frankly, as Benni and I both know well, punctures can happen anywhere with anything. I’ve mended many a Red Riders puncture on the hills, the side of a road, in the forest, in the rain. To me it’s a basic skill if riding a bike. Like changing the trye on you car if that goes flat, it’s something eveyone should know. I leared from Dad, who learnt from Grandad, and so on. As i’ve said already, it seems such a basic skill. Half the problem is the lack of kit. The Red Riders always have tools with them when riding. We know it’s only a few miles back to cilivisation, rescue is a breif walk, phone call and ride in a car. Even so, we still carry enoguh basic kit to keep our bikes going out in the wild. Personally, a puncture is a less-than-five-minute job. Wheel out, tyre half off, bit of pressure in the tube, find the leak (takes the longest time), patch, let glue dry, tube in, tyre on, pump up (can also take a while depending on the size of the pump) wheel in and go. Simple.

It’s also typical no-one will stop to help a fellow human being (yes, cyclists are humans too). The worst is people staring, yes my bike is on its bars, yes the wheel is in my hand rather than the frome, so what? I’m obviously fixing it, sod off or offer a hand. Still, bike mechanincs need a job i suppose, besides the buliding, adjusting, replacing, overhauling, servicing and selling. Ah well, it’s been good to join a fellow Rider in a rant.

untill the next rant,

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Red Christmas Ride

It was cold, but we rode

Last year three of us hit the hills on the afternoon of the 21st of Dec. And it was misty and frozen at the top of the Beacon. This year two of us pedalled our way up the Beacon, it was on the 28th Dec, and it wasn’t as misty, but it was frozen!

We met in the usual place, at 10:30, and took some time to admire Bnnis new lights (very nice i must say). Then we hit the trail, we started the Wyche, then suddenly did a U-turn, raced back down for a few hundred yards, then took a left onto a path. Our speed catapulted us up the firt, steep rocky slope. We followed this path along to St Annes, I collected some water while we were there, then hacked up to the Knoll. We headed across Happy Valley and onto North Hill. We rattled along the lower north Hill route. Then took a left onto the zig-zags. We crawled our way up and round, Benni failed on some of the corners, which meant I failed because he was in front at this point. Anyway, we got to the top in decent time. We then raced along the higher north Hill route back toward the Beacon. We stopped for a breather next to the Dias before selecting a low gear and slogged our way up the Beacon using our usual path, we both made it over the Rock Patch without any troubles, and got to the summit.

Up here, in the freezng wind and possible could, it was bloody freeeeezing! Even thick skinned Wozzer had to give in and put his coat on! The wind howling over the ridge meant our light bikes were blown majorly to the right (facing the Toposcope) and I ended up riding leaning at a weird angle inot the wind. After looking briefly at the veiw (inside of cloud) we descended. We dropped down and ’round the back’. on the way we passed a group having some champane. Anoraked, hooded, gloved, scarfed, and drinking champane out of the wind. I said “cheers” as I passed. Originally Benni and i were planning to go down the ‘back route’ but with the amount of wind, numb hands and walkers we decided it’d be better to go down the tarmac path. which we did. we went slowly to avoid walking folk. at one point we hit the ridge quickly to get round a large group. The ridge up to the Beacon is incredably rough, and roucky as heck. Never the less, we bumped our way down, and ‘nut-cracker suite’ was experienced (i.e. when the saddle hits one in the groin).

We bidded each other “Happy New Year” as we rolled through the Wyche Cutting. Benni got out in front of me, and i couldn’t get past him through the corners (he pulls a wide line, so it’s hard to over take and undertaking is out of the question – not enough room) but i got him after the bends, i rocketed past him at 31mph!! From the Wyche Road he drops down Lower Wyche Road and rattles across Peachfeild to get home. I head all the way down the Wyche, join the Wells road, rocket through Belle View terrace, along the Worcester Road, left at Link Top and Home.

I made it 8.7 miles in the end, house to house. It was really fun, and good to get out on the hills with Benni. As always, I can’t see why I don’t go more! Anyway, maybe in the New Year we’ll get our game together again and go cycling more.

Until the next Ride!

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Giant Yukon 2008

Ive been looking at the search Results, search terms that bring people to the site, the most common are “Giant Yukon” or similar.

I therefore thought that id do a quick revue of the 2008 Giant Yukon, as i have had one since February.

It is a great bike, i have been thrashing it about up and down the hills for about 3 and a half months and it has been great fun. It looks great, like a proper mountain bike, with Topeak FX and Topeak RX mud guards.

The only problem ive had with it was that i didnt notice that the bolt holding the crank arm onto the crank on the right side was loose. This caused the crank arm to rotate slightly ruining the squareness of the hole the crank goes into. This was resolved by Back On Track, they replaced the crank arm with a second hand one (second hand due to a tiny scratch). Appart from that the Yukon has been great and will be a great frame to build my perfect mountain bike on over many years.

BENNI

Maybe Uncle wozzer would like to do a revue of the 2007 Giant XTC 4.5

 

29th May 2008 ( a detailed description)

Today Wozzie and I (Benni) went for a cycle. The initial plan decided on last night on MSN was to go along the Ridge, taking pictures from all the summits. This doesnt sound like much, except that we dont usually go over the top, we usually go around the main hills on the ridge.

This was a good plan and sounded fun, if not a bit challenging. However when i woke this morning i knew this plan was scuppered. THE HILLS WERE GONE!!!. No ,they werent stolen by aliens overnight, they were actually still there. However they had been swallowed by a big very white cloudy/wisty thing.

I set off anyway and met Wozzie at the fountain at 9. We decided that rather than scrapping the idea we would do it, just not take pictures, sort of see it as a practice run. We had till 11(ish) to do all the hills along he ridge and get back to malvern, due to work commitements.

So we set off, wizzed up the whyche road only stopping at the stairs onto the ridge.Then we went up the ridge, had a quick break to admire the whiteness of the cloud then set of along the ridge. It was  Unsuprisingly very empty, with us bumping into very few people. However we did bump into some farmers.

We carried along the ridge and got too are first proper accent, which we crawwled up, due to it being rather steep, however it was satisfying to get to the top and see absolutely nothing.However we did bump into two guys walking up, not literally bump into dont worry lol. They were interested to know about how we found cycling on the hills, they were especially interested to hear if we ever got harassed or haranged by other non cyclists on the hills. Anyway we rocketed down the other side, with me go “OWWWWWWWW STINKY BUMMS” (or similar, however maybe not repeatable) as i rocketed towards a big puddle without a front mud guard (That will be posted about soon). Luckily i managed to avoid it, then it was up the next hill.

However Wozzie and i stoppe half way up for a break. I told him about an idea i had to put a Lawn mower engine on top of a Pannier rack to power  a bike, then we came up with the idea of a trike with a steam engine.This made us laugh, as we then thought that we could use it to give  bikers lifts to top of hills or steep roads like Old Whyche or Happy Valley.

We then carried on up the hill. With hindsite we had only got half way, but thought that we were almost at the next summit, however it was actually a false summit and so we plodded on. After we’d reached the sumit we rocketed down a hill thinking that the next accent was quite a way down. However it wasnt it was just out of sight due to the misty stuff.

After that summit came the funnest, biggest and scariest decent. It was almost pure gravel so as we rocketed down we were sliding from side to side. Also there was a bench hidden half way down , unknowebn to Wozzie and me, which both of us almost hit. After this steep decent came almost instantly the accent of the next hill, which was the first and only one that we had to push up. This was due to the fact that the hill was very gravelly, but more importantly almost 45 degrees if not steeper. We then went down the other side and suddenly realised that we were right by Black Morse car park.

We decided it would take too long to go home across Brit camp and Castlemorton common (and would be very muddy). We then noticed a path heading down, and back the way wed come. We decided to go down this as we believed it would lead to a lower path we know which emerges at the top of old whych road. So we headed down and after me shouting at wozzie “MOVE, IM GOING TO RAM U!!” or similar due to poor braking on the gravel, we emerged on a small road, which lead to Hollywell road.

WE continued allong until we got to Hollywell, where we headed up onto a bridle way which after much mud and scratching of heads to remeber past cycles came out at the top of Old Whyche road. We then decided that having done about 6 miles in under an hour we would go home. To this extent we headed down Whyche road, with Wozzie rocketing ahead and me pealing off down the Wiggles, across the common and home.

 

This was great fun, and we plan to do a similar route again soon, inorder to take pictures from the sumit.

Thats all from Benni, and probably his longest write up yet, untill next time

BENNI

 

General stuff…

This is just a post to keep interest going,

Lately, the Red Riders haven’t done a lot. the Easter holidays were a perfect opertunity, and we didn’t seizie it. And so, with term time back underway, we’ll hopefully keep going regularily. Although, we didn’t go this week. Probably because Ben’s Yukon is having pedal problems again, and Adams gone off to a feild somewhere to throw a 250cc grasstrack bike around (he calls it a grasstack meeting).

So, hey, that’s that for the moment! hopefully next week will bring a nice eventful ride to blog about!

untill the next time, this is me signing off; <insert picture here>

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

A loose pedal?? no more

I was cycling up and down the road i live on Friday evening, for exercise as MRR havent been out and about for a week or two. I noticed that as i pedalled the left pedal felt weird. I was worried that i had bent the cranck shaft, as i had been mucking about doing hops and the occasional jump on the common. I continued cycling up and down whilst thinking about what could be wrong. I stopped a couple of times, spun the pedal round by hand and couldnt see anything.

Then after doing about a mile/ mile and a half up and down the road i stopped and knocked the left pedal and it moved. Not backarwds or Forwards but side to side. I had a look at it and realised to my relief that it wasnt a bent crank shaft but a loose pedal.

So, i got out my allen keys, and low and behold they were all miles too small. At this point i was forced to go into diner, and then was out all evening.

Next day brings a 2.6 mile cycle with bag of Carpentry tools to my job at period Joinery and Furniture making, which is half way between 3 Counties and hanley swan, on my old Apollo. After 2 hours painting a Window frame, (which was ok ,even thought i ended up with paint all over my hands and even in my hair,lol) there was 2.6 miles back home, all up hill.

I then decided to phone Back on Track, at about 4.30pm (too late to cycle there before they close).I explained what was wrong and the guy asked, “have u riden it at all”, too which i replied, “not much”. He then went on too say “thats good, as thats when the damage happens”, too which i thought ‘fuew, glad i didnt ride it too work’.

I booked too take my bike there for 3.30 today (monday), and realised that was imposible as i would have to walk it just under 3 miles in 15 minuites. So i called back and they said that they were very busy, but i managed too book it in again at 3.30 on tuesday. This would have been fine as i finish sixth form at 2 on tuesdays.

That evening i went to a friends party and talked to uncle Wozzer (Austin to those who are not regular readers), who said he might have an allen key, and hed bring it in on Monday. This he did.

I used it too undo the bolt, i then took the pedal off and had a look at the hole, there was no damage (lukily) and i then put the pedal back on and did it up. Problem solved.

All i need to do know is phone Back on Track again, this time to cancel for good.

Benmatt912

 

Anticipation over

WHoop whoop. In case you cant guess i really like my new bike, Giant Yukon. Its really good. Its not much longer than my old bike which is good, just taller. It also has many other great points, such as more gears and better brakes. However i am really looking forward to tommorrow, my Actual birthday, coz were going out on the hills which will be Great!!