http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl? http://www.eblah.com en http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1282994474/ http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1282994474/#num1
It was my first time to the Afan area and it was very easy getting there, which does make it a true one night venue for us in the southeast. We parked at the drop off cafe car park and made for the hearty breakfast which we were yearning for. The food did not disappoint, the breakfast was huge and included a mug of tea for £5.

OK so we unloaded the car in the now very heavy rain and decided to start with whites level. I have heard many of you on here talking about the whites level climb and it lived up to your tales. I found it a difficult start but at the same time very rewarding and I must say probably the best and most enjoyable way of gaining height at a trail center that I have been to. The rest of whites level I really enjoyed, nearly all singletrack with some nice northshore/boardwalk to negotiate. Really did seem to flow well with something new around every corner.

The rain was really coming down now and after finishing whites level we decided to go to Afan Lodge where we had booked to stay. I won't go into what was going on at the lodge but basically Orange,Fox and Skyline cycles were doing a photo and video shoot, so part of the lounge area was set a side for their green screen as they to had found the rain too much. The lodge is fantastic The layout the showers and rooms and the staff were all great, there is secure bike storage under the building. The food and beer are also very good and the prices are very competitive as well. There are trail maps on the walls and the owner knows the place like the back of his hand and will advise you on where to go and the best bits for your type of riding. The Afan lodge is going to start doing guided rides next year, because they say there is so much more that just the trail centers, for you gravity assisted riders they will even take you on a DH day out. They also have plans for a skills area and a pump track in the hotel grounds.

So next morning we headed out to do a suggested modification of the Skyline trail. Whites level climb is again the starting point and this time it was really like a river, Steve can testify to this, it was rideable but the water was coming down with such speed it was genuinely like riding up a waterfall, the water must have been 4 inches deep at points on the climb. Despite all the water we again enjoyed the climb. We then followed the diversion in place due to forestry work and rejoined the trail somewhere around the section called fast forward. This was well worth doing as we were pretty much up to our bottom brackets in water at times and this cut out a huge amount of the fire road. Again the section's of single track were fantastic, but I will admit that my confidence had taken a knock again as I went over the bars, coming down a short cut that I think may actually have been a white water rafting run. So I did walk a couple of bits that I really should have ridden so it did spoil it a little bit for me being faced with all the wet rock, but i will go back and ride the whole sections.

We finished our 14mile modified Skyline and went back to the drop off for Lasagne and spicy wedges

To sum up, trails are great, more natural that Coedy. The Afan lodge is fantastic as is the dropoff's food. We should have probably ridden more but with 7cm of rain in 24 hours it really did test our commitment, and after all we wanted to enjoy ourselves ]]> Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:21:14 UphillDownDale http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1281286998/ http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1281286998/#num1
I've not posted for ages because I've had all sorts of things going on, not least of which has been being made redundant !  Anyway, I have been fitting the odd ride in and yesterday I returned from my long planned "3 Stanes" trip.

All in all it was a fantastic break taking in 3 venues and 6 bikes, plus one exceptionally camp hire car.  Here's my impression of the places, kit and people :

Day 1 we flew into Edinburgh leaving Gatwick at 8am.  This meant me getting up at 4.30 to catch a train from Hastings.  Nice.  From the airport we grabbed the keys to our lovely 1.4 Vauxhall Meriva and set off on the 100-ish mile drive to Mabie.  We stayed at Mabie House Hotel which is about 300m from the trail head at Mabie.  For £70 a night we got a massive twin room with one king sized and one double bed ! It could have slept 20, let alone 2, and a lovely cooked breakfast (with spicy haggis !) in the morning.  Sod camping in a country where it's headline news if it stops raining for 2 hours in August and the midges outnumber people by about a billion to one.  They also do "Pods" which are like a cross between a tent and a shed for £35 a night, supposedly they sleep 4 but I wouldn't want to be involved in anything that included 4 grown men being inside one.  They'd be comfy for 2 of you I reckon.

The bike shop at Mabie is literally 2 mins walk from the hotel, they rented my 6ft friend a Commencal Meta 5.5 but all they had in my (6'4") size was a hardtail.  I was slightly disappointed about this but as soon as I got on the Genesis Altitude 10 I had a grin on my face.  I loved it.  I could climb steep, technical bits of trail far easier than I'd ever done before and I could pedal and pedal and pedal and it just went.  I think there were only two points on the trail when I wished I'd had full sus, once over a very loose rock surface and once over a rooty section, both times the back end went a bit awry, but overall I loved riding the Altitude and I might well sell the bikes I have now and buy one.  

The Altitude and the Ghost Stane at Mabie

I had a go on the Meta and didn't like it, my mate who rode it all day found it much too spongey unless it was pointed downhill.  The Phoenix trail was a lot of fun.  A nice technical singletrack climb at the start (similar to parts of the Whites climb but only about 2km) takes you up to some amazing views of the countryside, mountains and coastline.  The one bad thing about the Phoenix was that some of the best bits came too soon.  "Descender Bender" was superb, but when you've done that a lot of the rest of the trail feels like a bit of an anti climax, but not because it's bad, it's just that the best bit comes about 1/3 of the way in.  Overall it's probably on a par (for me) with the likes of the Wall and Whites level.

Mabie views

We got back to the bike shop with about an hour to spare before the bike shop closed and our days bike rental ended, they let us swap the Meta and the Altitude for ridiculous little Commencal jump bikes.  At Mabie there is a 4X track and a "skillz loop" which they tell you not to ride on the rental XC bikes but you can ride on the rental jump bikes.  

Larking about

Mucking around on tiny, rigid bikes was a very unusual experience, didn't help that I managed to get some nasty cramp in my quads pushing up to the top of the 4x track tho.  You could easily spend a few hours mucking about on the 4X and skills area, we didn't venture onto the Kona Dark side north shore area because there's no way in a million years either of us had the skill for that, but it's supposed to be the longest trail of continuous north shore in the UK.  All in all I think Mabie is a cracking little place and a good base for the other Stanes nearby (Ae and Dalbeatie are very close)  It was absolutely deserted too, OK so it was a Thursday, but still, it's August, it's a great trail.  We only saw 4 other riders all day.

Day 2 we headed off to Kirroughtree.  I've been wanting to go to Kirroughtree for ages because every time I pick up an MTB mag these days someone is going on about how amazing it is.  When we went, it was pissing with rain. It just rained and rained and rained all morning.  We got to the bike shop around 10 and they had a couple of Trek fuel EX 5's for us.  I sat on one and didn't really get on with it, the frame was only 18" and I felt it was too small.  They had an Orange 5 which was also an 18" frame but the bike felt completely different, much less cramped so I plumped for that.  We set off through the rain searching for the "perfect flow" which is supposed to be on offer at Kirroughtree and to be honest, I didn't really find it.  

Riding through the rain at Kirroughtree

There are a lot of really lovely sections and it is as good as anything I've ridden in Wales, but I didn't rate it as head and shoulders above anything else I'd ridden.  In Wales you get used to climbing for the first 7 or 8 km, a bit of a traverse and then 7 or 8 km of descending.  Kirroughtree seemed to be more up and down and up and down.  When I saw what seemed to be a descent I dropped the saddle and went for it, but within a minute or two I was stopping to put the saddle back up so I could pedal uphill properly.  I know fitter/stronger/better riders than me would easily ride up and down without buggering about with the saddle, but for me it made it more difficult and if you're expecting something like The Wall or Penhydd where you have a long slog of a climb then just descend, descend, descend, Kirroughtree will throw you slightly cause it just isn't like that.  We rode the "Black Craigs" extension to take in "McMoab" which was, hmmm, photogenic I'll give it that.  

Posing at McMoab (With "teletubby" style helmet cam)

Riding McMoab is more like trials or north shore than XC riding, and (again) I haven't really got the balance & power to clear sections like this.  I can see how it would be an enjoyable challenge for better riders than me though.  We both bottled the "chute".  I can imagine that the more skilled Sketchy riders would find it a breeze and it probably is easier than it looks, if you hit the right line, but drift about 6in to the right and you'll hit a nasty rock lip that will throw you face first into the ground.  Not for me.

On the way back I clipped a rock garden with my pedal and came off the bike, luckily my pad-less elbow managed to break my fall so I just have some nice, deep gouges in my skin and a stiff elbow.  I really enjoyed riding the Orange 5, I'd be very happy with one, but it's probably overkill for my level of riding, I can't tackle half of what it can.  It took me a few km before I got the hang of the fact that if you point the orange at some rocks in a straight line, it just goes over them and eats them up.  Nice bike.

Day 3 was a case of packing everything in the car, paying the hotel bill and heading for Glentress.  Here we had a Lapierre Spicy and Zesty (both 3 series so relatively "entry level" for Lapierres)  Glentress is the best cycling centre I've ever been to.  It's fantastic.  There's something for pretty much every level of skill/fitness.  It's amazing, why the mags rave about Kirroughtree over Glentress is beyond me, but then I guess it depends on the rider, what they're looking for etc.  We're all different, but if you told me I could only ever ride at one venue for the rest of my life it would be Glentress.  No question.  

Climbing to Spooky Woods on tired legs

The Spicy on the other hand, I really didn't like, compared to the Orange it felt too soft and really wasn't any fun to climb on.  It was fine going downhill but no better than the Orange, and what I really had an issue with was the low bottom bracket, I kept clipping the ground with the pedals.  OK, that's how I crashed the Orange, but that was on a rock garden going fairly quickly, the Lapierre seemed to clip the ground on the really smooth trails at Glentress when going uphill quite slowly.  If I had £2k to spend, you couldn't persuade me to take the Lapierre over the Orange.  I had a go on the Zesty too and that was better, but I'd still take the Orange over it any day.

We were pushed for time at Glentress as we had to go straight from there to the Airport, so we headed to Spooky woods as quickly as possible and that meant mostly fire-roads and skipping a lot of the single track climbs.  Spooky woods didn't disappoint, but I enjoyed the trail after it even more (Super G or something) as it was smoother and faster.  You know you're in Scotland when you get to the 550m top of the climb ready to hit Spooky woods and there's a clutch of riders there all having a fag before hitting the descent.  We mixed some of the Blue Descents in with the red coming down, and they were by far the most enjoyable trails I've ever ridden.  The blue descents (Blue Velvet and some others) were super fast, smooth, twisty, jumpy, just amazing.  Scooting the bike into berms, shifting your weight from one side to the other getting your shoulders as close to the trees as you dare, for me, just amazing.  I could have ridden those trails all day.  Very similar to sidewinder on Penhydd at Afan but just better.  Miles better.  Even with knackered legs and a saddle sore arse, I was pushing as hard as I could down towards the car park with a massive grin on my face.  I'm sure a lot of the better riders on here would prefer something a bit gnarlier, but if you ever plan a trip to Glentress, I'd suggest you don't ignore the blue route.

So that was about it really.  I wish I'd never read anything about Kirroughtree because if I'd gone there not knowing what to expect, I'd have said it was a great trail, on a par with the best of Wales, but after reading endless reports of it being some sort of holy trail it left me feeling a bit disappointed.  I doubt the rain helped though ; )  Mabie was a nice place and if it were half as far away I'd definately go back, I'd kill for Bedgebury or Friston to be that good but I don't know that it's worth a plane ride for.  I'm going back to Glentress though, not sure how soon, but I will be going back with fresh legs to do the whole red and the whole blue.  And then maybe go back the next day and do them again, hopefully on a bike that I can pedal uphill properly    

All in all, all of the places I went in Scotland had more to offer than what I've experienced in Wales because as well as XC routes they all had skills loops or 4X tracks or insanely swoopy fast blue routes or all of the above.  None of them had a cafe on a par with the Drop off though !  The midgies are a nightmare though, you really don't want to get a puncture in Scotland, you'll find out what it feels like to be a cows arse if you stand still for more than 30 seconds as your head will be swarming with buzzing, crawling, tickling specks of irritation.  

There you go, that was my weekend, apologies for the huge post !  ]]> Sun, 8 Aug 2010 18:03:18 dawg08 http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1279052108/ http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1279052108/#num1
So, on Saturday, I went on a UK Bike Skills course, one-to-one with Tony Doyle (aka Jedi), kindly paid for as a birthday present. I had a great time and it was well worth it!

It all went down at Woburn Sands, near Luton, somewhere I'd never heard of before, but looks to have some excellent riding. Anyway, the coaching session itself lasted for a touch under four hours and was mentally quite draining. I feel I fully deserved a pint or too afterwards! I went with an open mind and didn't really know what to expect.

I met Tony at the ungodly hour of nine. I didn't realise this time even existed on a Saturday. Tony instantly puts you at ease, being the thoroughly nice bloke that he is. We started with a quick assessment of skills (we teachers call this "gap analysis" by the way: very good practice!) Tony certainly knows his stuff and very quickly identified areas to work on.

I'll rush through what we actually did, as this may not apply to absolutely everyone that completes some coaching with Tony. We moved on to pumping the trail and looking ahead (a weak point!) followed by the disconnected bunnyhop. We moved down the trail some more and sessioned a small jump and tabletop, then worked on cornering and connecting trail sections together. (That's a very quick synposis of four hours, I know, but it would get boring otherwise!)

The coaching was very much geared to my skills that needed development, rather than teaching this technique then moving on to another. I certainly felt as if my riding improved greatly, just in the short time I was there. I'll definitely be thinking about my looking and my (rather strange) footwork a lot more.

Tony keeps his coaching simple without being simplistic. Having been involved in teacher training for a few years, I could list the reasons that Tony is a good teacher, but I hate talking shop! Suffice to say, his personality and ideals really shine through in his coaching! He is enthusiastic about biking and it certainly rubs off.

Is his coaching for everyone? Possibly not, if you wanted to work through a ticklist of techniques then it probably isn't for you. If you want to spend an extremely enjoyable morning working on your weaknesses and maximising your strengths, then, although it doesn't come cheap, it's money well spent. It will certainly improve your riding more than any new upgrade!

Cheers, Jedi!

Finally here's a link to Tony's site and my blog entry]]> Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:15:08 zombiejack http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1278761298/ http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1278761298/#num1
Im really not sure why though, apart from its a bit out of the way, as it has more potential than anywhere else i have ridden in east kent. There are still a few runs though, unfortunately they pretty much go straight down the hill so dont last anywhere near as long as they could, but they are still fun,  I think with a bit of creativity 2 minute runs are easily achievable.

The dirt jumps havent been touched either, it would require only minimal work to get them ridable again, and probably half an hours work to clear the overgrown runs.]]> Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:28:18 sailor http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1278163825/ http://www.sketchymtb.co.uk/sketchymtb/Blah.pl?m-1278163825/#num1
Over the last couple of weeks I've been mapping the trails to be found in North Pole Woods which is around 75 acres of woodland located off of North Pole Road in Barming.  There are a lot of trails there, some off which are in need of some tender loving pruning care.  Its taking a while to get everything logged but I'm hoping to have a route sorted for a ride within the next couple of weeks.

Now I've finished my shift I'll be heading over there to get some more done, mapping trails while the sun shines

Once I figure out all the ins and outs of it I'll get something put up on OSM too.

If you put this into Google Maps 51.269863,0.44838 it'll show you where its at ]]> Sat, 3 Jul 2010 14:30:25 stayhigh65