The Hidden Trail

Afan - nearly a year ago!

2008-05-16T10:19:00.002+01:00

Play it cool guys :-)

Wake Up

2008-04-14T12:25:00.005+01:00

I'd pretty much forgotten this existed

Just been on a lovely week long trip to Newquay (pics linked over on my Flickr site)

The week of excess living has led me to come home feeling slightly down about being home, and has spurred me to get healthy, so yesterday I went for a run - 2.9 miles.

Last night lying in bed with sore legs I decided that I need some goal to achieve - so from now on i will be doing a 30-in-30 - that is going out and doing some decent exercise, be that riding, swimming or running for an average of at least once a day for 30 days (I can't really be sure i'll have enough time everyday due to work and homelife, so an average of 30 is the best I can do).

Lets see how I get on :-)
--------
Update -

15.04.08

I made it two days in a row - ran 1.5 miles last night, and then a further 2.6 miles riding to the pub and back :-)

does that count?
--------
16.04.08 - Nothing, nada, zilch (-1)

17.04.08 - 2.5 Mile run (-1)

17th Feb - Quick Spin Round Woods

2008-02-21T21:24:00.005Z

Quick loop around woods, looking for new trails and playing on the little shore sections

Lordswood Loop
Find more Bike Rides in Southampton, United Kingdom

Happy 2008!

2008-01-02T09:13:00.000Z

New Year so these are a must:

Proper mileage
More variation in riding - i.e. not just milling round lordswood and same south downs routes
Running at least twice a week
Chopper Restoration
Learn to Weld & Fabricate
Stop eating as much crap
Cut down on alcohol
Organise myself - get a diary and use it
Visit all the people I keep saying I'll visit
Stop wasting time and money

Other things i'd LIKE to do in 2008 (funds dependant) - go on at least two trips abroad, a Direct Access Motorbike course, WVO conversion for car, buy a house :-)

In the boring near future I also need to get this blog moved onto something like wordpress, or moved onto a blogger "custom domain" so I can use widgets and toys on it and make it useful.

Today is Led Zeppelin Day.

2007-12-10T08:39:00.000Z

ENJOY the best band ever:

Anyone got a Trabant spare?

2007-10-31T16:46:00.000Z

This is nice:
http://trabicustomizer.com/trabi/
I want some Communist Bloc motoring now, always fancied one :-)

Back in the fold: At Last

2007-10-21T20:10:00.000+01:00

Two days, two rides, new bike (replacing the nicked/knackered ones), beautiful weather:

Finished the 456 on Fri night - the BB is still too short despite using a 121mm axle on the Deore crankset - should be 118 really (as far as i can work out), with a 121mm as extra, but I've not heard of Deore cranks running a 126mm axle (which it seems i need). Maybe my super human arms have forced the cranks onto the axle past the splines. GRRRR

anyway :-)

quick hr up Lordswood on the Saturday to test bike and get back into riding, after 2 meaningful rides in two months. Got lost as usual and got back with itchy legs and scratched forearms

Nipped up to Farley this morning and took in a 15 mile route. Glorious weather - shorts and t-shirts weather, felt hot in my long sleeve, but thin as anything, merino top. Some nice descents
but mainly just a gentle spin with quite a bit of road (just followed the Hants cycling route). I'm so painfully unfit its embarrassing, have to work on that, although I seem to have been saying that for circa two years. Funny point was spinning along an overgrown bridleway, adjusting the glasses on my newly speccy 4-eyes face, and my front wheel disappearing down a nice big hole, sending me supermanning over the bars onto my shoulder (which aches a bit now). Took me a few seconds to work out what the hell had happened - usually when you crash you get that "fuckityfuckityfuck" moment just before you meet terra firma, this time I just suddenly ended up lying in the grass staring at the sky :-)

Bike is ace, build seems a lot lighter than i thought it would - the forks are ace, and it rides really nicely. Think it needs a 60mm stem though (80mm was bought for the Mount Vision, but never used before it broke), and desperately needs bigger tyres.

Saw deer in the throes of the rutting season which was nice, no deer porn though, sadly :-)

More photos over at Flickr

People Annoy Me

2007-09-24T15:08:00.000+01:00

So you've gone shopping with the kids, in a large supermarket (possibly called Tescos).

Fair enough

Except when you feel its a remotely sensible idea to let the kids trail about the aisles, following the trolley in one of these:

Barging into people, getting in the way of trolleys and feet, moving erratically every which way, having to be steered every 5 seconds by daddy, all the time emitting an incredibly annoying droning sound like a dying food mixer.

If you think its a sensible idea

Don't breed.

Move on nothing to see here

2007-09-21T13:17:00.000+01:00

There really isn't :-)

No bike as of yet, the Cotic is very poorly (knacked drivetrain still) and I havn't had time to fix it, been out about once a week (if that) for the last 2 months. Insurer has covered the Kona but are still mulling over the Marin. Kona money has gone in the car pit for now, as got mot and tax this week, so will see how that goes.

Still not sure what to do about a main bike really - fix the marin, or move on...

I'm still intrigued to see that even with this blogs complete lack of content recently (ever), i'm still apparently getting views.

I think Simon needs to get a job :-)

Tim

Good Reading

2007-08-16T08:55:00.000+01:00

If your into biking but, like me, seem to have a bit of a wall in terms of self-belief, ability, fitness and general motivation - Olly makes a few good points

i want it back

2007-08-10T20:12:00.000+01:00

crap pic (phone photo), but only one i've got of it in this guise (i think)

sadly missed - if anyone sees it give me a shout

Wonderful :-(

2007-08-10T09:25:00.000+01:00

So having not really ridden at all for the last two months due to a number of things, namely being dog tired, and then having the Kona nicked and finding a crack in the Marin i'm starting to get a bit tetchy.

The borrowed Cotic is great, but i'm a touch nervous about being out and about on it as i've not been able to insure it and its quite high profile. Marc has been great and has sorted me a hack/singlespeed bike to get around on to replace the Kona, but as yet it's not sorted (only picked it up yestersday.).

Anyway, a trip to the doctors has turned out that I have a throat and ear infection, and am also being tested for Lymes and Glandular Fever, so i've been off to the vampires this morning (which is another story entirely - the doctors seem to think the walk-in centres open an hour earlier than they actually do, so i've wasted an hour of my time this morning, and got out of bed early when i felt like death).

Also, the insurance company are being funny about my two claims - they dont like it because the Kona was seemingly underinsured - well fair enough I suppose and my mistake, but the prices on my quote were for new parts that dont exactly match the old stuff, and at full RRP. They also want original receipts of purchase - bit difficult on a bike that is almost fully second-hand - (I told them of this when i bought the policy). I've explained that i'm not claiming for full retail value, and for insured value, but this gets lost in the chinese whispers game that gets my info to the underwriters. I don't get it - if you bought an 11 year old Mondeo, you wouldn't insure it for the same value as a brand new one, because it jacks up your policy and they wouldn't give you the full insurance value anyway!

They are holding out on the Marin as they want to know exactly how the frame broke and when - I bet me and marin would like to know as well! I've explained the situation, but they don't really seem to understand.

They also won't cover my Xen, although one of the office jockeys told me they would "no problem at all, Sir"

So, chances of me getting anything at all?

Shame it won't let me set up a poll...

Mould

2007-07-23T10:25:00.000+01:00

Source Hydropak drinking tube - is there ever a time to call one officially manky and bin it?

Mine looks like a students bathroom, and the gunk wont come out!

need some massive fluffy pipecleaners, or a small person with a mop...

Things you don't want to find in your camelbak

2007-07-22T16:05:00.000+01:00

No 1:

A dead...oh no hang on..make that LIVING earwig in the drinking tube...

Just found it whilst sterilising it - bastard is living on a little air bubble

Hoping that it crawled in there when i wasnt using it and it hasnt been in their for ages feeding on the black scum thats accumulated inside it

/shudders
/vomits

Faith in your product

2007-07-19T08:20:00.000+01:00

Chat with marin has revealed they fail to even contemplate that the crack in my frame (and at least two others that i have seen with exactly the same failure) is a manufacturing/frame design error - i would be fine if they refused to contemplate warranteeing a head tube/shock mount/pivot mount failure, as this can be seen as resuting from abuse on a frame thats history cannot be proven, but halfway along a swingarm, where other frames have failed in an identical way? C'mon...

This has led them to offering me a second-hand swingarm (at a price) - However this would only be warranteed for a year...

and if it were to fail again after a year id have to buy another one... (well i wouldnt, i'd get a cotic)

What i dont get is - if you are a manufacturer and you have a product, used or not, and can inspect it, why not offer it with a decent warrantee? Surely you should be able to tell if its one that snaps or not - and if its one that breaks you shouldn't be sending it out in the first place, so why not offer a warrantee with good grace?

Surely all thats saying is that they have no faith that that product will actually do what its meant to do, and wont break - what if the new (used) swingarm snaps and throws me under a bus?

If were a manufacturer and my product failed in a way that could be dangerous (eg any frame failure that could result in a loss of control), whether it was new or used, i would be mortified, but it seems they couldnt care less if it snaps, showing they must fail all the time, and hence showing that they are inferior quality - my older, much more abused heckler never snapped, and as far as i know is still going now...

The funny thing is that i used to bang on about how great Marins were...

And on a last note - they say they never warrantee products without any receipts - thats rubbish - a while ago i took back a marin stem that came off my Bear Valley SE, that had snapped at the weld where extrusion meets collar (could have been very nasty, luckily i was pulling up, not leaning on the bars), and they got worried about that and gave me a replacement with no questions...

Tim

Snapped Marin - Looks Familiar

2007-07-17T17:27:00.000+01:00

from - Here

Mines not as bad as that - but it will end up that way - that weld is cracked and its started to propogate into the metal on the inside - not a manufacturing defect/frame defect my arse

Friend used to ride a Joshua (crack all the time) he got his replaced no questions asked, with no receipts, as they knew they failed there...

Not saying I want a fisher that is :-)

but i would like A bike !

A new beginning

2007-07-16T09:24:00.000+01:00

One nicked bike

One broken bike

One borrowed bike

I feel a change in the air - mailing list and forum ban, drink and crap food ban :-)

Hello SS-L :-)

Utter Bastard :-(

2007-06-29T09:58:00.000+01:00

Come Cnuting Fcuk stole my Kona off the train yesterday :-(

hopefully he'll die in a hideous incident

gutted, i loved that bike

Bah Humbug

2007-06-27T09:15:00.001+01:00

For some reason riding up Bell Hill/Stoner Hill into work nearly killed me today :-(

didnt even notice it yesterday

Last night the idiot customer service person gave me the wrong advice, contradicting a colleague of his over where to get off the train to get back to Southampton. He was wrong, his colleague was right it turns out.

You should get off at Hilsea, not Havant, or you have to wait an hour, in Havant, in the drizzle, with nothing to do.

The only vaguley interesting magazine on sale was Top Gear as well. I've since found out its not even vaguely interesting, but banana muffins are nice

Mountain Mayhem 2007

2007-06-26T09:15:00.000+01:00

Riding in a mixed team with Gary, Juan, Jon and Nicky. We adopted a casual attitude to racing at the start, and this only got slacker when the rain came down, on Jon's second night lap, surprisingly :-)

The general verdict was mud mud mud mud and mud, oh and ferns and grass.

Slippery Slippery Grassy Gloop
(Photo by Nicky)

And a fairly embarrassing stack at the start when my foot shot out of my SPD whilst sprinting and my knee jammed behind the fork crown - resulted in a gouged lower back from the saddle and a rather nice friction burn just below my knee cap now that keeps drying out, and then when I move it again it cracks and weeps again.

Dont use your skin as a braking surface:
(Photo by Nicky)

A singlespeed with conti 1.5s was the best option it seemed, but my Mount Vision didnt get clogged too badly, although there were plenty of non rolling bikes around, and lots of snapped mechs/hangers.

We did 17 laps overall - Gary - 5, Jon - 4, Juan - 3, Me - 3 and Nicky-2. Not exactly setting the world alight but we all decided that stopping before we stopped enjoying it was the best idea - ive flogged myself to the point of collapse at 24 hr races before, and if you aren't fit enough it really kills you afterwards. Plus it was very hard going through the mud - half of the course had basically no grip at all, which was in equal measures amusing and frustrating.

Although the solo option is calling me again - I seem to ride better and further when i dont have the pressure of getting up at a certain time and riding - i think its a mental thing - i always get silly nervous before events and then my head goes in the night. I did just shy of 100 miles at CLIC 05 with little to no preparation, so im wondering that if i actually get some sort of training sorted out i might be able to beat that :-)

Although if its at Eastnor again i think that i will be taking both bikes (the kona and the mount vision), singlespeeding both at 32:18, running tiny tyres and unbolting everything that isn't absolutely essential :-)

Work now, cars still broken so riding to work.

Tata

Tim

Yesterdays commute

2007-06-21T12:21:00.000+01:00

6 miles in to work via the train station, so I cheated there, but 25 miles back over the South Downs to Winchester, and then the train down from there to Southampton

However, the ride back was quite eventful, a puncture heading up towards Henwood Down, and then realisation that I'd managed (rushing the night before) to trace a chunk of the route between Old Winchester Hill and Beacon Hill along the wrong bit of the South Downs, and hence it featured a lot of footpaths, one of which, between Exton and Beacon Hill, went straight up over the down, and i could hardly walk up it, let along carry a bike up it. Also had fun with a section of bridleway that looked like it hadn't been used for years and was about 2 foot deep in grass.

Still it was a fun ride with some great views from the top of the downs, and the fast bits were just that:

View from Old Winchester Hill

This made me smile:

That is definitely a bridleway :-)

Got back about 9:30pm last night - so 4 hrs including train, not exactly fast but good fun all the same - speedo logged just shy of 38 miles by the time I'd got home for the day

Tired now - at least ive only got to freewheel down little switzerland to the train station after work instead of a repeat of yesterdays efforts !

Worried about Car Security?

2007-06-20T15:16:00.000+01:00

I'm thinking of getting one of these for my car:

Afan & Glencorrwg - 26-27th May

2007-06-20T08:37:00.000+01:00

Drove up on the friday morning with not much drama apart from one sat nav trying to send Tom to Bristol and then mine failing to belive there are two severn bridge crossings - it refuses to go to wales, but will quite happily leave. I have some kind of zenophobic sat nav :-)

After getting lost in Port Talbot (shudder) trying to find a supermarket we found our way to Bryn Bettws Holiday Cabins , which are plush and ace and surrounded by the loudest sheep in the world. Was nice to go somewhere that didn't rip your hand off for money too. Only downside was finding that some dirty gits before us had left their rubbish in the bike store, which smelt so bad you couldn't go near it, and had to be hoiked out with a seatpost (not mine!), leaving a trail of maggots. Ideas of getting a quick run down the wall (the main descent passes straight past the cabins) were postponed due to laziness, a broken rear brake (knackered pad spring caught on disc spokes) and the pressing need to find a shop to get food and most importantly...beer. One quick trip, after much deliberation with the cabin owners, led us to Tescos and the friendly, and unbelieveably welsh checkout women, who wouldnt believe we were 18. Much curry and beer later we were so rock and roll we fell asleep, only to get up as i realised there was no-chance -in-hell that my handbrake was going to hold on the 1in2 gravel slope it was parked on :-)

On a side-note there seems to be no 'standard' totty in Wales. They are either stunning or 'not-even-with-yours'.

Saturday:
Rose bright and early, felt sick from excess curry and alcohol, took a shower in the weakest power shower ever and after meeting up with Rob and Weller (Swansea Uni) buggered off to Afan Forest Park.

Penhydd:
A horrible first 6km climb took us seemingly forever, but inbetween burping chicken tikka and listening to tom wondering whether his Coiler was overkill we made it to the top of Desolation. 2 lovely fast dry singletrack sections later, and a few climbs and we were at Hidden Valley, which is possibly the best section of trail ever. Wound our way along the trail and popped out into the car park in seemingly no-time. Wellers bike was becoming a nightmare (dropping the chain every two mins) so him and Tom set off to Skyline Cycles to find a cheap chain device and the rest of us decided the best thing to do was eat a massive amount of chips and get half-ripped on coffee.

The Wall:
After the crushing dissapointment (for Tom) that the uplift wasn't running, and for Weller that there were no cheap chain devices seemingly in Wales the climb commenced. Bit of a slog, but punctuated by some nice singletrack, and some short descents. The downhill is well worth it though. Lovely rocky singletrack with jumps and bumps all over. Very hard on the body though, and by half way down i could hardly brake and was struggling to keep up with the guys in front. Georgie was flying along, sticking to Tom's back wheel. Wellers chain had fallen off again, and Rob seemed unfazed by any of it :-) Downside was riding up the last 100m slate climb into the visitor centre, and legs locking the cramp and collapsing off the bike at the top onto the grass, legs shooting out involuntary, to the amusement off everyone else there :-)

Spaghetti, more beer and some Dragonforce and Kasabian finished the night off, plus more bike fettling.

Sunday:
Woke to horizontal rain and horrible creaking sounds from the cabin (may have been from Georgie though in hindsight).

Got ready slowly, ate breakfast slowly, put bikes in car slowly, drove slowly to Glencorryg slowly, all the time wishing the rain away. It got heavier instead. Ended up kitted up and sat in the Drop-Off cafe, drinking coffee, eating bacon sarnies and watcing the weather (oh and listening to Tom, who didn't have a jacket, whinge about the rain) :-)

After some positive reinforcement from the cafe staff ("you soft southern jessies"), and slightly concerned about the amounts of body armour and travel appearing from Whites Level, we got out onto the Trail.

Weather turned out to be a bonus as we disappeared into the treeline, making the brilliant technical singletrack climb of Whites Level nice and atmospheric as we cut through the mist, and stopping us from boiling in the still air amongst the trees. I was timing us up there, but i smacked the button on my computer, and with all the grit, it stuck down, erasing all our max speeds and mileage in the process. Arse

At top we met Ian from the cafe, who had chased us up the hill, and set off down the black section, round the lovely berms, over the twin doubles and down the rocky drop to a fireroad. Part of Whites was shut for forestry work, but it was a weekend their was no-one about (except for someone asleep in a car next to a caravan) and we road up the fireroad to the top of the trail again, only missing a small section. Carried on down the singletrack, over the slippery shore section (fall into nettles and brambles if you get it wrong - nice!) and worked our way down the trail. Awesome bit of trail.

Can't wait to go back, although i am now eyeing up some Pikes and bigger discs!

Pics coming when I manage to get them from Georgie

Busy busy busy

2007-06-18T17:37:00.000+01:00

Afan write up to come

Few upgrades and replacement bits to be commented on

Mountain Mayhem this weekend

Some more pics to come when i get them

I will pull my finger out!

Get out of my way, you twat

2007-05-02T12:09:00.000+01:00

So driving to work this morning (yes i know i should cycle but its 26 miles each way, and riding from winchester is plain scary). My commute in involves some fairly narrow roads, which isnt a problem, even though my car is fairly wide - see here. However, in two weeks i cant say i've had a problem with it being large, probably due to the fact that i'm an aware driver, and (hopefully) not a moron, and in the scheme of things its not that big.

So this morning when i had to reverse back along a country lane a fair distance because someone in a new range rover was blocking the entire road, and she couldnt see to reverse because of her "its to protect little jimmy" machine, i kind of lost my rag.

I mean FFS, if you live in a small country area, with small country roads, why the hell would you buy a vehicle that basically makes all roads one way?

Idiocy?
Because it makes you feel big as you force someone who cant afford a range rover into a ditch?

Thats another thing - If i was driving an off-road capable vehicle on a country lane (which i have, many times), and i saw another person in a standard road going car, (say me in my old civic, or my pug), i would feel it was my perogative to let them have the road (and not drag their low slung vehicles along the edge of the road and ditch, through the long grass), whilst i used my vehicle to a small amount of its off-road potential and moved over onto the verge.

How come no other bastard will do that? Nearly every morning im forced off the road because some twat doesnt know how wide there car is, and even if they did, they are too stupid and vain to ever risk getting their off-roaders tyres dirty

"PAH SMALL USELESS, OBVIOUSLY LAZY AND UNDERACHIEVING PERSON IN THEIR NORMAL CAR - I WILL CRUSH THEM AS THEY DON'T DESERVE TO OCCUPY THE SAME ROAD AS ME"

I might buy a £50 soon-to-be MOT failure wreck for a week of getting to work and see how much paint, wing-mirrors and trim i can collect on its right hand side by not allowing them to force me off the road :-)

Actually sod that, they probably own all the lawyers, or are lawyers, or are lawyers wifes.

if its a 4x4 it should come with scratches and dents anyway, its the law

Bastards