Saturday 6 February, 2010: Coed y Brenin

Ash and I headed to Coed y Brenin to tackle a combination of man-made and natural trails. The weather was not looking good in Warwick, but by the time we crossed the border it was bright sunshine!

Here's a little summary of our day....

Saturday 30 January, 2010: Ambleside

Saturday 30 January was a gloriously crisp winter day in the Lakes, and Hêdd headed there to meet Helen, Kelly, Stephen and Kirsty (who unfortunately couldn't join us for mountain biking).

Their fantastic cottage accommodation was situated just outside Ambleside, and was the perfect base for an attempt at a classic Ambleside route, taking in Loughrigg Fell, Arnside, Hodge Close and Loughrigg Terrace.

It was a chilly start, but the opening climb, first on tarmac and later on a broken trail, soon warmed us up and gave us our first taste of some stunning views.

Kelly looking strong on the opening climb, with a snow covered Fairfield in the background

We were all relieved to reach the top, particularly Stephen as he was struggling with some mechanicals. The drop down the other side was fun, first on a reasonably even path but then later with some technical sections to keep us honest. We reached Skelwith Bridge in no time and were soon climbing again on back roads to the fabulous (if rather posh in the eyes of true northern folk!) Drunken Duck PH where we stopped for a quick drink. Hêdd opted for a pint of Cumberland Gold, which was to prove a questionable decision on the following climb.

Although the climb to the pub was on tarmac, it saw the biggest "off" of the day with Stephen hitting some black ice, wheel spinning for a while before eventually hitting the ground with a thud - thankfully not too badly hurt.

The next climb was good fun and included some more fantastic views. It started easily enough, but there was a real sting in the tail which saw us all off and pushing before the top.

Helen leading the way on the climb to Iron Keld

The descent made it all worthwhile though, with more great views, some tricky little rocky sections, flat out grassy sections and the biggest treat of all - Helen falling sideways into deep mud!

Kelly and Stephen start the Arnside descent

Kelly, Stephen and Helen on the Arnside descent

Kelly, Stephen and Helen near the bottom of the Arnside descent

From the bottom, we climbed along a nasty section of the A593 for a short while before branching off to have some fun through Hodge Close.

Helen finding some speed - Hodge Close

Kelly and Stephen making their way through the trees - Hodge Close

Eventually we reached the ford and bridge near Little Langdale and we were climbing again. We were all starting to tire by this point, and opted not to climb over to the quarry, but continue heading downwards on what proved to be a fun trail to Elterwater.

Kelly, Stephen and a close call with Helen on the descent to Elterwater

From here, we refuelled with some Jelly Babies before the final tough climb on tarmac up to High Close. This was really tough on tired legs, although Kelly powered ahead and reached the top in no time.

It's all downhill from here! Kelly celebrates at High Close

Helen still smiling after the tough climb to High Close

The final descent around Loughrigg Terrace was everyone's favourite, with some fun singletrack and views down the steep banks to Grasmere and Rydal Water below.

Helen rides Loughrigg Terrace

Fine weather and great company - all in all a great day - thanks guys!

Ambleside January 2010 from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Here's the map of our route....

Ambleside January 2010

http://www.bikely.com/

Sunday 13 December, 2009: Nant-yr-Arian

Colgie, Nev and H headed to Nant-yr-Arian to ride the Syfydrin trail at Nant-yr-Arian, a good mix of man-made singletrack and remote natural trails. Suds was also supposed to join, but a night of overindulgence with Uni mates meant a no show!

It was a very cold and foggy drive and things weren't looking good, but just before we arrived, we emerged into the sunshine that would be with us for the rest of the day. After some faffing from Colgie as he donned his new winter gear, we were away and tackling the first singletrack section: "Italian Job".

Colgie rides "Italian Job" at Nant-yr-Arian (No sound)

From here we headed out on some natural trails which have a really remote feel. These trails also include some fantastic doubletrack descents, with a mix of loose rocks and bedrock to keep things interesting!

Nev and Colgie on the doubltrack at Nant-yr-Arian

We paused for some provisions prior to a large natural climb and had a good view of some sights common to Mid-Wales, Red Kites and windfarms!

Red kites and windfarms near Nant-yr-Arian

Picnic time on the natural part of the Syfydrin trail at Nant-yr-Arian

The climb was quite tough, with a bit of a headwind, and seemed to go on and on. We kept going though, and eventually we were back to the civilisation of man-made trails.

Colgie nearing the top of a natural climb at Nant-yr-Arian

The first of these was "Hippity Hop", which was a good blast in the sunshine.

Nev and Colgie ride "Hippity Hop" at Nant-yr-Arian

After another natural section, we moved on to the massive "Mask of Zorro" man-made descent, and the equally massive "Leg Burner" climb. It wasn't steep, but that was part of the problem.... It just went on and on at a steady gradient. We all found it really tough on tired legs, and were ready for a break at the top.

Colgie and Nev reach the top of the unpleasantly long "Leg Burner" climb at Nant-yr-Arian

After a bit more climbing, we were ready for the final two sections of man-made singletrack: "Drunken Druid" and "High as a Kite". Within no time, we were back at the visitor centre enjoying an excellent warm shower and tucking into panini / jacket potatoes prior to the drive home - another good winter ride!

Friday 4 December, 2009: Malvern night ride

On Friday 4 December, Nev, Ed and Hedd headed to the Malverns for the first night ride of the year. Unfortunately, it was foggy with light rain, which meant visability was not good - a point proved by the helmetcam footage below!

Ed rides a Malverns decent in the fog and rain

We all enjoyed it though, especially the detour to a rather posh post ride pub (our muddy faces attracting a few raised eyebrows!).

Sunday 22 November, 2009: Coed-y-Brenin

We (H, Suds, Spud and Colgie) headed to Coed y Brenin on Sunday 22 November to tackle a man-made / natural trail combo. We managed an early start from Warwick/Coventry and were able to stop for an inaginatively priced breakfast bap at Telford services.

Thanks to the genearal lack of pace of Spud's "A-team" van, we eventually arrived at the Coed y Brenin visitor centre at about 10:15am and were riding by 10:30am. After the opening climb, the first man-made section "Cain" warmed us up, and allowed Spud to get his first six or seven crashes of the day out of his system!

Sudders rides "Cain"

The real fun then started with the first natural section. Lots of rain meant an almost frictionless trail with lots of crash potential! The next vid shows Barry and Paul Chuckle giving it max....

The chuckle brothers - there is a great moment from 1 minute onwards....

From here we met with the closure of a man-made section and headed to tackle another natural section instead before breaking new ground with a steep natural section we'd never riden before....

Sudders rides a "steeper than it looks" natural section at Coed y Brenin

From here we faced a horrible hike-a-bike up what had become a stream and completed the "Plunge Pool" steep switchback descent (helmetcam footage ruined by water/mud on the lens), the "Ant Hill" descent and headed to the Dolfrwynog cafe for some refuelling.

We were all tiring by this point, so the next steep road climb was tough. The man-made descent was good fun though, despite the "dumbing down" that has occured over the last few years.

Colgie and Spud ride Morticia at Coed y Brenin

Hedd rides "Lurch" at Coed y Brenin

As we reached the bottom of the descent, the wind picked up and the rain began to fall again, so we quickly hammered up the last climb for some fun on the final descents. The next vid starts well, with Sudders hitting some good jumps and drops. Unfortunaltly we then hit some traffic, and it gets a bit dark. There is a bonus for those that stick with it to the end though!

Sudders rides "Begining of the end" at Coed y Brenin

All in all, a great day. Despite the rain, we rode until it got too dark to continue and whilst the rain made everything really slippy, this just added to our fun! Here's the GPS tracklog of our route....

Coed-y-Brenin Pink Heiffer

http://www.bikely.com/

Sunday 4 October 2009: Cli-Machx Harder

On Sunday we headed to Machynlleth to tackle to Cli-Machx harder route from http://www.flattyresmtbroutes.com/ClimachxHarder.html. The Cli-Machx man-made route is good fun, particularly the final descent, but the addition of some natural stuff makes it a classic.

Since most of us indulged at the Zetland Arms in Warwick the previous evening, it was a rather slugglish start, particularly for Ed, Stu and Ad. Hedd was on reasonable form thanks to a taxi at a reasonable hour (thank you Haynesy!) and both Ash and debutant Spud were the picture of health and wellbeing!

We eventually got underway, and following a breakfast stop of Cafe Carys in Mallwyd (B'lliant), and a trip to a closed bike shop to cure Colgie's non-brake non-problem, we arrived at the trailhead, faffed for England/Wales and eventually got underway.
The first fireroad climb was as tough as ever, but after a pitstop at the trail junction we eventually arrived at the top of the first natural downhill section. Disaster stuck immediatly for Ed who found he had an incurable front fork problem which would see him limping around for the rest of the day - not good. For the rest of us, this first section was a bit of an eye-opener to what natural riding is all about (after a recent trail centre only diet!) and there were a few tumbles!

Ad takes a tumble on the first natural descent

After a brief bit of fireroad, and a singletrack section that countoured across a recently deforested hillside, we found the top of the second natural downhill section. This was an absolute blast, and Ash flew down - nearly making it all the way to the bottom!

Ash on the second natural downhill section

From here we headed to the Va-va-voom! section of the Cli-machx man-made trail before heading off to find a natural, slatey, bike wrecking section which was particularly inappropriate for a man with 1 inch of travel available on his front fork!

After that it was a fairly big climb back out again which, thanks to some forestry work, was a bit of a trudge through deep mud. We eventually found a singletrack linking section which took us to a reasonably long fireroad climb to the excellent (and appropriately named) "Better late than never" section.

Ash rides "Better late than never" on the Cli-machx trail

From here, we had more natural section to tackle. Discretion was the better part of valour for Ed so he headed for the top of the last man-made downhill for a long wait and a bit of a snooze. Everyone else headed up the hill in search of the trail.

The downhill starts seriously steep, and eveyone needed a few dabs to get down, but after that and a few muddy sections, the trail turns into a real rocky blast. This steepens at the end, and it was all too much for Spud, who managed a slow motion crash that seemed to last forever!

From here it was a big climb to the top of the last man-made downhill section to find a snoozing Ed. After a bit of a rest we were underway. The first section starts well but levels off and turns into a bit of an XC blast for a while. After a (very) short and technical climb, and a stop to take in the view over the small town of Corris, we hit the last downhill proper. This was a blast as always, with jumps and berms galore!

Ad on the final part of the final Cli-Machx downhill (with apologies for the lack of sound!)

All in all it had been another great day out on the bike. Ed managed to keep his chin up despite his bad luck, and we all promised to get another ride in soon - it's nearly night riding season again! Here's a summary of the day in musical montage form....

Cli-Machx Harder; October 2009 from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

Cli-machx Harder

http://www.bikely.com/

19 September 2009 - Glentress & Innerleithen

Hedd arrived at about 6pm on Friday evening and managed a quick red route loop at Glentress before heading to Innerleithen to pick up the keys to the impressive "Spinners" apartment http://www.tweedvalleyholidaylets.co.uk/7.html. He then settled in with a bottle of red wine and the Home DVD and waited for the others to arrive.

After about 2 hours, Nev, Andy, Ash and Simon arrived and everyone started looking forward to some riding.

We got a reasonably early start on Saturday morning, and headed straight for the hub at Glentress for some breakfast. After Hedd had fitted a new tyre, and Nev had been back to the apartment for his new "Sam Hill" shoes, we were away.

Maximum faffing in the Glentress car park

We headed straight to the bike park, where Andy showed us his BMX skills.

Andy riding the Glentress bike park

After we'd all had a play, we headed up into the mist and tackled the Spooky Wood climb. Suffice to say, we were all pretty relieved to reach the top!

Simon, Andy and Ash near the top of the Spooky Wood climb

Ash taking in the warning signs at the top of the Spooky Wood descent

It was all going so well, when Andy parted company with his bike after a jump and landed heavily. At first, we thought he'd popped his knee, but unfortunately it was much worse. Luckily, a GP was not far behind us, and he diagnosed a broken femur.

We called the emergency services, and after a long wait for the ambulance to climb the fire roads, the paramedics reached Andy and were able to give him some much needed pain relief.

Disaster strikes on the Spooky Wood descent

At this point, we should say a special thank you to everyone that stopped to help us out with advice, equipment, traffic control and strecher carrying duties!

Eventually, Andy was safely in the ambulance and we decided to carry on with the ride back down to the hub.

Nev riding Hit-Squad Hill

I think everyone found this really difficult. We wanted to make the most of our trip, but everyone's thoughts were with Andy, just hoping his leg wasn't as bad as it looked.

We reached the hub and got some lunch before packing up and heading back to the apartment.

When we got back, Nev was able to call the hospital and speak to Andy - this helped us all, he sounded well all things considered. During this time, Helen also arrived to join us for our afternoon (early evening) ride on the Innerleithen red (XC) route.

After some more faffing, we were away and tackling the painful climb up to Minch Moor. As always, the short downhill section at about a third of the way up provided a much needed rest!

Helen on the short downhill section prior to the quarry

And the quarry section provided some much needed playtime!

Hedd on the small ladder drop; Inners XC from Hedd Roberts on Vimeo.

We were soon away and climbing again, first up a long fireroad section, and then back onto the singletrack through the trees.

Ash takes some much needed time out on the Minch Moor climb

At last we emerged out of the trees and the views opened up around us - not much further now!

Helen near the Minch Moor summit in the evening sunshine

Simon nears the Minch Moor summit

We rode to the summit together, and headed straight for the shelter for some provisions. We needed the rest, but we needed to get moving - Nev wanted to make sure he'd be able to get to Edinburgh with Andy's gear.

We headed off, and the top two sections were as good as always!

Nev rides the top section of the Minch Moor descent

Ash and Simon ride the Minch Moor descent

This was all over in no time, and we were on our way to Plora Craig with the stunning views opening up around us.

The top of the Plora Craig section at Innerleithen

It wasn't too late for shenanigans though, as Nev's saddle bolt snapped on the Oh Deer! section, leaving him standing on his pedals all the way home. At least it was downhill, and what a downhill - Caddon Bank did not disappoint, although a quick look at the end of the downhill course soon put us in our place!

We headed back to the apartment, Nev and Ash headed off to Edinburgh to see if they could catch up with Andy, and Hedd, Helen and Simon headed to the pub for a chinese takeaway!?!?

Nev and Ash eventually returned. Fortunately, they'd caught up with Andy and he was doing well. We could all head to the pub/chinese takeaway for a beer and to get to know a few of the flatulent locals - the perfect end to a very long day!