We're Moving!

... But not far!

As many of you who have been in the shop recently have noticed we have acquired the shop 2 doors down and will be moving into a bigger space in June!

Yes after 14 years in No.3 we have finally outgrown her and it's getting a bit of a squeeze fitting all these luscious bikes and bits in here as well as hosting all you regular customers in the workshop!

We're very excited about the new shop as it has 3 separate display areas and room for a big workshop for Rowan to spread out in as well as office space for Jackie to keep the new stock arrivals coming. (Simon's office will remain outside on the trails of course!)

Work is underway to convert it to display a wider range of bikes, clothing and accesories as well as provide enough room for you guys to wander around (I know actually move around the shop!) as well as somewhere to chill out and grab that post-ride cuppa with us. So watch this space as we post a few pics of progress and let you know when we're moving.

Here's a slideshow of some pics of how it looks now and progress so far but there's a way to go!






And don't worry we're not going all "glossy" - we'll be keeping our trade mark "rugged and ready for dirty mountain bikers" look, after all we don't want you to be too scared to come in aftera ride- (but maybe we'll add a touch of lustre!)

Watch this space!

Missing a french Man.

Claire after just reading your last Blog, it surely looks like your in Biking Paradise but you know what, were not doing to bad in Surrey Hills, we've had some great rides recently and today was no exception.

Many of us headed out today, i will not attempt to name everybody cause i will get it terribly wrong and forget somebody. But one thing is for sure, we were missing a certain french man due to an altercation with a rather unforgiving piece of wood.
Hope your recovery goes well Giles, and hope to see you back on the bike soon.

We started off the ride with an altercation of another kind, and felt the rath of a very highly strung westcott resident, some people just need to chill and relax a little, need i say more?

Leith was our destination today, Simon switching up the configuration which made sure we got a little exploration in, mixed with a few summer classics, and tempting one of us into another First, you are becoming quite persuasive...

Without running through all the trails in order heres a few that we rolled tyre's over today;

Bob Till You Drop was running super good, getting the chance to pop out from some of the compressions.
F and M, mega over grown again.
Fat Jim. Did you clean it?
A New Trail, i won't mention where, but a load of work has gone into that one, with a real mans finish at the end. [don't think we'll be doing that anytime soon].
Well done to the lads that have been building there, you can see the shape that trails may be taking in the near future within this area, defiantly asking new skills from riders.
Countdown to Ecstasy, still needs more work, but the lads were busy putting some more work into that one on Saturday.
Heads Roll, never fails to hit the spot! in fact lets have another go...

A quite cuppa at Leith hill, the sporting events keeping many away today, a few of us enjoying the view on offer today...
This is when we started losing riders in quick succession.

Worth the Mither, now becoming a popular trail by the looks of it.
Jab it in Your Eye, another first for a couple of riders. No bust forks, or knees this time, good.
Down to Donnie Darko, where Simon, Simon, and myself did all 3 jumps, little Simon never doing them in one run, and myself never doing 2 or 3.. [Yes Claire you read it right i did all 3] Buzzing my tits off to say the least. Always good to follow you in for the first time Simon, good judge of speed.
Valouria into ? Can't for the life of me remember the name. Steep dry and dusty.
Windy Willow, This is another favorite of mine, what a trail? if only those natural berms at the start rode better? maybe a little project for the winter? but its got length, flow, and the chance to really get your foot down. it can still be ridden faster though?

Worth a mention is Alex showing us all how to hip a jump with total ease, nice one.

Another sunny Sunday, shame we lose half the group, but we had a great end to the ride.

Until next week.

Whistler - A mountain bikers paradise!

So where did I leave you- Oh yes I was in Utah, Colorado, USA!

Well I've been here in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada for 3 weeks now and you haven't heard much from me because I've just been riding sooo much stuff!

I picked up my Banshee Scythe downhill bike and spent most of the first week riding up the chairlifts and downhill all day in the sunshine on dusty dry trails with tabletops and drops, berms and ladders, roots and rocks. I worked my way back up from the blue runs, to black diamond runs and soon ventured on to the ultra scary double black diamonds with huge fast steep rock slabs to roll down and steep rocky twisty descents, not to mention some rather high wood work here and there.

I even managed to achieve my dream of dropping off the big GLC drop outside the bar at the bottom of the park where everyone watched you. I've been looking at it for 3 years but only dropping the middle one every year. Well I dropped this 10-12 foot rocky drop 3 times perfectly before I decided to video it and that's when I crashed. I have not been off it since but I will overcome that nemesis- watch the video for that!

I soon yearned for turning my pedals again and ventured up into the black and double diamond black trails in Whistler valley- this means I took my Lapierre Zesty out and pedalled up and up and up to great views. All the while watching for bears and Cougars as there have been a lot of sightings this year. The descents out there are crazy too- dusty, rocky, rooty, steep, twisty singletrack then huge steep fast rock slabs, a ladder over a stream or waterfall gushing with melted snow- it's awesome. Some is not too flowy as I'm on adrenalin the whole time with eyes on stalks looking for what obstacle comes next.

I've also paid some love back to the trails and joined up with Squamish Off Road Cycling Assoc SORCA to do some trail building the Canadian way- I can bring some tips back for our building now!

More recently I decided to go get qualified for leading and instructing mountain biking. So yesterday I passed my "Professional Mountain Bike Instructor" certificate.

As you can see its full on mountain biking around here- so much to do! I'd better get out there now and ride some more!

If you want more details and pics and vids go read my blog.

Free-Country-Ride.

A new Riding type was brought to our attention today Albeit a little tongue in cheek, a mix of XC and freeride, hence the "Free-country-ride" title.
But for me, thats just a Nirvana Ride, and thats what we love about it.

What a fantastic day for a few reasons. Firstly the weather was amazing, the world is a better place when the sun is shining thats for sure, new skills had been learnt, new bikes were being ridden, and everyone was on the money riding wise today.

Andy, Martin, Mario, Adrian, Dave, Nick, Giles, Simon, and myself were the riders out today.

We set off towards Leith. Heading down the first Descent we came across a group of Walkers, luckily they were a little quicker on their feet than many we come across, and let us pass without to much slowing down or grief. But why do they always ask why you don't have a Bell? As if i'm going to fit a bell to a 2.5 grand custom build mountain bike... Get a grip.

Down Soul-mining FAST and over to Golden Birdies, This like many of the trails we rode today was riding Super Good. But with mixed results through the switchbacks, some of the guys need to let it hang out a little more on the singletrack...
From here we rode straight up to Proper Beau. I think Simon wanted to test his new pupils skills on the practice jumps, with a view to hitting the real Gap on Proper [which is not so much of a gap now].

Andy was on fire today, putting to good use all the skills he had learnt with Simon on the Saturday Freeride session, He has gone from doing no Jumps to really attacking any kind of obstacle in his way, Well done Andy and Simon.

Proper Beau like GB is riding so Good now, the work that's been put into those small berms over the winter months are really paying off now the trails are dry, i just love that trail, if only it was 5 times longer... with a see-saw?

So the Gap [was a gap] Andy "on a mission", Martin, and Mario were all having a go and enjoying that jump. Down T2 Flowing and fast just like it should be, and into Peaslake for another type of T.

After an alternative route to going all the way up the Mother, we Hit the Quarry. All were up for having a go on the jumps here, even Nick was hitting the left hand jump with great results. What a surprise, there must have been something in the air today.

This was the day that i finally exercised a demon and did the main jump. After a pretty nasty crash that put me out of action for 4 months, it was very satisfying to finally have done this jump. YEE-HAA for sure.
Mario was really going for it hear, Simon was hitting it faster each time, and Andy was pulling strange faces on take off...

Down Deliverance, always Fun. Then over to Heads Roll for some more jumps, is this meant to be an XC ride??
We sessioned the double jumps for a while, Simon really sending it on the final attempt. Then the door came out to hit the new step down, Mario, Giles and Simon all clearing this one.

A fast ride down the road towards the shop, with a quick rip through the woods to finish what as another great ride.

MBR riding our local Trails

Checkout the MBR boys riding the local North Downs trails. Comments here please to name the trails- I'm pretty sure I can name them all but can you?

Thunderstorms on Thunder Mountain ... and other tall tales!

Now where did I leave you... oh yes... I was enjoying dry trails in Moab and gloating! But then you guys went and got some Un-British Summer in May and now the North Downs sound drier than Utah!

Since my last blog I've been on a group camping/biking tour on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. I've always wanted to see it so what better way then on my trusty old Lapierre Zesty. What fun hurtling along gently rolling and twisting singletrack and popping out of meadows and woods to a sheer drop of 4000 feet from a Rim with views for hundreds of miles! It's a bit distracting one moment focusing on keeping you wheel on narrow singletrack for fear of puncturing on a locust bush thorn and the next diverting your eyes to these huge rock formations and 2 billion years of rock layers, the realising its best to stop and stare rather than ride where you are looking!

Days were spent riding (nothing too technical or strenusous but fun and scenic) and taking in such immense scenic views and nights were spent round a campfire eating wonderful food, singing along with a guitar (no guitar hero here) and staring at the light show over the Canyon as the sun set. Wow what a trip!

I highly recommend Western Spirit for mountain bike trips out West here!

Since then I've been to Thunder Mountain to ride amongst the Hoodoo rock formations of Bryce Canyon. It lived up to its name as the storm was indeed Thundering above me most of the way and lightning adding to my adrenalin fix. Much more technical black diamond riding too and just as distracting views- riding it alone was rather scary to say the least- but I'm writing this so I survived!

Anyway I've moved on since then and have just completed day 2 in Whistler Mountain Bike park and boy it is so sunny here and quiet early season conditions mean I have many dry trails to myself. Only the bottom half of the mountain is open which is good so I don't over do it week 1!

I have to admit to trading up from the Zesty to a Banshee Scythe freeride bike with 7inch travel back and front as the park demands it for true grin inspiring descents. I'm honing my tabletops on "Crank it up", my berms and switchbacks on "Ninja Cougar" and "Karate Monkey" and my drop offs on the "GLC drop" ready for my favourite black diamond runs to open up top when the snow melts. 

However I could not resist day 1 and rode Schleyer a double diamond black run built by Richie Schley- cool! Also rode Whistler DH course another double diamond black which has some huge steep rock rolls and drops.

If you are really dedicated and want more tall tales you can read them at my blog.