North Downs, Sun 14th Oct

Perfect conditions for a 7-man assault on Leith Hill / Holmbury Hill. 16°C, no rain, and just enough mud to make it interesting. Terrain was gnarlier than our usual – very challenging in places. 10/10. 🙂

Route:
From Coldharbour, Summer Lightning (x2), then nameless singletrack into steep rocky chute to GR136457, grind up Broadmoor, clean(!) the steep climb to Leith Tower, then NW for some “novice freeride”, down to Starveall, then a fast b-way past Upfolds to the road, and via Joldwynds to the base of Holmbury. Incredibly steep push to summit, then Bombholes, Telegraph Road, a stop to patch up bloody knees, then road/Greensands Way/road back to the car. Total about 14 miles.

Learning points:
Car park was full at the Plough in Coldharbour – next time we’d be better off meeting at the Landslip or Starveall, see map.

Crew, kit, bruises:
Baris, Rowan, James, Ed, Colin, Anna, Vikki. 5 Specializeds, a Trek and a hire bike. Vikki bloodied her knee/shin on Telegraph Road, and, for the first time in living memory, Baris did not bleed. 😀

Chicksands, Sun 20th May

Keen to show his skills were still sharp after three months off the bike, Chris attacked the Chicksands singletrack from the start. Unfortunately he rammed the very first stump, supermanned the bars, hit the ground hard, and dislocated his shoulder. D’oh.

Paramedics were there quickly with the laughing gas, but Chris didn’t seem to be finding things very funny 😀 The ambulance took him to Bedford for morphine and manipulation.

Hope you get well soon Chris!

Watching Chris roll around in pain made us remaining riders feel 😐 so we took things gently on the XC loop. Only Ben tried the North Shore – since we last visited they’ve taken down the more extreme structures (the two huge ladder drops have gone, as has “Ed’s drop“).

We’re back at Chicksands next week, hopefully without the medics…

Route:
An hour of injury faff (tchoh!), then 2 laps of the red XC course, half an hour playing on the short technical loop, and some tiptoeing around in the freeride area. Total 11 miles.

Conditions:
Sunny and warm (20°C). The going was good – the sandy soil drains well so there wasn’t much mud.

Crew and kit:
Chris – Diamond Back (freshly serviced)
James – EX8
Baz – FSRxc
Rowan – Hardrock
Ben – Marin Northside Trail (brand new)
Louise – Cinder Cone (ancient, rigid fork, slick tyres)
Jimmy – Orange (elderly, random gear changing)

New format, new name…

I found the wiki format to be awkward for this site, and wondered if a blog would be more suitable. So here we are, let’s find out!

There’s already an easyriders blog at WordPress, so we needed a new name. The best I can do is mudandbruises – hope you like it 🙂