Glentress again

Early morning start down to Glentress, only to find the place full of people setting up the Scottish XC Championships. Went up to 'Spooky Wood' a build section at the top of the red run that we had not done before. Lots of jumps, berms and a few drop offs. The first time were were distinctly careful, but after a couple of steep climbs back up we were getting some speed and managing to jump off, if not over, all the tabletops and little bumps. Still braking too much, so some parts not enough speed. By the 3rd time round there was a crowd at the top - people with all sorts of bikes - a couple of old hard tails, full sus, hard tail jump bikes etc. One group were putting on armour. I wonder if by next year it will be normal to do this, given the greater number of jumps being built, and the higher incidence of injury. The manager of the Hub, who was setting up the XC race told us that lots pf people were trying to do the red jump course on XC bikes with the seat up! The advice they give on the signs is full face helmets and body armour.
After the jumps we headed off to the V-trail - the Boundary, and down the boneshaking trail and a long climb up though the rain forest section that is hot and full of flies. Managed the log piles and rooty drop offs no problem, and even the rock steps, but still defeated by the sharp left hander in the deep dark woods. No injuries though. Fantastic day, although I was compeltely knackered by 9pm. 3:25hr out, 30km, 800m climb. Rear derellieur not working well in gears 2-4, so time for a professional service.
Picture of Neil

and me after the ride modeling 2006 bike fashion.

Links:
Plans for a big new visitor's centre at Glentress
Forestry Commission mountain bike portal.

Couple of winter photos

Now that I have got a Flickr account I can easily post some photos. Here are a couple of Neil taken on the winter Pentlands ride, using my phone.

Buckles and bunny hops

Managed to get a pinch flat and buckle the back wheel slightly just hitting a curb at a shallow angle outside the local shop! The front wheel also seems to be buckled. A few months ago I could not see the point of learning something like wheel building and aligning, but now I do, since new wheels are pretty expensive, and they bend fairly easily. Neil managed to buckle his wheel too, and damage some spokes. Repair man said his hubs were damaged from heavy riding. Must get mine checked too. Suddenly have to start studying differences between wheels, rims and hubs. Am I overdoing it on the light XC rims?

Some good news on technique progress: I managed to improve the bunny hops. Instead of just trying to jump higher, I did was everyone recommends, and practiced jumping over things in a farmyeard where we spent the weekend camping. The main thing was to get the correct technique, which I did on a 2 inch log, then found a piece of 2x4 and stood it on end. Soon sailing over it every time, concentrating on a good frong fork compression well before the jump, looking ahead, and pushing the front wheel down as soon as it is over the obstacle. Now to work up to 6"... I still managed to hit the large scab on my leg from last week's practice session - should have been wearing the shin pads I bought from the hockey shop. That came from trying too hard, not just relaxing and letting the feet come up naturally. My shoulder is still sore from bad technique bunny hopping, so I will give it a week's rest.

A couple of links this today:
Shimano parts catalogue
Sheldon Brown's Wheel building page
National Bike week 17-25 June

Great Pentlands ride

We had a great ride though the Pentlands on Sunday morning - a beautiful clear sunny day. Out to the bypass, up past the recycling commune, up Wakelaw Hill, and through Easter Knieth Farm.Up the track in the woods, down to Harlaw Ranger's Cottage for water and over to Black Springs. Completely dry, so through Den's Cleugh, and up the Glen to the end, and pushed up the path to ride along the north slopes of East and West Kip to the cross-Pentlands path from Balerno. This is pretty much on grass the whole way up. (A better ride might be across the valley on the south of Hare Hill.Also saw a path round the south of East Kip to do one day) Great run down the path north, fast with lots of little jumps and hops over ditches. I managed to get caught in a big rut once, and dived off the path. Back towards Green Cleugh from Bavelaw and a bit of a push up the field which was covered in bracken to ride down Black hill to Black Springs again. Not so fun as the first time, but reasonably technical, avoiding rocks and ruts. Home round Harlaw, down Poets Glen, down the steps (no problem now!) to the Water of Leith and home. 4:20hr out, about 3:40 on the move, 47k. Pretty much the longest ride we have done so far. Next ride I think has to include the descent from Cap Law to Nine Mile burn and the ascent of Old Kirk Road.

Progress

Sore back is much better after a couple of times round Arthur's Seat on the bike. Went out with Neil in the Meadows and we practiced wheelies and climbing a big stump. Wheelies getting much better - now sideways stability is starting to be more a problem than just keeping the wheel up. We also went to George sq and got disapproving looks by riding down the stairs. Did the main run from the library to Buccleuch place - which was a psychological milestone, even though in fact it is very easy. Now I should have the courage to do the steps outside the office. Finally I managed a couple of real bunny hops - the 'sucking up' with the legs part. Not sure how, because after doing it 3 times I couldn't do it any more and made a big hole in my shin with the pedal that was bleeding all evening. At least I now know it is possible, not something that only teenage BMX riders can learn.

Wheelie Drops

Went out sunday morning to practice technique. Got wheelie drops going well down the steps outside the Youth Hostel on the Links - it is just two steps. Wheelie drops are for riding off a ledge at slow speed, and landing safely rather than doing a face-plant - basically, lifting the front wheel and landing on the backwheel or both level. Then we found a nice tree stump that we could ride up and drop off, or ride down one of the roots. Neil nailed it every time, but it took me ages to get it, just could not get the front end up. Realised I was not moving my body back and up enough, just trying to rely on the pedal kick. Bad news, my back is still aching, and the 3 hour tango class in the afternoon needed gritted teeth. Solution: 1) 2 hours trying to do wheelies and manuals is too much, 2) if something is not working, go and do something else for a while.
video and discussion of 'Secret Reality' tutorial
MBUK.com on Wheelie Drops
Utah Mountain Bike page on going off ledges
Page 7 of Fall 2005 edition of 'Bicycle paper'.
MTB Kanata Has bunny hop technique videos

Urban riding training videos

More videos of things I will probably never be able to do!

English-Spanish bike dictionnary

Sheldon Brown has a useful bilingual dictionnary of bike terms

Yahoo Maps and Satellite

Yahoo maps have now added satellite images and a similar API to google, expect they have actally got decent photos of central Edinburgh. Here is Craiglockhart Hill in h i-res. I was going to build a map with markers in Google, but I will try Yahoo instead. However they do not seem to have very detailed maps.