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@dancing james
A day of bimbletrack at Swinley.
[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/135331887[/ame]
The reprobates gathered, Tester was there early, then Gabes and I followed by Tom. and Unharmed. It was cold, average for the duration at Swinley was 1.5 degrees. By now we seem to be good at wearing appropriate clothing so it was not actually too grim. Plus there is plenty of tree cover so we were never subjected to cold winds.
Decided to do a slightly different take on our usual route out, and headed to Labyrinth as our first named destination. There is a fantastic section of singletrack for nearly the entire route, and we got stuck in. Clearly others had been out on Saturday as the trail was muddy and slippery. I had just received my new Sidi carbon disco slippers and made the decision to install the cleats with the more difficult release setting. Tom.'s joy at this announcement and the likelihood of my imminent unclipping failure was palpable. About 5 minutes into the ride and an inverse cambered corner with mud and roots took me out, wheel span, lost momentum and then the sudden tumble. Thankfully there were 2 of our group and some others there to witness my rolling in the mud (and yes it happened to fast for me to unclip but I doubt the cleat change made any difference). Given the conditions not even my pride was dented by this and I was back up and moving before others even realised my error had occurred.
Thankfully I was not the only one having issues with the ground underneath, clearly I was into falling of bikes on muddy roots before it was cool, as the others then jumped my bandwagon. Gabes I believe was next, followed by Unharmed ending upside down with his bike above him. Even our most adept rider, Tom. had a few moments on slippery climbs. Tester however seemed to escape all such problems, clearly not a dedicated follower of fashion.
It has been amazing watching peoples skills and fitness develop, Gabes' cardio has improved massively in a month of trips to Swinley and clearly his turbo sessions (despite leaving him with dead legs yesterday) have been paying off. It was also interesting to see how the 2cm slip of his saddle on the rails led to some lower back pain, even on an MTB fit can be a serious issue.
Given the treacherous terrain on the day, and taking our regular dives into the mud into consideration, it was clear that compared to this time last year Unharmed and myself are staying upright a lot more of the time and can tackle a lot more challenging sections with a greater degree of success. The regular jaunts out are making a difference. The best thing is that we get to enjoy ourselves more as we become more adept.
There was a comedy bike throwing moment from Gabes when he had a DJ moment of frustration after one section of trail led to a slew of slips and wheel spin. Labyrinth was wet, huge puddles on some of the berms made it interesting - for me it was the question of hold the usual line but be unable to see what was hidden in the puddle or take a less preferable line but know what was under the wheels. First time down i was cautious, the second I was trying to follow Gabes and took the risk. Descending is the greatest of my many areas of weakness on an MTB, still lacking the confidence to let go and for the bike to do all the work.
There was the added excitement of my new fork having rather given up the ghost, the seals seem to have all died and it has been spraying oil everywhere, so it now has an interesting habit of suddenly plunging but in an utterly unpredictable manner. Probably because on descents I try to keep my weight back a bit it was not so bad, but on minor dips it was suddenly sinking.
The climb of heart death after Labyrinth is actually becoming easier, and my heart rate is not rising to such high levels as the first time I nailed it a few weeks ago. After the second go at the descent we noticed some others riding SS and I mentioned to Tester that there were others for him to play with, Jorj I hope you did not take offence (as you suddenly decided it was time to return to the carpark and back home).
We took a meandering route of singletrack back to the Lookout, including finding a couple of new bermed sandy roundabouts in the middle of the forest, before heading out to Stickler and Tank Traps, by this point the effects of the cold were starting to take their toll, it was not so much that we were physically chilled but that the extra work by our bodies to stay warm was really starting to tire us out.
A return home was decided upon, and we all had to work out logistics for cleaning off our bikes, it had been filthy going. Tom. was to avail himself of Unharmed's hose, and Gabes to come back to mine to remove the filth.
There was talk of possible Boxing Day ride, I am hoping I get a chance to burn off some of the xmas xs.