Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I am definitely up for Saturday morning, but I think that I'm meant to be helping my sister move on Friday lunchtime. If someone wants to do an early/short ride on Friday, so that I could be back in London for a bit after midday, that could work.

Anyone up for meeting at the Lookout at 8.17am? (so a 7.30am departure from London)?

not really, shattered from brighton jaunt today

If you're tired, have an early night, get up early tomorrow and we can do some crack-of-dawn MTBing.

Easy.

Unlikely...sorry. Too early for even me :(

OK, what is the plan for tomorrow's ride? And is anyone interested in a New Year's Day ride (road or MTB) - preferably in the morning but not too early, so a 10am-ish meet?

tomorrow i will meet Brent for skills training at 9.30, this should be finished by approx 12

so either come for skills training or meet later for riding

New years day I'll be doing the Madison Cross at Herne Hill - just rock up, £6, two man team relay, race is an hour or so, MTBs welcome IIRC.

James, I'll let you know about Sat - I'm trying to get a road ride scheduled in but have a feeling it will fall through.

Road ride is on, will aim for mud next Sat. Have fun :)

Who would be interested in doing a serious 3 day MTB skills course?

I have been looking at www.BetterRide.net as an information source.

The work with people from world champions to enthusiastic amateurs.

Would people want to do a 3 day course with them if a coach came over from the states?

More info here

http://betterride.net/mountainbikeclinicsandcamps/mountain-bike-camps-clinics-skills-coaching/

I may well be depending on timing/cost.

Interested, again depending on timing / cost.

Have a look at their website for approx costs.

$620 for three days with someone who's probably never ridden in mud!

I'll pass, thanks.

James. what skills are you seeking to improve?
I am seeking more paid ride leading this year to use CTC Tech leader quali as I move into more self employed status.
come down and ride the Purbecks/ Wareham Forest and some other local areas , ill put you up here at Hogwarts self catering gratis club together with mates and pay me day rate for a guiding/instruction.serious offer p.m me for more details.

Anyone heading to Swinley this weekend (7th or 8th Jan)?

Just found out the nearest station to Chicksands is only 36 mins from Kings cross which is nice as my Van's been crippled by the LEZ. Any of you guys ever ride up there?

Heading up Saturday morning as reckon Epping will be soggy.

Don't know if anyone's familiar with this but just ordered a 28t one.

Hopefully will now be able to get up everything at Swinely on 1x9.

http://www.widgit.com.au/chainrings.html

i could be up for saturday.

I may be as well

Sat AM is good for me, need to be back in London for 2pm ish.

Jason

I would like to learn some drills etc to improve bike handling. A friend has been doing some skills training, which has been useful, but it tends to be a couple of hours at a time. From the betterride website it appears they have a lot of very focused drills and technical advice to help people improve.

It seems that many peoples attitude to MTB training is just to go and ride more, where as in most sports technical training is a huge part. Learning good skills to start with is much easier than correcting ingrained faults later on.

articles like http://betterride.net/blog/2010/mountain-bike-desending-body-position-101-video-demonstration/

Show the difference between the conventional wisdom on MTB technique and the potential better practice. What I have learned from other sports and the training sessions with Brent is that time spent working on technique rather than just riding is a good investment.

Try Tony (Jedi) at UK Bike Skills for tuition. He's pretty much regarded as a bit of a don in MTB circles in the SE.

http://www.ukbikeskills.co.uk/

After some light, cheap rigid 26" disc only forks for my mtb, needs a really long steerer. any one have anything kicking about?