Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

But yes, me at 79kg vs 670lbs spring at Swinley. Seems odd, I admit.

And you're quite sure that you're not landing like a sack of potatoes?

Not at all - that may be the issue.

Although I am working on that.

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This van setup is sick, I'm so jealous

Of all the cars you've owned, this is the best.

Didn't realised the tailgate door open like a regular car boot.

4 seconds faster through the berm descent at Swinley (Red 22) with the 27.5” rear wheel.

Van set up looks sick.

Apropos of nothing I was watching a car programme on the TV the other day and they renewed all four shocks with tuneable, adjustable shocks for £200 for the set. Why does my single unit for my MTB cost double that?

Miniaturisation and other annoying things specific to bikes.

The van is getting better each time I use it and both get more used to it and make it slightly more suitable, by moving things around etc. Really happy with it.

I took photographs of my travel indicator at various stopping points around Swinley in order to answer the “how did you use all your travel there?” question.

With the 550-670 spring I’m at 17mm for dynamic sag (pedalling down a fire road), which is bang on 30%, so that seems fine.

I get to within ~7mm of full stroke when hitting faster jumps-to-flat, and ~15mm left when doing downhill stuff with small jumps and lots of pumping.

Overall I’m feeling pretty happy with it, I think the next thing is a bit more pressure in the fork, and maybe just a little more compression damping on the shock.

Uh oh

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Unexpected quick release?

Is it the thread on the through axle or the frame that has failed?

Replaceable dropout is stripped

But also replaced, so should work now.

I watched an Aaron Gwynn video on YouTube the other day, it was a tutorial about cornering- or, rather, the importance of looking through the corner in order to take the correct line.

Now, I’ve watched a lot of these but one thing Mr Gwynn said that I’d not heard before was why you - basically if you look at a spot in the corner you’ll stand the bike up as you reach it. Keep your eyes on the exit and the bike stays leaned over and you rail round the turn.

Made me go out and practice really focussing on the corner exit and it has made a big difference.

I find it really helps when someone includes the “why” with the “what”, and this was a great example of that.

Target fixation. Same thing you're taught when learning to ride a motorcycle. If you look at the outside of the bend as is the temptation, you're dead.

Sure- thing was, I didn’t know the mechanism, as it were, and now I do it makes a lot more sense.

Same with road cycling too, have you been cycling wrong all these decades Neil??

(Kidding aside, it like the counter steer, we all do it but don’t realised it).

I have been enjoying my 295 as a mullet, the looks of it I’m honestly ok with. Hard, of course, to be objective but I am convinced that it turns in to tight fast turns significantly more eagerly.

Not that I’m going to abandon the 29er configuration- but I might put both rear wheels in the car and pick based on how each feel on the first couple of runs.

I have sent the 529 fork off for a service, once that’s back I’ll send the 295 fork off- and will get the air shaft swapped to a 160 at the same time, as post-Secus it sits at around 10% sag with the air chambers equalised.

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Evicting the DMR pedals.

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