Monday 18 October 2010

Mabies Aye

For the last few weeks I've had a bit of extra time on my hands which I've been trying to put to good use by going out to play on my bike. Fun as it sounds there is a more serious reason for getting out on the bike more, six of us have signed up to participate in Maggies Monster Bike'n'Hike at the end of April 2011.

What does that involved?
A 30 mile bike ride plus one of an 8, 22 or 43 mile hike.
If you are feeling generous feel free to donate/sponsor our team at http://justgiving.com/jiggypete

See why I need to get some training underway?

Having got out for a number of runs round the Carron Valley and the Lochgoin Circuit at Whitelee Windfarm the odd bit of wear and tear appeared on the bike. The folks at Wheelcraft were a great help sorting my gears, brakes and chain.



Big Al and the guys were all friendly, helpful and incredibly knowledgable on everything bike related, I can't recommend them enough.

Prior to taking on something a bit more challenging I had a niggling concern. Ross, one of my biking buddies, had a bit of a crash landing at 25mph when going round the Carron Valley. He had pains in his wrists, elbows and previously broken ribs despite wearing a cosy piece of 661 body armour. If I was going to venture into something braver/stupider it seemed like a good time to pick up some body armour.



That was purchased on Saturday just in time for Sundays trip to the Mabie Forest!

Finally Sunday arrived and it was time to get the bike into the car, pick up Ross and head to Mabie.
An hour and a half later we arrived, got changed, put the bikes together and found the rest of the group all ready to take on one of the 7Stanes red routes.

20 meters from the car and the chain snapped. What a start.
5 minutes later and we're ready to go again.

The first section of the red route is the Butterhole Climb. It is well named and not the easy start I was hoping for. The downhill section is very lumpy and bumpy. You could easily loose some inner tubes on this section ( infact all of the forest ). Only one part caught me out where I was nearly over the handlebars.

The Countour Climb seemed a lot easier going, with a easy going firetrack leading to it....be careful of the little bridge with a tree root at the far side. It's a small manageable jump so get that front wheel up but it can cause a bit of a hold up on the route with riders stopping to push their bike over it. This section gets a bit harder towards the end again getting a bit steep for my legs and lungs.

Once at the top you enter the Descender Bender which has replaced a technical park. It's full of fast tight berms which is great fun!

Then we made it to Stan's Pond. Lots of nice tight single track through the forest. This is where I broke in the body armour over compensating when coming out of a berm and off I came.
Sure I've left a hole in the ground where I landed. The right shoulder took the brunt of the fall, just like the other crash that landed me in hospital a few years back. Fortunately the shoulders and elbows were protected by the armour so it was a case of getting up, catching my breath and climbing back on the bike.

The Scorpion, I have no idea why it is called The Scorpion. It doesn't matter what they call it, this section has the biggest, steepest climb of the red route. If you don't get off to push up this section I'd be astonished!

The Roller Coaster was the last part of the red route we took on. Any climb by this part of the day was getting done on foot, I was spent. The uphills weren't that steep but still beyond my fitness. Lots of nice rolling sections finished off with a pretty high drop off - be warned you'll need a bit of speed, if you're spent go round it.

Too finish off the day we followed a blue track back to the car park.

Phew, it was really hard going and great fun flying about the place particularly when on the bike.
Should be easier next time!
Wooo

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