Nice tyres but could have done with a pedallo yesterday!!

Needs must and availability finally made the decision for me. I got me a set of Maxxis Ignitors. They're hugely more confident in the corners, they roll really well for a 2.35 tyre and they cope nicely on fast rocky downhills. They're not as good as the old Smoke in deep mud or loamy soil. But you can't have everything!! Oh, and I didn't get any punctures!!!

I took them for a spin yesterday (impatient) and heaved 14miles in the pouring rain and gale force winds. Hence needing a pedallo! Today it's been wall to wall sunshine and I'm knackered - how bad was yesterday's decision?

Pregnant tyre!!

Afan nails the final nail in my tyre's coffin. Ironically it was a rock not a nail!!

My Hero - Mint Sauce

My rediscovery continues - Jo Burt's inspired cartoons always seemed to reflect so much of what Mountain Biking was to me as a youngster and will I guess still have that ability. Pay homage to the great Mishun H. Sugworth at http://www.thisiswhy.co.uk/.

My, how it's changed!!

I'm finally back in the woods!! Whoop!

Took a run up Penhydd (Afan Argoed) on Thursday. It was a real pleasure/pain thing. By the time I reached "To the Top 2" I had to check someone hadn't performed open heart surgery on me!! Somehow, by the time I reached "Desolation" I'd recovered a little and was able to enjoy my first experience of Afan's man made downhill singletrack. It was a real blast! In my day 80% of the riding we did in Afan was on fire roads. Singletrack was just footpaths that happened to be there, they weren't built for us MTBers. I've got to say it's a huge improvement on a fab MTBing environment.

Of course, when I took the photo I was already enjoying myself, I had no idea the best was yet to come! "Side Winder" and "Hidden Valley" are particularly awesome. Hidden Valley not least because it has those lairy drops to the side. I should have enjoyed "Argoed" and "Dead Sheep Gultch" but by then I was starting to hang on for dear life because I was tiring!! I nearly came a right SPD induced cropper on "Rocky Rebellion" nearly falling headlong down a 6 foot drop onto rocks when I came to sudden stop and didn't get my appropriate foot out quick enough.

Argoed finally killed my ailing Panaracer Smoke - the inner tube's bulging out the side like a pregnant cow!!

I feel re-born! Drove home on a cloud!

Looks like I was a bit over optimistic!

Found another one!! That makes it 2 days and 7 punctures!! I wonder if the same thorn has been lurking in the tyre for a couple of rides?

I must be a glutton for punishment!

Saturday, and yep, I went back to those woods again!! Tried a completely different approach and ended up having to scale a 6 foot vertical bank and pushing for a good half mile over impossible terrain! I did find a few better tracks but my original idea of doing 2 miles in the woods will be closer to 1km.

And the puncture monster struck again. On my final downhill blast, 2 pinch punctures top and bottom of the tube dead in the centre. And deja vue or what? Despite the repairs, it deflated on the way home!! 2 days=6 punctures - I NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!

On the plus side - 2 days=nearly 34 miles. :)

An easter weekend MTB fest? No, a puncture fest!!

Headed into some woodland for thursday's ride. Thought I'd check out some routes for my Gower Bike Ride epic. There were some excellent bits of single track but far too much that I couldn't ride. Doesn't look like I can use these woods for much.

After that I headed for familiar turf only to get a thorn in my tyre. It was right next to a previous repair and I thought that repair had failed. So I removed that patch and fixed it before finding the real culprit!! Despite the repairs, which were a mud covered nightmare, it continued to go down and I had to pump it up twice on the way home. Turned out it had 2 other small punctures!! Finished up pushing the last half mile!!

Ouch! That flippin' hurt!!!

SPDs - what can I say? For a start I'm going down to the bike shop to duff up the guy who told me I'd fall off twice before I'd instinctively learn to get my feet out of the clips!! Twice!!! Fifteen more like! And I guess I only stopped falling off because the ride finished!! What's more, every time I fell off there was a large bramble waiting to have me. Even when I fell in a 6 inch deep pool of muddy water (or was it watery mud?) there were brambles in it. This is going to be a steeper curve than I thought. Main problem is I tend to ride really nadgery trails and until I can get my feet out quickly I need to anticipate trouble and pull one foot out. Havng said that, I don't think it would have helped much on my worst fall - I slipped off a small log in a rut on a fast steep downhill and got pushed off-camber on the following bend. The rut held the wheel and I went head-long into guess what? A BRAMBLE!! Arrrghghgh!

However, what I did notice was the huge increase in efficiency and strength when I was able to get the power down. I really noticed it on the 2 mile hammer for home.

Despite the promise of bad weather it turned into quite a nice Sunday. Did a 12 miler with my new SPD's (more about that above). This was the view from a suprising little almost rural enclave surrounded by urban sprawl. There were even 4 buzzards wheeling around above me!

It was a real mixed bag of a ride. You know that old Panaracer Smoke I bought? Well I can see the inner tube through the side wall now!! I spent ages about 5 miles in taking the rear wheel apart to fix a puncture that didn't exist - it had just lost pressure because the side walls were losing their strength. However, on the plus side I noticed the front brakes were near to the metal and having now taken to carrying spare pads I whapped new pads in!! I'm getting a bit concerned about the life of these brake pads - time for some research.

Some truly excellent tracks, but some were new to me and I quickly got lost and struggled for ages to find an easy way across a bog filled valley. On top of that part of my routes went through a hole in a fence, across a field and into a housing estate. The landowners are obviously not happy with people crossing the field, they've repaired the hole and are building a new fence. So rather than force my way through I looked for an alternative (I want to use the route in the future). So, another age spent finding a way round the field.

After that I hammered for home it had been a good ride despite it's problems.

Welcome to the 21st century!

Finally decided to take the plunge and get some SPDs. I knew I'd fall on my side at some point but I wasn't expecting to do so in the garage while I was setting them up!!

I had to do something, 1 pedal was near seized and I spent most of the 5 miles of last nights ride trying to turn the toeclip round and get my toe in. Hence the SPDs. More road rash pictures to follow....

Relaxing weekend at Ma & Pa's

Wasn't just us had a relaxing weekend at me Mum & Dad's - Winnie did too!

Despite not feeling 100% and the problems with the bike and the bad weather, I'm getting back into the groove on the bike. Did an 11 mile ride Wednesday night. Really impressed myself by knocking 10 minutes off the previous run and I don't think I was pushing anywhere near as hard on the flat 2 mile sprint back. Happy!!

If the weather permits I need to get another ride in over the next 3 days. I'd like to get out in daylight for a change and find some new routes, but I think we got nasty weather for the weekend.

6 weeks old and wrecked!! :)

6 weeks old, 90 miles on the clock and my Scott's had it's free service from Wheelies. So far I've burnt out the brakes, worn out the bearings in one pedal, punctured both tyres, scratched the top tube badly and put a small rip in the saddle!! Not bad for 6 weeks.

Those 2 ancient Panaracer tyres I put on: got the guy in the bike shop interested. He's doing up an old Diamond Back and I think he'll give me a pair of brand new tyres for my old ones!!

Dead brake pads!

This is what happens when the friction compound seperates from the metal under stress. The spring gets pushed into the disk and mangled and the disk gets scored. Oh, and the brakes fade really badly and start smoking!!

Back in the chair!

10 miler today and I'm feeling pretty good! Had a cracking ride, found a corker of a route (which has to go in my Gower bike ride). Loads of mud and a couple of good downhills. Fell off like the spaceship crash landing in Men in Black right in the middle of a pool of mud!! Destroyed a set of brake pads trying to stop on a steep hill!! Plans for tomorrow, looking forward to some good rides next week.