Happy Birthday Scott

This blog was never particularly intended to be a mountain biking blog, but since that became the most consuming leisure activity for me then the blog has naturally fallen that way.

So, on the "birthday" of my bike, it seems an appropriate time to sum up the past year. A year ago to the day I wandered into Wheelies bike shop with intent and came out with a life changing hunk of metal and plastic - a 2008 Scott Aspect 45. Since then I think it's fair to say I've had my life turned around!

Some Stats:

Approx weight last year	18 stone
Weight at peak sometime late summer	16 stone. I've put a little back on but I'm unconcerned, I've been ill with the local lurgi and Christmas has always been a time of binge now, worry later, for me - leaner times are ahead.
Total distance ridden	2007km
Hours in the saddle	190hrs
Average speed	10.6km/h
Maximum speed	63.4km/h
Longest ride	82km in 7hrs
Trail Centres dabbled with	4
Trail Centres exhausted	0

And, the bike's changed, almost out of all recognition:

	Then	Now
Forks	Suntour XCR	Rock Shox Psylos XC
Front mech	Shimano Altus 8 spd	Deore LX
Rear mech	Shimano Alivo	Deore LX 9 spd
Shifters	Shimano Alivo 24 spd	Shimano Deore LX 27 spd
Crank	Shimano Non-series	Deore LX
Cassette	Shimano C-series	Deore LX
Rims	Rigida Zac 19	Rear: Mavic DT321 EN
Skewers	Formula and Shimano Non-series	Halo Porkies XL
Saddle	Scott	WTB Pure V CrMo
Chain	Cheap KMC Z	Shimano HG73
Gear cables	Basic Shimano	Shimano Deore
Mech hanger	Scott	Pilo
Bottom Bracket	Shimano square taper non-series	Shimano Deore LX with sealed bearing upgrade
Pedals	Plastic Wellgo's	Shimano M540 SPDs and Wellgo MG1 flatties
Grips	Scott rubber	Lizard Skins/ODI lock-ons
Tyres	Scott Oxyd and Ozon aka Marigold Acne's	Maxxis Minions and Ignitors
New for old Value	£400	£900 perhaps
Money spent	Censored!!

Other major purchases along the way have been for AyUp off-road lights, a bike carrier for the car, professional tuning of the forks and various items of clothing and luggage. All-in-all, a small fortune. And to top it off, I'm talking about a full Suspension bike!! Is it money well spent? Of course, I think so! No-way would I ever have persevered with a gym and managed to lose 2 stone. And I've rekindled a passion worth doing again.

I've journeyed through a time warp in my head to get here. About this time 17 years ago my brother persuaded me to buy a mountain bike. I bought a cheap Emmelle rigid steed in the January sales and discovered a passion. I think the bike lasted 7 months of pure punishment and I bought a GT Avalanche - amongst the first mainstream front suspension bikes. It had Rock Shox Mag 1's and it was the dog's nuts. Interestingly, I fancied having a cool car to transport the bike in and bought a cool (it was then!) Suzuki 4x4. That got me into 4x4's, green laning, rally and ultimately, the Land Rover.

Somewhere down the line (1995 ish) I drifted away from it all, for various reasons. When you look at it, I wasn't a long time in it, but I experienced a lot. I did some epic rides including the great Brecon Beacons Gap road loop, Monks Trod, some other Mid Wales epics and Coed Morgannwg way (Basically a fire-road version of Skyline but with a return looping right out to Treorchy and Margam). I raced at Margam and Ebbw Vale, a number of times. I dabbled with downhill and once attained 47mph down a fire-road near the Wall's final descent. I made an unsuccessful attempt to jump back into it in about 1998 by buying my brother's little used GT Ricochet (he too had drifted from it). However, I buckled a wheel and it sat unused in the garage ever since. (Unbelievably, I still have it!). Now, on my return to the fold I find mountain biking is both strikingly familiar and yet a world away from what I remember.


What's different? We had mountain biking and the emerging discipline of Downhill. Now we have cross country, trail riding, All mountain, Free-ride, Dirt Jump, Downhill, slopestyle, 4X. And I've probably missed something. Then, as now, I wasn't sure what camp I was in! The technology is strikingly different!! Need I say more. Yet it's striking what has remained. Funny little things like 1 1/8 inch steerer tubes, and square taper bottom brackets. The proprietary tools for fastening Shimano BB's and Cassettes. The frame construction of a hard tail is basically the same. Oddly, right now, you can buy re-releases of the GT Avalanche and Zasker! Panaracer have re-released that old classic ground breaking tyre combo the Smoke and Dart! And of course Mint Sauce is still here!! We only had magazines, the local bike shop and telephones to do our research and make decisions on what parts to buy. Now we have the internet too. A double edged sword for me - whilst an invaluable source of info, also incredibly time consuming. Especially if, like me, you like to research a purchase to the limit of the resources you have at your disposal (once it was talk to the LBS, read a couple of mags, phone up another shop, speak to your mates - now it's some of that plus hours and hours of browsing and forum chats). The Afan Forest - Wow! Unrecognisable (for the main part). Those singletrack trails just blew me away first few times I rode them. I still come away from there zinging with excitement and I don't see that changing. Plus I've got dozens of other trail centres to visit if I wish!

So, what's next? I think I shall update my profile on the right of the page to reflect what my priorities for my leisure time are. I've been on a discovery of various things that I've looked at, bought and experienced. I'll put up a post summarising what I think of these things at some stage soon. That'll be a fitting summary for the year.

Scott's reward for bringing me to this point - whilst he'll be superseded by a full suss bike eventually, I can't ever imagine parting with him. He'll become a poor weather XC bike (to save wear on a more expensively spec'd steed) and/or a commuter bike. Or is this nostalgia making me overly emotional? ..... We'll see.

Pilau

Please be gentle with me!

Managed a ride around Penhydd on Saturday. This title would have been my plea if I'd voiced it. I'm still not right from the Christmas lurgi. Not helped by Christmas binging and inactivity, I felt quite unfit. So with low expectations and some trepidation (following my problems at Hopton Woods) I ventured into the hills with EG. He was harbouring a 4 month sabbatical, so we must have looked a right pair of not-rights when we stopped just above the car park 100 odd metres into the trail, gasping for our last living breathes. In fairness we'd already ridden a mile up from Pontrhydyfen where we park.

EG went onto scalp me over and over again on the climbs. Except on the climb to Hidden Valley. There's a little man inside me, who says things like "Nah, watch Eastenders instead, it's far more interesting than fitting a new tyre" or "100 calories for a really good Rum Truffle is a fair trade - go for it, in fact, eat the whole box" and "If you stop and have a rest here things will get a lot better!" Well, he flipped my climbing-mode-on switch!! And off I went. However, apart from that my laziness and love of food was making it's presence felt and it took us about 2 hours and 45 mins to nearly do Penhydd (we shortcut the end). Time for some fitness work methinks.

On the upside - no incidents, some bottoming out of the forks (a sign of my weight) made the bike a little twitchy in places. But at least I feel ready for another ride.

The 4 weeks since I last rode (Hopton at Christmas), The bike has sat neglected in the garage. WHAT A MISTAKE!! I drove home the 75 miles from my Mom & Dad's - It was a cold snap and the roads were salted and damp in places. The bike, on the back of the car, must have been covered in road salt. My big mistake was not washing it down before dumping it in a cold insufficiently ventilated garage. By Saturday the corrosion on it was heart breaking. Lots of the annodised parts have white oxidisation on them especially where the aluminium meets steel, like the spoke nipples. The chain was furry with rust (and it was nearly new!!) . The worst thing was the Rock Shox lower legs. Though they were already somewhat crusty, the corrosion was even worse, lifting off horrible big patches of paint. Now I'm waiting for a new chain, nearly all the links are stiff, wonder if it contributed to my constant scalping!?

Moral of the story - always wash the bike if it's been on the back of the car in the winter, road salt is evil!

I can't think of a title this time!

I've been quiet of late. 3 main reasons: work's been a little fraught, preoccupation with Christmas & birthday presents and more illness and lack of wellbeing. I can't complain about work, most of the time it's pretty easy going there. So by rights it has to be tough now and again!! Birthday and Christmas presents - need I say more, except my long suffering missus had to wait several (for me, traumatic) weeks to get either. The photo is of some Denby pottery rabbits and Byngos which we collect. She liked these in an antiques fair and they are now hers!

Somewhat more sinister has been my illness. Essentially a cold and then a bacterial chest infection. However,when I began coughing up blood I got alarmed. It was nothing, it seems I'd just burst a blood vessel, I just didn't like it!! More than this though, Bro and I (stupidly) headed for the hills and some MTB action in the middle of one of the coldest snaps in quite a long time. We aimed for Hopton Wood hoping to find way-marked trails and a ridable navigation free route. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out that way. It was cold, real cold, and I was right under the weather. A couple of times my balance and control went a bit funny. First of all resulting in an hilarious off, which should have, but didn't, lose me my teeth!! At the time I thought I'd slipped on ice, looking back I see it was something else. Then I reached a downhill where I simply couldn't control the bike, I couldn't understand why and blamed it on ice again. We called it a (short) day and went back to our Mum & Dad's, where I promptly flaked out whilst washing the bike!! It was a bit like a fit but I stayed conscious.

So now I'm at the good end of a course of antibiotics and am awaiting the results of some tests. Hopefully it was a passing phase, due to the illness, never to be repeated. In the meantime SWMBO has banned the bike!! :(

Can't leave this without a word about Hopton Wood. It's in Shropshire and it's primarily a downhillers' venue. There are some family routes on forestry tracks and some red graded singletrack, but it's main thrust is black graded singletrack with focus on the downhiller. If I was going there again I'd pick up a map first (from a bike shop somewhere in Ludlow). Being lost will spoil a visit to this trail centre. I'll be back but better prepared!