I-S
09-09-2007, 10:00 PM
And so we've concluded the MTB weekend... Let's have a recap!
The protagonists:
Steve "Mechanic!" Wildcards
Steve "Pissmeister" Brunty
Richy "Medic!" Rich
Trevor "Dirty Bastard" (Wildcard's mate - not on CVR4)
Isaac "Whippet" Sibson
The action started on the previous weekend - on saturday Richy Rich descended chez Sibson for a bike tune-up and a gentle first run on his new bike. Of course, gentle meant 800ft vertical gain over 3.5 miles or so....
Sunday brought Ade (g6acb) and wildcards to the same venue. Things did not start well - Steve's chain exploded before getting 10 yards. Using all of my remaining chain pins and some excess bits of chain I fixed it up. We got going, 150 yards up the "murderhorn" and bang. It's gone again in a different place. A quick trip to a bike shop didn't help - they were closed. Another bike shop was closed and halfords didn't have any 9 speed chains left. By now the weather had closed in and the rain was coming down and the hills were in the clouds, so riding was abandoned for the comforts of the Riverhead Brewery.
Fast forward to this weekend, and after a bit of a play on some welsh roads, I rolled up at Coed Y Brenin at about 11:45, just about right for the arranged time of 12:00. By about 12:20 Steve and Rich roll up, but no sign of brunty. Eventually steve and rich set off to look for him, and find he's gone to the accomodation rather than the mtb centre. Eventually, by about 1:30pm we get rolling, after deciding that the 19km MBR trail looks too "easy" and we go for the 20km "Tarw".
We set off, with no particular dramas or mechanicals. The first singletrack descent perhaps left Richy and Brunty wondering what they'd let themselves in for, but no offs either. After that it turned to slogging up the hill (after one bit where they all let me ride off into the distance, and waited until I came back to see what had happened... bastards).
After the hills (With at least one shout of "Whippet!" (or it might have been "Whip it") aimed in my direction), we started a few more of the single track sections, and I started running the headcam. Unfortunately it wasn't ideally zeroed, and I did get a couple of corrupted files, but still some results. After the first headcammed singletrack section we headed down a fast run down some fire road to some more singletrack, leading to richy's first crash. This section can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOe1ylbV0G4
Wildcards was leading down the singletrack section, followed by richy, myself, trevor and finally steve. Steve balked a section where the trail split, forcing the rest of us down the less good side of the trail, with richy leading. For a few seconds anyway. After that a good flight over the handlebars ending up with the bike on top of him and blood leaking from at least two limbs followed. With me close behind, this was caught on cam - Trevor's first question about the incident.
There followed some more descent and more climbing - eventually on one section of climb Wildcard's bike succumbed, once again, to mechanical failure. This time a pedal fell off - while he was clipped in. This lead to the rather entertaining (for the rest of us, anyway) spectacle of steve trying to get off his bike with one pedal stuck to the bottom of his shoe. It's a good job I carry tools...
Eventually we reached what seemed (it always seems, it never is) the top, and there followed a very fast run down fireroad (35-40mph) - this was a tad sketchy in places, and I clipped foliage off a tree, although no one actually witnessed this. More singletrack followed, this time with Richy leading, followed by trevor, followed by brunty, then myself and wildcards. This was the scene for Richy's second crash, not quite caught on camera. This can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJoTOsEvhXQ
Eventually after more descents (and a couple more falls for richy), then some fireroad climbing during which brunty learned to bunnyhop (like I said, it's easy on full sus). Final descent followed, and then a flat run back to the centre.
The evening consisted of watching rugby while drinking most of the way through the 20 pack of beck's I took with me, followed by a trip into Dolgellau for beer and curry and beer and beer and beer and beer, plus Trevor's insistence that the only gay bar in dolgellau (I'm fairly sure he didn't realise this...) was the only happening place... Eventually we wound up back at the bunkhouse, for trevor to fleece everyone out of their money (and a flat in benidorm... and 80p).
Next morning (today) broke nice and early. We didn't, however. We eventually managed to get upright about 11am. Trevor headed off, and the CVR4 mob went into dolgellau to avail ourselves of food. After a quick trip to the bikeshop for some new pedals for wildcards (the bearings in the old ones were screwed), we headed back out to the coed y brenin centre, intent on tackling the shorter Temtiwr trail. That was the plan anyway... Yesterday had taken it's toll on richy's bike (couple of teeth off the chainrings), and steve was now with new pedals, but his grips were all over the shop - thankfully the on-site bikeshop saw that sorted, and a quick tune up of brunty's bike and we were on our way. No helmet cam today as the batteries gave out the previous day.
Temtiwr opened with some rocks to wake up the unaware. Brunty remained unaware until laying on the ground... The first singletrack section was a good warm up, but the second... My word. This was fast and twisty - rocks, dips, berms. It flowed and turned and put a grin on everyone's face. Road section, then lots and lots of up. LOTS of up. Eventually at what appeared to be (but again, wasn't), Brunty took some photos. More up, and then final singletrack descents, with some truly EVIL rock constructions, and the shorter trail was despatched.
So... In summary, good riding, good company, good fun, okish food, etc.
Who's up for next time?
PS Richy - can you post some pics of the war wounds?
The protagonists:
Steve "Mechanic!" Wildcards
Steve "Pissmeister" Brunty
Richy "Medic!" Rich
Trevor "Dirty Bastard" (Wildcard's mate - not on CVR4)
Isaac "Whippet" Sibson
The action started on the previous weekend - on saturday Richy Rich descended chez Sibson for a bike tune-up and a gentle first run on his new bike. Of course, gentle meant 800ft vertical gain over 3.5 miles or so....
Sunday brought Ade (g6acb) and wildcards to the same venue. Things did not start well - Steve's chain exploded before getting 10 yards. Using all of my remaining chain pins and some excess bits of chain I fixed it up. We got going, 150 yards up the "murderhorn" and bang. It's gone again in a different place. A quick trip to a bike shop didn't help - they were closed. Another bike shop was closed and halfords didn't have any 9 speed chains left. By now the weather had closed in and the rain was coming down and the hills were in the clouds, so riding was abandoned for the comforts of the Riverhead Brewery.
Fast forward to this weekend, and after a bit of a play on some welsh roads, I rolled up at Coed Y Brenin at about 11:45, just about right for the arranged time of 12:00. By about 12:20 Steve and Rich roll up, but no sign of brunty. Eventually steve and rich set off to look for him, and find he's gone to the accomodation rather than the mtb centre. Eventually, by about 1:30pm we get rolling, after deciding that the 19km MBR trail looks too "easy" and we go for the 20km "Tarw".
We set off, with no particular dramas or mechanicals. The first singletrack descent perhaps left Richy and Brunty wondering what they'd let themselves in for, but no offs either. After that it turned to slogging up the hill (after one bit where they all let me ride off into the distance, and waited until I came back to see what had happened... bastards).
After the hills (With at least one shout of "Whippet!" (or it might have been "Whip it") aimed in my direction), we started a few more of the single track sections, and I started running the headcam. Unfortunately it wasn't ideally zeroed, and I did get a couple of corrupted files, but still some results. After the first headcammed singletrack section we headed down a fast run down some fire road to some more singletrack, leading to richy's first crash. This section can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOe1ylbV0G4
Wildcards was leading down the singletrack section, followed by richy, myself, trevor and finally steve. Steve balked a section where the trail split, forcing the rest of us down the less good side of the trail, with richy leading. For a few seconds anyway. After that a good flight over the handlebars ending up with the bike on top of him and blood leaking from at least two limbs followed. With me close behind, this was caught on cam - Trevor's first question about the incident.
There followed some more descent and more climbing - eventually on one section of climb Wildcard's bike succumbed, once again, to mechanical failure. This time a pedal fell off - while he was clipped in. This lead to the rather entertaining (for the rest of us, anyway) spectacle of steve trying to get off his bike with one pedal stuck to the bottom of his shoe. It's a good job I carry tools...
Eventually we reached what seemed (it always seems, it never is) the top, and there followed a very fast run down fireroad (35-40mph) - this was a tad sketchy in places, and I clipped foliage off a tree, although no one actually witnessed this. More singletrack followed, this time with Richy leading, followed by trevor, followed by brunty, then myself and wildcards. This was the scene for Richy's second crash, not quite caught on camera. This can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJoTOsEvhXQ
Eventually after more descents (and a couple more falls for richy), then some fireroad climbing during which brunty learned to bunnyhop (like I said, it's easy on full sus). Final descent followed, and then a flat run back to the centre.
The evening consisted of watching rugby while drinking most of the way through the 20 pack of beck's I took with me, followed by a trip into Dolgellau for beer and curry and beer and beer and beer and beer, plus Trevor's insistence that the only gay bar in dolgellau (I'm fairly sure he didn't realise this...) was the only happening place... Eventually we wound up back at the bunkhouse, for trevor to fleece everyone out of their money (and a flat in benidorm... and 80p).
Next morning (today) broke nice and early. We didn't, however. We eventually managed to get upright about 11am. Trevor headed off, and the CVR4 mob went into dolgellau to avail ourselves of food. After a quick trip to the bikeshop for some new pedals for wildcards (the bearings in the old ones were screwed), we headed back out to the coed y brenin centre, intent on tackling the shorter Temtiwr trail. That was the plan anyway... Yesterday had taken it's toll on richy's bike (couple of teeth off the chainrings), and steve was now with new pedals, but his grips were all over the shop - thankfully the on-site bikeshop saw that sorted, and a quick tune up of brunty's bike and we were on our way. No helmet cam today as the batteries gave out the previous day.
Temtiwr opened with some rocks to wake up the unaware. Brunty remained unaware until laying on the ground... The first singletrack section was a good warm up, but the second... My word. This was fast and twisty - rocks, dips, berms. It flowed and turned and put a grin on everyone's face. Road section, then lots and lots of up. LOTS of up. Eventually at what appeared to be (but again, wasn't), Brunty took some photos. More up, and then final singletrack descents, with some truly EVIL rock constructions, and the shorter trail was despatched.
So... In summary, good riding, good company, good fun, okish food, etc.
Who's up for next time?
PS Richy - can you post some pics of the war wounds?