The first weekend in February was marked by the fact that my brother Andrew (Supawal), got his new Specialized FSR. I collected it from the shop for him on Friday, and he was banging on my front door, having hot footed it from London, next morning at 8 o’clock.

Like a child with a new toy, he was very excited, and wanted to get on with setting it up straight away. Two hours later we set off on his ‘first ride’.

Saturday was a familiarisation ride. We visited Habberley Valley, for some singletrack shenanigans, before making our way to Kinver, via some tough climbs, and white knuckle descents. Supawal began a transformation as he became more at home on his new steed, trying new things that he would have never considered on his old hardtail bike.

Come Sunday, I decided it was time to turn up the wick, and rode out on my S-works race bike, this would give Supawal a run for his money. But no, the transformation continued, no longer could I keep up with him on the descents, he made it look so easy and casual as he dropped like a stone leaving me fighting rock’n’root all the way. Even on the flat, he was so smooth, his body language giving no indication of the terrain ahead. I, on the other hand, was hitting things left right and center, I found my self having to drop back.

By the end of the weekend the transformation was complete. Supawal is now a committed ‘full-suss’ rider with a penchant for riding more extreme trails than would be healthy for the average rider!

Some pictures from the weekend can be found here.

Since I tested the FSR things have moved on. I liked it so much that I had to test it again. Then I liked it even more, but I felt I needed some back-up, some second opinions. Enter my brother Andrew (Supawal), and my friend Dave. Both veteran mountainbikers with thousand of miles under their belts. But even better still for testing purposes… Continue reading →

I’ve been racing XC on a hardtail since 1989, when I bought a Muddy Fox Courier. Back then there was no such thing as a full suspension mountainbike.

The first ‘full sussers’ appeared a couple of years later. I was riding for the Mycycles team and our sponsors Cannondale sent us their first full suss incarnation. I can’t remember the name of the model, but we called it the fish bike on account of the way it moved when pedalled. At this time, full sussers were not an option for serious xc racers… Continue reading →

Out riding today you could forgiven for thinking that spring had arrived. I saw lambs, snowdrops, catkins, and some daffs. I know spring is really a long way off, but just for today it was nice to pretend. The only thing that was missing from my three hour tour of the lanes was my training partner Carla, who is still chained to the tiolet by her arse. Get well soon lover.

Today was the last of the planned training rides from Pearce Cycles, and what a wet day. Only three of us turned up, there would have been four, but Carla, who hadn’t missed one so far, was struck down with a bad case of the trots, and couldn’t afford to be too far away from the loo. It rained so much, and it was so mucky she needn’t have worried, ‘cos the rain would have washed it off, uuurrggh! ;-).Anyway, wet it was, but cold it was not, and we had a great two hour ride in the pouring rain. I rode a Santa Cruz Superlight! Very expensive test bike!

Carla, my lover, friend, life-partner, significant other, training partner, co-driver, manager, consultant, massuese, celebrates her birthday today. Now what do you get a beautiful woman in the prime of her life for her birthday? Well, ‘plan A’ fell through because the thing I ordered, which has to come halfway around the world, won’t be here until next week. Why didn’t I order it earlier? Because that was not possible, it didn’t exist before I ordered it, there was no way to order it earlier than I did. I suppose I could save it for a Valentines Day gift.

Anyway, ‘plan B’ ain’t so bad. I’ll go to the lingerie shop and buy her some nice underwear. Add a bottle of champers, a bar of chocolate, and some effort to let her know how much I love her, what more could a girl want?

It’s now six months since a spontaneous random dismount (crash) from my mountainbike left me with a badly broken shoulder. I remember lying on the ground next to my bike. I knew I had broken something ‘cos your arm just cannot go where mine had just been. I remember cursing, that I would be in plaster for six weeks, which is the usual amount of time it takes for a break to heal. Later when I arrived at hospital, they told me that I had dislocated it. Great, I thought, pop it back in, and away we go. But they went on to explain to me that it was very badly broken as well, and would never be the same again!… Continue reading →

Friday is fast approaching, and I have a four day weekend too look forward to (fri/sat/sun/mon). That means a fest of biking, boozing, and more biking. I’ve got it all planned out, 3hrs around the lanes and Kinver Tommorrow, 3hrs off-road at Ludlow on Saturday, 3hrs somewhere good on Sunday, then a couple of hours over Kinver on Monday.

That’s the plan, but I also have a physio session on Monday with the lovely Miss Hesketh for my ‘still recovering’ shoulder, which could leave me a little sore. Then I have an appointment with my consultant Mr Cool, for the same injury, that might leave me sore, and depressed. Still, that’s Monday and I’ll have had the best part of my long weekend by then.

Thursday lunchtime now, and I’m wishing my life away like a little kid. Roll on tonight, let the partying begin!

When I woke up and saw the weather this morning I didn’t think anyone would turn up, but they did! Just after we set off the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and we had a great big dirty ride.

On our return Lindsey had hot soup, hot mince pies, and hot tea waiting for us!

Thanks to everyone who came along, thanks to Lindsey for the refreshments, and thanks to Dave for letting me ride the Enduro test bike.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.