Bike washing stuff / service

The point the clocks go back each year is pretty significant for me - it signals the start of a period of shite weather, when, despite being motivated enough to get out and ride, the thought of spending several hours cleaning my bike afterwards is enough to demotivate me.

This year seems to be even worse than the last few, evident in the fact that it took me two whole weeks since the Tilgate Forest ride to clean my bike! That's an all-time record; I'm normally out scrubbing the bike straight after the ride or, the day after at the very latest. Finally, at the weekend, I found the time / motivation to wash my bike, treating her to almost a full bottle of Muc-Off, a new, degreased-then-oiled chain, a good old clean of the brake disks, and a buffing of the frame with "Bike Spray".

Once, again, my pride and joy was looking like it deserved the title on the outside, but due to a few creaks and groans, and the fact that I get suspicious if I haven't broken a bottom bracket within a years riding, I thought it was time she had another service. So, a quick call to Freedom Bikes, and a full service is arranged for Thursday. As far as I can tell, not too much needs doing - the rear wheel needs a true-up, the gears need adjusting slightly, the brakes need bleeding.. I'd not be surprised if a new cassette and possibly even chainset was needed though - in the 2.5 years I've owned the bike, I've only changed the cassette once that I can remember, and only the middle chainring has been changed on the chainset.

I quite fancy an XT chainset with external bearing bottom bracket, but then again, I've considered a new Kona Dawg Primo (2007 model in blue - I'm not at all fond of the colours of the other models), so this may be an attempt to stave off the desire to spend close to £2,000 spend on a new bike!

Anyway, will post again soon with an update on the service details, and will also get some of the random pictures I took of Tilgate up - I don't think I've posted a picture since before the Randonnee training started! TTFN!

Tilgate Forest

On Saturday, 27th October, Dayna, Will and myself headed to Crawley on the train, to have a go at finding Tilgate Forest and riding the trail that Dayna and I last rode about two years ago.

We haven't ridden Tilgate for ages, despite the fact that it has some great trails, including a downhill course. The reason for this is that we were no longer in a position to bosh the bikes on the back of a car and drive there.

I had a vague idea of how to get to Tilgate Park from Crawley; my only problem was that I didn't know where the station is in Crawley. Once we got there though, I recognised our location and with minimal faffing, we set off.

We'd come in to the park from the forest once, to get an ice cream before going back, so I knew it was pretty easy to get from one to the other; however, it did take us a while, and a few requests for directions to get to the bridge that goes over the M23. Again, once in the forest, we found our way to the relevant section pretty quickly, and started following the route. This initially follows very switch-backy singletrack until it gets to the first fire road; a short distance up it turns right on to the downhill course, with its' fantastic sweeping berms and (optional) jumps.

The downhill course continues over another fire road, and round a nice sweeping bend, past a tree, down a drop-off and over a section with small logs placed perpendicular to the trail. After another few metres through the undergrowth, it opens out on to yet another fire road. We turn left at this point, following the fire road for a few hundred metres, before following the trail to the right, and back on itself through a section with lots of ups and downs, which you need to be pretty familiar with to be able to clear, as gear selection is so important.

It was this part of the trail where it became apparent just how much damage has been caused to the trail by MXers; this section really is just a whole load of sloppy, churned up shite - we only completed it once, as it really wasn't fun. The rest of the the trail though, we rode a fair few times, as well as discovering other tracks that go through the part of the forest.

Dayna got a puncture going round this section, but the inner tube was soon replaced, and we were on our way, until, about three minutes later, I snapped a chain! I had just shifted down the cassette, and the chain clunked slightly; I waited a few revolutions before putting weight down, to make sure the chain had shifted properly, then stood up, and the chain snapped in two - not at the PowerLink join, I might add. Luckily, I had my chain tool with me, so that was fixed within about twn minutes. The re-join was pretty stiff though, and although I couldn't feel it jumping or anything, I'd lost faith in the chain, and after a few more laps, we decided to leave.

Friston Forest

Not posted for a while, due to being incredibly busy (as usual!), but have been getting out for at least short rides most weekends. Most recently was a trip to Friston Forest for myself and Will. We planned to get the train to Eastbourne and ride to Friston from there, but as it turns out, the trains were stopping at Berwick.

This added about 5 miles on to our journey, but was actually pretty handy, as it enabled us to get some food and water at Alfriston. It was an absolutely great ride, being the first time since the Randonnee that I'd gone out on a ride that was (a) not against the clock, with a certain distance to travel, and (b) with someone else!. My rides lately have almost been a token gesture, consisting of South Downs Way based riding, concentrating on keeping my heart rate in the fat burning zone - not very interesting ; (

The ride around the forest took about 1.5 hours, and it was the normal combination of varied terrain, quite relaxed pace and fun fun fun! The weather was fantastic as well. Even the trains linked up really well, with us only having to wait about 3 minutes between each connection. I'm aiming to get to Tilgate Forest soon, as I've not got route guides or galleries for there on the site yet, and it is great fun too. More posts to come soon!

Weekend ride

Went for a quick ride on Saturday, ending up riding up Truleigh Hill towards Devils Dyke, over a few hills and then down in to Southwick to get some bait and tackle for the evenings beach fishing. I was very pushed for time, with T abseiling down Arundel Castle later in the afternoon, so resigned myself to the fact that it would be a short one.

South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge Posts..