Brass Monkeys Winter Series Rnd 3

Look 4hrs of riding and no mud!

The second Sunday of the year and it was great to be back racing again. Better still the sun shone and the trails were dry, already trumping 99% of the events I attended in 2012! Five hundred riders gathered at the Tunnel Hill course near Pirbright for the third and final round of the Merida Brass Monkeys winter series. Despite the sunshine the average temperature over the 4 hour 30 minutes I was racing was a bone chilling 2 degrees.

The course would rate highly amongst the best I have ridden. The vast majority being fast flowing single track, even some of the climbs were technically interesting and challenging. As is usual with Gorrick there was a dizzyingly twisty section in the trees, but on the whole it was a really enjoyable 7 mile circuit. However, as I have already said the highlight was undoubtedly how dry the course was despite the recent weather.

As I had missed a round I wasn’t gridded at the start. This made the first few miles more fun than usual! Back in the pack there was plenty of bumping and barging as everyone fought for the same bit of singletrack. Having found some space I was starting to move up the field when the chain dropped off my new mono chainring. Using a single chainring at the front without a chain guide was always going to be a bit of an experiment and now I had the answer! You DO need a chain guide, even with a clutch rear mech fitted. Anyway it was perhaps only 10 to 20 seconds until I was back up and running but several riders had crept past. The chain dropped 3 more times in the first two laps, until I learnt to avoid the higher gears and ride at the top of the cassette, where the extra tension in the derailleur seemed to keep everything in place. Obviously this meant I lacked top end speed on some of the flatter sections but this became less of an issue as the laps wore on and my pace naturally slowed.

To be honest I felt terrible on the bike. I think a lack of off-road riding was partly to blame, with too many training miles spent on the road bike. Off-road riding is a different type of cycling, power output is far less consistent than steady miles on the road ride. Instead you are constantly pushing up a slope or accelerating out of a corner. As I came round to complete my third lap the legs were beginning to wilt and so was my rear tyre. Luckily I was able to nurse the bike back to the pit area with a little air still remaining.

After a top-up I set off again, only to hit the back of the 2 hour race which had just started. To be honest it wouldn’t have been much slower to walk. The riders at the back of the 2 hour “race” are having a lovely ride in the woods, but you certainly wouldn’t describe their pace as brisk. Constant calls of “Rider left” or “Rider right” often result in a worried glance over the shoulder before a wobbly exit into the foliage. Looking at the lap times I would calculate I lost 8 minutes on a 48 minute lap trapped behind slower riders.

However, eventually perseverance paid off and myself and two other 4 hour riders emerged on the other side. Neither of my new companions seemed willing to come past, both sitting contentedly on my rear wheel for over a lap. As I crossed the line for the 5th time the clock said we had been riding for 3hrs 50 minutes. Only one lap remained. I had a final swig from the bottle, a fig roll from my back pocket and dug deep for the push to the line.

We quickly dropped one of my followers but the other stayed glued to me like a shadow. I pushed on a couple of times and the gap grew to 5 -10 metres but he always got back on my wheel. So after four and a half hours of racing we came to the final hill, a steep tangled mass of roots. I kicked as hard as I possibly could, pushing my calves to the very verge of cramping. Half way up was a back marker, I went to the left, my shadow darted to the right. Then I heard a ‘CLUNK’ and a shout of “Oh Fu*k!” I’ve no idea what happened, I didn’t look back, I just kept pushing hard for the line praying my chain wouldn’t derail one final time.

It didn’t and I finished a respectable although not remarkable 16th out of 72 starters.

SKS Chromoplastic Review

The SKS Chromoplastic is widely regarded as the king of mudguards. The rigid construction is formed from sandwiching aluminium between two layers of plastic. The guards themselves are held in place with sturdy stays, and all the fixing bolts are supplied to securely mount them to your bike. (You do require mounting points on frame and fork.) Adjustment is simple, just trim the stays to approximately the right length and then tune the final position before tightening all the bolts.

The rigidity of the set-up was quite simply a revelation! I have had other mudguards before and I was constantly having to readjust them to eliminate tyre rub. With the Chromoplastic guards, once they are in place they stay in place. The stays are held under tension so there are no loose, wobbly guards flapping around. This has the added advantage of allowing them to be set-up nice and tight to the tyres. A particular advantage if space is restricted under your frame or fork.

I had no problems fitting the rear guard to my Trek Madone 3.1 but the forks have hidden mounts, so I had to get creative with some simple little right angled brackets. I also chose the black finish which I felt were less obvious and didn't give my Trek the appearance of a shopping bike!

For winter I have stepped up to a 25mm tyre from the 23 I had originally. I did have to slightly retrim the front guard, just because I had set it so close. This took about 5 minutes and now everything is running quietly again. No rattles, no flex just a dry backside and a clean bike!

It is hard to get excited about a set of mudguards, but these really are an awesome bit of kit. It is so nice when you find something that has been well designed and does exactly what you wanted it to do. Top marks!

2012 Review

 2012 was muddy but hugely enjoyable!

Race wise 2012 has been a busy and exciting year, with over 20 events at a broad range of venues from January through to December.

The Gorrick XC series from February through to April is the largest mtb series in the UK. Attendance exceeded 600 at each of the 5 rounds. I frustratingly finished just outside the top 10 overall in 11th; a position I repeated in the Southern UK series including the Southern UK championship.

The popularity of cycling continues to increase and the number of entries for events grows and grows every year. With this in mind I was pleased to be consistently finishing in the top 10. This year I just missed out on the headline top podium positions, finishing 4th on three occasions. This wasn’t always down to my own performance. I was deprived of a likely victory by a snapped chain and another podium went begging after a puncture. After 6 hours of racing across Salisbury Plain in May, I finished only a few seconds behind third, despite spending time helping a friend who had fallen and was injured. So there is plenty of opportunity to make amends next year.

This year the birth of my son at the end of June meant I had other priorities during July, a month which had seen my best results in 2011. I intend to return to these events in 2013 and hopefully claim some silverware.

My cycling highlight of the year is not race related however. It has to be riding along behind the Olympic road race as the huge crowds that lined the route cheered us on!

I am greatly looking forward to 2013. The highlight will be the opportunity to race a national event at the Olympic Hadleigh Park venue. The national championship should also be nearer to home so there is the added prospect of a national ranking as motivation.

I would like to thank my sponsors South Downs Bikes and Fast Find Personal Locator Beacons. Also special mentions to Muc-off and Exposure lights for their support! Finally Happy New Year and thanks to you all for reading my blog.

S-Works Ground Control Review

 

Given the recent weather conditions I decided to look for a tyre with a little extra grip than my usual racing slicks. The Ground Control features large, squarish knobs that offered the promise of extra purchase in loose conditions. The knobs are well spaced so I hoped that the tyre would shed mud well when things got gloopy.

 

After some indecision I chose the S-Works version which weighs a raceably acceptable 600g for the 29x2.1in size. Heavier than my usual race tyres but hopefully it would be worth it for the extra purchase when things got slippery.

 

With a Rocket Ron already on the front wheel, I inflated the Ground Control on the rear using Joe's No Flats tubeless latex. The tyre inflated first time with a track pump. Setting the pressure at 28psi I headed for the first round of the Brass Monkeys Enduro series.

 

The course was a mixture of loose loamy soil, soft muddy sections and hard packed forest roads. The Ground Control hooked up well on climbs regardless of the conditions, digging in and powering the bike forward. It also rolled surprisingly well on the fireroad sections. However, laterally the tyre squirmed left to right, making off camber sections especially difficult. Overall I had hoped for more from the deep tread.

 

After 8 miles the tyre lost pressure instantly and on inspection the sidewall was torn. Any puncture is down to bad luck but it is difficult to recommend a tyre that you have to bin after less than an hour of riding. My feeling is that the rubber in the S-Works has been trimmed back to save weight at the expense of acceptable durability. 

 

When I got home I ordered a Maxxis Beaver. The Beaver is more costly but it's only 500g and offers better grip.

 

 

Glass on the path!

There is a small store in the village near my home. A group of the local youth often congregate outside in the amber glow of the street light. I have become used to a torrent of abusive comments as I cycle past on my way home. Occasionally a few of them will give chase, buzzing around me on their BMX, bums in the air, boxer shorts showing, skinny legs flailing wildly. It can be intimidating but I have learnt that they soon lose interest once out of sight of their audience back at the shop.

The other night, I dropped down the cycle bridge over the A27 into the village. Too late I noticed large shards from a broken beer bottle or two, distributed deliberately across the cycle path. Unable to swerve I rode directly over the base of a bottle, the sharp jagged edges pointing viciously towards the sky.

I stopped and after clearing the glass examined my tyres in amazement. Both were still inflated! Incredulous I rode home and apart from a quick mention to my wife thought no more about it - until the following morning! I opened the door to the utility room, and it looked as if my bike had been attacked by some serpentine sea creature. Its black tentacles reaching out from my rear wheel.

Overnight the rear tyre had split in two, the inner tube forcing itself out of the hole and then bursting into long rubbery tendrils. The tyre was almost new so it must have been caused by the glass from the previous day.

Furious and grumpy I fitted an old tyre and set off for work. Only then did I think I might actually have been quite lucky. True £40 of tube and tyre destroyed just before Christmas is annoying. However, what if the tyre had burst while I had still been making my way home the evening before? I would almost certainly have been thrown into the road, in front of whatever traffic was around me at the time.

I don't expect the idiots who put glass on cycle paths think much at all. What might have seemed a harmless prank to them has left me £40 out of pocket, but the consequences could have had far more serious.

Merida Brass Monkeys - Rnd 1

Legions of riders gathered at Caesar’s Camp on the 25th November for the 1st round of the Merida Brass Monkeys enduro series. Winter had certainly arrived and most of the 500 riders huddled at the start were sporting over shoes and ear muffs. The Caesar’s Camp course uses tank and military tracks to really make the most of the undulating countryside near Aldershot. There were several long withering climbs, the gradient increasing horribly towards the top. The energy sapping mud constantly tugging at the tyres throughout the lap.

I was cautious on the first lap, aware that there was a long way to go I didn’t want to burn any bridges this early in the day. On the second lap I pushed a little harder and passed a few riders until I was challenging the 10 ten.

The hills were loaded toward the beginning of the lap. So once over the final climb the reward was a flat out series of swooping bomb holes back to the pit area. Third time through and suddenly the rear rim was banging against the rocks and roots, all the air had ‘burped’ from my tyre. I rattled back to start with riders streaming past. Back in the pit I re-inflated the tyre and re-joined but I had lost 10 minutes.

I hauled myself over the hills three more times, finishing 22nd and the last rider to complete 6 laps. I’ll hope for better luck in three weeks at round 2!

Gorrick Autumn Classic

It had to happen eventually – the sun shone and it was a beautiful crisp morning for Gorrick’s 20th anniversary bash. Gorrick have been the staple diet of budding and experienced cross country racers since November 1992. In that time we have almost started to take for granted the efficient organisation and superb courses. Gorrick have become the standard by which other events are judged. It is at these alternative races when your entry has been lost; you discover your timing chip didn’t work; or you got lost because there wasn’t enough tape marking the course, that you appreciate what a slick operation Gorrick is.

After a quick count back this was coincidently my 50th Gorrick race! (I was amazed by that stat!!) My first race was February 2002 in the Novice category. Totally under prepared I pushed my broken bike across the line 49th out of 62 starters! Season after season I trained harder and raced better until I worked my way up to the sharp end, of what had by then been renamed the Open class. I started to collect some of Gorricks famous 'ash tray' trophies before being convinced to move up to the Masters category in 2011. My first season in Masters was a tough education, no longer racing at the front I found myself struggling to even stay in the top 20. This year I finished in the top 10 at three of the four spring series races. Sunday's Autumn Classic would provide the last opportunity to demonstrate my improvement, before another winter of hard graft.

The course for Gorrick’s birthday was a flat, big ring blast with all the usual Gorrick twists and turns. In fact squeezing past with so many riders on track proved extremely difficult. 



By keeping my elbows out I somehow found myself on the front row for the start. The horn blared and I was fighting hard to maintain my place at the head of the field as we charged full pelt down the first 1/2 mile of fire road. There was bumping and barging, with riders chopping and changing lines, so I was relieved and even delighted to enter the first singletrack section still in third. With so little opportunity to pass I concentrated on hanging onto the two riders in front. Unfortunately we caught the back markers from the earlier races and I lost sight of them midway through the first lap. Once the track opened up a few fasters riders came through from behind and I was in 8th place, chasing again to hang on to their wheels. Losing ground in the tighter sections I clawed it back on the climbs and by the end of the 2nd lap I was up into 7th. The riders in front had gone so it was a race to the line between me and the guy I had just passed.

Cutting every corner and squeezing every ounce of energy I could muster, I maintained a small gap. However, as we neared the finish a quick glance over my shoulder revealed my pursuer had been joined by another rider. Working together they were closing in! The last easy passing opportunity was a flat section of fireroad before a sharp left turn that would take us down a steep gulley. I could hear and almost feel them breathing down my neck as I dived into the narrow decent, staying tight to the inside to ensure nobody crept past. There were still a few tricky corners to navigate but they would have to ride around the outside as I deliberately positioned myself close against the marker tape each time. A tyre buzzed my rear wheel, into the final bend but I held my nerve and was across the line. 7th place my best Gorrick result of the year!