The build has begun...

My new Hope tapered headset and adaptor has arrived so the Five build has begun... Forks and wheelset now in!

Five is the magic number...

It's arrived!!!! My custom 2012 Orange 5 with Fox Factory RP23... Handmade in Halifax and she looks awesome, I'll be building her over Christmas depending on time, Wideopen Issue 17 and parts arriving in time...

Llandegla la la la la la...

Well it's a few days ago now but Jon and I visited Llandegla on Saturday for a morning ride. It's always strange visiting the trail centre near Wrexham. ALWAYS busy but it holds some strange memories as the first time we visited it had only been open a couple of weeks and we were NOT impressed... but how things have changes and like a fine wine it has matured and improved with age.


This time we found a few 'new bits' and rode a section described as Dirt Jumps - over in the black singletrack. Great fun but why is it so far from the car! Perhaps they need a second car park!

Anyway we had a great ride, until Jon was riding along fire road between singletrack sections when we heard an all mighty crack and his seat post snapped!!! An ancient Orange one that came with his Subzero many years ago - luckily the snapped bit could be removed and although it was too low to ride up hills he got around with no arse injuries.

So what's up next... I wondered maybe Gwydwr for old times sake?

On-board

Fearingout 'onboard' from James Hilton on Vimeo.

All set...

...for Scotland. 3 bikes, 8 wheels and enough luggage to fill the A4!

Jon boy goes solo...

Solo, well single speed... And not on a big bike either, but a svelte baby blue SE Racing road bike.

Make up your own mind, I think it looks pretty nice but you wouldn't get me on one!

Finding the sweet spot...

It's a few weeks since I've updated the blog - summer seems to have passed us by and with the first few days of September, and with it Autumn, the weather has taken a turn for the cooler and more typically damp Macclesfield grey-ness.

So what keeps your spirits up at this time of year? The evenings are still light enough for a rag after work so out as usual every Thursday - same routes, same faces... but good never the less - infact you never tire of riding your local trails (do you?).

In the last few weeks I've been lucky enough to be slinging my leg over the Stanton Slackline on Longtermer from Wideopenmag.co.uk, and it really is a lovely lovely bike and fantastic build for these hills. Light and playful. What's become ever more obvious though is the geometry that has an absolutely divine sweet spot. An inch forwards or back in body position and it's gone, but it's easy to find, and once you hit it you absolutely fly. The bike is incredible in the gentler of the rough stuff, so planted and quick, a real pleasure to pick up and jump from rock to rock riding lines that you'd normally only entertain with a short travel full susser around these parts.

It's got me waxing lyrical about riding though, and that's the main thing - the thing that had slipped by with my regular riding companions slowly dropping by the way side... finding the spark was necessary and long over due - and just in time for a weekender in Scotland at the end of the month.

Slack by name - rapid by nature...

First ride out on the Wideopen test rig, the Stanton Slackline. The chaps at Stanton have built this up with a lovely spec and it's SO light. A totally different feel with such a light build to the Cotic - something akin to the Genesis Alpitude I reckon but with some nice touches, wider bars, adjustable seat post...

Anyway it's a great ride! 1x10 was interesting... I managed to get up to Charity Lane - somehow - but the final switchback climb was too much for my tired legs. On the descents this thing is a machine, it picks up speed like my SantaCruz Chameleon did, but the length gives real stability. The lightweight wheels make it very manoeuvrable. I was very impressed and look forward to ragging it at a few trail centres too in the coming weeks before a writeup in Wideopen Issue 17.

Six is the magic number?

Record so far this year - 6 out on tonight's regular Thursday night ride. Ryan back from 'injury' for his second ride, Jon (a colleague of Tony in work) out for his first ride. Also good to see Tony and Ross out - and Jon made his maiden voyage on board a rebuilt Orange Sub-zero.

Dry as a bone so Charity Lane was very quick! Great fun on the hardtail this week, last week's sessioning of the bottom paid off with a lot more speed carried into the bottom corner. Bottom of the Oven was very very loose - I nearly had a VERY BIG off - but somehow rode it out - Ryan said he came over the brow to see a cloud of dust and me somehow hanging on to the bike whilst we both roughly headed downhill all over the place!

Got to the bottom to find Jon had a puncture - and then found the rear tyre had been one of his 'homebrew' tubeless system which had been repaired with a tube at some point 12 months ago - hence the tube and tyre were glued together with the remains of the liquid latex! MAJOR ball ache getting it off but with the pair of us on it, things sped up a little.

Then with time against us we did the singletrack - so quick, and incredible fun on the Cotic - I can't wait to get up to Scotland in September on board!

See you all next week!

Photo shoot...

This is a bit of a delayed update after last week's ride but I've been waiting for the photos from Dunc who came out with us to shoot for Wideopen Issue 16, and the BFe longtermer write up...

Just Jon and I, both on hardtails, both pinned. A bit of sessioning on Charity Lane, Bottom of the Oven and the slippery singletrack. These photos are the 'seconds' that haven't made it into the mag, check out Issue 16 in a couple of weeks to see and read my thoughts on the BFe after 3 months of hard riding...

From Macclesfield Forest 7/7/11

From Macclesfield Forest 7/7/11

From Macclesfield Forest 7/7/11

From Macclesfield Forest 7/7/11

Check out the rest of the photos, and join us for another ride this Thursday - usual time and place :)

Macclesfield Forest 7/7/11