Monday 28 March 2011

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Mountainboard Cable Cam

I'll be astonished if you haven't seen or been directed to this video by one of the electronic mountainboard outlets, but hey, on the off chance that you haven't....




"More Coming Soon"?  Fantastic news!

Thursday 17 March 2011

New Website: mountainboarding.uk.com

From the lovely people at the ATBA (All Terrain Boarding Association) and the equally lovely arty-types at Remolition, comes a new website aimed at those who have either just starting out boarding, or simply fancy having a go and want to find out more information.

Go, have a read and if anyone asks you about your wobbly 4x4 boarding, you can point then in the direction of: http://www.mountainboarding.uk.com/

It even has a link to here, so they must be good!  Nice work website people!

Monday 14 March 2011

Sexy Brakes!



Mmmmmmm, nice engineering!

Details via YouTube:

I6W9 Alternative Life Style
presenta la nuova creazione 2011

Nuovo prototipo di impianto frenante per Mountainboard
Pinze freno lavorate a mano 140 gr
Dischi freno acciaio 2mm 110 gr
Tubi freno Goodridge
Olio Magura
Leva Magura hs-33
Pinze freno Magura hs-33

Totale kit 650 gr

Link via Dirt Corner

Friday 11 March 2011

Mountainboard Maintenance - A Beginners Guide


Fair-weather rider looking to dust off the board ready for Summer?  Or all-year-round rider looking to maintain the board after a wet Winter?  Then now is as good a time as any to do a complete board maintenance session!

In a nutshell, my advice to you is to do the following to all items:
  1. Clean, 
  2. Investigate,
  3. Tighten,
  4. Repair/Replace.
Clean the muck off so that you can clearly investigate all items for wear and tear.  Tighten nuts, screws and bolts and then repair or replace any items where required.

Read on though if you want a more in-depth guide.

Note that this guide is written primarily written for an MBS board, mainly because the photograph collection comes from my own workshop. Contributions for other systems are most welcome!  Note that whilst provided in a step-by-step guide, there isn't really an order to any of this; just do the jobs that you have the time for and look like the most fun.

Do remember that however much maintenance you do on your board, that due to the nature of what we do, that things will break and things will wear out.  This normal wear and tear can be anticipated to a certain degree and by keeping the right supplies in stock, shouldn't prevent a days riding.

More importantly though, by knowing your board, and the condition that it is in, you are far more likely to prevent an accident brought on by sudden equipment malfunction.  Even if you are lucky to break equipment and remain unhurt, through knowing your board, repairs are that much quicker and you can be back on the slopes that much faster.  Bonus all round!

But anyway, the wife is in front of the telly watching a evening of soaps, so lets get dirty!

Sticky bindings? Check the ladder strap...


Top tip from Mark Sewell regarding sticky bindings.  I thought that my sticky Rage toe binding (rear foot) was due to wear and tear on the ratchet.  To remove my foot from the bindings involved removing my glove to manually lift the ratchet in order to allow it to disengage.  Mark pointed me in the direction of my ladder strap which had misshapen as seen below:

The advice was to file down these divots and all should be well.  In the absence of a file, I carefully chopped them off using a Stanley knife (too much off and I guess the bindings could slip in future).

Result: one fully working toe-binding that stays in place during riding and disengages at the bottom - woohoo!

So...check your ladder straps for wear and tear, it could save you some bother on the slopes.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Bit of Freeride, Bit of Garage

Not been a bad week at all.  Work has been busy busy as usual, but it's not stopped me from doing plenty of work in the new place and getting some fresh air.

So, in no particular order, Sunday morning was spend down Hemlock Stone, a great little spot that from my new house now only takes around 15 minutes to get to.  From discussions on the SD forums I knew that other people were arriving between 10am-11am but didn't actually see anyone there.  Wasn't a problem though - the recent dry weather combined with good drainage meant that the main slope from the trip-point to the stone was dry with some nice patches of leaves to do some nice toe-side power slides in.  Riding the noSno with brakes was maybe a little excessive, but it was a great lesson in 'just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it' kind of thing.  Plus I'm really loving the loose set-up it has right now.  I'm finding loads of extra stability can be gained through a low stance whilst 'keeping your chin up' and the additional manoeuvrability feels lovely.

All in, great little session - the kind where you punch the air at the bottom.  Shame I didn't get to meet some of the SD crowd, but I'm sure there'll be more opportunity as the year goes on.  Worth checking the thread again periodically as Jasper is starting to put up some of the photos from the afternoon session.

Other works going on right now is in the previously mentioned 'Garage of Dreams', a truly magical place where the only limit is your imagination; a bit like Derby really.

Similar to those engineers that spend their time making tools, to make tools, before I make the 'Ultimate Workbench', a temporary workbench had to be constructed.


Fortunately, a lot of the parts required for this and the rest of the bits below were salvaged from parts left in the house by the old owners.  Particularly useful was the old worktop and the 60mm x 30mm timber that was used to make the brackets holding the rear of the bench in place.  The front legs were donated by Dad and are adjustable aluminium poles that rotate to lengthen/ shorten as appropriate.  So all in, pretty quick to assemble and fix in place.

Next up, temporary board rack.

In an attempt to clear the floor of even more space, I needed something rough and ready to keep the boards out of the way.  Again using two lengths of 60mm x 30mm timber with 28mm holes bored every 12".  Curtain pole offcuts are exactly 28mm so no glue was required.  Three 3" screws per side are used into appropriate rawlplugs and so far, seem to hold everything in place.  Again, it's not pretty, but it does the job and will do until I get the urge to do something a little more ornate like pigryder did in this thread.

Plenty left to do.  I'll take some more photos and report back soon.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

...In other news



Morning folks, long time no writing....My apologies - I moved house last Wednesday but as yet do not have a working BT phone line, nor did I feel inclined to nip into work to use their connection.  Shame really, as loads has been going on.

Firstly, you don't have to be an eagle-eyed viewer to spot our new fantastic graphics, lovingly created by *WiL* of Decreate and Remolition.  A big, big thank you for your hard work and talent!

A couple of freeride meets in the pipeline, depending on how far you wish to travel - Hemlock Stone this weekend (originally planned for weekend just gone but postponed).  The link takes you to the Surfing Dirt discussion thread.

Alternatively, if you wish for something bigger, Sunday 20th March sees the monthly freeride meet moving to Llantrisant forest, South Wales with good interest already.  The SD discussion thread is here.  If interested sign up on the FB page here.

In the more distant future is the large Allestreee Park meet up with information here, and then not long after, the 2011 ATBA comps start.  It really is quite busy busy!

Back to now though and a quick word about my garage.  In a nutshell, I'm quite excited by the possibilities and potential of the space.  Rough dimensions are 15' x 9' wide with a nice, high ceiling with the only limitations that one corner has to accommodate the washing machine and that I have to leave room to allow the wife's car occasional access.

The jobs to do in no particular order then are to:
  • add in extra power points to allow the use of tools in all areas; 
  • build a workbench for some of the heavier jobs; 
  • build a rack to keep the boards out of the way / display;
  • build worktop space for various repair / maintenance tasks.
  • generally have some sort of system to keep everything tidy whilst being accessible....
Lots to do then!  Expect a couple of posts in the near future to show updates as and when they happen.

Last, but not least is news that the Derby Skatepark has started already with plenty of digger action taking place right now.  Plenty of news and pictures up on the Derby Skateboard Project blog.

That's all for now...back soon!