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.

The Hemlock Stone big session, 7th April 2010

Don't think I've written about Hemlock Stone before which doesn't really make sense as it's literally 20 minutes door to slope and it's a wicked little area to ride.  And don't be put off by size.  Within this area are loads of tracks, each that can be hit in more ways than you can shake a stick at.

Anyway, a Midlands meet was long overdue, so through the Surfing Dirt forums, plans were made and links were sent to the ATBSports forum.

On the day, Jasper was nominated to do a write-up of the event, and Marvin took loads of photos so hopefully there should be plenty of stuff written up soon.  [Edit: Marvin write-up of the event is here and Jaspers video is here, good work fellas!]

 

Just to say, big thanks to all that made it on the day for an excellent days riding: Roger, Dunstan, Marvin, Jasper, Lucy and Jay.

Direct link for your own directions here.  I've not bothered to highlight any runs or anything as to be honest, they are all findable within a half hour ramble around the site.  Hint: the Trig Point is the highest spot and rolling from point 4 to point 2 via point 3 is a good starting point.  If bike jumps are more your thing then they are located North of point 4.  Enjoy!