Lazy afternoon session at Darley Park

So, when the wife says that she's meeting her mate down the park to walk the dog and push the pram round for a bit, and I was welcome to bring the board and just ride for an hour or so, there seemed no good reason not to.

Darley Park, for those that haven't been is a great place to learn to board.  A large open grassy space with a reasonably shallow 100m decent with the occasional tree to slalom should you desire along with the odd undulation here and there.  Popular with people to sunbath, fly kites, play football, push the pram or jog.
Now this is fine spot for beginners but a bit boring for anyone who's been on a board more than a couple of times.

This got me thinking about how best to spice up a tame slope or your regular spot that you know far too well....

1: Ride switch!  Always a useful skill and another thing that I am totally useless at.  Something that I plan to write about in the future under the title: 'Riding Switch - The wii fit method for success!'.  Watch this space...

2: Take a ramp!  I used to have a nice little ramp that I found one day in the grounds of an abandoned Harry Ramsdens Fish and Chip restaurant.  I figured that as the site was recently sealed off, that whoever had left it was unlikely to come back and it was mine for the taking.  Donated the ramp to KMC as I was there most weekends and didn't have the space at home at the time.  KMC closed and I forgot to take my ramp : (  I might have to build a ramp at some point....

3. Take some cones and set up a slalom course.  I saw some mini ones once in a supermarket for sale for kids to dribble a football round.  Intended to buy some.  Forgot.  Admittedly not the best anecdote ever.

4. Ride someone else's board.  We did this at Hemlock Stone the other week and I got to ride both Marvins board (Comp 16 with loose trucks with white egg shocks front, green trampa dampas rear IIRC), and Jaspers board (Comp 95 with F2 bindings IIRC) and scared myself silly.  Good suggestion Roger!

Erm....Can't think of anything else right now.  Feel free to add your comments below on how you spice up your local spot!

So, in conclusion, how did I spice up riding Darley Park yesterday?  Did I use this excellent opportunity to become proficient in either regular or goofy stance?  Did I bollocks.  I did what I always do when there's a crowd of impressionable teenagers at the park - bomb the hill as fast as possible rather than do anything that'll leave me landing on my arse and looking a right wally.  Why????  God knows.  Still, it's all good exercise and pint afterwards went down lovely - Cheers!

Excellent Cheddar Round Up @ Remolition

In a fitting end to what could have been, Roger S has written up a nice article regarding the ATBA Downhill Championship Cheddar course and how it was all progressing before things went a bit pear shaped...

Read about it all at Remolition here and cheers for the name check! I'm just glad that I got to ride the course one way or another.

Allen Keys - MBS

Allen keys are one of those necessities when mountain boarding, be it to tighten your bolts generally to prevent bits from falling off, or to make adjustments to the spring tension. Occasionally Allen keys will be used when the whole thing needs stripping down for maintenance.

But which Allen key where?  MBS do some nice diagrams here and are reproduced throughout this post for ease of use.  Although it looks like a lot of tools are required, in reality, most of them can be covered by a cheap set of allen keys in conjunction with the MBS Spanner that may or may not have come with your board??   If not then a set of spanners or single adjustable spanner will do the trick.

 The MBS Spanner

Whilst this really isn't a maintenance post regarding full pre-ride checks and all that, I'll just say that personally before leaving the car I'll make sure that a) the wheels aren't going to fall off, b) the top hanger is attached to the deck nice and tightly, and c) the bindings look secure.  All the tools then stay in the car apart from a 4mm Allen key which I take to make adjustments to the spring tension en-route.

The very handy Ikea 4mm Allen Key

Useful tip - Ikea furniture very often comes with a 4mm Allen key to assemble their furniture.  A handful of these in the car means I can afford to loose a few here or there without problems.

For completeness, below are the tools required for some other MBS boards.  I've no idea if the newer models have different tool requirements, but seeing as they are all based on similar components, I imagine that they don't.

Anyway, that's all I can think to say on Allen keys...... to be followed by Allen Keys - noSno

MBS Top Hanger Replacement

After last Wednesdays fun session up at Hemlock Stone as mused about here, got home to discover a big crack in the front top hanger.  Having not any problems with them since buying the board in late 2006 despite pinging plenty of rocks off them, but not having the cash to fork out on the new MBS Matrix Pro trucks as discussed here, I got straight on the blower to ATBSports to get a couple of replacements.  (£16 for a pair plus £2.50 p&p.)
Turned up very next day at which point I remembered that I needed to order some new tyres too.  Hey ho, next time perhaps and you certainly can't fault them for getting things posted quickly.
Making the most of the good weather, got the tools out today in the garden and took a couple of photos to document the whole thing....

MBS Top Hangers: 2006 on the left, 2009 model on the right.

Only a couple of differences I could see between the old and new hangers.  Firstly, the plastic ring that holds the bearings appears to have been reinforced.  This is fair enough as I've certainly noticed a little bit of warping on the older model, probably from the strain from both springs.  A picture showing this is shown below:

Despite this, apart from muck and grit getting in between the bearing and top hanger, I've not seen any further damage occur to either component.

The other difference is the lack of thread included in order to place the top hats/springs/shocks in the 'inner' position.  This again isn't an issue since I've always ridden with springs in the 'outer' position, and the board is only drilled to allow the adjustment screws to fit in the outer position anyway.  But it may be an issue for younger/lighter riders or those that want far less turning resistance.

I suppose the biggest change was the option to have a choice of not just black, but black, green, white or yellow.  But hey, I like black - hides the dirt.

Maybe just a few words regarding the installation of the Top Hangers.....?

Firstly, note that MBS Top Hangers are symmetrical, but only from left to right and not from front to back.  This is to say that if you screw a Top Hanger to a deck the wrong way round, then the adjustment screw holes will not line up correctly.  Shouldn't be a problem normally, but is worth noting to save time during reassembally.

Second thing to note is that I've had issues in the past screwing bolts to attach the top hanger to the deck only to have the inside nuts pop out of their plastic housing.  A dollop of super glue holding the nuts in place for this part has stopped my frustration levels getting too high.

On a final thought, many people joke* that MBS stands for 'My Board Squeaks'.  It's been pointed out by a couple of people (including IIRC EvilC on the ATBSports forums) that the squeak is due to a flat Top Hat making contact with a curved deck and the resultant slight movement that occurs.  This certainly makes sense, and attempts in the past to tighten the bolts have resulted in temporarily less squeak-age. 

Hope the good weather continues, I'd like to get out early tomorrow but I know the misses has a list of jobs as long as the back of the envelope she scribbled on earlier.  Wish me luck!

* - many other people are deadly serious....

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!

ATBA-UK International Series, 2010, Dates and Venues

Click for bigger pic or link straight to source here.

Information in full on the ATBA-UK website, here.

ATBA Downhill Championship: Cancelled??!!

Email picked up this morning:
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Subject: Downhill Championship CANCELLED


The UK Downhill Championship and British stage of the European Downhill Tour have been cancelled.
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Despite not being able to attend (see previous posting), I was genuinely surprised and downhearted feeling that the weekend was a great opportunity to do what mountain boarders do best - start at the top of the hill and get to the bottom as fast and as imaginatively as possible.  Plus with the amount of work done so far on the hill, it's a real shame that all that had to go to waste.
Musings on the facebook ATBA page appears to put the blame on the campsite owners and Natural England though I've not heard anything official yet....

So....in an attempt to make the most of the weekend, Goofy Mark is suggesting that the Whinlatter meet postponed from late last year be resurrected, details of which are starting to emerge on the Surfing Dirt forums here.

If you want to hear information from the ATBA first, make sure you sign up to their news letter on their main page here, or join their facebook page here.