Bosch IXO Electric Screwdriver

In the first of my 'useful things that are handy for mountainboarding, but aren't absolutely essential' series of articles, is this short one detailing the merits of the....

Bosch IXO Electric Screwdriver!

Small and handy, this tool is perfect for tinkering with the angle of snowboard bindings as it comes direct with the 4mm attachment required.  Featuring ergonomic grip, charging cradle and easy switched forward/reverse operation, this screw driver can reduce a noSno down to the size of a small suitcase in a matter of seconds!  This attachment will also fit MBS Matrix adjustment screws, shaving vital seconds off your changing egg shocks speed record (for the 'Dirt-Box Egg-Shock Speed Change Challenge!').  I paid approximately £35 around 4 years ago from a DIY store and it's still going strong as ever but getting one a bit cheaper on-line should be easy enough.

 

Small enough to pack in a backpack, but also powerful for many jobs around the house too, the Bosch IXO Electric Screwdriver isn't essential, but it is certainly very, very useful. 

Return of the Macc - It's officially Annual!

So, just to start with a little bit of history.  Way back in late 2008, Roger (LB4UL), JC and Joe Gatley hatched an idea to encourage more people to come out freeriding: the plan - meet up in the middle of an isolated forest at the coldest time of the year.  From the subsequent photos and the writeup, it appeared to be a success and the following year, with yet again frost all around, more riders turned up to do it all again.  I wrote about it here, it was a good'un.

Same thing happened again last December.  Not so many riders this time, but still plenty of action taking place and enough of a buzz to keep the spirit alive.  Fast forward to late November 2011 and murmurings were taking place here and there, especially over twitter, suddenly the cool place to hang out.  'Surely there's going to be another Macc event?', these 140 character limited messages requested.  But bar a few reassuring responses, not much was happening - the lead up to Christmas suddenly becoming very busy busy for everyone.  And that might have been the end of the story.....

New Year Stuff

2011 - What a year!  And I'm not the only one with Roger 'LeapB4ULook' and Chris '6th Degree' looking back equally fondly.

But no time to reminisce...2012 is here!  No point making definite resolutions since we're all going to die horribly in several apocalypses anyway, so on the off chance that we survive another 12 months, here's the run down of what I'd like to do.... 

Work less!!  Not ride more, as I do quite a lot of that anyway.  No, I'd prefer to work less so that I'm less tired when I do ride.

Ride more often at Hales Superbole.  I love the 'bole and everytime I go, they've built even more stuff.  Plus Mark's a top bloke.  And the BX gets my heart racing a bit too much (in a good way).

Ride at both 'Dave' and Whinlatter for Rounds 1 and 2 of the new UK downhill Series.  Probably not Dunkeld though, it's a bit far for me unless I can convince the family to have a nice holiday up North.

Freeride at:

• Wendover Woods with the Rem boys, 
• explore more of the Chicksands bike park, 
• ride The Wrekin (remembering larger tires and brakes this time), 
• ride the Lickey Hills (new contract job not far from here, fingers crossed), 
• ride Burton Dassett with Jay (beautiful location not far from M40).
• Macclesfield Forest (easy one this - all arranged here)

In general, I'm going to try and film on a semi regular basis, but not so much as it gets in the way of the riding.  Playing with mounts is fun though so this'll keep it all fresh.

Buy some flexi composite axles from noSno.  If I put away a pound a day, I'll be able afford them by August :-D

Plus, I'd like to ride more with more riders in general.  Want to ride with me in the Midlands or can suggest somewhere awesome new to try out?  Please get in touch! So, unless we all die in the meantime, Cheers and happy riding in 2012!

The Early Bird....

...The early bird gets the grainy footage.

Couple of weeks ago something amazing happened....I set the alarm at 6am for an early morning ride and then come 6am, managed to get my arse out of bed and up into the hills to the undisclosed Dirt Box downhill training grounds (no, not Allestree).  Normally an exclusive night-ride location, I was keen to hit the down hill under first light to film the track following a couple of failed attempts to film at night using a copious amount of torches.  So the benefit of a bit of light but with the problems of added dog walkers and golf course groundsmen.

So, just before 8am and just before sunrise but with reasonable viability I set off from the peak.  Camera was preset with +2 contrast on 'dusk' setting to get as much clarity out of the low light.  Not the fastest run ever with a slow midsection leading to a bit of tic-tac-ing just before the final 'left-right' hander but got to the bottom just in time to see the first golfers of the day teeing off and home for breakfast.

On playback I found that levels were poor especially when passing trees in shadow, and when dipping my head towards the ground.  As a result, I've had to boost the exposure in post production and made a note to angle the camera up a bit on the next filming trip.  Still definitely easier to ride unimpeded at night but I will be back for some filming, probably in the Summer when the sun rises earlier.

Either way, excuse the film quality but enjoy and give me a shout if you want to go for a ride sometime, cheers!

Pole-Cam - initial testing

After a long period of night-riding, finally got out for an afternoon, yesterday.  Others in the area had reported Allestree to be a bit wet so decided to give Darley Park a go for the first time in a long while.  Unfortunately, conditions proved to be just as bad, if not worse with most areas either slow and boggy, or wet and slippery.  Shoved a set of 9 inchers on which improved things slightly, but still nothing much worth writing about.  Got some interesting shots though using the new pole setup for the Contour cam whilst rolling down a couple of the footpaths.  Most of the camera footage recorded so far lacks the interest of having someone in shot, so the options are to follow someone else, or to film yourself from behind (so to speak).


The pole itself I've taken from an old electric power mop.  It features an ergonomic handle, handy grip section half way down the shaft, and ready made holes at the bottom to attach the camera bracket.  For the custom camera bracket I've taken the mounting that the camera was originally packaged in and firmly adhered this to a wooden block.  This provides a firm object to bracket onto my power mop pole.  Overall, it's relatively heavy, but easy to handle and transfer from hand to hand mid-ride.  It can be held mid length as shown in the video above, or at full length to put even more of me in the shot.  Image quality looks nice and smooth filmed at 60fps and I hope to film a bit more once conditions improve a bit.

[ergonomic handle]

I've been warned by Contour not to use the mounting bracket due to the possibility of it shattering, so care must be taken not to clip the ground when using, or wiping out generally.  Hopefully the wooded block mount should improve the overall strength a little.

 [camera mounting block]

[comfy handle]

So, making the most of a bad riding day.  It's not something I'd do that often either as it distracts from the riding a little, restricts body movement a little and I'd have to move either the pole or the brake to the left hand if filming some of the faster tracks.  Still, provides some nice effects so all good.  Hope to film some more soon over the holiday period.  Really hope it will snow, but I wont hold my breath....

Hillbilly Repairs

One benefit of being home with small baby (and a not so small toddler) is the opportunity to get stuff sorted.  In this instance, general repairs to my Hillbillies.  This certainly isn't a moan about Hillbilly - these gloves are around 18 months old and have regular weekly use with plenty of ground contact.  With 90% of the glove in good condition, it makes sense to repair where possible, particularly as cash isn't flush right now.

Being made of leather, Hillbilly are very easy to restitch, in this first case along where the strapping was coming loose.  Good, strong, tough string should keep this in place for a while but I've no idea what string I've used here - it's some my Dad got for me for repairing my shorts a while back.

On the other glove, a section of leather, again sourced through Dad has been used to provided thumb protection.  In this case the leather has been cut to size and then glued into place.  Araldite seems to do the job nicely.

Not a bad evenings work and makes a nice change from stinky bearings.

Tighter Corners, Faster!

'Dave', the downhill competition earlier this year got me thinking hard about several aspects of my downhill riding style.  Riding longer tracks over a longer length of time gave me that opportunity to see where my strengths and weaknesses lay and what area needed to be worked on.

Lets look at the relative times.  An average time around the 4m30s mark verses the winning time of 3m24s over a 1.3 (ish) mile course relates in real terms to an average speed of ~17 mph verses ~22 mph.   But just belting down the straights before slamming on the brakes for the corners is not good tactically, particularly in the lower sections where there is simply not enough gradient after each corner to keep pace.  This is especially true over the long final straight where I'll guestimate the faster riders were passing the line twice as fast as some of us slower riders.  Again, a guestimation that the final stretch was covered by me in approximately 40 seconds means that 20 seconds could be shaved straight off through a good bottom section alone.

What I believe is important, and where I've been spending a lot of my time recently is working on carrying sufficient speed through the corners to maintain speed.  Furthermore, I've also been trying to establish how to carry more speed around tighter corners.

Seems reasonable that effective tight turning relies on using both trucks.  By applying similar weight over both knees and going through the motion of dropping to your knees should enable a tight, effective corner.  Easy to do whilst still, but I had an issue for a while trying to do it with a bit of speed.  1st issue was committing to some of my local corners.  Most of them are sufficiently wide, evenly turny (corners don't become suddenly sharper part way round is what I mean), and usually blind, i.e. to commit to them means hitting anyone hiding just round the bend.  This is far less of an issue at night.....

If I can just say a few words about night riding.  Many people who have not tried it imagine the lack of light makes riding harder.  I'd argue that riding at night actually makes things simpler for the following reasons:
1)  Gravel tracks appear lighter and grass appears darker at night.  With the human eye sensitivity, seeing the contrast between the two is easy enough.  You might not be able to  see the bushes off to the sides, but then you're not going to ride into the bushes are you?  You might not be able to see the beautiful scenery either but then hopefully you have ridden this track during the day??
2) Less walkers at night.  Or non even.  Even if there are deaf walkers shuffling around the park at night, they will see your torches a mile away, even through the bushes.  Even if you do crash into someone, will they be able to recognise you in the dark? 
3) More focus.  Less distraction. Win, win, win.  (Except that GoPros don't work very well.  Hey ho!)

2nd issue was getting the front knee to bend sufficiently.  I was having an issue persuading my knee to do exactly what I wanted it to do under these circumstances, but found that raising my leading arm naturally caused my front knee to bend and I could control my arm wonderfully well at speed. 

3rd bit of mental block that I have to keep repeating to myself is to "keep your chin up (mate)!" as the benefits of looking further down the trail seem to do wonders for my sense of balance and for providing that sense of flow, when I remember to do it.  Again, its all about riding in a way that both looks and feels natural; I want to be at one with the board, not to be fighting it all the way down.  My aim is to reach a stage where my board feels like a natural extension to my own body; a device that enables me to travel faster, higher and further through the woods rather than be a hindrance that needs to be overcome.

Stance?  Well, I guess that this depends on what feels comfortable but for me right now, I'm finding cornering tricky when using a typical downhill stance, say +25/+5, but feel far more comfortable in both the straights and cornering with a +10/+5 stance. 

So that's toe-side turns much improved and hopefully my general down-hill technique will have improved sufficiently to improve my Dave timings for next years event (fingers crossed).  However, I get the sneaking suspicion that everybody else will be improving too - downhill is very popular right now!  Now off to work on heel-side turns - anyone any advice?