Week 14 of "52 weeks" - The Half Term Travels

Posted: Nov 1, 2009

I'm attempting to compete in the Mega Avalanche in 2010 - It's a journey of 52 weeks till I actually get there and it's gonna be tough! Read on to hear more about my week of looking at my traveling, new mates and photo shoot after photo shoot!

Inside are the pics, video diary and loads of letters from the alphabet, which form words that will tell you about week 14 in my mission to Mega Avalanche in 2010.

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Monday

Headed off to Setmurthy common with Charley Robertson for a day of shooting some shots of myself for Knox body armor - and to be joined by locals Matty Legget (only 16yrs!)and Luke Irving (21yrs) who were our guides on the hill - and man can these guys ride the living daylights out of there bikes!


We started our morning with a session on the bottom section of Setters main track - Charles created a real chilled out atmosphere and the shredding with Luke and Matty begun!


After a session of drops into the first smooth section of berms and tabletops we headed further uphill to a much more jumpy section and then to a more scenic steep hill section to carve some interesting berms that are very new in development - the result was 3 very dirty over the handlebars riders on first attempts.


After some very interesting crashes and then more successful runs we all managed to nail the steep off camber track and Charlie got a fantastic shot of Luke railing this berm - he actually does get this low in real life - well impressive!


After this we headed over back to the main line where all of Setters locals were congregating like a mass of teens around a chip shop. We sessioned some rooty switchbacks and ended the lake district session with a good old chin wag in the car park.

I really had a great day and expect to see more of Luke Irving and Matty Legget on the UK DH results sheets - these boys are seriously fast and also sound as ought! One more thing - Charles Robertson - is a really genuine down to earth sound guy who seems to get a ton of crap from a whole host of people on Pinkbike and in Cumbria - maybe get to know the guy behind the lens and get off the jealousy Pony and grow up with your attitude towards him. He takes photos - he ain't screwing your mum!

Thanks to all the riders and Charlie for making me feel so welcome! - sorry I was a bit knackered and not with it after my 5 hour drive - see you again soon for sure!


Headed over to an old friend's place for a home tattoo and a catch up over pizza - was legendary!

Tuesday

Chill day - headed to Maryport aquarium for some family time and much needed rest - woop woop!

Wednesday

Epic car journey home took 2 hours longer than normal as we went a different route so Elijah could see a camel - lol - the stuff you do for your kid! Got home and after a quick shower and dinner I headed back out to open and speak at The Passion Youth Conference at New Life Church derby.

Thursday

Burton Pump track was the place, met up with a great lad called - Tom Gaffney aka - Tomo - who was helping me out with some pro-mo for shots for Haro UK.


Ryan Yearsley, a Pro BMX rider also rocked up on his Haro team BMX for some shots for a local news article - he was pretty impressive and showed us some interesting lines on his BMX - much respect was earned by most people there on 26 inch wheels for the 20 inch rider!


Just want to say a huge thanks to Tomo for his great attitude and hilarious personality - mate you are a quality geezer! Thank you!

Friday

Arrgghhhh - after much work on the Haro I keep discovering more and more little niggling issues - Chain suck, snapped rear spindle, missing spoke... when did that happen and where is it??, bent chainring. After some rather interesting minutes Adam from Haro sends me a lifeline of an offer of my bike being done by the Haro mechanics, and to give my Xeon a full service and Overhaul as it has recently been battered. So I threw her into the car and drove the 5 miles to get the work done - explained to Scott, the head mechanic and he appeared to know all the work he wanted to do and what I wanted to have tweaked in the drivetrain area for UK Downhill racing. Let's not forget this is a £1200 bike made for all mountain and not really considered for Hardcore downhill! I am really enjoying this bike and if we can get it dialed up and the little chain issues sorted - this bike will be a great way to train this winter in the races and training I have planned.

Saturday

XC loop at 7am ... yucky weather and darkness was still around - fasted lap ever recorded today though! 0.34.18 - Well chuffed with my time and I was feeling quite good after even though I was as red as a beetroot! Hit the weight bench for half an hour and then packed my bags and a PA System, Projector and Cinema screen for a mission to Nico Turner's house to set up his living room for the premiere of - Hoonin II!

As the house filled up ... and the premiere start time arrived ... a few other riders still had not arrived ... half an hour later and the room was torn up by a verbal brawl on why BMX is better than BMTB and vice versa etc - I think comment of the day goes to mountain bike rider - Lee Gratton for his quote in the verbal exchange "Small wheels = small balls, us mountain bikers need wheel barrows to carry our balls"


As the premiere begun, the room fell silent - mostly - and the film began with the Talented Ben Lord ripping some local trails and opening the film with a great section of DH riding closely followed by the Cheeky persona of Lee Gratton which captured his personality and style perfect. Then we saw some small balled BMXers who I thought had a great group montage section. Many rider's sections followed next including Tom Gaffney's hilarious and brilliant DH section and followed by the dirt jump rippers from Colchester Oscar Golding and Charlie Watts - these guys are sick and have got a real decent arsenal of tricks which impressed and gripped the audience for the entire section. Richis Parsons from Cannock had a legendary section ripping his beloved Cannock soil and then we saw many other sections including Myself, Peter Irons, the 180 street king of Nottingham, Nico Turner, Rusty and many others!

Bloody brilliant day and the applause the film got was incredible at the end - I know that for Nico was extremely humbling to hear! This kid has bags of talent and expect to see great things come his way in the future!

DVD`s of Hoonin II are available for £10 from Nico Turner - his trailer is below and you can contact him via his Pinkbike account.

Hoonin II Trailer:

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Sunday

Sad day today, the Devinci was sold and left with her new owner to be ridden somewhere else. Awful weather also meant a regrettable Turbo and weights session by candlelight in my garage how romantic - lol!

As always, see you next week and thanks to everyone who helped in the Media area this week!

John aka Jumble

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