I've heard the route from the top of Great Hill down to White Coppice described as one of the best downhills in Britain. I like it but wouldn't rate it so highly. It's only a few miles to the hill, though the climb takes some time. Back in the late 1990s I rode the hill … Continue reading The best downhill in Lancashire.
I haven’t been able to ride for 4 days so was glad to get out today. I almost didn’t. My wife informed me that she needed to waste 2 hours of my time in the afternoon and when we arrived back home we had a short rain shower. This made me change my plan to … Continue reading Finding grip in wet conditions.
In a recent post I described 2 types of corners and the different techniques you need to apply to ride them as quickly as possible. On my ride I’d gone to the man made mountain bike trails at Healey Nab where all the corners are of only one of the two types. To avoid degradation … Continue reading Riding corners at the limit of grip.
There are 2 main types of corner and I use different techniques when I ride them. You may read different interpretations in mountain bike magazines like Mountain Bike Rider (MBR) but I believe my ways are better! Many corners have a berm, a banking which allows you to maintain your speed and helps to steer … Continue reading There are 2 types of corners. Here’s how to ride them.
The weather has continued to be wet, which is not the best weather for trying a new trail. On a recent ride I'd noticed a track which, in over 30 years of going to the top of Great Hill, I'd never noticed before. On that occasion I followed it part way from it's rather vague … Continue reading Discovering a new trail.
It’s a while since I’ve ridden repeated laps of the same circuit so today I thought I’d go to Birkacre for it’s excellent little loop. A lap starts at a high point and drops through various twists, turns and straight sections right to the bottom of the area before climbing to another high point. A … Continue reading How to ride a circuit faster!
In England we don't often suffer from heat. Today it's likely to reach 27 celcius or 81 farenheit which is hot by our standards, particularly in the north of England where I live. I had no special plan for a ride today until I saw the picture which appears when I access the app. Strava. … Continue reading Riding on a hot day.
I've been giving the handling of my mountain bike a lot of thought recently and made some changes to try to improve things. Bikes have changed a lot over the last 7 years or so. Wheels have generally become bigger and tyres wider. Bikes are longer, throwing off their road bike geometry which persisted for … Continue reading How it used to be.
I've ridden a few times recently where I've concentrated on my riding technique. I've also looked at my bike setup to see if I could benefit from any changes. I've lowered my tyre pressures because I found that I could improve the grip on corners yet after a fair test found the bike not to … Continue reading Technique.
I have always believed that higher tyre pressures offer less rolling resistance so make bikes quicker. The counter argument to this is that lower pressures give you more grip on corners so allow you to maintain more speed on a twisty trail. As usual I’m only thinking of tyre pressures of mountain bikes, here. I … Continue reading Tyre pressures and speed.
