Group picture.

Time to pose after a big climb.

Just an excuse to put our lungs back into our chests.

This was our last ride before rest day.

Everyone was glad to get to this point and get a good 'ol dose of downhill.

I never booked rain!

The tuesday ride started like this. But by the time we got to the mountains the sun came out. Yay.

The girls

It's always good to see girls serious about their biking.

Look what we found.

Would you believe it?

Up in the hills while riding along we came across this Casa.

We just had to get a picture of Mini-Me with it.

SMALL world eh?

(or a big world if you´re Mini)

The riding starts.

Out on the trails at last.

A great day had by all.

We had a couple of crashes (Nicky and ..er.....Nicky).

No harm done though.

Ian and Johnny are the guides.

They seem good guys and happy to throw us down mountains.

It took a little while to get used to the hire bikes but after that it was business as usual.

We had a swim after the ride and then off to stuff our faces and have a beer or two.

...or three or four or five.

It´s a hard life.

Only us.

Here we are saturday afternoon. We are meant to be setting up bikes but we won't leave the pool.

Early start.

4 am and we start off with a beer and some food. Gotta be done.

SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN>>>>>>>>>

We are now all finished with work and getting into the holiday mode.
Don't tell anyone but I've just poured a G&T.
The burning question is whether to get a few hours sleep before setting off to the airport.
We have to be off at 02:45hrs.
Hmmmm......
What would you do?

Norton Green Mini Ride.

Another great day for a ride.
Weather was probably spot on for riding.
Bright and breezy. About 16deg and with the sun somewhere trying to break through.

A few visiting Carnival members joined the ride.
Christine and John turned out. That is the first time we have seen them for ages.
The big news is that they are to get married early next year,














Yayyyy... can I be a bridesmaid?

Mini's next door neighbour John joined in the fun.














Terry turned up with young Joe but minus Debbie.
She has damaged ribs after a crash on last weeks ride.
Get well soon Debs.

The ride was good and fast with a few downhill runs of loose boulders.
Only one crash.














Mini got himself stuck in a rut and off he came.

Young Joe did get it very sideways on one descent.
He hit a big rock and nearly laid it down in front of me.
Lucky for him he didn't go down.
I can only bunny hop about 2" off the ground so he'd be in trouble.

Later in the ride we bumped into Greenhouse Garry and Becky.
We seem to bump into Garry in the most obscure places.
This time he was behind a hedge in a field mending a puncture.
Last time it was at Chicksands.
The time before that in Afan.

Anyway...
A good time had by all.














Was great to see everyone laughing and joking.

It was our last ride before Spain so........
if your not in Spain with us....See you in a couple of weeks.

Ladies and Gentlmen.....The ABE Song.

Yo yo yo yo yo....

Nickey and Mark entertain us in Afan.

The Sunday ride before Spain.

This week we are going over to Mini-Me's for a pre-Spain ride over Stevenage.

Mini is going to put his slant on the Norton Green ride.

It's going to be fun and get the legs finely tuned for next week.

Here is Min.

An old Chicksands picture taken by Mickey "Monkey" Michaels.

DB

HERE IT IS AT LAST.....CHAMONIX 06 THE MOVIE

A once in a lifetime chance to view this classic video.

Enjoy.

DB

It's been a while....as Staind said.

Hello all.

We have been off line for a very long time but now we're BACK.

Time to get some pictures and stories about 2008 up and running....

What would you like to see?

We've been to Afan for a long weekend.

Log cabins and goats mostly.

A great weekend had by all.

I was in the support team because I had just had an op on my knee.

Loads of good riding and partying.

A birthday party and.....

A special ABE song.

In may we had snow....

And also went up to Cannock to ride with Eammon.

And that kinda brings us up to date......

Chris has deserted us for a couple of months in Australia

All the local trails are still holding up well.

Today's ride was dry and dusty.

James "Mickey" tells me that it was the last day of Summer so...

It would be rude not to finish the ride with a beer eh?

And so it goes.

See you on the trails next week.......and every week.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to you all.
2007 was a funny old year.
Some were recovering from injury while others were getting injured.
We made it to Chamonix and to Sierra Nevada in Spain during the year but didn't manage the usual amount of road trips that we have come to enjoy.
We ended the year with a couple of nice rides over the Christmas period.
Our Boxing Day ride was always going to be a short Play session.

The thought of the Mulled Wine and Cake waiting at Chris's house made sure of that.
A slippy slidey ride around Sherrards Wood made us all puff like old fellas.
No surprise there then.
We stopped off to play on a couple of stunts.
Chris managed to damage his thumb while riding over Big Daddy.
Oops. We rushed to the crash site to get a better look and show how concerned we were.

Tom was seen flying over the bars while jumping in the doughnut.
I fell off a couple of times and then hit a tree while showing people how easy it was to ride down the side of some steps.
Only damage there was to my pride and the tree lights I had mounted to the handlebars.
A lovely morning it was too.
The sun streaming through the trees.
James manned the camera and looked all professional as he crouched down and tilted the camera this way and that.
He even let Gill take one picture with it.
She brought us back to the real world by shouting.....
"Which button do I press?".
Over to Chris's then for some Mulled wine and Cake.
Mmmmmmm...
Smashing. We finished the ride quite early so many thanks to Tina for getting out the shower to prepare the wine.
There will be pictures to post here soon.
(No. Not the shower ones)
(Note to self for 2008. Realise your opportunities and take them)
:o)
DB

Spain. Sierra Nevada 2007

We're home from another international adventure.
Southern Spain.
Sierra Nevada.


We arrived on Saturday morning and had unpacked the bikes before you could say.....
....flipping heck it's bloody hot here.
Lunchtime we got straight out on the local trails.
Now...locally they have wicked thorn bushes.
We got back 3 hours later torn to shreds.

Weyy heyyy. Blood!
The evening was spent eating and drinking in town till we were full and pissed.

Sunday. First trip into the mountains. It was ok. I guess the guides have to find out what standard of riding a group are up to
seeing that we had 15-60 year olds, male and female.
The ride was a bit tame for us to be honest.
Oh. When I say tame.
Poor Terry still managed to get big air on one of the trails and break his collar bone.
Get well soon fella.
Evening we ate and drank big time.

Monday. Another trip out to sample the Spanish countryside.
We were made to work for the descents and big climbs in Spanish heat was a new experience for most of us.Phew.
I could see my weight dropping off as we were riding.
Thank goodness I put all back on in the evening!

Tuesday we were taken out to the mountains again.
We did a lot of climbing during the week. (Where's the fecking ski lifts?)
This time the riding was a lot more technical.
They gave us more techie stuff and got in return silly grins and
shouts of "more" and "bring it on".
Guy managed to eat dirt big time on one trail.
We dusted him down and stamped on his bike a bit to straighten it out.
On the final descent we arrived at a huge rutted drop with a very steep ending.
One guide confided in me that he didn't like it very much and would be pleased to give it a miss if we wanted.
He he he he.....
No way mate!
"We call it The Widow Maker" he says..........
In a cloud of dust...a 15 year old, 2 16 year old's, 2 women and most of the others were off down there.
Regrouping at the bottom it is my pleasure to tell the guides they have just renamed it "The Window Cleaner"
Many joke throughout the next few days about getting T shirts saying I've Done the Window Cleaner.
To celebrate we go out in the evening and eat and drink to excess.

Wednesday was the day off so we shopped before eating and drinking for the whole day.

Thursday was more riding in the mountains. Great views and brilliant trails.
Plenty of scary moments now (which is good).
Guess what we did in the evening?
Yep. Got it in one.

Friday's ride was probably the best day.
Loads of height gained by transit before climbing on the bikes and riding in an upwards direction for quite some time.

All worth it of course.
Lovely long descents and fantastic views of the area all the way down to the sea.
In the afternoon we rode a part of the area that has massive rocky boulders that you can ride across just like what you see on the telly.
After that ride we felt the need to celebrate.
So we went out and had a great meal followed by buckets of drink.

Saturday was our last day. Booooo!
I think we were meant to do a morning ride but it was obvious we are mental about our riding
so they took us out for a complete day ride before returning and packing the bikes in seconds flat.
Just enough time to get out and have a final meal before rushing back to get the airport transfer.
All in all a truly great week.
Loads of thanks to all the Sierra Cycles team.
Thanks to Alan who had no idea how many rooms any of his houses had.
Thanks Tom and Matt who couldn't work out why old people would want to risk life and limb but were still willing to point us to the nearest cliff edge.

BTW chaps..... Where's our T shirts?
Pictures are on the righthand clicky button for......er......Pictures.

We will be back.

Another Sunny ride

The weekend weather was great for biking again wasn't it?
Took a ride over the opposite direction to my favourite trails just because this weather I can.
In the rubbish weather the going gets very muddy and spoils the fun.
We had a brief stop on top of a field which looked out over miles and miles of beautiful countryside.
Fantastic.
On the way home I took a detour and rode a very exciting and fast (and highly illegal) woodland trail.
Gill took the lead and boy did she go.
Made me laugh inside as we were thrashing around tight rooty corners and over small humps and shiv. I could only just keep up with her.
I don't usually play the hooligan on these trails but lately I have had to get my kicks where ever I can get them.
Gill was careering into tight turns and sliding through them drifting front and back wheels.
This is what our lovely Marins were built for.
Tight fast stuff that just needs to be blasted. How big were the smiles after that?
Didn't want to come home (again) so delayed the inevitable by stopping at our local fishing/sailing lake where we bought cuppas and cakes.
Then Gill and Alex took us down the road where they had discovered a rooty drop down from a high bank.
I couldn't scramble up the bank with my bike so stayed and acted as lookout so we/they didn't kill any pedestrians.
We had 15 mins of chaos there before turning for home.
Oh yes. Nearly forgot. Right near where we had started out from there is a BMX/skate park.
Yep. We just had to stop there for 5 mins and show the local kids that we (I can't) can teach them something.
To be honest, we only had one Carnival member who can ride a bike park properly.
I got him to go through his routine and sat there pretending we could all do the same if we fancied it.
Then home for a protein drink and then a fry-up.
I want more....I want more!!

It's Autumn but looks like Summer..

Here we go.
Our first ride of Autumn.
What a great day it was too.
The sun shine ..er .. shon .. shined.
Early morning freshness soon turned into warm, bright conditions.
That saw the long sleeved layers come off and replaced with sexy little numbers.
The ladies followed suit moments later.
I love Summer (Autumn).
The trails were as dry and hard packed as a hard packed dry thing.
The surface was almost too hard (if there is such a thing as too hard).
The only moan was about the dust in your eyes if you were at the back of the train.
(Eric's glasses sitting on his kitchen table were, surprisingly, no use to him out on the trail)
There were no excuses to go anything other than flat out along our favourite tracks.
All flow and speed and warp factor 10.
Everyone seemed to have a huge grin on their face.
That could have been wind but I like to think it was because they were having a load of fun.
No one wanted to come home.
We added more bits to the ride but finally had to admit it….
…we were tired and needed that refuelling fry-up.
Boy. Could do that ride every day.
I love days like those don’t you?
Perfect trails.
Perfect weather.
Perfect flow.
Perfect riding buddies….
..well….as near perfect as they can be!
(breaks into song)
“Oh it’s such a Perfect day……..”
And to prove to us how lucky we were….
The very next day we woke up and there was 10ft of standing water on those same trails.
A typhoon warning and horizontal rain.
Hey. All be good by next Sunday.
Roll on.
:O)

Carnival time in Chamonix 2007

We have just got back from our 2007 Chamonix trip.

Did you miss us?

What a great 4 days of riding.

As usual, the weather changed from rain to a heatwave as soon as the Carnival arrived.

Roasting hot for the whole 4 days. Lovely.

We had two Cham virgins with us.

Darren and Nicky.

Despite the riding there being of the most technical you can get, both Darren and Nicky rode like experienced pro's.

Well ridden to both of them.

Happy Jon is guiding for MBMB this season and laid on some new trails for us.

He knows what we like and the trails he had found for us didn't disappoint.

Soon we were dropping 1000's of meters down rocks, roots, berms and just about every other obstacle you can imagine.

That is what we went there for.

To practice all our varied techniques of descending.

Two wheeled, front wheel, back wheel only, no wheeled (on head).

So many techniques to use.

We had plenty of crashes, as is usual for us, but no serious injuries.

Just loads of rolling around in the rocks and off sides of mountains.

(Don't tell Nick's mum though. She thinks we were looking after him)

I took my injury with me to cut out the middle man so had to do extra training in between rides.

Lifting 1kg weights as often as possible seemed to do the trick and got me fully fit for Alpine riding.

See? Look at me go. Greased lightning or what?

Great fun had by all.

All in all.

A wonderful 4 days of riding.

Very tiring with everyone sporting a few new bumps and bruises but well worth the trip over.

On Sunday afternoon Phil sorted out a bridge jump for those who enjoy launching themselves off high structures and swinging by a tiny thread above a 50mtr drop into a rocky river.

Ooohhhh. My knee hurt on that day so, obviously, I couldn't join in the fun.

cluck...cluck...cluck...cluck. (what was that noise?)

There will be plenty of video of all the jumps, screams and laughter soon.

Pictures from the weekend are on my Fotopic website now.

Only been back a day and I miss Cham already.

Roll on next year.

I will be back there ASAP.

Yayyyy... It's the height of Summer.

And P1ssing down with rain!!!!!!
We're knee deep in mud.

The dust on the trails is 6" below the water line.

Still.

There are the hardy few who still seem to think it's ok to go out in it and have fun.

The fools.

How can they say they enjoy this eh?
Because they did I suppose

I am only jealous because I am sidelined with a poorly knee.

I wanna go play in the mud!!!!!

London to Brighton Bike ride

This Sunday The Carnival, The Datchworth Badminton Crew and assorted others from Space Labs took part in the British Heart Foundation London to Brighton Bike Ride.
We had to get up in the middle of the night to make it to Clapham for our 6 O'clock start.
That ended up as a 06:30 start because of trouble on the route.
This year we took our official cheerleaders with us on the riders coach.
Last year Dorrie, Sarah and Alex (in a full leg cast) never got to the finish line at all because of a dodgy coach driver and then lack of mobility once they had finally been dropped 2 miles up the coast in Hove.
This year Dorrie and Sarah got to see us finish.
And... A year on. Alex was able to do the ride with us. Yeyyyy... It is always fun to ride with hundreds of other cyclists.
The sights you see.
There were all sorts of bikes. Some that looked like they had just come out of the shed after being stored at the end of World War One.
Gears crunching, Moving parts squeaking. I guess oil was rationed in those bygone days.
And the riders. Well....
Some who thought they were elete road riders.
FFS. It was a charity ride not the Tour de France.
Risking life and limb to keep riding flat out on the wrong side of the road wasn't the most intelligent thing to be doing with oncoming vehicles intent on killing as many of us as possible.
Of course there were the opposite of the "elete".
What would you call them??
The ones who stopped before every hill and had a fag to calm their nerves before the walk up.
Our ride consisted of a nice steady run for about 20 miles and then a stop for a burger and a bit of a chat. Then riding for the next 20 miles before stopping for another burger and a large slice (think house brick) of cake.
On the second stop the organisers had layed out table and chairs for some of the more important riders of the day. It started to rain just before Ditchling Beacon but that didn't last more than a few minutes and then the sun came out proper just in time for the biggest climb of the day.
It had been warm until then but it was roasting as we made our way up the long climb.
You had to zig zag your way through the slow moving and walking throng. Once at the top we regrouped and told tall stories about how we had wheelied all the way up and how we never got out of the big ring. Then it was all downhill into Brighton.
What a great feeling to get to the finishing line with people cheering and the sun blazing away overhead.
Once we had calmed down and taken the "I've got a medal" pictures we went off to get changed. Now what? Ah yes. All down the pub for some lovely nosh and a couple of beers with our mates. With all the sunshine it would have been rude not to go to the beach.
The kids (Chris, Haydn, Tracy included) couldn't help themselves and had to get into the sea. I was happy just to lay back and think of England.....and get sun burnt face.
That seemed very amusing to my work colleagues on the Monday morning.
The coach ride home was long and uncomfortable.
Numb bums all around please.
Thanks to all who took part and made it a great day.
A special up to Steve who organised it for us.
Many thanks to those who sponsored a rider.
If you didn't. There's still time.
It is a good cause you know.