Well we are at the quiet time of year for some of us. The race season is over, the nights are now dark early, for most of us it’s time to become a weekend warrior, as thats the only time we will get to ride for now, unless you have a very good set of lights for your bike !
I havent been out for a while, lots of reasons why, you know the usual stuff, crap weather, work, lack of work and lack of cash, the demise of the Dragons and no winter uplifts as well in wales. Races have been hit by the bad weather, i am glad i didnt travel up to the downtown race, that would have been a 6 hour drive and sleep in the car for two nights only for weather to stop the race, The Diamond Back race is twice my normal race range, maybe 4 hour drive maybe longer and of course twice the fuel. The credit crunch is hitting as well, and the time has come to be picky about what i can do.
Havent entered yet but am aiming to do the 4X race at the UK Bike park on Nov 9th, looking ahead to next year on that front, gonna give it a go, see if i like it, maybe get a licence (£££) and do the NPS 4X in place of the Dragons next year, a return to Fort William is on the cards as well, maybe the Unofficial Champs as well, if someone will have us ( was invited back to wales, by dragons) but plans have changed and need a rethink on that one. There will be some Southwest winter races, maybe some uplifts as well, so there should be something to do, although the Kustombike series isnt planned to start until January/Febuary.
The Team ride is being planned, most of it is here and had a test at Fort bill, hard to just buy new gear because it’s new as everything else is proven and works, not sure about a fork, but a frame that fits me better is to be arranged, maybe a new chainset and bits and pieces. Near future plans involve the blender being stripped down and me being hardtail-less for a month or two while the new ride takes shape ( unless someone wants to send me a test bike for 2 months).
I have my first official Press do in January ( havent told Dave yet) where i’m off to the Core Bike Show, this is a Trade only affair and features about 150 brands so my camera will be busy, meet and greet the business bods maybe even get things for testing and review, and get the site more exposure in the trade, a few other things are being planned but they are for early next year, if they happen that is ?
During my winter gap of a race bike i will get round to a full review of everything on it. In the meantime i am starting a new project ” how to polish a turd” this involves that 5bar gate sized roadbike a few articles down, Ok i know its a road bike, but it’s a hardtail and will look like a new bike ( on the cheap ) in a few weeks time, i am trying to skid out the back tyre and having a lot of fun trying, yeah go and drift a road bike round a corner at 25mph on tarmac, scary, twitchy handling 20foot long skid marks and lots of fun, and when you pop a road tyre with 120 PSI in it, every one will hear it ( like a gunshot loud!)
I get 2 things out of this project, a winter bike for thrashing about town and something that might look newer than it is (on the cheap) might even get a bit fit on it as well, thats 3 things but who cares. Maybe even a few other staffers will get round to posting some stuff ( get in touch with dirtydave if you fancy it ) in the meantime you have to put up with me going weird from Winter madness and trying to write off my third roadbike in the process.
