The fun is in the Chase

Chase Trails are a collection of purpose built mountain bike trails built on land on Cannock Chase owned by the forestry commission. There are trails for family and leisure, technical singletrack for the more advanced rider and a downhill course for the full-suspension, armour-wearing nutters.

Follow The Dog - Day 1

We (Agent Gorgeous and I) chose to ride the technical singletrack, a seven mile route known as “Follow The Dog”. Having never ridden on a purpose-built trail before we didn’t really know what to expect. However we soon realised that the investment in our mountain bikes was a wise one and both of us had the biggest smiles after completing the first section, a twisty singletrack through forest with a bumpy surface and the odd jump thrown in, which neither of us had the guts to actually jump, those trees are really close!

The trail is split into sections, with each section depositing you out of the trees and onto the fire roads that criss-cross throughout the chase. This provides a good opportunity to grab a breather and regale the highlights of the previous section.
A short ride along these fire roads and you’re at the start of a new section, each with its own distinctive feel, flat singletrack through dense trees, downhill singletrack with berms to ride, sticky mud singletrack, short sharp fast descents and lung busting climbs.

Halfway around the trail brought the first crash of the day. A fast, twisty downhill section, which we both later agreed was the best section of the trail. I guess I was becoming a little over confident and halfway through got up a little too much speed, too much to take one of the bends, I thought I’d managed to hold it but as the bend tightened I completely lost balance and had no where to go but off into the side, unable to unclip my spd’s, rolled over and skidded along ‘till I came to a halt. Still, I hadn’t injured myself and was quite happy about it until I realised I’d broken the (hydraulic)cable on my front (disc)brake, which meant riding the rest of the trail with only my rear brake functioning.

I persevered on as I was determined it wouldn’t spoil my enjoyment, cue second crash of the day. This was a couple of sections later, this time I was trying to take it steadier through twisty singletrack in dense forest. Unfortunately, in one downhill section my lack of front brake meant slowing down was impossible, my rear wheel completely locked up but no sign of slowing and a tree fast approaching. I decided to try ditching my bike and bailing out to the side, with some success, my bike was fine, and I got away with scratches, scrapes and bruises to my legs – battle scars! Suffice to say, I took the rest of the trail a tad slower!

Follow The Dog - Day 2

After the previous day’s mishaps, the opportunity to get back out there arose and as my front brake was fixed I gladly took it. The weather couldn’t have been more different, whereas the previous day was warm and sunny, this time it was persisting it down, but getting muddy is what mountain biking is all about.
Thankfully no crashes to write about and we sampled a section of the trail that we’d missed last time due to poor directions. I was able to ride the second half of the trail properly; having good brakes means you can ride faster!

We were both really impressed with the trails and will certainly return, and for anyone else thinking of going along you must stop by the café, they make a great bacon and sausage sandwich.

bear behind

Let's Offroad!

Sunday morning mountain biking around Sutton Park featuring TheStang, BigFootCookie, FatBoyFat and MrNoxious.


We started off with a gentle warm up along the park road before hitting the first trail of the day, pausing briefly to down saddles and retrieve a dropped water bottle. A singletrack climb through some unforgiving gorse bushes, not too challenging but a fine way to attune to the terrain. Meandering around cows, cow shit, dog owners and their suicide-minded dogs intent on sniffing out TheStang, alongside a golf course and finally along a sweeping meadow. Cue first incident of the day, a deceptively shallow ditch decided to claim BigFootCookie's front wheel for it's own leaving the cookster nowhere to go but arse over tit. Luckily his lid took the main force of the impact scooping out a divot of turf. A big smile from the cookster allayed any fear of further injury, just a lesson to us all, and we were on our way.


The rest of the morning saw us traverse a number of different trails, each with their own distinctive aspect of fun, tight forest tracks over raised roots, winding singletrack through the forest, open parkland rising and falling along rough tracks and loose stone downhill runs. All in all a good mixture of fast adrenaline pumping riding interspliced with gentler freewheeling in some beautiful surroundings, all not 10 mins from the centre of Birmingham.

We will return.

More Onions

Assumption Cathedral, Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius, Sergiyev Posad.

North Shore comes to Birmingham

For those of you that aren't Mountain Bike Fanatics, North Shore is a name given to a type of man-made mountain bike trail, often precarious skinny wooden structures usually with a stunt encouraging drop-off at the end. They were first built in The North Shore, North and West Vancouver, Canada, hence the name, and similar style trails have started popping up throughout world.

Well, having fitted a new crank to my steed, and thanks to bigfootcookie who recently gave me some flat pedals to try, it was seat down and ready for me to test out my new bike setup. I've been riding home from work through Moseley Bog, a small parkland area often used by people walking their dogs. I'd never been to the actual bog as it looked, well, it just looked too overgrown to be ridden through, but I had noticed a couple of what looked like passable trails that might, just might be OK to ride along and had been meaning to explore them at some point, so that's where I went.

And I'm glad I did, some parts around the bog were just normal dirt trails, but in other areas, as the ground is quite boggy (strange that) they've built wooden pathways, some winding through the woodland, some over streams, another descending down a slope in a series of steps. Not quite North Shore but a helluvalotta fun to ride along. Alas my fun was cut short when, probably down to the chicken wire covering the paths, I got a puncture. But, you can bet I'll be back down there soon.

NB: Mountain bike riding is a dangerous sport and can cause injury or even death. Always use the appropriate safety equipment, and try not to fall off.

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

Here's Agent FatBoy with his new steed, a Kona Caldera.[view image]

Agent FatBoy can be seen here sporting a Met 5th Element lid, Specialized SPD Shoes, Altura Baggies and Endura Techvest, available from all good cycle shops.

I see dead people

Sculpture depicting the lives lost under the rule of Stalin.
Tretyakov Gallery and Sculpture Park, Moscow.

Onions

St Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow.

The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. (He did in fact go on to build another cathedral in Vladimir despite his ocular impediment!)