Black Canon Collective

Author: Archive User

  • It's good to talk

    This here website, that you are reading this here post on, is all about the BCC. Its about what we do, why we do it, how we do it, when we do it and who’s doing it. When you stop to think about that, and consider we now have over 90 members, that’s a lot of stuff to keep up to date and easy to find.

    As part of the autumn committee projects, I’ve picked up the website baton (that had been hiding under my desk) and shall be trying to improve not just the website, but how we communicate with our members as a whole, and indeed, how they communicate with us.

    We need to make sure we are communicating beyond our existing members too. Potential members and other interested parties are important website users too.

    So, all that said, there are a few things we know we need to do…

    • Improve the website usability.
    • Improve our use of emails.
    • Improve our use of social media for 2-way communication.

    .. and indeed there may be more. Which is where you come in. What do you think we could do better? Is there anything we don’t do you think we should? Are there things we do do that we shouldn’t? Would you rather the website was purple and yellow? Please let us know! 🙂

    There is a forum thread for members to comment in here, you can also comment directly below and/or anyone is welcome to send an email to suggestion.box@blackcanoncollective.co.uk. We promise not to take anything personally, so please, be honest.

    And no, I wasn’t serious about the purple and yellow…

  • Ride Leader Training

    Many of you will be aware we raised some money earlier on this year  so that we could afford to train some members as ride leaders.

    With an ever growing club it’s become increasingly important that we have trained leaders (and first aiders), both for insurance reasons, and to ensure that we can lead safe, exciting rides for all of our members.

    • Are you interested in becoming a ride leader?
    • Do you feel that you have some of the skills to lead small groups on rides?
    • Do you have the time to commit to leading a number of rides every year (don’t worry, we don’t expect you to be available all year round)?

    We will be using the CTC to provide all Ride Leader Training, and affiliated organisations to provide the associated First Aid training.

    Full details of the courses are here: http://www.promtb.net/courses/leaderawards/trail.htm

    This really is a great opportunity to learn some new skills and help out the club,  not to mention the fact that over time you could become a fully qualified ride coach (and that’s a pretty nice feather to put in your cap).

    We’re looking to train 6 people, including at least 1 woman, as soon as possible.

    The club will pay for all the training, with an initial payment and then incremental payments over an agreed period. Having said that we are completely open to discussion on this subject, so if you’d like to do it but feel that this payment format just isn’t quite right; let us know!

    If you’re at all interested please contact me.

    andrew.denham@blackcanoncollective.co.uk

    o7870 60 98 71

    Thanks!

  • Skills Area

    Over the past few months I’ve been working closely with the committee designing the skills area. The area will cater for all and help improve everyone’s skill level; from technical trail manoeuvres to getting your first few inches of air under your wheels. I’m really looking forward to getting this area built and am keen for your input, so if you’d like to get involved in any way please drop me a line.

    Cheers

    Chris

  • Homework.

    At the moment each committee member is working on a project.

    My project involves improving the Allotment as a riding environment for the XC side of the club. My idea is to build a singletrack link from the site of the skills area (close to the main fire road) to the point where the ‘Moron’ DH section meets the fire road that runs up to our current three downhill trails.

    The trail will be possible to ride both ways. In my head I imagine the style to be similar to the section that runs parallel to the Center Parcs drive – so sweeping corners, gentle climbs – fun!

    This project will hopefully achieve a number of things:

    • To encourage XC riders into and through the Allotment.

    • To allow more varied loops of the Allotment.

    • To have more traffic through the Allotment, which will hopefully decrease the number of non-members and littering.

    Singletrack Proposal

  • Job done!

    Team Sprok

    Today was Dig Day.

    Me, Sam, Gordon, Ian, James, Robin, Dave and The Chedge worked until our hands didn’t grip and we couldn’t see.

    Building on the work Neil, Josh, Jim, Dave, Gordon and I put in at the last dig day we managed to finish ‘Spork’.

    Hopefully all the drainage and grading work we did will mean that the run in doesn’t get too boggy either.

    Imagine what we could achieve if a few more people helped out…

    Spork

  • Dig Day Today!

    Don’t forget it’s Dig Day today, we’re here with tools, timber, tea and cake. There’s plenty to do and lots to eat, we just need some more hands to get the job done. Hopefully see you soon…

  • 2010 BCC Calendar

     

    Now I might have left this a bit too late, but… I hope to put together a 2010 Black Canon Collective Calendar which will be ready in time for Christmas! The calendar will be sold for a reasonable sum to raise funds for some of the projects which we are working on (skills area and Groovy Blue trail). Now we are dealing with a very short time scale and I need pictures FAST! I want the calendar to show all the different aspects of bike riding (XC, DH, Velodrome, cobble wobble) digging, racing or general ride related faffing that BCC members get themselves into. The only rule is that the photo must be of a BCC member and it must be of sufficient quality to be printed on A5, but the rest is up to you. To have any hope of this project working, I need YOU to get all your best photos and upload them onto the Black Canon Collective Flickr account before Sunday 15th November.

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/blackcanoncollective/pool/

    A select panel of judges will then select the finest 12 photos for the Calendar.

    If you have any questions please e mail me on simon.truelove@blackcanoncollective.co.uk

    Ta

    Simon

  • Christmas Social

    h&g

    Now that both Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are behind us I feel that I can legitimately mention the C word (thats right Christmas) and in particular the Black Canon Collective Christmas Social. The plan is to congregate in The Horse and Groom at East woodlands, eat food, sup some ale/cider and generally be merry!

    This social is open to all members (plus 1 partner) and I would like to think that a good mixture of XC, DJ and DH riders will attend. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet other members or catch up with members you may have ridden with but never seen without a full face helmet on! Some of the (fool) hardy night riders may choose to go for a short ride before hand, but I think we should aim to eat at 8pm. The Horse and Groom can accommodate 32 diners so seats will have to be on a first come, first served basis. Alternatively, you are welcome to come along just for drinks.

    First we need to figure out which date is best for everyone. The choices are….

    Tuesday 8th December
    Tuesday 15th December
    Tuesday 22nd December

    If you are interested, please post a message with your prefered date or dates (from the 3 above) on the forum thread

    http://www.southerndownhill.com/forum/index.php/topic,211588.0.html

    before Monday 16th November and I will book the venue for the date which suits the most people. Once the date has been decided on, you will then have from Tuesday 17th November until Monday 23rd to grab one of the 32 spaces. If we run out of spaces you are more than welcome to come along just for drinks.

    If you have any questions please e mail me on simon.truelove@blackcanoncollective.co.uk
    I hope to see you all there!

    Cheers

    Simon

  • Lots going on…

    Over the next 4 days each of the committee members will be updating this blog with info of projects they’re working on, giving info of how to get involved, and what to expect over the next few weeks.

    Check back soon to see what they’ve got to say.

  • Winter night-rides going down a storm…

    It was a clear moonlight night; was it our imagination or was Chris looking a little bit more hirsute than normal? Time to get that razor set to No.2 for a quick once-over? Having set off at a spanking pace, everyone was warming up; until an unexpected shower set in and did a great job of cooling everyone down. The route was chosen bearing the conditions in mind, so it was far from a horrific mud-fest. Maybe I should have borne the conditions in mind a little more instead of blasting down the last descent at my usual speed and taking a horizontal approach to the ditch. May have to add a brake-lever repair to my list for my lovely local mechanic tomorrow!  The pub was cosy with spd shoes and 5/10s drying nicely by the fire. The craic was as good as usual, with some enthusiasm for additional rides and event dates being planned for next season.  Watch this space!?

    There's the cheese, where's the chips?!?!Smell the heat