Category: News
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Now that's how you build a drop!
Today we started work on the three tiered drop/step-down at the top of spoons.
We built the first of the three tiers; the ‘medium’ line.
I think you’ll agree; its pretty bloody lush!
Next month we’ll build the ‘small’ and ‘big’ drops.
Maybe by then we’ll have come up with some better names for them.
Thanks to Neil, Josh, Jim, Dave and Gordon. She’s a beauty!
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It's all about the numbers…
That’s not actually true. In fact it’s all about the content, but for this post …
Since launching in May 2008 , this site has had 18,788 visits.
19.56% have been new visits.
Even if we assume that most people use 2 computers, that’s 1830 people.
iPhone OS is our third most popular OS, with Mac’s second and then Windows first. Interestingly iPhones make up more unique visits than all the other phone OS’s combined.
75 visits came from a dial up connection, 9616 from DSL.
117 visits have come from twitter.com , 123 from britishcycling.co.uk and 3164 from Southerndownhill.com.
Visitors have come from 54 countries, including Slovakia, Iceland, Nigeria and Iraq!
Our Icelandic friend looked at 13 pages and spent 34:04 mins doing so.
Searching for “chris smith black canon collective” generated 686 visits between 28th September 2008 and 28th March 2009. Interestingly not a single one of these visitors was new. Perhaps it was all Chris?!?
Our most viewed news post has been “Tick Tock” (the first TickerTape write up) with 289 views.
8:00pm is when we’re busiest, with over 4467 views made at this time.
On Friday, September 18, 2009 – 184 visits were made, our highest count so far. 114 new people visited the site that day (we published the cobble wobble results the day before).
We’ re working on making the site better; simpler and easier to navigate. Making sure that new content is visible on the front page will help too, as lets be honest most of us have a very short attention span (over 64% of visits last less than 1 minute).
Importantly though people are returning to our site, and that’s great news!
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Blown away in the Peak District (part 1)
Two and a bit months of forum threads, some interweb faffing, a phone call to Brenda. 4.30pm, Marjory, Mark, Juliet, Sheppard, Snell, Three and a half hours of irrelevant chatter, bikes guarded by ducks, Lamb Biriyani, a pint of Thieving Whippet (or Stowford press), the crow of the cockerel, porridge, poached egg, sausage, bacon, fried bread, black pudding, Winnats Pass (more beautiful than Cheddar Gorge?), Hope.
My friend Molly, a shiny new singlespeed 69er and gale force winds greeted our arrival in Hope. The wind wasn’t unexpected and fortunately was blowing from the least worst direction. Unfortunately it did mean a headwind slog along the road to Castleton, up the broken road and around the back of Mam Tor, but at last we were riding! With the slog behind us we were practically blown up the last part of the climb, before descending down a tricky rutted trail with what feels like a million different line choices. This was just an appetiser.
A short blast over some flag stones (Roman North Shore?) and we were at Hollins Cross, the top of one of the best descents in the area. A rainbow formed for a split second as the sun fought with the drizzle. The sun won and we continued down a similarly rutted trail, this time with a few rocks, small drops and tighter turns included to test our nerve. The wind did its best to push us off line and but for a couple of tumbles everyone made it down in one piece. Everyone was stoked on the trail and tales of near misses and new challenges were shared as we cruised the short road section. The route took us along a wide bridleway which climbed and fell as it weaved its way through two streams up to Hope Cross and the beginning of the beast.
There are many trails which people have named the beast in the Peaks, but in my view this one is the definitive beast. Imagine the rockiest descent you can and times it by 10. From top to bottom you are surrounded by trees, trapped in a wide channel covered in erroded, off camber rock slabs and rocks the size of babies! The options are endless, if you have the bottle, but for most people (myself included) its just a case of surviving from one mini disaster to the next. Everyone gave it a good crack, some pushed their bikes over a few sections but most of all we made it down and nobody died!
The climb back towards Hope through the trees gave us a brief respite from the wind. I think the wind must have been poked in the eye whilst we played with the beast, because when we re-emerged on the ridge the wind was angry, really angry! We sheltered behind a wall as we re-grouped then set of against the wind. The drizzle had returned and felt like hail as it whipped against our faces. Leaning at 45 degrees into the wind pedaling down hill was a new experience for Marjory and probably anyone who hadn’t ridden in the peaks before! The route changed tack and once again the wind was on our back for the final descent. A fun rocky descent peppered with friendly walkers. With even larger smiles and the knowledge of a cafe only a few minutes ride away we trundled down the road.
www.woodbine-hope.co.uk – soup, bread, baked potato, beans, cheese, chocolate cake, mocha, fizzy Vimto. Thats what I had anyway! Lush.
Next stop Macclesfield pump track. All I’m going to say is that every town should have one of these. Sheppard, Marjory, Mark, Snell and myself were all ripping around this place, getting skooled by the local boys and girls. I love pump tracks. See macc-skate.blogspot.com for more info about the people who made it happen.
Shower, the Vale, Cameron (Nick), Pudding (Laura), Frosty, Molly, Twiglet (Alex), Mr Mullins, Steak and Vale pie, peas, chips, more peas, Thieving whippet, Stowford press, gin, tonic, whiskey, sleep.
Part 2 to follow soon…
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New bike = big smile!
This is James (or Jim to his friends)
Jim has got a new bike, a big pogo stick of a bike (his words) with big tyres, loads of travel and a relaxing head angle.
Since getting his new bike Jim has had a smile on his face, permanently.
Yesterday Jim rode the mini step (before flip-flop) on OneFourThree for the first time ever.
Lance Armstrong famously said “it’s not the bike” , and of course he’s right, but riding a nice one does help!
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TickerTape – September '09
Saturday was like bonus summer time, the sun was out and the trails were bone dry. Thanks to some hard graft earlier in the week BBMS + Moron were in A1 condition so the prospect of riding them and eating four different types of cake meant we were all on a real high.
You know the format by now; ride, time, write up time, eat cake, tease whoever you’re faster than, eat cake, try and put off whoever you’re slower than, eat more cake, pose for a photo. It’s pretty simple.
There were quite a few mini battles going on between riders, Big Bird, Jim and Stacey had each proclaimed that the other two stood no chance. Pre race trash talk is always funny, especially when it goes too far; Jim had stupidly declared “…I’ll sell my bloody bike if Stace’ beats me!”, less than 2 seconds stood between him and Stacey by the end of the day – so Jim was either very confident or bloody stupid! Bird took the overall honours though, riding real fast and smooth all day.
Times were really close all day, with BBMS + Moron being basically a one line trail there was always going to be little to separate the riders. That said, getting a clean run is flipping hard, and continuing to push on when you know you’ve made a mistake was even harder. There were definitely a few field splitting sections though; 90 degree flat left, the section immediately after the log drop and contention corner. Each had to be cleaned if a personal best was to be had.
[Rob] Lewis set some fast times right from the start, keen to make his mark despite only having an hour to do so, then Simon Bartlett surprised a few people by taking 0.3 seconds out of the current fastest with his first timed run! Chris Smith was on form (as always) but suffering a little after an over the bars the day before (he’s started making excuses before he starts). Speaking of which I was suffering from my usual stomach paralysis, so was unable to eat any cake all day long! All four of us were posting 54 second times, so finding something to separate us was causing a lot of head scratching (Chris seemed to think that wheelieing would help, though i reckon he just needed to PEDAL!).
A special mention should be given to Daniel who put in his first ever timed run at a TickerTape! Daniel is the most naturally talented rider I’ve ever seen, and definitely one for the future!
Charles Mountford was enjoying his first TickerTape, and rode with some real determination despite a spectacular over the bars. A few other TickerTape first timers showed up too, keen to watch and get involved (two have joined since!), making the day a winner!
Keith from Transition came along too, scoping out the trails with his brother. Transition gave out some awesome prizes again, this time both being given for “Giving it Beans!” to Jim and Charles.
Check out the times below; fastest was captured with Gordons headcam. Next TickerTape is Sunday 25th/09/2009 11:00 – 15:00, Spoons + Moron. Good Times!
