Black Canon Collective

Category: Thank you

  • Crash bang wallop

    Yesterday Geraint decided to test out the skills of our freshly trained Ride Leaders by crashing and breaking himself a bit. What he didn’t realise was that one of our newest members and first time Tuesday Night Rider was a Doctor. No need to flex any AVPU muscles then…

    Big thanks go to Mark Vose for his help and for actually having a triangular bandage!

    Anyway, here’s Geraints take on what happened:

    Me and my big mouth…no sooner had I said the words ‘airborne’ and ‘faceplant’ to describe my mountain bike riding style, than I tried to jump a log and went headlong into a course of events which includes, paramedic, A&E, sling and pain! Clavicle broken in two places, MTB off the menu for 6 weeks! Sorry to stuff up the best bit of singletrack on the ride, the sling from the RUH isn’t much different from trail side first aid. Got my beer in at 12.30 when we got back, but that shirt will have to go….

  • Follow Me – Thanks!

    We’d all like to say a special Thank You to Jonny Ashelford for organising the Follow Me raffle that raised over £100 for the BCC!!

    The film was cracking with most people struggling to refrain from making “brappp” noises or giggling like little children at the awesome trails and tricks being drenched across the cinema screen.

    After watching Follow Me we were treated to a screening of Seasons with the added bonus of some french subtitles….all we can say is that we wish we’d paid more attention as none of us can remember what the french for “gnarly” is… “le gnarrrr” or something like that I guess…?

    Cheers to the following companies for donating to the raffle: John’s Bikes, Thor, Follow Me and KCNC and to all those who bought tickets and came along for the ride.

  • "10 to 15 more lads…"

    Today was as hot as a dig day ever was,
    the midges were militant and the flies were pretty aggressive too.
    We raked and raked and raked then did a bit of digging.
    Just a bit.
    Not much.
    Well… about 10 to 15 barrows (x 5)
    We built a sweet little berm using nothing but soil (and sweat), rode it a bit then went home.
    Beans.

    The next round of the 2010 BCC TickerTape DH Series* is on BBMS and thanks to all the recent hard work we’ll be using the brand new bottom section for the first time!

    (it’s fast, off-camber and super flowy)

    * well, it makes it sound “Pro”…

  • Trail doodles

    Yesterday we completed the lower section of puppets, raked and groomed the whole trail and then smiled as we imagined racing it in two weeks time at the next TickerTape.
    We drank tea, ate chocolates and debated the ethical robustness of GM food (I know….not what I was expecting either).
    The afternoon was spent trail doodling, sketching a new lower section for BBMS with our tyres.
    Turns out we did a pretty good job, getting the feel and flow just right, so we raked it to unearth the ground features and define the trail.
    Clearing loam (a foot deep in places) really takes it out of your arms and back, but seeing the trail evolve is infectious so we carried on raking until we couldn’t anymore.

  • Follow Me UK Premier (&BCC fundraiser)!

    This film is going to be huge! Jonny Ashelford is hosting another great night of MTB movie lushness, drinks and music to launch the much anticipated Follow Me movie by Anthill Films.
    The guys have v generously pledged to give all the proceeds of the prize draw to the BCC so please come along to support us and watch what’s hyped to be one of the best films of the year!

    The after party is TBC but most likely be at the Cork with DJ Dodd on the decks and more MTB movies on the big screens!

    Date: Thursday 17th June 2010

    Time: 20:00

    Place: Little Theatre, Bath

    TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW FROM THEIR BOX OFFICE!

  • Weeeeeeee Boing

    Today 8 people made it out to the DH dig day

    (given that it’s Easter weekend that’s pretty good – what with so many people being away)

    Everyone worked hard through the rain and constant bullying – “I can’t see any digging!!!! Chedge stop standing there, Ben jump up and down on the mud, Josh…Josh….JOSH!!!!”

    By the end of the day we’d finished the massive berm at the bottom of ‘Battery Hill‘ (on ‘Puppets‘), dug up two monster stumps and started the long loamy raking mission to clear the bottom section of the trail.

    The lads below had become a trail digging version of the A-Team, so it seemed only fair that they get to name the feature they’d worked so hard to make. After everyone had a go riding it, giggling like kids riding a massive new berm with a kicker at the end (!) they had made their decision…..

    What I hadn’t expected was that they would choose to call it “Weeeeee Boing“, yes, as in the sound of someone riding the berm whilst saying “weeeeee”, then “boing” as they jumped off the end. And Yep. I know…. no really.

    But do you know what? It’s a great name because as far as I’m concerned they, and the others who worked hard on it last dig day, have earned the right to call it what ever they like.

    Well done Ben, Ben, Ian, Josh, Max, Robin and Sam – you’ve made a monster and then gone and called it Betty.

    (Puppets is now officially open again, although the bottom section will still need some work to finish it off)

  • Year Three Memberships + New BCC Forum

    Year Three Memberships

    Hello

    Due to a change to the way we will be operating the forum, and the fact that the change requires a lot of technical jiggery pokery we’re not in a position to accept year three memberships just yet.

    So, despite the fact that your membership cards expired about an hour ago, the club will grant an extension to the year 2 memberships until we can begin accepting year three applications.

    If you’re already a year 2 member then please continue to use the allotment and other club benefits as usual. Those who are not, don’t worry, we’ll have it sorted before you can say…”so what’s a TickerTape anyways?”

    We’re aiming to have all this in place for Tuesday the 6th April 2010 but will have to update you when we know a little more.

    Thanks for your patience

    New BCC Forum

    We’re moving to a custom BCC forum, on the BCC website, so will soon stop using the southerndownhill.com club forum.

    The move to the new forum will include a period of about a month where we have both, for handover purposes. You will be given new usernames and passwords for the BCC website and Forum when you join up for year three.

    Rob Lewis (southerndownhill.com) has been incredibly helpful and generous in providing the club with both forum space and website hosting since we started back in 2008. We’re making this move for a number of reasons, all of which will benefit the club, but (and this is important) this is not being done because we don’t want to be a part of SDH or because they don’t want to have us.

    We need to provide a forum that is more club focused, in terms of it’s functionality, ease of use, and visibility from our website. The SDH forum is in many ways better than our BCC forum, but it’s just not quite right for the current and future needs of the club.

    The new BCC forum will be part of the BCC website, it’ll also be very simple. This is something that has caused problems amongst many members who’ve struggled to find their way onto the current forum – while not actually very hard, it could be easier. This is important as people who are active on the club forum are the ones who are most active within the club. Of course this is a case of chicken and egg, but it’s clear that by making the forum easier to use, more people will use it and then more people will get involved in club activities.

    The new forum will display some threads to the public so that people can see what’s going on… other threads will be only visible to members once logged in, meaning that we can retain the private nature of the club forum too. As part of this change we will be able to provide ‘members only’ website content aswel, meaning that we can have areas for people to upload route maps, see club resources resources etc etc…

    In addition the change will enable us to conform to online Child Protection best practice more easily, something that really is very important especially as we are growing in numbers.

    So a valuable change all round…but…

    All that aside, I’d like to say a special thank you to Rob Lewis for all his help, it’s probable that we would never have even existed at all if it wasn’t for the fact that some of the original Longleat riders first met on the SDH forum, and then were able to use it when setting up the club. I hope that many of you stay active members of SDH, I know I will.

  • The real McCoy

    We’re really pleased to announce that Madison now provide race tape for all of our TickerTape events! Most people will have seen plenty of pictures of their DH hero’s riding courses lined with Shimano tape, and if you’re anything like Ian and I the prospect of riding a Shimano tape lined TickerTape is very exciting! importantly though this tape is reusable, and provided to the club for free, saving money on the cost of the event and minimising it’s impact too!

  • Tickertickertape

    Two months is a long time, especially when it’s practically three! It feels like ages since we last rode between the tapes so it was great to see BBMS lined in red and white and the usual hustle and bustle of TickerTape.

    Ben Lovell, Bob Darvill and Jack Howe took the beans awards after an awesome day. Ben clocked up almost non stop runs getting better every time. Bob put in a really great effort for his first TickerTape, riding a different bike each run but giving it his all. Jack (the scruffy looking one in the middle) only managed a couple of runs but schooled most of us with his distinct riding style as he silently pumped his way down the tree lined course.

    A special mention should go to Ben Batt (triple crown champion) , who always rides as if his life depends on it, putting in some blisteringly fast times, one of which was with a blow out only 2/3 of the way into the run!!!

    Southerndownhill.com sorted us out with some great prizes and even brought along a back up pit tent in case it rained! Their new race bikes were rarely given a rest as everyone had a go at testing them out , so thanks to Neil and Rob for being so generous.

    After the event had finished a few of us sessioned onefourthree then ‘spork’ before calling it a day and going home.

    Over 20 people made it out in the end, a great total considering that we had some notable absentees, next TickerTape should be even better thanks to the days being longer and warmer too so check out the club calendar for details!

    For more pictures from the event check out the BCC flickr pool here

  • TickerTape – southerndownhill.com special!

    Tomorrow TickerTape will be supported by southerndownhill.com to mark the launch of their new DH race team. Rob will bring his SDH pit tent (to keep us out of the rain when eating lunch) and will be giving out some cool prizes too.

    What’s more exciting though is that both Rob and Neil will be there aboard their new race bikes and will be letting people have a go!

    So, hope to see you there tomorrow, timing runs from 11:00 – 15:00 (though help setting up and packing away is always appreciated).

    Please do bring your membership cards and remember that you must wear a full face helmet and have a working front and rear brake fitted to your bike to take part.

    beans!