Woods ride - 12th April 08
Its been f&*$(&! ages since me and Ross have ridden trials, the bikes are STILL not back from Mr Leeson, getting really frustrated now but thats another story. Anyway as a result Ross followed in my footsteps and bought a beautiful 07 Kona Howler! So between us just because we couldnt ride we spent around £2500 just to get out ridin again :D And they say drug abuuuuse is an expensive addiction! The Howler is an awesome bike, 4in front/rear travel (his misses has always said shes happy with 4in so no need to go any bigger :D), 15in frame, it absolutely rips down the trails. Its a mini coiler, lighter, flickier, faster off the line. This sort of riding is so much fun, my advise to any trials rider, go buy a hardtail or full susser, get down your local woods/moors and go for a blast. Once you go get goin the buzz is immense. As a trials rider you want to be in control all the time, were finding the bigger bikes teach you just to let it all go ragged and rip it up!
We have been riding and building stuff in the woods for a while now, improving loads everytime we go out (It's a steep learning curve from all those years of trials riding!!), luckily this week Mr Wootsy and his mate Mike were down in sunny Cornwall so we all decided to forget about a ridiculously stressful week and go for a blast. Wootsy and Mike have both got SLR snappers so they got some shots of the action. The lighting in the woods is well, no good at all for photography! Despite this and without any of Glynny's multi-flash trickery they got some pretty cool shots, check it out:
From right to left, dumb, dumber and really dumb. First stop the 'newie' trail, not finished yet but consists of a real nice run in with a small steep drop down through some trees into an awesome gap-down jump, this is pretty tasty, hit it perfect and your looking at around a 6 - 7ft drop with a 20 - 25ft gap. The run out, I love it but its tough, really really short and steep with loads of very meaty looking trees and stumps ready to give you a good beating. It finishes with a very steep 5ft roll out or nasty drop to flat (depending on how well you got on the stoppers!!)
The takeoff, bit of trail preppage required due to sabotage from the forestry commision / rambler bastards
Tucks up first and sticks it with style
Good view of the new green machine
See what I mean about the trees, like threadin a needle :D
Rippin through the section on the big Coiler
The Coiler really is awesome under braking, me just about scrubbing enough speed off to make the rollout
Wootsy's still not sure, it's a pretty daunting gap down and Wootsy hasn't ridden for a long time. What he needs is some good old peer pressure......
Peer pressure duly applied! :D
Just as so many times before, Wootsy crumbles under the pressure from his mates and against his better judgement makes his way up to the top
After some final pressure piled on at the top Wootsy rolls in. We all thought he was gonna pull up short as he didnt have speed to make the gap, in true Wootsy style against all the odds he goes for it anyway
That indeed is a tad on the short side :O The DS1 provides no comfort as Wootsy drops like a wounded mule from 6ft to flat ahhrrrgg. Look how the big old skool Tioga happily takes temporary ownership of the Wootsy undercarriage. Gutted we didnt get a front shot to get the winced eyes and contorted face lol. Fair play the boy though had a bash, it was a ballsy effort, considering no warm up, hardtail bike, front wheel weighs more than my head, 1980's tyres, no air in the forks (cant afford air he's a student)... it wasnt an ideal setup. Sure next time he's down he'l be sailing through the section no probs.
I've seen enough, take me home, were leaving
