Shock Guard for the Reign

After reading up on people's problems with the giant reign, it became apparent that many people were having problems with the rear shock due to it being slightly exposed to any crud coming from the front wheel. After looking around I saw that some people had made their own shock guard and mounted it on the down tube. I decided to do the same.

I am quite skint at the moment because I am already saving to get the shock and rear hub serviced on the reign I decided to try and make this spending as little money as possible. Firstly I thought about the material I am going to need. I decided anodised aluminium was my best bet as it won't rust and has a protective finish. It will also weigh less than other materials. Ideally I would need a 200mm x 60mm x 1.5mm strip of aluminium but I found a website which offered free samples of 150mm x 10mm x 1.5mm anodised aluminium so I ordered this because I thought it would be worth a try if it's free!

The aluminium arrived a few days later. As I don't have the right tools, I split it into 150mm x 60mm and 150 x 40mm strips using a blunt craft knife to score the aluminium then folding it in a vice. Once I had the two pieces I tidied up the edges with some sandpaper and wire wool. I also rounded of the corners to prevent a nasty accident when I'm out riding (I have enough of those already). I then drilled some holes and bolted the two pieces together. After, I bent the aluminium in a vice to give me the desired angle to fit the shape of the frame. Once I was happy I bolted my creation to the down tube, and voila, a free piece of protection for your bike!

Total Cost £0.00

Rock jump near Red Hill

I found this little gem of a trail a little while ago. I was a little annoyed I hadn't spotted it sooner though because it runs right along side the main track down towards red hill and even crosses over it at one point. At the top of this little gem is a choice of paths, a steep and smooth hill or a rock drop-off.

I had seen this rock drop-off before but hadn't been able to do it on my hardtail. With my new bike I gave it a go. It was a bit overgrown but still great fun!

Mini Downhill Style!

I've been fed up and sat in the house over the weekend as the weather has been utter crap. It's been raining and storming all weekend which has prevented me from going mountain biking. On Monday night I set my alarm for half seven AM. I just thought, Sack it! I'm going to go out tomorrow whatever the weather!

I woke up tired, stumbled down stairs had my fruit and fibre, cup of coffee and a big glass of water. I then went back upstairs now feeling less tired, took a shower and got dressed into my mountain bike gear and finally sorted out my camelbak. I knew there would be a high chance of rain so I stuck my Irn Bru Jersey on and packed a coat for if the sky turned gnarly. I set off at about ten past nine. Quickly, I adopted a steady pace along the tarmac and fire roads. I reached Captain Cooks Monument at quarter to ten feeling pretty fresh still. I took a nice single track trail along towards a trail which I like to call 'The Rock' (See Below)

I rode this trail but didn't ride the rock itself because it was wet and I didn't want to wake up in A&E. As I got to the end of this trail I rode along a fire road style track to get the beginning of a new-found track which I wanted to try. I don't know what this track is called but I see it as a kind of mini downhill track. It's quite hidden and out of the way but it's a fun little track to ride. 

I had been there before today but not ridden any of the big jumps in the track due to me still being on my Scott Hardtail. I thought today would be a good day to come here with my new full suspension bike. The biggest jump in this trail is a big step down jump. It took me a few nervous run-ups until I finally did it. It was the landing which was putting me off. It was probably one of the steepest landings I've ever done. Unfortunately I was on my own so no-one was there to film the jump. Anyway here are some crappy phone pics:

The Step Down

Take off...

Big enough :)

Steep Landing

Weekend in the Lakes

Last weekend I was pleasantly surprised when a friend asked me if I wanted to go with him to the Lake District for a weekend of biking. I saw this as a great opportunity to train for MT Snowdon, The highest mountain in England and Wales, which I will be attempting to ride up and down on our family holiday to the Snowdonia National Park in August. On Friday afternoon we arrived at the campsite, it seems like a nice place. The site was located right next to Lake Ullswater which was nice. After unpacking and settling into the caravan for the weekend we went on a short ride around the campsite and surrounding area. It looked like a fantastic destination for some big mountain riding.

On Saturday morning we went to Whinlatter Forest Park to do some man-made trails. We did the North and South Loops which were interesting to say the least! I found both trails to be made from some very slippery slate rock which my tyres didn't seem to take a liking too. These conditions meant I was slipping around a hell of a lot. It's great fun when you can use it to get that perfect drift through a corner but I had trouble staying on the trail at other points. I think we rode both trails in a respectable time. Unfortunately after the ride I was in a fairly positive mindset and I was fooling around in the car park as you do, when I tried to ride up a pretty steep verge. I didn't carry enough speed and fell backward onto the gravel car park. Importantly there was no damage to the bike but I had taken some skin off just below the knee cap. This made me be unhappy and the damn thing wouldn't stop bleeding!

Later on after some lunch we went up to an old 'disused quarry' or so it said on the map. This was just above the camp site but was still a bit of a job to get to. The problem I was having was that the grassy tracks which you need to ride to get there really bog down and don't allow you to roll. This meant I was constantly worn out. When we got to the top we realized there was not much to do there apart from ride down a few sketchy lines through the rocks. We rode back down a farmer’s track which was rocky and you could really 'get loose'. We rode back to the site.

On Sunday we went on a medium length Loop up round some of the peaks which can be seen from the site. We took a bridle way all the way along the hills allowing us to appreciate some awesome scenery and ride some fast loose descents. This ride really finished me off for the weekend. We both rode back to the site on the roads and chilled out for the rest of the day. Later on after dinner we headed down to Lake Ullswater to chill out. We got a nice fire going by the side of the lake which was pretty relaxing. The great thing with where we made the fire was that when we needed to put it out we just practically kicked it into the lake :)

Monday had come so fast and it was time to leave. I don't think there could have been a better weekend to go away. From my parents’ recollection, the weather was terrible at home. "We had torrential rain, thunder, lightning, you name it" said my parents.

I really enjoyed being in the lakes. I feel the riding is great there. It just takes even more fitness for the big mountain style of riding because the place is so vast. You feel like you've only just scratched the surface of the trails which are there!