Chicksands XC

Although Chicksands is not that far from home I had never visited. It is known for its jump areas, 4X tracks and various other ways of doing serious damage to yourself :-)

A trip to Bedford left me with some time to kill and a look at the map found a bridelway route down to the woods, fairly easy going, but on a bright spring day it was good to be rolling on dry trails.

The Chicksands website says that the XC trail is in a poor state, but actually it was not that bad compared with the churned up bridleways we often ride.

Red and yellow arrows painted on trees guide you round and in such a compact area it is easy to find a few variations. Although surrounding countryside is flat, the terrain here has some steep, if short, climbs - in fact when I came to the first 'up' I thought the arrows must be pointing me the wrong way! This was my first proper 'off-road' outing on the Duster and the phrase 'climbs like a goat' came to mind - I would not previously have though I could clear such slopes on a bike.
Not worth a long journey, but well worth a visit if you are in the area. Also fun to try the 4X track and other stuff if you are feeling brave. There is a charge of £5, this is supposed to apply in the week now too.

Posse: Uphilla. - Charge Duster

Weather: Bright and sunny

Mechanicals: None

Tracklog

Dangerous Dave Returns!

Since the crash that killed the Gemini frame, I’ve suffered from a severe lack of confidence in anything that involves getting my wheels off the ground. Sure I’ll pop a little hop or jump over a root or log jump on an XC loop but as soon as the full face goes on, my entire mindset changes and I spend my entire time thinking “what if?” even before hitting things I’ve mastered previously.

A lot of this was down to me and my Judge being utterly incompatible, no matter how hard I tried it just felt wrong… however, I now have a new DH frame (blog to follow in due course when it’s finished!) which has put the fun back into riding and in addition increased my confidence…

To help with this I’ve been paying some visits to Chicksands on a Sunday morning with some mates. This Sunday was my second visit so far, and I am happy to report that the Dangerous Dave of old is resurfacing! Racing down the dual I found myself enjoying the air time and pushing harder and harder to clear jumps or go higher rather than shying away and s****ing myself. There’s still a good way to go and I hope I can get there before I head out to France this year but I’m starting to remember I can jump and drop off things without concussing myself and as a result I’m starting to enjoy riding again rather than kicking myself for being such a wus!
This Sunday I was also lucky enough to get a good shot of me “styling” it up over one of the jumps on the dual!

Conditions were good with some slush on parts from the recent rain fall but overall, both the dual and 4x track were running nice and fast.

It’s also been the first time I’ve ridden the Meta since the last time it came out on a Knobblies ride, it had been decommissioned to bring the Chameleon back from retirement for Afan. Eagle eyed viewers will note the absence of the Pikes; those that were with me at Afan will remember me spending the entire time cursing them and on returning home I looked into converting them to coil and getting the PUSH rebound damper fitted. Given the cost involved and that the coil kit is incompatible with the UTURN Air chassis, I binned this idea, deciding not to polish a turd and plumped for some Marz 55 customised with RC3 and air cartridges. I must say it was a good decision, although the weight is up the performance gains are massive and that big 35mm stanchion chassis makes light work of badly landed jumps and rock sections.