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.

Ambergate Downhill 28 06 09

Gareth (friend from when I used to work for Nationwide) emailed me a few weeks ago asking if I wanted to ride ‘someplace’ on 28th and after a bit of searching about, and trying to locate somewhere that was under 2 hrs away and had an uplift service (this failed) we decided on ‘Shining Cliff Woods in Ambergate, near Derby. I’d been there a few times before and although the trek from the car park (read poorly surfaced lay by on a very steep hill) is about 500 MBUK miles from the trails, it’s worth it. The place is full of big boulders and roots and jumps and drops and berms and steepness.

The trails are ‘semi official’ and it seems that the riders have built up a good rapport with the locals and keep the trails to the bits you wouldn’t want to walk up anyway.

After a long ol’ slog on the M1 (speed limits enforced by average speed cameras, further enforced by a Mercedes having a blow out and bringing the north bound side to a standstill for about 15 minutes!) we arrived and set off down the newly smoothed out path and past all the derelict warehouses and factories. After several ups and downs we eventually reached the bottom of the main trails and set off up the track.

It was at this point that I was glad I hadn’t brought my body armour (although I usually wear it here due to the many pointy rocks!) and Gareth was regretting it big time. Although it was still a touch overcast from the morning’s fog, and the light was pretty poor in the woods, it was like a tropical garden in there. I could have showered in my sweat (probably).

Anyway, for a warm up we headed off down one of the swoopy, bermy and rooty tracks and ended up using about 10 different tracks on the way down as I entered corners with a little too much speed and ended up coming out of them on the wrong line, onto a different line. No matter though, they all end in the same place!

We slogged our way back up the hill for another run, choosing a rootier jumpy track that’s just flat out fast fun and after a few runs decided to head right to the top. Where it gets all rocky and steep! Some of the lines up the top are just insane. Steep corners on rocks, steep corners on rocks that have roots randomly growing inbetween them with trees as crash barriers… There are a few different options up here but I think my highlight is the trail that ends in this rock garden:


Before hand there are a whole bunch of rock gardens that you really have to commit to 100%. If you go in too slow you’ll stall and end up with a rock to the face… Pinning and just holding the front wheel straight and trusting your tyres and suspension to do the work was the way to do these.

After this we found a few more trails, with a sweet little drop onto a fireroad then off onto another trail with a steep bombhole and a rock garden that’s a good 2 or 3 feet of the ground… (???).

Our stomachs started complaining so we gave in and headed back to the car… only to get 75% of the way there for Gareth to realise he’d lost his goggles! Off he sprinted back up the hill only to return a few minutes later empty handed.

We fed and monster’d ourselves whilst Gareth reflected on the loss of his trusted goggles, “it gives me an excuse to buy some new ones”. Tsk tsk!

We figured we’d have a more thorough search after lunch just so we could feel happy we tried but this was fruitless so we carried on riding for another hour or so.

Utterly spent from sweating and pushing and sweating and pushing and swe.. yeah you get the idea, we took a final run down the fast jumpy track (although just in case we didn’t announce it was the last until we’d both safely made it to the bottom!) and blasted back down the fireroad to the car. Despite all the rock gardens with the tightly packed mech eating rocks, it was here that I got my only battle scar for the day… whilst flying down a particularly loose fireroad (back wheel getting a bit frisky) I heard some rock slam against the rim, taking a little groove out the side. Not bad, considering!

The day was topped off nicely by a pair of walkers approaching us and asking, “are these your goggles, by any chance?” Talk about timing and good fortune!

Overall the day was awesome, with some epically bumpy but fast and flowing trails. You also really get a feeling here that everyone (walkers and bikers alike) all get along.

Recently I’ve been feeling on a bit of a downer with DH, and begun to feel a bit despondent about it as I started to ride with less and less confidence. I started to feel utterly frustrated that I don’t even attempt stuff when riding DH whilst I don’t get this problem when riding my little XC hardtail. I even considered quitting and just sticking to ‘XC’ or whatever that thing is when you just get on your bike and go for a ride someplace that doesn’t require as much pushing as riding but today firmly put a stop to these thoughts. The Judge excelled, really eating everything I threw at it and for the first time since I’ve had it, it actually made sense. When riding the rock gardens and aiming for that pointy rock that will give a little kick to clear the next few rocks or holding it straight and true through the tech fests I was reminded of why I love DH so much. There’s still one jump there I wouldn’t try but next time…!

Posse: Dangerous Dave (Cannondale Judge DH), Gareth (Kona Coiler)
Weather: Foggy early on with the sun making an appearance later on. No breeze and toasty warm
Mechanicals: Warped disc caused irritating squeak on push ups but everything else stayed attached
Injury none!

Dangerous Dave is back, and now planning to ride every knarly DH track I can seeing as I'm not going to France this year!

Cider, wine, food and bikes....

Yep... Dangerous Dave has been to France again.

I'm afraid I don't have many pictures yet as one of the guys has run off with them on his external HDD but we are working on "reaquiring them".

After last years disaster we were all hoping for fine weather and we weren’t disappointed – we arrived to the sight of everyone using wetscreams and thought, “Oh Sh**, not again!” Our fears were averted by bright sunshine the next day and the weather only improved as the holiday went on, with only another 2 days of half arsed rain to make the trails “more interesting”.

We stayed in Riders Retreat, with the idea that this year, we would make a holiday out of it rather than sleeping in a dump like previous years. Proper bedrooms and all rooms having en-suite meant that there was no queue for the shower and you had a place to hide if 11 other mad gits got on your nerves.

I’ve noticed this year that my riding isn’t as confident as it had been – I’m putting this down to realising I can’t afford to break myself but I have a cunning plan to get rid of this “fear” in the next year.

We rode some pretty awesome trails, and put some demons to rest (Morgins Freeride track – steep, rooty switchbacks of death down a ridge that we all slid down on our arses last year in the gloop). Also rode some pretty fantastic “singletrack”. When I say singletrack, I mean singletrack in the sense you can only truly fit one rider down at a time – but the similarity with the XC singletrack back here stops there… we are talking stuff so steep your arse is behind you back tyre, and your bars are lower than your pedals. AWESOME stuff.

Eating was well taken care off, having an awesome professional chef there to cook, many notable dishes were produced including the Pasta Monstrosity and the Brioche Mountain… Oh yes.

I’ve come back pretty poor but oh so glad I went. I’m now thinking of doing just one week next year so if anyone wants a lift…


Trails Ridden: Le Pleney, Yeah boy, “Carls Secret Trail”, Chavannes, Swiss National, Morgin DH Tracks, Morgin Freeride Track, Rutsville, Guepe, Chatel Freeride runs… many, many more.

Mechanicals: Only my pivot nut rattling loose somewhere causing me to spend £50 to buy a replacement kit.

Comedy Crashes: Several - many on Yeahboy, 1st of which down the first steep chute trying to avoid a rut and ending up facing UP the chute! 2nd got a bit too brave on my 2nd run and didn't make the turn at the bottom of another chute ending up with me riding straight into a tree. Other notable crashes include the over the bars on my 2nd run down rutsville when I stalled and then flipped over the bars but landed on my feet... the best one tho has to be as a result of the pic below!
I'll leave you with this pic: Yes I crashed and laughed very, very hard.

Cannock DH 30/12/07

Hey dudes.... just thought I'd drop by and show you what I've been up to... I was debating Coed Llandegla or Cannock but after Alex bust his arm on Saturday on a timing run at Cannock*, I decided to go to Cannock and take him out the house for a day.... Some of the better photos below... needless to say, I was on it... even the Rave Racers were saying how fast I was.... Be warned large pics are, large! Note: you can click on the big image when it loads and will bring you back to the blog!