themonkeysdidit

A leisurely start time today as both Warren and I wanted to catch the end of the Grand Prix before heading out to the trails. By the time we parked up it was probably gone 11 but this just meant the sun was out in all its glory and we had high hopes of dry and dusty trails.

We started out blasting down BKB and Reservoir Dogs. This is where our hopes and dreams of dust were dashed; anywhere under the tree canopy was littered with surprisingly deep puddles, ready to catch you out if you weren’t careful. After we were spat out back on to the road we began the climb up to the start of Christmas pudding. This was much drier (once you got past the first section) and by now we were flowing nicely. After eating the spray off Warrens back wheel as he ploughed through a particularly murky puddle we were back in Peaslake and I was picking lumps of – what I hoped were – mud out of my teeth.

Here we climbed back up to the top of Holmbury Hill and munched on some home made (cheers Gem!) breakfast bars* while we decided where to head next. As we still had plenty of time we decided to head out and pick a trail we hadn’t ridden before. This turned out to be a great plan as we found a nice new single track route that obviously hadn’t been ridden for a while as there were several points along it where you had to really crouch down the side of the bike to avoid the low tree branches. Following on from this we found another new track (to us anyway) that flowed incredibly well and ended in a nice and fast downhill section. I’ll try and find the name of this one as it looked quite popular. These new routes were so good, we climbed back to the top of Holmbury and did them again, this time we weren’t so reserved as we knew where we going and what lay ahead so could blast along much more. At the start of the second the trail we came across a fellow group of riders about to embark on the same route. They looked far more competent than us than us so we let them go first, and then had no trouble keeping up with them!

After a final climb back to the top of Holmbury we took the new Doc trail and finished down Telegraph road. This almost went to plan! The first minor problem was landing a jump at speed. We were flying pretty quickly towards the jump and I made a fantastic take off. However, the landing was more than my bike was designed for and I not only bottomed out the rear (oo-err obviously) but also the front. The rear wasn’t too much of a surprise as I ride a hardtail and the tyre preasures were low for traction. However, the front had (admittedly only) 100mm of suspension to go through before the rimms come into play and I used it all up! The obvious answer to both these problems is a new bike! Hopefully this year I’ll make the leap to dual suspension.

The final problem was caused by the colossal, herculean strength in my legs**. Powering up the slight slope at the start of telegraph road I ripped the chain in two, sheering one of the rivets. Luckily, I had a chain tool so we were able to make a quick repair and we raced off down the final trail back to the car.

*We use a recipe from Nigella’s Express book which are really tasty and give you the required energy kick, despite not being swimming in golden syrup.

**Obviously!

http://www.santacruzbikes.com/blurlt_carbon/

I want one. I know it’s way more bike than I’ll ever need but it looks awesome and I think it’s a certainty carbon fiber is the way forward, it’s just a matter of getting the technology right, and then make it affordable. With this, Santa Cruz look to have got the former, just not the latter.

Rather than just regurgitate the same limited information, the sites below have some more info:

• http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/article/santa-cruz-unveils-the-carbon-blur-lt-21198
• http://www.singletrackworld.com/2009/04/new-blur-lt-carbon/
• http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/santa-cruz-bicycles-blur-lt-carbon/
• http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/6935

Did I mention I want one. There must be some stuff I can sell, how much do kidneys go for on ebay these days?

Moosecycles demo day

Last Sunday was the date for Moosecycles Spring demo day, and with it, the opportunity to test some more bikes to help decide which full suspension bike to plump for – more on this in a future post.

Rather than review each one in turn (and face the backlash that caused last time!) I’ll just give my impressions of the three I tried. First up, some crazy adjustable German monster!

Bionicon Supershuttle

Bionicon spershuttle

The Bionicon bikes have a unique feature. They are full suspension bikes with on the fly, adjustable geometry. A button on the handle bars allows air to flow from the front forks, to the rear shock and back again. Meaning you can lengthen the front forks to give the laid back geometry of a down hill bike or the more XC orientated short fork and steeper head angle.

The system actually worked surprisingly well but to be honest, it was just too much bike for what I was after. Pedalling up both road and fire road made this very clear. The bike was heavy and just felt too big and burly for what I want. In the words of some other review I read somewhere, it was more “whallop it” than “whippet”! It was a blast on the down hill though, although (for my skill) it needed to be the all out steep downhill, not the tight and twisty single track we have in abundance here.

Marin Mountvision 5.8

Marin Mountvision

I’ve always been undecided about the look of these – but that opinion was based on pictures alone. Seeing it in the flesh, the big quad suspension lump in the middle of the frame actually looks gnarly and you can convince yourself all those extra pivots and linkages vastly improve the track of the swing arm

Swinging a leg over and the setup immediately felt right. My position in the cockpit, the reach to the handle bars – everything just felt spot on. Decent kit as well for the price; a bolt through Fox fork and XT parts throughout. Climbing back to the top of the hill on the fire roads was without issue, the pro-pedal working a treat. I’ve read other reviews that say this bike is heavy but I didn’t get that impression, although this was coming straight off the Bionicon which (I think) was much heavier.

Now came the fun part, blasting down BKB and Reservoir Dogs. It was, in a word freaking awesome*! The geometry was spot on for the single track and seemed to suit my style of riding (what ever that may be!) perfectly. All in all, this bike was a blast! Even the final descent down the waterfall section was taken with much more confidence than I usually have – pretty good for a bike I’d been on for less than 30 minutes I thought! I arrived back to the demo guys with a huge mud splattered grin, asking questions about price, availability etc… It was a dangerous ten minutes before the final test of the day!

Intense Tracer VP

Intense Tracer VP

Now this bad boy is at the high end of the price range (in fact, it’s higher than the high end of the pretend budget I don’t even have yet!). Still, it looks good and has a very similar VPP system to the excellent Blur LT so I had high hopes for it.

My legs were starting to give in a bit by now (yeah yeah, OK, I’m a wimp) but I got back to the top of BKB and blasted down. This bike was faster than the Marin! The only downside with it was they had the large frame in a single track set up, and the medium in a down hill set up. Typically, I need a medium frame and wanted to test the single track set up. Ah well, I took the large as the geometry would have been closer to what I’d ended up with if I won the lottery but it did impact the flickability of the bike through the twisty and technical single track.

Anyway, the final descent down the waterfalls was, to be honest, brown trousers time. And it was entirely the bike’s fault. It was the bike’s fault for being too damn good, being better the harder you rode it, and for providing you with way more confidence than was humanly safe! So I thundered down the waterfalls and almost hit a couple of trees at the bottom; I was going way too fast. Still, I think the sound of my heart trying to break through my chest and the “joker” grin I had (complete with mud flecks on the teeth) would give the impression of how good I thought this bike was.

Conclusion

The Bionicon wasn’t for me, wrong type of bike for right (well wrong really) type of rider. Now comes the tricky part, the Intense was supreme, but that does come at a price. The Marin was really good and costs a good deal less than the Intense so overall, this was probably the best of the day!

* OK that’s two but it was a bit like New York!

Do you see what I did there!

Spring has definately started to, well spring! I left work before 6 today and it was still daylight. Not only that but it was almost warm – still wearing a jacket but the <insert manly word  for leggings here> are long gone.

So I set off home in good spirits, roared through the lights opposite the station and down to the big cross roads next to the fire station. I pootled (pootled, really – where has my male vocabulary gone?) up the front of the queue of traffic waiting for the lights. This put me along side a taxi, which was OK, because I was going straight on and he wasn’t indicating left. He did inch forward slightly which through me a bit but I again checked he wasn’t indicating so thought nothing of it.

The lights turned green and the taxi of death floored it, to turn left right in front of me! Now I don’t think I’m a slouch off the starting blocks but being fuelled by macaroni cheese isn’t really a match for C₁₂H₂₃! Luckily I’d seen his attempt on my life coming so just let him go (with a few frantic hand gestures – you know what I mean!

Not one to be so narrow minded I never listen to feedback, I’ve waited a few months before posting a review of the Bontrager Mud X tyres. These were received as a Christmas present from my wife and have been on several off road trips since, including a heavy session on the Afan trails.

First up, these tyres look skinny. I have the 2.0 version (the 1.8 must look incredibly skinny) and they do look thin but in an aggressive way. I was at first slightly concerned by how skinny they looked but as soon as you get them out on the rough stuff, all these thoughts are behind you!

I’ve ridden them in freezing conditions, general Surrey mud and a warm day in Afan (which even included some dry trails – I know dry trails in Wales, I couldn’t believe it either!). In wet and muddy conditions, these tyres are nothing short of awesome! Not once have I wiped out on a corner, span while climbing or had to reduce my line of attack due to a lack of confidence in them. They simply stick to the mountain and let you get on with the good times.

I was also amazed about how much more nimble they made my bike feel. I ride a Specialized Rockhopper so it’s always been a light ride, but with these on the bike felt much more aggressive and enabled me to pick the exact line on the trail  wanted.

There is a downside to all this though. They aren’t the best rollers on tarmac – but then that’s not what they’re for. I f you’re after a tyre to ride purely on tarmac, fire roads etc… this isn’t it. If, however, you’re after one to help you throw your bike around in the mud, give them a try, you won’t be dissapointed.

Afan MTB trails

With Gemma away on a friend’s hen do this weekend, we decided to pay Afan another visit. The last time we were there was back in July. Now we’d hoped for some sun last year as, even though it’s Wales, you expect in July you’d get a slight break from the weather. Not so. It rained more in that weekend than I’ve seen in a long time and we got thoroughly soaked. Coupled with the fact we were camping it made for some pretty challenging conditions – technically (the Whites Level climb in torrential rain is not easy), physically (I was/am unfit) and mentally (surely the rain must stop soon; everything I own is soaked). This time round we thought February in Wales was just asking for a slap from <insert your weather deity of choice here>. We therefore decided to just make a day of it, setting off early on Saturday morning and returning later that evening. Due to the early start, everything was ready the night before:

• Crappy commuting tyres off, awesome Bontrager Mud X tyres on – check.
• Powerade, mars bars bars and oaty cake bar things packed – check.
• Local Dominos pizza place in mobile phone ready for journey back – check.
• Beer in fridge ready for return – check.

Everything’s in place, lets do this!

06:00 – alarm goes off. Now I thought this wouldn’t be a welcome noise and that I’d have to drag myself out of bed, into the car and slowly come round while Warren drove to Wales but this wasn’t so. Instead we were raring to go. What’s more, the weather forecast was good. Not only was it not going to rain in Wales (honestly! I know you won’t believe me but it’s true) but it was even predicting blue sky’s and a temperature of around 9 degrees. That’s pretty much perfect conditions! The car was loaded the night before so we jumped in and headed down the M4.

In my humble opinion, no motorway journey that begins with an early start is complete unless you’ve paid too much money for a too little quality fry up. So just inside Wales we stopped and gorged ourselves on anything they fried, safe in the knowledge we would easily burn it off.

Eventually we arrived at Glyncorrwg, set the bikes up and headed out to the start of Whites Level. Whites holds a certain je ne sais quoi for us as last time we were here, we tackled it as our second trail of the day, after getting soaked all morning on the first trail. We weren’t in best spirits and almost just gave up on the climb. Except we didn’t, and when we got to the top and started the descent, it was great – but very slippy. This time, we had fresh legs, the weather was good and the ground was firm. Suffice to say, we were really looking forward to blasting down the other side. So, on we went, from the bike shop in Glyncorrwg, towards the start of the trail, which is where our first problem hit; Warren’s chain snapped. hmm, not the best start!

After much faffing around manly fettleing we decided a new chain link was required so headed to the convenient bike shop back at Glyncorrwg. The new chain was fit (after a slight SNAFU with how to attach the quick release links) and we were off again. This time we made it to the top, Warren – in training for a marathon and triathlon – shot to the top of the Whites climb. I on the other hand – training for a stag do – took a more leisurely pace.

Once at the top you pass a most welcome sign: “Damn climb over”. From this point on it’s all single track down hill, and in my opinion, the best single track downhill I’ve ever ridden. We thundered down the steep bits, attempted jumps on the table tops and leant as much as we dare on the berms. There’s even a small bit of Northshore at one point which someone in front of us had crashed off of. At the time we offered our assistance, was told they were OK and so carried on but later learnt the air ambulance was required to take the chap to hospital. Various forums have picked up on it and thankfully, he’s OK, just a  few stitches required to his cheek. After the boards the trail goes on to a final bit of single track that brings you out near the start – it was at this point I got the first puncture and with no spare inner tube, had to walk the last couple of miles back to bike shop. I decided to buy a couple of tubes, just in case.

So once the tube had been replaced and the tyre pumped back up to marginal pressure, we headed off along the old railway line to the start of Penhydd. At this point it was past 1 and although not that hungry, we decided we should eat something, otherwise we’d struggle up the next climb. So a couple of jacket potatos later we headed off on to Penhydd.

This trail starts with some fire road, and then carries on with more fire road climbs. This was a big downer and we weren’t impressed at all. Especially as some of the height we were gaining climbing the dull fire roads was then lost by descending more fire roads! The outlook was a little bleak until the first blast of single track appeared. This shot our spirits much higher and although it was only a small patch, it did the trick and spurred us on!

Then, a couple of steep fire road climbs later we were at the top and suspected it was all downhill from here. And we were right. Not only that,  but the downhill was twisty single track and we were properly dialled in by ths point. We flew down the trail, and really nailed the sections. Then, at the end of a particular singletrack I got the second puncture of the day. Luckily, I’d grabbed a spare at the bike shop so it was a simple case of swapping the tubes over. Warren also had some of those pre-pressurized canisters that inflate a tyre in a couple of seconds. These things are awesome and well worth having out on the trails! This enabled us to scream down the last few descents before coming out of the end of the trail. A fitting end to what was a fantastic days riding!

There are several approaches to cleaning your bike after a good outing on the surrey hills:

1. Ahh sod it, what’s the worst that could happen
2. What! A spec of mud on my tyre – must clean it immediately and avoid all puddles going forward
3. Some where in the middle of the previous two

Most of us lie in category 3 (and the folks over at muddy moles have some good tips to keep the effort down to a minimum) but (unlike them) I do seem to be somewhat OCD about keeping a clean chain. Why, I’m not so sure but it keeps me happy.

So how do you keep a clean chain? I’ve tried a variety of methods and my current seems to give the best results with minimum effort. In true Blue Peter style; you will need:

1. A large enough container to hold your chain with a screw on lid (I use a plastic, empty hot chocolate powder jar)
2. Washing up liquid
3. Boiling water
4. Old toothbrush
5. Hook (or nail in wall)
6. Chain lube
7. Clean cloth

Remove the chain from your bike (obviously) and put it into the screw top jar. This has the added bonus of stopping you getting oil everywhere as you carry it from the garage, into the house; something that can only keep you in the good books of the boss!

Add a healthy squirt of washing up liquid into the jar and then fill 1/4 of the way with boiling water. Screw the lid on as tight as possible and shake the jar as much as possible. Careful here kids, the first time I tried this the expanding foam in the jar forced the lid off and deposited boiling water everywhere – hence why it’s only 1/4 filled.

Once you’ve given it a good shake (about 10 minutes seems to do the trick), pour out the water. Now set to work on the chain with the old toothbrush. There should be plenty of washing up liquid left on the chain but as nothing quite cuts through grease like this stuff, feel free to add more. Start at one end of the chain and vigorously brush all four sides of the chain with the toothbrush, making sure each link bends as fully as it’s supposed to.

Now the length of the chain has been brushed, we need to remove all the soap. Put the chain back in the jar and fill 1/4 full with boiling water again. Put the lid back on and up tip the jar so it’s firstly bottom end up, then lid end up. Repeat a few times then change the water. Keep doing this with fresh changes of water until no more soap suds remain on the chain.

Hard part over, now we just have to re-lube (oo-err obviously). I find the easiest way to do this is to loop the chain over a hook (I have a hook screwed into a ceiling beam in the garage) so it dangles freely and the hook is at the centre of the chain. Allow the chain to dry (about an hour) and then add lube to the apex of the chain (where it goes over the hook). Make sure you add plenty as the idea is the lube is then pulled down through the entire chain’s length (on each side) by gravity. This will take a while but should ensure the lube reaches every moving joint in the chain. Make sure it’s left a good few hours like this to give the lube chance to slowly seep into every possible joint – I tend to leave it over night. Once complete, (there should be a few drips on the floor below where the chain was suspended), rub it down with a clean, lint free cloth to remove the excess lube as this just attracts dirt and grit.

Re-attach the chain to the bike and you’re good for another few months!

It was 13:00 on Saturday, and it was cold! I know a lot of people get out on the trails from 08:00 onwards, but in my humble opinion, there’s nothing wrong with a good lie in at the weekend! So we arranged a 13:00 start for a blast around the Surrey hills on what turned out to be, a very cold but ultimately satisfying day.

We’ll get the weather out of the way first. It was cold. The car temperature sensor didn’t get above -1.5, and that was at the bottom of the hills, higher up on the exposed tops it was much colder. But, we had plenty of layers, I even made the jump to Lycra for this particular ride and it was only really cold when we stopped – a great motivational tool to get your self powering back up the hills. The harsh cold did mean everything was covered in hard frost, giving the trails a sprightly bright look to them and making them hard, and fast – ideal riding conditions for this time of year.

We started out from the car park at the end of Telegraph Road and headed up the fire road towards the top of Holmbury Hill, switching off the fire road to a single track climb about half way up to make it more interesting. The climb was harder than expected due to the cold air burning our lungs and the fact that this was the first ride following the Christmas and New Year over indulgence – still, we eventually made it to the top without sweating too much beer/wine/turkey etc…

As it was the first time Bod had ridden these trails we took him on the “All Killer – Now that’s what I call the best trails in the Surrey Hills ever – no Filler“™ route to show off the best bits of our local single track. This starts with the descent down Reservoir Dogs and then joining up with Barry Knows Best. Quite a few riders were out too as we passed a couple of Down Hill-ers practicing near the berms half way along Barry Knows Best. Disappointingly I still struggle to take the final descent at the end of Barry Knows Best with any speed but I picked my way down it. As we took a breather at the bottom, a couple of riders went passed us. To my horror I noticed one was riding a Commencal Meta 5.5! I didn’t make eye contact, just in case…

We then took the road into Peaslake where there was the usual large crowd of MTBers gathered outside the store, drinking warm tea. We swung up the hill to start the climb up Pitch Hill and towards the start of Christmas Pudding. It was another lung burning climb but the bloke banter easily helped pass the time and take our minds off the fact we all had to be in the granny ring. After taking the off road short cut to the start of Christmas Pudding we began the immense fun and adrenalin rush of this single track. The only minor incident was when I stopped to adjust my saddle height near the start. I expected Bod to stop behind me but he over took just I was swinging my leg over (the bike, not Bod!). This almost resulted in a Chuck Norris style spinning round house kick to the face but luckily I only managed to take out the plastic cover of his bar end. We all made a valiant effort at the forked tree jump and giggled as the riders behind us (all on much better bikes and with far more safety gear) all went round it. Still, they were going faster than us and would probably beat us hands down in some kind of race (so long as it didn’t involve any jumps, tee hee).

On the last single track section I was determined to keep up with Warren, and managed it. And of course it had nothing to do with his gears jumping constantly all day and everything to do with my technical prowess and fitness. After this it’s the final scream down the road back into Peaslake. This is often the fastest part of the day but today we were held up by a car. A brief stop at the bus shelter to re-adjust the sensor for my speedo (hence we road a minimum of 10.04 miles – I don’t know how long it wasn’t working for, probably at least a good 7 miles or so, all taken at a minimum of 20 mph ).

The final trail in our best bits tour was the Yogurt Pots and then ending down Telegraph Road. Unfortunately this did mean making the climb back up to the top of Holmbury Hill but we were in no rush so flicked to the granny ring and span our way to the top. From there we headed down to the start of the Yogurt Pots. Over the past 6 months or so, this trail has changed significantly with new paths bypassing a lot of the steep sided “holes” (that give the trail its name) altogether. There also seems to be some pretty hard core trail erosion in places – such as the sudden drop off that caught Warren out a month back. With the Yogurt Pots behind us it was one final blast down Telegraph Road, ending at the cars. Telegraph Road is always an excellent trail to finish on due to the speed at which you can take it and the sheer number of little jumps that can be made all the way along it. It does have the odd scary moment however as one slightly mis-calculated landing means you’re only half on the trail and with the frost and ice, making the turn to get back on the trail isn’t an easy procedure. Still we got to the end without any serious mishaps and hurried into the cars and the warmth.

It turned out we made a couple of discoveries on this ride:

1. Mud X tyres are a million times better than the stock Specialized ones that came with my bike.
2. Both mine and Warren’s bike could do with a good gear service!

I think my gears can be sorted with the age old technique of taking them apart and putting them back together again – watch this space!

2009 Santa Cruz Blur LT

Due to the apparent controversy caused by the Commencal Meta 5.5 review (I’m flattered people are actually reading these posts – I had no idea) I thought it was about time to pull my finger out and finish the Santa Cruz Blur LT review. While reading this, please remember that I rode this straight after the Meta which may have biased the comparison somewhat.

So, fresh off the Meta I swing a leg over the Santa Cruz and leave Warren behind (he had some rather unpleasent internal issues following a combination of heavy drinking and some kind of virus) and begin the climb up the road towards Christmas Pudding*.

Immediately I found this a better bike by far. It felt much stiffer at the rear and there were no peddle bob issues when climbing, either on or off road. In fact, it was so stiff at the rear I actually got off at one point to use the rubber ring thingy on the rear shock to measure the sag when I got back on as it felt like there was none. I was amazed when I saw it had a good 3cm worth. Any way, I climb the hill on the road and then cut across an off road track to meet the start of Chirstmas Pudding. This level but off road section also went well and the bike was handling admirably.

By now it was getting on for 15:30, the light is getting less (especially under the trees) and the ground has been churned up to a boggy mess (I can only imagine this being something similar to Warren’s internal issues – see earlier). Still, I only have an hour and I want to push this one as much as possible. The single track descent here was unbelievable! I was really pushing hard (much harder than I did on the Meta and even harder than I push on my familiar hardtail) but the bike just filled me with confidence. It held every line I aimed for, gripped where I needed it to, soaked up the drops and roots and basically thundered down the hill – it was if nothing could stop it. I even let out a slightly embarrassing “whoo hoo” at one point (I was riding on my own) but the bike was just that good.

It was really starting to get a bit dark now so I headed back to the guys from moosecycles, my face covered in mud and the hugest grin on my face. The guys could see I obviously liked it and agreed it was better on the single track than the Meta.

I appreciate the massive difference in my opinion of these two bikes could be down to a lot of unfair differences:

1. The Meta wasn’t set up as I would like (I’m a light guy so it’s highly possible it was set up for someone a good few stone heavier but it did feel very wallowy.
2. The Santa Cruz happened to be set up perfectly for my style of riding.
3. I secretly always wanted the Santa Cruz to be excellent as it was the one I’ve had my eye on for a while.

At the end of the day, there’s no mistaking the fact that for me, the Santa Cruz was a massively better bike than the Meta.

*Since the Meta review I’ve found out the name of the brlliant trail with the forked tree jump I didn’t know the name of is called Christmas Pudding.

Commencal Meta 5.5

Last Sunday (7 December) was Moosecycles demo day. I was down to test the Commencal Meta 5.5 and Santa Cruz Blur LT. This post concentrates on the Commencal with the Santa Cruz review coming later. Big thanks to Moosecycles for organising what was an awesome day!

First off, it’s worth mentioning Sunday was a cold day here in Surrey. Roads and trails were frosty with some of the puddles not shifting their top layer of ice all day. Still, it wasn’t raining, the sky was blue and there was a lot of bike to test!

From the moment I swung my leg over the Commencal it just didn’t quite feel right. This was probably mainly due to the seat being tilted too far back so I felt as if I was falling off on to the rear tyre all the time. However, even after adjusting the seat angle, I couldn’t quite get dialed in to it. I always felt stretched towards the front, a shorter stem may have helped but I just couldn’t get comfortable in the cockpit.

We started off (Warren was also riding at this point, testing a Bionicon Super Shuttle) making our way up the road from Peaslake stores to the start of Reservoir Dogs. This is quite a steep hill but on road for most of the way. Peddle bob up this hill was a big issue. The bike always felt like it was bouncing along, rather than smoothly gliding up the hill. Around half way up the hill we switched off the tarmac and on to a wide off road track (still car accessible though). Here the bike was better but it still bobbed while climbing and the gears did occasionally slip when pushing hard (although this might be due to the fact it had been ridden hard all day through some pretty gloopy mud!).

Once at the top we began the much more fun decent. Here the bike came alive and really wanted to be pushed hard. Small bumps were soaked up with ease and larger drops (there’s a sudden steep drop on Barry Knows Best at the start) were taken with confidence. It’s worth mentioning here that the mud was in abundance. Also, it wasn’t the thin watery stuff but the cold, frosted on top, gloopy mud that can almost stop you dead in your tracks. The Commencal was equiped with some Maxis High Roller tyres and these coped very well with the mud. I’ve only ever ridden on the tyres that came with my Rockhopper before but the Maxis were a lot better than those (some Bontrager Mud X are on my Christmas list though!).

After Reservoir Dogs comes the twisting single track of Barry Knows Best. This is one of the best single track trails in the area and taking it on the Commencal was good fun. It ran OK down the single track but gave plenty of confidence for the final steep decent to the road. This is something I’ve always managed but it’s been something I’ve picked my way down, rather than hurl myself down.

Unfortunately, we’re now at the bottom of the hills again and need to do some more climbing before the fun starts again. Even more unfortunately, I’m still on the Commencal which doesn’t make climbs easy! Here we climb the other hill (I forget the name) and run down one of our favorite trails (again I don’t the name) but about halfway it has a jump between a forked tree trunk. Again the Commencal was good on the down hill but not so good on the twisty single track and terrible on the climbs.

After this it was time to give the Commencal back (and for Warren to have a lie down as he’d been chundering the way round – nice!). The lasting impression I got from the Commencal was that it was good on the downhill, but no good anywhere else and so not what I was looking for. If this is what full suspension bikes are like, I’m sticking with my hardtail!