Crynant Pump Track

I took the simple for a spin at the Clydach pump track yesterday evening with Gav from wheelies. It was a great evening session, Gav was absolutely smashing one of the corners and sending dust flying. The bike has a few teething problems mainly that the quick release slips when cranking hard, tensioners are ordered and on the way so this will be fixed shortly. Its so nice feeling a rigid front end again, for generating speed over the humps this was mint. I also have some funky plans for gearing on this bike, the concept has been proved to work, just waiting on the chainrings to arrive now so that the plan can be seen in action, watch this space.





Gav took me to see some of his local DH runs on the way back. Fully rigid downhill is hilarious. My lady wings got a thorough working out as they bounced all over the place on the way back down. Suspension forks are amazing things when you realise just how much faster they allow you to go over rough terrain.

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Tredegar BMX Track

Me, Will Soffe and James Heaton having a play.

Club day out at Tredegar, a few gates and a chilled out sess on the track, loads of fun. It was great to see some new people down the track, we had xc guys, road guys, the lot. I think everyone had a great time plus a few small crashes!

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One BFe, One day, Four disciplines

This post got lost in all of the end of term fun. However the pictures are too good to let sit unseen and are definitely a bit of a reminder of what our summer weather should look like!!

The plan was to hit the road early with the guys for a lap of Afan, then on to Tredegar BMX track for a few motos. This was followed up by some DH, valley style, ready for an evening of Dirt Jumping at Caerphilly to use up all the remaining light. Finally our activities were chased down by the compulsory sweet and sour chicken-balls and chips outside the castle!!

Rd1 Afan - The Wall

Eventually having made it out of Swansea, late thanks to jack ripping the handle off his garage door locking his bike in and some overly officious car park attendants up at uni. We were on the road with the prospect of The Walls long fireroad climb as a warm up and a painful wake up call. This, my first ride of the wall and as far as Mega training goes it really is one of the best. The trail is seriously Alpine feeling, the hot summer air and smell of pine trees makes for the start of an amazing ride. The views from the sides of the hill look down the near deserted valley down towards the welsh coast, stunning. Likewise the riding is top notch. Another full on descent fast, narrow, rocky that for an xc route really tests the nerve of us DH boys.


Rd2 Tredegar BMX

The track looked in great condition after having been groomed for the national up there the previous week. Jason's new pump/play track is now up and running and really finishes off the place. The view across from the start hill is now an unbroken mass of jumps and berms. The play track is also great for less experienced riders providing them an opportunity to get the feel of what a BMX track is about with out having to face a full sized track straight off. It is however incredibly tight so small wheels recommended.


Rd3 Valley Dh

Valley loom is so much fun!! This trail is loose drifty but even in a week since we were last there the ferns had grown. They were poised ready to grab you leaving no room for error. This is the perfect afternoon track with nice easy push, lots of sun and a cool breeze.



Rd4 Caerfilly DJ

This is still one of my favourite places to spend an evening. The sun goes down behind the trails and the orange hue of the dirt blends into the sunset. The jumps are big challenging and a lot of fun. More trails need to be this way they are built with corners and hips in mind so you do lots of changing of direction and makes it really lively and fun to ride. Rob was seriously on form. Not having much dirtjumping experience and on his 'sx trail' he was making it smoothly half way down the main line. He was more than proving our philosophy that one bike can be all thats needed to have fun in any type/style of riding.

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Andover South-West regional RD2

1) Quality shot of Mick going down. 2) Trying to duck in on the inside round the penultimate turn

The race season is back in action, 2 weeks ago was the second round of the south west bmx series up at andover, my local track. It was great to see so many people out for the event and enjoying some very full-on racing. For once we werent the only mtbikers on the start list as people were getting in some sneaky training in for Chicksands the next weekend. The racing was very tight and highly contested. Eight men on one track leads to some very tight action lots of bumps and one hell of a buzz!


Mick going down while I hold off Mingo for 2nd place

The main finals in cruiser was one of the closest races I have seen in a while. All 8 riders were still battling all the way to the last straight, great to see! Unfortunately didnt make the main finals which was dissapointing since I finnished in the top 4 in all my motos. I had one awesome moto where I slipped my pedal on the gate and managed to sneak past the pack down the first straight cutting in in front of Mick round the first berm, which incidently is untarmacked and so much fun, can properly get some drift on!! I was sat in second getting chased down, on the final corner Mick goes down getting ridden over by the rest of the pack, all in all it was some quality racing. Overall I came 2nd in the B-finals, leaving some room for improvement!

There are BMX races near on every weekend now throughout the summer. It is a great way of riding new places and meeting new people. The scene is very friendly and much more of a social experience than I find with downhill aswell as being very spectator friendly so you can really get into the race spirit when not on the bike. Mountainbikes are also welcome now so you have no excuse!! If you are interested in giving it a go,get down to your local track where there will probably be a club night which is the perfect way of learning about the sport and testing your skills on the track.

Photos Courtesy of fastlanephotography. For a full report of the weekend click here.

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Big News - Tredegar BMX track now run by an official club

Tredegar BMX track is now being run by an official club which is great news as it means there will be people up there and running gates every sunday. The atmosphere today was really good, the change is bringing new people to the track and should be great for the tracks future. The track itself is national level and an excellent training facility, great for building up the bike skills and fitness. There will also be a race next weekend (17th Feb) run by Dragon Downhill. I thoroughly recommend checking it out.

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Andover BMX track

Here are some pictures from tuesdays gate practice at Andover

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