Nice short post, pump track sesh thursday from around 5, list of people attending is growing so make sure you get there. Would be nice to see some people that have been off the bike for a while (Nicky). I will around all afternoon so let me know what your plans are. Pump track is nice and dry and running fast so make sure you bring your hailtails and i will bring the big pump down so we can get some high pressures going. There is some new stuff, allot if you have not been down for a while. So make sure you dont miss out. We should be able to get a good few hours in before it gets dark.

This is a oldish picture of Tim from No cycling railing the far berm, this berm has since increased in size making it even more fun. Please let me know if you can make it. List so far is Jeff, Shane, Jonny, Myself, Matt , Ben Armit and Nicky and i have asked a couple of other people so dont miss out 🙂

Okay after this snow has past does anyone fancy going out for a ride on monday or tuesday of next week. Just think this time last year it was the driest march for years shocking. I have spoken to a couple of people about riding on Monday (depending on the weather) ,Tuesday if not so if you are free let us know.

In other news

• BMX spraying guide, As most of you will know i recently bought an bmx (second hand). I thought to make it a bit more special i would re-spray it. As a helpful guide to anyone else interested in spraying there frames i thought i would write a short guide of the steps and helpfull hints so look out for that in a couple of days. Shane is also going to respray his hardtail so we should have some more pictures to add in the following weeks.
• Helmet camera, Shane is in the process of buying a helmet camera which when up and running will allow us to gets some good quality video footage to add to the “Tracks Page”. To give a better impression of the different tracks around.
• Bamford Pump track, I have been down there digging a fair bit the last couple of days so there is some new stuff to test your skills on. But can i please ask that you keep noise to a minimum and make sure you pick up any litter.

(please note not full screen as only preview 🙂 )

Further update Right got the frame sprayed and put everything back together so this is what it looks like now. I have got some crank arms, just waiting on an axle so i can put them on. Plus i have ordered some Fit (bike make) stickers to put on it so everyone knows who made it. Would be nice to know what everyone thinks to the colours, so please let me know.

“Joes place, 10:30 ish

This Sunday…

Bring a spade!”
DHP

• Any takers?

Today I was joined by 13 other riders from ‘UK MTB Forum‘ and ‘MTB in the Peak District’ (Facebook). As riding goes, it was a tough uphill day, but well worth the effort for the downhills!

We had a range of riders on all different bikes, but what made it better was the obvious passion for riding and just getting out there regardless of age or physical capability. I would also like share that we witnessed a bizarre phenomenom on the ride in the shape of malt loaf (Greg)…. it works wonders, well either that or it was the smell of chips! The ride was rounded off with free chip butties at The Nags Head Edale..much appreciated, thanks!

Thanks to Scott Preece and Ben Armitt for the pics. Also, to every one that turned out…Cheers!

With respect to my new bike…well I wanted a change and fancied something a bit different….so I treated myself to a new Marin Quake 7.2

It’s a awesome bike which descends with such phenomenal pace, as I had the pleasure to find out on the ride…also ascends really well, but being lazy, I resorted to pushing up hill!

Shane

As you will have hopefully known, ShaFF took place last weekend. With Monkeyspoon having a short film being shown, entitled “Downhill Mountain Biking In The Peak District“. The film showcased some of our best downhill riding in the Peak District. It was shown as part of three compilations, shown twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. In the “Bike” compilation, which we went to see, it was shown alongside such classic mountain bike movies as “Between The Tape” and “NWD 8”. It was a funny thing seeing our riding being shown on such a large screen, alongside other movies that I really respect and have inspired me to ride my bike. I can only hope that our movie will have inspired others to get out and ride there bikes in the Peak District.

James Irwin – Main Rider and Owner of Monkeyspoon

I very pleased to have our film shown on a massive cinema screen in front of what was quite a few people. I was amazed how good quality it looked on the huge screen, considering it (and the other films, as far as I know) were only DVD quality. I though the editors did a good job with choosing what to sections of the longer films to show. In particular Between The Tape, its quite long if you’ve seen it once or twice, but the edit keep the best sections, mainly the WC rounds, it was a comfortable length, and there was also quite a lot of Peaty in it, which added a local connection and relevance.

The one film I hadn’t seen before was “Vicious Circle” was interesting. It didn’t seem to have such a big budget or be as well equipped as some the big names on shown, but there were some good sections made more interesting by the choice of music. It was quite different from most MTB films with older but well known tracks like “Jolene” by Dolley Parton and “Poison” by Alice Cooper, they worked surprisingly well (for me) with the footage and made for something a little different from the norm.

It was great to see the trailer for the new Collective film, Seasons, it looks even better on a cinema screen. It would also have been nice to see the Virtuous (in HD) and F1rst (new from Clay Porter) trailers, perhaps in between the longer features.

Anyway, well worth going to see it and I’ll try and do something even better for next years one. I’ll leave you with a piece of advice in case you ever find yourself having your film shown at a big event, don’t drink a pint of coke before you go in…

Jeff R King – Cameraman, Editor and Film Producer.

Also worth mentioning are the guys from DHP, Joe and Sam, who also contributed to the film but couldn’t be there as they were at a race. And thanks to the other riders involved.

If you went to ShAFF don’t forget to fill out a feedback form, you might win something. It will be available to the end of the month (31/3/08).

See you there next year! 😀

A medium quality version of the film is now available for download, it is 90MB and you may need the 3ivX codec do view it.