Check out www.mtbcut.tv now for live DH, in pretty good quality too.

WOW Gee Atherton beat Sam Hill!, by 0.31sec. Rachel won the women’s DH, and Dan won the 4x apparently, so the Athertons are doing pretty well. If you missed it, it’ll probably be on www.mtbcut.tv later.

After being inspired by a photography blog, Public Energy.co.uk, I got an infrared filter yesterday (when it was raining) and I’ve been trying it out in my lunch break today. It blocks out normal light and only lets through infrared light. It works on sunlight (rather than heat 😉 ), and you need about a 1 second exposure (since the camera has its own filter to reduce IR). One of the interesting things with it is how green foliage comes out as white.

I’m using a Hoya R72 58mm filter on my Fuji 9600 (non DSLR) camera, so you get a live preview of what you’re shooting. I was concerned about how sensitive the camera would be to the infrared light, but I’ve got down 1/4 of a second with acceptable results so far, I think its beyond bike action shots tho. 🙁




For more info about Infrared Photography check out Public Energy’s page on the subject.

In other camera related news I got another flash, and a night shooting light for my camcorder.

With all the nice dry weather recently we’ve been doing quite a bit of evening riding, just going to one spot rather than doing a proper ride. I’ve generally only got a few pictures from each night, because we’ve just been riding, but here’s some of the best.

08-05-15 TrackX Ben+JK, 5 Pictures

08-05-16 TrackX+PumpTrack Jonny+JK, 18 Pictures

08-05-20 TrackX JI+JK+Shane+Ben+Graham, 7 Pictures

I’ve been out riding various DH routes recently, but not really had much time to write about them (or made the effort), so heres a round up of the last four rides featuring the current four ‘usual suspects’.

21st April, Chapel Gate
Nicky and I parked at the back of Mam Tor and sessioned the bridleway there for a while before riding along Rushup Edge to reach Chapel Gate, somewhere I’d never ridden (although Nicky had probably ridden it once years ago, like everywhere else), I knew it was rocky but I was still surprised how rocky, it was still good fun tho and we got some nice shots.

08-04-21 Chapel Gate NB+JK, 13 Pictures

6th May, Jacob’s Ladder, Edale
I got a lift over to Edale with Ben and we parked at Shane’s pub, before a fair distance of road (and ‘road’) riding to get to Jacob’s Ladder, we decided to walk and carry our bikes up the steeper but shorter footpath to the main corner. The name ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ originates from the Bible where a guy called Jacob saw in a dream a stairway (or ladder) leading from Earth up to Heaven. It certainly felt like it was going to Heaven by the time we’d got near the top, especially with all my camera gear. On the subject of which I later realised I hadn’t brought any discs for my camcorder, nuts! So this let concentrating on pictures, which worked out quite well.

Ben was on his first outing on his ‘new’ Kona Stab which had all sorts of randomly sourced parts on it, having previously been on a much lighter XC full-sus Rocky Mountain, he soon found the joys of riding the more tech rocky lines rather than taking the smoothest line. We pushed all the way to the top and got a few pictures on the first straight, and then Shane found a drop off a drainage feature. We did a helmet cam train on the way down, and all had fairly good runs. Then back to Shane’s pub (The Nag’s Head, Edale) and enjoyed a pint and review of the footage and pictures before heading home.

08-05-06 Jacobs Ladder Shane+Ben+JK, 30 Pictures

12th May, WinHill
Nicky, Ben and I met up for some riding on WinHill, we spent the whole time riding as the tracks were riding that well, so we only took a few pictures on our last descent, and after processing they have been rationed to one per person. On the way home I had the weird experience of a bat brushing across my shoulder!, I kept my head down after that.

13th May, HopeX-DH
I met Shane as I ascended the bridleway out of Aston as he’d had time and energy to spare and rode down to meet me. We pushed up, then rode down the ridge and then into the woods at the top of HopeX-DH, no sooner than we closed the gate Nicky appeared pushing up, “I love it when a plan comes together” 😀 . We sectioned the track filming each other, moving fast to keep the light, and got pretty much the whole track. Nicky then left us and Shane and I pushed back up to the first corner where I pulled the stills camera out, and inevitably the flash too as it was too dark for natural light, and we mastered a line with a nice rock jump at the end of it. As it got dark we returned up the ridge and then down the Aston bridleway. I nearly hit a rabbit on the road down from Aston, good job it moved otherwise I would have had to bunny hop it! 😆 😀 ( …and I can’t bunny hop 🙁 ).

08-05-13 HopeX-DH Shane+JK, 7 Pictures

Hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and if you ever think we’re being lazy and not putting up any content remember to check out the gallery cos we’re probably put up pictures and not written any words to go with them (the story of my education…). Anyway I’m riding tomorrow night, o and Friday night, so I need some sleep now.

In conclusion, the tracks and weather are great for evening rides at the moment, so get out there and ride!!!

The pictures from the Pump Track the other night are up.

Conditions were dry, fast and dusty. Highlights included Irwin coming off and Jack pulling random stunts he couldn’t land.

08-05-08 Pump Track, 37 Pictures