Pictures are now up in the gallery, here. If you are in a picture and would like a larger version (free) email me the picture number or use the contact form. About a quarter of what I shot is in gallery, if you send me your details i.e. race number, bike, colours etc I’ll have a look and see if I have any of you.
The video is now up: Youtube (HD) | Vimeo (HD)

So here goes my attempt at a short write up. Since the first time i read that they were trying to set up a Northern series i was excited about the prospect and Myself and James W got our entrances in nice and early to avoid disappointment. Even though the event took place on the same weekend as the First Peace Cycles round i was keen to get the entrance in as the track was limited to 150 riders, due to it being a new venue.

So after passing my driving test on the Friday morning we set off mid afternoon with a very packed car full of stuff. Two bikes and three people in a Audi A3 we started the long Journey up North towards Kidland Forest, in the Northumberland National Park (for those who don’t know where that is somewhere between Newcastle and Scotland) so after a relatively hassle free Journey despite the best efforts of a Caravan driver and two people who decided to have a little bump on the motorway. We arrive in time to have a walk of the track, the track was exactly as described steep, covered in roots and rocks and all together very impressive and someone daunting.

So after finding our way to our accommodation, we had a “interesting” meal that we put together, before hitting the sack ready for the Uplift the next day. So the next morning we pack the car and follow the instructions we had got from the lady who ran the accommodation. We decided to follow here instructions as on paper it looked to be a short cut to get the forest in which the race was held. But after a promising start the short cut turned into some what of a sticky situation as we ended up in the middle of a moorland which is used by the military to practice on. So after turning back we finally made it to the forest after back tracking and heading the way we originally planned!

Anyway back to the track, the track itself turned out to awesome to ride down will the main problem being the number of people littering the track-side after crashing epically towards the bottom of the track. Making it almost impossible to get a full ride down without having to stop for riders in front of you on the practice day. With the uplift system being somewhat different to what i am used to with Bikes being carried on cattle trucks with riders traveled in somewhat luxury on Coaches. Luckily it stayed dry all weekend!

So after a somewhat disappointing 6 uplifts on the Saturday ( we got really unlucky with timings) Sunday morning practice begin with me and James W wanting to get a couple of full runs in before our timed runs in the afternoon. We managed 4 uplifts which was awesome and i was feeling really good about lines, it just came down to the race runs. So Sunday practice finished and riders began to gather at the top of the course ready for the race runs. And after a delay and some confusion about who was going when the timed runs began.

My first run went okay with a couple of mistakes leading to a rather slow time of 3.19 which i was a little disappointed about but i knew that i could improve greatly on my second run. But unfortunately due to some timing problems my second run time was not recorded correctly meaning i had to go back up to the top and do it again. So by this point i was getting rather knacked! But i still managed to improve on my first run time with a 3.10 despite a shocking top section as i had no energy left to pedal. Which placed me 29 out of 40 in the Senior Category. James W managed better than me with the fastest time of 3.01 placing him 8th out of 28 in the Masters Category. Overall a great weekends riding and racing and a great start to the Northern Series.

Right in some exciting news Jeff has bought himself and new HD Video Camera, so videos from now on will be in much better quality. So a couple of weeks ago myself, Jeff, Josh, Nicky, and Jonny headed out to test it out. It had been a while since we had all been out riding together and was probably going to be the last time in a while. But the weather turn out to be alight, just a bit on the windy side!

Hope X was the first port of call. I was surprised how dry it was so we all pushed up for the first run of the day, down the main straight. Which I really enjoyed on the new bike. Although Nicky was having lots of problems with his Gears skipping due to a worn out drive train. But we came up with a longer run in so he could get enough speed to make things interesting.

First ride in my new troy lee gear, got a bit of stick off everyone about it I decided that it was time to get some popper all weather riding gear so I went for the Grand Prix air Jersey and Pants. After some trial and error Nicky got his gears to work, but only in granny ring which I thought was quite ironic! As I think doing to the coast to coast might have worn them out. Half way up Hagg Tor we stopped off for a break from pushing and had a look around for some different lines to hit. We all spotted a gap/drop just off to the side of the main bridleway, it is something I had looked at before but was put off by the line. This didn’t seam to put Jonny off, saying “I don’t see how it’s actually possible to mess this up”, watch the video to see what happened…

Hagg Tor was good as always, but a little less wind would have been nice! Josh and I did a couple of fun runs down the upper sections while Jonny and Nicky messed around further up. Jonny was his normal creative self finding different lines to ride and mess around on. That boy’s got skills, unfortunately Jeff missed Jonny’s other crash of the day. So I will try to describe it to you instead; after an impressive huck down the near vertical bank on Hagg Tor, Jonny then went flying off the small jump/drop in the run-out, but due to the wind the back of his bike was blown out from underneath him. It almost looked like he was doing a tail whip and he landed with his hands still on the handle bars but the rest of his body completely separated from the rest of his bike. An impressive crash!

Jeff didn’t take his stills camera, guess he expected to be having too much fun with his new video camera. So the only pictures we have are ones that he took on the video camera, but I think the video makes up for it!

We’ve uploaded the video in HD (1280×720) onto Vimeo. You can watch it in full resolution by clicking Vimeo to view it in the Vimeo page then toggle HD on and go into Full Screen.

A video from 2008, filmed in May and August on HopeX DH, with James W, Irwin, Shane, Nicky & Jeff. The lesson to be learnt here is when Jeff rides sparks fly.

The Stanage Plantation helmet camera run is now available for download.

The helmet camera is myself (James I) following James W, let us know what you think.
09-22-01 Stanage Plantation HeadCam Mid

Okay so as most of you will of known i have been without a bike for the last couple of months. But last week i finally got hold of my new bike, It is a 08 Giant Glory with Fox 40’s up front and DHX 5 on the rear. I am very pleased with it so far, it is going to take some getting used to as it feels very different to the VP-Free.

So on Friday, James W, Jeffrey, Shane (who was borrowing James W spare Rocky Mountain Slayer) and Myself (James) went out to test it out. The weather looked very ominous but it just about held off all day, with the sun even making a brief but welcome appearance good old British weather After a long push up onto the top of Mono we found that it was very wet indeed making the top section very interesting sliding from rock to rock. So much so that we decided not to push up again, instead just to start from half way. As the bottom steeper parts are in much better shape. By this point the sun had disappeared and it was starting to get a bit chilly so we headed down off Mono in search of somewhere else to ride. We remembered the woodlands around Heatherdene so off we went.

We had a session riding the rock drop, with James W pulling some whips as you can see above. And after a blast around the woods we decided to call it a day.

09-01-17 Mono6ti+Heatherdene JI+JW+ST+JK, 25 Pictures by Jeff