Carbon-Monkey

Day two – Rhayader

Tom — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:34:30 +0000

Started with a headache
in a damp bivi bag
in the rain

then the sun came out and i found some paracetamol and look what happened…

Day one – Malverns

Tom — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:05:53 +0000

Tired legs
Headache
Steep climb out of the car park

Loved it!

what happens if you turn left?

Tom — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:29:15 +0000

If after work every day you leave the office and turn left, what would happen if you turned right instead? Or when you roll out the front door in the morning what would happen if you took the long ride to work?

Well today i tried it, every monday afternoon for the last 10 weeks i’ve had a meeting in the same building, on the same street and i always come and go the same way. It hadn’t crossed my mind that i always go the same way until i left (a particually good meeting) today and paused at the gate. I don’t know why but today, instead of turning right and heading down the highstreet with the traffic, i turned left and rolled downhill. Using a towerblock on the horizon to navigate by i followed my front wheel, and instead of grinding along busy dirty main roads i rolled through a small community, past their shop, school and playground, hung a right into the park, past a couple sitting by a tree and a man walking the dog. I emerged onto another main road but cut straight across, through suburbia and down to the canal.

Today i turned left and found a new route home

Try it, you never know what might happen

City streets – a blessing in disguise

Tom — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:21:56 +0000

This morning i rode the rush hour city streets of birmingham and was strangley uplifted by the ride. As i span past business men in suits, buses full of workers, couples sharing a brief walk to work before the daily grind i felt uplifted.

Everyday these people (and probably some of you) run the same routine, to the same office to sit in front of the same computer.

It made me realise it’s not the paypacket at the end of the month, the opportunity for promotion or the next big marketing pitch that’s important in life. What’s important in (my) life is to be able to cycle to work (or better, cycle for work), wear the same clothes to work as you do on the weekend, to breath lungfulls of fresh air and to not be entirely caught up in the rat race.

So sorry city workers if this is a downer for you, but your daily grind made me appreciate the good life that little bit more. I hope your day to day isn’t as bad as it looks to me, but if it is, maybe it’s time to re assess what’s important in life

Todays top three sites

Tom — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:10:15 +0000

all in the name of riding bikes, enjoying life and feeling good, check these out:

http://www.birmcc.org.uk/

http://www.boneshakermag.com/

http://www.downlandcycles.co.uk/frameBuilding.htm

Freeride shenanigans

Tom — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:30:02 +0000

This season i’ve been geting back into the freeride side of life and been pushing the boundaries bit. I’ve re built the freeride bike three times going from DJ frame, to hardcore hardtail to full sus ripper. Two weeks ago i binned it for the first time this year, went down hard and am still aching from the smash so instead of being out riding i’m sat at home going through riding pics from the year so far, and look what i came up with:

Peaslake freeride drop (recently shortened by alot)

and the new freeride machine of choice

(please excuse the flat tyres)

And the new found local freeride trails, there’s some big jumps and drops here…

Cwm Rhaeadr

Tom — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:57:26 +0000

A few months back i was lucky enough to get out for a blast round the Cwm Rhaeadr trail and then follow it up with a night ride at Brechfa.

I forgot by bar mount for my lights though so ended up with a rather heavy MaxxD ziptied to my helmet.

Good ride all the same though (just remember the bar mount next time eh!)

August Bank holiday special adventure

Tom — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:49:29 +0000

Somehow i’ve ended up with 5days free over the bank holiday weekend so there’s time for a wee adventure.

This is a one off opportunity for you and a friend to customize your own South Downs adventure, be it fully guided, supported, taxi only service, food and water drops or a full exped . . . → Read More: August Bank holiday special adventure

The Clent – local blast

Tom — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:08:39 +0000

If you’re in the west midlands and looking for a great short blast the Clent is a must

and if you get your timing right you’ll be greated with fields of wildflowers and a beautiful sunset

Watery cross training

Tom — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:54:31 +0000

It’s good to get outside

Most days i’d pick the bike over anything else

But sometimes a change is good

So last weekend i went canoeing and had a great day out

it’s all in the tyres

Tom — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:44:36 +0000

ok so maybe it’s not all in the tyres

the legs help

the chain helps

the gearing helps

the suspension helps (not the the rigid crew will agree)

the brakes help (when you’re scared)

but the tyres definately make a BIG difference, from 460g superlight XC whippet tyres to 1.25kg freeride monsters, they can turn a whippet into a slug or turn a DHO monster into a (slightly) more climable trail happy bike

here’s the pile of tyres i (rather hurriduly) threw in the back of the car before Mtn Mayhem

seems none were ideal, next race there will be some lighter tyres, some faster tyres, some skinny tyres and maybe some semi-slicks, although the borrowed mud tyres in this pile might get re-borrowed aswell

carbon-monkey stickers

Tom — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 09:59:50 +0000

Now available

As seen on all good carbon-monkey bikes

As well as infront of many spectacular vista’s

Available for free on any carbon-monkey course or send us a self addressed envelope and we’ll send a few winging their way back to you (drop us an email for our address)

Trans USA in winter…?

Tom — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:57:35 +0000

A couple of months ago a close friend and i jokingly decided we should ride out bikes across the USA this winter. The following week i asked my boss for six weeks off work and he said ‘you’ll be lucky’ so i felt safe in the knowledge i wouldn’t be able to do it. Then last week my boss turned round and said ‘that six weeks off you asked for, you can have it’, and now it looks like we’re biking across the USA this winter!

Now this means a few things, firstly we’ll have to postpone all our mid winter night riding and winter riding courses until February.

It means that i need to get fit, like 100miles a day fit

It means we need to plan the trip, the route, the logistics, the flights (which don’t sit well with me, appologies for the CO2), what bike’s we’ll use, where we’ll stay, the kit – well everything, for a 3,000mile mid winter spin across the USA.

And then there’s my desire to go east to west, i don’t know why i want to do this but the idea of finishing on the californian coast and swimming in the pacific is far more glamourous to me, somehow swimming in the atlantic isn’t quite the same. But most of the weather goes west to east so (in theory) we’d ride with the wind if we went west to east too, rather than against it.

So in short there’s alot to do, and anyone with experience of a trip like this, the weather in the southern states in dec/jan or generally words of advice please get in touch.

Best start training i guess…

Mayhem complete

Tom — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:14:31 +0000

After 24 hours, 21 laps and (approx) 335km later team howies (david, ruben, xander and I) finished Mtn Mayhem 2010 in 223rd place (out of 665 teams) which considering none of us are racers, we hand’t trained and it was our first 24hr event doesn’t seem bad at all.

Off the back of it we WILL be racing more 24hr events and Carbon-monkey will be offering night riding courses, technical trail racing courses and trail to race transfer courses. If you’re interested, or raced and want to get quicker get in touch.

Photos to follow soon

Trials skills for the trail rider

Tom — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:30:28 +0000

What a lovely weekend that was!

Thanks to Martin for being an excellent student and keen to learn EVERYTHING and thanks to the weather for being so lovely on saturday (we’ll keep quiet about sunday)

Day one – skills module in the morning in the beautiful setting of Llyn Gwynant

followed by a spin round a section of the Penmachno trail putting all the skills we’d learnt to good use on beautiful (and empty) trails

and a wonderful view of Snowdonia from the top

Day two – A good blast around the Marin trail stopping off to do some key skill sessions on the best little technical bits we could find

followed by a nice street session learning some more trialsy moves

Anyone who wishes they’d made this weekend but missed it, we’ll be getting together again in August for two action packed weekends consisting of a Freeride starter day followed by a DH skills and freeride progression second day, just drop us an email if you’re interested, weekends TBC, venues will be Llandegla for you Northerners or Brechfa if you’re southerners

tom@carbon-monkey.co.uk