Two Ride | Trail Centres

Two Ride | Trail Centres

I liked this for its negative view on the capitalisation of mountain biking by the forestry commission. It sums up trail centres pretty well.

Summer 2009 - Scotish Roadtrip

We kicked off the trip in the Cairngorms with Laggan Black/Red followed up with some local-built singletrack and a sweet trail i had scouted a few years back in the Rothiemurchus Estate; weaving its way above a raging river just a steep 200m drop below it was definitely a contender for the best singletrack of the trip (and it was only day 2). I promise you, the flow was incredible and coupled with stunning location even in the rain it was dope.

Ice Ice Baby...

Freeriding can mean so many things. One of those things is riding your bike over sheet ice.

The Sauze

There had been talk of lift acessed trails in Sauze d'oulx in a few of our favourite bike mags, so in the depths of a London winter I booked flights, and the cheapest chalet I could find, so we could head out and see what the fuss was about.

Editing...

So the team are all back home and we are determined to get this shit finished. The four of us are sat in a small room, grinding this shit out through the night. We have got all the shots togethor and are trying to get some voiceovers down. Ste sucks at it. Cal is regretting wearing a base layer indoors. Ste will be getting a slap soon. Only seven hours till the dawn heals us.

UPDATE: Dave says the adrenaline rush of recording mountain bike voiceovers is better than the riding itself. There is hope yet.

Foot Traffic

For all the trail centers and ski center singletrack that is cropping up all over, there really is nothing better than a couple f hundered years of foot traffic to create some fine riding. The Oetztal valley in the Austrian Tyrol has all the sinous singletrack you could ever need.

Of which dave realises some truths about his true love:

I've come to the conclusion that my sacrament to mountain biking is not a love as pure as i once believed. There is a third partner. One whom i'd always been subconsciously aware of, yet not realised just how passionately deep it ran as an affair alongside my seemingly integral relationship with mountain biking.

The identity of this third consort? Exploration.

Good Weather?

Generally we seem to allways be out in shitty weather. Almost allways anyway. So there was no way I was gonna beleive that the day we planned for a Welsh double header of trail riding, was going to be the hottest day of the year.

Anyway, we headed of the the CliMachx trail super early, to try and avoid the swarms of 'mature' drivers that inhabit the Welsh A roads. Whilst Cal and I got left by Ste and Dave, on the drive out we reached the car park above Machynleth eventually. Climach is a great trail center and the final descent is up there with the Marin for man made goodness, but we opted to film earlier on, getting some shots out in the open amongst the thousands of foxgloves.

Ste, Cal and I rode whilst Dave W caputred the three of us from various angles, aswell as getting some sweet 'scenery' shots of jet planes, eagles and bin wagons. The final descent was awesome as ever. I think it is the longest man made singletrack in Wales, and is worth the trip deep into the valleys.

We had set the afternoon aside for the trail down Cadair Idris, and the 2nd biggest legal descent outside of Scotland. It may have been the biggest descent, but Christ it was a slog to get up. We eventually made the top, dehydrated and knackered at about 5 o'clock. The views were incredible, and despite the reluctance to film, we got some of my favourite shots of the whole year in the bag on the way down.

8 pints of coke later in the pub, and we set of home, from what was a memorable, but knackering day in the mountains, made even better by Cal and I's shortcuts meaning we overtook Ste and Dave twice on the way home.

This May Be The Greatest

May Rules. As does that sweet pun in the title. Our home trails are pretty much perfect at this time of year. Dry and dusty, but not yet overgrown. It is trail nirvana just outside the front door. After a few evening rides, Ste and I headed out to get some shots on the loamiest, most flowy trail around these parts. It was a great evening, and we got a few sweet shots and had an awesome ride. One of those where you don;t actually want to go home. Plus you can just shove your bike away without washing it. Sweet.

Once Dave got a look at the footy, he was keen to get out, so the next day we loaded up the cable cam and set out to get a super cool segment togethor. Ste and I rode the trail over and over and dave got shot after shot. It came out pretty cool. Once into the woods, we decided to gt out the cable cam and get some shots of Ste flowing through the braken. A total misjudgement led to a high speed cable cam crash, which lauched the camera into oblivion. All was well though, despite our best attempts to smash the camera.

We got some pretty nice shots in the end though, despite repeated setbacks. I really need to find somewhere that has a may climate all year round...

Lakes

So the Lakes is pretty much a second home to Cal and I. I think we must have been there every year since birth. And it really is one of the best places to ride bicycles on big(ish) mountains. It only seemed natural to haul Ste, Dave W and the trusty miniDV up there to get some trails on film.

Marin County

So I guess we had better back fill this blog with some of the actual filming we did over the last 11 months. Jeezus, can't believe it has been that long...

Anyway, we kicked of the year riding and filming wise at the Marin Trail in Gwydyr Forest. Seemed pretty appropriate seen as this was the first trail center any of us ever rode at. Seem to think I had bright blue woolen legwarmer tight things and a rigid spesh hardrock. I remember following a guy with a Yoda backpack down the final descent, Yoda flying all over the place, staring back at me. Mountain biking was way rad back in the day.

But yeah, I think the Marin is collectively our favourite trail center. The singletrack there is so sweet, just exactly how it should be, and it never really gets a revamp, which gives it a cool semi eroded, kind of natural vibe.

We set out to film two specific bits of singletrack on what turned out to be a peach of a day. First up Ste and I got up to speed, whilst Dave W scoped out some angles, then we filmed Dave shredding on his own later on. The light was peachy all day, and hitting up the final descent non stop was a great way to start the year. All in all, a damn fine day.

S'up?

Hey. Er... Well, we are a few guys who ride bikes. I guess we want to try and show what mountain biking is to us, and why it is such a big part of our lives. We are pretty big fans of filming and photographing the places we go, the trails we ride, and the experiences we have, and hopefully we can get the good times across through the site. There are many types of mountain biking; Freeride, dirt jumping, XC racing, and it seems like kids coming in to the sport think of mountain biking as just doing jumps and tricks. Cool though this is, I guess we feel like the adventure is going out of the sport a bit, and hopefully we can show why we think it is important that it stays. Anyways, stick with it, let’s see how far we can take this...