Revolution

 Some shots from a day of Uplifting with the Twelve50 boyos at Revolution Bike Park in Llangynog. Gnar tracks in a dark forest, there should be more words in an upcoming Wideopenmag. Even on a tiny trail bike, with a super XC 'brain' suspension doodah, it was an ace day. Got pretty close to 3000 meters of vertical about an hour from home. Only problem is affording a DH bike now....   

Classic Wales

Just like the old days. Classic Welsh trailcenter riding.

So back in the early days, when trips to ride bikes outside the woods where rare, most trips were to the promised land of North Wales and it's man made trails. Shaking ourselves to shit over the rocks of Coed-Y-Brenin was the holy grail of riding back in the early years of this century. But then Coed-Y-Brenin changed. We returned to Gomez et-al armed with better skills and bikes, only to find the classic pieces of trail gone, however away from CYB all was not lost. Whilst the Marin Trail slowly eroded into maturity, and Machylyneth remained as glorious but distant as ever, Penmachno opened some time after the first wave of trailbuilding had swept the principality. However the formula remained unchanged and we got yet more of the man made yet fairly untamed good stuff to ride. Problem was, by the time Penmachno had its 30kms of singletrack going we had moved on to pastures new; pastures up big mountains, with big rocks, and a fair degree of tech. Yeah, the Marin trail remained a staple of our riding, but we where no longer making long drives for trail centres, our attention had been drawn to trails down the side of mountains and glens, that had come into existence through centuries of foot traffic and erosion.

Problem is, we missed out. Due to Ste's desire not to do anything to big before exams, but a desire to get into the hills non the less, we headed to Penmachno for the first time in 5 (I think) years. And it was great. It was 'classic Welsh riding' just as I remembered. It had the slippery rock, the benchcut, the jurrasic park sections, sections that made you think a bit, the feeling of being somewhere remote out in a big forest. As much as I love the Marin trail (and we followed our Penmachno ride with a lap there) it has become over familiar, it was nice to be riding a new, or mostly forgotten about, trail in Wales, almost like back in the day.

Anyway, that was a rather long way of saying Penmachno is bloody good, and hopefully a few of Ste and I's shots from the day will make the final cut. There were not many trails I would have enjoyed riding more than 40kms of Wales purpose built finest.

Not Dead

So this blog has been a little quiet over the last few months. Not to say there has not been any riding done, just with exams and all that there hasn't been much time to write about it. With summer stretching away in front of me, and Cal, Dave and Ste still busy I got the summer started with a bit of classic highpostin' XC around Grizedale with Dad and Wilf. It was boss. I think I have neglected Grizedale over the years, instead heading for the techy trails higher up on the fells, but the tracks in the woods are such a perfect mix of techy and flowy it is hard not to have a good time.

Dad on slab. Not bad for an old dude. Note Saddle still sky high, this man takes highpost pride seriously.

One decent in particular I wish I had not neglected, as whilst it didn't have the same Height drop as an actual mountain, if you where prepared to pedal it rewarded you with flow by the bucket load. That one is earmarked for a bit of filming in the not to distant future.

Filming huh? Well, plans are slowly coming together and, say it quietly, a film is starting to take shape. The first round of soundtrack requests were sent of yesterday (One is back allready, bless you Message To Bears). This time I think we have more of an idea of the film we want to make, and it is more of a case of shooting to fit the plan, as opposed to just putting all the footage together in coherent order. This puts a bit of pressure on to get footage, but it seems to be going well so far.

Ste in cold, cold North Wales

We got all the winter footage required during a cold day at the Marin trail. That place is a godsend when the mountains are covered in snow and the woods mud is knee deep. Just glorious, lonely, eroded flow in the hills for 25 km.

The now 3 year old tradition of the Lakes Easter roadtrip took place under steely grey skies for the most part. 3 days amongst laybyes and high passes of the northern fells. 4 passes remains a classic as ever, bookended by two days of exploration.

Its all downhill. Slate grey Lakes.

A few good shots where had but I think we all agree a return is needed to stock up the footage, and just to get out on these trails again.

SUMMER

And then the first dry spell of the year came to the woods, right on top the the busiest part of the year for us all. Mother nature can be a dick sometimes. Anyway, many fine nights where had in the loam and dust (now sadly departed) and Ste and I got a few shots in. Hopefully the glorious weather will return and we can get a few more in before the bracken covers every trail.

As for the future, flights, hire cars, mountain lodges and everything else that goes with bicycle adventure is slowly being booked. Switzerland, Austria, more Lakes and a return to Scotland are all hopefully part of the future. I also am pretty keen to try and explore some more of the big mountain potential of Snowdonia, despite previous experience on Carnedd Llewelyn (Just too gnarly). Geograph and the OS seem to show a few 500 meter plus descents lurking in them hills. Hopefully we'll fit a race in as well. Got to hold on to the hard won Tour De Nevis crown. All in all, it should be a good one.

As ever, if you want to get involved with the Pretty Sweet project in any way, feel free to get in touch.

Where There Is A Will...

...There is a way, and I have a way. Filming plans are afoot.

So you may have noticed the '2nd Pretty Sweet' talk, and we are working on that. Whilst a few ideas have been hatched, but I would guess we are still a year away from anything on that front. But fear not, we have some other, shorter film plans, that are starting to come together.

After we got what was our initial break, not to mention some great support from LLAMFF 2010, we all decided, possibly in the car on the way home, that we should try and get something togethor for the 2011 event. And so here we are. In a few weeks the window of filmic opportunity creaks open for 6 days, and we are planning on pitting ourselves against the Welsh November weather. Won't ruin the surprise apart from to say it looks like we may have roped super-pro-real-life-trials-superhero Matt Barlow into our plans and fingers crossed we'll come out with something good. Or a camera full of water. One of the two.

UPDATE: Between hand injuries, broken camcorder screens and severe weather warnings, this plan came to absolutely nothing. Ace.

Taking It Easy

Way back last Febuary, Ste and I found a peach of a trail in the Welsh Carneddau. It didn't go anywhere, and super gnarly to the point that we turned around when things got a bit scary. Well Dave saw the pics and wanted a go, so with the idea of getting some more 'fell tech' down on camera we headed back across on a much sunnier sunday and pushed to reach the ridge.

This time we made the ridge. Dave W was the only one to get his bike up there, so he was the only one to ride the techy, scenic trail we found

3 Days, 2 Rides

The Alps is a good place to ride a mountain bike, of that there is no doubt, but the UK is pretty good too, especially trails like this one:

Dave W and I headed to Stavely to scratch a trail exploring itch that had been on my mind for a while. The Highstreet - Staveley descent is a techno corker at the best of times, however the Bridleway to complete the loop is a grassy boggy slog up onto the ridge. After a massive trail had been dug in up to the ridge north of Garburn, I had a feeling this would provide a better way of summiting high street. We were mainly focusing on getting a few moving images in the bag for the second Pretty Sweet, plus I had forgotten my camera, so this is the only image from the day, but as a ride it was brutal. Garburn to the ridge was steep, and the descents of two of the three summits where short but steep, and super gnarly in places. Needless to say Dave W aced most of it. I had a bit of a struggle, especially after my sucess on the Lakes Gnar on the 'Long Steep Road of Trips' Trip. I would like to blame it on going back to a hardtail, but my super tech skills could well have gone backwards.

And this one:

All our riding at the minute is done with one eye on the Tour de Ben Nevis, so Cal and I decided to head out to the Marin trail and get used to just 'knocking it out' again. Felt pretty good, certainly better than the pain-fest in the lakes. 2 hours 15 mins for a lap at 'could do it all day' speed certainly boosted confidence. Anyway, it is good to be back in the UK. Despite how it may feel we have it pretty good here.

Is There A View?

So the trails on Snowdon are top notch, as, I am guessing is the view. We have ridden bicycles up to the top cafe/building site/nonsense twice before and been greeted with 'thick as the thickest pea soup mist' and howling gales both times. Whilst the mist and wind made for some of my favourite shots of the Pretty Sweet film experience last time Ste and I ventured up, Dave W, Cal and I headed up a week before the summer solstace hoping for still weather and a view of the sun dipping below the Atlantic as we headed down the mountain.

Alas, it was not to be.

A Good Times Sign

So I think anyone who knows a thing or two about mountain bike films will understand why this picture made us smile:

No, for once it is not the £4.00 bacon and sausage bap. Mahoosive thanks to all the guys involved with the Dyfi, especially for putting on our little bike film up there with the pros. From the sounds of things the whole thing was an amazing event. I'll have to be quick with the entry form next year.

Pretty Sweet @ howies Dyfi Enduro, Machynlleth

So the awesome guys at Summit Cycles have agreed to put our lo-tech bicycle film on at the Dyfi Enduro. Great news. Should be really cool for a whole load of mountain bikers to have a gander at the film what we made. Thing is, along with a most excellent ride round the Dyfi Forests finest trails, one of the first European showings of Follow Me will be taking place. We are all pretty amazed that Pretty Sweet is in such amazing company. The Collective films were certainly what inspired us to film, and probably ride mountain bikes. Hopefully we can hold a tiny little candle to Anthill's finest.

So yeah, the Dyfi Enduro is one of the best not-quite-a-race mountain bike events there is, and Follow Me looks amazing. If anyone remembers our little film we will be stoked.

Follow Me - the Teaser from Anthill Films on Vimeo.

This Is Not Spain

Exploring a new trail under a glorious early spring sunrise was the plan, however an unannounced closure of the A55 meant we spent a sizeable chunk of the morning on the B roads of the Wrexham area. After deliberating whether Llandegla might not be to bad, we persevered and rolled up in Capel Curig under slate grey skies.

Ste unloads in the cold. We travelled Arthur Dent stylee as always

Pretty Sweet Premier at LLAMFF 2010

S,o our folksy little bike film got its first outing at Llanberis Mountain Film Festival this weekend. We felt really honoured to have Pretty Sweet shown alongside some really amazing mountain films and be able to take part in what was a lovely weekend of mountain culture.

We got to look pro for two whole days

Fresh Powder in the Valleys

So this whole snow thing is dragging on a bit now. Dry, dusty trails seem like another world at the minute. Regardless, an offer to go and ride with good mates from Imperial Bike Club was to good to turn down, so I fired up das auto and headed for Dolgellau.

So Dolgellau had got snowed on pretty good. Some days i really think all I need is a helicopter and a snowboard to keep me happy. Is that really to much to ask? Anyway, a non going up Cadair Idris plan was hatched over bacon sarnies.

Pretty Sweet @ Llanberis Mountain Film Festival

So some glorious news arrived at Pretty Sweet HQ today. As you may have noticed from that ginourmous banner, our low-fi bike film has been selected for the Llanberis Mountain Film Festival. To say we are excited by this is probably a bit of an understatement. I am stoked of my face to be honest with you. As the mighty banner points out, there will be two showings, and we should be there for both of them, fingers crossed a few other people will aswell.

Pretty Sweet will be on between 'The Liminal Place' and 'Welsh Connections' on the saturday, and after a talk from the super gnarly Steve McClure and before the presentations on the sunday, so if you fancy sticking around that would be ace. Kranked Revolve is also on at the festival for mountain bike fans aswell as a load of other awesome stuff. Full film listings and details are on the LLAMFF website

Looks like it should be a most excellent weekend. We may even find time for a quick jaunt up Snowdon

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.

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.