Hello curious MTBers and welcome to Beanie's bit. First of I'd like to give you a brief history as to how I ended up in Cornwall(Kernow).

Born and bred in the New Forest I used to spend my time racing against my mates around the quiet country lanes trying to capture the lead on my Raleigh Scorpio racer. We soon grew tired of the flat featureless tarmac and discovered the thrills and spills of forest riding, leading us to seek out the largest hills ,in order to chase each other down them . (The original singletrackers??). Old age finally  grabbed me with his bony hands and the bikes stayed in the garage for longer and longer periods ,work and family inevitably filling my life.

 

During the next few years we holidayed and visited friends much in a far off land named Cornwall. Falling under its Celtic spell we quickly realised it was a place we wanted to settle in and become a part of. Living at the bottom of a tall carne (hill) and spending time walking around the local area we soon found valley after valley of great ups and downs with trails criss-crossing them like tomato ketchup squirted over a plate of chips. Deciding I needed to be amongst all this action in a big way I was brought up short by a major obstacle. My fitness was against me. Looking around for an enjoyable way of getting back into shape I stumbled across the modern MTBiking scene and was instantly hooked. Getting hold of a cheap and rather bouncy mountain bike I started to try out the local terrain and instantly re-found my lost childhood love of push-bikes and quickly developed a passion for travelling, up, down over and around all things mountain.

 

Whilst ecstatically enjoying Cornwalls' amazing country-side I have discovered a number of loops and trails and some fantastic downhill. The first loop I mastered is romantically named The Great Flat Lode !!.

 

The GFL (Great Flat Lode)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And:

Beanie's just had his new hat imported from the states and already its customized!  

 

We can't think of a better way to cover hair like this:

 

 

January to  April 2007

Well in the last two months me and my bike have been very busy starting in January with the bike getting a good service and a few new parts.The only downside to great local riding is the toll it takes on your machine, just over a year and I'm on to my third complete drive train.Also on the bill,a new rear hub (DMR replacable bearings),new pads and a new piston for the back shock,still not to bad when you think how much fun that represents.

 

Over the past two months my riding knowledge has been increased a lot with all the different terrains and conditions I've been riding through.This started with a trip to the New Forest to see Arnie and Jas who took me to a local trail park the Queen Elizabeth country park to ride rooty forest singletrack. Nearly all my local riding is done on granite rock or granite sand,big,hard gritty stuff but still tractable. Turning soft and draggy in the rain but still a pretty reliable surface.In comparison Q.E was like a skate park, the heavy rain we've been having turning the chalk surface into a slippery mess.It was brilliant fun and a steep learning curve to keep control of a bike that was going sideways as much as forward,it only took me about 30 seconds to leave my bike and realise that caution was the name of the game.This was my first real experience of fast root trails especially in the conditions, something to test my skills on and learn a lot of new ones!. There is a lot of great singletrack at Q.E, an oasis in a generally flat forest and the onsite facilities make it an easy day out.

        

The next day found us on a ride around the forest,it was a slow strength sapping haul with our bikes frequently finding themselves upto thier hubs in muck and grime.The forest fills up quickly with any rain making any journey real hard work whilst your on it but great for that finished a challenging route feeling at the end.As you can imagine this was completely opposite to Q.E the day before and brought with it its own lessons and skill requirements.With that the weekend was over, another great time out with great mates, and alot to think about or 'soak up'ha ha .

         

In early March Arnie appeared on the horizon coming down for a week of riding,if I could stretch him beyond his 15 miles a day he seems to stick to while he's here,anyone would think hills were hard work.To start the week off we headed to the famous Quantocks ,a place I'd been waiting to visit for ages, but once we parked up and sorted the bikes out it was obvious the rain had had an effect here to, it was likely to be gruelling.A lot of puddles and soft going gave us a good workout till we reached the middle of the hills and here we encountered another problem, although the top of the hill was covered in tracks there was no sign of the sought after downhill tracks.This led us to a number of false starts with hard climb-backs and to going 'down' a couple of routes we probably should have come up.Eventually we found one track, Smiths Combe, it was right at the end of the hills but this one track made the searching all worthwhile.Long,fast twisting and turning and regulary crossing the swollen stream that ran down the hill we us,it was fantastic just what fast singletrack should be.After working our way back to the top of the hill and getting back to the car we were finished,but with the memory of Smiths Combe and the knowledge that there are at least two more good downhill tracks off the hills we will be back to sort out and remember a decent loop.Hopefully we could make this a daytrip out for all the F.M.B's...

      

 Next day was set to be a rest day but the weather was good and you know how it is we were soon kitted up and off to the downhill and jump festooned quarry that is Wheal Maid .After a few runs down the hill we decided to take some time out and actually do a bit of practice with our bikes, first nailing a particular jump we'd both been just  getting over and then getting a bit more speed up over some of the course. It really pays of to take a bit of time out to practice,for having built up to take one jump properely we found ourselves easily taking on similar obstacles and increasing our skill level as well as having more fun.

       

With all that rest inside us we were ready for our next trip out which was to be a 12 mile jaunt across Dartmoor.We loaded up Arnies' car and headed of to Princtown, our starting point and after parking up and sorting ourselves out we rode on out through the town and out onto the moors.The first stretch of the loop found us going up a hill on quite rough track that was regulary crossed by little drainage ways which made great little jumps and promised to be more fun coming back down later.Turning right at the top of the hill the track turned downhill and faster,but boy was it rough,the track quickly turning into a rock garden with rocks upto two feet across. Finding safe lines through the rocks was essential ,they say fear is a good teacher and the thought of landing on all thoses rocks kept us concentrating all the time.Another lesson quickly learnt was to find jumps off of some of the bigger stones to clear rougher sections of the track.It was a great piece of track and we both reached the bottom of the hill with big grins on our faces,from here the trail leveled out, as we rounded a reservoir and rode into Sheepstor for a bit of a rest.

 

From here it was up a quite lane and back onto the moor to start, what was, a long climb back upto the top of the moors.With the wind in our faces it was hard going and with hindsight it would be better to start this loop in Sheepstor and go across to Princetown where there are cafes and pubs to eat at,unlike Sheepstor,and then do the fun riding back to the car.We finished the ride with a short blast down to Princetown, not forgetting to get some air off of the drainage ways,and back to the car.It was great to ride on the moors adding new experiences to our riding as well as,hopefully, increasing our bike skills.

        

The rest of our riding that week found us hitting the local trails and going to Wheal maid for more downhill work and also to do a bit of filming (see videos section).Hopefully next time Arnie and Jas come down we'll get some better video.Well after such a hectic week it was back to my normal loops and trails to keep in trim for the next outing.

         

Riding round my local trails after all the work the week before I began to realise the toll it had taken on my bike.Shifting the rear mech was really stiff,the back wheel had a definate kink in it,and the bottom swinging arm bearing had a lot of play in it.With a trip up to the Forest in just over a week on the cards, I decided to put the bike into the shop for some TLC.

          

The day before the day I had decided to put my bike in the shop I got a call from Kai ,a local friend and fellow mountain biker, inviting me out for a blast out to the coast and along the coast paths,I was on my bike in a flash.Cycling to Kai's house I met up with a few of his friends and after the usual sorting out of bikes and everyone remembering everything we headed out along some nice singletrack and quite country lanes to Porth Towan, a famous surfing cove on the north coast of Cornwall.Here the real work started as we had to claw our way up the steep cliff path to reach the top of the cliffs.Racing along the cliff tops was both excilarating and scary, as at times we were only inches from the cliff edge.On reaching the next cove,porth Chapel, Kai and a couple of his mates took a suicidal route almost straight down the cliff to reach the beach,whilst me and Tom took the longer, but really fast and fun, route down.Joining up at the bottom another climb faced us to get back up to the cliff top and another race to the next stop, trying hard not to look left and the long drop to the rocks below.From St Agnes head, our next stop, we headed inland on a loop to beacon hill,where you can see nearly all of west Cornwall,and then back to the coast to backtrack back to Porth Towan.This was really interesting to switch all the ups for downs and visa versa, not a thing you do often because we all ways tend to ride in loops.From Porth Towan we took a different route back to Kai's again down some good singletrack, including a trip down the 'bank' a steep drop down to the path below you.At kai's it was tea and biscuits and a chat about the ride, great after 25-30 miles of riding.

 

The next day I got my bike into the shop and was reassured it would be ready for the weekend ,whitch meant it would be running sweet for Q.E.Then disaster!! on Wednesday I got a call from the shop , it seems whilst they were repairing the bike they found a one and a half inch crack in the frame.Dragging myself in the next day, my visions of being bikeless for about a year, slowly disappeared as they explained the crack was in the rear swinging arm and a replacement had allready been shipped out.This meant that easter, and Arnie's and Jas's visit was a going concern again but my weekend in the Forest was in serious jepoardy.Well there was an answer,an old marin framed bike that Kai had pieced together to give my son Luke a bike to learn on.What else could I do I couldn't let Arnie and Jas down so it had to be and with absolutely no suspension,21 gears,bullhorns and V brakes the weekend promised to be fun indeed!!!.

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