Arrived at 9:20 this morning and the main car park was already packed - had to squeeze into the last space in the furthest corner.
Now, I moaned preivously about the cost of having the Mutt's Pace RC39 forks serviced, but today, I understood the need for it. The bike was like new. So its really worth having a service done, but I still think there should be longer between the need. I had the rebound wound to about half way on the scale but backed it off half a turn part way round and the forks are now super plush. Great for giving much more confidence.
My lower back was not at its best today, so low gear spinning was the order of the day on the climbs as that puts much less pressure on the back. Seemed to work OK. The main climb on the red is very smooth now and didn't present much of a problem, soon at the top for some looning. Did the small section of black just past the summit, but stuck to the red for the rest of the way. Dryness and dust all the way pretty much, there were about 4 places where there was water - where the stream runs along the track for a while in the newly felled area, plus one or two shallow puddles where there used to be seriously deep puddles.
Find a (very out of date 2006) map of the trails here.
The first new section of red from Snowdon View (W72) down to the "double steep climb" (W74) is an absolutely storming sequence of shallow fast berms, yumps and small table tops. With the dry weather and the serviced forks, managed to have enough confidence to get air (probably only about a foot of the ground, but it still feels pretty exciting at my age!) about 6 times.
There are still a couple of diversions, one just before the reservoir - and that's firmed up nicely now, not sure if there have been rocks put down or the grass has cut down to the rocks underneath, but it almost feels like a proper part of the trail now. Another diversion at the end takes you around the top of the newly completed skills area and down the ultra fast descent on the other side and back to the visitors' centre, rather than through the last section of wood. Not sure if that's a permanent change or not.
So some great fun then - just one let down today, the cafe were all out of chocolate cake!
Technique Alert! I've been reading a book (so I'm clearly an expert now) on MTB riding. It suggests trying one new technique each ride and really concentrating on it. So today I had a go at pedal pressure when riding berms (these are banked corners, a bit like Brookland race track and some sections of the Nordschleif). Now it seems pretty obvious that the pedal that is on the inside of the corner should be highest, to avoid the pedal grounding and throwing you off the bike. What is less obvious is that if you push hard down on the outside pedal then the bike becomes very much more stable as its putting your centre of gravity much lower down on the bike. More grip, more stability, more speed. So this met with some success today. Didn't really appreciate how much difference it would make, but it does. But more practice is needed as sometimes you can go in with the higher speed, but forget to do the pushing down. Ooer!
And I'm going to do it again, but this is the first time I've ridden them in the dry, the Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1s are just brilliant.
There was a photographer out on the fast descent not far from the end today. Would be tood to know who it was and how the piccies turned out!
13/04/2010 post script - the photographer was from One Planet Adventure at Llandegla and the photo is posted up here. Thanks!
