Life Cycles Premiere

I'd been waiting for this one for ages and it the cherry on a hanging out with mates, er, cake. Chris and Kate were over and Daryl and Itzi met us down in Southend, to see Gav and Jen's new pad and hang out, drink wine and catch up. Excellent to see everyone, and nice for the lads to hang out too.

It was nice to hang out by the coast and see how responsible people are with Monty, whilst I was hungover!!!







We'd got Life Cycles premiere tickets and shot of into town, drank a beer, met some of the Goats and sat in a fully sold out cinema. Danny MacAskill's Red Bull short was on first and much better in large format, getting the audience gasps in all the right places... Then Vast, which I could have left. Some great shots, but a bit too many, too much TL mountains and riding that most f us could have done. ;p


About to be critical...

Then Life Cycles. Proper bo and I still can't believe how well it was filmed, it really is something different. Massive props to the guys involved and I think Daryl summed it up nicely, saying that although there wasn't tons of riding, it was the one film that made him want to get out and ride. Best flick in ages, I might even have to but an HD tv for that one...

Danny MacAskill

OMG (yes I did just type that) I was waiting for this full version as the filming and riding of the sneaky peeky were pretty epic. Not dissapointed!


Seems like a nice lad too. Filming is VERY good, nice one Red Bull...

Forest of Dean

Good trip to the FOD last weekend, for Mark's birthday. We booked the uplift and not having done one of these before, I was really pleasantly surprised. Good service, nice guy running the uplift at www.flyupdownhill.co.uk and a good vibe in general. The bus did 14 runs which is pretty fair considering the time of year. It was wet and I made a howler of a tyre setup (the less said the better) reslting in the crash on the flat - see vid - but then rectified it and really got into it. Everyone had a good run and came back thoroughly muddy.

Forest of Dean from Dave Branfield on Vimeo.

Fireworks and food at Jason's place afterward, thanks for a wicked spread and good times..

Night Pump.

We all like a bit of night pump, so thought I'd pump some pics your way. Woburn night pumping pumperoony pump track, much fun and unpredictable.



Very hard to see the pump bumps and bits of the track, but you got a good feel after a bit. nice and dry, so good and quick. Tamn had it harder than me as his lights are on his bars, so you cant look round corners or spot landings as easily, but all good. FOD on sat. Very much looking forward to that and will hopefully have some filming from it!


Nice face...


Hip.

As usual I'd prepared by not charging anything and forgetting the syport connectors which is why they look crap. Well done Dave...


Berm manny.

Thats who it was...

I can't remember why, but Gav and I had a long drawn out e-mail and phone marathon recently, trying to remember the name of a rather cool looking custom frame/bike builder that we'd stumbled across ages ago. This was him and aint it cool?!

http://www.hufnagelcycles.com

Jordan Hufnagel: Custom Bike Builder from Souney Media on Vimeo.

Glad we remembered. Get saving.

You know you're a hick, when...

Your cat thinks its a dog.



Chris and Lemmy living the dream.

New Bits

I recently ordered in some new shiney stuff and had a bit of a sort out, turning the On One into a bona fide commuter bike. I did this a little while ago, and there are some bits I need to sort (as ever) like swapping the rotors over, but she's basically there...





XT running and stopping gear - 34 42 up front.
Spare parts from my box.
FSA XC wheelset from On One.
Schwable Speed Cruiser (?) tyres.
New rigid fork from On One.


Verdict? Bloody excellent and quick to boot.


New Hope Vision 4 is excellent in my opinion after the exhaustive testing of one evening - in depth!

Night.

Its getting dark. I bought a spangly hope vision 4 and now its all lit up again.


Scot leading the pack.

First night ride of the season - hopefully one of MANY! Dry tonight with a brief chill in the air, autumn has definitely set in...

Wet Leith, I'm sure I've said that before...

I had a long standing arrangement to ride with my mate James and it was one of those things that wouldn't happen unless you set a date and stick to it, so we did. What we didn't know in the summer, was what the weather would have in store for us!

I've ridden many times at Leith when it has rained all day, but this time it was a bit different. Looking up from Peaslake, even the hill tops there were stuck in cloud and that was the way it would stay until we'd nearly finished!

Excellent grip despite the rain and great to ride with some new people. Very impressed with Jame's ride and also his fitness - at 59 he's still keeping us all very honest! Hopefully we should hook up with Ben's crew again and big up his mate's new bike shop. Wet Word...


BC anyone?


Near the Tower.


Yes those are tights with holes in.


Ben gets fast and loose on his rigid singlespeed.

Chris is 30

Sneaky...

This is what I'm talking about!

Ok, so sorry to go n about how amazing one site/photographers are but, I mean, this is pretty epic! www.alpinepics.com

Chris so lazy...

I pulled this off facecock as Lawler has seriously forgotten the IBFC!!

Chris writes:

The lifts have all closed with the exception of the Champery cable car so any more riding involves a push up the Col du Coux. We’ve been away on our Honeymoon for a while so not so many riding pics so far this season.

Al got this one just at the top of the trail leading off from the top of Chavannes heading towards some of teh bootleg forest trails.


Hip hop hippopotamus tweak.

Really good.

Whilst I'm blogging, I had a look at this chap's site as he had POD recently on Pinkbike. Bloody good and his POD was at Bozen,where Jon had a trip out to recently - I'm trying to get some pics off him to post as he said it was awesome. Via bik-ratta anyone?

www.alpinepics.com

Alpspitze, part 1 from Big Col on Vimeo.

Pompey MKII

Should have bunged this up after the Friday post, but didn't. After one or two very very small 2% shandys on the Friday night, Finter and I were off to Surrey Hills to get some more sun and dry trail action. We rocked up in Peaslake with the outside hope of trying to find the trails that Stu had taken me to a few weeks before. Fat chance.

We rode some old classics and found a new (to us) steep tech run off the back hill (other side of PL to BKB) near to the one I rode with Rob and Stu with the log step down:


And, gurn.

Any way, we had a blast and felt exhausted afterwards - stopping before running BKB only to stock up on a meat pie and the NICEST bakewell style cake ever. I've said it before and I'll say it again. A T H L E T S!



This is what it looked like...


Up.


And down...



And up...


And, down.

I should say that neither of these pics show how teck the runs were. Entertaining at full tilt.

South and out.

Just re-surfaced from a week long trip with the family down to Bormes to relax and spend some time with Steffi's folks for her Birthday. Amazing weather all week, with the exception of an amazing storm on the Tuesday night. All in all, very enjoyable and Monty has grown visibly!



Steffi's brother, wife and little munchkin were out too, and I managed to fit in a few blasts on a bike - All road this year as the Marin has been repatriated by Steffi's other brother. Boo. My steed this time up was a (fiveish year old?) steel Decathalon hardtail with non existent front forks, although they looked suspiciously like they were supposed to move... Heavy as sin and shakey at speed. Anyway, its all about the riding and I put in a 45km loop up in the hills above Bormes one afternoon and saw literally no-one except some olds playing petonc at a junction - only in France...

Then on Wednesday, Peter and I headed out an did a bigger ride, clocking about 70km in three hours, with 500m of climbing and some stiff winds. I really enjoyed it and we had to play the slipstream game on some of the flat bits. Very good.

Steffi's B'day we went to L'allmanar, a world class (apparently) wind surf spot, and I would have had a go, but it was BUSY and WINDY!! Not the best conditions for learning...

Tan is already fading fast.

Dry Again, Friday, Pompey...

Friday saw a little trip down to QE near Pompey for a bit of ragging about, dusty style. I've ridden QE once before and conditions couldn't have been different. The first time was winter, it was wet, you LITERALLY couldn't see the trails for leaves and it was so slidey on my sand tyres, that I two-wheel drifted everywhere, much to the amusement of Daryl. Friday was DRY and fast although, just as drifty, it turned out!


Sun was out.


Jez hits a line in the trees.



In the dry, the chalk turns into little balls and gives you the pine cone effect that we get up here - ie unpredictable berms! All good though, except for how unfit I was feeling. Slow on the ups but managed to keep up with Daryl and hit everything on spec on the downs. Almost had an interesting stack on a step down that I overcooked, but got away with it! Daryl and Jez took me over to the 'Farm', a ghetto little valley of felled trees and sketchy gravel/mud surface. It was good and had some interesting lines in it but we couldn't session as time was against us. Flat out and fast as you like back to the car - I LOVE that final run there.



Farm bermmm. Ghetto.


This is the bigger step down after the berm above, not sure how you go about connecting it to the landing as its sooo tight.


Jez taking in the farm...


Farm stepdown

LIFE CYCLES

Its here! A teaser!! OK I know I might sound a bit excited, but that is because I am. These boys are doing it properly and much better than Follow Me if the taser is anything to go by...

wow...

Deep summer contender by Adrian Marcoux. Amazing.

Deep Summer Slide show from Dirt Tales on Vimeo.

Watch it full screen.

Oh, yes.... Bikes!

Having waved goodbye to Steffi and Monty (they've gone to France ahead of me), I have a bit more time. We've all been pretty slack on the posting, but I for one have been doing a shed load of riding and have various project bikes in the proecess...

Anyway, less baby, more bike! That doesn't mean I like Monty any less, Steffi.



New blue work stand thingumy...



And, look what we found in the woods...

HA!

Found this in an old folder, forgot i'd sceengrabbed it from Mark's facecock account. Mark is on the left, but how good is thatr Freddy on the right?!!