Out on the Hardtail

I’m waiting to hear from Commencal and Madison about the warranty claim on my cracked Commencal Meta 5.5. Madison have said they will raise a warranty claim with Commencal but that was 10 days ago and I’ve yet to hear back. It doesn’t look as though I’m going to get it sorted in time for the Isle of Man End 2 End in a couple of weeks, so my lack of preparation continues.

I haven’t been out on the bike for a few weeks because of the cracks, but with the End 2 End looming I thought I’d better get my old Specialized Rockhopper hardtail up and running and at least make sure it works. I did manage to get out on it last night for a nice easy ride around Nant yr Arian.

I started in Penrhyncoch and rode up the Bont Goch climb at a nice easy pace despite the head winds. I met John at the Pendam Car Park at the base of the Hippity Hops and we set off for a fairly slow ride around the Summit Trail. John wasn’t feeling too good after one too many the night before so we took it easy most of the way.

I then had a nice ride down the hill back to Penrhyncoch afterwards. The hardtail felt OK, although it did take a bit of getting used to. I don’t think it necessarily climbs any easier and definitely doesn’t descend as well but I prefer cornering on it.

All in all it was almost 22 miles and I felt OK – The End 2 End is more than twice that distance though with more climbing!

It’s not long to go until the Isle of Man End 2 End Mountain Bike challenge (I’m calling it a challenge, not a race!) and as is customary I don’t feel at all ready!

1. I haven’t done many long rides. I did do one on Sunday but it was only 36 miles as opposed to 46 miles for the End 2 End. Also, I started in the hills at 1200 feet and ended up at home at sea level. The total climb for the whole ride was only 3,326 feet compared to around 5,000 feet on the End 2 End. I need to do some longer, hillier rides to make sure I can complete it.

2. My bike isn’t ready – The chain is worn and needs replacing, the gear cables are sticky and need replacing and worse still the frame is cracked and needs replacing. I’ve so far had no success with contacting the manufacturers / importers regarding a warranty replacement though. Time therefore to check my back-up bike, an old Specialized Rockhopper hard-tail. Most things seem OK on it but the rear brake doesn’t work and needs bleeding.

3. It’s a lot closer than I thought. Less than 4 weeks in fact which just isn’t enough time for me to get fit and get ready – Time to start panicking!

Sunday was a gorgeous day here so we headed off to the hills for a picnic.

We went to Pendam where Morgan and I had a little cycle ride around Llyn Blaenmelindwr whilst Anna started picking blueberries. We then had a picnic on the shore of Llyn Pendam. It was lovely and peaceful sat there lokking out over the lake, but I got attacked first by ants (my leg is still on fire whilst writing this, 8 hours later!) and then by midges.

Needless to say we didn’t hang around too long so I went off for a MTB ride around the Syfyddrin Trail and then home whilst Anna and Morgan did some Blueberry picking.

I’ve just got back from a nice Mountain Bike ride around the Syfyddrin Trail at Nant yr Arian.

After a little ride around Llyn Blaenmelindwr with Morgan and a picnic at Pendam I left Anna and Morgan to go blueberry picking and headed off for a ride in the sunshine. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny without too much wind. I didn’t ever feel fast or even spritely but I plodded around and overall kept up a decent pace.

From Pendam I followed the Pendam Trail around to the Nant yr Arian Visitor Centre and then followed the Summit Trail out over the moorland, down the ‘Mark of Zoro’ and up the ‘Leg Burner’. I then headed off around Llyn Bleanmelindwr and off past Llyn Syfyddrin follwing the Syfyddrin Trail out to Nant y Moch, down the Bont Goch Descent and then back up the Bont Goch Ascent, down the ‘Hippity Hop’ section and back to Pendam.

From here it was downhill all the way to Penrhyncoch, through Bow Street, Llandre and into Dolybont before heading off-road again along the banks of the River Leri and home.

I only saw two other people the whole time I was out. I overtook one cyclist going up the little climb onto the Summit Moorlnad section and I overtook another cyclist going up the little climb from Nant y Moch. Otherwise I had the place to myself until I got back on the road to Penrhyncoch of course.

Overall it was 36.10 miles but I obviously started up in the hills and ended up at sea-level so it was a bit of a cheat in that respect. The Syfyddrin Trail section was 22.16 miles and took me 2 hours 27 minutes. The total ride was 3 hours 3o.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Whilst cleaning my 2009 Commencal Meta 5.5 bike lately I’ve noticed some cracks in a odd place on the frame.

The cracks appear to be radiating out from a drainage whole on a brace between the two sides of the main rear swing-arm. I’ve circled the drainage hole in the image below.

Cracks in rear swing-arm brace

I’m not sure if they are just superficial cracks in the paintwork or if they are actual cracks to the frame. Hopefully the former, but I guess I’m going to have to get them checked out properly as they seem to be getting worse.

Cracks in rear swing-arm brace

I do hope the frame isn’t cracked as I can’t afford a new one.

Following yesterdays Beekeepers meeting I rode up to Nant yr Arian for a mountain bike ride. I started at Capel Madoc which wasn’t quite as far up the hill as I had thought, so the climb up to Banc y Darren and the top of the ‘Mark of Zoro’ was longer than I thought.

I was feeling tired and slow too so it seemed to drag on. The Mark of Zoro descent made up for it though but I then had a long hard slog up the leg-burner. From here I rode around the trails to the Visitor Centre and then off down the ‘Italian Job’ and around to Pendam and Hippity Hop. I felt a little better now, but still wasn’t fast. The section up over the moorland was pretty wet but from there it was just the descent to the top of Mark of Zoro and then back up to Banc y Darren and a nice tarmac descent to Capel Madoc.

In the end it was just over 17 miles and with an average speed of 10mph wasn’t actually that slow. I did feel a little tired though so will have a rest day today.

I gave myself most of the day off yesterday as Steve was heading to Wales and wanted to go for a longish bike ride.

We did the Artists Valley and beyond loop that I did a few weeks ago. Now, I’ve lost a bit of weight since then and have probably improved my fitness a bit, Steve on the other hand hasn’t been out that much on a bike and said he’d put on some weight. As we all know, it is your power to weight ratio that really counts on a bike, especially when it comes to going up hill and on the first hill it showed.

The first hill is a killer, the climb behind Tre Ddol and it beat Steve! I’m not surprised really as it was his first attempt at that hill as it is really steep. I think Steve had vowed to lose some weight and get stronger by the time he’d got to the top.

We managed the whole 35 mile round trip in good shape. The forecast was for sunny spells but they didn’t materialise. In fact, we got soaked in some torrential downpours and it got pretty cold at one point and started sleeting. Again, not unexpected up at Angler’s Retreat as that place is cold and bleak at the best of times.

There were no major mishaps or mechanicals and even the cows, bulls and mad dogs didn’t deter us from our route.

I felt OK for the ride and if I can keep up some training will hopefully be OK to at least complete the Isle of Man E2E in September which is about 11 miles longer than the ride we did yesterday but only has a few hundred more metres of climbing.

I managed to beat my Personal Best around the ClimachX Trail last night.

It was supposed to be an Ystwyth-MTB night ride at 6.30pm. As usual I was there early, but by 6:45pm nobody else had arrived so I let Anna know I was going to go around on my own and headed off for a quick circuit of the ClimachX Trail.

The first climb felt good and I was once again pushing a gear larger than normal. I got to the first bit of singletrack within 10 minutes, a couple of minutes up on my previous PB. Once onto the single track though, I was a little out of practice and hadn’t ridden ClimachX for a while so things slowed down. It was also very wet with lots of running water in places and lots of deep puddles. At least the puddles were warm though. Also, the recent heavy rain had weighed down the surrounding vegetation which was now encroaching on the trail. My arms and legs were getting ripped apart by brambles and gorse and I even came off the trail once or twice where I couldn’t see too well. By the end of the second bit of single track I was only 40 seconds up on my previous PB having lost a bit of time.

This pattern continued for most of the course. I gained time on my previous PB on the climbs, but lost is again on the descents or singletrack. By the time I got to the beginning of ‘Better Late than Never’ I was once again 2 minutes up. But this was back down to a 1 minute advantage at the beginning of the final bit of singletrack across the top. This bit of singletrack however is mainly uphill so by the end of it and the start of the final descent I was 3:33 up and looking for a PB, if only I could negotiate the final descent without loosing too much time.

The final descent was fun as always and wasn’t too bad as far as being wet or overgrown was concerned. I was still descending cautiously though, partly because I hadn’t been down here for a while, partly because I was on my own and partly because I’m a wimp, but I managed to hold onto part of my advantage finishing in a time of 54:31, 1 minute and 46 seconds faster than my previous PB which I set in May 2009.

Despite the horrendous weather we had a good MTB ride last night.

Dave, John, Myles and I were greeted by driving rain and 50 mph winds in the car park at Pendam but we soon set off along the track in our waterproof jackets and shorts ready for a ride around the MBR Killer Loop. Myles had just got back from the Alps so the weather was a bit of a shock to him, but it was to all of us as it’s been a while since we’d been out in typical Welsh conditions.

I was suffering with sore ribs after my windsurfing session earlier in the day. Breathing hurt, as did any form of bending, twisting or bumping over bumpy things – Maybe Mountain Biking wasn’t the best idea! The ride out to and along the Bont Goch descent went pretty much without incident, there was one point when Dave, John and i went around what we knew to be a particularly deep puddle whilst Myles ploughed through it at full speed created a huge wall of water and disappearing from sight. He just made it through the water which was up to the top of his forks.

Somehow the wind seemed to be in our faces the whole way around. When we set off it was SW which would have given us a helping hand up the big climb back up to Nant y Moch, but by the time we got there the wind had swung to the SE and seemed to be in our faces for much of the climb.

Myles and I had quite a battle going up the climb. I was on the limit and my ribs were killing me, but Myles was sat right behind me and sometimes alongside me. I could tell he was suffering with the pace too though so couldn’t ease up and had to keep pushing on. It was hard work but good as it kept us both working hard.

We met Andrew going the other way just over the top of the climb – (he was out for some secret training on his own!) but we might get him to join us soon. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, some good descents along the MX trails up towards Angler’s Retreat and then back up towards Sidewinder, along the trails to Syfyddrin and then up to Hippity Hop. I think my windsurf and turbo trainer session earlier in the day had taken it out of me a little though as I was feeling tired come the end. Mind you, Myles was as well so maybe it was the hard climb earlier in the ride.

It was a good ride though with a good group of people and once riding the weather wasn’t really a problem – It just goes to show, you’ve just got to get out there and do it.

It was time to get back out on my Mountain Bike yesterday. I’d arranged to be picked up by John and we were heading to Coed y Brenin to ride around the MBR Trail and try out the new ‘False Teeth’ section.

It was pouring with rain whilst in the car on the way there and as usual we told each other how little we’d been on the bike and made the usual excuses. We met Mark there who also hadn’t been out on his MTB much lately.

The rain stopped just as we set off across the rocky first section of the Coed y Brenin trails. We were lucky in the end as the rain stayed away and we had a good ride around the trail with no mechanicals or major mishaps. The section called ‘Cain’ proved a little tricky as always and the new False Teeth section with it ‘Is this for you’ warnings at the top wasn’t as difficult as billed. It was nice though with some nice steep rocky drops into berms.

I was first ion line to these and as you approach them they look as though they could be proper drops so I had to stop take a look and then once I realised that they could be rolled I rode it properly.

I was feeling good on the climbs while Mark was suffering due to a lack of time on the bike so I doubled back once I got to the top of the climbs, went back down to meet Mark and then climbed the hill again – All good training.

It was good to  be back out on the mountain bike, but now I have to clean and service it.