Welcome back everyone!
It’s been a couple of days since we last spoke, but I trust you used your weekend to escape for some bicycle good times?
What’s that? You don’t care because it sucks that it’s Monday and you’re back at work? I know, I know – I feel your pain. It does suck, and we know we’d much rather be elsewhere as the sun is currently shining through our windows. But don’t dwell on the torture of the keyboard, allow us to cheer you up with this;
It’s time to kick off the week in style, and to do so we’ve got some stories, photos and videos for you from our weekend to show you what the Singletrack crew has been up to for the past couple of days. So sit back, relax, get your headphones in, and let Mr Porter and Claptone provide us a theme song for this week’s Monday Morning Debrief!
Of course the big news at Singletrack Towers this past week is that we’ve just taken delivery of the brand new issue of Singletrack Magazine – yahoo!! Fresh off the press from our local printers, Issue #114 comes jam-packed with some inspiring stories of adventure both on and off the trail. If you want to get some inspiration for yourself to start the week off on the right cleat, then have a browse of Issue #114 of Singletrack Magazine and get your copy here.
Over the weekend down in Dartmoor, Adele Mitchell has been soaking up some splendid Autumn sunshine on trails that appear to be covered in dehydrated mud; “Weekend stuff: fantastic ride on Dartmoor followed by cheese and a nap in the sunshine = very good day indeed.”
No bikes for Hannah this weekend gone, but rather some outdoors adventures of another kind;
“Went up the hill at dusk to try and see the Perseids Meteor Shower on Saturday night. Bats flapped around our heads on the way up, and it was nearly dark as we wriggled into our sleeping bags and lay with our heads sticking out to stare at the stars. As it got darker and our eyes adjusted, we saw more and more stars ‘mummy, there’s so many stars, I think there might be more than 89’ said my youngest. Then the shooting stars came, the kids saw the first ones and were squealing with amazement. A few minutes later and silence next to me. ‘Are you asleep?’. ‘No, I’m just looking’.
As if that wasn’t perfect enough, we unzipped the tent in the morning to find this view”
“Decided to ride out of the Valley for a change. Took a trip over to Llandegla. Got a couple of laps in (blue, then red/black). Drizzly on the tops and sunny back down at the cafe!” – Chipps.
Our valiant leader, Mark, went for a solid ride up and over the moors around Calderdale. Given that Mark has been our primary e-MTB tester in recent months, this was one of the longest rides he’s been on with a normally aspirated bicycle;
“Vic giving her customary response to camera. Over Gorple Road. I can’t remember the last time I ride that far.” – Mark.
Having travelled on a big plane over the weekend, I didn’t manage to get out on the mountain bike, though I did squeeze in some suspension testing before the weekend. I’m currently riding a Whyte T-130S longterm test bike that’s had the stock RockShox Yari RC fork fitted with an MRP Ramp Control Cartridge. It’s early days, but already the RCC is providing some interesting results…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXv1p4ABfWU/?taken-by=24hrsokal
Rachel Sokal is also doing some testing of her own, though on a slightly more curvy-bar’d bike. She’s getting her bike kitted up for some off-road bikepacking in the alps. And if this photo doesn’t shout adventure, then I don’t know what does!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXvXaj5hcvw/?taken-by=24tom
Also choosing drop-bars, our main man from Grit.cx, Tom Hill, went down south to Brighton on the weekend to be a part of the Brighton Big Dog event. It’s an off-road route that most people take mountain bikes on, but Tom being the mad man he is, decided to pilot a Kinesis Tripster ATR paired to a Lauf suspension fork. What a guy!
While Tom was down in Brighton, he flipped open the phone (or whatever you do with non-flippable phones these days) and scored some Facebook Live footage on the start line. Looks fun!
Tom Nash kept it real for the mountain bikers, disappearing last week for a solo ride to soak up some of the summer Scottish colours.
In case you hadn’t heard, last week we were joined in the office by a young chap called Fin. You may have seen work experience Fin in Fresh Goods Friday, and we also interviewed Fin via Facebook Live where he showed us through his Specialized Camber 29 that he raced at the ‘Ard Rock Enduro the previous weekend. It was great having Fin in the office for the week, and with a talent for words, photos and video, he’s a young man that you will no doubt be hearing more of in the future in one way or another.
We’ll close out this week’s Monday Morning Debrief with a short video that Chipps shot out on the trail last Friday when we were visited by more guests. These three chaps were from our Lifetime Subscribers group – legends who have signed up as lifetime subscribers to Singletrack Magazine, and who have joined us for a day of coffee drinking, mountain biking, and local fish ‘n’ chips. And it would seem by all reports that good times were had by all, though with those kinds of ingredients, it’s pretty hard to go wrong really eh?
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Is there any way you could speed up that video so it looks like I’m actually riding my bike?
random snaps here https://goo.gl/photos/ftYJi76FxYJTEnWm6
Thanks for a fab day out
Can i just bring your attention to this picture
https://goo.gl/photos/WZVX7LM8BsuCHQ818
of chipps pushing up a hill!!!
Possibly this makes him an honorary member of CMBC 🙂
@andybrad – ah yes, Chipps caught in the act! This will come in very handy…
Glad you enjoyed the Reader’s Ride on Friday, and great to hear you guys had such an ace ride around Todmorden!
Yea top doo Will,
If any of you fancy a bimble around Halifax give us a shout. We have beer as well.
Well I do like riding, and I do also like beer…
Sounds bloody marvellous Andy!