Mine is;

While riding natural trails in beautiful Wales, i rounded a corner to confront a pack of wild ponies. They startled and ran ahead of me and for a brief moment it went all ‘dances with wolves’ i was in the the pack-a wild thing, tossing up clods of loamy soil with my head down and legs pumping. Until a left hand bend where the entire pack overshot the corner and i made the inside line.

man 1
horse 0.

tell me your tales…

Woooooah…………..thats deep

Probably a farm supplying supermarkets.

not quite getting into the spirit of it are we chaps.

one day i rode a bike. realized it was hard work but i still like bikes. now i just pretend to ride bikes on stw

😉

Along similar lines, I can remember once having a barn owl fly with me at shoulder height for approximately 200m along an open trail once. That was pretty surreal.

“expensive”, at the moment.

Coming last at this years Hit the North. It felt like a validation from my peers 🙂

That briefest of moments between thinking ‘Yes! I’m pinning this, Dude! I am a riding god!’ and hitting the deck face first.

Drifting corners, doesn’t matter when or where, just that magical feeling of the back end shooting round before the whole lot ballances out.

Nailing the three drops at Caddon Bank then driving over to GT to the freeride park and nailing the three ladder drops,not a massive achievement to some people but to me it was huge.

I was out night riding alone one night, at the usual ‘I’m a big rufty rufty mountain biker, and I’m not scared of the dark, honest’ pace, when a great big fox emerged from the bushes, ran alongside me for 20-30 yards, then peeled off again and disappeared off into the night. Ace! 😀

a squirrel fell out of a tree and landed on my head once when I was cycling up a hill.

rounded a corner on an unknown trail ‘back in the day’
to be confronted by a sort of boulder field composed of bricks/rubble, i was doing 25mph or so, so i bunnyhopped the whole lot, it must have been close to 30 feet long.
my m8 was right behind me, he braked. he did say it looked absolutely amazing as i only lifted about a foot off the ground.
i was buzzing for hours after it.
of course, ‘amazing’ in those days would be ‘is that it?’ today, different world innit.

it’s early evening in summer. I’m out on my favourite riding area, just me, and I’m riding well. The hills don’t seem to have as much gravity as usual. I’m flying. I’m drifting through the corners, throwing up dust like you see on the MTB films. I’m awesome.

I hit a sweeping downhill section. It’s not steep, just enough that you begin to pick up speed, into a flowing left hander that tightens slightly at the apex.

I **** it up, like usual, and end up in a bramble bush. Later that night my wife tells me off for playing around on my bike in the woods. She doesn’t really mean it, and i don’t care anyway.

That little shiver down your spine that you get as you think “phew, got away with that one” as you realise you were probably going a little faster than your skillset would normally have allowed.

I **** it up, like usual, and end up in a bramble bush. Later that night my wife tells me off for playing around on my bike in the woods. She doesn’t really mean it, and i don’t care anyway

You’ve stolen my life!

Over cooking it on a fast muddy bend and ending up in bush. Then trying to regain my composure while giggling like a small child.

Love riding – it makes me happy. And even falling off can be fun (sometimes).

the moment i was asked if i’d consider ‘retiring’ from my last race, the day before it even started, by the organiser.

(i’m so slow and crap, that i’m even considered an inconvenience to the other slow and crap riders)

most of my riding is commuting these days, i shout at cars to vent my frustration.

true story.

Cycling in to the sunset.
Having a various birds fly along side me briefly be it a barn owl, a tawny owl or a buzzard.
Following a roe deer buck around my local trails only to crash and see it turn around and watch me get up.
Meeting a fox walking up the trail I was cycling down.
I could go on….. 🙂

Along similar lines, I can remember once having a barn owl fly with me at shoulder height for approximately 200m along an open trail once. That was pretty surreal.

Had similar with buzzards quite a few times along the Wye, Pete.

For me it’s that swoop, swoop, caaaaaaarve zone that you get into on a great piece of trail, totally focused on just that moment.

And the views.

Or maybe those great rides with friends on a lovely sunny day where even the 6 punctures between 2 of them didn’t put a downer on it.

Being chased by a rabid farm collie that one time certainly got the adrenaline going though!

Brewing tea by the roadside in Kansas, catching the sunrise. We had ridden for two hours already, following a lightening storm across the horizon. In a couple of hours it would be 110F

psling, I’ve ridden with an owl… its awesome isn’t it! Once on the roadbike, after an awesome days riding, decided to go the long way home (one last lap type) quiet country road, orange sky as the sun set and a bunny in the road, then “whoosh” red kite drops from the sky and grabs bunny, maybe 15 ft in front of me. That was quite cool!

But to sum up my riding, I was at Lee quarry for the first time and absolutely nailed a rock garden without dabbing, on my single speed while a group of people on a skills day looked on and commented that “thats how its done”. It wasn’t, I was hanging on for dear life and if I’d have known what was round that corner I’d have stopped! But it sums up my riding, sinc eI can ride quite well, I’m just to scared to do it most of the time!

Coming down to the Kennels at Rivi, getting the line wrong and while preparing for death my bike/suspension got me out of trouble. It’s all about the bike.

For me its got to be riding with the Athertons at Llandegla last year. It still seems surreal and i don’t think it will ever sink in.

the wow moment,

on a trail in the pryenees on a blue day (azure blue)after a massive road climb, whizzinng down a singletrack to a right hand bend as a vulture soared up over the turn, biggest flying creature i have ever seen. The bend was 10ft from the edge of a huge drop cliff and the vulture was riding the ‘current’.

the usual moment
looking up from the ground whilst on my back, through the trees at the sky, bike somewhere………….

September 3rd 1986 coming down a flinty chalky rutted bridleway at a reasonable speed on my new that morning Rockhopper and looking down at my hands and thinking they really should be on the bars. Going back to bike shop in the afternoon and buying my first bike helmet. My level of skill and control hasn’t improved much since.

Many stick in my mind but at the top of the pack at this moment was on Kill Me Thrill Me in Whistler .Coming round a sandy drifts corner and being confronted with the back end of a huge bear ! Nearly parked me bike .He panicked not realising it was only a weedy MTBer and went careering off into the trees .Alli could hear was branches snapping as he made his escape .

Racing through a local forest, early in the morning (in the days when I could a*sed to get up for 0600 bike rides…), only to find myself flanked by deer on all sides, all of us hurtling in the same direction though a light ground mist. Mystical stuff!

The first time I shelled out over a grand on a bike(2004 Enduro) & thought,yes I could buy a half decent car for that,but it wouldn’t have me grinning like a loon every time I used it……

Riding alone, in the dark, hands off, down my street after a tough night ride with the crew.

Every ride is a little adventure.

Getting to the bottom of the first descent I’d ever ridden on Exmoor, after bouncing from rock to rock, at what felt like warp speed, staying on by the skin of my teeth, giggling like an idiot & shaking from exhilaration.

It’s the moment I got hooked 16 years ago, I still look for that feeling every ride & I often get it too.

Following my son down some jumpy alpine downhill, watching him get loads of air and going sideways round corners always makes me happy.

Also last year at Allos in the southern alps, I rode from the col d’allos down to the village. Ace alpine single track past an eagles nest with 2 eagles flying in and out of it plus, came round a bend and face to face with a wolf. That was awesome!

Hard to define with one moment for me as I’m a bit of a multiple personality with my biking; local guys are great for a dirt jump or downhill session, my mates from Sheffield and my old man are always up for some decent xc in the peaks or trips further afield, the herts crew are a legendary bunch and carnage is bound to be around the corner(on or off the bike) and my brothers will ride whatever I’m riding that day. I’m full of memories related to riding, couldn’t pick just one of them.

Chasing and keeping up with some carbon road bike riding lycra boys on day two of our lejog. Us on tourers with four panniers each and full camping gear. They spent more time looking over their shoulders than where they were going 😀

Me and my mate round back of Skiddaw, we’d stopped for a bit for a breather after a climb, the sun was blazing and the grass was green. I looked down the track to see another fatty mtber chugging up the climb we’d just done. I passed the spliff to my mate and stood up to open the gate for the biker so he didn’t have to stop. He said ‘cheers mate’ and cycled on through, Nice.

Riding with Emac56 for the first time…….

Got a few, all memorable.

Doing the Guild Wheel last summer on one of the few nice days we had was good.

Going down the Ice Cream Run & meeting up with a Discovery coming up was unexpected…….

Descending from Darwen Tower, going round a bend, losing it and crashing into a bush…….

chvck – wat you doin there ?

Best moment I’ve had was in les arcs on a guided trip, riding with a bunch of lads quite a bit better than me and suddenly realising that I’d got round a couple of corners a lot too fast without thinking about it

trouble is, mostly I do think about it and end up on ma’ big ass instead