[Closed] BPW - Sept, STWer daytrip ?

i'm there on the 24th August. all the uplifts are sold out but some of my group were a bit lazy and missed out on the uplift so will be riding to the the top or trying to cadge an uplift on the day...you're more than welcome to join us then if you can.

Thanks buddy, but I'm on holidays in France till the 26th.

I've just got back from 4 days in Wales, including 2 at BPW. I kept off the blacks, but loved the blues and reds. Rim Dinger was my favourite.

When are you thinking?

Whatever dates in Sept have enough places for however many say yes and sign up I guess.
There's no weekend slots free, but plenty through the week, i'll do any really.

I'll be there somewhere between the 22nd et 29th, have'nt fixed a date yet but will be leaving from Stroud.

I missed out on the last one, so yes, I'm potentially in, depending on the date. Midweek works for me in September. Weekends don't.

I've a spare pass for the 28th of this month if anyone's interested..

I'd still be up for a late-ish September STW BPW onslaught..

 I kept off the blacks, but loved the blues and reds. 

I've said this before but I'd implore people not to be scared of the blacks. You don't need to be some kind of riding God - they are great fun.

Keep em coming guys... you know you want to !

I'd be up for this on a Thursday / Friday.. coming from north Hampshire..

Right,

8 spaces Thurs 18th Sept.
19 spaces Thurs 11th Sept
20 spaces Thurs 25th Sept.
9 spaces Fri 5th Sept

That's the options as we see them lads....

Any of them are good for me, so lets pick one and go for it..

I'm in - can currently do any of those dates. Will probably be up for staying over (there's a decent bunkhouse nearby) and doing a bit of riding on the day before/after as well if anyone fancies that.

Hopefully dabble will drive me all the way there and back again. 🙂

How about Thursday 11th then? Plenty of spaces to fill and hopefully before the weather turns..? 😉

Thurs 11th Sept it is then. Lets get it booked up.

Done! 8)

Booked and paid.

Come on then you Orrible lot.

I'm working 11th :-(. Have fun Y'all!

I could be tempted actually, annual leave and passes from the missus are at a bit of a premium though at the minute... I shall consult the boss tonight...

come on then.

Booked and paid.

Top man, Dave in too ?

I emailed you y'day to profile address.

Just emailed him (and you). 🙂

Booked on the 11th, i'll be the one on my new hardtail i've just built up....wishing i'd brought my full bouncer instead no doubt!

Brilliant !

I am booked - haven't managed to get there at all this year so looking forward to it!

Nice one. We'll update for meeting up etc once we get more riders.

Booked it 😀 had a good do last time 8)

Excellent, nice one mate.

9.00am at the Café for a coffee then before heading out ?

I'll be on the big Commencal, scouse accent and wearing my Les Gets mountain bike jersey and 400 tonnes of body armour 😉

Sounds like a plan 🙂

Sounds good.. Salsa Horsethief clown bike.. and head-to-toe waterproofs 😆

Been away for a few days at racetrack on the 750, back now. 🙂

We all still playing? What's people's plans for meeting up? Car park about 9.30am?

Still in.. anyone staying on for Afan on Friday?

I can't I'm afraid as I have child duties etc.

Who's still going to this?...i have double booked Antur on the same day but can easily change it, however if people cant make BPW then i may give Antur the nod instead.

Myself and 3 others. Only 1 posts on here but the other guy was there for last one we did too.

Cool, I'll rearrange Antur then and see you all at BPW.

make sure you ride the A470 line...its awesome!!

Elaborate Gonzy....

edit:

Oh my... that has air ambulance written all over it. !

Oh my... that has air ambulance written all over it. !

its not that bad weeksy if you take it easy on the first run.
they opened it up on the 23rd, the day before we rode there as that weekend was the 1st anniversary for BPW. you have to give the run a fair amount of respect as even though it is fast, flowy and has stacks of grip...if you get it wrong it will chew you up and spit you out.
one of the drivers told us that another driver had had a blast on it the week before and come off with a broken collarbone.
when we rode our first run it was our second to last run of the day and blasted down it so we could get back to the pick up point for the last uplift of the day. when we got back to the top we did it again but in the rush of the first run i hadnt really taken notice of my line choices so on the second run i got spat off the bike on the 5th jump coming out of the trees. i landed on my head with legs up in the air...back is sore and so is shoulder...but this can be avoided if you get the correct line. coming out of the trees try to stay central and dont drift off to the left too much.
after the first couple of jumps you can tell its going to turn a bit to the left so you automatically try to hit the apex to get the fastest line but the landing puts you right on the edge and trying to correct yourself can be tricky due to the speed
if you watch the video you posted the rider nearly goes off the track after the 3rd and 5th jump.
i got spat off on the 5th one but so long as you stick to the centre of towards the right for this section you'll be fine

if you watch the video you posted the rider nearly goes off the track after the 3rd and 5th jump.
i got spat off on the 5th one but so long as you stick to the centre of towards the right for this section you'll be fine

I did notice that part... he looked VERY erratic... and I expect he's a lot better a rider than I am.

I did notice that part... he looked VERY erratic

its erratic because you exit the trees at a low speed and as soon as it opens up the temptation is to give it the beans straight away

you'll be fine as long as you take it easy on the first run and give yourself time to figure out the jumps and turns properly

you'll be fine

Quote for use later from hospital 🙂

i think this guy has the right idea of BPW being fun (you need the sound on)

WTF, he's got serious issues hahahahahaa

he reminds me of Beavis... 😆

I'm still in, me and Grum will be making the trip down early morning. Looking forward to it.

Good stuff lads.

We'll see you in the car park, we're looking at getting there for 9ish-9.15 or so.

have fun guys...
btw when we were there we had lunch in the cafe and left a bottle of Bhut Jolokia chilli sauce behind...if its still there i dare you to try it...its like rocket fuel!! 😉

For anyone going who's not met me and therefore won't recognise me. We'll be turning up in a Mondeo, either Silver or Black, 2010 or 2009. White Zesty and green Commencal. If you want my number, email in profile and i'll send it over.

Other than that....see you lads there 🙂

I have a space if anyone wants it.... One of the lads can't make it.

Will cost you lunch 🙂

Bastard front mech from old bike wont fit my new 45650b frame, its at the LBS having a new one fitted and the gears finished off....fingers crossed it'll be ready for Thursday....or i'll be on the other halfs Ragley.

I'd forgotten about this, I would love to go, but I used up a day pass this weekend and my missus is off out that evening, so I can't really risk being home late...

Have fun all of you...

Weeksy, just realised this matches my trip back to the UK? Do you still have the pass?

PS. I will be the crap slow one, take that as forwarning.

Just spotted one official space on the BPW website so have booked up for Thursday, sorry Weeksy if there was something left. Mind if I tag along gents?

Fill your boots chili!

[quote=weeksy]For anyone going who's not met me and therefore won't recognise me.

Red 3 Series Touring, Salsa Horsethief.. probably white Intrepid Apparel jersey and Archi-Enduro full face..

Great, looking forward to it. Hope to be there by 9:15 but that's allowing for rush hour all the way up the M4. Will be on a very silver El Guapo driving in a silver Corsa.

We're driving the same way, so if you're delayed, we're delayed

have fun guys and stay safe...
but if you fall we want pics or it didnt happen!! 😆

Well today was as my boy would call it... "EPIC". Cracking company, cracking weather, cracking location and cracking riding.

From the first run on Sixtapod today I wasn't really feeling the flow, but by about half way down I was getting into it and the trail was feeling more at home to me. We spent the vast majority of the day doing Blue runs, with a few inter-mixed Reds in there, but they were in the minority, but we did find 'locomotion' which was a superb red with some bigger jumps in there if you have the balls for it, the last jump you could end in Camarthen if you nailed it at pace. It was superb that little section.

But the blues were where it was at today, fast sweeping berms, small jumps and nailing corners with a tremendous flow in all section, between trees, over rocks and just flying down there.

I tried a few sections on a couple of bikes, a Titus El Guapo and Crusts Lap Zesty. The El Guapo felt excellent and I quickly felt at home with it. The formula brakes were simply outstanding and had massive feel both at the lever and in response.. Very impressed, showed me I need to bleed/fix mine as they've lost the edge a bit. However it was grounding out on many parts of my riding, slapping the pedal into the deck if you got it even slightly down over the crest of a hill. They're renowned for low bottom brackets and it felt very much like that was the case for me. That said.. it was a nice bike and I rode it well and fairly hard. The Zesty.. well... I really don't know what to say about the Zesty, me and it just don't get on at all. OK, so I chose a section that couldn't have been more out of the Zestys comfort zone if it tried, rock garden after rock garden.. but it really really didn't cope well with it. It does accelerate VERY well though, picking up speed at silly rates.. but it was more luck than judgement that I got to the bottom of the trail it felt.

So onto the Commencal. It was again without doubt the bike of choice for me, confident, poised, soft and compliant. Despite the rear pads being noisy as hell, I had just an absolute blast on it, getting faster and faster with more and more confidence. It just does everything on the side of a hill brilliantly. So much so that I came home and the first thing I did was mail the COTIC owner and say "sorry mate, not doing the swap".. I've offered to pay his re-listing fees, but of course I still feel bad about letting him down.

BPW is like a trackday for MTB's, just lap after lap of riding. But for me it's SO much more than that, I can and do push myself SOOO much more on the trails than I can on a motorbike on a racetrack. With that pushing comes a massive adrenaline and endorphin rush. It's shown me where my heart currently lies.

I'm drained now and stuffed with steak... 🙂

Excellent day out today! Good to put a few faces to usernames.. and grab a host of PBs at the same time! 🙂

Wish i'd come now, opted to miss it (and lose my £25) as the LBS were going to have my new bike ready today...sure enough they phoned around lunchtime and i took it out this afternoon to some familiar trails....the fork is great (2014 Revelations), the frame is ridiculously stable (45650b) and the 27.5 wheels roll noticeably better over roots etc....all good then....

....come round a bend in the trail, innocent looking twig sticking out of a bush, too late to avoid it altogether but thought it wont do anything....twig turns out to be a branch firmly rooted to a tree behind the bush....branch goes through front wheel, i go over the bars and my brand new wheels suffer a broken spoke on the front...arse.

Wheels are Superstar Tactic rims on Tesla hubs, anybody know if these are common spokes/fittings the LBS will be able to do or will they need to go back to Superstar?

Cheers, going to bed now.

Good to hear you guy had a great day at BPW, went there myself for the first time myself a few days ago

Still got a grin on my face.

I hope one of you found my "Lezyne metal kit" puncture repair kit that launched itself out of my saddle caddy. The £10 emergency money would have been a bonus.

Great place ran by nice people!

Thanks to everyone for a great day's riding and especially weeksy nd frogstomp for giving me a target to chase after albeit in vain!

Glad you decided to keep the Commencal weeksy, I had a great ride on it and certainly changed my view on 29ers. Loved how it felt light and just wanted to pop off every lip and edge, then just smoothing out the rocks. I appreciate what you say about the low BB on the El Guapo, I dropped the pressures to max the sag which didn't help. I think a longer fork may be in order though.

Cheers all 🙂