[Closed] Brass Monkeys Round 3 Venue Change

Looks like Frimley lodge park...........

Can't see how you would race round Frimley lodge park? It's not big enough? Not enough singletrack unless they let you pretend to be mini trains and ride round the small railway?

It'd better be good, I'd already entered...

Frimley Fuel Allotments ?

Frimley Lodge Park would be, eerrrr, flat 🙂

Seems to be happening quite a lot nowadays, is this to do with the MOD getting the hump with mtbers on their land and making it difficult?

'Compact' rings alarm bells but in the spirit of Xmas it'll be fun to try a new venue.

Not claiming to be an expert map reader or anything, and have zero local knowledge, but looking at the OS of the area via Bing Maps, both Minley Manor & Frimley Lodge Park are MOD. I can't see much difference in the height range of the contour lines, ie ~35m and their gradients aren't noticebly different, but maybe it just takes more map reading skill.

Sounds like we'll be getting dizzy with lots of widdly singletrack then 😕

'Compact' rings alarm bells

Definitely.
It seems to be getting really common having MTB events cancelled or moved when they're on MOD land which is a shame but I imagine that it's going to be happening more and more often.

Looking forward to it!

Frimley Lodge Park would be, eerrrr, flat

Can't be as flat as the first round..
I went ice skating with my lad at the weekend...that had more elevation gain that round one!

DrP

Tyre choices for this? from Brass Monkeys FB page

[img] ?oh=3775088894bd6e8ca6db31cb940b826a&oe=56FDAE6E[/img]

Ron's.

I'm probably out though. Picked up some bug and any efforts over z2 turn my legs to jelly 🙁

Ground Control's here, same as ever in the winter.

I'm out - tendonitis 😥

Not sure if that looks smooth or wet....

Rons anyway.

It looks brown and bumpy.
Saguros...

Anyway, I've got my new mud guard on so not having to faff about with that 3 times a lap will save me at least 8 seconds a lap...

DrP

Saguro's here too in the time honoured tradition of what's on the bike at time 😉

As long as it isn't as swampy as Checkendon was...

Couldn't see anything about lap length?

You still racing ss DrP?

Yip 🙂

Still not back to my "BBB 2014" levels of fitness, but doing alright!!

You? Hows' the Trek (which I very nearly got too, but realised there's joy in racing a banger on-one...)

DrP

Only got the one set of tyres.

I'll be using those.

Weather looks horrible.

Registered too. As usual, 4h vets on single speed. Weather looks bad

Nothing can be wetter than last years R1 at Minley....

.....can it?

See you all there 🙂

Be surprised if most of the course resembles the photo above. Think you guys are in for miles across muddy grass and a short section near the canal if you're lucky. Least it keeps you all away from wrecking Porridge Hill some more.

Yip

Still not back to my "BBB 2014" levels of fitness, but doing alright!!

You? Hows' the Trek (which I very nearly got too, but realised there's joy in racing a banger on-one...)

DrP

Nevermind tyre choices at the moment, I'm struggling to decide whether to stick with the rigid forks or stick the bouncy ones back on for it.
Looks like the weather's going to be 'interesting'

Park in firmly lodge, scaffold bridge across the canal, and use the area north west of the mod land at tunnel hill ?
Or park in the big field at the back of the canal centre its self ?

Good question. Do I take a lowered BMW or a part time 4x4?

Looks like its going to be a wet one, I may have to concede and run tubes of all things, inside maxxis beavers... tubes!

Postponed!

[i]**MERIDA BRASS MONKEYS 3 POSTPONED**
Our apologies, but after working at the venue today, we have had to make the very difficult decision to postpone Merida Brass Monkeys 3 until SUNDAY 17 January. It's not a decision that we've taken lightly but, in our experience, with the large amount of (universally) predicted rain due to fall from now until Sunday afternoon we don't think riders will have a quality riding experience and we don't want to cause any damage to the venue either. The event will go ahead exactly as planned but on Sunday 17 January instead, so if you are entered you still are. We're sorry, but even with the postponement, we're unlikely to be able to take any more entries. We're all gutted and apologise once again for any disappointment that this causes.[/i]

Arrrggh - gutted! For the best though. My ride today was a quagmire despite well drained sandy terrain.

Well for me thats great as I may be back riding by then.

Well for me thats great as I may be back riding by then.

Same here.

I may be back in 🙂

Good for me too, trying to shake off a cold 🙂

Great news, also got some sort of cold thingy that has lasted all month and just managed to get out of zone 2 today at Cannock for the first time in weeks, need another week or so to get sorted though.

Meh! Missed a chance to race in grim conditions and opt to podium or near position. Ok, I'm sure organizers took the right decision for majority + avoiding too much damage to venue.

Shame, was looking forward to that despite mullering myself today doing 62km in the mud. Hey ho...

Rode a load of the course this morning, can see why they postponed it, would have been very tough going with hundreds of riders in this weather. Liked it thought, looking forward to the race 🙂

How did you manage that - I thought I read somewhere it was a private landowner venue?

I read that too, but A fair amount is on well ridden well known trails, sure it will become clear then they 'will tell us more about it this week'. To be fair, a horse had ridden a lot of the new stuff already, and a little bit more of that and it will definitely be a mess!!

Yes, as we have made very clear, it is privately owned land, as was pointed out by one of our team members who was there when the horses rode through. We are incredibly lucky that the land owner has let us work on the land to create an exciting new venue - let's not jeopardise that.

So, is Sunday going ahead?

Not for me, can't make this weekend.

As they had to reschedule... can I get a reeeeefund? 😉

Sounds like it is definitely on from the FB feed:

The team were out again today at Sunday's venue which is called 'Area 51'. We're very pleased to say it's not wet there and no rain is forecast. As it's a brand new venue, here's a bit about what you can expect:

'Starting out from the Arena set deep in the heart of the woods the Start Straight twists down the valley before climbing up towards the highest point on the course then plunges into the first singletrack. This climbs and descends the hill side and twists and turns bringing riders back to the Arena. Then it's off through the pine woods to the old favourite 'Wedding Ring' before some more fire break trail and traditonal descent back down in to the valley. Some old favourites follow on before a new section of singletrack sweeps around the hillside before climbing once again towards the Arena with some more woodland singletrack before the final return to the Arena.'
We hope that's stoked your anticipation!
The event is full so please do not turn up to enter unless you have specifically been given a vacated place. When you arrive please follow the marshals' directions.