one of the bolts is sticking out

I just hope the little girl forgets

The girl is going to be affected for the rest of her life. This should be remembered when sentencing. Her life is going to be a challenge everyday.

Funny if you’re american and can relate to things being said I suppose. I’m not though. A British version is required involving phrases such as “the trails are really cut up today” or “did you see the way that old woman with the dog looked at us”…

bigger rotors would have helped

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake. The best album of last year by about a million billion miles.

Agree on the word ‘owned’! I’m happy to say I have no idea what it means and I hope it stays that way :D

Road rage seems common in London and filming it could help get a conviction and prevent reoccurrence.

For my sins I’ve done it about 6 times within work groups. I did it last year after a gap of a few years and it seemed worse than I remember. So busy even with an early start (and avoiding the start line at clapham common as always by joining just down the road a bit).

It really is for cyclists who don’t ride for the rest of the year and many of whom seem to ignore the official advice to have a well maintained bike.

So you need to be on your guard all the time for the most crazy behaviour/ events. Those riding slowly hard on the right listening to ipods was a constant problem as they have no awareness of what’s going on. People walk on the slightest incline so be prepared to stop. I managed to stay on the whole ride but only with a lot of track standing. Lots of polite requests to get by seem to work fine but are constant.

Seemed to be a lot of accidents last year including one just down from the start line involving a car and some pretty nasty ones on the descents.

The climb up Ditchling last year was so crowded that it was hard to stay on the bike. Not seen that before. Tempers were fraying as the walkers didn’t think to yield.

Trains ban cycles and pick up by car using the park and ride means a big queue for the bus back to the racecourse where the car park is. Took us hours last year to get home to London.

All that said:

1. These are just observations and not complaints. Enthusiasts cannot complain because they shouldn’t be riding it as enthusiasts. Its not an event for them. Racing down through the continuous bike traffic shouting and moaning to other riders is just ridiculous.

2.If you are doing it as part of a group and plan it to be a social and lazy day with no rush and plenty of time to get home then do it and you’ll probably enjoy the day.

Uplifts available in a fleet of Q7s…

I think you two may have taken the Audi comments a bit too literally

I don’t think we were literally taking them literally. :mrgreen:

Very good, a few observations. Firstly the cars should be Avants, ideally quattros and add in a Cayenne for good measure. Secondly, they have German plates whereas you’d really see personalised English plates.

Its funny how this Audi thing has come about isn’t it. It’s like people writing “it’s exactly like that” on the Surrey Hills youtube clip when of course it isn’t really.

There’s probably about half a dozen Audis in the car park out of 50 cars. No more or less popular than any other car. Volvo XC90s or BMW 3 series estates are probably are a better pick.

Ah yeah, been posted once. Will leave it up to increase chances of someone getting their bike back..

Sorry all the people complaining about Peaslake being rammed. How long have you been riding around there? I can remember having to sit on the kerb to the right of the store over 5yrs ago.

Been riding there 15 years. Not seen it as busy as regularly before in that time. Not complaining either. Worried about increasing pressure on the local environment and wish to encourage others to act as responsibly as possible given popularity cannot be prevented. Spent a while on the OP too to avoid confusion. Oh well…

Laughed more at this one than the northern one…

Feel a reaction coming on :wink:

Avoid 1080 unless you have a serious card in your pc that can deal with it. Vegas Platinum HD manages fine with 720 and thats all most people need. Free trials are available.

+1 for mounting upside down. Unless you want people to admire your toptube and knees instead of your riding that is…

Check lens regularly for mud/water. Annoying to get home and fine most of the footage is a big smudge.

Get a spare battery for use on longer rides.

Film other riders in front or behind and not just an empty trail. This means riding tight together(tighter than you would think) to keep them close in shot. Try to get alongside when the trail widens for a great tracking shot (if using helmet mount). This means riding with someone you trust and developing a whole new skill set. :-)

Get the camera off and film stuff in addition to usual rider’s eye view. I put mine up in tree branches, under jumps or give to a mate to film of course!

Shoot B-Roll footage i.e. non biking stuff such as scenery, animals, tea stop etc. Helps break up the film.

If you post online don’t expect the internet to go crazy over your footage unless you are doing big stuff. Your footage may look super rad to you but not so to others. You really appreciate how big some guys go on youtube when you watch your own footage of a 6ft drop and it looks tame.

On the same point, edit drastically. Youtube stats show when people get bored and its very easily!

And lastly, for best results remember to take your SD card out of the PC before you go riding!

I doubt many of us soft southern riders would fit the criteria for riding in the north anyway remember…

I really was in an Audi :D

Yes the word Car has been replaced in Surrey with the word Audi.

Iwas at peaslake at 9 and again at 11 yesterday and TBH it was the group from KW that made it look busy 20 mins later and it was quiet again.

Weren’t no KW there when I couldn’t get the Audi through due to riders stopped on the road at about 11.30. No problem though, I just mowed a few down to help lessen the impact on the area. :twisted:

The publicity of these trails in magazines

Indeed, I first discovered the main trails in 1997 due to a route in a mountain bike mag (and an organised Evans Cycles event around the same time). Never gonna keep it quiet.

For the record all the best trails are nowhere near the western end. No Siree. They are in the east. Kent in fact.

We have to drink Shandy down here because otherwise we’d have to leave the Audi at home :D

I was out for 4 hours and hardly saw anyone

Certainly once on the more ‘secret’ trails you won’t find other riders generally but on BKB, MBR, Northern Monkey etc. I saw lots going down (around 20 came down BKB in a train when I was heading past the bottom).

Its not Piccadilly Circus but its a tiny village and when there’s a queue of cars stuck trying to get through the village and a poor bloke queuing outside the shop behind 30 bikers to buy his morning paper it highlights up an issue.

I should add of course that the Surrey Hills are a terrible place to ride and completely overrated.

I think you need to have a riding style to suit it or adjust accordingly. As follows…

I didn’t see the point once I had it on I have to admit and it started playing up so I binned it after a few weeks in favour of my trusty Thomson. Mainly due to my very long established habit of gripping the back part of the seat with my thighs on the to improve stability/ control on most tricky stuff. Without it up the bike felt too loose at the back. For steep descents it was handy though but I could manage without it.

However…having studied some top guys a bit more of late (e.g. Hill, Peat, Atherton) I’ve seen how they move their hips sideways right off the bike (as well as backwards) and to do that the seat needs to be well out of the way. So I am planning to give it another go and try and adjust my riding style :D

A response from deep in the Surrey Hills

but decided I don’t have the balls to go for it yet

Don’t say that to Tony! Rule No.1 I recall was that it’s got nothing to do with balls, just some mental questions to you have to ask yourself (copyright Jedi 2011) :-)

a man with a penchant for xc trails who drives a porsche

Would it be you I saw in Peaslake a little while back with a 911, bike on roof, looking for a parking space!?

I must confess that cars in my riding group include a Nissan GTR, Aston V8 Vantage and a Merc SLS AMG (none of them can fit their bikes in so have had to buy other cars just to go MTBing)…

would an uber-posh local have a weimaraner?

Yes they do but only the ones that don’t have black labs. I have a great bit of helmet cam footage of me being attacked by two just off a private road in Oxshott, Surrey right beside the owners £7m house.

Chav dog of choice in Surrey is still the poor Staff BT with the odd English BT for those with a bit more imagination/ cash (expect a few more in the dog rescue centres after Xmas).

Jedi got me to do this. Worth the cost alone. A real fun day out. And now I ride fast trails shouting ‘looking’ out loud to myself (I really do).

Buy a cheap one to pop the question and then shop together. Its all part of the experience. However…..

Most will claim to be happy with the first ring until they get to the jewelers and then things start to get somewhat out of control. 4 solid days on Hatton Garden and £5000 later I was beginning to regret asking in the first place…..

Hilarious Vid. A work of genius. Links to some of mine too so good publicity :-)

I’m another 7.30 Sunday morning rider. Just a few of us and the deer on the trails usually. Luverly…

I mostly ride a 120mm bike which copes with anything apart from the bigger gaps (because I don’t do them!). There’s no denying the Surrey Hills can be a lot of fun and there are new trails appearing every week.

It’s easy to knock it because of the area it sits in which inevitably means a fair amount of showing off with bling bikes and uber posh locals standing in the middle of the trails threatening you with their weimaramers. All part of the fun!

I love my Yeti but only slightly more than the SCs I’ve had. There’s 3 Blur LTs in my group which perhaps says a lot. I chose the Yeti in the end because (at least where I ride) there aren’t any others like mine. And (with Jedi egging me on) I can do stuff like this on it :-)

56.5mph shown on the computer on the road bike on the London to Brighton in 2005. Clear road, no other rides close by etc. I tried again this year but only got 49. Perhaps the computer was playing up the first time. Felt bloody fast anyway!

I used Dogtag who offered specialist cover.

http://www.dogtag.co.uk/

Didn’t need to claim however so didn’t test them to the full.

Enjoy the trek, it’s amazing. This is my account if you need any insight

http://theadventurecompanyuk.blogspot.com/2009/08/adventure-company-completing-everest.html

He’s paid to say stupid and controversial things. That is his job. He was invited on to The One Show to do exactly that and he was goaded into saying something controversial by the presenters (in an incredibly obvious way). People then complain. The media get angry. MPs get a few words in the press. Then they forget until he does it again.

I couldn’t care less for him or his comments. They are meaningless to the extreme. In fact I have just realised I am offering an opinion so stopping right there.

So many to choose from.. This one is short and to the point

GoPro all the way. They are both used by group I ride with and when I edit together movies from them the difference in quality is really noticeable.

Great if you’re a XXL or S….hmph.

looks like a great place to ride. Nothing like that on my local trails dahn saaf.

the text needs to be bigger. I can nearly get two words on the screen at the same time…..

Seems too many good experiences and we can’t have that. :D

Parcelfarce once claimed my address didn’t exist and refused to deliver parcels to me the whole time I was that address.

Parcelfarce once claimed they had attempted to delivery my parcel (a painting) three times despite leaving no card each time. The seller (ebay) had it returned to him on three occasions and had to re-post it to me at my cost each time. It was then lost and eventually turned up at the back of a sub-post office. The clerk had been wondering what it was.

Parcelfarce automated telephone system used to demand a reference number from the card that was left but if you didn’t have the card you couldn’t get out of the automated system and got disconnected. This was unless you knew the secret button to divert out of the system. I eventually found it after several days of trying by which time my parcel had been returned to sender. Re-posted at my cost. When I complained Parcelfarce told me a card must have been left as it was their policy to do so. Silly me.

They were my No.1 appalling customer service company for 5 years until I discovered Avis Customer Services last year. But that’s a different story…

OK over to the next person with a contrary view…

@teamhurtmore Diplomatic way of saying “that was never 5ft!” :D

It was as I had time to think “oh crap, this is really gonna hurt” whilst in the air.

The section in question is a series of drops in a row along a ridge including a 10ft drop which has been built up by some naughty trial pixies to clear an overhanging tree before dropping right to the bottom. I shall not be attempting that anytime soon…

Parcelfarce “attempted” delivery at my house last week but once again mysteriously left no card. The OBS then suggested I go find my package at a post office (not my local one of course) whose ‘find the parcel in the pile on the floor in the back room’ process then completely fell to pieces when I couldn’t produce the card that wasn’t left.