Without stating the bleeding obvious Thetford’s downfall is the lack of gradient. By that I mean that anyone can bobble along it as they aren’t put off by a strenuous uphill slog.

I did a post about this a while ago and I disagree.

The stickler at swinely is almost flat and a great trail.

There are 2 things I think are the downfall of Thetford:-
1. The constant ridge and furrow system which needs to be dealt with.
2. Low population density leading to less trail builders and less organisation in building trails.

I agree that riders get out what they put in on flat trails but the ridge and furrow makes Thetford one of the most tiring places I’ve ever riden.

How many other sports can get you to the top of a mountain and back down again whilst sitting down?

:) I know this is a joke, but it does quite accurately express how MTBing can be as easy or as hard as you make it.

If your going to run up a mountain you have to run, you cant run slower if you do your walking up a mountain and thats a totally different sport/hobby.

Totally depends how you do each sport.

I would actually say there’s only been 1 or 2 races I’ve done which have been physically harder than either an average football match or a descent run for me.

Obviously other people would push themselves harder MTBing and just stand about when playing footy.

the real shame is bale isnt available.

He’s the one welsh/scottish/irish player who would walk into the England team at the moment.

cool blog !

morgage ?

guessing there may be a nice trail running adjacent but wasn’t sure

yeah there is but I’d gone on the road as this is normally my up !

climbed what I guess you know as stoner DH. tough but short climb thankfully

True this is a bit of a rubbish down still looking for a better alternative.

a right and climbed a bw, passed the convent and building site then road again to Frieth.

This is the really good down through hachett wood me and cinamon girl mentioned !

passed the convent and building site then road again to Frieth

again on the road because its an UP !

climb a chalky technical and hard ascent through Hanger wood which would be fun in the other direction

This is the best down on the route !

Ibstone common and down long strack chalk which was fun

Yeah this is a good down I need to reroute my trail so It goes down here not up. Although it is a challenge as an up.

All I can say is Im gald you like technical climbing. You must of been cursing me at the convent when you wasted the asscent on a road down ???

You could of headed off the the left and down a DH through the woods.

I used to have redbull with vodka as a student. Thats the only time I’ve drank them (and regret it, but not half as much as I regret the amount of alcohol I drank).

I have a feeling that in 15-20 years we’ll be viewing these drink in much the same way we very cigarettes now.

When cigarettes first came out they tried to claim some health benefit, then it went to 1 or 2 are fine etc etc

Give it 20 years and they’ll think selling these things without a warning or to kids massively irresponsible. Im guessing even a small level of consumption can start to lead people down the path to metabolic syndrome, diabeties and probably others.

again between Frieth and fingest u must of done the climb off road and the decent on the road !!!!!

in fact that would take out all the good downs. excet by ibstone where as i mentioned i had what is Probably a good down as an uP.

its meant to be clockwise.

from hanger wood did u go down a muddy field into a bit of wood. (counterclockwise]

or did you go down a rock descent towards fingest. [clockwise]

in fact did you droP off the bit by the m40 on an old road too !! This is meant to be an uP hence old road again !!!

i suPPose if you like technical climbing the route this way would be good.

you didnt go down on the small closed road from christmas common to stonor ?

What was meant to be an uP hence on the road.

The bike carriages should be in the middle of the train so there is none of this cant get off because the platform is too short. B*ll*x.

Hopefully when they design the next set of trains they will take this into account but they probably wont.

[/quote]If the guards standing in the way of the bike place then I doubt just pushing past and telling her to do one is going to work.

No ones suggesting do this if its empty just get on another carriage. Try and get the bike in the right carriage at the next station, if not repeat ?

why did nt u just get on ?

Especially if it was empty I’d have just got on.

I know the rules are stupid but did you not got get on so you could complain ?

If it had been your money not your companies would you have just got on ?

Im quite happy to agree the OP has no right to be complaining. Its a working forest trails will get destroyed but this sort of post just winds me up ->

better understand that we’re riding at the gift of the Bray family…

I hope you doff your cap to his Lord as he comes walking past ?

There are some more lively pubs but like most small places they wont necessarily jump out at you in the middle of town, Malvern isnt that kind of place, its a bit more dispersed.

I think thats my point makes it seem alot quieter than most similar towns of 30,000.

There must be at least 15 pubs in the centre of Lichfield never mind restaurants (also 30,000).

Went to Malvern last year with my Misses.

Did a bit of walking looked a lovely place and people were friendly but it was very very very quiet on Saturday evening.

Im a fairly boring old before my time kinda guy but even I thought it felt dead.

We went out looking for food around 7:45 and the pub/hotel over from the theatre was closing only seemed to be one other pub. Ended up in a very small indian was perfectly nice but asked for a beer and they said they could nt get a lisence if you wanted alcohol you needed to buy it from waitrose over the road ! (which was now closed !)

I’m from a similar sized Midlands town Lichfield (30,000 people) but Malvern almost felt like a little village at night not a proper town. Maybe I was in the wrong area. In comparison it makes Lichfield seems like a big party town.

PS im not a local so probably wrong.

ETA:- 19 of the top 50 teams in Sport Men had times < 24:00:00

Our team is like yours rkr01 in that we’re over 24 hours in Sport category.

But personally I dont think its a problem. All the teams you’ve listed got more than 22 hours. Presumably they could of stayed and sent someone on a walk round and got another lap does it matter ?

You can see why they did this if you look at our results “The Burn” (sport men). Our last rider was determined to do another lap.

We came in at 26 hours 59 minutes ie 3 hours over time ! He was the last person to finish. Some may have been slower than him. The people organising the event would never have got home !

Ours is updated now 33rd in sport :)

CW I’ve tried that bridleway down from NorthEnd and I dont remember it being that good. I think it was mainly a farmtrack.

I’d much rather do the decent off watlington hill.

I assuming the DH the other by the A40 your describing is very good ?

Your suggesting going up the bridleway from wellground farm to the M40 bridge ? this might be a good idea as its quite a boring DH.

What Im thinking now is the best route, might be to avoid the Stonor DH and try and head north to ibstone common through turville heath somehow.

This would enable you to run the UpHill (on my map) by ibstone common as a DH. This part of the trail makes a very challenging UH but might be better as a DH.

you could then head up to the M40 as you suggest and choose one of the DH routes off the fall end of the chilterns down to the ridgeway.

bradley+others if anyone has any suggestions how to improve that route they would be welcome.

Obviously the southern loop is because I normally park at Hambleden.

Personally I’m not keen on the Stonor Downhill as its too direct and doesnt make use of the height gained any other suggestions ?

I tried lifting my bike+mates and going on the footpath through stonor park once. Actually is quite a nice DH and lasted much longer but I met the head gardener + the owner and think that is a cheeky trail too far !

I dunno I dont have an iPhone. The GPS/GPX/googleKML or whatever you want is on the main page. Button says Download GPS not always obvious.

I use viewranger myself but obviously it costs £.

Shame about the bike I think the Giant would be better suited. my boardman made it though MM alive ! :)

Really try and miss out Penley wood (north of Ibstone) it will be a bog. The bit of bridleway in the valley between Ibstone and Manor farm can be nice in the summer but havent been for a while so Im not sure. It was actually runniny dry in January though.

cheers for the update look forward to seeing the real results

The best bit is round the back of Hanger wood so I would make sure you get that in.

The most muddy bit is in penley wood so I would avoid that and drop down at ibstone house or alternative just ride the road round to hanger wood.

I’d miss out the long souther section to hambleden as thats normally where I park instead head north from skirmet to fingest and then tack the bridleway though great wood and to kimble farm.

The other good down is on the footpath on watlington hill although that might be muddy.

This is my route it is a bit long but you could shorten.

Suggested parking at Watlington hill/Christmas common.

GENERAL + GPX

MAP

they’ve missed one of our laps probably from Mud over the timer. I’ve contacted info@frsystems.co.uk but is this the right email to contact.

have they been there all day ?

bump ! no Im used to getting my gorrick ones a few hours later although I suppose that is somewhat of a smaller event it all needs to be done by hand.

Schwalbe 1.5″ Mud Sharks are the best tyre for those conditions. No clogging and cut through the clag and grip ok.

Im not completely sure there is a right tyre. The conditions change so much.

I had Bontrage 1.8 Mud X’s on.

During the night the course was really wet and basically any tire was fine. But as it dried out as you needed a thinner tyre to cut though.

But then there was also the period just before it started to rain when the course was almost a bit dry in places it might have been better to have a fatish tyre to spread your weight and hope to stay above the mud.

how long till results someone must know !!!

results !!!

Im finding it difficult concentrate on my work till checked them.

How long normally hours/days/weeks ????

I naturally want to agree that illegal races are a bad thing and cause conflict with other users for no reason.

Then the people condemning the races start using terrible arguments like :-
Its private land were lucky to be able to ride there !

Just p**s off the people are who own the land are lucky ! Why should a few privileged people person have access to the best countryside in the SE.
Luckily the owners of the Hurtwood werent that short sited and have opened up the land to everyone. Also I think alot of the land from the Tower down to Wolvens lane is NT Im sure many of us are national trust members.

Frankly this sort of attitude just makes me hope the racers decide to start a race in the posters back garden.

I’ve always arrived on the friday previously.

I was thinking of turning up Saturday morning this time.

Is this a bad idea ? We have 2 tents + a gazebo. Are we likely to get space ?

I think its more the OP original posting thats got peoples back up than the desire to be a clever dick (referring to me + other presumably ?).

The fact that you have to be “some religious loon” to be anti-abortion. That only lunatics and idiots could possible conceive that abortion may not be a great idea.

Her most recent crime was asking if my mother had any holiday plans this year. Polite inquiry? Casual conversation? No, this was clearly because she’s nosey and interfering, and because she wants to rub it in that my mother is a widow. “I feel like saying, ‘Mind your own bloody business!’”, says my mother.

My mums a bit like this too at times. She’s also a widow my dad died only a couple of years into marriage while she was pregnant with me.

Im sure if her life had been different then she would have been too.

You have to remember that if you dont have a big social circle or lots of interesting hobbys then passing remarks can seem like massive events in your life. This can lead to people over analyse them and if their not in a positive state of mind to begin with they’ll often read the worst from the remark.

I remember I used to be a lot more sensitive about what people said when I was younger and I think part of the reason was I had a lot of time to examine issues.

Now adays I would nt have the time to be sensitive if I not working, im spending time with wife/building new kitchen if Im not doing that im cycling/football and then Im asleep. So I might not even notice if someone actually tried to upset me.

Plus their also is the fact that my mum would probably like my dad to still be alive so she could visit people/go on holiday/etc with him and it upsets her he isnt when shes reminded.

social convention dictates that you don’t post pictures of that kind of thing on Facebook because people would be offended

I would say the social conventions are not yet quite defined for facebook as it is fairly new.

I sometimes post links to political issue, ie I posted the link to the 38 degrees campaign against selling off the forestry land.

Some of the people who got the post may have thought that FB is not the place for people trying to push political issues in your face its just a social thing.

The boundaries have yet to be clearly defined but Im sure in time they will.

cheers njee

I’ve got some of the one on-one from a year ago or so. Only put them on recent and the air just came straight out of the side wall I could see them bubbling !

it’s because many (not all) women have no hobbies. So they resort to gossip for fun.

This is possible the greatest explanation for this phenomena I have ever heard ! And to a large extent very true in my experience.

can you run these tubeless ? Or are they the ones with the very thin side wall that the air leaks though.

Emma can I ask why this is a religious issue ?

Wether a foetus is a “real” human being deserving of life has nothing with religion.

Its like saying Murder is just a religious issue.

Its a human rights issue.

Shibboleth you say society has unwritten, self-imposed boundaries for decency and good taste. But in many people view aborting a fetus is not decent or in good taste and is offensive to them.

Therefore the fact that society allows abortion over rides these rules as it is an important message for them to get across. Im not sure how you expect them to campaign against abortion ?

Personally I would not post this picture though.