Woke up without an alarm today at about 7:30 am and chilled for a bit until my alarm went off at 9am to get ready to go to Wind Hill B1kepark for the day!
After getting ready I loaded the car and went to the track and got my helmet out of the container then went to the garage and got some drinks and snacks to take with me then drove to wind hill.
As I turned off the Frome road towards Wind Hill my friend was the next car behind me so we arrived at basically the same time. We parked up had a chat while kitting up then rode to the trails and registered and got our bands so we can ride.
The first run down I took the wrong turning and went down the blue run not the red as my friend’s did so I got off the trail half way down and waited for them to walk back up the hill! When I was turning off the trail I managed to ride down a deep hole and went OTB and ended up in a heap on the floor! Luckily I had my full body armour on so I was unscathed 🙂
We then walked back up and did another couple of runs down the blue and then one down the red.
By this time we were all knackered from the walking up so we called it a day and headed home.
The bike handled its self pretty well apart from it kept turning left all the time on its own and also the suspension kept bottoming out when I squashed to do jumps which is far from ideal too 🙁 I have booked it in with my friend at the weekend so that he can give it a service and also adjust the suspension for my weight if he can then I think the DH bike will be good for the winter. If I really enjoy it then I think that I will try and swap it out for an ebike as you can get way more runs in then and you don’t have to walk up any more 🙂 Although I think that the walk up will only get easier over time so shouldn’t be an issues soon. I do need to get a dropper seat post at some point to make it easer to drop and raise the seat so I will get some advice from my friend and get one ordered when I can. The grips are also pretty much knackered so I will get a new set of DMR Brendog Grips to replace the worn out ones when they are back in stock as they seem to be out of stock pretty much everywhere at the moment!
I have to say that I was super happy with the Burgtec mk4’s and they performed amazingly even with the amazingly muddy conditions at Wind Hill today. I am super happy that I bought them and I may well get another set for my OS20 as well and sell the pedal innovations pedals maybe.
My knee pads were really annoying me today so I have bought some more Leatt Knee & Shin Guard 3DF Hybrid EXT from Wiggle as they were on offer for £119 and they do not fall down like my fox knee pads do as the shin guard holds the knee pad in place! My left knee pad today was basically around my ankle all day as it fell down and there was no way of getting it back up without removing my trousers to do it which I really couldn’t be bothered to do! The knee/ Shin guards are also way better with shorts when I feel like wearing shorts to and it means that I can race with them and ride mtb’s as well.
As I am riding flats at the moment having the shin pads gives me a bit more confidence from not getting shinners as well 🙂
As my ankle is feeling much better I am going to take the jump bike to the track in the afternoon and start to work on my jumping on the table top so that when I go to Windhill next I should be more confident jumping and therefore have more fun 🙂
I am hoping that after a month or so if jumping every day on the jump bike that I should be confident enough at jumping again to start sending the first jump on the first straight although the track work starts on the 4th December so I may have to go to a pump track to practice instead as the track may be closed until xmas 🙁