My first NoSno

On Friday my NoSno turned up and after 15 mins of tearing open wrapping and checking everything out, I’ve got to say I am seriously happy with the purchase. Everything was in great condition and the only niggles are that two of the 9’s have slow punctures and some of the ratchet springs have gone on the NoSno soft bindings – nothing that I cant fix.

Friday night was spent setting it up; which meant swapping out the axles so that the brake is attached and fitting my 9’s & NoSno soft’s (I’ll fix the others later…). At this point I encountered the well know problem of NoSno wheel bolts and tri-spoke hubs… tighten up the wheel nuts too much and they don’t spin freely/don’t tighten them up and you risk losing a wheel. Luckily, a quick question posted on Surfing Dirt and a short time later and it was suggested that I should be using a spacer in the hubs – like what Primo Composite hubs have…which coincidentally were attached to the new 10’s that were included. Hubs all swapped out and it was ready to go!

Hopping around the kitchen (sorry about the muddy tracks GF...) and it felt much more manoeuvrable than the comp 26x, being significantly shorter and despite only being a 10 deck, wasn’t too flexible given my….ample….frame.

You can see in the pics the comparison to the old freeride board (I decided to throw the new components on there for the time being….saves losing them in house somewhere).

Saturday morning I took the new board up to the test track at Longridge Fell for a spin. Not great conditions to be honest, having snowed the previous day and the fireroads turned out to be covered in almost 2 inches of slush/ice/snow.

My first ride of a NoSno...in snow. Oh the irony.

I managed to get a few runs in, but it was pretty uneventful. The slush was like riding through mud and I couldn’t get any speed up. I also learned that my feet weren’t in the right position when I tried my first heelside turn and there was nothing under my heels so I almost fell off backwards. Classy!

I’ll be heading straight back out as soon as conditions are a little better.

Oh – while I remember…I have also picked up some snowboarding boots to try riding in. Now on the lookout for some cheap Flow bindings.

Hibernation and joining the NoSno Owners Club

So there’s not much happening up here at the moment and I have been half tempted to throw up some …*shudder*…filler posts.

I’ve noticed that every year that I’ve been mountainboarding, I end up not doing any riding from November to January – usually because of a combination of family commitments, crap weather and dark nights. This year’s no different – except I also have Skyrim taking over my life hour by hour.

Despite my boards being in hibernation, I’m still lurking around Surfing Dirt and on the look out for mountainboarding deals and possible trails on maps.

I’ve recently turned 30 (the only positive is that I can now enter the ATBA Masters Class) and my goal for the past few months has been to upgrade to a NoSno Downhill Pro (with Brake) in time for the 2012 ATBA Downhill comps. I was either going to do that by shelling out for a new board (£1250 *gulp*) or going secondhand.

I’ve been unsuccessful in finding any secondhand boards or saving a grand for a new one…buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I have managed to get a bit of a steal off eBay; a NoSno with a 10x770 custom deck, alloy axles and ABS (fitted to a spare alloy axle). There are also a load of other goodies in there for me to play with.

This should be pretty much perfect for my first NoSno and I should be getting it soon and will be able to take some pics.

I’m really psyched and I’ve already started thinking about what upgrades I want to make….(probably a 12x770 deck, composite axles and a Hope brake…which will essentially make it into the Pro Downhill and leave me with enough parts to make another NoSno!).

Obviously the best part of it is that I can now join the NoSno Owners Club!!!

Updates will follow!