As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Remolition guys are
having a roadtrip from Lands End to John O’Groats and are trying to get in as
much riding as they can on the way. Even better – they are doing it for
charity!
I really wanted to meet up with them when they got to the
Lakes, but unfortunately I was stuck in work – so managed to take last Friday
off and joined them on the first part of their Scottish adventure.
The plan was to meet up at Livingston skatepark “nice and
early before the mini-scooters and crackheads come out” on Friday morning.
After a brief delay and drive around Livingston, I met up with BFC freestyler
Martyn, who was doing more jumpy stuff on a board than I have ever seen in real
life before...craziness!
Soon enough Roger, Smilie, Wil and Daz rolled up and quickly
got riding...with someone who shall not be named pulling a surprising amount of
freestyle skillz out of the bag...
I had no intention of riding the skatepark; I had brought my
NoSno brakeboard with 9’s/8’s and snowboard boots (I had bought some bits to
give me a full 8 inch setup that I could easily swap in and out – but apparently
they were delivered at home just as I arrived at Livingston...typical). But no
one ever rides a skatepark on a downhill NoSno and the Rem guys thought it
would be funny – so after padding up and some tinkering, I rolled in and
managed to make it all the way to the other side of the park in one go before I
ran out of speed. I rolled in again to the same effect – in the time it took to
get out of my bindings, Martyn had pulled off about a half a dozen 3’s...
A bit of classy vandalism and a sweet photoshoot later and
we headed to Edinburgh Bings. I had no idea what Bings were...I tried googling
them but found nothing...I thought they were maybe a Scottish way of saying “pleasant
little hill”.
I was wrong. Edinburgh Bings are essentially big red slag
heaps with 60% gradients that make you cling on for dear life as you try to
avoid extra’s from Dr Who and UPVC windows. They were insane!
Martyn showed us some good runs and we watched him and Roger
nail some sweet rock drops before me and Wil tried riding what was essentially
a bobsleigh run. I faceplanted at the bottom next to quite a nice peach
coloured corner bath.
After our urban exploits we said goodbye to Daz (going home)
and Martyn (nipping to Glasgow to “get some”) and drove up north into the
Scottish lowlands and camped at an awesome campsite.
Saturday we met up with Dave and Al, who showed us a track
that they had spotted going up a mountain named after spanish sausage or
something. It was a nice walk up, but at halfway it was obvious it was going to
be a b*tch to ride; rough and rocky in places and you would constantly be
avoiding hanging your axles. Group consensus was that we would try and ride our
way back down in stages to the smoother lower sections. I didn’t like the rocky
parts – but the bottom section was a gorgeous track running through a beautiful
valley.
Fom there, Al drove us to another track he had checked out –
kind of like the Welsh competition track “Dave”; it was a great twisty turny
firetrack that was a peach to ride.
Back to the campsite for fire and food overlooking a
stunning Scottish valley.
Sunday was an early start (for mountainboarders...) and we
drove up to Dunkeld to meet with Martyn, Dave and Al to ride at the Hermitage.
This was more my style of riding – big firetracks though a pine forest. Al was
good enough to be the uplift and drove us around the forest so we got loads of
riding in; we rode one of the Scottish Downhill competition tracks (I’m going
to need a ton of practice to get a half-decent time on that one – it was really
slidy in the wet with loads of corners that you had to take “just right” or you
would lose your speed) and a few contenders for the second competition track (a
fantastic 1mile+ track which had unfortunately been ruined by recent logging
and another which was the fastest firetrack I’ve ridden with two challenging 90
degree corners).
By early afternoon it was time for Al, Martyn and me to head
off home and leave the Remolitious explorers to venture further north into wolf
country...
If you’ve ever ridden for two days back-to-back you will
know how knackering it is. After three days I was shattered. These guys have
ridden every day straight for nearly two weeks solid! If you haven’t already –
please support their charity efforts.
