Freeride NW does something (with a camera)!!!

There haven’t been many updates on here for a while...sorry about that... I’ve been ill recently, so I’ve done nothing but scouting since the Macclesfield meetup really.

A couple of weeks ago I started feeling better though, so I popped up to Whinlatter to check out the condition of the competition track and to try out a new video camera I’ve picked up.

Whinlatter was wet. And cold. And you can get really demotivated riding solo in those conditions (especially with the 45min walk to the top of all the trails). Still – I managed to get a few good runs in before calling it a day.

The camera I picked up is an Action Cam 3: VGA – I’ll say right now, dont expect it to be anywhere near GoPro quality; it’s a £40 camera after all...but someone at work had one they didn’t want and for £20 I thought I would give filming a go. My thinking is at that price its pretty disposable if I dont like it or it doesn’t work.

The camera is really easy to use – it has a single button and uses a micro USB to record on. It’s a solid metal construction, similar to the Ultrafire torches I use for nightriding and comes with a range of mounting possibilites. The video quality is ok but the audio is crap – but it pretty much always is when it’s only picking up the wind rushing by. If anyone is looking for an uber cheap camera to throw in a bag and capture some riding footage with, then this is definately an option – but dont expect to be the next One5Media.

You’ll notice there are no vids up from Whinlatter...that’s because I didn’t realise what sort of angle you need to mount the camera on your helmet at, if you want to record anything other than your front wheels and the floor. Pretty dull stuff...

I eventually worked out how to mount it properly and went out yesterday evening to Longride Fell to give it another go.

I will say in advance this is supposed to be a first test and me just messing around – I was shooting the trail that lead back to the car (so slow and not very interesting) and I did the “editing” in literally 3mins last night. I think the music works though J

Oh and the ending...the idea was to stop at the gates and try and crouch underneath and roll down the road to my car. I didn’t realise the gate wasn’t locked...

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.

Longridge Fell – The Test Track

Longride Fell (unsurprisingly enough…) is located just outside Longridge in Lancs. It’s a hill in the Bowland Forest and well known for being a pretty good mountainbiking spot near to Preston.

Its not an awesome site for mountainboarding as the forest roads are relatively short (0.5-1.0 miles) and the forest itself has a bad tendency for being waterlogged if its rained anytime in the past 6 months… BUT its only 30 mins from my house, making it the closest spot I’ve found so far that has some reliable trails. Oh and there is parking at the bottom of both sides of the Fell – so it isn’t too much of a trek up.

Because of that, I call this place my test track and will pop up there if I want to test out some changes to my rig, or if I only have a couple of hours to kill.

There are 3 main trails I have found that I stick to:

View Freeride NW in a larger map

West Trail

This is a short half mile section of forest road with a couple of corners. It’s good for a beginner to try out downhill riding as the conditions are very similar to the lakes (but smaller). A run will last less than a minute, but it only takes 5 mins to walk back up…

Watch out for walkers and dogs on the 90 degree right-hander...its a blind corner and there always seems to be someone in the track that you don’t see until the last minute – even when its quiet.

It is possible to get the road to run all the way from the top of the Fell which add maybe another quarter mile, but its pretty flat and you need the wind going the right way to get any momentum. Its easier to start from the tree stump (you’ll know it when you see it).

East Trail

Another short trail – but this is FUN! It is about half a mile of forest road, but this starts with a little roll in, into 7 very quick, very tight, technical corners (some real dog-legs) and then straight down to the car park. It’s kind of like Dave, but there aren’t any straights between corners.

This is another good trail to use for practicing corners – which I really need to do…my heel sides aren’t that great :(

Middle Trail

There are tons of little trails on the Fell that a lot of mountainbikers use. Unfortunately it is pine forest, so the trees tend to be very close together and the ground very soft from pine needles. This means that a lot of the biking trails aren’t great for boards.

One of the ones that isn’t too bad is the trail going straight from the trig point at the top of the Fell down to the farm in the middle. It is a pretty wide break in the trees with loads of roots and stumps to dodge and jump.