Macclesfield Forest Meetup

If you’ve not already been out for a ride this year – the Macclesfield Forest meetup this weekend looks like a perfect opportunity to blow away the xmas cobwebs and get in a new years freeride!

Lovely image borrowed from Remolition.com

It’s in the middle of the country as well – so no excuse about too far to travel!

Feel free to come along and check out the event on Facebook, Surfing Dirt and Rem’s write up of the last Macclesfield Forest meetup.

I’ll be there testing out the new NoSno and will be bringing my spare brake board (the ABS/comp 26x setup) if anyone wants to find out what brake-boarding is about firsthand.

On a side note, I was out last weekend trying some snowboard boots I’ve picked up. I managed to get them to fit in NoSno soft bindings, but found that without the back plate of a real set of snowboard bindings, heelsides were a nightmare…they were also a barsteward to walk up the hill in.

Anyone else managed to ride in snowboard boots without snowboard bindings?

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!

What squeaks and likes cheese…?

…Not my brakes…

In my last post I talked about getting a new set of Heatsink brake pads for my ABS brake.

Well I managed to get out to the Test Track on Saturday morning to give them a try-out and they seemed to work fine. Admittedly, it’s not as steep or fast as the descents in the Lakes, which made it hard to compare the braking power against the old stock pads.

What I can say is:

• They definitely slowed me down equal to or more than the old pads,
• During harsh braking, I was being thrown forward more than I used to with the old pads,
• They were quiet!!!

Quiet...I know! Who’d have thought it? Admittedly they were a bit squeaky on the first couple of runs, but then they seemed to bed in and were silent. I shot this video to show how quiet:

Note – it wasn’t running particularly fast and I was purposefully braking before every right turn to demonstrate the noise…so I never really got up to a decent speed which is why it looks so slow.

So – all in all they seem good, but I guess this weekend’s trip to the Lakes will show how effective they really are.

I need more (braking) power!!!

Until the day I win the lottery/persuade the missus to let me buy a NoSno Pro Downhill with Hope disk-brakes (*drool*), I will have to make do with my (admittedly rather splendid and quite effective) ABS brake.

I’ve had very few problems whilst using the ABS (I had the mountings slip a little during some extended and particularly vicious braking and lack of power on Skiddaw…which was stupidly steep) and on the whole I think they are absolutely awesome! But then…nothing ever got worse by making it that extra bit awesomer…did it?

In advance of the Five Passes Mountainboard Challenge next week, I thought I would beef up the ABS a bit more, just in case the passes are a bit too steep/quick. Goofymark over on the Surfing Dirt forum first had the idea of looking into custom brake pads for the ABS so I decided to follow in his footsteps.

Heatsink Bikes produce custom Trial Biking braking solutions – specialising in Magura compatible parts. Word in the biking community is that they are pretty good. Since Goofymark first tried out the pads, Heatsink have come up with a few different pad compounds so I dropped owner Steve an email and he gave me some advice on what pads to try first.

Excellent first impression – Steve emailed back with some suggestions on pads and modifications to the brake disks. The pads arrived quickly and turned up with some Haribo! Winning!

I went for Heatsinks Yellow Magura pads (£18 inc. P&P). Fitting them was a piece of cake – wheels off, pop out the old pads, stick in the new ones and put the wheels back on! The pads are slightly longer and thicker than Magura pads, so the brake then needs to be re-aligned.

The easiest way I have found is by putting a 1p piece (or something of similar thickness) between the pad and the wheel and then tightening the mountings up. Knock out the 1p and the pads are a perfect 1mm away from the wheels.

As I said – the pads are slight longer than the standard Maguras and I found that I had a tiny part of the top corners hanging over the edge of the brake disks – but that shouldn’t matter. Rinse and repeat for the other brake.

I took my rig for a very quick test by rolling down my street and the Heatsink pads are definitely more effective than the standard Magura’s and that was in the wet (although they aren’t NoSno brake level yet..). They were also bloody noisy! Hope that stops soon….

I’ll be testing it out properly at the Test Track this weekend, so will post an update on how they do.

Five Passes Mountainboard Challenge

On 12th November 2011 a group of us will be heading up to the Lakes to ride Whinlatter, Honister, Wrynose, Hardknott and Kirkstone Passes in a single day.

This sounds completely ridiculous and I am sure it will mark the end of us all - but check out Rogers blog and Surfing Dirt for more info.

As ever, just speak up if you want to join us on this suicidal/historic excursion.

Whinlatter Meet

This weekend (01/07 – 03/07) is a meetup around Whinlatter in the Lakes for some real mountainboarding!

We visited here last year and it was great – awesome scenery, long rides, a pub near the campground…. You can read a write up of it here.

This year we are planning a spot of night riding on the Friday night to bag the Osprey Run that we weren’t allowed to ride last year.

After that, I am sure we will exploring the mountainbike trails at Whinlatter Forest and there is always the option of visiting centre Surf the Turf.

Everyone is welcome and if you are interested in joining us, check out the thread on Surfing Dirt or the Facebook page.