new forest blast on the explosif!

got today tomorrow and wednesday off. so some riding, a bit more riding and some more riding is the order of the next few days!

decided offroad was the way forward, after sticking my head in the garage i selected the explosif as todays weapon of choice.

launched myself out on to the forest about 1/2 a mile from my house and headed out onto kings copse and into some quite good mud then picked up a road to beaulieu then down onto furzey copse picking up the trails to brockenhurst, most of this ride is quite fast for offroad as there isn't much technical stuff down here i carry on out of brockenhurst in the lyndhurst direction, as i go down an open fast car width trail some other cyclists ( read as total pillocks) were coming up the trail, i was doing about 27mph on the left side of the trail, they were on their left until 2 of them decided to over take the other 3 without looking ahead and nearly causing a full on head on crash, saved only by my going into the scrub off the edge of the left of the trail, bloody hire bike numpties with no shirts on :roll:

carry on, notice the tracks are really buggered up by trucks doing logging and whatever, i'm sure the forestry commission will find some way of blaming cyclists for the 1 foot wide tyre tracks! :roll:

anyhooo! come out into the beaulieu enclosure onto some nice grassy then solid trails, reminds me just how good a 92 explosif rides, joe murray got it right with this bike carry on into dibden enclosure where there are a few more propper bit of trails and some more fun up and down bits, avoid several dogs as by this time the schools have kicked out and people are out walking their poo producing machines! :x

cross over into the holbury housing estate, ride past a smokey and the bandit style tranz am, but in red back into kings copse and home.

i really like the kona, it leans so well around corners, and i have got off the bike with no aches and i usually do with any other bike, this is the one, the one for mayhem, the choice is made.

27.9 miles in 2hrs15mins, ave 12.4mph quite happy with that considering only maybe 4 miles on the road.

here's some pics.

Sounds like a proper fast day !

The old Kona's always give a good ride on the rough stuff, Must say yours is looking sweet, Is is as good as it was 1st time you had it ?

Have a look at the FOD aftermath in the Rides section, You will see my 1990 Kona having a top day out in the forest too

when i had this bike the first time in 93 to 95 (bought it as last year model frame only) i raced it at west drayton for my first ever race and spanked the other riders by 3 minutes over 14 miles, full on mission race.

as it is now is pretty much how i had it then, although i did have mag 20's in it sometimes, i bought these forks for it in 94 to use for winters but i'd rather ride it rigid now, the p2 is awsome. the flex stem gives a slightly higher and damped position which is better for me these days but i might refit the the controltech stem for mayhem to give a more racey position.

this bike is cool.

i'll have a look at the fod thread