AFAN Retrobike Ride - 23rd Feb !!

Great ride chaps - really great. Can't wait to go back to Afan.

Having ridden that downhill I have a little more respect for those who ride with 6" now. Duckboards were ace and will be tring them out more at Chicky soon. Some brakes would have been good - my rear became a handbrake, and a my front pads wore through :shock:

Amazing that given the conditions, trails and bikes we only had one major mechanical - Heathy's chain.

Nice one, thanks everyone who was there. Shame I missed TinTin's off :cry:
 
What a fab weekend, thanks to all who made it happen.

There are loads of moments tha made it ace just a few were;

"Gus this is the A3 isint it? No A272 going West, Hmm ok. But thats Butser Hill on our right i think we are heading South towards Portsmouth.

Getting to the Pub in Neath 10 mins before they stop doing food for the eve, with a call from steve as he thinks he has run out of rocket fuel for the polo Eat or Petrol run??. All ok though only a HT lead popping off!!

The lovely staff at the pub ;) and someones look what she answered with "oh im 16!!" :shock:

Fab location, rain that moves faster than you can ride, the 10 mile climb followed by a 10 mile down (funny that). Passing a group of guys on the Dh them with with full face helmets, body armour and full on 6" travel DH bikes, me on a 19 year old rigid Klein!

I do feel a little broken today though, my arms and shoulders ache along with my ribs (cheers Gus, you know where you can stick your "Look how i can see you computer in the dark")

My bike; on cleaning it today i found in no particular order

Flite Ti has lost it top layer of leather!
My 217 now have a freshley milled braking surface
Rear XTR pads reduced to nothing.
NOS white Onza barends have lost any lacquer thay once had!

But still after all that an amazing ride, that i hope to do again in the summer.

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A couple of pictures - the only two I took, plus a big thanks to Klein-MAd-Chris for "life saving" banana on the drag back.

Funny - I asked him if he had any food, as my tank was running on fumes (a bit like Steves Polo). He replied "yeh, I have a banana, it's a bit bruised as I forgot the banana protector". In all honesty I wouldn't have cared if he'd jumped up and down on it first. I was SO hungry. Thanks mate, owe you one ;)
 

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Klein-Mad-Chris":18s9pq39 said:
Getting to the Pub in Neath 10 mins before they stop doing food for the eve, with a call from steve as he thinks he has run out of rocket fuel for the polo Eat or Petrol run??. All ok though only a HT lead popping off!!



an HT lead popping off at...140mph!!!!!!!!!!

i should say.


:shock:
 
A big thanks to Gump for organising such a grand day out. Even the frankly foul weather couldn't dampen our spirits. :D

Personal favourite moments in no particular order:



*Losing one of our covoy of three within one mile of home. :(

*Realising I had in fact lost us and the remaining convoy'er 20 miles from home. :oops:

*Seeing Tintin's enjoyment at having a Little Chef Tuna Melt and chips on the A34. :D

*Seeing a 1.2l 17yr old VW Polo race an EVO VIII and pretty much win on the M4. - Nice one Steve. :LOL: 235bhp in something that must weigh about 650kg's! Genius. :D

*The genius but not so funny irony of seeing Klein Chris go oher the bars as he looked round to see my description of how you can (sort of) safely read your bike computer whilst night riding by holding it in front of the lights. :roll:

*Heathy saying "Use the Hill" to pretty much everybody that passed us on a 10 mile climb. :)

*Heathy's number plate. :cool:

*Kev and Kev's matching bikes. :cool:

*Pretending to be CB'ers on the M4 home (with walkie talkies). :D

*Tintin for countless and priceless nuggets of Tintin wisdom ALL weekend. :LOL:

*Everyone's patience for my faffing, clothing changes and even mid ride stem height changes (always carry spare stem stackers). :oops:

*StevePSD mistaking Tintin's room at the b&b for the dining room and walking in on him cleaning his teeth. And remember, he doesn't have any pajamas :LOL: :oops: :LOL:

*I f*cking hate duckboard. :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Cant top that last one. Classic.



:D
 
Who's the pretentious yellow Git...........with the permenatly folded arms?!
Oh thats me.









(I cannot remember ever hearing the word Duckboard in 25 years of Mtb ing.........ever. [You made that word up!])
 
Lid":vri91r2d said:
Who's the pretentious yellow Git...........with the permenatly folded arms?!
Oh thats me.









(I cannot remember ever hearing the word Duckboard in 25 years of Mtb ing.........ever. [You made that word up!])


I'm not sure pretentious is the word...you were lightening quick through those woods and on rigid forks. Very handy. :cool:

And after laughing at that term last night I was reliably informed by the Mrs that 'Duckboard' is indeed a thing and lots of people mroe informed than me have heard of it. :oops:
 
Great weekend chaps!! The entertainment started pretty much the moment we all arrived at 'Chez Gus' with various faffing and packing of kit.
The trails were amazing and spirits were high despite the general damp weather all of the day.

All credit to the Afan trail builders who have managed to make the climbs interesting and enjoyable opposed to a long slog.

The look on Gump's face was quite ammusing after a white knuckle singletrack downhill with the only braking forced applied to his wheels were the V-brake arms contacting the tread of the tyre. Heathey made every second on the Muddy Fox 'count' leaving the aroma of melting Alivio brake pad in the forrest.

The food at the pub Friday night was spot on and a welcome sight.. Ten mins before arriving at the pub I thought my weekends riding was over when I was peering under the bonnet of the Polo after it died on a flat out run chasing Gus to the destination... The irony was we had a confused telephone call and Gus was infront of me and he thought I was behind me. Easy fix, the spark plug lead had pulled off.

TinTin's statements of 'I hate singletrack!!'.. 'What's with all this Duck Board' .. and 'I always pay with cheques' whist clutching a damp and soggie cheque book.

Got back at 8pm last night and at 8.30 I was in the pub.. My body felt a bit battered this morning after a day of being battered on my Pace followed by the journey home in a loud, cold and hyperactive car.

So.. when are we going again ? ? ?
 

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