Sherwood Pines Mk 2.

The story of the 2nd trip to Sherwood PinesWell, this has to be one of the most eventful bike trips I've ever had. Again Dan picked me and my constantly broken bike up and we drove to his, just to find that my front hub axle had snapped. Luckily Dan's trials bike uses the same hubs as mine, so a spare was available (collective sigh of relief was breathed) just as the bike was fixed, Olly, our photographer for the trip arrived in his amazing VW Caddy, which is like a spaceship inside! Anyway, the fight with the bike rack was over quickly this time, and we were on our way to Sherwood. About half way there, my bike came scarily close to falling off of the bike rack, so after pulling over to re-attach it, and finding a mysterious bag full of 4 year old diaries and rotting oranges on the side of the road not 10 yards from where we stopped, we carried on to Sherwood.

Now, the last time we went and I tried the dirt jumps, I had to hit the eject button on the 4th jump. After a short walk through the set, I called out the 4th jump, and cruised the 1st 3 to get a feel for them. After 3 runs to find my flow, The camera was set up, ready for my attempts at the 4th jump. I pedalled in hard, cruised the 1st 3, keeping it smooth ans fast, then BOOM, over the 4th jump, air traffic control cleared me for landing, and I rolled away clean, into the 5th jump, a high but short table, which made me feel like I was in the X Games step up contest!

A few runs later,to get some better shots of the jump, and we decide to do a sequence shot. 2 pedal strokes into the set of jumps, and my right hand chain tensioner snaps, slamming the wheel sideways, locking it up. After the initial shouting and swearing at the bike, the only option was a 2 mile hike to the bike shop near the visitors centre, just as the rain started falling.

1 two mile skid mark later, and the helpful staff at the bike shop lent me the necessary tools (pliers) to remove my halo hex key skewer (rounded out, since its a 5.5mm bolt, and all I have is 5mm to fit it) and I was on my way, after slamming the rear wheel and removing what was left of the tensioners and shortening the chain, we were on our way to the DH trail, even though my chain was far too slack...

We arrived at the DH trail afer a 20 minute walk, after leaving all our spares and camera gear at the car. Rain was really falling now, But we weren't letting that distract us! after a few runs down the 2 easier trails we decided to hit the 3rd trail, which is littered with drops and gaps that were just too big for me and Dan to tackle, I'll admit it. But after walking several of the lines, we found one that wouldn't kill us or our bikes (my wheels are now in the bin because of this trip). However, when we hit the line, Dan's gears came within an inch of their life on the 1st turn causing him to have to roll the rest of the way, without being able to pedal, it was up to me to hit this trail. The lines we had spotted before riding it were next to impossible to see through my fogged up, muddy goggles, so I came scarily close to hitting some of the bigger lines, and lost all my flow and speed because of it. The trails all share the same end section though, so I just nailed that to give myself that happy feeling of surviving another day of riding.

Back to the car, covered in mud by this point, tired but grinning from ear to ear, we left the trails. Can't wait for next time, but 1st I need to save up for some new wheels...