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Week 15 of 52 weeks
I'm attempting to compete in the Mega Avalanche in 2010 - It's a journey of 52 weeks till I actually get there and it's gonna be tough! Read on to hear more about my week of training by Candlelight, new spots and even a proper attempt on a BMX!
Inside are the pics, video diary and loads of letters from the alphabet, which form words that will tell you about week 15 in my mission to Mega Avalanche in 2010.
Monday
Collected my serviced Xeon from Haro this afternoon and had a quick chat with Adam - everyone is happy so i left Haro with my bike and a smile. When i got her home I added some wider controls - Reverse Bars and gave her a clean.
![photo]()
Evening was yet again - training by Candlelight - so a session of Turbo Trainer followed by a weights session
Tuesday
Wow - actually had a flipping sweet day hanging out with Elijah as we ended the house blues by wrapping up mega warm and going to all the parks and local play areas we could. Hilarious fun watching your children growing up and becoming people!
Yep you guessed it - the evening was a session of turbo trainer and weights - woop ee do!
Wednesday
New product today arrived from Geax, knox and also my new/second hand pisspot arrived for some much needed sticker decoration! Chilled out day with Elijah followed by good food with good friends.
Thursday
Car is home - Sweet. This means we can actualkly go further than the normal 3 mile radius we achieve without my son going blue on the bike! So the plan today was have a fun morning and then to Burton skatepark to get used to my BMX while elijah slept in the car. Perfect plans meant a perfect day!
The evening was a session at Cannock Chase in the Dark! Tomo had rang me and invited me on a night xc ride with Lee Gratton, Elliot Machin, Tom and some other guy. This was a great night out riding and I have never laughed so m uch in my life on a bike ride. Let me tell you thanks to Lumicycle sorting me out some lights, I could see amazingly! However for Tomo - his friends at poundland did not provide good gear - His £3 set up died around 2 miles in and it got worse for the poor guy when his helmet (which all lights were mounted on) fell off his head on a downhill section. We continued (battled) on and had a great night of riding on the chase xc route - follow the dog!
Thank you so much guys for the great time out and Lumicycle for sorting me out some kit - this light is incredible - it is like drivign a with a car headlight oin your bike - insanely brilliant!!
![photo]()
Friday
Today had been planned for a few weeks and I was proper excited! Myself and Dan had arranged to hit 3 places in one day. So a Rigid bike and BMX session at Stoke plaza would be followed by a trip to Morley on the DH bikes and ending with a All mountain session at Robins.
Stoke = Concrete = ow - I have been wanting to use the BMX for working on control, landings and technique. This was the perfect location for the BMX, but just a shame i havent put any pegs on her yet for Grinding - as stoke was made to be grinded alot!
Morley = Drops and jumps = Fun! - Dan has never been here before so it was a hot spot to hit just to introduce to Dan to the short hill but loaded with jumps. Had a couple of hours riding here until we left for...
Robins = Small = XC and DH = Training - Great hillside for training on as you can get the miles in but have some fun on the tracks to. We were joined by a few other local lads at the tracks for a mini session and talks of building here as a team. The weather was a bit wet m,aking the berms slippy - but was still alot of fun and nice to get out.
Great day and a massive thanks to Dan for driving the miles today!
Saturday
Chill with Family - we headed to sheffield to watch my wife and her mates do some water skiing and wake boarding - i prefered my seat in the bar and dock area, with the hot chocolate and chip snacks!
Sunday
Ambergate woods - Finally someone had offered to show me around the hill and introduce me to this phenomenal local piece of trail! I had arranged to meet with a couple of fellow pinkbikers to show me around previous to this occasion, but due to various circumstances or family problems it kept getting cancelled!
Anyhow, today I met with Matt Underwood - who would be my guide and riding pal for the day - we had also arranged to hook up with a few other guys from Nottingham who were going to Ambergate too.
Matt showed me some XC loops and then we a rather mental Downhill track smuthered with Rock drops and Rock Gardens - which was very technical - but alot of fun to ride when you had figured out your line through the mud, leaves, rocks and walkers! This place is a real breath of fresh air from the tracks i have been riding recently - much more technical and alot of places to train on improving technique and especially line choice.
![photo]()
![photo]()
The woods are laced with traiuls everywhere winding there way in and out of the trees and every now and then you get glimpses of the beautiful countryside you are in. The place is absolutley stocked full of walkers though - and they seem to be pretty good at moving out of your way and holdng their silver tongues from expressing their views and rites. This certainly doesnt take away from the riding quality but it does sometimes feel like you are surrounded by people in the outdoors, a feeling i really dont like.
![photo]()
![photo]()
Eventually we found the more less extreme DH tracks and it seemed to be were all the riders who had braved the cold to ride were hiding. After the very wierd and strange world I live in of trying to recognise people from their pinkbike profile pictures, I spotted Badger43 behind a lense snapping his buddys while he took a breather. After a bit of meet and gret with the lads we headed off to a gnarly rock garden and a drop for some pictures and more depper tour into the woods. After sessioning the track we were on my confidence was beginning to grow that we had finally managed to fix the chain problems with the Haro Xeon - but as all biking mishaps happen - My Bash gaurd detatched itself from my Crank, thus looseing off the bolts to allow all my chainrings the opportunity to move side to side around 0.5cm - woo hoo
Great week done - thanks to all our sponsors
John Lee aka Jumble
Inside are the pics, video diary and loads of letters from the alphabet, which form words that will tell you about week 15 in my mission to Mega Avalanche in 2010.
Monday
Collected my serviced Xeon from Haro this afternoon and had a quick chat with Adam - everyone is happy so i left Haro with my bike and a smile. When i got her home I added some wider controls - Reverse Bars and gave her a clean.
Evening was yet again - training by Candlelight - so a session of Turbo Trainer followed by a weights session
Tuesday
Wow - actually had a flipping sweet day hanging out with Elijah as we ended the house blues by wrapping up mega warm and going to all the parks and local play areas we could. Hilarious fun watching your children growing up and becoming people!
Yep you guessed it - the evening was a session of turbo trainer and weights - woop ee do!
Wednesday
New product today arrived from Geax, knox and also my new/second hand pisspot arrived for some much needed sticker decoration! Chilled out day with Elijah followed by good food with good friends.
Thursday
Car is home - Sweet. This means we can actualkly go further than the normal 3 mile radius we achieve without my son going blue on the bike! So the plan today was have a fun morning and then to Burton skatepark to get used to my BMX while elijah slept in the car. Perfect plans meant a perfect day!
The evening was a session at Cannock Chase in the Dark! Tomo had rang me and invited me on a night xc ride with Lee Gratton, Elliot Machin, Tom and some other guy. This was a great night out riding and I have never laughed so m uch in my life on a bike ride. Let me tell you thanks to Lumicycle sorting me out some lights, I could see amazingly! However for Tomo - his friends at poundland did not provide good gear - His £3 set up died around 2 miles in and it got worse for the poor guy when his helmet (which all lights were mounted on) fell off his head on a downhill section. We continued (battled) on and had a great night of riding on the chase xc route - follow the dog!
Thank you so much guys for the great time out and Lumicycle for sorting me out some kit - this light is incredible - it is like drivign a with a car headlight oin your bike - insanely brilliant!!
 |  |  |  |
Friday
Today had been planned for a few weeks and I was proper excited! Myself and Dan had arranged to hit 3 places in one day. So a Rigid bike and BMX session at Stoke plaza would be followed by a trip to Morley on the DH bikes and ending with a All mountain session at Robins.
Stoke = Concrete = ow - I have been wanting to use the BMX for working on control, landings and technique. This was the perfect location for the BMX, but just a shame i havent put any pegs on her yet for Grinding - as stoke was made to be grinded alot!
Morley = Drops and jumps = Fun! - Dan has never been here before so it was a hot spot to hit just to introduce to Dan to the short hill but loaded with jumps. Had a couple of hours riding here until we left for...
Robins = Small = XC and DH = Training - Great hillside for training on as you can get the miles in but have some fun on the tracks to. We were joined by a few other local lads at the tracks for a mini session and talks of building here as a team. The weather was a bit wet m,aking the berms slippy - but was still alot of fun and nice to get out.
Great day and a massive thanks to Dan for driving the miles today!
Saturday
Chill with Family - we headed to sheffield to watch my wife and her mates do some water skiing and wake boarding - i prefered my seat in the bar and dock area, with the hot chocolate and chip snacks!
Sunday
Ambergate woods - Finally someone had offered to show me around the hill and introduce me to this phenomenal local piece of trail! I had arranged to meet with a couple of fellow pinkbikers to show me around previous to this occasion, but due to various circumstances or family problems it kept getting cancelled!
Anyhow, today I met with Matt Underwood - who would be my guide and riding pal for the day - we had also arranged to hook up with a few other guys from Nottingham who were going to Ambergate too.
 |  |  |  |  |
Matt showed me some XC loops and then we a rather mental Downhill track smuthered with Rock drops and Rock Gardens - which was very technical - but alot of fun to ride when you had figured out your line through the mud, leaves, rocks and walkers! This place is a real breath of fresh air from the tracks i have been riding recently - much more technical and alot of places to train on improving technique and especially line choice.
The woods are laced with traiuls everywhere winding there way in and out of the trees and every now and then you get glimpses of the beautiful countryside you are in. The place is absolutley stocked full of walkers though - and they seem to be pretty good at moving out of your way and holdng their silver tongues from expressing their views and rites. This certainly doesnt take away from the riding quality but it does sometimes feel like you are surrounded by people in the outdoors, a feeling i really dont like.
Eventually we found the more less extreme DH tracks and it seemed to be were all the riders who had braved the cold to ride were hiding. After the very wierd and strange world I live in of trying to recognise people from their pinkbike profile pictures, I spotted Badger43 behind a lense snapping his buddys while he took a breather. After a bit of meet and gret with the lads we headed off to a gnarly rock garden and a drop for some pictures and more depper tour into the woods. After sessioning the track we were on my confidence was beginning to grow that we had finally managed to fix the chain problems with the Haro Xeon - but as all biking mishaps happen - My Bash gaurd detatched itself from my Crank, thus looseing off the bolts to allow all my chainrings the opportunity to move side to side around 0.5cm - woo hoo
Great week done - thanks to all our sponsors
John Lee aka Jumble
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Author Info:
Member since Aug 4, 2008
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