RR - UKAMB



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Huw Pritchard

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Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in the
sodding morning, on a Sunday. What the hell's that noise? Oh yeah, it's my alarm. We're supposed to
be going to Nantmawr, aren't we? By 7:30 I'd managed to lever my fine friend/driver, Adam out of bed
and we were heading off on the mammoth drive to some place in England. Much to our surprise, we got
there vaguely on time, about 11:15 and wandered around the carpark staring at all the people with
long travel full sussers. There is some XC riding here, right? Eventually the rest of the party from
the South West shows up in the form of Andy Chequer and his roadie mate Rob.

At this point we're somewhat perplexed by what to do next, but suddenly I yell "There's a bloke on a
BASE", hoping that the person I'm pointing at actually is Shaun Rimmer. It is, resplendent in AMB
Headband, with Bomba hiding somewhere behind him, joined by two persons to whom I was introduced. I
think their names were Howard and Paul, but I may be wrong.

Still slightly disturbed by the number of people with more travel on their bikes than the AMB party
combined, we head off into a quarry. There's some jumps here. Bitter experience has shown that I
can't jump for toffee. A couple of party members run off to have a go, I wander around taking random
photos. We've really got no idea what's going on here. Bomba *thinks* he may have been here before
to watch a DH race, but he's not sure. We head off up a hill.

We reach the top and one of Rimmer's mates (Howard?) is pushing. Chain's come off. The first of
several mechanicals to dog him through the day. We chat idly about nothing in particular and notice
the only thing that appears to be nearby is a sign saying "Downhill start". There's a lot of people
around here with long travel bikes too. Seeing as only three of us bothered to bring anything with
rear suspension (not counting the good inch of travel afforded by the tyres on Shaun's BASE) then
this could be amusing. Is there another way down? No.

Down we go, this is my first taste of downhilling on my hardtail with 80mm forks. It's not about the
bike, they say. OK then. I'm actually not riding like as much of a muppet as normal, although I
still ride at the back so as to keep everybody else from seeing my inevitable spill. As luck would
have it I actually didn't come off, although I did somehow get lost on a DH course.

Back up the same hill again to see if we can find anything that's a little more our style. We stop
at some amusing bit of disused quarry working. This forms the shape of a mound with a gradual
approach at one end and a steep slope on the other side, which the local dewbies have obviously been
plummeting down. Being the perverse people we are, we try and ride up the bit that everyone else
goes down. We all fail. Shaun finds himself wondering why he bought a bike made from solid barstock.
After a couple of tries, most people are up the top by one method or another and we head off to find
something else. We find a bridleway. Again Shaun has to be bigger and better than everybody else by
getting an entire tree stuck in his spokes.

After a disappointingly short off-road run, the bridleway deposits us onto a public road. Fine. None
of us have a clue where we are, but we ride it anyway. We spy someone on a horse, slow down and stop
so as not to freak the horse out, the rider takes one look at the rabble in front, turns around and
goes back into the field she's just left.

After a series of swooping downhills on country lanes we end up with the realisation that we've got
some climbing to do now, back up to Nantmawr quarry. Slowly we all pile into the carpark, refuel and
wonder where the hell Howard's got to. He arrives pushing his bike again. Flat tyre this time. After
a brief refuelling stop, we head off to try and find this mythical XC course. We find something that
might work, but the number of people pushing extremely heavy bikes with yards of travel is worrying.
We've found the Slalom course. What the hell, we're at the top of the course now, we may as well go
down it. All the local kids are looking at this bunch of skinny tyred freaks wondering what the hell
we're doing, and why we're not wearing full face helmets. A quick ride to the bottom (during which I
managed to look very silly indeed) and we wonder what the point of all that walking up a hill is for
a very short run indeed. We head off in search of the elusive singletrack.

We find something and ride it. Someone's installed a ramp in it. This foxes a few of us and Rob ends
up landing on his head having tried jumping the ramp. Roadies and mountain bikes just don't mix
sometimes, it seems.

Heading back to the start of what we had concluded was not the XC course, much conversation went on
along the lines of "How big is 200 acres anyway?", eventually with us coming to the conclusion that
we'd seen pretty much all of it, and nearly none of it was singletrack. It's at this point that
people started murmuring the word pub.

That's my RR, anyway. Someone will probably post a BR (beer report) at some point and there's
probably a couple more RR's in the pipeline too, some of which might actually be accurate.

--
Huw Pritchard Replace bounce with huw to reply by mail
 
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 23:29:23 +0000, "Huw Pritchard"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/
>
>Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in the
>sodding morning, on a Sunday.

[snip very good RR!]

Nice pics. It's good to see the people across the pond!

Shaun, I think I know what's causing you back pain. It's that friggin' VW Beetle you're carrying on
your back!

WTF is in there?

Peace, Bill The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the mind
should give an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
:-]
 
> Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/
>
> Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in the
> sodding morning, on a Sunday. What the hell's that noise? Oh yeah, it's my alarm. We're supposed
> to be going to Nantmawr, aren't we? By 7:30 I'd managed to lever my fine friend/driver, Adam out
> of bed and we were heading off on the mammoth drive to some place in England. Much to our
> surprise, we got there vaguely on time, about 11:15 and wandered around the carpark staring at all
> the people with long travel full sussers. There is some XC riding here, right? Eventually the rest
> of the party from the South West shows up in the form of Andy Chequer and his roadie mate Rob.
>
<snip nice RR>
>
> --
> Huw Pritchard

Great RR. Now I see why Bomba has a pale shade of blue
http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-010.html . Bro, ease up on that joint....you're
gonna pass out!

And you guys must be good riders because you missed that huge crack
http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-012.html in the road!

--
Slacker
 
"Huw Pritchard" <[email protected]> wrote in message

> Heading back to the start of what we had concluded was not the XC course, much conversation went
> on along the lines of "How big is 200 acres anyway?", eventually with us coming to the conclusion
> that we'd seen pretty much all of it, and nearly none of it was singletrack. It's at this point
> that people started murmuring the word pub.

Shame really as 10miles to the west of Nantmawr is one of the classic welsh mountain range
crossings where the wayfarer path crosses the Berwyn Mountains , in fact there's a few great XC
loops in the Berwyns.

I got the impression is was supposed to be a bit of a jump fest. Nantmawr is really a freeride and
DH wannabe playground AFAICT. Sounds like you had a decent enough time anyway. Sorry I missed all
you guys but the 5 hr, 32 mile, 4,500ft loop in the Brecons made up for it :)

Russ
 
"Slacker" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/
> >
> > Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in
> > the sodding morning, on
a
> > Sunday. What the hell's that noise? Oh yeah, it's my alarm. We're supposed to be going to
> > Nantmawr, aren't we? By 7:30 I'd managed to
lever
> > my fine friend/driver, Adam out of bed and we were heading off on the mammoth drive to some
> > place in England. Much to our surprise, we got there vaguely on time, about 11:15 and wandered
> > around the carpark
staring
> > at all the people with long travel full sussers. There is some XC
riding
> > here, right? Eventually the rest of the party from the South West shows up in the form of Andy
> > Chequer and his roadie mate Rob.
> >
> <snip nice RR>
> >
> > --
> > Huw Pritchard
>
>
> Great RR. Now I see why Bomba has a pale shade of blue
http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-010.html . Bro, ease up on
> that joint....you're gonna pass out!

Yeah those powerbars are hard to keep lit.

>
> And you guys must be good riders because you missed that huge crack
http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-012.html in the
> road!
>

Hehehe...two antidrug messages in one post.

Mike - just say no to crack. ;^)
 
"Michael Dart" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> "Slacker" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > > Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/
> > >
> > > Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in
> > > the sodding morning, on
> a
> > > Sunday. What the hell's that noise? Oh yeah, it's my alarm. We're supposed to be going to
> > > Nantmawr, aren't we? By 7:30 I'd managed to
> lever
> > > my fine friend/driver, Adam out of bed and we were heading off on the mammoth drive to some
> > > place in England. Much to our surprise, we got there vaguely on time, about 11:15 and wandered
> > > around the carpark
> staring
> > > at all the people with long travel full sussers. There is some XC
> riding
> > > here, right? Eventually the rest of the party from the South West shows up in the form of Andy
> > > Chequer and his roadie mate Rob.
> > >
> > <snip nice RR>
> > >
> > > --
> > > Huw Pritchard
> >
> >
> > Great RR. Now I see why Bomba has a pale shade of blue
> http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-010.html . Bro, ease up on
> > that joint....you're gonna pass out!
>
> Yeah those powerbars are hard to keep lit.
>
> >
> > And you guys must be good riders because you missed that huge crack
> http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/picture-012.html in the
> > road!
> >
>
> Hehehe...two antidrug messages in one post.
>
> Mike - just say no to crack. ;^)

Just a friendly PSA from my lucid mind.

I think we're gonna have to change Andy's last name now.....
--
Slacker
 
>We reach the top and one of Rimmer's mates (Howard?) is pushing. Chain's come off.

Twas inevatable heavy bike + fat rider + 9sp chain + hill = something usually gives ok so its
usually the rider but I thought we'd have a change.
:)

>hell Howard's got to. He arrives pushing his bike again. Flat tyre this time.

Still cant work out how I punctured on a road, cant remember seeing any thorned debris :|

Howard
 
Bill Wheeler <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 23:29:23 +0000, "Huw Pritchard"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Photos are here: http://www.pritch.co.uk/photos/ambuk/
> >
> >Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep Huh? beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep 6:30 in
> >the sodding morning, on
a
> >Sunday.
>
> [snip very good RR!]
>
> Nice pics. It's good to see the people across the pond!
>
> Shaun, I think I know what's causing you back pain. It's that friggin' VW Beetle you're carrying
> on your back!

Eh? That's my small pack - I left the medium (80 litre) one in the car...

> WTF is in there?

2 litres of water in a Platypus, and a tool kit........a lot of tool kit......about 4 + pounds of
tool kit......

Shaun aRe - works on the theory of you only need the tools you left behind, so take 'em all......
 
Cheers Huw for a colouful picture of the events of the day, with probably a few bits missed out
later on though....

I suppose I should take some blame for suggesting Nantmawr as a venue, especially as things turned
out that I couldn't make it. I thought there was an xc course nearby though, shame you never found
more than a sniff of it. Ah well, Sounds like you all had a good time anyway which was mostly the
point wasn't it?

I have to admit I was thinking of y'all on Sunday am, but standing in a muddy field waving a spade
around lends itself to lots of thinking time...

Hope to make it to the next one,

Steve E.
 
spademan o---[)* <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Cheers Huw for a colouful picture of the events of the day, with probably
a
> few bits missed out later on though....
>
> I suppose I should take some blame for suggesting Nantmawr as a venue, especially as things turned
> out that I couldn't make it. I thought there
was
> an xc course nearby though,

According to the map on the notice board, there was, but buggered if we could find it!

> shame you never found more than a sniff of it. Ah well, Sounds like you all had a good time anyway
> which was mostly the point wasn't it?
>
> I have to admit I was thinking of y'all on Sunday am, but standing in a muddy field waving a spade
> around lends itself to lots of thinking time...

I don't dig diggin....

Yeah, Bomba said the jumps there were ****, and you shoulda dug 'em, or summink.....

> Hope to make it to the next one,

Aye!

',;~}

Shaun aRe
 
"Huw Pritchard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

<snip>
> at all the people with long travel full sussers. There is some XC riding here, right? Eventually
> the rest of the party from the South West shows up in the form of Andy Chequer and his roadie
> mate Rob.

<and again>

> We find something and ride it. Someone's installed a ramp in it. This foxes a few of us and Rob
> ends up landing on his head having tried jumping the ramp. Roadies and mountain bikes just don't
> mix sometimes, it seems.
> --
> Huw Pritchard Replace bounce with huw to reply by mail

Just wanted to say Hi, and thanks for a grand day out even if the riding wasn't exactly to my taste.

Not sure how I feel about my "ramp-phobia" being criticised by Huw - anyone else maybe, but from the
man who tries to make a virtue of refusing to ride anything scary it seems a bit rich! As for
"roadie" I've always argued that being able to win a time-trial and ride a mountain bike (most of
the time) makes you a better rider.

Anyway, nice to meet new faces and catch up with old ones.

Rob.
 
Bastards. I wish I coulda joined you. The weekend up north was ****, overcast and cold. Are you all
incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop sorta people? One day I'll get my ass down there and
come riding. Who are those three guys in the background of pic 001 they look like dirtjumpers, they
from here?

Small Black Dog
 
Robert Adams <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "Huw Pritchard" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> <snip>
> > at all the people with long travel full sussers. There is some XC
riding
> > here, right? Eventually the rest of the party from the South West shows up in the form of Andy
> > Chequer and his roadie mate Rob.
>
> <and again>
>
> > We find something and ride it. Someone's installed a ramp in it. This foxes a few of us and Rob
> > ends up landing on his head having tried
jumping
> > the ramp. Roadies and mountain bikes just don't mix sometimes, it
seems.
> > --
> > Huw Pritchard Replace bounce with huw to reply by mail
>
> Just wanted to say Hi,

Hi Rob, you crazy stunt freak! ',;~}

> and thanks for a grand day out even if the riding wasn't exactly to my taste.

What riding? There was riding?!?

> Not sure how I feel about my "ramp-phobia" being criticised by Huw -
anyone
> else maybe, but from the man who tries to make a virtue of refusing to
ride
> anything scary it seems a bit rich! As for "roadie" I've always argued
that
> being able to win a time-trial and ride a mountain bike (most of the time) makes you a
> better rider.

Nahhhhh!

> Anyway, nice to meet new faces and catch up with old ones.

Aye - I really enjoyed meeting up with people I'd never insulted in real life, but only here (and
frequently). The fact I survived unscathed was pleasantly surprising ',;~}

Shaun aRe

> Rob.
 
On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 14:23:44 +0000, Robert Adams did issue forth:

> Not sure how I feel about my "ramp-phobia" being criticised by Huw - anyone else maybe, but from
> the man who tries to make a virtue of refusing to ride anything scary it seems a bit rich! As for
> "roadie" I've always argued that being able to win a time-trial and ride a mountain bike (most of
> the time) makes you a better rider.

I wouldn't worry about me, Rob. Whenever I criticize/have a dig at other people's riding, it's with
the full knowledge that I'm ****, and I fully expect a dig at my own abilities from whichever
direction it may come. ;-)

--
Huw Pritchard Replace bounce with huw to reply by mail
 
On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 15:11:29 +0000, Small Black Dog did issue forth:

> Bastards. I wish I coulda joined you. The weekend up north was ****, overcast and cold. Are you
> all incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop sorta people? One day I'll get my ass down there
> and come riding. Who are those three guys in the background of pic 001 they look like dirtjumpers,
> they from here?

The people in the background were dirt jumpers, but not from AMB.

And no, we're not all incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop sorta people. We're more "where was
the pub?" and "what the hell's this hill doing here?" people.

--
Huw Pritchard Replace bounce with huw to reply by mail
 
Huw Pritchard <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 15:11:29 +0000, Small Black Dog did issue forth:
>
> > Bastards. I wish I coulda joined you. The weekend up north was ****, overcast and cold. Are
> > you all
incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop
> > sorta people? One day I'll get my ass down there and come riding. Who
are
> > those three guys in the background of pic 001 they look like
dirtjumpers,
> > they from here?
>
> The people in the background were dirt jumpers, but not from AMB.

Aye, bloody dirt humpers - they should oughta get with chix....

> And no, we're not all incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop sorta people. We're more "where
> was the pub?" and "what the hell's this hill doing here?" people.

Speak for yerself! Me personally, I never wheeze or complain of backache, even after going up real
long steep stuff dead quick.....

Shaun aRe
 
Bastards. I wish I coulda joined you. The weekend up north was ****, overcast and cold. Are you all
incredibly-fit-bike-for-100-miles-non-stop sorta people? One day I'll get my ass down there and
come riding. Who are those three guys in the background of pic 001 they look like dirtjumpers, they
from here?

Small Black Dog
 
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