S
Shaun Rimmer
Guest
Heh, yeah - I had the same waking up thing as Huw, with me wondering why the hell I'd set my alarm
for a Sunday morning...took me a few minutes to remember.
Well, Paul picked me and all my gear up, and I waved goodbye to the gorgeous Kath, who'd made some
wicked sarnies for me to take (blue cheese, salami, red chile!), then we met up with Howard, who had
a very loud car that looked and sounded like it should be *really* fast, and probably was. It could
blow smoke rings that car. It probably even talked to the driver.....
We drove, we saw a big queue of sheep, nose to tail on a hillside. We knew we were crossing back and
forth between Englandia and Wales. The road signs in Wales have more than twice the amount of
writing on them that the ones in England (WTF is a 'Wrecsam'?!?!?!?).
We were there, on the carpark, at Nantmawr, pre-freaking-cisely on time, to the millisecond). There
were lots of guys stood around their bikes, discussing how they could possibly all have lost there
engines at the same time. We laughed and pointed and stared, even at the big shaven headed scary guy
that was growling.
We waited, and Jon (Bomba) pulled up and said 'Hi' and stuff like that. I noted that the internet
puts a good six inches of height on him. No sign of the others yet, so I sent a text wittily
asking 'where are Huw'? and received no reply. We decided after a while, to go and sign in/pay
etc. We noted that already on the sign in form, was a 'Huw Pritchard', could it be there were two?
No, he'd been parked only a car away for a while, but hadn't noticed us, what, none of us being
white and fluffy.
Andy and friends turned up, then we all got introduced. Andy is very really quite strange in real
life, I felt very comfortable with that, and was thankful. He is clever too, and does a nice line
in grinning.
I was very glad Huw was not a big muscle head guy, so I didn't have to retract all the evil things
I'd said about Welshmen.
We started putting the bikes together and kicking tyres and stuff, and a couple of people took
photo's of my front wheel, for what, I dunno - seems weird peeps exist outside of Blackburn or the
intynet. Then, quite suddenly and without forewarning, we all jollylyly set off for the quarry.
There were jumps in the quarry. Bomba, our resident BMXpert for the day, said they were ****. I took
a shot at them all, and got wicked heuge rad air, which upset the 'mask-ed ones' greatly, so, they
just stood around muttering.
We found a hill, and went up it. I had to wait for ages for everyone to catch up. Howard had busted
a link, and was last up, muttering about heavy bikes, riders, and 9 speed chains. We stayed at the
top of the hill until he fixed it, and until everyone else had got their wind back, then we rode
down the other side of the hill. This turned out to be the DH course. Although I'd never ridden a DH
course before, I quickly took the lead, leaving desolation and destruction in my wake, before
hitting the DS section. Berms are easy. Chicks dig guys that find berms easy. There were no chicks.
After waiting at the bottom of the hill for what seemed an age, the rest came down, at about 3 mph -
it was saddening, and I felt quite embarrassed being counted one of their number. We went back up a
hill, and found a really neat farmers yard. We ogled the pile of exhaust pipes, a DH micro scooter,
and racing sidecar, then turned back. We did some climbing and other pedalling related stuff, then
hit the road. Despite the 36-ish pound weight of my BASE and it's super fat tyre's rolling
resistance, I again found myself at the front and waiting, apart from when I hung back for a
friendly chat with the fun Chequer guy.
After a bit, we slowed to let a female horse rider pass, but she turned around and went back into
the field, then turned the horse to face us. She was wearing a huge smile, and I thought it was 'cos
she was really happy to see a bunch of muddy mountain bikers, until I noticed the mysterious absence
of the appearance of a pommel on her saddle..... each to their own, I guess.....
We went down more road, then up a bit, and back into the Nantmawr carpark entrance, where we
refuelled and did more tyre kicking and stuff, while the others, who were looking fatigued, rested.
I decided Bomba talked funny for a German guy. We played around some more on the DS course, then
quarry, then hill, (in some order or other) then I rode up that big slope the Huw mentioned. It was
easy, even despite the fact I was dragging my feet on the ground all the way up (like in the
picture). We had a go down the last bit of the DH course, where Rob decided to leave wheels out of
the equation, and try bouncing on his helmet for a while as an alternative style. I missed this,
because I was at the bottom of the section waiting for everyone, yet _again_....
After a while and some more idle chit-chat, some of the guys went back up a hill and stuff, but Paul
and me went to catch some more wicked heuge rad air on the jumps. Me and my BASE are owed some
serious frequent flyer miles, errmm 'dude'. Red Bull gives you wings!
At some point we washed our bikes......
We were back with the cars and packing up, when some idiot started shouting 'Puuub!!! Puuuubb!
PUUUUUBB!!!!' over and over again. Oh, at one point, the Chequer expressed how he thought the a.m-b
headbands were just a joke, and didn't actually exist. I was happy to clear that up for him. He said
mine looked lovely (Thanks John G! ',;~} ).
We got to a pub, and had beer. Everybody ate stuff except me - I hadn't used any energy, so didn't
need food. There was a calendar in the gents loo with half naked women on it, and the hand dryer
didn't work. We laughed and smiled and chatted, and I held everybody in thrall with my tales of past
heroic adventures, and sharp witty turn of phrase. The Chequer made us laugh with his strangeness
and cleverness too. Bomba talked about fish and chips, and pies were mentioned several times by a
few of us. The guys that had taken photos all said they'd have to photo shop the ones with me in, to
make me less strikingly handsome, because it wasn't fair. I notice from the photos in Huw's report,
that they were quite successful with this.
We left the pub and said our goodbyes, vowing to 'do this again sometime!'. The guys were all really
good guys, and we seemed to have much fun, I know I did!
Shaun aRe - This is the really true RR for the yesterday-day.
P.s. - You guys are all ace to hang with! ',;~}
P.P. - Spademan, WTF?!? Heheheheheh......
for a Sunday morning...took me a few minutes to remember.
Well, Paul picked me and all my gear up, and I waved goodbye to the gorgeous Kath, who'd made some
wicked sarnies for me to take (blue cheese, salami, red chile!), then we met up with Howard, who had
a very loud car that looked and sounded like it should be *really* fast, and probably was. It could
blow smoke rings that car. It probably even talked to the driver.....
We drove, we saw a big queue of sheep, nose to tail on a hillside. We knew we were crossing back and
forth between Englandia and Wales. The road signs in Wales have more than twice the amount of
writing on them that the ones in England (WTF is a 'Wrecsam'?!?!?!?).
We were there, on the carpark, at Nantmawr, pre-freaking-cisely on time, to the millisecond). There
were lots of guys stood around their bikes, discussing how they could possibly all have lost there
engines at the same time. We laughed and pointed and stared, even at the big shaven headed scary guy
that was growling.
We waited, and Jon (Bomba) pulled up and said 'Hi' and stuff like that. I noted that the internet
puts a good six inches of height on him. No sign of the others yet, so I sent a text wittily
asking 'where are Huw'? and received no reply. We decided after a while, to go and sign in/pay
etc. We noted that already on the sign in form, was a 'Huw Pritchard', could it be there were two?
No, he'd been parked only a car away for a while, but hadn't noticed us, what, none of us being
white and fluffy.
Andy and friends turned up, then we all got introduced. Andy is very really quite strange in real
life, I felt very comfortable with that, and was thankful. He is clever too, and does a nice line
in grinning.
I was very glad Huw was not a big muscle head guy, so I didn't have to retract all the evil things
I'd said about Welshmen.
We started putting the bikes together and kicking tyres and stuff, and a couple of people took
photo's of my front wheel, for what, I dunno - seems weird peeps exist outside of Blackburn or the
intynet. Then, quite suddenly and without forewarning, we all jollylyly set off for the quarry.
There were jumps in the quarry. Bomba, our resident BMXpert for the day, said they were ****. I took
a shot at them all, and got wicked heuge rad air, which upset the 'mask-ed ones' greatly, so, they
just stood around muttering.
We found a hill, and went up it. I had to wait for ages for everyone to catch up. Howard had busted
a link, and was last up, muttering about heavy bikes, riders, and 9 speed chains. We stayed at the
top of the hill until he fixed it, and until everyone else had got their wind back, then we rode
down the other side of the hill. This turned out to be the DH course. Although I'd never ridden a DH
course before, I quickly took the lead, leaving desolation and destruction in my wake, before
hitting the DS section. Berms are easy. Chicks dig guys that find berms easy. There were no chicks.
After waiting at the bottom of the hill for what seemed an age, the rest came down, at about 3 mph -
it was saddening, and I felt quite embarrassed being counted one of their number. We went back up a
hill, and found a really neat farmers yard. We ogled the pile of exhaust pipes, a DH micro scooter,
and racing sidecar, then turned back. We did some climbing and other pedalling related stuff, then
hit the road. Despite the 36-ish pound weight of my BASE and it's super fat tyre's rolling
resistance, I again found myself at the front and waiting, apart from when I hung back for a
friendly chat with the fun Chequer guy.
After a bit, we slowed to let a female horse rider pass, but she turned around and went back into
the field, then turned the horse to face us. She was wearing a huge smile, and I thought it was 'cos
she was really happy to see a bunch of muddy mountain bikers, until I noticed the mysterious absence
of the appearance of a pommel on her saddle..... each to their own, I guess.....
We went down more road, then up a bit, and back into the Nantmawr carpark entrance, where we
refuelled and did more tyre kicking and stuff, while the others, who were looking fatigued, rested.
I decided Bomba talked funny for a German guy. We played around some more on the DS course, then
quarry, then hill, (in some order or other) then I rode up that big slope the Huw mentioned. It was
easy, even despite the fact I was dragging my feet on the ground all the way up (like in the
picture). We had a go down the last bit of the DH course, where Rob decided to leave wheels out of
the equation, and try bouncing on his helmet for a while as an alternative style. I missed this,
because I was at the bottom of the section waiting for everyone, yet _again_....
After a while and some more idle chit-chat, some of the guys went back up a hill and stuff, but Paul
and me went to catch some more wicked heuge rad air on the jumps. Me and my BASE are owed some
serious frequent flyer miles, errmm 'dude'. Red Bull gives you wings!
At some point we washed our bikes......
We were back with the cars and packing up, when some idiot started shouting 'Puuub!!! Puuuubb!
PUUUUUBB!!!!' over and over again. Oh, at one point, the Chequer expressed how he thought the a.m-b
headbands were just a joke, and didn't actually exist. I was happy to clear that up for him. He said
mine looked lovely (Thanks John G! ',;~} ).
We got to a pub, and had beer. Everybody ate stuff except me - I hadn't used any energy, so didn't
need food. There was a calendar in the gents loo with half naked women on it, and the hand dryer
didn't work. We laughed and smiled and chatted, and I held everybody in thrall with my tales of past
heroic adventures, and sharp witty turn of phrase. The Chequer made us laugh with his strangeness
and cleverness too. Bomba talked about fish and chips, and pies were mentioned several times by a
few of us. The guys that had taken photos all said they'd have to photo shop the ones with me in, to
make me less strikingly handsome, because it wasn't fair. I notice from the photos in Huw's report,
that they were quite successful with this.
We left the pub and said our goodbyes, vowing to 'do this again sometime!'. The guys were all really
good guys, and we seemed to have much fun, I know I did!
Shaun aRe - This is the really true RR for the yesterday-day.
P.s. - You guys are all ace to hang with! ',;~}
P.P. - Spademan, WTF?!? Heheheheheh......
