Injuries Suck!

It's been 80 days since The Incident, as it shall now be referred to as, and what have I learnt?

Well at the grand age of 30 you'd expect me to say I need to be more careful in future and start thinking about putting these dangerous activities behind me. In reality though I'm leaning more toward the idea of if there's not long left before I'm too old/tired/weak to ride trials the only thing to do is push myself whilst I still can!
There's still so much more I want to do, people I want to meet, places I want to ride and I know if I throw the towel in now I will only regret it down the line.
I've already made so many new friends riding trials and I'm looking forward to making more when I join the 24tour in August and beyond that. A rider released a video a while back that really hit home what trials means to me, he'd been through a tough time and it was people he'd met in the scene that pulled together to bring him back up. I hope one day I'm lucky enough to have friends that would do the same for me, see what you think.
Still livin' from Joel Bennett on Vimeo.

Injured...

Honestly, just when it was all coming together I manage to break my ankle gently rolling along a flat snow covered road. This was 3 weeks ago now and I'm well past boredom being in a cast!
I'm sick of the PS3, have no interest whatsoever in watching TV and with my replacement Marino frame en route all I want to do is ride now the weather has improved.

Cast is due off in 3 weeks and I can start walking on it gently after my x-ray next week (hopefully) so if anyone has any suggestions on what I can do to entertain myself or what will aid my recovery once the cast is off feel free to drop me a line, please!

The Second Coming

The comp has been and gone, needless to say I was a little rusty and very unfit but I had a fun day out.

It started looking bad as I was working nights the week leading to it so on the Saturday evening when it started snowing I was getting quite concerned. The following morning driving through Buxton and along the A515 it was looking doubtful as to whether or not the comp would still be on, there were quite a few snow drifts blown across the roads along with the odd van and car "parked" in the dry stone walls at the sides.

I finally arrived to find a lot of the riders had either not bothered to make the journey or got there and thought better of the weather and gone home early, I however was up for a challenge and wanted to get my new bike tested out in it's true home! Throughout the day the weather switched between light snow showers and strong winds and the quarry where the trial was held was very wet and muddy, with sections made up of steep bankings and slippery rocks I knew it was going to be hard going and with one section already called off as it was deemed too dangerous to ride I was feeling a little nervous.

The other casualty the trial suffered from the weather was a lack of observers but wanting to press on we worked a way around the usual plan of 2 laps of 8 sections by completing 4 sections twice and then having the observers swap across to the remaining 3 sections for us to complete twice. Despite all this though everyone that had stuck it out had a great day, overall I finished 5th which I was definitely pleased with. It had been 5 months since I'd been near rocks on a trials bike and having never ridden a 24" that wasn't a street bike I didn't know how I'd cope.

Now speaking of my new bike I've had word from Marino last night that he has started my new frame! I've made a few slight improvements to it such as a one piece seatstay for more tyre clearance and magura mounts in case either my disc brake dies or I simply want to go back to rim brakes. Anyway, he's sent me some work in progress shots and with any luck should be finishing it off today so hopefully I'll have it in the next couple of weeks when I can sort out a paintjob and graphics.

 

TGS Ain't My Bag Baby

New bike is fully built up for now, I'm pleased with how it looks and it's how I imagined it would be. First comp on it this weekend (March 10th) so it'll be interesting to see how I cope.

From riding street I'm struggling to transfer across to my new compy 24. I'm sure with a bit more practice I'll get back into it but for now I need to get back to the basics, also will help to tighten bolts up before I ride.

New Toys!

 After almost a year off I finally found a good deal on a muni (mountain unicycle) from www.unicycle.uk.com so picked this up the other day. It's a 29" Nimbus which, once I've got back into it, will hopefully be used for some trails and the odd commute. If you've never ridden a unicycle I'd recommend trying one out, they're great fun and highly addictive!

Next, seen as this probably won't be checked by many people I'll allow a sneak preview of my new Marino 24" comp bike. The frame will be getting replaced by one which is slightly different though that's another story so for now here is the current progress.

I've got the wheels and pedals to go on, just awaiting cranks and bash, tyres kindly donated by a friend and a bottom bracket on loan (the frame was supposed to be built with a Spanish style press fit BB hence the replacement) and I can get it tested and some riding pics up along with the full spec and geo.

It's Been A While...

...since I last posted so I thought I'd best get an update in of what's been going on in life. GETcreative was judged and sadly I didn't win anything, on a good note though I did make what I thought was a pretty good video and easily the best edit I've put together so I'm all inspired for the next one. Congrats however to Jonathan Tollerud, Rob Harris and Sam Nichols who took 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively and all those who got spot prizes.


British Trials Championship is my next bit of news, sadly due to some unavoidable circumstances I didn't manage to make Hook Woods meaning I only rode 4 of the 7 rounds and missed out on the chance at taking the Championship. The last round took place at Shipley Glen on 23rd October and for this I decided to build a new bike up a bit more suited to comps, I don't know if this made the difference but I had a good ride and took a very close 2nd out of 7 which bumped me into 2nd overall which I was very happy with.

Preperation for next year is already underway with a custom frame currently under construction in Peru, more on that later.





Finally, the year is almost at an end and we are into the month of Movember. For those who've never heard of it Movember is a worldwide campaign to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer by the growing a moustache or "mo".
3 weeks in and mine is coming along well though today I've made a bid to pull in a few more pounds towards this awesome cause. I hope it works!

GETcreative

Well here is the finished product, hope you enjoy!

Dave Barratt - GETcreative from Dave Barratt on Vimeo.