Glentress Newbies - Wed Afternoon

AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

I am going to be doing some Red/Blue/Skills Loops (or something like that) on Wednesday 4th July to celebrate independence day..

Not really, I am going down with nine folk from my office, most of whom have never been on a mountain bike so should be an experience.

Anyone fancy coming along to help out on Wednesday afternoon?

13:15 @ The hub

Cheers

Alan

househusband · Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:32 am Post subject:

If you fancy doing something in the evening a few of us (Saz, DaveB, Moray and I) are paying the Eildon Hills (Melrose) a wee visit in the evening. Much fun to be had in a relatively compact area.
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AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

If still out may well do that - where abouts and what time?

Supposed to be Kayaking tonight but not convinced... got wet enough at teh weekend doing that.

Daveb · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 794 Location: Midlothian

Think we should be getting there att about 6:45pm
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Dave

househusband · Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:58 am Post subject:

Meet here:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=355342&Y=630513&A=Y&Z=1

Easy road to remember, as Moray pointed out...
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AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

will call if I am gonna make it

AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

ahwell - not so hot.

Yesterday did not go quite to plan...

Took ages to get to the top with a fair amount of pushing, puffing and walking to be had.

Had to go up to Spook Woods pretty much direct as a few parts were closed due to logging. First jump on Spooky Woods resulted in the untimely end of ride for non other than my new Boss.

As he was going into the ambulance (after getting carried down the hill by the team since the air ambulance was grounded) his last remarks to me were something along the lines of "your going back to Corporate" - oops!

I did point out that it was his idea for me to arrange it Surprised

P

So he has 2 severe breaks of his collar bone (a chunk is floating about in no mans land) and cracked shoulder blade aswell. Helmet done its job before it split in two though.

Till next time!

Alan

Dwayne · Guest

Why did I think that you taking a bunch of newbies out was going to
end in disaster? Big group of novice riders straight to the top of
Spooky Woods, hmm......

On the bright side, if your boss is off for a while you have opened
up a promotion path for yourself!

--- In mtbscotland@yahoogroups.com, AlanK <mtbsnew@...> wrote:

streako · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 193

Bad luck dude. Perhaps not the best idea to let amateurs tackle Spooky Wood!

Even semi-pro riders like Hamish have had the occasional tumble on that stretch.
Hope your boss recovers well and doesnt hold it against you!

jodeskid · Joined: 09 May 2006 Posts: 173 Location: Glasgow

Noobs up spooky woods mmmmm recipe for disaster

On 7/5/07, Dwayne <thisisplainstupid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

Would have missed it out but couldnt get over to where I wanted to be cause of the logging so told them all to roll down and take it easy. Also suggested they use chicken runs for the first part.

Apparently did not enforce that rule very well, oh hum

Alasdair · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 355 Location: Edinburgh

I thinks Spooky can be done by novices, it just really depends on your confidence level. If you're in experienced company as Alan's boss clearly was, and you are made aware of the risks and know your limitations, you shouldn't really go wrong.

The problem comes when overconfidence sets in, or where you brick it and freeze up. Then again, this could be due to initial overconfidence, where you have a moment where you think "Hey, I can actually do this", which is followed by the inevitable reality/gravity check.

First time I went to GT, with Alan actually, we did most of the red, substituting black for red in places. I got on really well because I was confident in my bike and knew my limitations, yet was able to have stretch goals to push myself a bit. We also recently took a guy round the red on his first time on his current bike, and his first time offroad since he was a kid.

It's more than just who you're with, it's how you see yourself on the bike.

al

stuartw · Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 396 Location: Glasgow

Oops, i bust my collar bone on spooky wood last year.

Mark Lister · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 410 Location: Edinburgh

Alan adds his boss to the list of stuff he's broken! Job done!

Mark Lister
Coaching for men and self-employed people
http://www.markthecoach.co.uk
http://www.FatherOfTheManBlog.blogspot.com

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AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

lol Mark - So true

Getting grief at work for trying to kill my boss just because my appraisal is due

AlanK · Site Admin Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 598

My Boss called this morning, after his visit to the fracture clinic.

It seems his bone needs to be pinned and this will involve surgery either Tuesday or Thursday -oops!!

However can I pay homage to him for quickly getting a new sport into the olympics -:

Scotland England Wales Austria and Switzerland are currently leading the way in "bike diving". A somewhat dangerous sport where competitors hurtle down a gradient scoring points for artistic impression as they part company with their bikes and roll impressively downwards.

I scored my boss with 8.5

10/10 for facial expression whilst airborne, 8/10 for speed, 9/10 for danger element and 7/10 for resultant distance between bike and competitor - a great effort and only 0.5 off the current world record !!

AK