Thetford meet 13th April - The aftermath

[REKIBorter]

Cracking ride chaps, great to meet up with Jonnyboy666 & King Salsa. Highlights of the day; Average Mark making the disabled toilet a no go area. First bit of singletrack - last second decision to go left instead of normal right. Bombhole fun - Matt showed us how to do it. The Beast - always fun. Porkpie Trail - so good we rode it twice. Boy'O'Boy having a spot of trouble with a trail marker. Lunch. Red Route - despite being warned the newly surfaced parts were slippy the new bits are great, flying round berms with the danger of a front tyre wash out keeps your reactions keen. Riding retro gives you wind. The 39 Steps - always great despite the gap jump being filled in. The surface of the trails was slightly damp which gave incredible grip and some silly speeds through the trees like a scene from Star Wars on speeder bikes through the forest.

The bad bits of the day; mechanicals, the midges :evil: and a puncture - grouped together at the exit of some singletrack - ssssssssssssssss, someones got a puncture, sssssssssssssssssss, everyone looks at each others bike, sssssssssssssssssssss, everyone checks there own bike, sssssssssssssss, "Oh, it's me" I say, picking a flint out of my tyre. Bad traffic congestion on the way back - understand the A14 was closed southbound just before Newmarket.

I only managed a couple of pictures, too busy riding, knackered now but at least the bike doesn't need a clean. Cracking day overall and can't wait for the next one.

 

[jonnyboy666]

just got in after dropping off matt (king salsa). feel good, will be chucking up pics in abit, need shower and sustanance first!!

 

[jonnyboy666]

Right then! first things first

anyone who was thinking of coming should have ridden today, singletrack heaven!!!! :shock:

thanks to everyone for guiding me and matt, awsome day, amazing trails, and top guys (as usual i've noticed on retro rides)

i set off at about 7.20am from my place, picked up king salsa aka matt 10 miles away at his place and headed for the motorway, 3 and a bit hours later with a quick call to rekiborter(chris) we find the guys sat outside the tea rooms in the carpark, hands are shaken and the conversation turns quickly to bikes!

then the riding starts, endless singletrack that goes on forever!!! you could ride in there for days, no real hills just constant flowing singletrack!! :shock: i found myself smiling the whole ride.

i did discover one thing though, my aluminiumO rides like it has trotters instead of tyres!!! don't get me wrong, the bike does everything it is supposed to and is functionally perfect but even though everything is as it should be the handling is slightly off, think it is the head angle.

 

[jonnyboy666]

more pics, by the way, pics in no particular order!

 

[jango]

Great ride chaps and good to see some new faces too, I just can't get enough of the singletrack there .......and it was dry all day

I should've carried on riding as with the hold-up on the way home, it must have taken me 3hours :cry:

until the next one.......

 

[jonnyboy666]

traffic was poo! took 30mins to get out to the main road (should be about 4mins) luckily we had to get the GT i won on ebay, so we went in a different direction than we would have if we were going straight home, when we got there the ebay seller told us there had been a massive crash on the road we would be going on, so matt adjusted the satnav route to avoid it all, bit of hassle but atleast we weren't sat in all that traffic, we saw it when we crossed a flyover over the motorway, total carpark!!

lucky escape!!

 

[neilll]

Looks like a good day....maybe next time

Neill

 

[legrandefromage]

fudge.... :evil:

 

[boy"O"boy]

i did discover one thing though, my aluminiumO rides like it has trotters instead of tyres!!! don't get me wrong, the bike does everything it is supposed to and is functionally perfect but even though everything is as it should be the handling is slightly off, think it is the head angle.

......... you want to get a 150mm stem like mine Jon, that'll really mess up the handling!

Another enjoyable retro rideout...... well worth pushing to finish the decorating early to get a day pass for this one!

Thanks again for the speed link to fix my dodgy chain. Just need a hacksaw on that stem now!

Retrobike gives you wind....... paaaaaarrrrrpp!.... it was like a barbers' shop quartet!


Here's a link to our route....... shame I forgot to turn it on for the 1st 10mins!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/7994164

Cheers,
boy"O"boy

 

[neil__j]

Excellent ride with fantastic conditions this time, nice and grippy everywhere except the new bits of gravel on the red route which will hopefully bed in fairly quickly. Good to have a bigger than normal turnout with plenty of old bikes as well.

The route doesn't look anywhere near as spidery as expected.

Shame about the traffic though.