Covid has pretty much killed off all social groups, including the BTW (Birmingham Tiny Whoopers). We were only loosely a micro drone club to begin with, focussing more on the quirky beer and flabber-gobbing about the world, but we did get some flying in. We even put on an AWESOME race event at (RIP) Kongs Birmingham. This brought me to the fringes of the organised Whoopers who engage on a country wide level to put on events and races.
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Bed-Bombs
You know when you are in bed and randomly wake up. You get that sort of confused and upside down feeling before you know what’s going on? Then, as you roll over wondering why, you tense a very specific muscle before the reason becomes self evident. You must pee.
Continue reading Bed-BombsShagged Shox
After getting my bike back with the bad news my rear shock is knackered, I figured I’d just ride it anyway.
We met up with Stephen at Cannock today for a very wet MTB ride. It was raining consistently so we thought there wouldn’t be many people out, but apparently loads of other people had the same idea as us, so the car park was as busy as ever.
We set off up the climb, starting Follow The Dog from the halfway point. Things were going great and I was really enjoying being back on the bike. It rolled really nicely, changed gears beautifully and was as springy through the bumps as I remember.
About 2 sections from the forest centre, I noticed my pedals striking the ground a little more often than usual. The rear shock must have lost pressure or something – they had told me it was knackered… The bike was sitting a bit lower than it should and so the pedals were hitting more often. No worries, we went over to the bike shop and borrowed a shock pump to top it back up.
But the shock was still at 300psi, where I had set it before starting out today. Turns out, after chatting to a bloke in the queue for the shop, that the air reservoir on the other side of the ports can go into negative pressure if the ports aren’t working correctly. Basically it’s letting air out, but not back in again and so pulls a vacuum. I was measuring the pressure on one side of the ports only and while that was maintaining pressure, the net pressure in the system was significantly lower than what it needed to be. There is no way to access the other side of the ports without specialist tools and a workshop – not something I can do at all, let alone trail-side.
Well… Shit
This is the end of my riding for today – It truly is knackered
I spent the rest of the day waiting in the van for Aimi and Stephen to finish the Monkey trail. I busied myself making tea and eating hot soup while watching all the other bikers race around in the rain and cold. I was happy to be warm and dry, but envious of their fun.
I trawled the internet for a replacement shock. The bike center had quoted me £490 which is an eye watering amount. I found a couple sites selling it for about £350 which is better but then I found a site offering it – brand new – for £180. The only catch is its 6mm shorter travel than my current shock.
This is a very hard dilemma for a penny pincher like me because I know I need a new shock and there will be cost involved. I want to get the best deal possible and while this is a great deal and will save me over £300, its not quite the right bit. There are a few very good instructional youtube videos that say you shouldn’t change the dimensions of your shock. But these guys have to say that because they would be in deep dog doo if someone did it on their recommendation and it damaged their bike.
The only dimension that is different on this shock from mine, is the travel length. Its still the same size physically, but the stroke is 6mm shorter. When installed and operating through the suspension linkage, this may actually be 20-30mm travel at the rear wheel which – while noticeable – is also negligible given I’ve never bottomed out my rear suspension and I’m not a pro rider by any stretch of the imagination. Reducing the travel, is not ideal but it wont damage the bike by letting the frame components come into contact with each other – something that increasing the travel could do – so I’m going in the safe direction.
A few mm of travel is a compromise I can live with so I’ve ordered it. Hopefully it will fit well and work fine – if not, I guess I’ll have to return it and buy the “correct” and more expensive one.
I’ll let you know…
Legitimising The Van – Boxes Pt.1
For a long while now (has it really been 2 years…!!!) I have been converting my Van to a Campervan. Most of the important parts are there but it’s still technically a Van, whether or not I’ve spent a night in it. In my eyes, any vehicle you’re happy to sleep in, could be called a campervan but I understand what when it comes to the DVLA registration of a vehicle they need to set certain standards.
Little Progress
I have made several advances over the last few weeks. None of them dramatic but all important and all that have taken much more time then you would think. Its surprising how much time needs to be spent just looking and thinking about a problem before it can be solved.
Dried Up Waterfalls
I’ve not really planned walks before that I haven’t already done. Last week in Snowdon I took people up Ranger Path, but I’d done it before. Normally people planned stuff and asked me to come along which is great but meant I hadn’t had the chance. This time, it was just me and Steve so I planned my ideal walk.
Snowdon… Again
Today was a monster! One of the major objectives of this holiday was to go up Snowdon with Aimi. She had never done it before. I could have taken her the easy route but where’s the fun in that?
Naughty Climber
I had bought myself a ticket over to Phi Phi from a booth in Ton Sai last night. It was 400b (£10) which is far cheaper than I expected. The chap at the booth told me to get to the longtail boats on the beach at 9am. Because I’m British I was there at 8:45. By 9:15 I was concerned I’d somehow missed it, but people were still turning up so at 9:30 I resigned myself to “island time”. At 9:45 the ferry showed up and the longtail boatman sprang into action, heaving rucksacks into the boat and helping people aboard.
Shit Culture
Koh Tao is a significantly smaller island than Koh Pangan. There is really only one town spread along the major bays beach. I imagine it was historically 2 towns but now the resorts and bars have filled in the middle. After our relatively hard night out (my definition of going hard on a night out has dramatically changed since dancing elephant) we slept in late. Phil slept longer, maybe some jet lag, so I went for breakfast.
West Coast Blast
Today I had quite a long bike journey ahead of me. Starting in Westport my destination was Franz Josef, the town that serves all the walkers and tours visiting the glacier. I had been told that this glacier was nothing on the ones in America, but as I’ve never seen a glacier before, I was looking forward to it.