The inaugural meeting of the newly formed Dirty Bikers Mountain Bike Club was in July 2009.
For no reason, other than Bamford and Alan had decided upon the location, we met at Llandegla, North Wales.
As is the norm for those wanting a decent ride, we met at 9am .. strike that, we planned to meet at 9am but certain members couldn’t get their arse out of bed – Mike – and then the Cheshire lot got stuck in traffic on the M56, or so they say.
From memory, and it is failing at my age – 29, cough cough – we set off at around 10.30am. Weather started off ok-ish but later on in the day it turned to heavy rain, ah well.
The first part of Llandegla is a slow, steady climb. It’s not difficult and to be honest it’s a good way to get the lungs working. So after 20-30 mins, most of us were puffing and panting like old men. Speaking of old men, we had to wait another 20 mins for Pete to catch up, some excuse about pedals being loose. I reckon he was pushing!
The group was made up of a few novices and a few more experienced riders. So given the option of a beginners blue run, a more challenging red run, or a technical black run, it was of course logical for all of us to go down the black run – thanks Bamford!
To be fair, hope he’s not reading this, the black run was not much more difficult than the red route. It is of course quite technical in places, with steep slopes and some man-made obstacles, such as the following..
Llandegla Black Route Video 1 – Llandegla Black Route Video 2
After this is where the fun started. Mike fell off his bike, twice, but I think he only admitted to once. Pete got lost and it took us 20 mins to find him. And finally Mark took a nasty fall when he rode through a puddle .. with a 10-inch pot hole in the middle .. ouch. Big thanks to Bamford and Alan for looking after the injured, and to Mark for giving up his banana to help the recovery process.
All things considered, the inaugural ride was a great success, so much so that we set up this site and the club itself. Onwards and upwards and all that nonsense.
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Mark,
Cracking article, only I think your missing the part about you turning grey due to the administration of Ismael’s first aid techniques. Ismael, for future reference ‘Do not clean deep gouges in people’s knees with a pressure washer’ … its gonna hurt!
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Like it Mark, “some excuse about the pedals being loose”, how about the fact the thing had fell off!! Just glad we had the right alan key to screw the thing back on..lol.
Bring on the Marin trail this week and we can see who’s huffing and puffing.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Ah, yes, how I remember the pain well – thanks dude!