back to Travels page

Jason, Michelle, John and Terry spent the morning at the One Day Cycle Sale at Gateshead Leisure Centre, the principal reason for us not joining up with the Reivers again, although there were a few other reasons - see here.

After stocking up with all sorts of cheapo goodies we headed back home for the bikes, and set of for Chopwell (without Michelle), as there just wasn't enough time to go far. Jason hadn't been to the woods since mid December so he didn't know about the changes made to the trails by the North east Freeriders since Christmas. It was interesting to note his opinions on the new lower section and the changes to the top end of the Yellow Brick Road (as Gollum had nicknamed it) which has now become the Grey Stonechip Road. He was nowhere near as enthusiastic as John and I were the week before, and criticised the doubles at the bottom for being too slow to clear and the berms for being too tight. They are, as there's already evidence of hard braking gouging dirty great holes out of the middle of the last five berms. Maybe a rethink needed, but who are we to criticise? As we're paying our money next Sunday and doing a bit of trail work ourselves, we'll see what the Freeriders think of our observations. Hope they use rubber shovels.

We began the ride here, leaving out our normal flight down the Root Trail until later, and on the very first left turn Terry fell off his pedals and just managed to stay aboard painfully (left calf damage), until the very next left hander where the same thing happened again only seconds later causing him to fall into the deep Vee of the Cuda's top tube and be dragged along towards the tiny tabletop with the frame under his right knee (full right leg and arse damage). Managed to stay upright again but it hurts like Hell sitting here writing this some 8 hours later.

Got this little snatch of video of Jay and John tackling the new third stage entry coming out of the trees on the way down to the fireroad.

And here's the pair going slowly, just to demonstrate the lie of the land, on the new lower berms.

From the bottom we climbed back up the fireroad to the Forest Drive and made our way past the car to remove some clothing as it was a very warm afternoon now (about 1.30pm) and picked up a stranger to show him the Four Stages Run. Somewhere on here we lost him as Terry led Jason and John in a frantic rush down all four sections. We then descended the last bit over the stream before the short steep climb to the top of the Edge ride which takes you down to the river drop-offs on a ledge which is getting thinner and more dodgy as time goes on.

Climb time again, and we took the long but direct route on fireroads back to the Forest Drive, past the Forest Classroom, then straight up to the farm at the top end of the Woods. This is the top of the Root Trail which is at last almost bone dry, but for a wet ditch in the middle which caused John and Terry to stop and walk across, allowing Jay to make the break down to the bottom. It's a great test of how your bike and tyres handle roots running in all directions over the trail, highly recommended. Like the other sections, this lasts only a couple of minutes from start to finish. Just as Terry approached the end he tried to put on a spurt to impress the waiting pair below, but this unusual problem almost caused him to mate with the last tree on the trail when the drive train locked solid:- John points out the chain prob From here we raced back down to the start of the Grey Stonechip Road (GSR?) and had another non-stop blast . It was on the way down here with the Gollum leading the other two that Jason was forced to slide into a tree deliberately to avoid hitting it accidentally (you tell me!). Back to the car at 3.30pm and home for 4 so Jay could get ready for his overnighter at Newcastleton.

All comers welcome - mail us at bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk