Sunday 3rd July saw us hit Chopwell Woods again. Apologies to anyone who wanted a linkup - I couldn't check e-mails this weekend because of work going on at the house.

Jason's Triathlete buddy Andy managed to grab a day off work, and we put him on Golly's "spare" Barracuda. As well as 5.5" of rear travel with a RockShox Sid Air Shock, this now has Marzocchi Z1 5" Drop Off forks at the front with LX gears, Truvativ chainset and Hayes disc brakes, so it's a decent little machine. This enabled Andy to enjoy the trails a bit more but he's not resting on his laurels and has ordered a Specialized Epic, due this week some time! John was also out on strange machinery, taking up the missing David's (on holiday) offer of a try on his Kona Coiler Dee Lux.

We left the Rock Dwellers hole about 11.00 and reached Chopwell half an hour later. Unloading the bikes was a struggle, as the Barracuda, which was hanging on the carrier last, got tangled up with the Bear and silly old Gollum yanked it away as hard as he could. Fifteen minutes later on the first decent downhill blast he realised exactly what silly means, as there was no rear braking from the 205mm Hayes HFX-9. Closer inspection revealed hydraulic oil all over the place (at the top of the Downhill Run!) and a split hydraulic hose. A prick had done it. I thought it was sliding a lot coming down the Rooty Run! Strangely enough, and co-incidentally both Jasons' and Davids' rear HFX's are pulling back to the handlebars, but that's air in the system or pad wear, not an old tosser dragging their brake lines over massive pedal pins.

Anyway, that was a great excuse to take things a bit slower than normal but it still caused a few scares and one decent face-down fall down a fern covered hillside. We showed Andy the Downhill next, then our four-stage run from the Bomb Hole. John was really lapping up the Coiler and it wasn't long before he was comparing it very favourably to his Saracen. His exploits, riding style and speed have now reached the point where he's going to break it unless he passes it down the line to wife or daughter and gets something meaner.