floating? popping? wheelies?

last weekend i was down in the new forest with a few old faces for some training with zippy and patsy. leaving the grey of london behind, i arrived at somerley park in bright sunshine and blue skies, it was going to be a great day!

zippy had laid out a course for us to ride at our leisure, approximately 15 mins per lap, the route contained a great mix of tight forest sections, deep 'puddles', fast tracks, steep ascents and descents, cambers, whoops and bumps, plenty to practice on which was the purpose of the day. not having to compete with anyone except yourself meant you could make mistakes and then practice until you got it right. try different approaches, different lines, sitting, standing etc.

taking a breather after being chased down by zippy for a lap!

looking like a pro ; )

(photos care of steve alyard)

courtesy of sean


and another


managed to squeeze in a last minute training session on friday down in sussex with zippy, ross, sean and myself - patsy was there to greet us and show us her scar.....so much for key-hole, this must have been about 7/8 inches long, but she loves it really ; D

the purpose the day was to master 'floating' the front wheel over obstacles like puddles, ditches, roots and fallen trees or branches. bascically the bigger the obstacle the higher and longer the front wheel has to remain in the air! some very funny scenes followed as we tried to float the front wheel, we all got the front end up enough to either fall off the back or run along behind our bikes!! ultimately it's an invaluable technique to enable faster travel and greater control over difficult terrain.

i wouldn't say we mastered it, but we certainly know now the technique required and will be practicing at any opportunity!! it's such a great feeling to be able to either pick the front wheel up whilst sitting down or standing up just using the throttle - technically this is called 'popping up' the front wheel rather than a wheelie, which is basically a long 'pop up'!!

we also tackled berms, deep ruts, some larger obstacles and flat corners, with top tips from master zippy. and then not thinking we'd tackled enough, ross asked zippy to find us a really difficult climb to end the day........ we made it home before dark!!