Kielder bike demo day

Post about recent day up at Kielder Forest – more details of this series in general is here. Drafted 07 March 2010.

Intro

It is with achy limbs and a weary body that I put together this post, to record my satisfying day up at Kielder Forest testing mountain bikes.

We are extremely lucky in the North East of England, and also the South of Scotland, in that mountain bikers are catered for in Forestry Commission woodland that covers swathes of our part of the UK.

In a series of forests from Dumfrieshire to East Lothian, the Seven Stanes MTB centres provide what's effectively a rollercoaster for pedallers - you hop on your steed, twiddle in the lower gears to the top of a hill through fir trees galore, and then launch yourself back down the hill to generate as much adrenaline as possible, and thereby a grin The Joker himself would be proud of.

Kielder Forest

I dare say Kielder is best known for its reservoir, built near the head of the River North Tyne to provide for Tees-, Tyne-, and Wear-side, and the now defunct steelworks at Consett I believe.

The natural splendour is complemented by the beauty of having a focus for outdoor activities, and a (mostly) decent road to get there.

Our local business development and tourist authorities have seen fit to provide for a developing centre for mountain biking in the North East, to complement venues such as Hamsterley Forest and Chopwell Woods [I'm sure there are others].

You may recall other posts I have written about being up in this remote but striking part of the County, and so it was with glee that I discovered mountain biking's roadshow was going to hit Town Kielder village. ;-)

Bike Demo Day Series 2010

I am lucky enough to have been given a subscription to What Mountain Bike? for the last 4 or 5 years.

I therefore knew about this event as What MTB? were the organisers. The bikes I booked myself to ride today:

• Giant Genius 50
• Lynskey LT
• Norco Shore

I was also hoping to have a ride of a Lapierre Zesty 314 or similar, but they were all booked out all day – Hotlines being a happy distributor!

So what actually happened was:

• I rode a Scott Spark 20, and managed to put myself on the deck after getting over-excited on a downhill stretch (happily my body armour came in handy)
• Rode the Lynskey - which was great, but I've already got a hardtail. It had really wide handlebars, which I ended up quite liking :-)
• The Shore turned out to be a bike for going downhill very fast indeed, but it was not designed for the riding I do, so I quickly took it back and rode a Norco 6.1 instead – much better!
• Went back to the nice people at Scott (aka Arnie) and rode a Genius 20 – tremendous! Genius has
• A carbon frame – great for chucking around the singletrack
• It was an extra large though (food for thought)
• Arnie reckoned the reason the back-end kicked out a few times was probably down to tyre selection
• I loved the 6” travel, but there’s a great gizmo on the handlebars to selectively lock out fork / shock / both
• I liked being able to dial down the front fork for going uphill
• A bar-controlled adjustable seatpost would complete the picture, but it’d be a pretty expensive one! :’(

I managed to leave my driver’s licence with the registration desk so big shout to Future Publications for sending it back, and am thrilled that a) someone turned my digi camera into Purple Mountain, and b) they’ve sent it back – tremendous effort & much kudos to them.

Photos

Feedback

Quick thoughts:

• Tremendous to have the mountain bike brands come to Northumberland – real feather in the cap of folks like Kielder Train Reavers
• Folk had come from round about and also from afar – i.e. 2 hours away.
• The weather was very kind, although still a bit chilly the Sun came out later in the day (and just as well).
• Great learning experience for me – my best ride was on the (rather expensive) Scott Genius.
• Helped to work out what sort of bike I might like to buy as a full suspension bike option for the future.

That’s probably about it for now :-)

UPDATED to sort out the link to Purple Mountain... :$

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Deadwater MTB trail - Kielder Forest

A post to commemorate taking the afternoon off last Thursday, and taking my bike up to Kielder. As per my tweet:

First piece of Leave this year - taking the pm off, & the MTB up to Kielder

Named after Deadwater Fell, part of Kielder Forest, and more about which is here. Most of the trail has been built by Kielder Trail Reavers, supported by The Bike Place.

Learning points

The trail is bearing up well, but has become quite uneven, with lots of stones, where the surface has been worn away.

• My fantastic Marzocchi Bomber fork needs pumping up – it was slightly hairy going off large rocks / bumps and the forks compressing more than I’d have liked. Where is that shock pump?! Gah
• My skills & stamina definitely need a big improvement!
• Also, my brakes needs sorting / bleeding & new brake pads installed

btw, if you double-click on the photo of my bike and the associated gear, you will open a browser window at Flickr, as I have annotated the photo (and the next couple…).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike license.

Where we live

I wanted to write a brief paean to where we live, as we have enjoyed it so much.
Unfortunately we are moving when our lease expires in July because of circumstances beyond our control. So I thought I’d post whilst the going was good.
You’ll find a fair few photos of the countryside around where we live via my Flickr account.

My home office

We used to live in North Shields, so to move out into the lovely Northumbrian countryside has been a literal and metaphorical / metaphysical breath of fresh air. :-D
Other plus points is that where we live:

• It’s not too far from Newcastle upon Tyne: about 30 mins from the Metrocentre & central Newcastle
• It’s good for mountain biking
  
  • I can hit the country roads and green lanes from straight out the back door
  • It’s closer to Kielder forest, where there is all manner of cross country mayhem courtesy of Kielder Trail Reavers
• There’s a brewery half a mile away, which we can drink at the the Black Bull
• It’s nice and quiet and it gets pretty dark in the evenings (if the light from Newcastle & Gateshead doesn’t reflect off the clouds)
• Towards the North West, the sky at night is very clear and it’s possible to see some amazing stars (and a few shooting ones)
• There is a varied slew of wildlife out and about, including:
  
  • Deer
  • Bats
  • Cows / Sheep
  • Kestrel
  • Badgers
  • Foxes
  • Mice
  • Song birds
  • Toads
  • Sundry insects
  • Rats
  • Feral cats
  • All manner of birds
  • There’s a few horses knocking about, too

Jarvis, our dog, loves it as he chases the pheasants, partridges etc. that lurk in the cover around and about. We get to walk him in various places, which keeps us fit, too.
There *are* downsides:

• Winter can lasts for 4-5 months, can we windy, wet & snowy; it can be expensive to run an oil-fired central heating system
• Broadband is pretty hopeless – we’re at the end of a 9km line, at the limit of usability really
• The pigs being reared next door can get a bit smelly!

So that’s it. We’re hoping to move down the road, so watch this space.
UPDATE: This is new house [ok, so it’s the garden at the top-left corner, but you get the drift ;-)]

Technorati Tags: northumberland,north east england,nice,wildlife,broadband,home

Ditches, Cundies, and Burns

A blog post about water drainage – and the lack of it.


It’s a times like these when I’m driving or cycling in our locality, when I feel a bit hacked off. Hacked off because the roads are awash with water, and roads and driving conditions are worse than they need to be.

Photo credit to Steve took it

With the snow rapidly melting, I think it should be running down ditches, flowing away through cundies (drains of loose stones), and into small streams that Northumbrians [and others] call burns.

The problem was particularly bad last year in early September, when a Northumbrian market town was inundated by flash floods. The roads around us were impassable in places, which meant it was tricky getting to the wedding of a couple we know.

The bride was stuck in a traffic jam when the Newcastle to Carlisle road was closed due to flooding, and the priest had to be rescued when his car engine was overwhelmed by standing water! The ceremony went off without a hitch, but about 50 minutes late…

I have been out myself from time-to-time, digging away at the verges on the road that leads up to our house, to let the water run-off into the ditches which usually are cut between the verge and hedgerows / fencing.

In doing so Jim, our next-door neighbour and ‘deputy farmer’ has called over and said I shouldn’t be doing the Council’s job. So, in writing this post I assumed that the Castle Morpeth or Tynedale Council were being dilatory.

A quick Google search showed this FAQ and made me think again:

“Roadside Ditches

Do you know who is responsible for looking after ditches? This is one of our most frequently asked questions.

Ditches on private land are the responsibility of the landowner, roadside ditches are normally the responsibility of the adjoining landowner, legislation permits the Highway Authority to discharge rain water from the highway into these ditches.

In order to keep ditches and drains working properly we advise landowners to:

• clean the waterways on your land regularly to ensure water is able to drain from the highway.
• check headwalls and grills regularly.

Rainfall certainly seems to be more intense these days and this does cause more drainage problems.

If everyone regularly maintained their ditches, a large number of the county's drainage problems would not occur. This would save a great deal of council taxpayer's money that is being used to solve the problems caused by blocked ditches and drains.”

Another hit was this:

“Who is responsible for roadside ditches?

The Highway Authority is permitted to use roadside ditches for the drainage of the highway.

Unless constructed specifically for the drainage of the highway, the maintenance of these is normally the responsibility of the adjoining landowner and not the Highway Authority. If road flooding occurs as a result of obstruction in these ditches the Highway Authority may exercise its legal powers to require the riparian owner to clear the ditch.”

A hit for activities around Alston (in the South of the County) are also enlightening:

Re: 2e/JAN/08 Cllr Pennell reported that he has researched the issue of responsibility for roadside ditches on the internet and noted that councils make a common presumption in law that the owner adjacent to the highway is responsible for the ditches. CALC have asked the county council to justify their position, but have not heard back yet, and the clerk has contacted the Country Landowners Association, who were unable to comment as the council is not a member. She has also e-mailed  the new NFU chairman for Cumbria, who is aware of the issue and willing to follow it up. 

The Traffic Management Committee met last month, and copies have been circulated of the County Council’s worksheet for employees on the cleaning of roadside ditches, and the Highways Act 1980 s101 which lists the power the Highways Authority has to fill in roadside ditches.

Cllr Phillips reported that he had spoken with Geoff Wilson from the Trail Riders Association, who had also offered to look into the issue of where the highway boundary should be. He added that if there is a case to fight, parish councils across the county should be in support. If needs be he will convene a meeting of the Rights of Way committee to discuss in detail.

It was observed that the county council have maintained the roadside ditches for thirty plus years, and it might be that in accepting responsibility for this they might have acquired that duty, possibly there is something about this in case law.

So, if you’ve read on this far – thanks for sticking with it! I had hoped to point the finger squarely at the Council and have done with it.

It now appears that maintaining ditches appears to be the responsibility of the landowner, and therefore I’m guessing it’s not a priority. However, the landowners may well reckon that the Council should be doing it - ergo no-one does. Dah!

I realise that the farmers keep the hedges in order, and it would be great if they could sort out the ditches on a regular basis, or else get a subsidy to do it – we’d all benefit IMO.

A shame that, as I not only agree with Gloucestershire Council but would also say that Councils wouldn’t have to pay so much in road repair bills because of the erosion this undrained water creates.

Bah.

Technorati Tags: frustrated,countryside,drainage,ditches,cundy,cundies,landowner,water