Wheelism

Yesterday was a good day.

During the daylight hours I rode with Mark and Stu from Bala Watersports, around some of the trails at Coed y Brenin that they were less familiar with. At various points during the ride we’d all stop and I’d break their bikes.

Trailside Maintenance was the reason for such vandalism: how to fix your bike when it breaks so that you can make it back to civilisation (in our case – the cafe) safely and quickly.

Getting to grips torn tyres and punctured tubes.

We covered everything from punctured tubes, broken spokes, lost jockey wheels, to crisped wheels, broken handlebars, and trashed rear mechs.

We even found time to visit the bothy in the woods for a quick lunch.

After night fell I was back out on the trails again, this time with Terry from Mid Wales Climbing, explaining the ins-and-outs of night riding. Terry was armed with our 1200 lumen hire lights, which properly light up the woods and, as well as having a real blast on some of the steeper Coed y Brenin trails sections, we also spotted some of the local fallow deer leaping across the trail.

All in all, a great end to a long and fabulous day.

Fancy a go at night riding on some of the best trails in the UK? Wheelism is offering guided rides over the Christmas period (and the rest of winter) at Coed y Brenin, starting at 6pm till 8:30pm. (Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays)

Come to the darkside!

We’ll cover route choice, the best and worst of lights, how to get your lights set-up properly, night-time trail skills, and how to stay safe in the dark!

The session costs £20 per person, or £25 if you want to hire lights.

So, drop us a line or give us a call on 07542 016021, then come along for some fun, safe, trail riding on the darkside!

I spent the day and night yesterday up at Nant Bwlch yr Haearn above Betws y Coed with Jonathan from 1MTB1 being assessed for the Night Riding Module add-on to the Mountain Bike Leader qualification.

It was a fun and involving day, spent sharing knowledge with a few other lads (also being trained and assessed) – Ron from The Mountain Bike Rock School of Nottingham, racing-snake Ross from Carmathen, and all-round-mountain-dweller Mark from Anglesey. Plenty of wide-ranging mountain bike experience amongst the group led to some interesting and in-depth discussions about lights, clothing, weather conditions, trail choice, group management skills, and that was before we got out to ride some of the sweet re-engineered sections of the Marin trail.

A small pool of light.

It’s amazing how different a place can seem when you take the light away, and how your riding senses sharpen and adapt to the dark and the quiet. I find that hearing comes into play a lot more – the silence means that you could hear what the rider in front is doing, rather than watching them (last night that could just have been down to Ron’s Hope hubs though!).

Roll calls were the order of the day (night) – an important tool to ensure you’re not losing riders on the trail in the dark. Expect to hear the call ‘Schwing!’ on the trails at Coedy a bit more in the future!