Archive for the ‘afan mountain biking wales’ tag
Afan with full suspension
It was time again to visit the Afan valley for our yearly dose of fun, technical mountain biking trails. The same team as last year: myself, Andy, Mark and Chris arrived on the Friday night to get our very specific and convoluted instructions for parking from the land lady of our B&B before escaping to the excellent pub (the only pub for that matter).
Not wanting to start the riding with a hangover, after 2 pints i scanned the lighter options at the bar for something I thought I could get away with. “Ahh, how about a Mojito?” I announced. Nice try. Mark and Andy were very firm that ordering such beverages was not going to be part of the weekends activities. I managed to get away with a G&T…
Having last year felt the full force of each and every bump and scraped the skin off the inside of my thumbs from holding on for dear life to my v-brake levers, I decided to take the opportunity to try a full suspension bike for the weekend. So I rented a KHS from Afan Valley Bike Hire. This turned out to be a great decision as not only was the riding experience completely transformed but also the bike was delivered to our B&B early on the Saturday morning and I didn’t even have to wash it! I’d recommend hiring one of these to anyone thinking about riding at Afan who (like myself) doesn’t do enough technical riding to justify buying their own full suspension bike.
The weekend wasn’t without incident though. Chris had various mechanical failures – a broken chain in the first 30 seconds, numerous chain derailments and a rear derailleur fall to pieces half way round the Skyline. Thankfully, Mark was ready to help out with his trusty chain removal tool and all problems could be fixed on the trail. Not so for Mark himself though who suffered a leak and subsequent loss of all brake fluid in his rear brake. We were just half way up the first hill at the time so it was down to the shop at Glyncorrwg for repairs for him. Andy managed to fall off (also whilst climbing the first hill) and damage his thumb to the point where he couldn’t use it to grip the handle bars or change gear. He valiantly continued on and completed the skyline using his left hand to change both sets of gears.
My ride was incident free, though I did find by the end of the weekend I had suffered an onslaught of mosquito bites… over 100 PER LEG (I tried to count and gave up at 100), plus plenty more on the arms, neck and head. Thank goodness for my nice tight cycling shorts stopping them from getting anywhere else! The day after the trip I had to resort to spreading Anthisan over my legs like it was sun cream to try to stem the itching. All is good now though and despite the incidents we will definitely go back next year for more (though I will be wearing Jungle Formula insect repellent)…
