Perhaps.

What's not in doubt is that cost will be a factor here and I doubt eBaying my current rotors will make much of a dent in the final bill. Their 'standard' workhorse rotors come in at $145 for a 160mm rotor so maybe I'll just have to stick with old fashioned steel for a little longer hmmm?

Makes Chris King hubs sound cheap doesn't it?!!

If you thought the Great Tyre Debate^™ was the nadir of mountain biking nerdiness though, think again. Some people get worked up about seat clamps...

Worse still you have to stop repeatedly to adjust the saddle because the cheapo seat clamp that came with the bike (I'm looking at the On-one example as exhibit A) has a weaker grip than a Tokyo Optician with RSI. Things can get so bad that in Mark's case, for example, he gave up completely and allen-keyed his post permanently at about three inches below where it should be. Mark, your saddle's too low?! ;o)

So, clearly these things bother me. Plus, it's always nice to have a bit of seemingly pointless bling on the bike. Over the past few months I've had experience of two seat clamps from well respected manufacturers, Salsa and Hope. And it's fair to say, one product is significantly better than the other.

First off, the Salsa. When I built up my singlespeed project, a theme emerged that provided an outlet to all those products that are available in anodised pink. Which meant that Salsa Cycles' flip-off seat clamp was an ideal candidate for my bike build.

I was a bit dubious initially as the nearest available size Salsa do for the Inbred is 30mm which is ever so slightly over-sized. I think the 'correct' size is supposed to be something like 29.8mm or something. Having read loads about Salsa's legendary quality though I was keen to give it a go and when it arrived I was very impressed by what I saw. It's not exactly a light bit of kit for what it is but it has nice organic curves and a long, sweeping clamp arm that has been much copied (by On-one cheapo ones for a start!).

The Salsa is made entirely out of anodised alloy with a brass pivot which helps explain it's relative weight but this also makes it feel as though this clamp is going to last you a long time. In particular, the long arm let's you get plenty of leverage without you having to imprint the manufacturer's name into your palm as you tighten. Always a risk when it's laser-etched into the anodising!

The Hope flip off clamp also made a favourable impression when I was talked into it by my bike shop. It's cheaper than the Salsa, is also made of alloy and comes in a choice of anodised colours with laser-etched graphics.

In contrast to the Salsa it has a thumb wheel for adjusting tension (rather than an allen key adjusted bolt) and the styling is much more industrial, consisting of intricately milled surfaces throughout. It appears (I haven't checked) to weigh less and certainly looks as though it has much less material - the clamp band itself is much shorter and the clamp arm, though similarly long, is also narrower.

On paper then and in the metal these clamps look as though they would offer similar performance. Unfortunately it just hasn't worked out that way.

The Salsa has been absolutely superb from day one. The clamping action is smooth and effortless and the wide clamp band means you can exert a lot of friction on the seat post without needing to tighten the thing as hard as you can. This means that in my experience the seat post just does not slip. Nor does it creak or prove difficult to release when I actually do want to drop my saddle.

In contrast, the Hope has been a disappointment as it just hasn't managed to do what I want it to do. Clamping forces need to be much higher thanks to the narrower clamp band and I really hate over-tightening these things. It's creaked, slipped repeatedly no matter how much I tighten it and proved a real pain when it comes to removal. So despite looking like a jewel on the bike I won't be keeping this product much longer.

Instead, I'll be tricking out my Orange with a red Salsa flip-off seat clamp like the pink one on my singlespeed. I know the industrial look of the Hope suits the Orange better but I really like the Salsa sexiness myself and at least I know it will work perfectly. After all, when you have a Five frame the last thing you want is something that will creak!

I've tried, I feel guilty not being able to recommend a British product, but in this case my experience says the Salsa is a better product.

More seat clamp pictures are available on Flickr.

I arrived to find Mark from Biketech with his mate Nick waiting for us. Jez followed and the Lee, Keith and JohnR arrived making the starting seven. Given the good weather and the fast drying trails Matt and I had already discussed a ride over to Leith Hill and I saw no reason to change that.

Starting off up the Admirals track I was amazed how much it had dried out in a week. The main puddles were still there but the rest was drying nicely. We found a decent pace and headed to Polesden Lacey followed by the descent under the two wooden bridges which was clear for a change as well as being dry, making it all feel very comfortable. Up Yew Tree Lane and we headed for Landrover via Badger Run. I quickly briefed the two visitors to what to expect and we headed off down.

Plenty of grip made it a real pleasure to head down and there was enough to descend at the speed you were comfortable at. We headed across the railway and disaster No.1 struck. I'm still a little hazy as to exactly what happened but the outcome was a rear mech hanging of Nick's Marin.

The dropout was swiftly replaced with a spare but after refitting the mech it became clear that it was bent well out of line. Game over for Nick and he decided that a walk back to the car was the best course of action despite Mark's offers to ride back and get his van.

We left Nick to amble back and we pushed on up to Westcott and then off to the Rookery climb. At the top of the climb we found a chap setting the course up for the Dorking Half Marathon (I think that was it, might have been the Leith Hill Half Marathon). Luckily it hadn't started yet so we headed for the Tower taking in the bomb holes at the top of Deliverance. Around here disaster No.2 happened.

Again, not sure what happened other than JohnR had a slow speed refusal and landed the bike on the bars. This bent the bar at a very strange angle. Whilst not a show stopper it was generally felt that John should stick to the flat from now on!

We headed up to the Tower and took in some rays while munching on cake and drinking tea. I partook in a rather fine Orange and Chocolate cake followed by a piece of flapjack. I also chatted to Mr LordOnOne Snr but LordOnOne himself appeared and I introduced myself, never having actually met him before despite several cyber-nods in the past.

His Singular was looking particularly fine with its Carbon Niner forks. He also gave the the heads up that he was looking at buying a KHS Flagstaff 29er full susser. This got me thinking that I might need to further narrow my class for the timed ascent of Box Hill. Given my class leading performance in the Full Suss 29er category I'm concerned the will now be another full suss 29er on the patch. I thinking I might need to rethink this to Intense 29er class leader...

JohnR and Keith opted to head back the direct route and headed off. I forgot to mention that Keith was trying his ContourHD camcorder out on his bike after a successful trial in the motorsport arena. I look forward to seeing some footage.

So off we set taking Personal Hygiene en-route to Waggledance and then Summer Lightning. At the end of the first section of SL we came upon a groupt fo some 15 riders. Spying RobM it became clear that this was a DoMTB outing and Rich stepped forward to shake my hand before returning to adjust Lee's strap-on. Luckily the strap-on was a GoPro HD so there was a lot of HD action over at Leith today! Letting them head off first we following down the second part at speed to find DaveB snapping photos on the exit.

From there we basically followed our route back, dodging runners down Wolverns Lane and opting to climb back to Ranmore via White Down.

A cracking ride and we can only hope that the weather holds for a while.

I'm as bad as the next man in that regard, show me a matte black and lime green 'colourway' and I go all weak at the knees. AndyC usually needs sponging down I think. And to think I used to lust after short travel full-sus bikes with black components...

What I've been trying to say, tangentally and in circumspect fashion is that I've recently come across a website of the Hipsteratti called 'Hipster Wife Hunting', a sort of place for Hipsters to gather together and mull the virtues and opportunities offered by marriage to young Hipster women (is it Hipster women, ladies, gals or [shudder] grrlz? I don't know).

Entirely safe for work but very suspect for your career, Hipster Wife Hunting shows that even the impossibly cool and most determinedly confident Hipster guys out there are just looking for good old fashioned love after all. Or maybe it's just someone to tell them 'it's OK to be different, in a swimming-against-the-tide-of-life-but-still-part-of-a-tribe sort of way'.

It almost makes you want to buy yourself a fixie with leather wrapped bull bars and a hairy top tube pad and go and hang out in Brooklyn or something. Or at least, somewhere near the Chiswick High Road.

Me? I'm just trying to see if any of the prospective wives want a dalliance with a slightly needy but very grateful man in his 'middle years'. Go on girls, be a bit different!

For those who were not able to join us in the pub on Saturday night (admittedly no invites were sent and we may have neglected to send out an agenda), the issue was soon resolved and the findings of the committee was that its horses for courses and to ride a full suspension bike really fast needs talent. So that should be the last we hear on the subject...

Choosing to ignore my suspicions and carry on proved to be a mistake however, as the introduction of mud soon saw the drive train give up the ghost shortly after the first run. Which leads nicely into my excuses.

I’m going to get mine in early – not enough sleep (sick child and wife), no gears, etc. But in reality I am horribly unfit and that’s what let me down. After my first race and full of the fire of competition I had sworn to train harder and do even better. A new role at work, coupled with the endless rain and cold pretty much killed off any motivation I had to ride in January, and with February passing in a flash, I find myself at the beginning of March fat and slow.

Dave however is not in the same physical condition and with wippet like speed he proceeded to bash out seven practice runs on the Saturday followed by two more for good measure on the Sunday. While I was wheezing my way up a very muddy slope to reach the start, Dave had reached the top and was running the top section.

Fortunately for me the track was only slightly different than the December race, with the section I crashed on being replaced with a wider sweep that took you across the firebreak and over some small drops, before sweeping back to join the lower section I was familiar with.

Track conditions were muddy but less so than December and the Maxiss Wetscreams I was running had more than enough grip, though I had to fettle the pressures as the track dried out. Dave’s Orange 5 was looking surprisingly DH like with a Swampthing on the front, High Roller rear, 50mm Azonic DH stem, Holzfeller riser bars and an E13 bash guard.

I put in a couple of runs of the top section, two runs of the middle and two of the lower before my energy gave out and I retired to the car to change my spring and then off to the B&B for an early bath.

Recommendations from some fellow moles meant that Geoff pulling out of the race didn’t result in me spending a night in the car. Emma was sent on ahead to secure the room and let Erin rampage around, making racing with a pregnant wife and a small child not nearly as bad as expected. We regrouped over dinner in the bar at the Fountain Inn which can only be described as functional and floral and over a few pints resolved the discussion that opened my ramblings.

A tough night for me, with both child and wife being sick at regular intervals meaning that looking out the window to rain nearly had me loading the car and heading home. However Emma was adamant I raced and so after breakfast and baby maintenance we got to the trail centre about 9.45am for practice.

Given lessons learned from the previous day I adopted a conservation of energy approach, only doing one full run before practice finished. Dave got a couple of runs in and had an interesting moment at the bottom of the table top where his entire bike stepped out and he luckily escaped a fall and collision with a tree. But he was looking fast and confident in the mud.

With time up for practice we headed for a rehydrate at the cafe before watching the race and slowly climbing to the start line. There is a lot of waiting around in DH racing and we spent a good portion standing at the top trying to stay warm and watch the line choices of the other racers. Before I knew it, time was upon us and I was standing at the gate watching the seconds count down.

With two seconds to go I crossed the line and pedalling through the mud, the words ‘steady’ and ‘breath’ were at the forefront of my mind as I aimed for a solid run with no crashes. A few mistakes on route but as I crossed the line and knew I had a solid time under my belt, no crash saw a 1:37.9 on the clock and I ended up in 24th place (20 seconds faster than my first race). I was happy with that, I just needed to hold that position or better it.

Dave’s strategy was the same as mine, get a solid run in on the first run, but he was caught up by a faster rider half way down who didn’t manage to get past cleanly on the narrow and technical section of track and they both collapsed in a heap. After untangling bikes and legs they both set off again, but there was an inevitable impact to both of their times, with Dave finishing in 1:56.5. Lunch beckoned, so off we went to the cafe for a hose of the drive train, and some sports fuel, tea and bacon and egg baps.

Dave developed a puncture in the bike wash and while he fixed it I took the opportunity to get a head start on the hill. Again I took my time watching the riders coming down, it was harder to work out where we were in the racing as in race 1 its number order (counting down) and in race 2 it’s by your previous time that dictates your start time. I watched the fast juniors through the sections but got to the top a lot quicker than I needed and watched the action. Dave joined me and again we waited for our start time.

One of the strange things on the second run is that when you’re walking up there are quite a lot of people standing around but being some of the last to run; by the time you get down most spectators have gone. You don’t have the same distractions as the first run, the odd camera flash in the eyes being the exception.

With a full run in the bag my second was my chance to better my time, I pedalled hard off the line but just before my first corner the gears slipped and I nearly went over the front. I managed to hold it and got back on for the second long corner, with gears not working I lost more speed but held my lines down into the road drop, another mistake and slightly off line meant hard pedalling (gears still slipping) into the middle section, gravity took over and I tried to keep off the brakes over the drops and across the fire break.

A small jump over some bumps and down into the rooty off camber section. Again another mistake robbed me of speed into the corner but I held my line and aimed for the gap next to the small tabletop. Clipping the tree with my shoulder came as a surprise but as I pedalled into the big table I had some speed left. Through the berms, over the road jump and pedal through the final berms. I crossed the line in 1:37.8. At least I was consistent. I ended up slipping to 28th.

Dave’s earlier off and slow 1st run time meant his start time for the second run was between two slower riders. He delayed his start as long as possible, leaving the gate just before the end of the countdown and achieved a clean run through the top sections. He lost some time after catching up with the rider in front 2/3rd’s of the way down; wary of another fall while passing, he wisely bided his time and passed him after the technical middle section.

The lower section saw both riders sprinted through the slop for the final table top, kicker and berms. With the spectators whooping, Dave finishing .3 of a second behind in 01:41.8

So, all in all a successful weekend of racing, we even missed all the rain that hit the South East.

Currently there are no more mini Dh events yet on the calendar but Dave and I are hoping for some more and maybe enter another series. Now all we need is a few more moles to join in...

A few pictures here:

Dave 1
Dave 2

Andy

Well, that's a good question. The correct name is Four4th Lights but you could be forgiven for getting confused – I know I have. I'm not sure what the name refers to but I guess it's something about riding at 4/4ths at night (i.e. flat out) and a play on the idea of 'go forth and have fun'.

After a chat with Del it turns out Four4th are based in Farnborough, in Hampshire and have close links to the aerospace industry. It provides access to state of the art CNC milling machines and a wealth of engineering resource to tap into which accounts for the impressive quality of the product, right down to the lovely anodised finish.

The Four4th Lights mountain bike light set

The Four4th Lights package is actually a reasonably conventional arrangement but differs really in key areas of detail. It follows the traditional Lumicycle route (and that of many others) by having a separate head unit connected to a remote battery. This approach allows Four4th to offer a wide range of configurations to suit most applications, with different lens and battery options to cover anything from commuting, to XC racing, to high speed descending. And everything in between.

As such, there's no definitive Four4th Lights set, as you configure it to suit you, but Del sent me a couple of typical sets. The first came with a pouch battery powering a head unit that features 4 Cree XRE-R2 LEDs with a narrow 10° spot lens. With 1200 lumens output (which has been independantly verified apparantly), the idea was that this would make a very useful helmet light.

The second set is just as interesting. It has a frame mounted battery that powers a head unit that contains 4 of Cree's latest XP-G LEDs focussed (colimated) through a 17° lens that should be giving somewhere near to 1600 lumens! That's an astonishing figure but it should be noted that this is a pre-production light at this stage. The wider beam spread means that it naturally works best as a bar mounted light I think.

Add all that up and you can see why I was quite excited to be taking to the hills with a combined 2800 lumen punch!

What about that Four4th Lights attention to detail then?

Well, I mentioned just now that it's the little things that set Four4th Lights apart from their competition. To be honest, that's quite literal as their head units are tiny! You can see from the picture how small they are in comparison to my Exposure MaXx-D which itself is a very compact 4 LED unit. But the Four4th ones are something else.

They are hexagonal in shape and are just 58.5mm x 32mm x 34.5mm in size (note the half mill sizes quoted - I told you they worked in aerospace engineering!). Each unit has a 'hood' at the top which helps reduce upward light spill, particularly useful when you're climbing out of the saddle and leaning over the bars. Cooling is accounted for by air movement, so the units are also ribbed across their surface and finished in a nice even anodised colour. I had a pink one to match my singlespeed and a charcoal colour for my crash helmet and they come laser-etched with the company's web address.

More details abound. The on-off switch is very large and features a positive click – once for on at half power, then once more for full power. With a bit of fiddling you can also switch to an energy-saving pulse mode but that's not one for epileptics. In the middle of the button is a small light which comes on when you have 15 minutes of juice left. The large button means it is extremely easy to operate with gloved hands.

Also worth noting is that the connectors are all aerospace grade which means they're corrosion resistant and screw on to give a joint that will not come adrift, ever.

The units are fixed to the bars or helmet via simple O-rings that hold the custom mounts in position. These allow the head unit to be easily snapped into place with one quick twist which is a clever idea. Another twist removes them or can position the unit in one of five positions so together with the adjustment from the O-rings it's very easy to get the beam pointing where you want it, even on the helmet light.

I had my reservations initially about the mounts for a couple of reasons. First, would the light stay put if I knocked it and second, over rough ground would it keep pointing where it was needed? As it happens, the mounts worked fine even when I clouted the helmet light on low branches or when rattling down Juniper Bottom (Happy Valley) – a decent test of the mount I think!

How were the Four4th Lights in use?

By the time it came to setting out with these lights you can see why I had pretty high expectations. With a massive number of lumens and being such nice looking units I was worried I'd be disappointed.

My first reaction was that faffing with batteries is such a, well, faff. I'm so used to just sticking my Exposure MaXx-D on my bike and setting off that it comes as a bit of a shock to spend a few minutes thinking about cables and battery placement and so on. In the end I managed to get the battery very securely mounted using the hook and eye fixing straps provided but it's not as painless as the Exposure. If you're coming from a more conventional bike light arrangement then you won't notice this though.

The second reaction is that having just two realistic output options (half or full) was a bit restricting. Again, I'm used to having the option of flash or low for road work, medium for 'just riding along' and full power for singletrack and I really do use all of those.

I kept worrying about burn time as the batteries supplied had no markings on them so I wasn't sure if they were the 2600, 3300 or 4500mAh batteries or how long that meant they'd last. I'm guessing the lights draw 1 or perhaps 1.2 amps or so on full, meaning I always had at least 2 and a half hours burntime but could never be sure. I guess if you order the lights yourself you'd know exactly what you were dealing with!

Despite that it was extremely easy to locate the switch and toggle the lights between half and full power even when riding along, so it was only on one occasion I ran out of power - and that was when the battery had not been recharged after a ride.

This threw up another problem. The switches on the head units are supposed to light up when you have about 15 minutes of power left but when the light is on your helmet you can't see that! It meant I was plunged into darkness in the middle of Alsation which was a bit scary. Far better in my view to automatically switch to half power or maybe have an intermittant pulse when you have half an hour to go to let you know to be frugal. It can make all the difference.

The good news is that Four4th actually make their own drivers so it's possible these modifications can be relatively easily fixed.

In terms of light output, both the head unit and lens options I had on test were superlative performers. After the obligatory back garden test, which proved as disappointing as usual, I first tried these out on my Friday commute to work in the depths of a wet and muddy winter.

The combination of wide, high output flood on the handlebars with a narrow helmet light was terrific as I hope you can see from the pictures taken from our famous MTB Night Light review/beam shot location on Collarbone. Either light on it's own is a decent performer – I tried switching both lights between my helmet and bars – but it's the flood on the bars and spot on the helmet that works best.

At full power I had no problems at all, the flood was superb in filling up the entire foreground with light and penetrated a surprising distance too. This means that when you're noodling through some technical bits you can always see clearly what's coming up in your peripheral vision. It really is a comprehensive wash of light.

The spot just punches into the dark. I'm used to a narrow and relatively weak 240 lumens on my helmet which even so allows a reasonable amount of vision but this is a different league entirely. It's like a sodding laser! And definitely my prefered helmet light.

The separate battery in this case isn't such an issue as you can just put it in your Camelbak and with a wide range of adjustment on the helmet light mount you can mount it right on the front of your helmet. This is important because you can then get the profile of the helmet lower as opposed to having a branch-snagging lump on the top.

I also tried running the helmet light with my Exposure on the handlebars, which despite it's lower output was not a bad combination either. It's nowhere near the performance of the Four4th light but it has that cable free design which I'm a huge fan of. Not to be underestimated until you've lived with it for a while and something I hope Four4th ultimately get round to developing.

Conclusions from my Four4th Lights review

Pros and cons time.

Well, on the cons side, I was a bit disappointed by the charger and batteries which are both pretty simple and basic designs. There's nothing wrong with that but it's easy to see where your money has been spent, in the head unit mainly. Which is as it should be I suppose.

I was also frustrated by the rudimentary programming of the low-power logic but there's hope there as Four4th have the drivers under their own control.

On the plus side these are every bit as powerful as their 1200 minimum output would suggest but it's not just their headline output figures that impress.

What impressed me was the quality of the product, it seems like Four4th have taken a conventional tried and tested format and refined it as much as they can. The head units are masterpieces of design and engineering and look pretty much bullet proof and the connectors and switch have been well thought through.

What really tips the balance though is that the price is incredibly low, at £195 plus postage which compares strongly with the £325 asked for Exposure's MaXx-D. For that you get all you need, a head unit, charger, 3.3Ah battery, mounts and of course a choice of colours. Configuration options from there are comprehensive so the whole thing is quite a bargain from a UK based company. Kudos to Four4th.

Think of it another way. For £400 or so you pay about £75 more than the Exposure but get 2.4 times more light output from two units that can be directed where you want!

Actually, so impressed have I been that I'll be buying a helmet light for myself after quickly getting used to the 1200 lumen fire-starter I've been running and I know other Moles such as Tony are interested too.

Expect to see a few more Four4th Lights out on the trails soon. With Dusk til Dawn starting to get us Moles twitching again, this could be a useful performance aid! The tough bit is choosing the colour…

More photos are available from our Four4th Lights photo review on Flickr.

To be honest, it was only the commitment I'd made to Dave to meet Simon that brought me out. Last night saw heavy rain, and the morning saw my front lawn waterlogged and rivers of water running down the side of my road under a continuing deluge. I'm not sure if the threatened inch or more of rain arrived but it certainly looked grim.

Resisting the urge to head straight back to bed I began putting my cycling gear on with the air of a condemned man. By the time I was outside and on my bike I didn't feel particularly happier but after a fast blast on the tarmac to warm up I was pleased to see at least some people had arrived at the car park.

So it was a case of practicalities taking precedence over playing; I guess with March upon us we'll soon start to get more friendly trails but for today it was wall-to-wall water. We decided that the Box Hill route offered the best source of cake and coffee but it certainly wasn't the path of least resistance.

First off, our submarine tramp along Admiral's Track which is completely covered with puddles a good six inches deep. Simon was unlucky enough to catch a hidden rut and was sent sprawling full length into the brown liquid but to be honest we weren't a lot drier than him. And we'd only covered about a mile!

We put our heads down and plodded on toward Polesdon, grimly facing the biting wind, steady rain and torrents of water rushing down toward us. Our run down to Yew Trees was slightly curtailed by a walker coming the other way but she probably saved us from ourselves as the surface was treacherous.

At least the subsequent climb up to Ranmore offered firmer ground as it's basically loose flint and rock but there was a constant drag from water flowing down the track. I had a wooly hat on and was in two minds to take it off but decided to stick with it which turned out to be a good thing as the chill factor was surprisingly high. When we were moving it was fine but stopping for any length of time soon brought the core temperature down.

DaveC punctured as we headed toward Denbies which delighted him as much as you'd expect on a wet day at the end of February. After some puncture faffage I was thanking my prescience at keeping on my hat but even so we were cold when we set off again.

Rather than float down through the vinyard we took the gated route round the edge, by the end of which our water dousing was complete. Soaked. To. The. Skin. But strangely, only cold rather than hypothermic!

To warm ourselves up a cup of coffee was in order but that meant another climb up Box Hill for the third or fourth time in recent weeks. I loathe this climb as it's never impossible but then again, never rewarding. It's just there. Last year I think we did it about half a dozen times but recently with all this rain it's a useful route since it is rough flint and chalk rather than clay.

On Friday I managed to stop halfway up to take off the sleeves on my Phantom jacket as I was overheating. Taking off my prescription glasses which had steamed up I put them down and promptly stepped on them! Fortunately I managed to get the broken arm replaced for just £6. Today I had no such problems with overheating so was forced to grind up on my singlespeed with Jez and Adam in close proximity.

We were one of only a few visitors to the Box Hill Tea Room where I refueled on my traditional and much-recommended date slice, breakfast of champions and carbo-crutch for those like me who are further from the white-hot crucible of competition.

Happy Valley (or Juniper Bottom, or whatever) was a spiteful descent today with icy shards of rain battering us as we headed down. With roosters of spray thrown up behind us, low over-hanging branches and the usual percussive patter of bikes skittering over exposed flint I found it quite tiring.

By the time we'd reached the bottom Mark was frozen, but since he had summer gloves and shorts on that's hardly surprising. He left to make his way back through Mickleham and by now may have actually defrosted. Fair play to him for joining us today anyway.

The rest of us were not likely to be out too much longer either but we climbed up to the Mickleham Gallops on the chalky ascent near Juniper Hall. The recent miles I've managed seem to be gradually paying off as I managed to at least make steady progress. Maybe it's the fact Tony, Jem, JohnR and DaveW weren't around to mess with my head by taking off up the trail at a rate of knots though. Those guys. Make me feel old…!

A short tramp along Stane Street brought us to the top of Alsation which was disappointingly slippy today. I had to pedal about three quarters of it and it's downhill! There's just no traction for the front or rear down there at the moment but then I guess we'd usually pass on it at this time of year anyway.

At least I got to compare the effects of running a Crud Fast Fender with those who were sans mudguard today. Simon was using Thomas' Cove Handjob, which may be a lovely bike but would probably be improved with a mudguard. Adam and Jez were similarly covered in mud too!

The end was near though as we worked our way back to Bookham via the Thorncroft estate. Friday had the river Mole up near the top of the bridge crossing but it's subsided since – I thought we'd be riding underwater along there today. We headed up to the slopes of Thorncroft vinyard which offers a short sharp climb at the best of times. Today, with the flood it was gruelling as there was practically no grip!

By the time we'd returned to the Bockett's car park I estimate the ride was about 15 miles or so. My total from home worked out at 18 miles so that sounds about right. The main achievement though was just to get out on the Hills in weather that's unlikely to be worse at any point this year. Congratulations to all!

Hopefully the Mini Downhillers will have put up a good showing in the Forest of Dean too.

And, in case you're interested, it looks as though there's a dry week coming up. Let's wait and see…

Many of the bikes (Lapierre, Tomac, Ragley, Ghost etc.) are only available to book on the day, but I was able to book as my first 3 rides a Lynskey Ti Ridgeline 26LT, a Norco LT6.1 and a Lynskey Ti Ridgeline 29er which will keep me busy from 0930 to 1145. I would like to try a Tomac or two and a Ragley as well, so I’d best get there early.

Bedgebury Forest is at Goudhurst in Kent (Postcode TN17 2SL for satnav) and is fast becoming one of South East England’s premier mountain biking destinations, according to BikeRadar. Apparently the 800 hectare forest boasts 10 miles of singletrack and a professionally designed freeride area. Also a mini northshore section and new dirt jump course are now also open – so that’s where I will be found then!

Facilities include a visitor centre, cafe, bike wash and bike shop run by Quench Cycles. See Dave’s Bedgebury article on the quality of the flapjack, the strength of the hand dryers, and maybe the riding gets a mention somewhere too.

Any other Moles care to join me?

However I had a plan and after many hours of doing the dutiful husband and father bit, I slipped into the garage to indulge in my hobby in an indirect way.

A couple of hours later and I have finally produced the solution to my tool storage problems that have plagued me for months.

We have a couple of carpenter/joinererers in our group who needn't worry about competition from me in future, however I'm really pleased with the result.

Rather than including every tool in my garage, these are just the regular ones required for bike fettling and I find it quite surprising that just this selection is really all I ever need to keep the mtb's on the trail and swap components from one frame to the other, as seems to be my want lately.

So no more tools strewn over the garage floor, there really is no excuse. Its also quite a good way of stopping me buying any more tools as i've not left much space for anything else.

The family and I drove down to Wales on Thursday night and from Delamere servcies onwards there was plenty of snow. It wasn't looking good for the weekend weather.

A slew of texts and emails over the Friday let us know that the Uplift had been cancelled for the weekend due to 4 inches of snow at the top of Cwmcarn. That meant a couple of Moles bailed from the weekend, leaving only Dave and I, so we arranged to meet at Afan on Saturday. Dave was on a weekend pass from the family and he wasn't giving up his weekend that easily.

Saturday morning started with a beautiful clear sky, not a breathe of wind and deep snow on the mountains (but not the roads) as I drove from Abergavenny to Glyncorrwg. Dave was already there looking chilled with a large coffee at the excellent cafe and talking about hiring the wicked-looking Orange Blood that was in the shop.

We were soon grinding up the White's Level climb. After a couple of sections we were in the snowline and progress got harder as we had to push on through the crisp snow. Snow again - I'm getting blasé to riding the white stuff this winter. Once we were on the singletrack at the top of the climb progress was careful with gentle lines being picked through snow covered rocks. At Energy we headed for the W2W trail, where under the wind turbines at the first sheep gate we met DaveBus, Terry and Rich from Diary of a Mountain Biker. It's a small MTB-ing world. They were staying at the Afan Lodge and riding the W2W in reverse.

We headed across to the Wall where we pushed as fast as we dared along the trails. At one point I pinged the side of a small stone and it zipped off into the valley without a sound (best not to think about that). As we caught up at a section start Dave said that he could tell I had more local knowledge since I knew where to speed up and were to slow down. The descent was the usual blast with arms pumped as we raced each other down.

Back down to the valley we ambled along to the fireroad climb and headed back to the snowline. Legs burned as we passed a couple of young lads and other mountain bikers (they were walking but got back on as we got closer) in a slo-mo race.

Legs were begining to hurt as we rode back through the snow to Energy. In the trees of Whites the snow had been melting and the trails were now seriously muddy to add to the fun. Energy was much slower yet more skittish than normal.

As we headed out through the trees after the first section of boardwalk the mud deepened and Dave got cramp in his leg. Soon his cramp was balanced, by a cramp in the other leg. However Dave pushed through and soon we were heading down the last descent with Dave showing the way on his downhill setup Orange Five.

As we rolled into Glyncorrwg it was time for a hearty meal, well earned. Our day had gone better than the DoMTB folks who had bust a freehub just after leaving us and walked, rolled back down off White's. We met them again at the cafe.

As we parted Dave, stayed at Afan for more on Sunday. Determined to ride more and I think for his date with a Blood. However the folks at Afan Lodge advised him that with the extra snow forecast for Saturday evening would make the trails impossible on Sunday – but he was a man with a weekend pass on a mission to enjoy it to the max – apparently Penhydd was hard going but highly enjoyable. Plus, judging from his message about the Blood test ride on White's black run, I think that a pair of Fox 36's could be on one of his bikes soon.

At Bockett's we had some obligatory faffing as I turned up having fitted a new tensioner and chain which was too long, causing slipping every quarter pedal turn. Fortunately shortening it solved the problem but for a minute I thought I'd have to return for an early bath. Last minute repairs and fitting new pedals and cleats take their toll.

Eventually, rolling out of the carpark to find the only stretch of freshly tarmac'd road in the county (on a little used farm track!) we had AndyC, Lee, Lee5.5, James, DaveC, Jem and myself. We ran down to Roaring House Farm and on round the big field (I'm guessing it's called 30 or 100 Acre Field but have no idea how big and acre is!), before turning back up to the Admiral's Track.

At this stage, the rain was coming down steadily and we found plenty of frozen puddles with an inch or so of fresh water on top. Things got wetter down Admiral's with enormous puddles blocking the whole track so by the time we got onto the Polesdon Drive we were all unlikely to get any damper during the ride.

We continued on to Yew Trees which was greasy and sketchy before digging in for the long climb up to Ranmore. I just don't have the same punch I had a few months back on the singlespeed but I'm hoping it's just the drag of the mud. Today I had no capacity to edge Jem who was climbing relentlessly well today but at least it made a change from following Tony, DaveW or Barrie mid-week!

At one point on the climb Jem went down abruptly as he found the track to be covered in frozen mud despite looking innocuous. The camber quickly dumped him on the ground and nearl accounted for Lee too who was close behind. The rest of us pulled up in a squeal of wet disc brake.

So we turned toward Denbies with senses sharpened for more ice. Rather than take the banzai run straight down the over the loose pebbles we turned and cut down the side of the hill finding plenty of loose slop to keep us concentrating. It was easy to miss braking points but we made it with just Jem overshooting the sharp right turn before we hit more mud on the level track to the crossing point.

With Denbies behind us we turned toward Box Hill for the Box Hill climb. With just the one gear it was all I could do to keep the cranks turning as I followed Jem up the hill. By the summit I'd clocked a time of about ten minutes, painfully down on my best of around 8:30 and well short of Barrie's 7:35 or so time. Depressing but at least there's cake to reward you on a daylight ride!

We hung around chatting and refueling before riding over to Happy Valley with discussion going on about inflatable moles. I prefer Hello Kitty myself (Lee can supply the translation) but back to the ride. Down Happy Valley at speed proved to the the usual heart-in-mouth buzz at the top followed by a long rattley descent to the road which had my thighes burning in pain.

After a brief respite we continued to the Mickleham climb up the wet chalky track that proved every bit as energy sapping as it sounds. Once again I had to watch Jem float away from me up ahead but I dug in and started to find my own pace. At the top we continued rather than head over the Gallops since there was unlikely to be any extra enjoyment gained from a long haul over sodden grass.

Eventually we spat out onto Stane Street and set course for Leatherhead and the top of Alsation. Despite a final drag that would have brought ahorse to it's knees we were soon starting down Alsation. I lead the way, knowing how slippery it was from Friday and I'm pleased to see that my impressions from then were spot on.

Slop, deep mud and evidence of recent hedge tidying all seemed to contribute to treacherous conditions. I lost the front and rear on several occasions and was grateful not to need to stop quickly as the bike skimmed and floated down the descent. To be honest by the time I reached the road I was glad I'd made it as really it was quite marginal. After many years of riding I'm starting to think the trails are in the worst state I've seen for a long time, much like our pot-holed roads.

By now it should have been plain sailing but there was still work for us to do as we climbed up past the Water Works alongside the Thorncroft Vinyard. This section has suffered quite badly with the weather resulting in almost zero traction. I had to resort to pumping the bike near the bottom to get it moving up the climb, giving my core muscles a good workout. We then followed the trail to Young Street which produced more tiring effort to keep forward momentum through the slop.

But it was the last of the slop as by the time we'd crossed the road we just needed to climb up the tarmac road to the Bockett's Farm car park. All in all my ride notched 18 miles and at least the mud was wet enough to drop off easily with a good blast from the hose. These are I hope the dog-days of winter now but with Metcheck being decidely damp about next week, Spring can't come soon enough!

Perhaps that's about to change in a small way? Pipedream, long-time purveyors of budget frames, have recently launched their 2010 Sirius frame which is made from the usual Cotic-style mix of Reynolds 853 and 4130 steel tubes. What's notable here, in addition to the sensuous curvage of the seatstays and bridgeless chain stays is that the dropouts offer enough slidage fore and aft to allow for singlespeeding or gears depending on your predelictions.

But the most significant aspect of the 2010 Pipedream Sirius is that it retails for just £295 which it has to be said appears something of a bargain versus the Cotic Soul's £470. Admittedly, the Soul was my fave from last year's Cycle Show, offering both tried and tested performance and a simply gorgeous paintjob but it's clear the Pipedream has the potential to rock the boat a little.

If nothing else it offers those ever-fickle consumers something different to buy and that's no bad thing in itself. I love my On-one but it's hardly unique even if the rider is 'special'.

What's key is for Pipedream to demonstrate the quality of their goods, via strong brand personality and quality product. Their website is certainly punching above it's weight with a slick look and plenty of social media links - things have come a long way from the basic website of yore. But what they need is to push that brand consistently beyond relying on the odd mainstream publication product review.

I hope they succeed and that others - such as Pashley and Curtis - can step up to the plate too. The steel hardtail market is oddly niche in that large manufacturers don't seem to build them, yet seems to provide steadfastly conventional product which us Brits lap up.

I don't believe for a minute there's anything particularly different about our riding compared to other parts of the world so either we're wrong or others are missing the point.

Love the Kawasaki green too by the way!

We had a brief discussion over route planning but after Tuesday's monsoon were under no illusion as to the conditions we were going to encounter. With that in mind, we just decided to get on with it, heading over toward White Downs.

The first few hundred yards through WIggly Wood were enough to confirm our expectations but it was a bit of a worry that we found so little traction and so much energy draining mud so early in the ride. Really, it was a struggle to churn through there. I'm still making the mistake of thinking I can just carry on at summer-dry pace and quickly suffering for it.

Onward though toward Polesdon and it wasn't too bad as we skirted the edge of the big field but things quickly turned into a treacherous, greasy clag as we headed downhill. Deep, deep clay had me pedalling just to go downhill as the bike and rider lumbered along. At least I was comfortably warm and not over cooking as I would have been in my biblongs.

By the time we reached the Old Dorking Road to cross over onto the Polesdon estate we were all blowing hard at our exertions, although once again Tony and DaveW seemed comfortable enough. I find that having not ridden regularly for just a short time soon takes it's toll and I need a few rides to 'stretch' my lungs a bit. But the sharp air seemed to be causing a mild amount of exercise-induced asthma for me; or maybe it was just my lack of fitness putting excessive demands on my cardio-vascular system.

So by the time the Tanners climb up to Ranmore loomed I was starting to tire. It's not helped I think by singlespeeding - having to stand on the pedals is putting strain across my shoulders which clearly need strengthening and not for the first I found myself wishing for my Orange Five. Maybe it's time to start dusting it off for summer. Mind you, DaveW doesn't seem to be suffering the same problems!

What is suffering though is the Tanners climb itself, particularly near the top. The lower two thirds are as usual, steep grinding (or spinning Andy!) gradient where you have to dig in. But where before it levelled off and you could start to spin some of the lactic acid out of your legs in the final thirds it's now deep liquid mud, a good six inches of the stuff where the felling work has been going on. A miserable climb is now even more miserable!

Once on Ranmore the falling temperature became even more apparant with the grass clearly frosting up under clear skies and bright stars. We headed toward Badger Run and then continued along Collarbone after stopping to let a group of riders pass in the opposite direction and provide them with good-natured advice on their riding! Their progress along Collarbone where we took our night light shots was painful and I wasn't expecting ours to be any easier.

So when we finally started down there it was no surprise to find the combination of slippery roots and deep ruts of greasy clay were almost impossible. Not quite thought as well all slipped and spun our way along, with AndyC having one minor off and Matt having big problems with chainsuck in the mud.

Tony and DaveW slowly drew ahead but it was the sort of conditions that could catch you out at any point and if you stopped pedalling you stopped dead. It was very taxing on the legs and lungs and counter-steer was general theme as the bikes went where they willed. I managed to get all the way along to White Down with just one dab over the tiny fallen sapling near the end but just didn't have either the energy or the momentum by then to hop the bike over!

Regrouping after that we headed down the White Down descent, showing it a lot of respect in view of the fact it's made of almost 100% chalk! There's now deep gulleys criss-crossing the trail all the way down and it needs you to be fully concentrating. I kept trying to put Jess's advice (from Astounding Adventures) into practice and look as far ahead as possible rather than just stare at whatever was in the pool of light made by my bike lights and it definitely helped, so long as you actually reacted to what you were seeing!

At the bottom were crossed the large field to the railway and over to the bottom of the valley where we picked up the track back toward Westcott. All of us were feeling the pace I think so we decided to climb back up to Ranmore via the Trackway with me and AndyC bringing up the rear. I keep telling myself that every turn of the cranks brings us that bit closer to finer weather and longer days and that's really the only thing I can do in the face of these final dark days of winter.

On RAnmore again, Matt peeled off from the Church toward Bagden Farm while we continued along to Denbies, taking the steep and fast descent straight down. I felt surprisingly confident hammering down on the loose surface which tells me those Avid Elixir 5 brakes must be one of the best bargains around at the moment as I was unconsciously pushing them quite hard. Coming down the final chalky stretch where we cross the roadway my vision was bouncing so much I could hardly see where I was going!

By the time we reached the A24 we all had numbing headaches from the chill through the Vinyard. It's not just the easy speed we carry through there but it is always a few degrees colder I'm sure! Whatever, it had us groaning with the sudden pain last night!

The final stretch was a brisk spin and plenty of conversation along to Leatherhead on the A24 before Tony parted from us, leaving just AndyC, DaveW and myself to head back to Bookham via Bockett's Farm.

I had set out the hose ready to clean the bike off before I'd left earlier in the evening but returned to find the nozzle frozen. I managed to coax it to work in the end only to find the mud was actually frozen to my bike!! Which goes to show how cold it was I guess even though I woke this morning to find a thaw and steady rain.

I'd plan on more mud then everybody!

Except an innocuous email yesterday from Dave has changed all that…

Except Dave. Dave clearly did not enjoy it, in fact gave every impression that a long night in a Turkish prison was infinitely more preferable to riding Thetford again. And he wasn't going to be volunteering for one of those nights anytime soon. For whatever reason, clearly the event didn't click with him.

So it was with some surprise that the Mole collective yesterday received an email from him pointing out that the D2D entries open again next week for the 2010 event. He even implied a willingness to go himself.

Pretty soon, we've had Mark, Colin, Lee, Barrie, Paul, Devon Mole, Jez, AndyC and myself add our names to Dave's which means without much effort we've got ten volunteers already. I'm sure there'll be more, Tony, DaveW and JohnR haven't had the chance to reply yet and I can think of other names too - all are welcome.

So, overnight I've suddenly found some motivation. Not to spend between now and October fasting, training and paying far too much attention to my HRM. Just to get out and ride; to start getting some miles in with a goal in sight; after all, the memory of that sunrise lap of Thetford on my Five is pretty special.

So, thanks Dave. I'll be out tonight. I know it's going to be cold/wet/muddy etc. and I'm some way – in terms of fitness – from where I was last Autumn, but I don't care. I can deal with that, I can plan on warmer clothing, get the hose out ready to clean up later and so on.

It's the 'Thetford Marsh Gas' that I can't deal with… You all know who you are ;o)

Whilst I would have loved to have decked out my new project with a nice ‘bargain’ £250 Rock Shox Reba fork, after taking into account a combination of some of the factors above and more importantly, the frame it was going to be plugged into, I opted for a 42.5cm Exotic rigid carbon fork from Carbon Cycles instead.

At £85 the carbon fork won’t break the bank, my marriage or hopefully, going forward, the frame as I'm replacing a very old skool set of Marzocchi Z1s with—for their time—a market leading 63mm of travel! The old Scandium frame is realistically corrected for no more than 80mm of forkage at best anyway.

Retro styling is all the rage in the bike world at present. If we are honest, retro styling has been the thing for the last few years, it’s just that each year or so the industry seems to seek inspiration from a slightly different period of time gone by, whether it be from the worlds of fashion or design. Adding a carbon fork gives you that retro look, whilst giving you a very low maintenance front end, not to mention a very light one too. And it’s the latter that you will be quick to notice.

OK, so it’s not rocket science. I’m removing a fork that by today’s standards is a set of damped scaffolding poles for a fork that weighs in at just 750g (for the disc only version). That suddenly makes you quite capable of pulling wheelies, regardless of whether you can control them thereafter or not!

Going down the rigid route is certainly an eye opener (or re-awakener at least to the misty-eyed days of early MTB-ing), especially if like me you have been used to 140mm of travel soaking up what normally passes under the front wheel. Yet, quite quickly it all begins to fall back into place. I’m transported back to the early/mid nineties riding my trusted rigid Claud Butler alongside my posh mates with their new-fangled RST 281s, and my really posh mates on their 381s!

It’s fair to say you quickly adjust your riding style on a rigid fork. Your body becomes the damping and rebound settings so obviously absent from the hollow pipes of carbon below you. Yet, like baby turtles who, when they hatch, know they need to hot foot it towards the sea, it would seem your body quite instinctively assumes the various positions to survive a run down a classic root and flint strewn North Downs descent.

Elbows out and soft hands probably sums up what is required in the upper body, but you also learn to ride a lot lighter than before in order to ‘float’ over whatever is beneath you. That is something that is just instinctive and quite difficult to describe. Of course, instinct is somewhat aided, subconsciously at least I guess, by the sight of what is before you so I have had a few unexpected big hits on a night ride. Queue the bar trying to take your teeth out.

However, so far I have been largely impressed with my carbon fork. As we’ve discovered it’s light, it’s tough and probably best of all it’s maintenance free. If you are of a nervous disposition it’s probably best not to look down at the legs on a rough descent (generally looking forward is always a better plan anyway), as there is noticeable flex, but just like aircraft wings, they flex for a very good reason. So your teeth don’t start spilling across the bridleways of the Surrey Hills.

When I was researching carbon forks online, it would seem Pace’s classic RC31 would take some beating (if indeed you can find a pair for sale), but for half the cost of the Pace, I would have to say the Exotic fork is pretty damn good value for money and an entrance ticket to a by-gone world of simplicity I had so quickly forgotten.