Tag Archives: Owen

2023

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Happy New Year!

2023 did not get off to a good start for me – being woken up by Henry before 8:00, then getting punched in the eye for not being his favourite parent – it was Jen’s turn to have a lie-in, which Henry did not appreciate. After that Hen went back to bed in a sulk to wait for Jen to get up.

Once again, Jen and I saw it the new year at home, but this year Owen managed to stay up for midnight with us! Owen and I have been working our way through the Star Wars movies, so watched Return of the Jedi – I was impressed at how he was able to stay awake and pay attention to such a long film. The film got us most of the way to midnight, and although Owen wanted to go to bed just before the clock struck twelve, we managed to keep him up to see in the new year and watch the fireworks on TV.

After the initial commotion, we had a quiet morning at home, even managing to get a few jobs done around the house and garden. After lunch we drove to Leamington Spa, to meet my parents. We parked at Newbold Comyn, and walked into town, via Jephson Gardens. Then my dad treated us to ice creams. After walking back to Newbold Comyn, the boys had a roll around the skatepark. Owen said that he had had a “lovely walk and a lovely ice cream”, which pretty much summed up our afternoon. We also had a quick peek at the new mountain bike trails under construction. The trails looked good and are one of the things I am most excited about this year – great trails within a thirty minute drive means that Owen and I will have a new regular riding spot.

We have not got much planned for the year – we had been thinking about a road trip to France, but with the new Entry/Exit System for the EU looking like it will cause chaos at the channel crossing, so we will wait and see how that pans out. We have got a few shorter trips pencilled in – Lego Land, a VW Show in Weston-super-Mare and hopefully a visit to my brother’s house in Kent. But before all that, we have a new sofa arriving next week! Something that I am not looking forward to quite so much is turning 40 in December!

As in previous years, I have set myself some goals for the year ahead:

Pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

A recycled goal from 2022 – as although I did a lot of studying I did not take the exam. I need to pass the exam in the next few months, as my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification from 2020 will lapse. And I promised myself a Fuji X100V when I passed – I have already bought it…

Rebuild my Orange Four

Another recycled goal from 2022, although I do not know if it is still a rebuild, given that the frame was replaced under warranty, so I am technically building up a new bike. Fortunately, I am most of the way there! I am waiting for my Four to be built up to ride the new red-graded trail at the Forest of Dean.

Once the Four is back on the trails, the Clockwork Evo is probably due a thorough service, after hard year in 2022.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

I have been using a Bootswatch theme on my homepage, which still needs a backend refresh, and I would like to carry that theme over to my photography portfolio website, which is hosted on Adobe Portfolio to tie them together. I could also do with updating the images, to include some more recent ones.

Photograph more bike races

Photographing the British Downhill Series mountain bike race was one of my highlights of 2022, and I would like to do some more this year.

Take a wildlife photo I am happy with

This was a failed goal in 2021, and one that has been in the back of mind since. My plan is to borrow a long lens from Fuji and spend the day at a nature reserve.

Complete at least three 50km bike rides

Rather than setting myself a year long cycling goal, I have decided to switch things up and target some longer rides. My longest ride to date is 48km, so 50km is achievable, but multiple rides should make it more of a challenge. I have got a few ideas for routes and hopefully my friend Partho will accompany me for some of the rides.

Ride 20km with Owen

This is more Owen’s goal, as he wants to beat his longest ride to date, which stands at 16km. I have no doubt that Owen will be able to beat this – I just need to find the right route. He rode 15km, on some of the toughest trails he has ever ridden at Coed y Brenin last year, but I do not want to make it too hard (hilly) or boring (riding along a straight/flat disused railway) for him. So I am thinking a return visit to Sherwood Pines may be in order – Owen has ridden the 14km blue-graded “Adventure Trail” there, so I am sure we could add in some loops of their red-graded trail to bring it up to 20km easily.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Bike Park Wales is the biggest bike park in the UK, but well set up for kids. Owen and I have watched a few videos from there, and the trails look fun. Annoyingly we have missed the last few Little Rippers MTB group rides there. After our North Wales trip last year, I thought that a South Wales trip, with a possibly making a weekend of it with a return visit to Dare Valley Country Park to ride the main trails, as it looked like a good set up when we called in on the way to Bluestone in 2021.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Bwlch Nant yr Arian in Mid Wales has some great looking trails, and is also known for their daily Red Kite feeding – which is enough of an excuse for me to go for a ride. And may help with my wildlife photography goal. It also seems like somewhere that might be worth visiting with Jen and the boys as part of a Mid Wales trip.

Ride some more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

My best friend Partho shared an article with me called “10 of the best XC trails in the UK“. I have ridden a couple of the trails, and parts of a few more, but we have decided to try to ride a few more together.

Tidy my office

I spend most days working in my office, and other than what can be seen by my webcam, it is a complete tip. I still have my old iMac set up on my desk – it did not even get switched on last year, so I need to clear it down and get rid of it. I also need to move the artwork I hung on the dining room wall when I had my desk there a few years ago. As an incentive, I am going to treat myself to a mechanical keyboard when it is done, as I have been using the same keyboard at home since 2008.

Tidy my garage

As above, my garage is also a bit of a mess, with bike parts all over the place and not enough room to work on my MR2 Roadster.

MR2 jobs

This year marks ten years since I bought my MR2 Roadster, for the most part it has been cheap motoring, and very reliable, but I have neglected those little jobs that will prolong it’s life, things like cleaning the drain holes. The wheels could also do with a thorough clean and a good coat of wax. However, I’ll need to get the garage tidied first… There are also a few blemishes on the paintwork that I would like to get addressed.

Van upgrades

It is hard to believe that I bought my van three years ago – my plan had been to run it for a year to see how I got on with it, then make the interior a bit nicer, with carpet and insulation etc. The van has proved itself, and fits into our family life perfectly, so the interior upgrades are well overdue. It could also do with new tyres, possibly on bigger wheels, and I would also like to fit an awning rail to the side, so we can have some shelter when we park up. Family days out in the van are something that we want to do more of as a family.

Monthly blog posts

I feel like I have not been blogging as much as I would like the last few years, so in 2023 I plan to post at least once a month. Even if they end up being shorter posts, just sharing a photo and a few words.

Flagged emails

I currently have 536 flagged emails in my inbox, spanning the last ten years. At somepoint I have thought that there is something I need to do as a result of these emails, but either have not done, or at least have not subsequently unflagged the email. I am going to try to get this down to a list of tasks I genuinely need to do. I will attack it from both the top of the list, and the ten year old tasks at the bottom of the list, which I hope were not too urgent…

Get my weight down to 85kg

I have had this as a goal for many years, but never seem to make much progress on it, despite feeling like I am making more sensible choices when it comes to food. I am going to try to get a decent midweek bike ride in every week this year – working from home gives me the flexibility to take a long lunchbreak, so I am going to try to use that for bike rides, to hopefully help towards this goal.

Based on all these goals, it looks like 2023 is going to be a busy year for me, which should hopefully give me plenty to post about on here! Given my poor success rate last year, I have set up a document to keep track of them.

A Look Back at 2022

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The main thing for me in 2022 was my new job as a software engineer in the technology industry – after fourteen years in the. automotive industry. I started my new role right at the end of 2021, but it was in the new year that I got a chance to get my teeth into it. My new team are great and have helped me find my feet. A year on, I have learned loads, more than I expected, even little things, for example I recently noticed that I was subconciously using the command line for git commands. I have also realised how much more there is still to learn, but the constant learning is one of the things I enjoy the most. The main thing is that I look forward to work every day!

Whilst work has been good in 2022, I did not have such a good year on the bike. After a decent start, I injured my knee at the end of May and had to take it easy for a few months. Then I had bike issues, and some sort of flu type illness at the end of the year that took me out for a few weeks. I did manage to fit in some good rides when I was healthy enough, 417 Bike Park and Coed y Brenin (both with Owen) being particular highlights. For the first time since 2016, all of my riding was on a hardtail, as my full suspension bike (Orange Four) has been undergoing a very slow rebuild.

Being off the bike gave me plenty of time for photography. Over the Easter weekend I borrowed an X100V fixed lens camera from Fuji, and loved shooting with it. Predictably, I eneded up buying one! It has been great for taking out and about with me, on bike ride, when I go to the office and on family trips out. One of my favourite days of the year was when I photographed a round of the British Downhill Series mountain bike competion – I had not realised how much I missed sports photography.

We had some good trips away, our main holiday was to stay in our friend’s cottage in Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast, it was great to explore a new part of the country and make memories with the boys. Jen and I even managed to get away for a few days without the boys – we went to North Devon, one of our favourite places in the world, but upgraded our usual accomodation, staying in the Saunton Sands Hotel, which we have driven past many times over the years. For me, the cherry on the cake was taking the MR2, and detouring via one of my favourite roads, the A39 over Exmoor.

Owen and I have had some great bike rides together this year, his skill and strength on the bike are such that we can do decent rides together, on the sort of trails that I ride. When it is just the two of us his behaviour is really good too. As well as mountain biking Owen has been very much into computer games this year, especially Super Mario based games. One of Jen’s friends lent him a Nintendo Wii, so he has been trying some older console games in addition to his iPad. I have also tried to channel this enthusiasm into coding, he is already confident with Scratch and we have also been experimenting with JavaScript – he is mostly copying what I write, but he is starting to understand the general programming concepts, like declaring variables and referencing them later in the code, so you only need to change the value once. He has uploaded his take on Space Invaders to his website – not bad for a six year old! He is now at an age where we can do things together that we both want to do, from going to a mountain bike festival together to working our way through the Stars Wars movies.

Henry has grown up so much this year, the main change is that he started at the preschool at Owen’s school, because he is going to school with Owen every day and wearing his uniform it is hard to remember that he is still only three! I am so proud of how he has settled in to the new routine. However my proudest moment was when he learned to ride his pedal bike. Henry did not get the same opportunities to ride his bike as Owen, due to the pandemic, and not having the undivided attention that Owen had as a three year old, so it is good to have him riding with us.

At the start of the year, I set myself some goals. I posted a halftime update in June, but here are the final results:

Get settled at my new job

Pass – This was my main goal for 2022, and I am happy to say that I love my job and am glad that I changed industries. A few weeks ago a colleague was surprised when I told him I had been with the company less than twelve months, he said it felt like I had been a part of the team for years.

Pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

Fail – I did a lot of studying for the exam, and even booked it, but had to cancel after a particularly poor showing on a mock exam. My studying has been in fits and starts, as I have prioritised learning skills that are used day to day on projects at work.

Redo my homepage

Fail – Although I have rebuilt my webpage using NextJS, and set up a staging site on AWS Amplify I decided I should not publish it without setting up the infrastructure as code. No, it is not needed for what is essentially a simple website, but I feel like if I am doing something I should do it properly. I have done most of the hard work though, so the website should be published early in 2023.

Rebuild my Orange Four

Fail – The strip down took longer than I would have liked, then when I sent the frame back to Orange for a respray, a new frame was sent back as a warranty replacement. It is currently half-built in the work stand. Progress also took a step backwards when I broke the rear hub on my hardtail, and to keep myself riding I had to take the freshly built rear wheel from the Four. I have got the bits to build up another rear wheel, and once that is done progress should be quicker.

Ride 2,022km

Fail – 2022 was a rubbish year for cycling, I rode less than 1,400km. I hurt my knee at the start of the summer, then again later in the summer because I did not let it heal enough. Then in the autumn, when my knee had recovered, I had bike issues and to top it all I barely rode in December due to a flu-like illness.

Get my weight down to 85kg

Massive fail – Again! Looking at the data from my Withings Scales Amazon affliate link, the damage was done at the start of the year, when I was able to ride my bike most.

Whilst this looks like a list of failures, my main goal, by some margin, was getting settled in my new job, which I achieved. The other goals can wait for 2023! I felt like I lived more in the momet in 2022, which has been a good thing, but maybe also why I did not manage to post this before the end of 2022…

Little Rippers Christmas Ride

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Yesterday was the Little Rippers Christmas Ride at Cannock Chase, and also my birthday. I love riding with the Little Rippers crew, so that was my birthday plans sorted! And after a tasty breakfast, we loaded up the van and set off for Cannock Chase.

The rain just about held off for the ride, but it was cold, so I was surprised to see such a good turnout. Henry seemed excited to ride with the group, but realistically the planned route would be too difficult for him, so he went for a more leisurely ride with Jen. Owen and I went on the group ride, although at the start the kids set off together and I barely saw Owen for the whole ride, just catching the occasional glimpse of him in the distance. We rode Perry’s Trail, which Owen knows well, so I was happy for him to head off with his friends, and I enjoyed a leisurely ride at the back of the group with the other parents.

After the ride, we all gathered near the car park, ramps were set up for the kids (and some bigger kids) to jump, which gave me a chance to catch up with friends I had not seen for a while, and got a ribbing for being old.

Jen and Henry joined us, and Hen even had a go at hitting the ramps. As Henry seemed happier riding with me and Owen, so we rode up to the “Pedal and Play” trail. Henry enjoyed followed Owen around, and looked so pleased with himself when he managed to sneak ahead of him. He coped really well, considering it was his first time at Cannock Chase on his pedal bike. He hit his first rockgardens, although he was disapointed that the bell at the end of the trail has been removed. Unfortunately the fun came to an end when Henry’s front wheel slipped on a wet wooden skinny and he went down fairly hard. He was OK though, other than the shock and a small nosebleed, so we rejoined the group. The boys were given goodie bags, which was a great surprise. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the fire at home.

Hopefully, next year Henry will be able to ride “Perry’s Trail” and Owen will be able to ride the red-graded “Follow the Dog” trail, although after having a season pass for Cannock Chase in 2022, we will make more of an effort to visit other trail centres in 2023.

Day Off Ride with Owen

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Yesterday, was a teacher training day at the boys’ school, and I woke up looking forward to a day at work, as I had an interesting little project to complete – however, upon checking my calendar, I realised that I also had the day booked off! After double-checking that I really was not meant to be working, the disappointment was quickly replaced by thoughts of “where should I ride?”. Jen and the boys had plans in the afternoon, so it was tempting to ride by myself, but I had not ridden with Owen since falling off at Northampton Bike Park, and I had taken Henry to the trails in Bedworth the day before, so I thought it best to ride with Owen.

Given the choice of a few local places to ride, Owen just wanted to ride the skatepark at the War Memorial Park, where we go most weekends. So I switched things up – we would ride there! Owen did not take much convincing to take a longer route, via a fun trail alongside the Kenilworth road. Which I had handily pre-ridden the day before. There were a few road sections, but all on quiet roads and we were past the rush hour. I know that Owen is sensible when it is just the two of us out on bikes.

The fun part of the ride starts at pretty much the furthest point from home, especially when you add a detour to see the ducks at Warwick Uni. It is also the highest point, so we stopped for a snack before hitting the trail. The run down the first few sections was fun, albeit slower than I am used to. Owen coped admirably with the natural trail conditions – he is more used to purpose-built trails, and the leaves hiding roots and other obstacles added to the difficulty. Luckily (or more likely due to global warming?) the trail was not too muddy yet, so he did not have that to cope with. About halfway down, just before we crossed Cannon Hill Road, we stopped for a photo break, as I really liked how the leaves on the ground matched Owen’s jersey (that he chose when we were in Wales the previous month). One benefit of not being on a dedicated mountain bike trail was that I could get Owen to ride the “wrong way” down the trail to get better light on the photo.

At the War Memorial Park, Owen conquered the wet grassy bank that had caught him out on a previous visit, learning that knobbly mountain bike tyres are much grippier on wet grass than smooth BMX tyres. The mountain bike was also easier to roll down the ramps at the skatepark. I was disappointed to find that the new ice cream shack, opposite the skatepark was closed – I am yet to see it open. Owen wanted to ride straight back from the park, so we went along the road, through Earlsdon, then our regular route along Hearsall Common, through the woods and down the “Co-op Hill”. The ride was almost 16km – one of Owen’s longest. After the ride Owen had a busy day – a play date and a Halloween party. I had an afternoon of life admin, somewhat spoilt by my van not starting, which also happened on a day off earlier in the year.

Checking Out Northampton Bike Park with Owen

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My old hometown of Northampton is more famous for motorsport than mountain biking, so I was surprised when I heard rumours that a disused golf course was going to be turned into a bike park. Naturally, once it had opened I had to check it out!

I decided to skip the opening weekend as I thought it would be too busy, so I rode at Cannock Chase instead. I had a great ride, checking out some new and resurfaced sections of trail, but I also noticed some crunching noises from my bike. Given that I have only been riding my Clockwork Evo this year, and focusing my workshop time on rebuilding my Four, some wear and tear was inevitable. The reason I am covering this will become apparent soon…

I knew the chain was worn but was sure that the noises were not down to the chain. Stripping the bike down revealed the problem – the pawls on the freehub were decidedly worn. This was not a huge surprise as these were the original wheels that had come fitted to my Orange Four in 2017, and have probably covered the best part of 5,000km. Unfortunately, even the guys at Albany Cycles could not source spares, nor was it worth replacing the hub on what are fairly cheap rims, so it was time for a new wheel. In a reversal of fortunes, I had recently built up a suitable wheel (DT Swiss XM 481 on a Hope hub) to go on my Four rebuild, so I built the Clockwork Evo back up with that, as well as a new chain and gear cable. At lunchtime, on the day I had promised Owen that we would ride at Northampton Bike Park…

I got the bike sort of working, with minimal brake rub and gears very roughly indexed, loaded up the van and set off for Northampton with Owen. Pulling up to a golf course, I was concerned that the sat nav had got the location wrong, but eventually, we saw a load of VW Transporters and people wearing Fox Racing kit at the far end of the car park – we were in the right place. Looking around it was very easy to tell who was there to ride bikes and who was there to play golf – it was a bit surreal. We quickly got kitted up and rode through the tunnel at the back right of the car park to the trails.

We started on the easier “Eastside” trails, which we pretty much had to ourselves. It was only a short climb up to the trailhead, and we dropped straight into “Uncle Fester”, a flowy blue trail that spat us back out at the base of the climb, ready for another lap. After stopping for a selfie, Owen set off down “PDQ”. I let him get past the first few berms, then followed, only just catching him by the bottom of the short trail. Next, we rode over to the dual slalom track, which upped the difficulty with bigger berms and jumps to negotiate. It was fun being able to race each other down the parallel trails – on the first few runs I gave Owen too much of a head start, so on our third run down we started together and it felt like I finished further ahead of him than I had been giving him for a headstart. Maybe it is easier to be the leader, rather than the chaser…

After the dual slalom, we went to the “Westside” trails – the main attraction. These trails were busier, with a constant stream of riders on the push-up trail, although Owen held his own mixing with all the big riders, looking the part with all his kit on. After waiting for our turn, we pushed up the top of the roll-in and set off down the “Blue Nun” trail. It started off pretty flat, then a short climb, before left and right berms dropped us into the main field – at this point, a huge smile spread across my face, as all I could see were mountain bike trails, with people having fun on them. “Blue Nun” was another step up in technicality from the dual slalom trail, but Owen coped well and really enjoyed it, to the point he just wanted to go straight back up for another run. However, before we went up we did a lap of the skills area, as we passed it on the way up.

We rode back up to the top of the trail and decided to ride the “Mother Superior” jump line, which forks off from “Blue Nun”. Owen was ready before me and raring to go – he dropped in whilst I was still faffing. And that was where it all went wrong. I dropped in down the roll-in and got on the pedals hard to catch him up. My chain slipped, which threw me off balance on a big pedal stroke and I hit the ground. Hard. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be broken, but Owen was riding off into the distance – so I had to shout for him to stop before I could check myself and my bike over. Of course, all of this happened in front of a big crowd waiting to drop in. I asked the next riders down to let Owen know that I would be down in a few minutes and checked my bike over. The chain was stuck between the cassette and the frame – limit screws not set correctly? Or hub spacer missing? The rear brake lever had also shifted around, but I was able to ride to Owen, and down the rest of the trail.

I let Owen do some more laps of the skills area whilst I sorted my brake lever and gave the rest of the bike a more thorough check. Owen loved doing laps on his own, chatting to people in the queue, probably telling them about his dad crashing… We did a few more laps, although I took it easy, as I did not want to risk putting too much power through the pedals. Owen had a close call on one of the “Mother Superior” jumps, the lip was steeper than anything he had ridden before, and Owen came down on his front wheel – I thought that he was going to go over the bars, but he managed to ride it out.

Owen had said that he wanted to try the “A45” red-graded trail, but after our incidents on the blue trails, he sensibly decided that we would save it for our next visit. And there will be a next visit, as despite my fall, we both had a great time and really enjoyed the trails.

A Walk in the Woods

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We are lucky enough to have some woods at the top of our road, and regularly head up there for a walk – as we did today. I decided to fit my Fuji 35mm f1.4 lens to my X-T2, not a combination I would usually take on one of these walks, as the autofocus is too slow to capture the boys running around. However, I am really pleased with these photos, and am not sure I would have got these with any of my other lenses.

After barely leaving the house the last few days, it was great to get out into the woods. The boys had fun climbing trees, and I even managed to get them to pose for me. On our way back, we met up with Jen on her way back from the hairdresser. It was a lovely way to spend an autumnal afternoon.

Back to School 2022

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This year it is not just Owen going to school – Henry is starting at the preschool at Owen’s school. So I have changed the format of my “back to school” posts, with sections for each of them and a photo of the two of them together in their school uniforms, which is easier said than done!

Owen’s First Day of Year Two

Owen’s school holidays have gone fast! Back in July I was concerned about how we would keep him occupied for six weeks, but we have managed to pack the holiday full of activities! There have been family holidays, bike festivals, bike trips, school holiday club, Parkruns, a new website, play dates and even the odd quiet day at home for Owen! However I think it will be good for Owen to get back in to the school routine, and for him to hang out with his friends more – they were all so excited to see each other on the way into school this morning!

Like last year, in addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he changes over the years:

Henry’s First Day at Preschool

Henry has been keen to go to the same school as Owen pretty much since Owen started, and in the summer holiday he got his first chance as he was able to go to the holiday club! He was slightly nervous going in, but Owen was able to stay with him for a bit. When I collected him, Henry said that he had had a good day! Unfortunately there is a drawn out settling in process for preschool, so Henry’s first day consisted of a half hour session, where there weren’t even any other children. Still he was excited to put his school uniform on! Due to the settling in process at the school preschool, he has also started preschool at his nursery, but that will only be for two weeks.

Henry also answered the questions, for the first time:

  • Height: 101cm
  • Shoe size: 8
  • Bike: Pedals – Frog 43/Balance bike – Strider Sport
  • Favourite colour: Orange
  • Favourite food: Ham sandwiches
  • Favourite book: Peppa Pig – he could not pick one, as we usually get a couple out from the library each time we visit.
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Also Peppa Pig
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Our family holiday to Staithes
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A digger driver

Trip to Wales with Owen

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Owen has had a busy end to his summer holidays – a visit to the Malverns Classic MTB festival, a trip to Skegness with his mum and grandparents, and then a trip to Wales with me. The main reason for the trip was that our friends Nicki and Mat were over from Australia to compete in the Dragon’s Back race from Conwy Castle to Cardiff Castle, running the whole length of Wales, via many mountains! They were visiting us in Coventry, so rather than letting them get the train to Conwy, I drove them up in the van and Owen came along for the ride! We dropped Nicki and Mat off in Conwy – it looked like a lovely little town, and I would have liked to stay there for dinner, but had already promised Owen a “traditional British seaside” experience, so we set off across the estuary to Llandudno. Conwy has jumped to the top of my places for a weekend away with Jen though, as I know she would love the castle and town walls in the historic town. I’d also like to drive the MR2 around the Great Orme.

Our first stop in Llandudno was fish and chips. Owen wanted to go to a sit down restaurant, so we did that, even though the takeaways looked better. Owen did get an ice cream to eat at the beach. After the beach we went to the arcades – Owen’s favourite part of a seaside visit. He was especially excited to find the Luigi’s Mansion arcade game – he loves all things Super Mario. After the arcade we got some doughnuts to eat as we walked along the pier, where we got a nice view of the sunset.

We stayed overnight at the Premier Inn, and set off early for Coed-y-Brenin, after a McDonald’s breakfast. The weather forecast had been for rain over North Wales, but despite some overnight rain, the sun was out and there was barely a cloud in the sky. It was a great drive over, although would have been better in my MR2. The last time I rode at Coed-y-Brenin was eventful to say the least – whilst warming up on the blue graded Minotaur trails, my friend Partho overcooked a small jump and broke his jaw, requiring an ambulance, a North Wales hospital tour and his jaw being wired shut for six weeks. Since Owen learned to ride a bike there has been banter about who would complete the Minotaur trail first. Partho and I had been planning a return trip in April 2020, but we all know how that panned out. So it was Owen that had the first shot.

Owen smashed it! Including a stop for photos on “Partho’s jump”. Owen rode all of the descents really well, although he still needs to work on climbing, as he would rather get off and push the bike than change down a gear to make it easier to pedal. Since my last visit a fourth loop has been added to the trail, mostly on fireroads, with a waterfall viewpoint, so we thought it would be worth investigating. Other than a few climbs on the fireroad it was easy riding, and it was good to see the waterfalls. Towards the end of the extra loop there was a fun bonus singletrack section. The climb back up the hill to the visitor centre was a bit of a slog, especially for Owen, but we got there in the end and treated ourselves to hotdogs on the visitor centre balcony. The ride was exactly fifteen kilometres, one of Owen’s longer rides, so it was no wonder that he was absolutely shattered afterwards.

Owen is interested in Spitfires, and enjoyed a visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford last year, so on the way home from Coed-y-Brenin we stopped at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton. It was only a brief visit, as we arrived just over an hour before it closed. The first exhibition we visited was the Cold War hangar – I liked how some of the aircraft were suspended at various inclines, especially the English Electric Lightning pointing vertically upwards, as if performing its vertical climb party piece. However, the Avro Vulcan was my favourite plane on display – I remember seeing them flying when still in service with the RAF, so it was great to be able to get up close to one. We had a quick tour of Hangar 1, which had a varied selection of planes, including James May’s life size Spitfire Airfix model – I think Owen would enjoy watching that programme. What Owen wanted to see though were real Spitfires, so we cut though the Test Flight hangar, and went to the War in the Air exhibition, which had two Spitfires, a Hurricane and a Messerschmitt BF109. This was Owen’s favourite part of the museum. Even with traffic on the M6, it only took us an hour to get home from the museum, so I am sure that we will visit again, and make a full day of it, so that we can see all the exhibits properly.

Malverns Classic 2022

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Over the bank holiday weekend, Owen and I went to the Malverns Classic – a mountain bike festival at Eastnor Deer Park in Herefordshire. Last year, we went as a family, on the way back from our holiday, for Henry’s first bike race, but this year Owen and I just went for the day. We did not have any races planned but did have a rough plan of attack to make the most of our day.

Our first stop was the Steel City Rippers skills area, to get Owen booked in for a skills session, as he was disappointed to have missed out last year. Fortunately, we were able to get him in for the 15:00 slot. From there we went to the pumptrack, bumping into some of our Little Rippers MTB friends in the queue. In a change from last year, pumptrack riders needed a number board, so I had to rush to the signing-on tent to get one for Owen, making it back before he got to the front of the queue. Owen rode well and got faster with each lap.

After the pumptrack, it was time for the highlight of the day – watching Danny MacAskill’s Drop and Roll show. Owen has been a fan of “Danny” since he was a baby, so to be able to see him riding in real life was incredibly exciting! He managed to get a spot right at the barrier, which he was only just able to see over… The show lived up to our expectations, with great riding and playing to the crowd. We were in the prime position for the drops off the van and the end-of-show “banger” – a backflip ending right in front of us.

After the excitement, we had a look around the trade stands, trying unsuccessfully to find Owen some new kneepads, but it was nice to catch up with our friends at Little Rider Co. We also saw Kazzi and Sophie from Ready Steady Riders (Owen and Henry’s balance bike coaches) in the pizza queue, so it was great to catch up with them. The pizza was good too!

Owen had been keen to do some riding, so we set off on the new-for-2022 “Fun Loop” – a singletrack loop up to the obelisk and back to the arena. It was a tough climb up, alongside the downhill trails, but the descent was more than worth it! It felt like we were riding an enduro stage – as the fresh, natural trail was taped like a race trail. There were a few bits that were too tricky for Owen, but he was looking far enough down the trail to realise this and stop, then walk down them. Which I would much rather than him just hucking off everything.

The ride and the hot sun had tired Owen out, so we ended up chilling out in the shade before Owen’s skills session. We watched the dirt jumpers practising their tricks on the huge jumps, and the livestream of the downhill world championships on the big screen. It was probably good to have some downtime, as Owen rode so well in the skills session – conquering each new feature as it was added to the loop. I was particularly impressed with how he handled the “skinny seesaw” – of the riders in his group, only Owen and an older girl managed it the first time without any help, and Owen hit it at a decent speed too (although I think they may have been told to ride up it slowly).

Owen seemed rejuvenated after his skills session, so we decided to watch the Drop and Roll show again. This time the crowd was bigger, but Owen managed to squeeze to the front. I was a few people back in the crowd, but I have never known Owen to wait for anything so patiently, especially as the show was late starting because everyone was glued to the climax of the world championships. We had chosen one of the corners of the arena where the riders congregated between runs, so Owen was really close to his heroes. The show was mostly a rerun of the morning show, but Danny did get out his gym ball, for one of his signature stunts, and the other riders added some new tricks.

We took a leisurely drive back to Coventry, stopping for a KFC, and Owen almost made it home without falling asleep! He said he had an amazing day, with the ride down from the obelisk being his highlight. My highlight was seeing all of the mountain biking families – the future of mountain biking seems to be in safe hands! The event is not exclusively aimed at families, but the organisers have made such a big effort to ensure kids are welcomed and entertained. It was even better than last year, and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for 2023, because I will definitely be going!

Two Trail Centres, One Very Hot Day

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Last weekend, Owen and I found ourselves with a free afternoon. Usually, we would have ridden Perry’s Trail at Cannock Chase, but it is closed for the Commonwealth Games. Instead, we went to the trails at Snibston Colliery and then called in at Hicks Lodge on the way back. Owen and I have got history with Snibston Colliery, we tried riding there in April last year, but I had a mechanical issue with my bike, then we also tried to ride there earlier this year, but the trails were closed due to storm damage. On the drive up I was wondering what could possibly go wrong this time… Did I mention that it was a very warm day, although “only” an amber extreme heat warning.

After a McLunch-stop, we got to Snibston Colliery Park, which is a really nice park in itself, the trails were open and both bikes were working – result! Due to the heat, we decided to get straight onto the trails, skipping both the small pumptrack by the car park and the skills area at the top of the hill. I had been told that the part of the trail around the skills area, that Owen and I rode on our initial visit, was the “only good bit”, so I had low expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be almost all smooth singletrack trails. It also felt like there was more descending than climbing, even though it was a loop trail! Owen rode really well, and before long we found ourselves on the final section of trail, where Owen had his only wobble of the ride – failing to anticipate a steel hairpin climb, he found himself in the wrong gear and tumbled over backwards. But he was quick to get back on his bike and carry on. Owen was keen to ride the skills loop again, so we rode back up the hill, sessioned the skills loop (where the photo above was taken) and re-rode the last swoopy section, stopping to take some more photos, as I had brought my new camera along for the ride. Owen also successfully negotiated the tricky hairpin which had caught him out on our first pass through. Even though it was hot and the playground was in full sun, Owen had to have a quick play on the diggers in the gravel pit, whilst I loaded up the van for round two.

Our ride around Snibston Colliery Park was “only” five kilometres, but rather than riding another lap, Owen wanted to call in at Hicks Lodge, which was on our route home anyway – albeit with a short detour to show Owen the house where I lived from 1985 to 1989. Snibston Colliery Park had been quiet on each of our previous visits, so I was not surprised to see an empty car park there, however, I was surprised to see Hicks Lodge with only three cars in the car park! Especially as it is an ideal place to ride on a hot day – the trails are mostly in the trees and the trail is fairly flat, with no big climbs. Owen has ridden at Hicks Lodge a lot, so knows his way around, and shot off into the distance as soon as we were on the trail – it is great seeing him ride so confidently. Other than doing a second loop of our favourite section (with a photo stop), we just did a fast lap of the blue trail – we only saw three other riders! I think the 30ºc heat may have had something to do with that, but also now that Owen is riding faster we get overtaken less. On the way home, we stopped for some well-earned McFlurries to cool ourselves down. Despite the heat, it was one of the best days on the bike I have had this year and I am looking forward to some more riding with Owen over the summer holidays.