Birthday Bike Ride at Hicks Lodge

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I had a fun bike ride today at Hicks Lodge, with Jen, the boys and Partho. Hicks Lodge is Henry’s favourite place to ride at the moment, especially as the playground has just been refurbished, and the cafe does a good hot chocolate. I had also noticed the cakes in the cafe, so a plan was hatched for my birthday weekend – for me it does not get better than a family bike ride with a cake stop! My best friend Partho also came along too.

We woke up to rain, poor weather is one of the downsides to a December birthday, but the forecast was improving and Owen was super keen to ride – he actually hurried me along to get the van loaded up, asking me what he could do to help. The weather was pretty grim driving up the M42, but the rain had stopped by the time we were ready to set off. The trails were still wet and muddy though. Both boys were riding well, despite the conditions and lack of snack stops. I think we have also got to the point where Henry is faster than Jen on a mountain bike trail.

Photo: Partho

After most of our first lap Partho and I left Jen and the boys at the new playground (next to the yet to open skills area) and set off for a second faster lap, Owen had been keen to join us, but decided to stay at the playground. Stopping for a breather after the first few sections of trail, we spotted a lone rider catching us up, then noticed the bright red helmet peak – it was Owen. He had instantly regretted his decision not to join us for a fast lap and had ridden as fast as he could to catch us up! We finished the lap, taking it in turns to lead out each section – when it was my turn to start, I could just hear Owen saying “I’ll give you a bit of a head start”. Hopefully he was just copying what I do, rather than being cheeky, but he did not catch me up. On the section that Partho led out he was able to get enough of a lead that he could get a photo of Owen and I at the end of the section. There are not many pictures of us actually riding together, so that was really nice to have. Owen started to tire towards the end of the ride, but perked up when we came across the new section of trail, linking what was previously the final to sections in to one long final section – some nice flowy berms replacing a section of fire road.

By the time we had finished the ride the sun had come out, so we sat outside enjoying our drinks and cakes. The cakes from the Hicks Lodge cafe tasted as good as they looked on our previous visits – I had a gingerbread millionaire, a festive take on one of my favourites, and a white hot chocolate. As we could see the playground from our table, we could carry on chatting whilst the boys enjoyed exploring the newly refurbished playground – they seem to have kept all of the best bits from the old playground and added lots of new equipment, and the boys loved the new set up. Henry was really in his element – he is not the most confident mountain biker, but he really loves Hicks Lodge, it is a lot calmer than other trail centres we go to, but I think that suits him. I am pleased to see that it is seeing some investment, as it is such a great facility for the littlest mountain bikers. Even with “tame” trails, with a lot of water on them, I still had a great ride – sometimes it is who you ride with that matters more than where you are riding!

Coventry Ring Road Photowalk

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In Coventry we are proud of our ring road, which loops around the city centre, just outside of where the old medieval city walls were, it is notoriously tricky to drive on, with junctions merging into each other. The secret is to ignore usual best practices and stay in the right lane unless you are leaving at the next junction. When I heard that a group of local photographers were going on a photowalk around the ring road I was keen to join them, and somehow the stars aligned such that I was free on the day, and it was not raining either! It was a dry day, but the weather was pretty dull, so I made the decision early on that I would try to shoot in black and white, feeling that it would work well with the grey skies and grey architecture. I considered using my X100V, as it is a camera made for street photography, but I wanted the flexibility of switching lenses, so opted for the X-H2S, mainly with the 35mm f1.4 prime lens.

We met at the canal basin, and took some shots around that area whilst waiting for the whole group to arrive. I like the canal basin, it is just across the ring road from the city centre, but feels so much calmer, especially on a chilly Saturday morning, when the canal was as flat as a millpond, which made for some great reflections. That is until a couple of swans swam through and spoiled my fun.

As we left the canal basin for the ring road, my inner car photographer was coming out – I was trying to combine a silhouetted person walking across the bridge with a car driving under it. Then I saw this hot rod truck approaching – it did not quite give me the shot I was aiming for, but in my view an interesting truck makes for a better shot than perfect timing/composition with a Toyota Prius.

We crossed over to the inside of the ring road, and walked around anti-clockwise, stopping to take photos. Our first main stop was Nauls Mill Underpark – somewhere I had not been since I borrowed an X100V from Fuji a few years ago. It is an underpass which has been done up as a park, with seating, a climbing wall and logs planted into the ground. I used some of these logs as framing, and waited for someone to walk into, or out of the shadow of the bridge – my plan worked! Although I think I would have been happier with a slightly faster shutter speed, I think having the slight motion blur works for this image.

Our next main stop was the abandoned housing estate at Spon End – the flats have been empty for a while now and are due to be demolished, it felt strange to be walking around what would have once been a busy area. Hopefully something nice will be built there soon, as it is a good location near to the city centre, with the River Sherbourne running alongside.

From Spon End we carried on round the ring road, criss crossing through the many subways on the south side of town. I liked this composition with the light and the square hole, I just needed to wait for a subject to walk into frame. We did not have as much time here as I would have liked, but it is somewhere I can revisit.

I thought I knew Coventry well, but I had never previously noticed the Frank Whittle building at Coventry University, with its hexagonal patters was pretty spectacular. I have driven past it loads, but you cannot see if from the road, as it is hidden behind the old Whitefriars monastery. I felt like I could have done better here, I had some shots with cyclists riding past, but I needed either a faster shutter speed, or a much slower one to get more motion blur. Another area to return to…

I did not take many photos on the last section of the ring road, but I did notice a few areas which would be good for some static car photography, so next time I have a free afternoon and a clean car I will give those a go. As we got back to the start we stopped for a well earned hot drink and cake at the Transport Museum cafe – we had been walking for more than four hours and I had done over 16,000 steps! It was great to get out exploring my home town, and to meet some other local photographers, the fact that I got home and was pleased with a number of my images from the day is the cherry on top!

Owen and Henry Race at Northampton Bike Park

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Last weekend I took the boys to Northampton Bike Park for their first junior race event. Owen and I have ridden at Northampton Bike Park a few times in the past, and it is one of Owen’s favourite places to ride, so he was entered into the “Intermediate” category, racing on the blue graded trails. Henry had not ridden there previously, so he was entered into the “Beginner” category.

Henry’s race was up first, and was held in the skills area, it consisted of a run down the “turns” line, a short back climb back to the top and a run down the “jumps” part of the skills area. After a few practice runs Henry had the downhill sections of the trail sussed out, but still had not managed to complete the climb. When it came to time for race runs, Henry was last to drop in, so had a bit of a wait, watching everyone else. Fortunately Owen was able to do some practice laps ready for his race, so was not also left waiting. Henry did well on his race run, even making the climb! However, when it came to the awards presentation, the reality of being a five year old racing in an “under sixteens” category meant that he was way down the order. However, this was not the end of the racing for Henry – there was also to be a dual slalom race, on the “1460” dual track – which Henry had not previously ridden. Henry’s finishing position meant that he had to qualify, against some of the other smaller children, so his first run down the track was actually a qualifying run – which he won! Hies second run, in the quarter finals, was against a much bigger rider (probably three times his age), so although he rode well, he stood no chance. The most important thing though was that Henry really enjoyed himself, particularly on the dual track. We will be returning to have some races amongst ourselves in future.

Whilst Henry was racing dual slalom, Owen had gone up to the top of the bike park to wait for his race run – which would be one run down the “Blue Nunn” trail, taking the jump line. As soon as Henry was knocked out of his dual slalom race, we rushed across to the bottom of the blue trail to try and catch Owen. We made it in time, as Owen was also one of the last riders to drop in. Unfortunately, on of the riders before him had a fairly big crash, so the racing had to be stopped for a while, with only a few riders left at the top. When racing resumed we did not have to wait too long for Owen to come down. It looked like he also had a good run, and really enjoyed it. He said that the wait at the top had not been too bad, as he was chatting with the start marshal and other riders, and doing star jumps to keep his muscles warm. Again, this was an “under sixteen” category, so Owen was one of the smallest riders, amongst a field of teenagers, so his finishing position reflected that.

Owen also had a dual slalom race after his downhill race. This time there were no qualification races, and Owen was straight up against a teenager. I know from experience that Owen is pretty fast down the dual track – if I give him half a ten second head start we are pretty close at the end. Unfortunately he did not get a head start in this race, and he was up against a teenager, so did not stand much chance. The only silver lining was that he had a swimming party to be at, and would have been late if we had to hang around for a second round race. Not only did Owen ride well, but he showed great independence and resilience doing his own practice, and getting himself up to the start line for his race whilst I was with Henry.

The team at Northampton Bike Park are doing a great job of maintaining the trails, and generating excitement about the bike park with events such as this – I wish that there was similar at the Bedworth or Newbold Comyn trails which were built before/after Northampton Bike Park. Whilst it was frustrating that all the categories were “under sixteen”, with five year olds (and younger) racing against teenagers, I understand why they did it. Hopefully they will be able to tweak it slightly next time they run races. Having the fun dual slalom racing after the main race was a nice touch, especially as there is space for everyone to gather around the track to cheer the riders on. The most important thing though was that both boys enjoyed themselves, and Owen got to his swimming party on time.

Little Rippers Halloween Ride at Bike Park Wales

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Owen and I had a great day riding at Bike Park Wales for the Little Rippers Halloween ride. It is an event that we have wanted to attend for a few years now, but holidays and hospital visits have got in the way. It was more than worth the wait, it was one of the best days on the bike this year!

We drove down the night before, after I finished work, stopping at McDonald’s enroute. Problems with their app led to me accidentally doubling Owen’s order, which he thought was the best thing ever, as he got to eat the extras. I have no idea where he puts all the food. The same could be said at the hotel the next morning, where he took full benefit of the breakfast buffet!

We got to the bike park in time to get signed on before the uplifts started, and to get the Little Rippers group photo! For our first run we decided to explore the far side of the hill, which we missed on our previous visit – Terry’s Belly top sections, back up to the new skills area, down Popty Ping, then the rest of Terry’s Belly back down to the uplift. Owen particularly liked the skills area, he rode the drips line a few times until he got it perfect – some of the drips were pretty big too.

On our second run, we rode Sixtapod then Willy Waver – both fast trails that finish at the uplift. I think the was my favourite run, Owen was looking really confident on his bike, especially considering he had not previously ridden these trails. Owen was getting hungry by this point (how?), so for our third run we aimed for the visitor centre, via Melted Welly, Fforest Bump, Roller Disco, Bluebell and Bushwhacker. Fforest Bump was the first of the “tech” trails we had ridden there, chosen because I had hoped it would bring us out after the climb on Melted Welly. It did not. The trail was different to the “flow” trails we had been riding, with a looser, more natural, surface and more drops than rollers. Owen coped well with it, I think sessioning the drops line in the skills area in the morning helped.

We ended up having a long lunch – hotdogs from the cafe, and catching up with some of the other Little Rippers, whilst Owen waited to get his face painted. He also got a Little Rippers Halloween goody bag, and a second to bring home for Henry. By the time we started our fourth run, my muscles had got cold, and judging by how slowly he was pedalling over to Terry’s Belly, Owen’s had too. Owen rode Popty Ping again, and I decided to ride the red graded Hot Stepper, which runs parallel. The red graded trail was a step up, with a lot of drops, I based my chainring on one and had to stop and bail out of another as it was too big and I was riding too slowly. In the end Owen had a bit of a wait for me where the trails rejoined eachother. My arms were feeling tired on the rest of the long Terry’s Belly trail, and I was not too surprised when Owen said he did not want to do another run when we got down to the bottom. The problem was that we were right at the bottom of the bike park and we needed to get back up to the visitor centre, so we had a small climb, which just about finished Owen off, and a short descent on Norkle.

We had had an excellent days riding – over 21km according to my Apple Watch, which makes it Owen’s longest ride! Do not be mistaken in thinking that because we were mainly riding downhill it was easy, riding long downhill trails fast is hard work, and muscle groups that we are not used to using on our normal rides. Owen certainly got a taste for this type of ride and is already asking when we will next be doing an uplift day!

It was a long drive back to Coventry, traffic was OK until we got past the M40, then it was very busy, even in Coventry, which meant I was too late to take Henry to his Cycle Speedway Halloween Spectacular, so Jen had to ride up with him, and Owen and I met them there to catch the last half of the session. Henry was riding fast, and even managed to ride a lap one handed. I had set him the challenge of learning to ride one handed before the 2025 cycle speedway seasons starts, but he managed it on the last session of the 2024 season!

Ten Years of Mountain Biking

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Ten years ago I bought a mountain bike, a Vitus Nucleus hardtail. After years of going to the gym multiple times a week, I wanted to switch up my training, and I thought that after buying the bike it would be cheaper than the gym membership. I was wrong on that count, but can definitely say that my fitness has improved! What enabled me to buy a mountain bike at the time was actually having somewhere to keep it, after the completing of my garage build. If I knew that ten years later I would be squeezing ten bikes into the garage alongside my MR2 Roadster I would have made the garage much bigger!

In addition to the family’s bike collection growing, I have also had to buy a van to transport the bikes around, as although I can ride from home, getting out an exploring new places on the bike is my favourite thing to do. Especially if I can ride with other people. I am lucky that Jen and the boys occasionally come out with me, Owen especially seems to enjoy riding, and I love being able to share a hobby with him.

I still have the frame of the Vitus hardtail, it is hanging from the garage ceiling, as although it was a good starter bike, and a good second bike when I got my Orange Four, I eventually replaced it with a better hardtail, my Orange Clockwork Evo. I did over 6,000km on that bike, albeit with a lot of upgrades over the five years I was riding it. I have also learned a heck of a lot about working on bikes – ten years ago I did not know anything, but these days I would not think twice about building a bike up from scratch, or building a wheel – I just wish I had more time to do it, and a bigger workshop of course!

Mountain bikes have also crept into my other hobby – photography. I love either going out on my bike with a camera in by bag, or shooting mountain bike races. To me, mountain biking feels more like a way of life than a sport, and I am glad that I found it, after buying that bike ten years ago.

Back to School 2024

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This year Owen and Henry are starting back at school on the same day, so I am doing a combined post and an elusive picture of both of them together – easier said than done!

Owen’s First Day of Year Four

After a busy summer holiday, I think Owen is glad to get back to school for a rest. For someone who reads a lot, Owen left his holiday homework until the last minute, and was reading “How to train your Dragon” well past his bedtime last night.

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

  • Height: 123cm
  • Shoe size: 2.5
  • Bike(s): Vitus Nucleus 24 for mountain biking and United Recruit 16 BMX for riding to school and at the skatepark.
  • Favourite colour: Red
  • Favourite food: Flying Cows bacon cheeseburger
  • Favourite book: How to train your dragon
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Hot wheels let’s race
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Going to the Wave waterpark in Coventry
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A chemist

Henry’s First Day of Year One

Henry is keen to go back to school, although I am not sure that he prepared of the structure of being in a proper class, rather than the play focussed reception. Henry does not seem to be as academic as Owen, but I think he may play it down somewhat, as he sometimes reads quite long words unprompted. He was so keen to go in a meet his new teacher that he did not even look back or say bye to me.

Henry also answered the back to school questions, at least he has a more realistic career aspiration than last year…

  • Height: 101cm
  • Shoe size: 12
  • Bike(s): Orbea MX20 (Owen’s old bike) for mountain biking, Frog 52 for cycle speedway and riding to school (until the brake get removed) and a Haro Frontside 16 BMX for the skatepark and riding to school once the brakes are removed from the Frog.
  • Favourite colour: Pink
  • Favourite food: Spaghetti bolognaise
  • Favourite book: A squash and a squeeze
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Sofia the first
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Our holiday in the South Downs (blog post coming soon)
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher

Accidental 50km Ride

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One of my goals for 2024 was to do a 50km bike ride – I had a few routes planned, but had not yet got around to riding them. I had planned to take a full day, ride at a casual speed, maybe have a lunch stop etc. However, sometimes things just fall into your lap…

This summer I have been trying to join the local mountain bike group, the Godiva Trailriders, on their Wednesday evening group rides, as I find riding with faster riders helps me to push myself. This evening was a prime example! The pace was faster than I am used to (16km/h average), and my first experience of riding off road, at speed in the dark. On trails I do not know. I did lose the rider in front of me a few times, as I was right on my limit but fortunately the group waited for me.

As we got to the end of the group part of the ride I realised that it was one of my longest rides to date – no wonder I was struggling, but also that I could push on to 50km if I took a slightly longer route home. So I did, and ticked off one of my goals!

2024 Goals Update

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I usually like to check in on my goals for the year at the end of June, once again it has come around very quickly! It feels like we have packed a lot into the first six months of the year, but we have still got plenty of exciting things planned over the next few months…

Spend more time with my friends

Whilst I have just spent a nice afternoon with Partho, his wife and dogs, at home eating BBQ (the best pulled pork I have ever cooked), it has definitely been an exception. We have been for a few bike rides together, but I have barely seen my other friends. By the middle of next month we have all turned forty, and are yet to celebrate together. More effort needed.

Make my blog more robust

I have made some improvements, but what it really needed is a full refresh of the infrastructure. I had started this, but had been bogged down trying to do it “correctly”, crafting the perfect infrastructure in CDK. However perfection can sometimes be the enemy of progress. There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel, when I can simply spin up a proven AMI on an AWS EC2 instance. I have a couple of other projects to get out of the way first but will be looking at the blog next.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

Not yet, but this is a good project for when the weather is rubbish.

Photograph a rally

Yes! I actually photographed two – a single stage rally at Donington Park and the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages in Wales.

Complete a 50km bike ride

Not yet, but I have got a decent route planned, which I am hoping to do in the next few weeks.

Ride 25km with Owen

Owen and I have done a few more rides around the twenty kilometre mark, but we need to get something longer planned. Ideally it needs to be off road, but without too many climbs.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Another one that I can check off – I won a Bike Park Wales pass with Little Rippers, and Owen and I spent the weekend in Wales. We only managed two runs before Owen called it a day as he was feeling unwell.

Ride at 417 Bike Park with Henry

Not yet, I am hoping that we can fit this in during the school summer holidays. The bike park has been closed the last few weeks, but should be reopening soon.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Not yet, but next time I get a free day, it is where I am going!

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

This has been one of my goals for a while, but for various reasons it has not worked out. We did get out for a fun ride in the Peak District, where Partho demoed a Cotic bike. He has now bought one, so hopefully that means we will be riding more together.

Sort out the boys toys

Massive fail. I have sort of sorted out their Lego, but our lounge started of the year with relatively few toys, after we had it redecorated at the back end of last year, but more have gradually crept in…

Tidy my garage

Another fail.

MR2 jobs

The MR2 has had at least one wash this year, and is booked into the bodyshop in a few weeks time to get some minor scuffs tidied up.

Make sure that my pensions and investments are working for me

Boring. My employer is rejigging our work pension plan at the moment, so using that as an excuse to put this off…

Get my weight down to 90kg

After eating all of the Easter treats, my weight is finally trending in the right direction, I need to have a few good weeks of eating sensibly and riding my bike lots before going on holiday at the end of July and hopefully that will get me back on track.

July looks like it is going to be a busy month for me, culminating it a family holiday to the South coast, apart from the bank holiday, August and September look a lot calmer, so hopefully I will be able to make some headway with my goals for the rest of the year.

Owen’s Eighth Birthday

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Owen turned eight earlier in the week, although his birthday party only happened today. His actual birthday started off fairly low key, opening his presents, then going to school. After school all his grandparents came to visit for tea and cake, and of course, more presents. Then we went to Hickory’s Smokehouse for dinner – it was not in our plan, but Owen had mentioned to a few people that it was his favourite birthday tradition, and Jen and I did not really take too much convincing!

Rather than a big party, like the last couple of years, we took Owen and a couple of his best friends to Laser Quest and then for lunch. I joined the boys for Laser Quest, and we had the place to ourselves! The boys decided that they were going to team up against me – I did not get off to a good start by starting in a dead end, but I did manage to get the highest score of the game, albeit lower than the boy’s combined score – probably because I had more targets to shoot at. After our games of laser tag we did a round of the space themed mini golf, which is the reason there is a photo of Astronaut Owen), it was only a small 9 hole course, but we enjoyed it. Finally we went on the VR experience, I went on a car race one, which made me feel a bit sick, and the boys went on an underwater adventure – which must have been very realistic judging by how loud Owen screamed when the shark swam up to him. After Laser Quest we joined Jen and Henry at Pizza Express. I think that the smaller party worked well, as Owen could spend more time with his closest friends, their only disappointment was that they could not carry on the celebrations into the afternoon.

Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages 2024

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After going to the Dukeries Rally with Owen earlier in the year, I was keen to get to a “proper” forest rally – and the next one scheduled was the Rally Nuts Severn Valley Stages, in Mid Wales – a round of the British Rally Championship. Even better, it was just after I had bought my Fuji X-H2S, so it would be a perfect opportunity to put it through its paces. My dad was also keen to watch a rally, so a plan was hatched.

As an early start was needed to catch the cars on the first loop of stages, I stayed at my parent’s house for the night so we could make a quick getaway. Usually I would relish an early morning blast across to Wales, but due to logistics we ended up going in the van. It was still a decent drive though, and we stopped for bacon sandwiches as a second breakfast, shortly after crossing the Welsh border. First we went to Sweet Lamb, as it seemed that it would be the easiest stage to get to and park at. It felt strange being somewhere that I have seen so much on television, it always looked like a cold place on television, and the reality matched that. As we waited in the spectator area low clouds drifted over, occasionally clearing. We would hear the cars coming before we saw them coming down the hill, round a corner, through the water splash, over a jump, then round a couple of hairpins and across the finish line. Whilst it was great watching the cars, we were stating to get cold as the last classes of cars were coming through. So we decided that we would watch the afternoon loop from the Myherin stage – via a third breakfast at the cafe in Devil’s Bridge.

By the time we arrived to Myherin, and had parked up on the side of the fireroad, and walked up to the viewing area, the sun had come out. I am not sure if it was the weather, or the better location, in the forest, but spectating at Myherin was one of my favourite motorsport experiences. Seeing the cars drifting through the back-to-back right angled, right hand corners and hearing them continue down the stage was exactly what I imagined rally spectating to be. The classic Escorts were mostly sideways (predictably), but it was also impressive seeing the top drivers in their modern four wheel drive machinery being millimetre perfect on the apex of the corner. There was also a Mitsubishi Evo VI who just brushed the large rock on the apex of the first corner, to gasps from the crowd – caught perfectly with the 20FPS of the X-H2S. However, my favourite car of the day was the classic 911 driven by Seb Perez (photo at the top of the post), it was good to see the mix of classic and more modern machinery on the rally. Also of note was that Jos Verstappen, ex-F1 driver, and father of current F1 world champion Max Verstappen, was taking part in his first gravel rally.

It was a good first test for the X-H2S, paired with my Fuji XF 50-140mm lens, the autofocus locked onto the cars, with the car subject detect mode activated. And the 20FPS shutter ensured that I could select the prime frame in Lightroom when I got home. I felt like a came home with way more keepers that I would have done had I been shooting with my old Fuji X-T2.

Spectating at a gravel rally in a Welsh forest really lived up to the hype, it was defiantly worth the early start, the long day in the van and spending the morning on a cold Welsh hillside. Seeing the cars sideways on the gravel, especially at close quarters was such a great experience. It was also nice to spend the whole day just with my dad, something that we do not manage to do enough.