Still no riding

I still haven't got on my bike this week!!!!

I am pretty much finished now so I am going to go for a ride tomorrow just to blow the cobwebs off for the weekend. I also need to swap my gearing out from 42x18 to 37x16 as I was more comfortable on the 37x16.

No Riding so far this week

Haven't ridden at all this week as I have been moving house and haven't had a second to go on my bike.

Hopefully I can get to the track for a bit tomorrow afternoon as I need to get on the bike to not feel rusty at the weekend.

Another good days racing

Went to Newton Abbot today to race in round 7 of the SW Regionals.

Had a pretty good day got 2nd, 4th and 3rd in my finals to qualify 4th for the semis only to finish 6th so only made the B final again. We had to rerun our semi as one of the kids in the semi before us crashed when we left the gate and was still on the floor when we got to the 3rd straight.
 Was annoying as I was in 5th at the time and on the back wheel of the guy in 4th.

The final was even worse as I had a great star and was in 2nd or 3rd until I hit the 3rd jump wrong and then I lost my focus and went backwards to 7th. This is my worst finish of the year.

Next week we have rd 8 in Biddiford so hopefully I can do better there.

On a positive note I am still in first position as as I had much better motos that the guy in second I am still in first position in the standings at the moment.

I am going to have to get some practice in this week to try and do as well as I can next weekend so that I get maximum points possible.

Getting used to the Sunday Model C

I have been riding the Sunday Model C to and from work for the last week and I am really liking it. The back wheel has actually stayed in place for the last 2 days as well making the riding experience much more enjoyable.

I have been practising manual boinks on anything with a but of a lip on it like drain covers and low kerbs and the bike feels really nice and jumps really easily. Also bunny hops are really easy I can hop up a kerb without even thinking either bunny hopping or america bunny hopping.

Next week I am going to take the bike to Crucial to get the pegs and hub guards fitted so that I can go and play in the skatepark on the bike during the day as we are going to be 15 minutes by bike away from the skatepark in town from next week.

This weekend we have racing in Decoy on their newly refurbished track with a 5m start hill so I am getting really excited about riding there even though I don't think I will do too well as most of the fast guys are racing this weekend. I am focusing on getting good first straights and then we will see how do over the rest of the track. Although I will be well rested as I haven't ridden my Yess all week!!!!

I am going to pick up the Yess tonight and give it a wash and a service ready for practice tomorrow as it is still dirty from last weekend's riding as I had to store it dirty in the container and haven't had time to go and pick it up to wash. We don't have too much to move tonight so I will go pick up the race bikes and clean them and pack the car ready to leave early tomorrow morning to travel to practice.

Slack week

Had a really slack week this week as I have been sorting out our new house and also my son is ill so I can't take him to the track.

It might be a good thing as we have a busy couple of weeks ahead with 2 races in 2 weeks. I am also training on the Saturday at each track as well as racing on the Sunday.

This weekend I will be racing on my first 5m start hill which I am really excited about. The track is the first track I raced on last year so it will be good to see how much better I have become over the past year or so.

This week I have been riding my Sunday model C to and from work and I have got used to it a bit now. I am really liking it. It still feels really high compared to my race bike but it is really bouncy and fun. I jumped a small stair set on my way home tonight and you don't even feel like you have dropped from a height. I was also doing mollies and manuals and it feels really good.

The only problem I have with the bike is that the back wheel keeps slipping forwards which is a pain in the arse as the chain makes loads of noise and also the wheel keeps running all the time.

I am going to fit a set of chin tensioners tonight to solve this problem so by tomorrow it should be sorted.

Rest Day

Had to take a rest day today as my left knee, right ankle and right thigh were all still really sore.

I guess I hadn't got off as lightly as I thought.

It was also raining a lot when I woke up so that made it easier to not go to the track.

Lucky escape

Just had a really lucky escape! Got to the track and did 3 pump laps and a lap where I went 70% and manualled everything.

I then started my full speed laps. My first lap went great I manualled the first straight that I was going so fast I almost went off of the back of the berm! I managed to make it around the berm without breaking and did a good lap. I then rested for 3 minutes and then it all went wrong!

I tried to get one more peddle in before the first double and I ended up pulling into the manual at an angle and when my back wheel hit the backside of the down ramp I got thrown off the jump sideways!!! I was thinking that this is a definite trip to the hospital as this is exactly what I did last year which ended up with 3 broken ribs and a broken collar bone. I somehow managed to unclip and get my feet onto the floor and skidded to a stop half way up the second double. I have tweaked my left knee and my right ankle and also bruised my left calf and right thigh but I will take it as I will be fine to ride tomorrow or Friday.

Here is a picture of my skid. You can see how I skidded on both feet for quite a way.

After such a lucky escape I decided to call it a day for today.

Rest day

Having a rest day as I have a bad stomach this morning. Also it is really windy so it would be really bad at the track today.

I was going to go for a ride on my mountain bike ride but with my stomach the way it is I don't think that it is a good idea to go too far from home.

I plan to do some endurance work tomorrow doing 3 laps at a time to try and get my fitness up for the next race.

Laps done

Woke up at 5:30 this morning which was 30 minutes before my alarm so I got to the track early and got my full laps in.

I did 3 pump laps as warm up and then went flat out for 6 laps with 3 minutes rest in between laps. After the second lap my legs got progressively more tires by the fourth straight which was good as it means I am training at the right intensity. It also meant that I practiced the last straight really tired so it is like race conditions although I wasn't as tired yesterday during the racing as I was today.

It was really raining again today so I got to practice in the wet which is also good as yesterday it lashed it down for the semi and everyone started to get worried and slowed down a bit where as I was used to it so I raced as I normally would until I got cut off on the first jump. That's racing for you.

I am definately going back to 37x16 for the rest of the season as I think it is the best gearing for me at the moment.

This week I am going to consentrate on Bath track so that I am ready for the regional next month. I also want to get a couple of spring sessions in as well as I am feeling a little less explosive than I was a few months ago when I was doing sprints all the time.

I did a weigh in this morning and I am back over 100 kgs at 100.5 kgs. I think this is all muscle as my shoulders, chest and legs are all getting more defined. I even have a few ribs showing now too 😁

Not a bad days racing today

Had a pretty good days racing today there were almost 30 riders and I finished in 15th place over all. My motos went really well. I finished 3rd in all 3 motos and beat a couple of guys that I have never beaten before as well.

My semi and final didnt go so well today I finished 7th in both which I am a bit disappointed in.

On a positive note my fitness has improved a lot and I didn't get tired until the finish line so pretty happy with that as well.

Still I am making progress and there were a lot of quick riders today.

Back to training again tomorrow ready for the next race in a couple of weeks.

I am going to try dropping my gearing to 41x18 next week some time so that I can try it out to see whether I say with it for the rest of the tracks or go back to 37x16 for the rest of the season.

The 42x18 worked pretty well today but it felt like I couldn't spin as much as I wanted to.

Rest day

I took a rest day today as I was feeling tired and rough again and wanted to be better for tomorrow.

Sold my dialled StayStrong this morning so I am putting the money aside to pay for my Curtis frame when it is ready in a few months. I was going to buy some new forks for my cruiser so that I can use my current forks on my dialled mx24r frame build but I think I am going to hold off on building it for a while.

I may buy some more s&m bars to use on my Sunday as I don't like the feeling of the current bars as they are really high so I was going to try it out with the S&m bars to see if it felt better. If not I will use the bars on the dialled build or the Curtis build so they will not go to waste.

Really looking forward to tomorrow as there is a really strong field tomorrow so I will need to go all out all day to make the A final although it is going to rain so that may thin out the field a little bit we will see tomorrow.

Also I have practiced on the track when it is wet so I may have a bit of an advantage which would be nice.

Liking the new gearing

Just got back from gates and I must say I am liking the 42x18 gearing over the 37x16 and 36x16.

It seems to be more responsive out of the gates and also I seemed to have a bit more top end speed without loosing any speed out of the gate.

I will find out tomorrow at gates at Bristol if it is any better than the 36x16 was on Wednesday but my first impressions are that it is better.

I rode a lot better today as well I didn't case any manuals today and this is the first session ever where I have manualled the second double every time. I usually case more times than I manual so pretty happy. Also not casing the second double makes it much easier to jump the table top out of the first berm which I did every time too.

Can't wait for tomorrow to try some gates against some faster riders to see how I compare to them.

I forgot to mention that it has been 6 months yesterday that I haven't had any fizzy drinks at all so I am half way to my goal of a year without drinking any fizzy drinks.  I am really happy as this is the longest that I have been ever without fizzy drinks that I can remember.

Rest day

I am taking today as a rest day as I am going to meet up with people on Friday evening.

I have been thinking about the gearing and I am going to go back to 37x16 instead of moving to 42x18 as I have been using the gearing all year and I have had some really quick starts with it.

I think that will be the more balanced option as it is a little more spinny than 42x18 and I get a little more out of every peddle than 36x16 but it does not make the start any slower which I think that 42x18 may do as it is much higher gearing.

I will take the 42x18 with me just in case I think that I need it but I think 37x16 should be the best gearing for me at the moment.

I plan to move back to 36x16 at some point as the majority of National riders use it and are really fast so they can't all be wrong.

I am a bit worried about my chest as it is still full of muck and I am coughing a lot again which I shouldn't be after 2 weeks.

I dropped my bike off at Crucial and I am going to get the 42x18 fitted and also a new chain as the one I have has been full of sand or grit since I raced at Cornwall so I figured a new one was in order.

The bike will be ready tomorrow afternoon so I can pick it up and go straight to the track to get some training in.