Priorities first…a real cuppa
Back lane CX with Ben Morgan
Just a typical main street in any British village
Hartland Moors
Corfe Castle
Blue skies in February. Not the England I remember
Wareham, Dorset
Ben Morgan is the f-ing man. Contender for Dad of the Year, Teacher of the Year, Best Bloke To Hit The Pub With, and Cycle Fan Of All Bicycle types. We use to ride BMX together but no matter the wheels we’re on it’s still the same source of good company
Ed Oxley, the hairier half of HebTroCo
Hebden Bridge, aka Trouser Town
Brant Richards, designed a lot of things. A trouser company being the latest design challenge
Pretty analogue
Ed watching Brant going ‘no dabs’ through this bit of slippery trail
Old pack horse track
The moors above Hebden Bridge
Looks flat and fun and easy. It was one of those things (hint: not the first or third thing).
Niall Oxley, Ed’s son, always looked absolutely comfortable on the slick, mucky, unpredictable trails
One day all of this rubble might be resurrected and erected into something grand again. An old mill house deep in one of Hebden’s gorges.
The Lake District heather
There’s enough dry stone walls in Britain to reach to infinity and beyond. Fact.
Colours of the land
This was taken about an hour after descending off Helvellyn, where the weather had been brutal. Sunshine lower down made for easier fought mileage.
Glenridding below
Yes, Gary.
Cast extrusion ready to make what?
Raw cranks before machining
Raw hub shells before machining.
At rest.
Frickin’ laser beams
Ever been branded by a disc?
Shopping lists
Heavy rotation
Not only does Hope work in carbon, they now work in carbon fibre. Here’s one of the HB211 frames been laid up.
Bathing
Tie-dye
Heaps of Hope.
Sandy Plenty is one of the best dudes to ever do it. His shop, Trail Head.
A 1888 version of John Kemp Starley’s Safety Cycle
Offset and triple clamps in 1888.
Raleigh Burner, every 80s kids dream bike, especially in gold chrome.
This might be given away a little too much, but here ferments the best cider in the universe
It is not an artisanal masterpiece, it’s raw and dirty, hence the flavor.
Not faux rustic.
All roads lead to water and cheese in Somerset.
Cheddar Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. #alternativefacts
Limestone cowboys
Standard winter conditions on the Mendips.
Stockhill mines.
Andy Chamberlain sold my parents my first proper mountain bike and then gave me my first bike shop job.
Britain is a gated community
Footpaths, not to be messed with.
Glastonbury Tor, where magic and mystery bubbles from the ground like the sacred white and red springs
Peaslake, Surrey. Not the usual trailhead village
The most famous bus stop in Peaslake. The community hub for all mountain bikers in the area.
Apres, Surrey style (cheese sticks and a cuppa tea).
Pedal And Spoke, the biggest tiny bike shop in the world. Amazing place and Howard does a good job keeping the fun alive.
Forestry lands, if it wasn’t for them then UK mountain biking would not be thriving as much as it is.
I forget the name of the trail but it was much drier than anything I rode the entire time I was in the UK. Surrey is a lovely little spot.
Llandegla, North Wales. More forestry lands.
It’s not all buff berms.
40km of purpose built mountain bike trails might not seem much but it’s varied, fun and, most importantly, rideable year round.
This place gets 200,000 visitors a year. That’s on par with Whistler, BC. The range of different bikers -from first timers, to pros, to dad and sons – is brilliant to see.
Not the North Shore.
2FLAT 