UK Bikers sign here! E-petition for increased access.

I saw this on someones Facebook page and nicked it because I like it! :)

This has been highlighted in this months Mountain Bike Rider Magazine and I think it's worth signing! A guy called Rob Sutherland created it and it requires 100,000 signatures for it to be debated in parliament, so please get signing! :) I reckon there are enough mountain bikers in the UK to make this possible.
Click on the link below to go straight to it.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/3508

Increased Access for Mountain Bikes

Responsible department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Designating mountain bikes in the same category as horses is wrong and provides a barrier to the lawful pursuit of a healthy past-time. In many parts of the country there simply is not a legal network of trails open to cyclists, or too little to be meaningful. Cyclists should be allowed to use the footpath network to pursue the sport of mountain biking, this would help to promote activity amongst young people, especially as the roads become increasingly congested. Shared use of all paths and trails has been successful in Scotland and could be throughout the rest of the UK. It will spread the density of mountain bikers further reducing the potential for trail conflict and the (disputed) erosive impact of bikes on the trail surfaces. There are no costs involved (we don't need special gates or access) this is just a re designation exercise to make a bicycle an extension of a pedestrian on the footpath network (with the exception of roadside footways).

Lots of photo's on Facebook!

Hi Everyone
I have uploaded a selection of photo's from our South East Asia trip on to the CTR page on Facebook, feel free to check them out and don't forget to "Like" the page if you... err... like it! :D Plus lots of other images on there from our other nonsense!
Click here for the images!
I've added a few on to the end of this post to give you a little taster :)
Lot's of regular updates on what we are up to on there too.

Don't forget we also update regularly on Twitter too, just click on the link on at the side of the main page or in the top right corner.
And feel free to sponsor the good causes we are supporting with The Himalaya Quest!

Pantai Tengah, Langkawi, Malaysia.

Danny & me posing with the smoking volcano that we weren't allowed to go up!

Return of the Langkawi Beach Bums.

Hi folks.
You'll be pleased to know that Danny and I have arrived home unscathed from our South East Asia trip; and with a few escapades under our belt and a few stories to tell too :) I'll try and blog something later this week when I recover from the jet-lag. Door to door it's taken us 26 hours to get home from Langkawi Island, Malaysia and we are knackered! Plenty of cool photo's to share with you all if nothing else.



I also forgot to mention, before we went away, that I have now posted an introductory blog-post to the OceanRidge website. Please feel free to check it out here http://www.oceanridge.co.uk
Thanks to Chris and Euan for the opportunity to spread the word.


On the good news front Dan Thompson has confirmed his offer to supply us with Rab Jackets and Sleeping bags for the Himalaya Quest which will save us a lot of money each and means we can concentrate on other stuff. Thanks Dan :)


Please try and sponsor our worthwhile causes for The Himalaya Quest if can afford to. Just £1, $1 etc from every reader will make a huge difference to kids that are supported by Rainbows and Whizz Kidz.
And remember that you can follow our regular updates on facebook and twitter if you want to.

The Hope Valley Challenge 2011.

Checkpoint Charlie. Registration Desk at Hope Valley College.

What a day!

Number of slices of cake consumed = 6 (Plus a slice of Malt Loaf and a Banana)
Number of drinks of pop = Lost count
Number of punishing climbs = 8
Number of punishing climbs ridden all the way up = Not many!
Number of fast, dangerous, whooping descents! = Loads :)
Number of 'over the handlebars' incidents = 1
Number of portions of soup and bread roll's consumed at the end = 2
Number of Mitchell's minging farts on the way home = At least 53!
Number of gas-masks required for Mitch's farts on the way home = 1

The sun shone, the trails were dry and everyone had a smile as wide as The Vale of Edale at the end! Read on...

And then there was even more!

EVEN MORE NONSENSE!

Following from my last post I had a long talked about fishing trip planned with one of my oldest and best friends, Paul 'Pip' Truscott. We had been, kind of, arranging this for a couple of years.
Pip and I are both members of a long established and well respected organisation called The British Carp Study Group (BCSG); it takes quite a lot to be accepted as a member and it is something we are both very proud of.
The group has it's own complex of waters in the very beautiful Colne Valley in Hertfordshire very close to London and I am lucky enough to have a membership for it. Pip can fish it for 4 days a year as a guest.
We work opposing shift patterns so Pip had booked a few days off work to allow us to go together for a social trip. I can fish it anytime so I arrived early on the Sunday morning to check it out and to find how it was fishing from anyone who might be there. Pip, as a guest, wasn't allowed to fish until midday on Monday but had planned to come down on Sunday afternoon and camp for the night.
It was slow according my mate Pete who was set up on "The Point" swim. One other guy was fishing further around the lake in "The Roundabout" swim. Neither had caught any Carp.
With a good south-westerly wind forecast I decided to set up in an area I knew well called "The Winter" swim. I baited a couple of spots and then waited for Pip to ring me before meeting him at The Village cafe in Harefield, a couple of miles away. The day was quiet and we enjoyed chatting and winding each other up as usual.
05.45am Monday morning and my left-hand bite alarm was singing it's wondrous song as a fish tore off in to distance; I shot out of my tent, picked up the rod and set the hook with a firm strike.
This was clearly a big fish and we battled for about 15 minutes until I managed to draw it into my landing net. I had a quick look at it in the half light of dawn and realised that it was a very big fish.
I left it resting in the net whilst I sorted out the weighing gear and camera etc. On the scales it pulled the dial around to 36lbs 2oz (16.3kg) and was a fish known as "The Half Linear" due to it's scaling pattern; I carefully placed it into a special retaining sack in the water and recast the rod. 45 minutes later and the other rod is away (I usually fish with 2 rods), Pip heard the bite alarm and came wandering down just as the fish was ready for netting. "Have you got one?" he asked. "Sort of" I replied; "I've got two". Pip took a look into the landing net and proclaimed it a big 'un! (In language I can't really print here in case children are reading).
He lifted the scales and read out a weight of 37lbs 12oz (17.1kg) and was another well known fish by the unusual name of "Codzilla"!
That's the biggest brace of Carp I've ever caught in an hour in England!. We photograph it and returned it to the water before doing the same with the one I had retained earlier.

The fish known as "Codzilla" at 37lbs 12oz from Korda Lake, Hertfordshire.