Mountain Biking
The competitive edge ...

  After a brief tryout in 2002, I decided to enter a few Trailquests. These events, also known as Mountain Bike Orienteering, last from a couple of hours to all day and even span several days at International level. Karen came along on the first event and had a great day but prefers to keep her cycling on a non-competitive basis so now I either ride on my own or with Dave B, long time friend and mad MTB mate.

  We compete in the Veteran class, a long standing cycling term which means people over 40! Only a few years to go and we'll be 'Supervets', now there's something to look forward to ... We ride in events organised by NYMBO / EBOR, mostly in the North York Moors although they are spreading out to the Pennines as well. They've joined up with the CLOK club for a few events in the last couple of years, which has also widened the range of events open to us.

  In a season, most events are 2 hours, occasionally there's a 3 or 4 hour event and often a round of the National series, which tends to be 5 hours and leaves us feeling dead for about 5 days afterwards. Events mostly require 30 checkpoints to be found in the time limit, between 5 and 30 points for each checkpoint and points lost if you exceed the time limit. Sometimes the route is pre-planned but usually you pick your own way around the checkpoints, not many people get all 30. We enjoy the riding, but try not to be too serious about the results, after all we don't train enough to be really good and there are too many pints of beer waiting to be drunk ... It's a great experience, the people are good and the riding is usually brilliant, come along and have a go.

   Here's my league results for the last few years, comments on each season are a bit further down the page.

Visit one of the following websites and look for more details

North Yorkshire Mountain Bike Orienteers at www.nymbo.org.uk
or EBOR at www.eborienteers.org.uk
or CLOK at www.clok.org.uk

Also try these for info on cycling and general orienteering

Trail Cyclists Association (TCA) or the British Orienteering Federation

2008 - 12th May

  18th May A quick call to Tim at www.tftuned.com saw a replacement U-Turn adjuster, a new cassette from www.chainreaction.com and a couple of hours with cleaners and grease saw the bike something like normal and missing it's squeak, a bit like Sir Thomas Thom of Appledore...

  10th May A long drive out to Grinton in Swaledale for a 5 hour ride. In complete contrast to last month, it was the hottest day of the year so far and there was hardly any mud to be found. Dave B had to come back to base half way through with a football injury causing some problems, I carried on and nearly destroyed the bike and myself in the process. Some long, hard climbs were tken slowly, followed by fast, rocky switchback descents. By the end of the ride, I'd worn out a set of brake pads, the cassette is shot, the "U-turn" adjuster on my Rockshox Psylo fork is broken and I got a puncture coming down the hill in to Reeth at the end which nearly caused me to loose control and crash in to a couple of ramblers crossing the road. Oh, and the suspension has started to squeak. A lot. VERY LOUDLY... A strip down and re-build may have cured it, we shall see.

  12th April Wykeham Forest for April, Dave B couldn't get there so I went on my own. Water is what I remember most, forest tracks covered in mud and water, I haven't got so wet and muddy in ages. It was a great fun ride, unfortunately I got lost in the first 5 minutes and then followed someone who was even more lost than me. After 15 minutes, I'd got my bearings properly sorted and started to get some points. The event was in 2 parts, get as many checkpoints on map one then back to base for the second map. It's a new format and it seemed to work well.

  8th March With a forecast of wet and windy weather, the opening event at Malton looked set to be hard work. As it turned out, a strong wind made riding hard but the rain held off. The downhill finish with the wind behind us was fabulous, we had to slow down as we went past the 30 MPH speed limit signs coming back into Malton. A poor score, largely resulting from Dave B. getting 2 punctures in 100 yards and we lost a lot of time fixing the second one. We'd have lost a lot more if I'd let him throw his bike as far away as he wanted to :-)

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2007 - 25th June

  9th & 10th June The 2 day event based at Hackness was blessed with good weather and beautiful surroundings, 2 fabulous days riding. Dave B was available and we had a thoroughly great time even though the scores weren't brilliant.

  I couldn't resist stopping for a picture of these animals, as we passed through a gate they came over to see what we were doing. Alpacas, I think, if anyone knows better then so be it...

  The finish was a bit exciting on a gravelled car park, I don't think anyone fell off but it was a bit touch and go for those of us finishing with only seconds to spare.

  12th May The May ride was based in Nidderdale, lots of rolling hills and long bridleways. There were some problems with navigation, including missing signposts, unhelpful farmers, re-directed permissive paths and some dodgy map reading. However, it was a great day out even though I didn't get a good score, still not fit enough for a 4 hour event.

  14th April In complete contrast to Cropton in March, the April ride in Wass Forest was so hot it felt more like August. Hot, sunny, no breeze and tracks so dry the only thing to hold a rider back was personal fitness. Dave B couldn't get to Wass, Dave P. found the heat a bit challenging although it was still a great day out and a reasonable score as well.

  17th March The first ride, in March, was at Cropton forest, extremely windy and a bit cool, the next day most of the UK was covered in snow. It was great to be back on the North York Moors and we both enjoyed the ride, we just need to be a bit fitter and collect a few more points. We all walked the hill in the picture, it was too boggy to ride.

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2006 - 29th April The second ride of the year was at Great Langdale, based around the village hall and riding up into Langdale Forest. Rain in the morning on the drive up there, sunny but with a biting cold Northerly wind during the ride, a great day was had by most. We had a good ride, thoroughly enjoyable, not too much mud, great scenery and only a little blood... The next event is at Catterick on Saturday May 27th, details on the EBOR website. We'll be missing the next couple of events due to other commitments.

		Great views in the Langdale area.
Registration				Waiting to start
			Hill climbing, Dave B style
		All over for another day

31st March The first ride on Saturday 25th March was the first warm day for a while, although it followed a couple of very wet days making the wolds mud and clay very sticky, definitely a good day for narrow tyres and riding the roads as much as possble. It was a good day out but Dave B's tyres were too good at collecting mud and we were both pretty tired by the end of it.

On the left, Dave B is clean and tidy. On the right, 4 hours later and we we're both a little less clean...

24th March The first ride of the season is a 4 hour event setting off from market Weighton School, it's about 5 minutes ride from our house so I guess I ought to be there...

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2005 - 23 October Since June,I just haven't managed to get to an event, health problems and other commitments have just made it impossible. I miss getting out to the moors for a days riding and 2006 is going to be different, the winter fitness campaign starts here...

4th June After missing a couple of events for health reasons, I finally got to compete in another event, at Cropton Forest near Pickering in North Yorkshire. After a few rain showers on the drive up to the start, the afternoon event was warm and sunny, a pleasant ride even though I struggled a bit after a long lay off. The bridleways and fire breaks were rideable, the tracks through the trees were soggy and difficult on foot never mind on the bike. I'm still picking thorns out after landing on a gorse bush whilst trying to negotiate a very stick track without hitting any trees. Good points because no-one got real high scores, so a successful and enjoyable ride, better than I hoped for.

10th March The season started in February, with a 3 hour ride at Knayton in the North York Moors, just North of Thirsk. Pouring rain and snow on the way up there wasn't exactly inspiring, especially knowing Dave B was at home packing for a weeks holiday in Tunisia. Still, Karen & I will be heading for Fuerteventura next week, something to look forward to whilst the snow is falling here. 6 Checkpoints where cancelled because of the snow on Arden Great Moor, so only 24 to get round .. hmm. In the end it was a good ride, especially as I avoided the highest moors, knowing I wouldn't get all round the course anyway. By heading East of the A19 and then across for the checkpoints at the West side, I avoided the worst of the weather, although it was still pretty wet and took around an hour to get the feeling back in my toes. I'm not sure which bit of this was fun really, although I'm sure it'll get better as the weather improves later in the year.

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2004 wasn't a great season for results, but we had a couple of good rides, although Dave P. only managed 6 events in total, Dave B did rather less. Here's a couple of pictures from the July event, cold, wet and windy, mud everywhere. A bit too tired to take pictures after the event.

That horrible looking grey mist amongst the trees turned into rain a few minutes later, it never really stopped again all morning. The Pickering event was part of a 2 day weekend, 5 rides including a night ride. We didn't stay for Sunday, and we certainly didn't fancy the night ride. The weather on Sunday was even worse, so we probably got the best of the deal.

There's no relationship between the catering caravan and the nearby portaloo facilities. The Fat Pigs catering team does a good job of supplying food at several EBOR events each year, and very welcome it is on a cold wet day such as this.

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Pictures and text are copyright © Dave & Karen Petty- All Rights Reserved, please don't copy anything without our permission. Thanks, D & K.