Shake, rattle and roll.

I had the opportunity for another few days down in Exmoor recently and despite loving the road riding around there, I had a hankering for something different. I still enjoyed the road climbs but had wondered what was off the beaten path. Just as I was thinking, “Cyclocross”, my next thought was “On what exactly”. My cross bike has been well and truly beaten over the last three years, so wheels are close to collapse, front mech bolt has sheered off which has left me with quality drilling time to set the remaining part free, and the brakes are considerably looser than even the wheels. It was a good job then that Dom at Kinesis phoned a day later offering me the opportunity to test their new carbon CSix2 ‘cross bike, freshly returned from ex-National Champ Jody Crawforth (nothing says prototype like some paper decals affixed with pritt stick!). I’d like to say that I could give it such a quality workout, but what I did do, I think, was something slightly different from his test. The gearing was spot on. Spot on for a cross race round a typical course and not it seems for Exmoor’s steep sided valleys. Still it meant I could test the carrying capabilities of the new beast.

Which I did quite a lot on the first day as I explored my way around. It’s been a while since I’ve just taken off with just a map and followed my nose and it came with the usual joys of wonderfully hidden singletrack in ancient woodland to sighs of desperation as I take yet another march through the undergrowth to find the correct path. There was no bigger sigh as that 30 minutes into my first ride. Having carryed the bike up yet another steep sided valley for 20 minutes or so, I stopped to take a much needed drink, only to find their was not only any bottle, but no cage either!

At 33 I’m sure I’m not going senile just yet and the protruding bolts showed that their had once been a cage and bottle nestling where it should. The next 5 minutes was spent on the drops hanging onto the brakes for dear life as nosedived back down into the valley, trying desperately to keep a look out for the strange site of bottle, in cage, not on bike. Almost back to the valley floor I found it. Seems the plastic Specialized cage was showing the signs of age and struggled to hang onto the bolts. A quick bit of fettling, and some much need water, the cage and bottle was back on and, like the grand old Duke of York, I marched back up to the top again.

Once the gradient eased and I stopped making the excuse that the gearing was too tough and there really was nothing wrong with my fitness I got stuck into some lovely little bits of singletrack that hugged the valley wall. It wasn’t all plain sailing and I found that even though the bike flattered my rusty ‘cross bike skills, the rocks did not and boy was there a lot of them. I just hadn’t banked on this which partially explained my choice of cross bike over MTB. Each down hill I had to pick my line with a precision of a surgeon as I battled my way through and over rock gardens and prayed to the god of pinch punctures not to take me just yet.

My loosely planned routes I had to not just halve but quarter as my progress was so slow, not just downhill but up too. I certainly felt I gave the bike a good going over and my confidence increased more and more with each rock section. The regular manmade rock water bars to stop the errosion acted like a chart of how well i was doing. At first I struggled with one section but by the end I’d managed four in a row without dabbing. It did feel quite a lot like Kickstart is all I can say.

The second day I tackled Dunkery Beacon once again and found it just a tough as on the road bike despite the slightly lower gearing and through gasps of air decided that there just isn’t an easy way of tackling this monster. The pleasure of the decent into the very ancient Horner Wood more than made up for it. With the rain and sun everything was eye wateringly lush and teemed with the new life of spring. It some of those beautiful scenes where, even though you’re on a cracking trail and in the flow, you just have to stop, sit down and take it all in. The riding over the two days was sporadic, tough and slow going but the adventure, scenery and a good old fashioned dose of getting lost made it a refreshing change.

Posted via email from Oli Pepper