Surrey Hills Demo Day
We have just had our most successful demo day yet.
Beautiful weather, dry trails, great atmosphere and amazing refreshments from Mrs Kirke and Mrs Line.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that came to ride bikes, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, if the smiles on everyone’s faces are anything to go by I think you did.
I apologise for the demo being planned on Mothers Day. It is difficult to choose a day that doesn’t conflict with something. Three weeks ago Adam, from Orange MTB got married (congratulations Adam and Andrea); every other weekend in March; the Hall was booked up; then we are into Easter. All these things meant that we had to choose Mothers Day for the event, once again, thank you to all who came along.
Throughout the day we managed to get approximately 146 bikes set up for people, and seven rides organised. One every hour from 9am until 3pm. That is an average of 21 people on every ride, although the early rides are always the busiest. I think we had nearly 35 people on the first ride! Amazingly, no-one got lost, and we ran pretty much to time all day.
Only three punctures and no major crashes, only a couple of tumbles into the bushes, with dented pride being the only casualty.
The route we took had a fairly gentle warm up trail with lovely views of picturesque Holmbury St Mary (little Switzerland) before we turned into the woodland properly. The forest is managed by The Hurtwood Control Trust, a charity that survives with donations made by it’s ‘friends’, please give generously.
We then chose a trail that wound it’s way toward the top of Holmbury Hill up a wooded climb. We turned left down a short winding descent with five or six really nice corners that flatter a bike’s handling. Another fireroad climb to the top of the hill took us to the top of the trail known as ‘Parklife’ or ‘yoghurt-pots’. This trail has been extensively worked on by trailbuilding volunteers in the last year, and it really shows.
Flowing and fast, it always puts a smile on your face. We then linked together a couple of sections of ‘Telegraph’ leading to a final singletrack known as ‘secret-squirrel’. All fitted into 40 minutes of action packed riding.
A frantic change of pedals, pumping of shocks and the next ride is ready in 15 minutes, and off again. Hard work, but great fun for us staff as well as everyone trialing bikes.
Once again, thank you to everyone involved in the day, good fun, and I bet you all enjoyed a rest and slept well when you got home (I know I did).
Dave
