So the 29^th  Hell of the North Cotswolds, or HONC, event took place on Sunday 14^th April. Spring had sprung, well sprung a leak, but at least the temperatures were up from the freezing conditions that we have had for most of 2013. A few days of heavy rain preceding the event had done their work to create a major headache for the event organisers. The problem of finding suitable trails for 1000+ riders to actually ride (and not just totally destroy their drive-trains) needed to be addressed, and so with a few last minute diversions, and everybody trusting the signage, people were ready to go. 

Plenty of entrants at the 2013 HONC.

The HONC is a massed start event, and at 9am (or possibly 8.55 as it seemed to take some riders by surprise!) we set off. It made for a nice start to ride through the beautiful Cotswold town of Winchcombe, with police holding traffic and people waving. The pace at the back of the mass was relaxed, with a general acceptance that due to the massive amounts of mud that were expected, this ride was going to be more of an exercise in damage-limitation than vigorous competition.

The extended road section out from town took us along the B4632, then off onto a minor road and past the ruined remains of Hailes Abbey, leading into a good steady climb up a stone topped track. Here there were signs of water damage but no mud yet, although unfortunately the press of riders stopping, starting, walking and general lack of momentum and line choice made this climb pretty slow. Probably the guys at the front easily cleaned it, but for most it was a walk.

The paved sections come as a relief after the deep mud!

Cresting the climb, and with a good amount of altitude gained, we were treated to the additional element of today’s ride, the wind. A particularly exposed section had riders going for the ‘leaning into the wind’ approach, in an effort to stop the side wind blowing them across the road.

Our next section of trail did however live up the mud warnings. Even in the dry 2012 event, this bridleway had muddy sections, so it was now a veritable river of mud.  This was a very deep, black, sticky mud that had the ability to become super-fluid after 100s of riders had been through it. Grip could be found (even my unsuitable small block 8s found grip) but momentum, frame clearance (which luckily I have huge amounts off) and pedalling technique (which I have just enough of) made this section doable for most. Although for CX guys and cantilever brakes, it was perhaps more challenging.

After a 2km section of this, the trail became an armoured farm track with a downhill slope. It was great fun (and sorry to anyone I covered in flying muck) and the first control of the day.

Not a bad place to stage a mountain bike race.

The HONC does feature a lot of road but it is used cleverly, often to slowly gain or maintain height, and so again we were into a minor road section before heading off on another armoured stone track, again with more flying dirt and grit, but little mud.

This lead to the 50/100km split. For me, as I had been given a lift to the event by EMO75 (a Bike Magic lurker who was doing the 50km) the choice was easy, plus as it turned out the right one for me (with my lack of time in the saddle over the winter months). But friends who did the 100km ride tell tales of trails so muddy that people were having problems even walking. I think my small Block 8s may have struggled!

For the 50km ride we were taken along sections of road, straight into a considerable headwind and past the Cotswold Farm Park (a great day out for the kids), owned by Country File presenter Adam Henson, and site of a Medieval Knights Templar farm.

What followed was another armoured double track, with stunning valley views and a great downhill into the stunningly beautiful Hamlet of Barton, replete with stone farmhouses, duck ponds and rivers, all in a secluded valley.

We now had the last road/trail to the halfway food stop, and just a small river crossing of the Windrush to contend with (also one of the chosen sites of the official photographer). To my shame I took the small bridge, while EMO75 rode the river and made it with only wet feet, others I think took a full dunking. My excuse was I did it last year – and the photographer missed me!

HONC 2013. Will you be at the next one?

Another food stop in the Cotswold stone (there is a lot of that round here) village of Guiting Power. Food on the HONC is traditional: bananas, pointy flap-jack, bakewell tart and bread and butter pudding, plus tea or coffee. Yum.

With the wind starting to really make itself known it was off again, climbing out of the valley and once again onto the tops of the hills, where we came into a good headwind. Again the off-road routes were via dry stone double-track that was fine.

The next piece of off-road riding was around a field edge, and it would seem that wet grass does a great job of holding mud together and creating a soft Plastercine style surface, perfect for robbing you of any momentum and draining the energy from your legs.

By now I was starting to suffer from my lack of hours in the saddle prior to the ride, and the climb onto the edge of Cleeve common was slow, and getting slower. A nice off-road descent down a field edge, and the knowledge that we were now getting close to the finish, kept the legs turning. Another good road climb was to come, leading to another extended bridleway section (which luckily was slightly better drained), and then into a more muddy section. The next section of the ride was down a long running tarmac and gravel road, with drainage/speed humps, which were great for popping the front wheel off and whizzing pass CX bikes whilst trying to avoid being blown off line. Then we were onto the last section, an extremely muddy field edge, where the lack of any grip gave me crazy sideways speedway style leg-out moments. Then past the driveway of Sudeley Casle and we were back in Winchcombe, with only a last hill to climb through the town back to the start.

HONC 2013 had been hard work and totally different ride to the ultra-dry trails of 2012.

Yes it has lots of road sections, but these do give you feeling that you have really been out and about and these allow you to see the huge amounts of the beautiful countryside that the North Cotswolds has.

A quick mention to Simon and Olivia (his daughter aged 12), who completed her 2^nd 50km HONC, and to Richard, who lost three stone since Christmas to totally kill the 100km route in under 8 hours. Well Done.

Serge has been contemplating Bike Magic’s history and how he, the forum and the mountain bike world has changed in the years that he’s been a member and supporter of Bike Magic.

Here’s Serge’s story:

YOU CAN TAKE IT TO THE LOO: BIKE MAGIC SO FAR

Words: Serge the Seal of Death

“You can’t take it to read on the toilet or use it to mop up pet droppings, but the internet is an ever-expanding source of knowledge, useful or otherwise. If you’re after assorted Maximum Mountain Bike articles and up-to-the-minute news amidst all the porn and geeks, then may we recommend you point your browser at the maximum mountain bike page that’s part of www.bikemagic.com.” Maximum Mountain Bike Magazine, November 1999. And so it started: a relationship that has seen me logging onto a bike website since 1999. That’s a long time and as with any long-term relationship both partners have changed, so let’s start with me, back then.

This is where it all started.

I had been into bikes for a few years, but living in rural Oxfordshire my biking was probably of a type known only to people who can trace their biking back to those days. It was called Bridleway Bashing, and was probably as far away from the images and videos shown in the magazines as it was possible to get. There was often soul destroying frustration as I made my way around two sides of a field just to get to a gateway, dragging bikes along tractor tracks and trails that in winter were axle-deep in mud. You know you are struggling for suitable terrain to ride on when a favourite trail at the time was a loose-gravelled double-track with a slight gradient that made its way through a Christmas tree plantation, and then ended at a gate that had to be climbed (or opened quickly) due to the adjacent manor house with Rottweilers that ran loose.

The internet world was in its infancy back when Bike Magic started out.

But my life was changing. By 1999 I was 20, in work, and a proud owner of an Astra. I had always been into bike mags, and during my college years I would buy them all: Total Bike, Mountain Bike Rider, MBUK, Bike International and Maximum Mountain Bike. At one point I had over 400 magazines in a collection. My local mates at the time were Dave from college (more into jumping) and James (a fellow Bridleway Basher), and between us we started to travel around: Aston hill, Wendover woods, Forest of Dean, and the New Forest. Then James and I, along with quite a few other people, discovered a great place to chat and plan our weekends whilst at work: bikemagic.com.

In those days (at this point I would recommend looking up a You Tube song: ‘We Didn’t Own An Ipad‘) the ability to chat online was still a novelty. BM reflected this, as during the day the Forum was almost exclusively made up of people slacking from jobs where they were lucky enough to have internet access (me) and IT help desk staff (who should have been monitoring people like me during the working day). I often think this is where the hands-off approach to moderation of Bike Magic developed, as half the users were computer moderators in real life. The other users were the rare group of people with internet access at home in the evening.

Suddenly I could chat, and more importantly meet people who had better places to ride than me.  For a few years BM was the only bike forum and bikers from all over the country and into every style of riding were on here. Friendships and riding buddies were found, small local groups would have dedicated threads in the ride sections (Leeds riders are still using this – well done) and a number of clubs sprung up. Suddenly it was possible to track down those other tyre marks left in the mud on your local trails, agree a meeting place and off you go.  The start of some local biking scenes.  A great example of this was a club called the Chiltern First Fifteen (http://bikemagic.com/mountain-bike-trails/trail-news/first-xv-go-legit.html), formed by local riders the length of the Chilterns, who I went out on rides with a number of times, and who, given the demanding nature of the local trails and the motivation generated by riding in a large group, soon became seriously quick. I have some amusing memories of holly bushes, vomit and long climbs with that lot.

Then we had the wonderful Dead Bike events. The premise was to pick a famous person thought to be close to death (we are still waiting on Cliff Richard), and the winner would then pick an event, such as a race, or just organise a large group ride, where they would be forced to ride a bike of spare parts and dubious mechanical strength (who ever thought cast magnesium was a good frame material). One of the most amusing being the Cannock meet: a local race, a large group of camping racers and us, about 15 guys and gals, knocking up this bike, and the guy who emerged from his tent at 11pm in his pants to shout at us. He will always be known as Mr Pants to me.

Altogether I think I went on around six or seven Dead Bike events, meeting guys and gals from around the country, and being joined by my Girlfriend, who is also a mountain biker. Although constrained by motherhood at the moment she also used to frequent Bike Magic (until work internet filters caught her out).

And so onto some of the friends I have made, the guys such as Ancient Mariner; Slowboy; Pinky; Dr Dolittle; the Flaps; Diane; Anne and Mike (most of whom came to my wedding) and the local mates such as Emo 75, who introduced me to my local club; Alan of shed who I used to meet up with on a Saturday morning and crash his mate’s ride; and Milo who is now involved in bike events and holidays, plus loads more, much more then I can mention here. Bike Magic has been with me through some of the best and worst times of my life. Through relationships, redundancies (three), weddings, honeymoons (cycling in Andalucía), pregnancies (2), massive out of the blue health problems with our first son, to the continued adventure of family life, members of Bike Magic have shared their support, their stories, humour and, of course, flaming.

Bike Magic still offers the same hold over me as it has always done, group rides and events have happened over the years that due to family life I have not been able to attend (yes, you can now download routes to GPS units and head out, but I would still prefer organising a ride with a local).  Former members have left, mostly to new forums and new websites, which have become so much easier to setup. For example, there was a massive drop in forum activity when MTB Wales came along.

But Bike Magic keeps on going. With new users popping up on the forums, and with another redesign plus new management updating the content and the direction of Bike Magic, I hope that more users will continue to support, develop and utilise the site. From my experience most are friendly, open and most importantly enthusiastic mountain bikers.

So go on: have a chat, share your views, organise a ride, submit reviews and articles to the management, and hopefully make some friends. Plus with WiFi, you can now even take it to the loo.

Click here to go to the Bike Magic forum.

If you’re keen, please let us know in the comments below or in the forum post so that we know how many keen mountain bikers to expect. And if not enough of you sign-up then we’ll re-schedule the event so you have no excuses!

Original post:

It’s always good to meet up with the people behind the screens – in Bike Magic terms those being our devoted forum members. So we’re getting behind Serge the Seal of Death’s idea to get a group together for a ride ‘down our local’ – the Forest of Dean.

So who’s interested and when’s it going to happen? Friday 25th January has been mentioned.

While we’re at it, here are some forum members’ bikes from our do-it-all bike thread in our forum:

Who’s ridden at the Forest of Dean recently? If you haven’t been in the last couple of years then prepare to be amazed… The place is a true hub of mountain biking every weekend and the purpose-built trails are superb.