The Mendips have been a favourite of mine for riding for years, granted they get horribly muddy but they were about 15 minutes drive from where I used to live and so offered real-world mountain biking practically on my doorstep.
Being back down that way I saw an opportunity to catch up with them and even refine an old route with thanks to a route guide produced by the fairly new Bad Ass Bikes in Burrington Coombe and www.mendipmountainbiketrails.com. Look here for their thoughts
My plan was to use my local knowledge and theirs to fit together my own route, giving a bit of what I knew and a bit of something new. It seemed like the perfect plan as I parked at the top of the coombe and rolled out on a cold but sunny day. What could go wrong? And surely my luck was in after my disastrous Quantocks trip? Even the Friday the 13th issue didn’t faze me.
That was until 10 minutes in when I realised I’d left both spare innertubes in the boot of the car.
I decided to press on and risk it.
Inevitably a further ten minutes later my back tyre started squirming and making a hissing noise half way down a broken rocky descent. It was a full snakebite and not even a repair kit in my bag.
Once again the riding was helped out by Bad Ass Bikes. At a mere one and a half mile trudge away I was at least able to walk there, fix the bike, and salvage something of the ride. Although I did feel like a massive moron knowing I had spares in the car.
Despite all of this I was reminded about the best of the Mendips. Rocky slippery descents and snaking muddy singletrack are all just waiting to be found and although it’s best when frozen or baked solid it’s fun to hone your mud riding skills, with a bit of compromising with the bike on the exact direction you both want to go, even when it’s wet.
I’ll be back soon to get it right, and will be carrying spares.
A
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