Christmas is coming.

I know it's still the best part of two months away but I also know some people are far more organised than I am ... Christmas, love it or hate it, it'll still happen and you'll still be expected to take part to some extent. We're going to give you a little head start and make your life a bit easier by letting you buy Forest Freeride gift vouchers on-line, straight from the website.

Vouchers are available for all our courses and are valid for 12 months. If you buy a voucher and your loved one would prefer a different course, don't panic, we'll happily exchange it for the one they want. To buy your vouchers just go to www.forestfreeride.co.uk and click on the link that says, gift vouchers and solve those present problems.

When Ian met Percival

While attending a skills course Ian had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Percival at closer quarters than perhaps he'd have liked.

Percy had decided to fling himself over a fence to escape Helen Keller the blind ewe and roll head over heels into the yard where Ian was busy getting his groups BBQ going. Much swearing and running around followed from all those concerned ... 600lb of llama squashing your burgers isn't good.

This picture was taken after everyone had calmed down a little but judging by the look of things both of them would rather be somewhere else.

2011 ... already!

Well it's been another busy year and it isn't over yet ... but I thought I'd just mention a few things that we'll be doing next year.

Firstly we'll be looking at some Girls Only riding weekends. These won't be skills weekends (they'll still be there) instead they'll be two days of riding some of the most unspoilt countryside in the entire UK. The icing on the cake is the fact that there won't be any blokes there getting under your feet! I'm just in the process of booking the sunshine and all being well dates and details should be up on the web site by the end of November.

We're also working on some bikepacking trips for 2011. For those who don't quite know what bikepacking is think, off road touring with a real emphasis on self sufficiency. Details are still being worked out but again details should be available by the end of November. At present the plan is to run trips of different lengths and of differing difficulty, so even if you've never camped before there should still be a trip to suit.

Guiding as training?

I spent three enjoyable days last week guiding Sally around the hills and mountains. After a two day skills course earlier in the year Sally had entered herself for the, Manx End to End enduro which involves a 50 mile ride from one end of the Isle of Man to the other.

While riding was certainly nothing new, a stint in the saddle that long certainly was. Some practice was required. Over three days we put some miles and hours in, experience that will prove highly valuable in the IOM. The long days (the shortest of which was 6 hours riding) helped us fine tune Sally's riding position and make any little alterations. It also let Sally get used to the fatigue and stress that her body / mind will have to cope with and develop an eating strategy that would keep her fueled for the event.

Day two saw us tackle a rather interesting climb into the mountains ... a continual 2500 foot ascent, no flat bits, no downs, just up. However, I think the views were worth it. Sally should be resting now, waiting for Friday and her ferry to the IOM, safe in the knowledge that she's unlikely to come across anything harder than shes already faced ... good luck.

SSUK 2010

Well last weekend saw SSUK take place in sunniest Wales. I decided that seeing it was on home turf I'd ride down rather than drive. So 11.00am Friday saw me set off from Forest Freeride Towers on yet another loaded single speed (the monster cross was having a weekend off). The idea was to keep riding south until I'd had enough, bivvy under the stars for the night before a final leg on Saturday morning.

Surprisingly everything went pretty much to plan. The slightly vague route I had in mind turned out to be a winner, the detour into the Doethie valley was a real gem, steep, twisty and narrow and lined with brake grabbing ferns!

I threw the towel in around 8.15pm, after all I'd been riding since 11.00 with two five minute stops and a ten minute one to grab a brew. Bike unpacked, tarp up and it started to rain which was perfect timing as it was just the excuse needed to climb in side my bivvy bag and try to stop my legs from turning imaginary pedals. Morning arrived quickly but any thoughts I'd had about a leisurely start also left quickly ... the midges were some of the worst I've ever had the pleasure of breathing in!

10 miles further and I was done, I rolled into the campsite around 8.30 to be greeted by what seemed to be the worlds biggest bacon butty and copious tea. All I had to do now was stay awake until the "race" at 2.00.

The course was pretty good, half climbing (the first half) followed by a fantastic and very long descent ... superb fun, the braking bump and rigid fork combo' helping keep the concentration levels nice and high. The evening saw me talking bikes with old customers, veteran WRT riders and a vast selection of other one geared weirdos ... as you can imagine I had a great time.

Normal service is resumed.

It's been a while but here I am. The Monster Cross had an outing to sunny France for some fantastic riding and a couple of nights under the stars too. 100°+ temperature, BIG 1000 metre plus climbs and loaded single speeds just seem to fit together like a glove on your foot - but it was fun non the less. There should be a picture here to give you an idea of the terrain, when they describe it as volcano country they certainly mean it. I didn't really have a defined route, just a rough idea of what direction I was meant to be heading. This gave loads of scope to explore all the little tracks and trails I came across ... some superb and some not so. I discovered that wild camping within French national parks is very much a no no, so late camps, early starts and stealth was the order of the day.

MonsterCross ... It's like Marmite!

Thought I'd share this. It's a 29 inch wheeled, rigid, 2 speed single speed with drops so we'll just call it monstercross ... think cyclocross only bigger. This is possibly about as far removed as you can get from most right thinking peoples idea of what a mountain bike is or should be- however, this thing is great fun, it really is. Trails that you can fly down on a more normal bike are now interesting again.

Even though it's a single speed there are 2 cogs out back, an 18t for flatish stuff and a 20t bail out gear for when you meet the proper hills. It's going to get a shake down run this week then it's over to France for a few days exploring the mountains and volcanoes around Volvic. The monstercross and me will be wild camping while we're out there and I'm hoping that 20t cog will be enough ... looking at the map there's some real climbing to deal with. I'll let you know how we get on.