Nottingham/Derby Muni Ride 14th October

General
1

I kind of mentioned it briefly last night, but heres the details.

After the success of Derby vs Nottingham hockey and the discovery that there are several stupid people who ride unicycles with suspiciously large tyres in the area, I’ve got something new and particularly stupid for people to try. Stop wasting the night-time not riding your unicycle and get the hell out and ride.

Muni Night Riding @ Bramcote Hills / Hemlock Stone
Thursday 14th October 8pm.

Starting at the Bramcote Hills Park / Hemlock Stone car park which is <http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=449990&Y=338545&A=Y&Z=3>
here.

Bring a light or a head torch or some candles or something. We’ll ride up and down and around the hills until we run out of batteries and/or energy and then head to a pub. A unicycle would be handy too, preferably one with a fat tyre of some kind.

I know most people haven’t done much night riding before, hence the choice of venue. It’s a small area, which is easy to get un-lost and back from and has some nice runs down the two hills, but not too many big sharp rocks to hurt yourself on(*), it’s pretty sandy and smooth, with some nice steep bits, a pretty good place for a first night-ride. If anyone is particularly keen, there’s also some easy cross country riding starting from there, although that might be one for another evening (and bigger wheels).

It’s pretty easy to get to here, if you’re in a car, it’s just off the a52 (see the map), if you’re on public transport, you want the 32 or rainbow 4 bus from Nottingham / Derby and get off at Bramcote Leisure Centre, or train to Beeston and unicycle there.

Whilst you obviously need to have some kind of torch or head-torch to see with, you don’t need a super duper mountain bike headlight or anything. I find head torches best for seeing where I’m going, you might be different though, some people like riding with handheld torches, I guess they wave their hands around less than me. Cunningly, I’ve planned this to fall on a new moon, so it’ll be really quite dark.

As always, my contact details 07905 696427, news@joemarshall.org.uk

If you’re late turning up, phone me and we’ll pop back to the car park and pick you up, we won’t ever be terribly far from there.

Joe

(*)There are actually a few really really big rocks and drops and trialsy bits, but they’re strictly optional extras for the hoppily inclined.

2

Re: Nottingham/Derby Muni Ride 14th October

Or don’t, and just ride next to Joe all the time, it’ll be like daylight… :slight_smile:

/me is muchos jealous; my knee’s still bruised and battered from BMW… :frowning:

Phil

3

Cunningly planned to be on a new moon? Yeah, I remember all the discussions on phases of the moon in the pub last night.

Should be a good ride, I’ll be there.

John

4

For all the times I’ve been up there I’ve not unicycled it in the dark, at dusk but not when it was really dark. It’ll be fun but I won’t be there as I can’t do Thursday :frowning: Unless you want to change it to Wednesday Joe? We (my son, myself et al.) might pop up Wednesday anyway.

Should be at Tuesday’s unihockey :slight_smile:

Cheers, Gary

5

Did I miss the hockey? D’oh! Sorry. I was ill last week and away this weekend.

As for the MUni ride, great idea but unfortunately I can’t do Thursdays, ever.

Have a good time, folks, and we’ll get together some other time.

Hardly ridden for ages. :0(

6

This one is stuck on thursday as it’s the only day we could work out between us. I can’t make Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and have people coming over Friday.

Next time I do one, it’ll undoubtedly not be on a thursday as I don’t want to clash with Derby jugglers if I can help it.

Mike - don’t forget there’s a second hockey game - next tuesday same place, same time (I’m sure roland is going to post with info again in case anyone missed it, but it’s on a thread somewhere).

Joe

7

I went up last night to check out the riding some more and met a guy who showed me more of it.

It’s mostly smooth and varying from easy to really really droppy. There’s a couple of lovely downhill lines that start over a big rock and then drop into steep chutes, which look at the edge of my ability but worth a try. Also there’s possibly the only gap jump I’ve ever seen thats worth hitting on a unicycle, over a bridleway at the bottom of a medium steep section, so you can hit it really fast, you need to go about 2-3 foot to clear the bridleway to the transition, but going short isn’t a problem because it’s quite smooth. Needless to say, on my 29er with slick tyre, I didn’t clear that one, but I reckon it’s possible, although might need a bit of spadework to make the launch better.

Some pictures here
<http://www.free-riders.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1>

Joe

8

Next time then, there’s plenty more days and nights for riding :slight_smile:

Maybe next time should be on a full moon with no artificial lights? Hmm, or not.

Gary

9

Hi Joe, there was some talk of your ride at the Derby club last night - people seem generally keen (especially Roland and James, as they’ve previously ridden mountain bikes down hills at reckless speeds at night and so own enough strap on bike lighting to make the birds start singing a dawn chorus as they ride past). So, it looks like four or five of us may well be up for it.
We also intend to head over to Kidderminster on Saturday (this weekend) so maybe we’ll see you there and discuss it, otherwise we can chat about it next Tuesday (assuming that you intend to pop over for more hockey action).

Cheers,
Gary

10

Cool, it’ll be good to have a decent number of people for a night-ride for once, nightrides I’ve organised before have always just been me, or been tacked onto another event. I should be at hockey on tuesday, not going to kidderminster cos I’ve got people over.

The idea of a full moon ride is a good one, although I’m not sure downhill trails in a wood are the best venue for that!

Joe

11

Yeha hockey this tuesday at the darley fields pitch Chester Green in Derby at 8.00 - 9.00 the original instructions are here

http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35365

and a match report from the first outing is here

http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35451

It was a fantastic session and I think that I’ll probably be booking more slots so come along and join the fun, my email address is [roland(at)suttonuk(dot)com] so email if you need any more instructions.

The night ride sounds excellent and I shall definitely be there so see you there

Roland

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I meant yeah or rather yes - being a bit sloppy on the typing certainly yeha is a bit more gung ho wild west than I was aiming for

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According to the absolutely infallible bbc, in Nottingham and Derby it’s going to be slightly cloudy/clear at 7pm going to slightly cloudy at 10pm. So no excuses of rain and stuff, it’s going be lovely once the rain clears honest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/24hr.shtml?id=1632
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/24hr.shtml?id=2803

Roland / other people with vistalites, I have just found 2 spare lumicycle zip tie mounts, which allow you to screw on a light unit onto a zip tie. Apparently the screw attachment is the same as the vistalite screw that attaches to the bototm of the light unit. If I were you, I’d still try gaffa tape or something, but I’ll try and remember to bring them along in case you need them.

Apparently the best way to head-mount vistalites is to buy some heavy duty sticky back velcro which you can get from b&q / diy shops, stick one bit onto the light unit, one bit onto the helmet. I’ve got some super duper velcro straps on a mini pump mount and I can testify as to quite how super strong the stuff is, you really have to give it a very hard pull to undo it.

Joe

14

well assuming that your weather assessment is correct, I shall be there sporting copious quantities of gaffer tape - See you all later

Cheers

Roland

15

A good ride that was. Weather was exactly as planned, for once the bbc were right. Nice place to ride, varying between nice easy downhills, to a nice bit across the side of bramcote hill, to impossible stuff that was just silly. On the way to the pub we found a nice singletrack and whooshed down it somewhat surprising the two people lying down in the middle of the woods right by the track.

This shall have to happen again so that all the nottingham and derby riders can be converted to the church of nightriding. I’m thinking maybe a regular occurrence on a night close to each full moon would be a good thing to do? Another weekly thing would be a bit too much for me at least. I know some good night coker/29er rides that would be worth a go and there’s still more scope for riding there, also Bestwood is a possibility if we can get out there, although it lacks the being right near my houseness of Hemlock Stone.

Joe

16

Fantastic ride, although I’m not impressed with you derby lot slacking off just because of a bit of rain. It just makes for softer landings…

Repeats are a must, although maybe not for a while so that I can sort out some better lights.

Maybe we can practice some night riding by not getting the floodlights for hockey for a few weeks?

John

17

Yeah, I know… we bottled it didn’t we? Despite us Derby lot being keen to ride, work (and distrust of the weather) led to a lack of enthusiasm - please feel free to mock us on Tuesday night (when it looks like it’ll rain as well). We spent the night playing at the Juggling Club though, so we did get a fair share of uni action.

Anyway, glad you had a good 'un and I shall try to make the next one!

Gary