With a good year of riding behind us the last Shop Ride of the
year was already upon us.  I had 2 days of Christmas parties
before the Sunday ride so  I decided the best idea was to  
take everyone to a MTB centre, less guiding for me as there
was only one way to go.  After hearing some great reports
about the new trails at Penmachno it seemed like the perfect
place to go.  The turn out for the ride was fantastic as there
were quite a few post-Christmas party people out for a nice
A great turn out fills the car park
social ride.  The blue skies had me thinking we
had cheated the weather reports but halfway
up the first climb the rain started.  The weather
wasn't a problem as we were soon in the trees
riding some great singletrack.  Nowhere did it
get technical it was just great, twisty, sweeping
singletrack.  The climbs were mainly firetrack
and gave an opportunity to slow the pace
Paul, Jim and
Shane on the
first section of
singletrack
down, bunching up and
having a chat on the way up.  
About half way round was
one of the highlights of the
loop, a three part singletrack
descent by the side of a
a firetrack.  Big grins at the bottom of that
one.  Well, big grins for all but Karl whos
carbon seat post had decided to fail. With his
Emma on a raised
section of trail
Winding through
the woods on
one of the early
sections of
singletrack
saddle in his pack he was forced to stand and peddle for the rest of
the ride.  A long climb brought us to the highest, most exposed
trail.  With the wind in our faces and the rain still coming down it
was just a case of getting this section over with and back into the
Ken, Trev, Paul, Karl (below)
Descending through the trees on the excellent three part trail.
trees.  Once back in the trees we weren't too far from the finish and
most of the riding would be descending on singletrack.  The first of
these descents claimed a victim as Dave clipped a peddle and went
down hard, nothing broken though, just a few holes.  The final section
Ken
Karl (minus seat post) and Shane
was soon upon us and it turned out to be one of the
best parts of the ride.  The track was one of those
that just begged to be ridden fast, but could
definitely be ridden too fast.  The exposure, direction
Emma climbing the switchbacks
changes, crests and lack of grip really got the adrenaline flowing.  Finally it was my
turn to run out of luck as too much speed forced me wide and into a tree stump.  At
least I managed to scrub most of my speed off before getting spat over the front, so
I had time to direct myself towards a small fir tree and a soft landing.  I tried to get
back on my bike before being caught by anyone but in my haste hadn't noticed my
chain was not sitting right, as soon as I put some power down the chain exploded.  
Thankfully 20m down the trail the car park appeared, so it wasn't far to push.
From the top;
Blackers, Libby, Paul,
Ben and me
Karl, Shane and Trev on the long exposed traverse at the top of the loop
Thanks to everyone who turned up and made this such a great ride, even the weather didn't bring the
mood down.  It was a fitting end to a good years riding.  I have a lot more rides to take in 2006 so I hope to
see you all then.