Summer Ripping
It’s starting to become the marker for summer when I find myself on the Isle of Purbeck riding bikes. It’s such a good mix over there, you have forest sections with wide open gravel, long flowing descents, technical climbs, and straight up hellish hill bombs that will have your eyes streaming as you hang on for dear life. What more could you want?
The first time I rode over there properly was with Tom from the Woods and our good friend Sharpy. It was the usual scene: show up at the chain ferry nice and early, and get straight off-road on the other side. After a leisurely climb up the side of Old Harry, we hit our first descent. Tom takes off, and I think I’m Bill Big Balls and pedal just as fast to keep up. The next thing I know, I'm flying down a steep hill that’s pretty loose gravel, and suddenly realize I’m going too fast, but can’t brake because I’ll slide out. As I come round the last bend at the bottom, Tom is already set up taking a photo, and I’m trying to see where I can avoid the unridable split in the trail that is right in front of me.
I’m happy to say I managed to walk away unscathed, and Tom even got the photo you see above that looks like I’m totally in control, but all I’m thinking is “F#CCK”. Coming from a BMX bike, control was everything to me, it wasn’t about how many tricks I could do, it was more about control and how stylish the things I was doing looked. This was the first time riding a ATB or what ever you want to call it when I realized, shit I’m not used to this sort of bike and I have no idea how to get off this thing if I need to without eating shit. It gave me a lot more respect for the bike and the terrain I was riding on.
Your point of contact is so different on a drop bar bike, and I realized how, on a big descent, being in the drops gives you the best possible control over the bike and the terrain you're riding on. I love riding places over and over, so you get to know what you're riding and how to navigate it to your advantage. It makes for great riding and makes you feel connected to a certain area in a way that most people won’t get to experience unless they are doing the same sort of thing.
I think the thing that has drawn me to bikes for so many years, and especially BMX, is that when you are doing it, your mind is focused 100% on what you are doing. There is no background chatter, or something for you to worry or stress about, it is just you and your craft. It still surprises me, if I’m honest, that I get as much enjoyment simply pedaling a bike as I did jumping multiple jumps in a row or sliding down a handrail rail but I do. That said, every once in a while, I need something to bring me back to that place of total and uninterrupted focus. Riding bikes in the Purbecks always brings me back to this place in spades. It’s called the Jurassic Coast for a reason.