A quick update

The days are short and it's cold outside but looking back at photos and video footage from this season and earlier is keeping me in the mood to get out on the bike.

The Panaracer Trailraker mud tyres got their first outing of winter 2007/8 last weekend, in Swinley Forest. The weather forecast was for stormy weather and heavy rain, which luckily didn't materialise, but it was definitely a wet ride all the same. Leon and James, two old work mates who raced across Costa Rica with me in February 2006, also came along for the ride, and we all got in some good practice on the wet roots, thin mud and short steep climbs and descents. The riding area at Swinley is larger than I though, and there are many more trails we didn't get to explore, so I'm looking forward to a return there in early 2008.

On an equipment note, my Truvativ Stylo Team GXP chainset is still doing well, with no play in the cranks etc. but the bottom bracket is creaking a little every now and then. I'm going to leave it as long as I can and hope it gets through the winter/spring before buying some replacement GXP external bottom bracket cups, now available from Chain Reaction and other good bike shops. After getting many hours of riding in on it to adjust to a relatively unpadded lightweight saddle, I'm now really happy with my SLR XC saddle. I'll let you know if the saddle rail snap problem others have reported happens to me!