Frazer Clifford

these amazing images of me are from http://www.joolzedymond.com/ makes anyone look fast.  

So I take 30 mins to warm the back up, lots of stretching few of the old yoga poses.

Gemma is taking the kids to a party so I have an opportunity for a gentle ride on the downs. Grab old faithful and head off, 15mins in to the ride I've stalled on a root and smashed my knee, several expletives later, some magic water and I'm off again. I'm being followed by wind chimes I look down and the rotor bolts have worked their way out of the back wheel. Grrr. Back home get the KR810 and smash some hill, breath and relax.
FrazerKMP

I've spent the last two days pulling one perfectly great race bike apart to make another. I achieved this and here is the end result. 21.6lbs of super fast big wheels just right for the start of the Gorrick autumn races. Took her for a spin around the garden and all seems great, then on to the road. A little climb out of the drive everything went a little baggy! After re "finger" tightening the BB it would seem none of my BB's want to fit tight in the shell so under power they loosen off. So back to the workshop for more tinkering and head scratching. Grab the XCpro3 as she is the reliable point and go bike. The XCpro3 is now lubed and ready to go, I won't notice the extra half a pound of weight. In the morning it would seem that the 4 hours stooped over bikes has taken its toll and the damage from riding the Mini CX (see previous post DNF) bike has reared its ugly head. I waddle to the bathroom at 7am and then straight back to bed, racing is off the cards today!!!

Irony - fixed bike, fooked back. Actually fooked bike and fooked back. FrazerKMP

Now having seen myself on this bike I really can’t understand how 6ft Pepper squeezes on to it!  But it does make sense why it railed all the fast turns and why I can’t walk today. 

See DNF for race report

 

Thanks for www.Cross-crazy.com for the pics..

I'm lucky enough to live on the South Downs, an excellent stomping ground for many riders of all shapes and sizes who are all up for the buzz of riding.  Home of the Big Dog, the challenge of the South Downs itself and a series to be reborn in Houghton Wood - The Sundowner.  So as you would expect we raced in to the darkness.  This race was a trial to see if the series was a possibility and if it had a following.  I think the organisers got their answer “blow away by the turn out” considering the race had only a few weeks promotion

I arrived 15 mins before the race and the numbers were getting close to 60, a great job from the organisers.  The race had support from Geared Bikes with a large number of their riders on the start line, also Southdown Bikes. 

KMP?  Well just me!  I had company in Rory our collective rider enjoying the big wheeled Pivot and Brian a rising star at Upgrade rocking the XCpro3 with Velvet fork having a good go in his first race.

So the race!  We lined up I was on the 2nd row and could see there we a few toned legs and tell tail prepped race bikes.  I hadn't touched the XCpro3 since the big dog so other than a bit of lazy shifting I knew the bike was sorted.  I get a usual good start and sitting comfortable in 4th make up a couple of places in the twisty stuff, so second place not to phased, we get to a fast rooty section and the guy in front is on a full suss so creeps a few metres on me, back on his tail and finish one lap in this formation.  We are joined by another rider who must have had to battle through the bottle necks of the first lap.  This guy is strong but I can hang on in the twists and turns then as soon as we get a bit of fire road he's off.  2nd lap I'm about 10 seconds of the pace we've only been racing for 12mins so I know I'm not in the form to chase them down. 

I settle and hope that I can power through and the front guys will fade, no such luck! 

This is basically how it stayed for the next 50 mins I haven't seen the times but if they kept up the same pace I'd have crossed the line well over a minute after them, happy with 3^rd the two in front were stronger and clearly in form. 

The course at Houghton Wood had something for everyone, great technical sections fast flowing lines through the woods.  Enough room to pass and be passed safely.  Climbs that only troubled on guy in armour and a 6inch trail bike.  It was a great place to start racing and I don’t think be too intimidated, a great cross section of riders from obvious first timers to the obvious serial racer. 

It was a well organised event and the course was excellent, I'll be back next time.  Any luck the KMP boys will be busy again leaving less bodies to smash elbows with.

Thanks to Mason for the event and Enver at http://www.envermeyer.viewbook.com for the pics. 

 

Senior Female
1 Fay Cripps, Geared Bikes.co.uk
2 Christina McGuiness, Geared Bikes.co.uk

Senior Male
1 Steve Calland, Southdowns Bikes Cycling Club
2 Chris McNamara, Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo/Alpha R.C
3 Frazer Clifford Kinesis Morvelo 
4 David Simnett, Geared Bikes.co.uk
5 Matthew Lewis, Owens Cycles/Scott
6 Alex Taylor
7 Simon McNamara, Southdowns Bikes Cycling Club
8 Paul Flynn, None
9 Steve Brown
10 Chris Dobson, Geared Bikes.co.uk
11 Tim May, Geared Bikes.co.uk
12 Rory Hitchens, Pivot big wheeler
13 Mark Hooper, Sussex MTB
14 Rupert Peddle
15 Adrian Karn
16 Craig Boyns, Geared Bikes.co.uk
17 Philip Hoy
18 Duncan Green
19 Nigel Foskett
20 Simon Smith

34 Brian Weston

Welcome back to Cyclo X with a bang!  Arrived at the local venue in Woodingdean for the 3rd round of the London X League.

All hyped up as last year was a good ride and a few fun bits in the woods and my first experience of a Plank!

Running late as ever, slung the borrowed bike in the boot and hot footed it to the race.  I had used the borrowed bike riding home from work it felt a little small but Oli is 6foot so I thought it would be fine.  Although I noticed toe rub when I cornered!?  Must be my big old 661 commuter shoes, as Oli takes a bigger shoe than me so I'm sure the race will be fine.

Jump on the bike to pre ride the course and Whoops I'm nearly off, toe in wheel again!  Right I'm gonna have to work this out, it was fine in the fast corners as no pedalling but the switch backed Xcourse in Woodingdean had a lot of sloow peddling and cornering.  So at each of these I had to stop pedalling!

I got an ok start and was in a fast group probably around 15-20, Phil wasn’t soo lucky and was boxed in and took a few laps to catch us.  But once he did he was off!  I tried a blocking tactic and it worked for half a lap then the guys I was holding up were rested and buggered off to chase Phil, I hung on with the chasing group for 5 laps of the 9 but then my back gave way, I don't think the bike 3" to small agreed with me coupled the jolting of stop starting at every corner.  So I did something that I said I'd never do DNF.  I try and finish every race but this was just pointless and judging by my back today I shouldn't have started it!  Brilliant effort from Phil, got stuck in to the end, great sprint finish. 

Oh well another lesson, use your own kit!  Maybe I'll drag the Maxlight 29r around next time!?

I'm lucky enough to live on the South Downs, an excellent stomping ground for many riders of all shapes and sizes who are all up for the buzz of riding.  Home of the Big Dog, the challenge of the South Downs itself and a series to be reborn in Houghton Wood - The Sundowner.  So as you would expect we raced in to the darkness.  This race was a trial to see if the series was a possibility and if it had a following.  I think the organisers got their answer “blow away by the turn out” considering the race had only a few weeks promotion

 

I arrived 15 mins before the race and the numbers were getting close to 60, a great job from the organisers.  The race had support from Geared Bikes with a large number of their riders on the start line, also Southdown Bikes. 

KMP?  Well just me!  I had company in Rory our collective rider enjoying the big wheeled Pivot and Brian a rising star at Upgrade rocking the XCpro3 with Velvet fork having a good go in his first race.

 

So the race!  We lined up I was on the 2nd row and could see there we a few toned legs and tell tail prepped race bikes.  I hadn't touched the XCpro3 since the big dog so other than a bit of lazy shifting I knew the bike was sorted.  I get a usual good start and sitting comfortable in 4th make up a couple of places in the twisty stuff, so second place not to phased, we get to a fast rooty section and the guy in front is on a full suss so creeps a few metres on me, back on his tail and finish one lap in this formation.  We are joined by another rider who must have had to battle through the bottle necks of the first lap.  This guy is strong but I can hang on in the twists and turns then as soon as we get a bit of fire road he's off.  2nd lap I'm about 10 seconds of the pace we've only been racing for 12mins so I know I'm not in the form to chase them down. 

I settle and hope that I can power through and the front guys will fade, no such luck! 

 

 

This is basically how it stayed for the next 50 mins I haven't seen the times but if they kept up the same pace I'd have crossed the line well over a minute after them, happy with 3^rd the two in front were stronger and clearly in form. 

 

The course at Houghton Wood had something for everyone, great technical sections fast flowing lines through the woods.  Enough room to pass and be passed safely.  Climbs that only troubled on guy in armour and a 6inch trail bike.  It was a great place to start racing and I don’t think be too intimidated, a great cross section of riders from obvious first timers to the obvious serial racer. 

 

It was a well organised event and the course was excellent, I'll be back next time.  Any luck the KMP boys will be busy again leaving less bodies to smash elbows with.

 

 

Thanks to Mason for the event and Enver at http://www.envermeyer.viewbook.com for the pics. 

 

Senior Female
1 Fay Cripps, Geared Bikes.co.uk
2 Christina McGuiness, Geared Bikes.co.uk

Senior Male
1 Steve Calland, Southdowns Bikes Cycling Club
2 Chris McNamara, Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo/Alpha R.C
3 Frazer Clifford Kinesis Morvelo 
4 David Simnett, Geared Bikes.co.uk
5 Matthew Lewis, Owens Cycles/Scott
6 Alex Taylor
7 Simon McNamara, Southdowns Bikes Cycling Club
8 Paul Flynn, None
9 Steve Brown
10 Chris Dobson, Geared Bikes.co.uk
11 Tim May, Geared Bikes.co.uk
12 Rory Hitchens, Pivot big wheeler
13 Mark Hooper, Sussex MTB
14 Rupert Peddle
15 Adrian Karn
16 Craig Boyns, Geared Bikes.co.uk
17 Philip Hoy
18 Duncan Green
19 Nigel Foskett
20 Simon Smith

What do you carry?

OCD Oli,

Practical Fraze

Dave, Uses a lot of rough inner tubes.   Love the Truck spanner and even lucky grown man Dolly’s

And Kitchen sink Mart, well lets just say he’s got a big bag. 

Well I've got the unfortunate task next week of being in Germany for Eurobike, the massive trade show for the... Well the name gives it away. Nice and creative like the show I work on www.thelondonbikeshow.com. We anyway, I'll be off the bike for a week and as nice as it sounds there is only soo much german sausage that can be eaten. I thought I'd grab some hours with a couple of buddies in Kent Bruce and Matt. I travelled up and had a few beers the night before, then up at dad o'clock to ride trails I haven't seen for 15 years. It didn't disappoint. Great fun, good to take the XCpro3 for a blast around my old play ground the Kentish North Downs - Ide Hill and Toys Hill, it really did remind me that unless your off to the alps, Scotland or Wales a hardtail is still the perfect trail bike. Ride your bike! and grin..
FrazerKMP