Last weekend we headed up to Telford to visit Goose and Shona. With a van packed with BMX's and MTB's we drove through terrential rain wondering if our planned session at Birmingham BMX track would still be on in the morning!

It still looked iffy saturday morning but whe we got to the track and met up with the Sheffield guys, it looked dry and fast! We were just getting to grips with the track when it rained again... it wasn't too bad and it was really humid, so only the heaviest rain stopped us riding. The sun came out for us after an hour or so and the real fun began!

It's such a good set up there, fully fenced in, a 5m start hill, floodlights, a pro section, canopy over the start hill... it's like some of the euro facilities we have been visiting for years but never had in the UK.

More importantly though the track was great fun. Admittedly, the first straight and a half was maybe a little dull, but not bad. The 3rd and 4th straights was where most of us where sessioning though, cool rhythm sections that are so smooth, and the last corner pings you round it so fast it seems rude not to carry on and ride the 4th straight every time you ride the 3rd. Goose had a good crack at the Pro Section, but the conditions weren't ideal for that.

We hit up Redditch in the afternoon, we were pretty knackered already but it seemed worth a look. It is pretty open there and we were greeted by a bit of a cross wind. I didn't have much energy and the 3rd straight looked the most fun so sessioned that as much as the wind allowed! I loved jumping the triple step up to triple step down. A good step down feels awesome, it's almost cheating the distance, you get more airtime for your money! This one is a good un. A local kid asked Scoob for some advice on jumping the step up.. he looked a little blank, so the kid suggest "pedal and pull up?" Scoob says "yeh pretty much. Oh, and look out for the cross wind!" much to Shona's amusement. Sound advice though, I think you'll find!

There was also a big skatepark next to the track, which had some very odd grafitti art on the wall rides, massive portraits of some blokes called Matt and Antony?!?! I liked this warning as you walked in though:
























After a good night out at Goose and Shona's local curry house (5th best in the country apparently!) and experiencing the ruckus that was Shifnall carnival (Shona - " It's normally posh and lovely here, honest!") we set out to Harthill 4X on what was a scorching Sunday morning.

It's a strange place. Mainly a Mountain Board park, it looks like a bit of a dump in places where they have randomly placed Mountain Board obstacles sticking out the grass. On first look, I can't say I was impressed with the track, the top half looked like an old worn out 80s bmx track and the split line jumps half way down had some shocking looking lips. I'm glad to say most of it rode a lot better than it looked and we had a decent days riding. I can't say the same about the split lines though, after building my fair share of lips over the last few years I am pretty good at spotting a badly built one before I've even ridden it. The transitions are way to quick and some then continue into too steep a lip. I guess there's an art to it and if you don't know...well you just don't know. We are hoping these lips will get changed for the race in a few weeks, because at race speed they'll be pretty vicious. If that gets sorted, there's plenty of moves to be had so it should make for some good racing!

On a final note from the weekend. Tip for the day, don't leave a sharp edge when you cut your cable ties off, they'll cut your arm off!

Thanks to Goose and Shona for a great weekend.
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