Event Reports

We missed the rain and had a fast fun day in the trees.

Despite trying to get a few more people interested in this practice day it was myself and Andy Ried who drove up to Helmsley. At £30 (£20 if booked online) for as much riding as you liked it was a bargain and the course was advertised as twenty minutes. Bring it on!

I've never been here before so had no idea what to expect but I certainly wasn't disappointed. A very tight and flowing course entirely in the trees was what awaited us. The track was pretty firm and had plenty of ruts all the way around but they were on the good line anyway and after a bit started to smooth out. It was great practice for feet up work and smooth riding. Nothing was hard to ride and some of the tracks were easy and let you practice various aspects of forest riding.

After a couple of laps it was clear my bike was very poorly and that was my day done. But being the star he is John kerwin, who was the organiser, lent me his KTM150. What a superb bike to ride in the trees like this! Light and flickable it railed the berms and made easy work of any ruts. I put in quite a few laps before lunch then took it out again afterwards for even more riding before I handed it back to John. By this point Andy had decided to call it a day so it worked out quite well.    

The laps were taking around fifteen minutes to do as John had taken out a couple of the really rutted bits. With the course being quite long and there being so few people riding it was a great day out. The rain never really got going and for the most part was just the odd bit of spitting. Once in the trees you would never have known anyway. The only downside to the very tight nature of the course was passing but there were places to pass on the straights and it being so quiet it wasn't an issue. Plus what's the rush when you just want bike time?

I'd recommend this place for anyone wanting to practice in the trees or even just getting out on the bike and riding. John said he'd be doing other practice days and I'll be up there again for sure! Get yourself up/down to the next one, you'll love it.

Geraint.