Sometimes you ride on certain pieces of land that are either to hard or to easy, depending on the lovely British weather of course!

Coombe Valley fits that down to a tee and my last memory's of riding there was not a nice one! Rain it bloody poured and ruined the whole day. Made the most easiest section into a national expert route where the likes of Lampkin and Jarvis would have struggled.

I did swear I would never ever ride there again. But last Sunday had me out begging for a ride, as there was nothing else on. Sun shinning and the ground was bone dry making the way far to easy for us inters come experts (yeah right) got so bored with the sections which didn't challenge us at all it had me and Gary looking at some shear mad cliff in some quarry which was some through route for some fun! 'No sections laid out here was what I said!' What's going on, there's some good slopes and faces here, lets av a go.

Gary had a go on the second lap only to keep him awake for the next few sections. Didn't even look at the chalk face and cranked up his new gasser in third and aimed it towards the death defying chalk. Made it up well easy but had to cut it short by turning on the face before the top and coming back down at breakneck speed, soiling his pants in the process. The drop back down was a little 'lets say' on the steep side. On we went for the next lap after me getting bored on some easy sections and loosing some stupid marks I decided it was time for me to have a go at the get yer 'parachute out cliff'. Boy did I regret it!

If you look at the pics you will see me skating down on my fat arse down hill over hard rock with the Scorpa following close behind. I was flat out aiming for the summit but lost it come near the top, bike crashing down behind me, trying my best to get out the way. Hit the bottom like a sack of potatoes-arms and legs everywhere, and a little dazed! Ouch did that hurt and took about five minutes of walking around in circles just to get over the pain of almost ripping my leg off.

After dusting myself down and making sure everything was still attached and in the right place I inspected the bike, which was upside down and had taken a right battering!! Scorpas are defiantly made to last and could go up against a tiger tank and come out unscathed. The only problem I had was I had lost the front brake due to the brake reservoir bolt getting bent and pissing all the brake fluid out so it was on Garys Gas Gas for the last few sections. Took a couple of sections to get use to the bike but I found it quite a good ride with very smooth power and very easy handling but I did still drop some marks. Must admit the bike that had the reputation for falling apart before you even got it out the box has much improved with stronger build and far more reliable engine, and has lots of shinny bits fitted. Very nice! And is still the cheapest. WELL DONE GAS GAS.

Thanks goes to all the marshals and to the Barham club for a very easy trial-thanks for all your excellent work. See you all there next year

fleety