The icky cast’s off, the nasty snow’s thawed and it’s time for Jake to come out and play…
Happy New Year to you all – I hope you had a great festive season and ate plenty of roast dinners! I stuck with tradition and ate until it hurt which was good. But I’m not sitting on it, I’ve worked it off double already so I hope you guys are on it too.
A lot has happened since my last scribbles. I had just got my leg out of plaster when I last wrote. From then I had my air cast on for a week, then I sacked that off as it was annoying me and I could walk already albeit with a 50 Cent-esque limp which I’m still running – ha ha. Not! As soon as I took the air cast off I started boxing standing up again and doing some light sparring with the Herd. I also started cycling straight away and using all the gym equipment minus a treadmill and I’ve just had my head down ever since. Obviously the snow hasn’t helped things but we have been lucky compared to people further north – I feel for you guys and Ireland not having water must suck ass…
I haven’t got a lot of news on the the MX front at the minute and I won’t be riding any proper MX until I get to Josh’s place in NZ on January 18. Steve the Holeshot King drove to KTM UK when the snow had supposedly cleared up and had to park a block away from their HQ due to the depth of the white stuff. He moaned at me but sure enough that evening he rolled up with a sexy little 150SX which I nearly messed my pants over. I’ll be totally honest here I am a huge two-stroke man and I’m heavily into the stinking, screaming rippers – I think I really caught the bug when I was 17 riding for Fork Rent Suzuki run by Mark from MVR-D.
In the middle of the season Jason [Dougan] my team-mate and I signed up to do a round of the DEP champs at Landrake, him on a 125 tinker and myself on a 250 smoker kindly lent to us by Meredith Suzuki. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very excited by the new challenge against the wily old fox that is Mark Eastwood who I think was unbeaten (although maybe Dave Willet beat him a couple times).
The day before the race Ry Thorpe and I drove to Cheddar and tried it out only to realise I had sod all kit with me as it was the Japanese GP the following weekend so most of my stuff was there and the rest of it was with Mark who was elsewhere. So I begged and borrowed some of Luke Hill’s anorexic Troy Lee kit and zip-tied a sock in the side of my helmet where I was missing a cheek pad – funny times! I got on the track though and ripped it up, it felt like it was the fastest I had ever gone so I was really excited about racing the next day.
I’ll interrupt this memory to say I’m sat in my kitchen typing this out and my parents have got Famous and Fearless on. I know it’s good exposure for extreme sports etc but my god what a load of crap! Just too much talking! if they changed that it would be all right I reckon. I’m typing this then going to stay round Blu’s where I will take my lap top and watch Knighter’s DVD as she’ll be watching jerk-off TV on MTV.
Anyway, so we got to Landrake and had a blinding day battling with Easty and beating him in one race. I had so much fun and from then on I was made over by two-smokers. So that’s probably why I’m heavily into the little 150 – it’s sex on wheels! Senor Lawless’ write up on her was right albeit his was a XC version but still very similar. If I was a general Herder riding for fun I would have one of them any day of the week.
But I’m well excited to get back on the ol’ SX-F, she’s gonna feel like a right honey after thrashing the smoker about. I waited until after Christmas to ride it as the weather was so gnarly cold and there was still snow about which wouldn’t have been a good mix. Boxing Day was good fun as I went to my mate Legget’s clay shoot up the road – it was a right laugh and man did I get through some shells. Hell of a day! The next day it was back to training on my new hardtail that Hope built for me which is seriously pimping. Then finally the frost started thawing out and I got up in my woods and rode for the first time in two months since I broke my leg.
It was awesome and the next day I went back in there but this time with some snippers out of me ol’ ma’s garden toolshed and put some new loops in. Got a couple of us going round and next thing I know we had a two-and-a-half minute enduro loop with logs, roots, whoops and a bit of MX in it. Ended up riding for about three hours and have done it nearly every day since. I’ve got to admit it’s made me think how I would love to do a hare and hounds race or one of Eddy’s GBXC races as I love it.
I did an enduro in 2008 and loved it and something like the American GNCC or WORCS looks mega as it’s very much still racing. I texted Knighter and told him. Hopefully when I get back from NZ all going well I can get over and ride with him a bit.
That’s it for now, I should have some more interesting scribbles next month. Sorry if this was a bit of a ranger column – now crack on and get in the gym ya fat gits…
