30/5 Butts Brow Bash MTB

Our first mtb ride of the 2016 season and the first time we have ridden off road with Ed who sadly is leaving Hastings for Bristol come August.

Butts Brow Bash is always the first mtb ride we start with, simply due to it being so easy to get to. In no way does this make it easy though as with a hill density of 119 feet/mile this is hillier than any local road ride (even worse than Mad Jack Audax)

This was going to be a tough test for Paul Bx whose lack of rides during the Winter/Spring has resulted in his current weight of over 15 stone.

To save a few quid we all parked near the bottom of Butts lane rather than the pay and display car park at the top. I am not sure this is a a good idea as Butts brow is the steepest hardest hill climb I have ever done and doing it with 2 inch knobbly tyres and cold legs was extremely hard. It was a relief to reach the top and I had to wait a minute for my heart rate to calm down before leading the descent down to Friston forest.

There is a nice very long non technical climb that took us up above the long man. From here its a fast tricky decent down to Jevington. Care needs to be taken as the path is rocky with great lumps of chalk and clay . This is not a bridleway you want to be on when there is even a hint of dampness but today the trail was thankfully bone dry.

Alfriston is a well known MTB hub with a variety of bridleways branching off in different directions. We took the main path up the SDW so had an arduous 3 mile climb up to the Firle Beacon.

Now came the pleasure of a 4.5 mile fast descent on grassy tracks all the way down to Bishopstone. Peter Baker particularly enjoyed this and was whooping with delight.

Pete wonders if all this tubeless set up is worth it?

Paul picked up a puncture on route . The sealant in his tyre failed to fix the leak and so a spare inner tube had to be fitted (is tubeless worth it?).

We now had the long climb up to Bo Peep car park. Despite the height gained this climb is quite gentle being on firm relatively smooth tracks.

Rather than sticking to the SDW we took the Drovers Track down to Alfriston. Even in summer this can get a bit muddy. Today it wasnt too bad but there was one flooded section which plastered all our bikes with mud and one rooty section that was tricky to get over.

Rooty section along Drovers Track to Alfriston

A well deserved refuelling stop at the expensive but very nice Badger tea shop set us up for the final leg of the days outing.

Firstly we had to climb back up the longman. The first part of this climb is one of my least favourite bits of track as the ground is full of large stones, roots and gulleys making it difficult to keep the front wheel down. I was on a new saddle with extra long rails. This had the advantage of pushing my weight further forward. I could really feel the benefit to my climbing as I managed to stay in the saddle for longer than usual.Unfortunately the saddle doesnt fit the shape of my arse and my backside was feeling like tenderised steak so this is going back in the reject box. Jamie is riding a fabulous Giant XTC Adavanced carbon bike which he purchased new recently. This is an incredible value light weight carbon hard tail which I have my eye on as a future replacement for my alloy On- One Scandal.

Reaching Jevington we waved goodbye to Jamie and his XTC and set off up the 7% climb from Jevington to the top of Butts Brow. This hill is much more enjoyable, keeping the wheel down was no problem as we ground our way up to the top.

I was glad to get the first mtb ride of the seaon completed. I feel in better shape than this time last year so look forward to many more enjoyable rides over the summer.

Steve C