Written by snapper girl
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Sunday, 13 March 2011 |
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As you know i have my little CRF230 which i love, but have seriously struggled ‘playing’ at our woods,those logs are way too big for me to get over without having a girly outburst and crying! So a couple of times recently Rich and I have gone green laning around the Salisbury area, which i really enjoyed (Despite falling of in a puddle that felt like it was as big as Lake Windermere LOL). This lead to a ‘friend of a friend of a friend’ getting in touch because his Wife had recently booked a days trail riding with EPM Experience in Basingstoke and wondered if i was interested in going along too. Without really thinking what was likely to be involved i agreed and Rich booked it for me and my best friend Rachel to go. Rachel like me has lots of years road riding experience, but hardly any offroad, in fact she has only done our woods with me a couple of times.
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Written by Richard Troth
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Friday, 31 December 2010 |
Well what an event that was.......full of action, spills and thrills, we arrived at 0630 to help Manny B/Colin B/Simon B and others from Witley to set up the final bits, the whole area of Weavers Down was still completely covered in snow and in places over 12 inches deep and any areas that had been driven on were solid ice, as the competitors arrived so many were getting stuck in and everyone seemed to be helping everyone, its amazing how we bond in such adverse situations.
I was luckily enough to view the course which was just a tad over 12 miles and the conditions were hard and challenging with many climbs and bogs that were proper bogs and you had to be so committed to get through due to their depth, the very steep climbs were great if you had clear run but that did not happen often and the carnage on the hills looked like a battlefield from old. The hardest factor was simply the ice where it had compacted and as the event wore on the ice got worse and was the downfall of EVERY rider at some stage.
330 riders were due to sign on with many more in reserve waiting for the opportunity for non arrivals, sadly one of the big guns failed to make the start James Giddings but the A list was of excellent quality with some top MX and Enduro riders in the mix like Scott Elderfield/Dorren Coutts/Jack Turner/Aaron Smith/Richard Ely/Jack Twentyman/Dan Beaven/Zac Blackwell .
The start was the Witley trademark Le Mans style of running to your bike and go go go......... |
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Written by Tony Woolmore
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Monday, 14 December 2009 |
Part 2 subtitled (What an old nail)
I got home from Tunstall and to say i was a little dissapointed would be an understatement. I'm still stewing over the fact that i didn't go home and get the Husky. So my mind was made up, a full rebuild it was going to be.
Here it is.

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Written by Tony Woolmore
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Sunday, 13 December 2009 |
Subtitled - Not the sharpest tool in the box.
I have decided to start a blog just to let everyone know that it doesn't matter how stupid you are you will get there in the end. I hope this might give you some hope when it all goes (wrong) you know what i mean . As the comedy of errors unfolds you may feel things aren't all that bad.
Why Pepperami?
I bought a Vw camper and decided to name it Pepperami as i wanted to make it a little bit spicy. On the VW forum at meets and camping the name has stuck.
Big alloys, lower suspension 2.2 ltr Subaru engine that is another comedy of errors best left.
This is how i have been getting back into it, I hope you enjoy and it gives a little hope.
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Monday, 02 November 2009 |
Well it might look that way, still got two Enduro blog entries that are outstanding to write but alas have been concentrating on other matters for the last few weeks. To make up for things I’m been working on a major website sort out and upgrade for the last few days.
Done and dusted:
- Calendar now has new layout with dates showing in year list, the plan is to add more categories to cover most of the race series around the South. I would like to go further out but doing dates is tedious, I could do with some help (registered members can add dates).
- New video component has been added ‘FTJ TV’ name lacks imagination me thinks. Guests can now add videos from 21 video providers, don’t worry if there is no category that fits your video, I will add to them as I see fit stick them anywhere you like for the time being. Registered members get a new video profile tab with their submissions. Latest videos are displayed on front page if you haven’t noticed.
- The Links have been expanded with more categories and navigation cleaned up. Got an interesting link? Signup and add it!
- Forum now allows Guests to make threads and post, we will see how this goes with spam.
- Venues updated and with more categories.
- Added a My Comments tab to profiles.
On the to do list: |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Monday, 02 February 2009 |
After doing a lap on the Saturday I was glad that this is my home round and didn’t have to ride it, yep it was going to be physical. The second lap round was way better already most of the forestry debris been scattered and track maturing well, it could only get better and the bogs worse a double edged sword. Got woken up by my mobile on Sunday by a bloke asking directions thanks to whomever it was I would have been late otherwise.
To be continued... |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Monday, 12 January 2009 |
Secretary of the Meeting? I must have been having a brain seizure when I volunteered for that one so my mother reckoned, you see she still comes round most nights to bring me my dinner, bless her, and for the last couple of months my dinner table has been my computer desk as I was constantly working on entries or trying to get the riders list and result table to format properly often frustrated and left to sleep on it waiting for that lightning bolt to strike, boy do I hate JavaScript with a passion now but getting better at it. I was a bit disappointed that the online entry form could not be used because a PayPal account could not be opened, maybe one for next year.
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Saturday, 02 August 2008 |
It’s been a busy few months for me lately, in April I volunteered to take over the webmaster role for www.witleymcc.org and rebuilt the site from the ground up, a lot of custom code was written to make things work which is very time consuming, this is on top of my other web activities which include another website I run and administering duties at another, moderate at a couple of forums also. Then I started a new fulltime job to pay the increasingly big pile of bills, this has affected the amount of time I can dedicate to this website and riding. I have also started to rebuild my Land Rover 90 which has been sitting on my drive for the last couple of years rusting away while the motivation and cash levels are up.
To round things up I’m running a backlog on everything and my next event probably going to be Sidcup’s Enduro at Canada Heights hopefully on a different bike, I fancy a four stroke shock horror, 125’s are a young man’s bike to much effort and one of those sofa’s with a engine attached seems like the ticket at present, I have no idea what I want so don’t be surprised to see me on a two stroke....see you at the check point. |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 |
Tea Till Dusk was back at the Deepcut venue with another full entry. REME rider Steve Hunt got the holeshot scaring both Alison and I as he went down the drop-off completely sideways, it was not long before James Jackman took control of the race hotly followed by Rob Warner in a very close battle which was only separated by two minutes in the end.
There’s a few pictures in the gallery no video of the start, Alison risked her neck to get the best shot but the camcorder was showing a moisture in camera alert after getting soaked at Bagshot, we did manage to get it working later on . |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Friday, 16 May 2008 |
 With a full entry and a hot balmy evening it was going to be a good days sport even for a spectator like myself. The Deepcut venue with it sinuous single track huge steep climbs and abundance of exposed roots would provide the competitors with two hours of the finest going. After watching the riders nearly complete a lap I was surprised to see raining Tea Till Dusk champion James Jackmen in his van still putting his boots on after he arrived late, nice of him to give the rest of the competitors a chance but seeing Si Wakley ripping around the track he was going to face an impossible task to catch the numerous red number plates lurking around the course. Darren Wilcock, Rob Mussell and the NC crew put on another cracking event looking at the riders faces after the finish.
Lots of photos uploaded to the gallery if you want the original email me using the Contact Us form with image numbers and album.
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Monday, 24 March 2008 |
My first event of the year was going to be Normandy’s MCC Warsop Trophy Hare & Hounds only a couple of weeks away and not even ridden a bike since the Inter Centre Enduro (marshal) or done any major bike preparation since the middle of last year it was time to man the battle stations and get my arse in gear, as Simon Beken was in the same boat as me with little riding time due to injury we decided to enter Reading’s H & H but got turned away as entries had already closed, which suited me fine, I really wanted to finish preparing the YZ 125 and not ride it as is. |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
 A graded Canada Heights coupled with a ripping Maico 320, can life get any better? Well sure it can, haven't seen this video in a few years it was cheesy them and very cheesy now in a 90's kind of way, but I must warn you watching will take 25 minutes from your life, I dear not edit it in case I might spoil the ambience. There's some half decent action to watch and around the 15 minute mark you can see one of the Jones boys (Trevor?) hitting the dirt hard. Edit** I have decided to do a short version for upload to YouTube "Manny's Cut" 3:33s long set to a rocking track. |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
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Drove straight down to the Eelmoor test track as instructed at Thursdays club night to find the gate locked, was just about to turn round when Ted Smith (Kingston club) turned up behind me with a key, Dave Chiverton ( Clerk of the Course) also made a appearance riding his Gas Gas which was a bit of luck as I had no idea how to get to the Witley check and he offered to show me the way, I was doing a fair imitation of Sebastien Loeb down a gravel fire road when we meet a group of riders coming in the opposite direction, Dave stopped suddenly and I skidded the car about a inch from his right leg which he failed to even notice, we finally got to a opening on top of a hill with a couple of vans parked this was going to be Witley’s HQ for the following day. |
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Written by Manny
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Friday, 25 January 2008 |
After a couple of weeks reading reviews and visiting forums into which helmet camera and lens would be the most suitable to get a decent looking video I settled for a Pro 520 Essentials kit with suction mount from www.dogcamsport.co.uk, also on my shopping list were 8 X Vapextech AA 2700mAh rechargeable batteries which will run the camera for 10 to 12 hours, like anything else on the internet when buying and not sure if you are dealing with a reputable company I will send them a email with a few questions on the product, if I do not receive a prompt reply walk away it's not worth the risk.
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Tuesday, 15 January 2008 |
As I did a lot of research before buying my helmet camera setup though I'll pass my findings on. The most important thing is to work out what kind of film quality you are after because this has the biggest impact on what type of helmet camera you will buy and there are many available, the second thing is to take into account is the environment you are filming in, the more detail the scenery and the faster you travel the better the recorder/encoder has to be to keep up with the information fed by the camera. |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Saturday, 12 January 2008 |
Another video gets ripped from VHS kicking and screaming by the look of it just in the nick of time. Slab Common still looks and rides the same just the hills are not as steep as back in the day, its never lost its bike sucking abilities though. My first year doing SEEC Enduros on a 1986 Maico 250 I bought from the infamous Loot freeads for £300, more of that later. Can't remember who was running the event but if you do let me know in the forum so I can update the information. |
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
Another album added to the gallery, a little collection of bikes I have raced in the pass hopefully will get round to making an article on each one.
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Written by Manny Bernardez
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Tuesday, 08 January 2008 |
There's some photos from Tea Till Dusk round 3 in the gallery not very good photos but the conditions were about as worse as it gets for photography, camera got very wet and still not working properly.
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Written by Manny
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Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
Uploaded an classic Boxing Day Enduro from 1994 I found on an old VHS tape. Took me longer trying to clean up all the noise on the tape than editing and of course picking some music to go along with it is always a hard thing to do, let’s say I have an acquired taste in music. Filmed at Broxhead Common after I found it listed in MCN, the camera can't quite remember the make was a real monster and you felt like a proper cameraman with that thing resting on your shoulder. |
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