It was that time of year again when a couple of hundred people descend on Bath to skate to Bristol in aid of charity for Macmillan Cancer Care, apparently this was the 7th year and my 3rd after a break of about 4 years or so.
It's The Bristol Board Meeting so business attire is encouraged, I picked up a nice M&S worsted suit in a BHF charity shop for £8, Jill converted the trousers into shorts for me.
Changed at Woking and Salisbury and arrived at Bath Spa at 10:36 where I was adopted by a couple of teenagers with longboards who felt sorry for the slightly lost old man with a suit and board. The start had moved from the station to Green Park since the last time I'd done it. A short skate to the start where we milled about chatting.
After a few photos it was time to hit the Bath-Bristol Railway Path.
It was wet when we set off, a bit of dazzle but luckily a lot of the route is sheltered under trees.
Vans Hi-Tops with worn soles are not the best for pushing in in wet conditions or the best for foot braking in either!
I stopped halfway for a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a slice of very nice carrot cake, the nice people at Warmley Waiting Room did well to keep up with demand.
After a while we made it as far as Shiners warehouse for the finish/raffle/slide jam, really needed a "this way"sign on the path or it would have been missed, luckily I bumped into a group who were lost(ish) and showed me the way.
The slide jam and were raffle were great, good to meet too.
Picked up these in the raffle…
and these from one of the sheds at Shiner.
before a skate back to to Bristol Temple Meads with Dean & Keith…
Headed out for an early morning slalom session today. Plan was to hit Ascot race course underpass. Met Trev and Paul there.
Unfortunately it's Royal Ascot next week and so the normally gated road was open to allow access for contractors etc.
We decided to try Ash Ranges, after a walk from the station car park through the woods we found that the Red Flags were flying and it was a no-go (unless we wanted to get shot, which we didn't)
Trev suggested a spot that he had cycled past recently that was not far a drive away, one junction on the M3.
It turned out to be ok, not the smoothest of surfaces but quiet.
The view as we walked up from where we'd parked
Looking down from about halfway up.
Looking up from the same spot.
Some things to miss.
Had a good time, rain stopped play in the end.
It was all going so well until Trev volunteered to film me.
In the afternoon I decided to have a fiddle with my rear truck.
I was impressed with its performance today but it still felt a bit surfy at the back, I wanted to get it feeling a bit less so.
The Cone Killer came drilled for multiple alternative mounts but in reality only the two extremes lined up with baseplates.
I've had the rear truck mounted on the rearmost set of holes but found this was giving me a really long wheelbase and it was difficult to get over the rear truck.
So the holes in the top of the deck line up with the holes in the baseplate...
But once you turn it over the holes don't…
Holes are drilled perpendicular to the top of the deck.
I put some short bolts through the inner holes and used the baseplate as a guide to drill through, so the holes are now elongated on the bottom of the deck but still round on the top.
Played around with risers, the softer ones are ok but squid out a bit, they do however take up the curve from the kicktail.
I ended up with 3 x soft 0 - 0.5" and a thin hard riser to help spread the load
Still a bit of bending and squidging, about 10ยบ of dewedge.
Latest ebay purchase arrived at work today, 9" Herron trucks.
Carbon Fiber (sic) supposedly, look like plastic to me, I've not seen any Carbon Fibre that looks like that, maybe some in there somewhere but they are injection moulded.
Couldn't easily get to a Tracker 161 to compare weights but they weigh 332g compared to 354g for narrower Tracker B2's with GK kingpins.
Reports I read say they turn like Trackers so looking forward to giving them a try. Apparently the stock bushings are rock hard so they'll go.
A recent ebay win (or lose, depends on your viewpoint), big box of various trucks and truck parts.
A set of ACS 651's, at one time the Gold version, now lacking most of the gold coating.
Four Indy baseplates, 2 with kingpins, 2 without and one Indy 109 hanger.
A pair of Randal DH hangers.
Two Tracker RT-S trucks
One has been cut down to slightly wider than Midtrack width
One Grind King Jay Adams with a stripped thread on one end of the axle and a bent axle and damaged thread on the other.
Two pairs of shock pads, two sets of Grind King kingpins (one with big flat heads, other with smaller heads) one pair of unbranded Grind King type kingpins, a regular old type kingpin, four splined type with dodgy threads, one bearing (no shield), three kingpin nuts, a cup washer, a flat washer, a GK insert and a random locknut
A pair of cheap unbranded hangers and baseplates, a pair of Speed Demon baseplates (one with a kingpin) a hanger.
This is the reason I decided to bid on this package, A Radikal Dragons Claw front slalom truck, sadly missing it spherical bearing from the hanger and the kingpin is snapped off in the thread insert in the baseplate. Three more pairs of interchangeable axles for width tweakage.
Stridey has offered to send me a free spherical for the hanger, cheers, I have emailed Keith Hollien regarding a kingpin and insert but no reply as yet.
Whilst I was photographing all the above I thought I'd have a swap around with the 8 wheeler hangers
