Sabbath bloody Sabbath

It was probably 1995 or there abouts.  I walked into Woolworths one day and browsed through the albums on compact cassette, yep Cassette.
 Now normally what with Woolies being a High street shop to please the masses there would just be the top 40 popular tracks of the day, but on this day things were very different.
There it was, 'Black Sabbaths Greatest hits' for about eight quid!  I got the feeling someone had ordered it and never collected as it was so out of character amongst 'Boyz 11 Men' and frickin 'Celine Dion!'
Since that very day this cassette has been places in the glove box of every car I've owned and played with anger for every road trip and riding journey undertaken by me, me and buddies and now me and my son who is a Sabbath fan
The tape's been borrowed and copied by bike buddies, skate buddies and Sabbath lovers from all corners of the UK.  It's been on Surfing trips, played on the beach pre and post surf sessions late into the night, it's been in stereo's and played on many a half pipe deck, getting people pumped to pull 'that' trick.
The car I drive at the moment still has a cassette player in it.  I play my ipod through a cassette adapter but still punch in the Sabbath tape now and then, it's a little stretched but it's all good and long may it continue, I'm taking that damn tape to the grave.

Mission to Norwich!

A couple of weekends ago I was determined to make things 'happen' on the BMX. I wasn't attending the National BMX race at my local track in Braintree so I really felt the need to make the weekends riding count.
The loose plan was to get on top of Norwich's 3rd straight, I had this in my head all week and was feeling confident.  Me and Evan set out mid afternoon on Saturday with a quick stop in Bury Town to pick up Jonny on the way.  The essential Black Sabbath 'Greatest Hits' on cassette was the chosen in flight entertainment, this tape has been with me for around fifteen years, it has been the chosen tune for many riding trips, it has all the ingredients to get you pumped for some MX action, it never fails!
On the whole it was a pretty successful trip with me managing to pop the first double after a step up step down jump thanks to Jonny towing me round, although I didn't make a real smooth landing it all feels within reach.
We returned last weekend but the weather was against us, crazy northerly winds and rain showers, curse the British weather!

cheeky trail

Well, I've been putting the miles in on the XC bike and actually commuting to work too.
Think I'm coming round to the idea of SPD's, as I slowly get used to them, still not sure about tackling more tech trail riding and stuff, but I guess all that will come in time.  Why I didn't get them years ago I really don't know.

I found a nice little trail that runs from a village near my town right through to near Cambridge City which is about 13 miles away.  Most of the terrain involves following footpaths and bridleways through and around fields which isn't the most exciting riding but still it's always great to be out.  One of the things that made it so good was not having to pack the car, drive, unpack the bikes, pack the bikes, drive, unpack.....

For some reason only known to me, I chose to live in a part of the country that doesn't have much to offer on my doorstep, in the way of XC or any other off road cycling pursuits and having to drive to get to the fun places can be annoying.