Seeing as both Owen and SBG had both got themselves shiny new bikes (the former an Orange 5, the latter a Scott Genius), and it was a lovely (rainy, blustery, miserable) day, we figured we’d go out for a ride. It was a good ride, all in all. We just went for a quick play up Lecky and had all sorts of fun, right up until the very last downhill of the day.

We rode out of the car-park and down the old tramway. I pedalled away like a maniac and proceeded to scare myself just about all the way down, forgetting that I don’t have gert big Saint brakes on the Cannondale – I nearly fell into the hedge on just about every corner. I came out into the final section (where Brett had the spleen incident back in the day) like a ballistic missile.

Oh, crap, there’s a new jump and I’m doing a million miles per hour! SPROING!!!!

I went up, came down, hit the second one with the back wheel still in the air and then came back to earth. Smoooooth. Quite how I got away with that, I don’t know. I stopped and shouted a warning to Owen who was descending some way behind me. He braked, rode around the jump and straight into the fence. We laughed at that for a while before Séan arrived.

Despite my shouts, he managed to hit the jump at full speed and launched head-first into the ground, spanging himself and firing his bike over his head and into the big metal fence. He then proceeded to scream all manner of profanities for a short while, before scaring the hell out of us by going into shock and shaking violently for a good few minutes. Thankfully he was just bruised and grazed and in need of a new helmet.

We eventually came to the conclusion that he was going to be OK, so I went to pick his bike up out of the undergrowth. At first it all looked OK… except the handlebars didn’t look quite right. They may have been riser bars on both sides before, but now they’re retro drop-bars on the left, with a nice crease in them underneath the flappy gear/brake lever.

Nice one Séan, that crash was the stuff of legends.

Sony recently updated their Connect Player software (to version 1.0.04.16100) and I’m very glad to report that it’s a huge, huge improvement. It now runs at a decent speed on my fairly modest Athlon 1800+ system and appears to be stable. Nice one Sony.

Non-Starter

The new version wouldn’t start at first though – it just hung at the “Initialising Library” stage. The fix was fairly simple: I went to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sony Corporation\CONNECT Player\Library (the path may be slightly different on your machine) and deleted everything in there. Once I did that, it started up with an empty library just fine.

From there, I went to File > Import Files... and pointed it at my iTunes music folder. It picked up everything (all 36.6gb of it) and imported it fairly quickly.

GAARGH! Compilations!

Alas Connect Player went the same way as SonicStage and imported each track in my various-artists compilations as a separate album. A bit of trial and error found a fairly easy way to correct this:

1. Switch the view mode to Group By: Album.
2. Open up one of the albums that make your compilation, right click on the track within and select Properties.
3. Under Album Artist enter Various Artists (or whatever else you want it to say). Click OK.
4. Now, select all of the other “albums” in that compilation (shift-click or ctrl-click to select more than one album) and drag-drop them onto the one you’ve just modified. Click OK to the warning box and hey presto! They’re all in one album.

Sync

Right, now for the one thing I’ve not tried yet: Syncing it up with my Walkman. Wish me luck…

Last run of the day and myself, Anton and Roger were lined up at the trailhead. Bring the left pedal up, pull the goggles down into place and we’re there.

“What course are we riding then?”
“Love Child? Stu’s Cock?”
“Nah, I think I’m up for DH1.”
“Rocking, let’s do it.”
“Ready?”
“Aye.”

…and it begins. Anton sets off and I follow right on his tail. Stomp on the pedals to bring the bike up to warp nine down the opening straight, pump it through the dip, then it all goes light as I come up the other side. I’m sure the back wheel should be on the ground through there… chicane, berm, pedalpedalpedal, whoop, hip, chute – EEEEK! Regain composure, pedal, stay high, jump – BRAAAKE, rail it a round 180R, pedal, drop, wiggle, drop onto the path.

Down the short root-chute into part II, wiggle, up-down-wiggle, jump, pedal then off the brakes to Charlie’s drop… BOOF! Full warp off the next two micro-drops, pump through the bottom then fly up the other side. Stall it then drop down to the right, pedal like a bugger for the jump, wooop! then get behind the bike and fly through the rock garden.

Ride down over the roots into part III, pedal like mad then rail it up and around the wall-ride. If you’re me, dive down the singletrack deep into the woods, off the drop, pump the two whoops, pump off the little ramp then rejoin the main trail. Pedal up and over the tramway, then rail it through the tight right-hander. Up and over, then right and down the chute, squirt it back left then down into the new chute. Rail the berm, plop off the jump then bam! into the final berm to the end.

That was proper bo. Confidence was high and we just pinned it everywhere. I honestly don’t think I’ve hit Leckhampton quite that fast before. A fantastic way to end to a great day’s riding.