He’s back, Ace Woodley who is one of our Dirt bloggers and a hardtail fanatic, returns to the internet. Read on:

Been very quite for a while, hardly ridden a bike for months now, but a new year and a new start and new things to try out.

So the sick in the head thing then ?  well started with random facial pains that would come and go, slowly got worse and more severe, took a few weeks before i got round to getting it sorted (so i thought)  anyway i had a nice fat jaw infection which was attacking the nerves in my face,  and causing the odd dizzy spell (work dont know that one, they do now).  So the gory bit, i wont be too graphic, you see i got a bit of the piss take banter when i went to watch a local race, and after a graphic talk through,   well they shut up and walked off, i was unhappy that none of them where sick, maybe not graphic enough.  Yeah back on track, so jaw infections are drained out through a tooth, then you nuke it with antibiotics, leave the tooth hole open for a while, then root canal and fill it up.

Sorted yeeeah, well no, lasted about 5 days then i had an aggressive relapse, boy did that generate some pressure inside the jaw, was a bit of a spurter when the dentist drilled through, i even skipped the novacaine  this time round.  So repeat the pills and start again, this time it was still hurting so the tooth was whipped out,  SSHHitt loads of novacaine for that.  Strange sensation never had someone rip out a tooth while i am awake.  So that seems to have sorted it out,  on top of that i had a freak accident which would be like have your knee hit with a cricket bat,  cant say thats ever happened to me before,  been butt clubbed to the knee but dont think to many people would now what that ment.  So xmas was spent with a sore head and a pronounced limp.  Then it started snowing and i took out the worst possible bike for xc snow riding to try and get the knee going again.  The first mile was the worst, you now that grating noise your joints make as the the tendons and cartilage realign themselves and your knee cap sorts of resets itself in the right place.  Walking better feeling better.  That was the ungory version of the last few months for me.

So being bored and getting an attack of “Hardenthefuckup’s” i went out to play in the snow on a very big singlespeed roadbike with 23mm slick tyres,  did quite well, got about 7 miles and only snapped the chain once, had a multi tool so fixed it (HTFU)and road home, as my new home is remote i rode to the nearest town over the fields to find a copy of Dirt,  i had a chat about subs with Thackers but so far my submarine hasnt surfaced yet, still put my knee cap back in place, so that was nice.

Other things then ! well i havent been up to much but i have been watching things, and playing with stuff, more on juice lubes later, but after a false start “Project Bender” took off.  Shane (evil munchkin) has now done his first ever race, on the downside he came DFL but finished both runs and knocked 30 seconds off on his second run, so rock bottom last, the only way is up from here, and so far he has dropped over a grand to win a bet he made with me (a bet i can no longer lose, only gain 🙂  So top marks for HTFU and racing and going to work the next day because he didnt break his arms !  and yes he is about to give me the finger in that photo cos he’s evil.

Other random hardtail stuff, i heard from Farmer a mate of Dom Mcrae that Dom has only got offered a deal of some sort by someone,  cant say any more as i havent seen Dom yet to ask, cue a photo of Dom airbourne at Moelfre, the thing is he has been racing an OTP dirt jumper, 24″ wheels 80 or 100mm fork and singlespeed Microdrive, his little legs just spin like a tumble dryer on full whack, so hopefully with a full on downhill bike to play with he will have a damn good go at mixing it up with the fast boys,  more on that when i catch up with him.

What else, trade show time again, and i hear that Mike aka Mr Atomlab will be over again, maybe depending on the british weather, but the Core Bike show is coming up soon and me and Dave from over at www.hardtailnation.co.uk are booked in with no problems this year, looking forward to that, already got my eyes on the new Pimplite hubset in the photo, the single speed one is just what i need, have a look at the new cranks as well, more on that and other shiny things after the show.

Be back with more stuff later, waiting to hear about a race i am trying to get in, a European Champs race at that where i will be upholding the fine name of Scotland and racing for them, still waiting to hear back, should be a scream if i get it !

All i have to do now is get back down south for the weekend as i am doing the secret cookie race, which will be my first race for a while, looking forward to getting going again.

Ace