Roll into the Pedalabikeaway Centre, deep in the heart of the Forest of Dean on the gloucestershire/Wales border and you’ll hit a hive of mountainbike activity. It’s here that you’ll find Sprung, a new servicing and tuning suspension specialist, set up and run by Jake Ireland. We popped in for a chat, a brew and a quick tune up on a rear shock.
The Pedalabikeaway is the go-to destination for riding in the Forest of Dean, it’s a busy place, even on a weekday in early March. With a growing number of marked DH runs, great off piste trail biking, and the ever-popular blue and red routes it’s a popular meeting place. With the the FlyUp uplift service shuttling riders to the top of the hill, DH bikes are everywhere.
Jake has been spannering in the centre’s workshop on and off since 2004 and has mixed this in with most aspects of the sport over the last fifteen years. He’s been a race mechanic (for Katy Curd), tested bikes and written words for Dirt and MBUK, got involved with bike development, as well as the usual selling in a bike shop. He’s a very handy rider too with plenty of DH race experience and growing up only a few miles down the road he’s built a few cheeky test tracks too…
