NEWS
Tuesday 22nd January 2008 - Welcome
Hi, and welcome to the website of the new local bike club in Salisbury, Shift Salisbury Mountain Bike and BMX Club and I hope you enjoy browsing this site, although currently under construction. Sorry for the ommissions of information across the website at the moment.
There will be more information on this site soon, so watch this space but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact one of us at the club, via our 'Contact Us' web page.
This year is our first year as a new bike club and we are focusing on training four of the club committee members to become official British Cycling Level 2 coaches very soon, who will later on specialise in four-cross mountain biking, track style BMX rinding, cross country mountain biking and many other tasks throughout club activities.
We are also focusing on getting the club noticed locally, so let your friends know!!! ;-)) Be it by word of mounth, MySpace and so fourth...
One of the big goals this year for the club is to help bring a new cycling facility to Salisbury. This facility will be a BMX race track made from dirt, of which BMX riders, mountain bikers, and other locals can ride in their free time at no charge and whatever the age, sex and ability the rider happens to be.
At present, this project is flourishing with the help of local authorities, British Cycling and interested locals. If your new to hearing about this project, let me know your views, as I will be very interested to hear them and if you fancy backing the project, again let me know, as more backing, the better :-)
To mention a few things that is being sorted out for the track project at present is that funds are being arranged and the Shift Salisbury bike club committee along with a few others are going to speak again on behalf of the project at the Salisbury District Council Commitee Meeting to give a project update and receive feedback from the Council. Another good bit of news is that currently there are professional track designers working on ideas for the new race track.
Again, watch this space for more updates!
Happy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Thursday 20th March 2008 - Future Club Prospects Looking Good
Three members of the Shift Salisbury bike club committee have now applied for the British Cycling Level 2 Cycling Coaching course. It's also proposed that a fourth member will also be doing the course. They will be attending the course in Oxford on the 19th, 20th April and will be working hard to complete this course until 12th July, when they will be assessed.
This qualification will allow the Committee members to teach cycling skills and run sessions at a more advanced and competent level and focus on teaching specific style of riding.
Watch this space to hear more about coaching at Shift Salisbury bike club.
Happy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Friday 21st March 2008 - BMX Track Project Goes to 2nd Salisbury District Council Committee Meeting
Next week Shift Salisbury club committee members and some others who are involved with trying to bring Salisbury its own BMX race track will attend a Salisbury District Council Committee Meeting for second time for some big project decisions to be made. I will make you aware of the decisions and changes as soon as I hear about them.
If we get this facility, the track can be used by mountain bikers and BMXers and is good for club sessions, free public facility, raise local riding talent and to also mention, BMX racing is now a part of the Olympic Games, as from this year's in Beijing.
Happy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Sunday 30th March 2008 - Good News For the BMX Track Project
The Salisbury District Council Committee gave a full panel of positive votes. As a result the project can now make a planning application for the track and the council have put aside £20,000 for the project, subject to planning and gaining the rest of the project funds from other sources.
You may have heared about the BMX track project on 102 Spire FM's news last friday.
Watch this space to hear more about the project.
Happy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Monday 14th April 2008 - Allan's First Downhill Race
Shift Salisbury's club Chair, Allan Wighton recently took part in Round 1 of the Dragon Downhill mountain bike series in Cwmcarn, Wales on the 5th and 6th April 2008. It was his first ever downhill mountain biking race and this year he is competing in this series to train rather than to win as such, although good results is always a plus. .
On Saturday, riding conditions during training and seeding runs were good with the sun staying out for a fair bit of the day. Come race day on Sunday, the conditions became more adverse, with some good snow showers through race runs. Unfortunately for Allan he wasn't prepared with the right set of tyres for the snow and lost front wheel traction through a technical section up top on the track and with that lost 25 seconds through one crash during a race run but you live and learn. However, Allan had a mega fun time and learnt a lot about racing and at least he wasn't the slowest with 4:17:864 lol... Allan is now training hard for his next round in Gethin, Wales, which will be on the 10th and 11th May 2008.
Another Salisbury resident, Kevin Murrell had also taken part in this event and it happened to also be his first race. Come race day Kevin did well, getting a respectable time of 3:51:462, which is good considering that the top guys, whom have lots more racing experience, were getting times around 3 minutes. Luckily enough for Kevin, the snow held off slightly earlier in the day when it came to his race runs. Kevin had lots of fun over the weekend.
Watch this space for more racing results.
Wednesday 28th May 2008 - May Racing Update
On the 10th and 11th May was the second round of the Dragon Downhill mountain bike series, which was held in Gethin, Wales. After the enjoyment of round one in Cwmcarn, Allan Wighton from Shift Salisbury turned up to do round two. The weekend was mega hot, with riding conditions becoming more dry and dusty, making the Gethin course more challenging. Unlike Cwmcarn, Allan had never rode on this track before, so competing in round two was more about learning the track and competing to train. The track is nice and flowy at the top but gets more technical as you descend further down the track to the lower area where there are some nice rock gardens to negotiate. Over the weekend Allan did not get any amazing results, especially as it is his second race but he had an amazing time riding this course, especially as it does not have regular uplifts. Without uplifts, it would take almost forever to reach to the top of the downhill tack. Allan's fastest time on the track was: 4 mins and 17 seconds (00:04:17:245). Round three is next due to be held on the 21st to the 22nd June in Rheola, Wales.
From 6pm in the evening to 6am in the morning of the 17th to the 18th May was the Charge Bikes/Spam Biking Set 2 Rise Twelve hour cross country mountain biking endurance race, which was held at Erlstoke in Wiltshire. Three Shift Salisbury members; Martin Prosser, Paul Heath and Ian McGinn made up a team of four with a friend Rob Pollard to partake in this tough twelve hour event. The weather was wet and the conditions were slippery, considering the chalky dirt up there, which makes bike handling somewhat unpredictable, in the dark conditions. There were only a few minor crashes and technical faults during the whole night and overall everyone in the team put in there best effort and did ten laps overall on the eight mile long trail. Everyone in the team enjoyed the experience and are considering to take part in this event next year. Photographs of this endurance event are on our club gallery page soon.
Watch this space for the latest Shift Salisbury race updates.
Hppy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Wednesday 28th May 2008 - FREE BRITISH CYCLING MEMBERSHIP
Join Shift Salisbury bike club and you get the opportunity to apply for one year's free British Cycling Bronze membership as an adult and children can apply for free Silver membership. This offer is open to anyone who is new to the British Cycling Federation and joins Shift Salisbury. All other levels of british cycling membership is discounted to new members, for example Gold membership.
As a British Cycling member there are many benefits to gain from the membership benefits package. For accidents which are the riders fault or partly their fault, Silver and Gold members are indemnified in respect of a successful third party claim against them to a limit of £10 million and will not be liable for the payment of an insurance 'excess'. This essential member benefit covers non-competitive social, leisure and utility cycling worldwide, and also any competitive cycling in an event held under the auspices of British Cycling. All British Cycling members have access to race rankings, racing history and a packed calender of cycling events. Best of all, races turn into results as the season progresses, so there is no need to update personal records. In addition, members have exclusive access to a benefits package which includes discounts on hotels, travel and retail.
For British Cycling and Shift Salisbury Club membership forms and information, please contact us at Shift Salisbury via any of our contacts of the 'Contact Us' page. We look forward to hearing from you.
Happy Trails!
Allan - Club Chair
Tuesday 15th July 2008 - Animal Relentless Freestyle Bike Tour - Salisbury
Hi All! If you're not up to much on Friday 1st August, why not check out some mountain bike action at Salisbury Market Square, where the Animal Relentless Freeride Bike Tour will be putting on some spectacular demos. Amongst the riders will be known athletes, such as Martin Ashton who will impress you with his trials skills and Sam Prilgrim with his highly dynamic street/jumping skills. Word is that there may be other guests there. You will only see this type of event take place in the streets of Salisbury every once in a full moon, so it's well worth the look.
Happy Trails
Allan
