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Freeride Junkie - Manchester Street Sessions
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Well, we braved the freezing temperatures last night and headed out for our usual Tuesday night street session in Manchester...and unusually we weren't the only riders out. Our usual crew met up at Urbis were we bumped into 5 BMXers getting technical with their grinds on the ledges. As usual, when you meet up with BMXers in Manchester they are always sh1t hot and these were no exception...and of course BMX John (our resident BMXer) knew them! We also bumped into three mountain bikers from Preston who were also down for an evening street session.
Anyway, we hung around Urbis for a while waiting for Stu, whose train had been delayed, laying down a few warm up moves. Literally - it was freezing! My warm up move of choice was riding up a set of steep enclosed narrow stone emergency exit stairs and then rolling back down them with a 180 flick round to ride off. A very energetic move which got me toasty warm in no time. That reminds me, I must check out that Lambretta store in the Triangle - the poster that greeted me every time I rode up the stairs said they had 70% off in the shop!
Once Stu arrived we were 5 strong and we set off to a few of the usual haunts such as the steps outside Sinclairs Oyster Bar; the stone 'log ride' on the St Annes Square fountain; Bridgewater Hall banked wall ride; the 'Hacienda Drop'; the benches by the canal below Bridgewater Hall...etc...etc...don't want to give too many away as part of the fun is in the finding!
The great thing about street is that as your skills improve you start to see new lines that you hadn't even noticed previously and you can get really creative. If you live near a big city then you'll know what I mean as the diversity of architecture really lends itself to creative riding. Luckily we all live within 30 mins of Manchester centre so were pretty lucky in that respect.
As much as I love Manchester though it's always nice to check out and apply your new improved skills to other cities. A couple of years ago we had a trip down to London for the weekend and spent 2 full long summer days scoping out and riding the place. I think my favourite find that trip was a cool banked wall ride we came across in Canary Wharf (see pic) - I could have played on that all day!. Obviously we only touched the tip of the iceberg with only 2 days there as I know that after 4 plus years riding Manchester we are still finding new stuff! One thing we didn't find whilst down there though was the legendary Kettle drop. Not that we wanted to do it - we just wanted to see it in the flesh! If you've not seen this drop then check out the video below - awesome!
Kettles BIG Drop
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