Let's try that one again...

Well, it never happened in 2013 - some cancellations and some just plain scared people, so I have high hopes that I can lure everyone over later this year for Filth Camp (This time it happens!)

I'm promising the same experience again - bring your best prototype mud tyres, winter clothing, full suspension frames, 'water resistant' packs and I'll show you a few great days of bike riding, with some wet, wild and wooly weather (hopefully) and you'll have a chance to do the following:

You will be able to:

Put still-wet shoes back on in the morning.

Finish a ride in the dark. At 4.30pm...

Use the spare, dry gloves I told you to bring as yours are covered in mud

Slide off on wet roots, wet rocks and wet grass

Wear out a set of brake pads in a ride. 

Undress in the hallway as your clothes are too soaking wet

Not convinced yet? 

You will also be able to:

Walk into a cafe and/or pub, covered in mud and get served some great beer and hot, hearty food without being told to leave.

Shout to be heard above the noise of the wind and hail

Gather round a log fire while still dressed in all your clothes

Laugh at the ridiculousness of it all when safely back home in the dry.

Be stronger and more alive because of it all.

There is no charge for Filth Camp (though perhaps if there was, we'd get more people turning up!) and I'll do my best to find fun, economical accommodation for everyone. It's a chance for professional and personal enhancement :-)

We have takers!

We have at least four folks making the trip across from the States for the inaugural FilthCamp! We're going to be welcoming three from Niner - Carla, Barrett and top photographer Ian Hylands. Then from sunny California we have Brad from Kali Protectives coming over too. There are a couple more folks still umming and ahh-ing about it, but it's definitely ON now.

We'll have a couple of fun days in the Valley, exploring some trails, getting wet and muddy hopefully, getting lost and cold on the hills in the approaching dark (so, after 3pm then...) and then retiring to the pub to warm up. And then we'll be journeying a couple of hours away to do the same thing, only in a different location.

Finally, on day five (assuming everyone's still with us) it's going to be the Singletrack Northern Gathering; a yearly event where we invite people from the UK bike industry, who we normally only see in Las Vegas or Friedrichshafen, to come to the Singletrack offices and ride bikes - and eat fish and chips.

Should be a fun-packed week...

But how can you wear out your suspension bushings in a year? How can brake pads only last one ride? That's what they ask. The bike designers who live in California and Spain can't understand why people ride in the rain and mud. Surely you just wait for a day for the blue skies and sunshine to return?

There is another way. The way of the UK, where it might rain every day for three months - and that's just the summer. A land where, if you didn't ride in the rain on wet trails, you may never ride again.

Come and enjoy Filth Camp this November! Email Chipps for details...

Let's Get Those Invites Out! Filthcamp 2013

Ready for Filth Camp?

November 4th-8th 2013

It's time to gather up your rain gear, your waterproof boots and your prototype winter products. Come to the UK to experience as much bad weather as we can muster in a week. You're invited to come over and spend a week, or a couple of days doing some real-world product testing (and as such it counts as work, right?). 

We can't guarantee terrible weather, but there's a good chance that the trails will be wet, muddy and abrasive. We can always travel round the UK to find worse conditions... 

What's the point in designing winter boots if you live in California? What's the point of speccing 'weatherproof bearings' if you don't actually get any weather? Here is the chance to spend a few days getting wet and muddy, testing some product. 

Not very muddy. You can still see the chain.

Can still see the jockey wheels.

Early November is a great time to visit the UK. It's dark by 4.30pm (actually, earlier where we live in the valley bottom) and it's dark until nearly 7.30am. Average temperatures are 41-50°F, with 3.1inches of average rainfall in November. 

It's not all bad, though. There's an average of one whole hour of sunshine a day! (That's double December's average!) But it gets better - the pubs open at 10am, the chip shop opens at 9am and there are good, dark beers, fried foods and whiskies always on offer.

Wholesale joy not pictured...

So, fancy it? Of course you do. Just get in touch and we'll work out some fun stuff with you. The vague plan will start appearing on subsequent posts. Just email me in the meantime and we'll get this party started...