Remember driving obscene amounts of miles from Hudds to Essex and back to ride around in Clay Bogs - Mid Essex Gravel Pits and not a piece of gravel in sight!! Quality road trips with Holroyd, Swallow, Hyland and Howes though. Trying to get your bike as light as possible 21lb was my lightest. Latex tubes, titanium crank bolts, super light spokes - (radially laced of course), 4 hope Ti bottom brackets - all bent! Race-face carbon Next LP cranks! X-lite titanium skewers (they bent too) etc etc When the 'rules' changed in the British Rounds so EVERYONE had to have ankle protection - funny how it only lasted a year (after everyone had bought shitty Monty boots from........oh yeah, the people who run the championship and set the rules!!!) Still pisses me off!! When you could fly your bike to the worlds on Easyjet without having to pay extra! Mrs Matthews in Essex "That's a 5" - lovely woman. IRC Mud Mad Tyres (for above mentioned 'gravel pit' trials) - and trying not to die on every log in sight. The essex Team Trial. Inventing new moves by accident cause there was nowhere to look for inspiration! Breaking 11 xc frames. Giro exodus helmets (is that right - or was it an E2?) X-lite bar end plugs (aka car scratchers) Flite Titanium Saddles - they were the ones to have before no saddles! Old XT v-brake parallelogram shim kits to get rid of the slop - did anyone ever fit one successfully?! Old school DMR V12's Good old days man.