With the second annual Howard Street Dual just around the corner, we spoke to Nick Hamilton, the architect of all things dual slalom in Sheffield.
Anyone that has spent any time in the mountain bike world will have at least heard of Nick Hamilton, and that is because he is the man leading the charge in Sheffield’s unique dual slalom scene.
The Howard Street Dual is once again part of the Outdoor City Weekender, so Pete had a chat with Nick about dual, steel and stepping up his game.
Photos by Sam McQueen.
Who is Nick Hamilton?
I’m a bike rider and race organiser, born, bred and buttered in Sheffield. I’m a full-time sports engineer at Sheffield Hallam University and have been designing and developing sports equipment for nearly 20 years. I’m husband to the Frenchie, Claire, and papa to Jules who’s name rhymes with Dual and 8 month old Romy.
What’s your background in cycling?
I’ve had a bike for as long as I can remember. It started with BMXs, I had 4 of them nicked from home before I was 10, mainly because I was careless and left them out. Life was easy back then and we’d go riding off in to the woods for hours on end without our folks having a clue where we were.
Climbing was always a constant too and it wasn’t until my early twenties when mountain biking found me. I was getting to the point where I was scaring myself on the gritstone in the peak district when someone lent me a bike while they were away for a year. The smiles soon won out over the fear and I was truly hooked.
How did the This is Sheffield Dual Series come about?
After my first riding trip to the alps which ended with seeing my mate Matt race the Mega I came back completely inspired by bikes and racing. My mates and I had started a fake cycling club called the CGCC, the Crookes Gentleman’s Cycling Club and it was about time we had a race. Never afraid to tell people what we should do I organised our first mates race, a downhill on local track we named the Blacka Bashup.
I loved it, the simplicity of two stop watches and a phone for timing and the thrill of trying to beat your mates. Its never really mattered if you won or not, but bragging rights in the pub are essential. A few years later we attended one of Peaty’s Wharncliffe Weekenders and they’d built an amazing dual track in Farmer Jacks field for the event. I was nudged in to running a race on it, never having heard of or seen dual before, it was love at first try.
The head to head nature and the closeness of the racing gave an excitement to race and to watch that I hadn’t felt before. The next time we raced a Blacka Bashup I organised a dual race in my local park the following day to shake off the hangovers.
I cut up some overflow pipe in to foot long lengths and bought a couple of stop watches. Sticking the poles in to the loam of a small hill behind the café in the park turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. It has become the celestial home of our series and bench mark for any other location. This is Sheffield was just getting off the ground and JoeBo was busy learning his craft with a video camera and capturing and sharing the talent of the lads. They’d all raced my races and I was very kindly invited in to join the gang and to use TiS as a vehicle to get more people involved.
The popularity of TiS, the races and content it generated was phenomenal and has spawned careers and lifelong friendships. Winter Dual became a focal point for a growing Sheffield scene and the chat while racing was just as important as the results. This is our eighth season and although some of the faces have changed the intensity and magic of dual still haven’t. For me it’s the direct equivalent of jumpers for goal posts in the park. You make the space work for you and compete in anyway or on whatever level you want, its just bloody good fun… and deadly serious!
What do you think keeps people racing dual slalom all through the year?
We only actually tend to race dual through the winter. When I realised that the lights we were using for night rides could be taken off bikes and attached to posts it enabled us to stay amused through those long dark months. Seeing a set of posts lit up from a distance is wonderful. During the spring and summer, I tend to organise a variety of other mates races taking advantage of those long summer nights. From MegaDeath to Gravity races, two pint time trial to the Try-Awful-On, it is amazing what can be dreamt up in the pub after a couple of beers.
I think the key to the longevity of the series is the people. There are a core of riders who always turn up no matter how stupid an idea the race might be but they will tell their mates about. They’ll probably be intrigued and turn up, inevitably get hooked, hang around and make a load of new mates. This seems to make up for those who stop coming due to life stuff and we keep a really good number throughout the year. Its bloody amazing and I love the lot of them.
What is it that makes the Sheffield scene so good?
Again is the people. Bikes are less fun on your own and they are a great social lubricant. It’s easy to get to know good people who ride bikes, there’s load of them. Sheffield benefits from great topography and its proximity to the wonders of the Peak District but there are local riders who never bother to leave their local trails because they are so good.
Sheffield is known as ‘The Outdoor City’ and with good reason, the running, climbing and walking heritage is extraordinary. We are blessed with our figure head and catalyst for greatness Sir Peat. He inspires the rest of us and is so generous with his time and advice that it’s almost impossible for Sheffield not to have a great scene. Alongside him there are groups like Ride Sheffield, our responsible brothers from other mothers, who give up their time to get trails built and make sure MTB is represented to the powers that be.
There are many other pockets of activity from the 50:1 crew to Clay Spades to the Rother Valley riders, to the Eckington massive to the Charnock crew. Mountain biking has been going on in the Steel City for a long time and it’s only going to get better. It really helps to have friends in the right places and Jon Dallow who works for the council is a prime example. We call him ‘the mayor’ for all he has done for mountain biking in the city, the campaign’s starting soon.
There is also a great bike industry in Sheffield with manufactures like Cotic, Air Drop and Planet X. We have a load of great bike shops from 18 and the Bike Garage in the peak to many independents in the centre as well as the big chains. We also have a really strong road, cross and BMX scene which just cross pollinates activity and opportunities.
How many people are involved in the This is Sheffield Dual series and what do they do?
To date 178 different people have raced in the series. This ranges from just my mates through to World Champions and World Cup winners, basically anyone who knows someone who races. This is purely mate’s racing, it’s under the radar, so we have to know that you’re not a dick. Everyone has been recommended by someone else.
Steph Anderson has been very kindly been working the stopwatch and timing the series for the past few years which is just amazing. It means that once everything is set up I get chance to have bit of practice in and always race. We’re a pretty well-oiled machine now and everyone always pitches in setting up lights, putting the posts back in or getting it all back in the bags at the end. There are a core few who are always there until the end ensuring everything is sorted before we retire to the pub. The sense of community is profound.
How do you go about choosing the race locations?
The locations have developed over the years and continue to. For the first couple of seasons we only really raced in the local park but it was possible to set a wide variety of tracks. Now we have a track and field at Farmer Jack’s farm which he very kindly allows us to use. Then two years ago Mayor Dallow built us our own fully surfaced dual track at Parkwood Springs, it’s so much fun to race with its flowing berms and linkable rollers.
Local builders BikeTrack did a great job as always and we had an unofficial official opener as the finale to last season. I’ve always got my eyes open for new spots to keep things interesting and I like to challenge the riders as much as possible. The progression in people’s skills has been astounding. If you want to be a great racer, race dual.
What’s the deal with the Howard Street Dual?
Last year The Howard Street Dual was the first in hopefully a series of ‘proper’ dual races around the Steel city. It was staged as part of the Outdoor City Weekender which brings together a wide range to events to celebrate the greatness of Sheffield. The course links street furniture, grass rollers, wooden features and wide open, flat drifty corners through the city centre down Howard Street to showcase the spectacle of elbow to elbow racing.
We’ve invited the best riders we know to put on the best show possible to demonstrate to Sheffield what racing mountain bikes is about. Last year was just incredible, passers by didn’t know what they were watching and hung around for hours.
Tobi Parodi will be on the mic again to explain the ‘art of dual’ and Red Bull are bringing their sound system. There’s two pubs within stumbling distance of the course and as it’s the city centre, all the other delights that brings. This year we’re racing in the dark but Hope have come up trumps and are supplying enough lights to turn night in to day. Racing will start at 5 following practice and seeding and finals will be on around 7pm. At 9pm as part of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival there are a load of MTB movies at the cinema next to where the race finishes. The star’s really have aligned over Sheffield on the 10th March.
Has this been a solo effort?
Not at all. My main partner in this is Mayor Jon Dallow, he’s putting the event on for Sheffield City council. They underwrite the event and make it happen. It blows my mind that the council is forward thinking enough to put on a dual slalom race in the city centre. We, Sheffield, are the outdoor city and this is just one way which they show that to the world. Jon makes the event happen, he takes care of everything outside the tapes.
The race is my beast, I make sure it runs smooth and that all the racers know where they should be and that they have a Rad course to show off their skills on. Last year the race was marshalled and supported by a whole bunch of mates and I’m hoping they’ll be up for it again this year. As with any event there’s a huge element of asking favours from people from marshalling to sponsoring. When we say what we’re up to generally everyone is psyched to be involved, they get it. Peoples support is really overwhelming.
How much of a leap has it been to go from a mates’ race to a ‘proper’ race?
I’ve been cutting my teeth on proper races for the past 7 years with Peaty’s Steel City DH. There’s a core 3 of us; Henry Norman, Steve Hardcastle and I that put that on with Peaty at the helm. Having done that for so long I know what I’m doing although last year was still way more work that we thought it would be. We learnt a lot, hopefully this year will be sweet!
How did you get to the route you have chosen for the race?
I’ve been eyeing up this route for years. Its bang in the middle of the city centre and uses a set of grass rollers, they just scream out to be ridden and doubled up. With those as a central feature the rest of the course kinda writes itself, with a set of stairs to start, flat grass corners in the middle, and the most evil fade-away finish. If you were an architect designing a city centre for a dual track… you’d build this.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
Timing last year was a challenge. I built my own timing system to try and save cash leveraging a lot of the equipment we have within the centre for sports engineering research at Sheffield Hallam University. Light beams were broken at the bottom and traffic lights and a buzzer started the riders at the top, so it was the proper deal. My great mate and colleague Si Choppin valiantly ran the whole system but by the end of the day his nerves were frayed and this year, we’re getting Sport Ident in to do the business.
The other challenge we had last year was around Chaos Corner. This is a 180 degree hairpin where riders have to negotiate trees and street furniture. It was a bit wet last year and the stone the pavement was made from turned in to an ice rink. Thankfully Mayor Dallow had come prepared and we spread a rubber mats down all over the floor which gripped much better but gradually moved as riders railed over them.
We had zip ties and ropes and anything we could get our hands on to tie them down. Eventually it all settled down and the racers did a magnificent job of keeping the crowds eye’s pinned to that corner. This year we’re adding in some wooden berms to make it more rail-able and predicable but not less exciting.
Other than that, it’s pretty smooth sailing, people love the idea of the race and are happy to be involved in anyway they can. I think that speaks volumes for mountain biking, riders and Sheffield.
Where next for the Sheffield dual scene?
Mainly staying sideways somewhere in the woods around Sheffield. We have to put on a proper race on up the Mayor’s dual track at Parkwood, its screaming out for it. Despite Sheffield’s abundance of riders our racing scene is pretty poor, for mountain bike we only have the Steel City DH and the Parkwood XC. I’m not sure what that says whether we are bereft or racers or organisers. Things like the Howard St dual show that the demand is there, it just needs more folk to get off their arses and make these events happen. If we can do it, anyone can.
Anybody to thank at this point? Long suffering spouses/parents/friends?
Everyone! This all began in the woods with a bunch of mates who love riding and the added spice of racing. Its grown in to something and in ways that no one could have predicted. None of it would have been possible without the input and energy of a huge number of people, directly and indirectly inputting ideas, time, energy, facilities,and that indefinable radness.
I’ve got to thank my misses for keeping it possible with two kids in tow and also the This is Sheffield massive for keeping the stoke unsustainably high.
