Hello,

Okay, where do I begin? I guess I’ll keep it short and sweet. My name is Alyssa. I am 27 and I live in a city called Cardiff in Wales (the country with the big red dragon on the flag). It’s a cool place – well South Wales is an awesome place! We pretty much have everything anyone that’s into outdoor activities could possible want! The sea, sand-dunes, surfing, waterfalls, crags to climb, rivers, massive underground caves that go on for miles and of course some of the best mountain biking in the world – FACT.

Which of course is pretty much what this blog is all about – mountain biking! It’s a pretty short love story when it comes to how I got introduced to it and where I am not with it now. I had a boyfriend who was in to mountain biking and I pretty much had to nag him to take me out with him, of course he put me on a bike that didnt fit properly for me and I struggled to pedal up the hill without the front of the bike lifting up, but I didn’t care. As soon as I got to the top of the trail and it meant that I could go down as fast as I could I was hooked! He took me out maybe 3 or 4 times after that – he wasn’t the most encouraging of boyfriends and I soon realised that I would have to buy my own mountain bike and that it would burn a rather big hole in my not so big pocket. We broke up and thus the days of using his old red X4 bike were over.

It took me over a year of stalking mountain bikers on Instagram and looking at mountain bikes online to actually buy one myself, but I finally bit the bullet and completed that order in the shopping cart that had had the same Liv Hail in it for months. For a first bike I am completely aware that I may have gone a little crazy purchasing such a high-end full suspension bike, but I knew that I already loved mountain biking and I had spent over a year thinking about it so was happy knowing that I wasn’t going to regret my decision.

So anyway, this awesome bike arrives. I soon realised I knew nothing about bike set up, so I spent a day flooding my brain with Youtube tutorials (I’ll make another blog with my favourite tutorials in it) trying to learn everything and anything about mountain bike set up and maintenance so I was ready for my first ride. The rest is pretty much history. Since starting to ride last year I probably ride 3-4 times a week (a bad week is less than 3 times – I try and avoid that happening!). There might be something wrong with me, but I can’t help it – I just love being out on my bike! I love that it’s a sport that you can progress at a rate that YOU feel comfortable with. I love that I can really push myself some days and other days I trundle along taking the views in!

Which leads me to now – becoming an ambassador for a brand that I have loved from day one – Liv! I chose my Liv Hail because it was a bike that I believed would be perfect for me (obviously the pretty paint job helped!). But mainly when I was trolling the internet looking for bikes Liv stood out as the only female specific bike brand completely dedicated to women cycling. Now when you look at the whole mountain bike industry and how big it has gotten (especially how more and more women are coming into it) I was surprised at how little big brands were doing for us women. Many other brands women specific bikes were actually the same geometry frame as the men’s version but with a different paint job, smaller handle bars and a female specific saddle. This baffled me… I couldn’t understand how these companies thought that changing a few things on a man’s bike would work for a woman that is built completely differently. I come from a surfing background and if you have a custom made board, they are designed differently for women than men as a surfboard shaper knows that we carry weight in different areas, so why wouldn’t women’s bikes be any different? In a nutshell, this is why I chose my Liv. I wanted to have a bike that was made for me (well not exactly me, but you get me) and I wanted to support a brand that was supporting women riding in every discipline – that was important to me and is still continues to be.

Anyway, I literally couldn’t be more thrilled to be an ambassador for such an awesome brand! It is most definitely a dream come true being able to represent Liv and not only that but to also encourage women to get out on whatever bike they have and enjoy it as much as I do! It’s a sport that is so friendly and welcoming! I can safely say I’ve met friends for life since starting and I have gone to some beautiful places that (are about 30minutes from my house) I didn’t even know existed!

I’m so excited to share all kinds of things from my mountain biking adventures with you and I hope that you enjoy my silly stories, things that may help you out on the trails (and off the trails), photographs, blogs and instaspamming as much as I enjoy sharing it all with you!