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Back to a proper Friday night post working week spin. Still feeling the (ageing geometry) FS 29er love. Like for like conditions, effort and route it seems a fair bit quicker than my 27.5+ HT even if I'm riding the forks locked out 'cos I've not got the pressure sorted yet...
Not the weekend, but took a day off and made a trip over Salter Fell in Bowland on wednesday - absolutely stunning.
Great pics both. Like the idea of a Friday evening ride to round out the week especially as my eldest son starts his winter sailing training next week which will see me stood on a beach / in a car park for the best bit of six whole weekends from then until March. Bike and boat fixing today for us and will see what tomorrow allows.
I usually avoid the moorland paths in winter, but yesterday I embraced the slop and rode a couple of favorites I haven't done since spring. Type 2 fun, head to foot mud and a final descent through the woods in the near dark, big grins most of the way. It'll be back to the more resilient trails again though, these trails don't need me hammering them in a wet winter.
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New DJ bike on Friday meant a soggy session at the skatepark was on the cards. The new Kona Shonky is lovely.
Rainy old grey day in Kent-but looking on the brightside ,wet mud is fast mud.....hmmmmmmm
Nice ride yesterday just local to Dunblane.
It's Eldest_oab's birthday today, so at his request we set off up Ben Chonzie. Weather not as bad as forecast meant we did actually get to the top, much to my surprise.
No hills or dales just some local tracks as a first ride on the 'new' (ok re-built) steed. Local clarts are the best 😳 I can report that the bike did not fall apart. More by luck than skill.
Edit... I cannot make photos work. How do you get that mystical BB code thingy from the Flickr app???
Visit to Tenfour bakery for a gingerbread doughnut & to venture bikes who saved my buddies ride by fixing a sheared off cleat
good pictures. it is interesting to see where other folk ride.
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the sunny shots are from last weekend, the overcast one is from yesterday. it isn’t as cold as it looks
It ended up getting moved to today.
Myself, Crust and Rp1 were there flying the flag for the RTTL team. Lets just say, it was WET... wetter than i've ever been. According to the Garmin it was "rain and 5 deg, feels 1 deg" but it was the mud that was the killer, it was comedy moment after comedy moment out there, slipping, sliding, rear wheel, front wheel, drifting both, hysterical just trying to hang on.
I had a comedy crash on a known trecherous descent, it's chalky clay stuff and is slippery as heck at the best of times, into a right hand hairpin i lost the front and down i went, graceful, almost... Front wheel went out on the left, as did the back, sadly, my right foot went out the other way and i ended up doing the splits !!!! Fat old men can't do the splits !!! I've pulled the beejayzus out of my hamstring. I couldn't even walk on it. But happily i could pedal, tried a mile or so and apart from being unable to stand up, pedalling was fine. Which was lucky as we still had 28km left to go. I could have called the wife as we were only 5 miles from my house, but it was OK.
Crust was a super-hero as always. He may be an old Toyota Hi-lux wagon, but that diesel engine just keeps on chugging on, up, down, over, just pedal pedal.... Superb.
RP1 gave me a go on the Whyte E-150. Which was both comical and interesting. It almost rode like a proper bicycle. Not quite, but it was acceptable. Handled well enough really if still a little dead in some ways. But the power, that's just ridiculous. I don't think i'm a bad rider, but you can FLY on this thing and mud doesn't even exist, doesn't slow you, doesn't matter.
I didn't hang about at the end as my feet were frozen and soaked, I didn't have a spare set, so just got out of there ASAP and home for a bath.
Epic !
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[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/50713784543/ ]2020-12-13_03-11-02[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode_lite ]Flickr2BBcode LITE[/url]
Great pics and stories all. Always enjoy this thread.
Happy Birthday Eldest_OAB.
rOcKeTdOg - that's a fine looking doughnut. I like how you always show us what you had to eat.
Sick of the local mud, so went up the road for some other mud. Cannock Chase.
Very rare that I ride the actual trail centre but thought it might be less like the battle of the Somme and a touch more interesting than my local edges of ploughed fields.
Stupidly chose my rigid plus bike. I mean, I've already got bad wrists. What was I thinking! Rough as hell!
Sort of fun though.
Today, Harold got the legs walked off him.
No pics but had a bimble on my new wheels around Thetford Forest 👌🏻
Nah weather was utter pish, went bouldering instead.
rOcKeTdOg – that’s a fine looking doughnut. I like how you always show us what you had to eat.
Ha, wait til next weekend if the planned Christmas ride to steamhouse bakery goes ahead!
Gingerbread Doughnut? Wow.
Loving Harold. What a beauty. I might draw him.
A crop of DezB jr at Rogate
Thankful we did it Saturday and not today!
Ha, wait til next weekend if the planned Christmas ride to steamhouse bakery goes ahead!
I look forward to it. 😃
Rocketdog - is that the steamhouse bakery in Redditch or Leamington you are riding to?
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Dodged the showers to get out with the lad in beautiful lakes winter weather. Easy cruise in the Catbells/lake shore area but great fun. Not riding with him anymore as he rode about a kilometre home no handed, bloody show off!
Success!
Anyway, took a trip to the Trail Centre at FOD. Rode the blue to check out the new final descent, it's very fast. Rode the last bit behind a Father and Son who were having a BLAST, missed riding with my Lad (he doesn't care for it now) and looked forward to riding with my Daughter who'd getting a new bike for Xmas.
Then rode a the top of Corkscrew, bit swampy and slidey, but it's a criminally ignored trail, then countdown into launchpad