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Winter Miles = Summer Smiles!
TBF the trails are actually riding pretty good.
Just the top of the climb is grim as ****.
Character building as they say...
Local spin on the HT tonight whilst eldest daughter at ballet. Trails here (north Leeds) are great. Not just "great for the time of year" ... But Great. Full Stop.
Mrsstu's day off today so we headed out for a spin round.
Another 1000 Meters towards the get fit for summer program.
Sun even came out on the way home.
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Commute / power hour on the gravel bike into work this morning
A bit of a skive. Early finish & out on the trails to the east of Leeds yesterday afternoon. Beautiful weather
Another grim ride in the frozen wasteland. 😁
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Started in the light. A well plotted route around the muddiest (ie 90%) of the Forest. Ending up down some cheeky steps into the pub. Marvelous. Even saw some Daffs doing their thing. Spring is coming 🙂
What a contrast. Just under a week ago 
Then today's dreich. Cold, drizzly/Mizzly grey yuk ...
Well work has been flipping mental again this week so limited time for riding 🤨 feels like I've hopefully broken the back of it now though so I'm hoping to not have to do any work over the weekend.
Anyway.
Managed to sneak an hour's off road commute in yesterday morning. It was damp and grey...but it was light almost all the way in, and also quite a few odd daffodils out here and there, spring bulbs emerging everywhere 🙂
Yay, we can embed Instagram, few runs at Puddletown trying to get a good night setting in my DJI Action 4.
Cold one tonight. Semi-frozen mud made some sections a bit of a slog.
Cold social/pub ride tonight. Trail conditions are amazing as everything is frozen solid. Grip off the scale (apart from the very occasional icy puddle).
SSticky clay and steep climbs are hard work!
More semi frozen fun this morning.
Was pretty grippy despite the ice and not minging until it started to thaw a bit.
At that point I called it a day.
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Whhhooooaaa.
Where's my pictures gone?
They were showing when I posted them a little while ago...
A cold ride home after choir last night, jeez I had everything on.
A very cold ride home late last night after choir. Everything warm I had on, brrrr indeed.
There's something about sunlight coming through the tree's. Never fails to make me smile.
My phot may be very unexciting, but I’m elated to even be riding in fire roads after several weeks of no biking because of a herniated disc. I’m still in agony, but decided to have a small ride anyway.
Big, open country; dry trails, wind at my back, nobody about, railway station at each end. Get in...
Another cold, solo night ride
Monday afternoon was a nice loop with a big climb then a fast rocky descent to the dam. Then I was so chilled I took a wrong turn and bimbled back through the forestry past hordes of adoring roos. 
Trying photo posting in this new era...
Two rides bookending last night's dark hours: regular Tuesday night ride with the irregulars around Stirling/BofA, then up again early for a pre-dawn local skoosh before work. I can't see this afternoon at work being very productive given how I'm feeling now 😀
Last night, some of storm Eoywn's devastation:
And this morning before the sun was up. Temperature hovering around 0degC and snow threatening but not actually happening.
More frozen riding.
This time with Mrsstu.
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Still chilly. I'm expecting this lot to disappear over the weekend though.
Rare early finish so headed to the woods for a play 
Round the woods on the gravel bike on the way to work. Issues wi' me gears which was a bit annoying.
Most of the day was frankly horrible. But still great to be out on Cavehill.
Commute / road blat after work. Nothing special , but just really really great to be not schlepping about in the dark all the time!
First ride with my new magicshine light. Does the job nicely and the mount is very solid.
First ride where I've been dry enough to stop and take a picture this week.
Was pretty pleasant with most of the worst mud still being semi frozen and the occasional sunny spell.
Dropping home into the valley on my last ride of winter, but it felt like spring. Everest comfortably in the bag for February.
Local canal path bimble today after work. Surprisingly enjoyable and nice to get out in the sun.
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Hmm ... A few rides this week.
An hour out on Monday evening, lovely clear night:
Then Tuesday's extended commute in ...
Lucky to get home just in time to beat the rain. You can see it coming closer in the distance.
Trip to the pump track at lunchtime. This isn't the actual pump track incase you were wondering.
There were a couple of decent riders down there for the first time ever. Usually if I see anyone at all, it's just kids on BSOs or the odd bally-d up ebike rider on a Sur Ron 😉
Well, I say they were decent - one of them was very very good! 360 tail whips and a backflip out of a berm. Put me to shame properly! I usually think I'm doing well to not case the gaps too badly...
Nice mid week gravel loop via pub and Thomas the Tank Engine at Big Pit!!
Third ride for me this week.
An XC trundle with Mrsstu.
35KM/700Meters, windy as ****.
How is it possible to do a circular ride and have a headwind all the way. 🤔
Have a couple of days AL to burn before end of March, so took one yesterday, what with the forecast being decent. Went up to Stainburn again for a picnic and some riding, ticked off a few new things, great confidence & skills booster. 'Only' 23km, but 1000m of climbing, and lots of techy riding/thinking going on!
And then today, HT commute to and from the office, just shy of 40km riding. 
Absolutely primo trails; let's hope this is real rather than faux-Spring!
Afternoon ride with my mate. I've been riding all winter, but he hasn't. Nice gentle ride to help him gain some fitness back, so plenty of stopping to admire the views. No jackets needed today, cracking weather and the few trails we did ride were pretty dry compared to just a week ago.
And today, it turned into Summer. Just commutes on the SS gravel, but shorts and short-sleeves. And even some dust and cracked dry mud!
Double-post.
It was too nice out so went skiving up cut gate...plus lots of extras.
First proper leg stretcher of the year. 50km and 1600m climbing. All off road, leg powered no eebing. my wheels did not touch tarmac all day apart from the 50m from the car to the gate into langsett woods. Also mainly over rocky jank so I'm a touch broken this evening!
Brilliant day to be out!
That looks like a nice commute!
Yep! NW Leeds across to E Leeds. Direct commute is about 10km, but lots of options for little off road bits and/or to extend it, either gravel or MTB.
Went for a quick ride up Lord Herefords Knob this afternoon to give the dogs a run. I can see my house from here!
got an our and a half round the local woods last night. Conditions were perfect apart from the occasional boggy section
Rusty on the full sus , but were booked Dyfi bike park in a few weeks so thought id better get back on it
Explored the local-ish woods, haven't been for years. It's all pretty flat and tame round here but there was some nice little singletrack bits dotted amongst the straighter sections
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Video still of a fun little loamy twisty bit
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Found a few sets of jumps too. All gaps so I don't have the confidence at the minute, but nice to know there's some nearby!
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We did Gypsy Glen today then up Janet’s Brae and a quick run down the Huntsman.
It was good to be back on the bike, yesterday was the first day since NYD!
Pictures were mostly of us looking like we weren’t hating climbing.
Well, I'll kick off the new (mid)week then.
Glorious morning, so out after brekky and before a WAH day today.
Probably my last day of riding near Chatel. I didn’t expect even to be able to ride. But the south sides of the valley are much more snow free than I expected. The northern side, and under the trees, are still icy death traps though!
The E-bike has impressed me. The trails I’ve found this time round involve a brutal climb, that I simply would not be up for on a normal bike. Even at max assist (it’s a lightweight Mondraker Neat with a TQ motor) my heart rate is well above 170 on the climbs.
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Seems the sun and warmer temperatures of the weekend were very short lived.
Showing 4 degrees this morning but feeling much colder with a biting wind.
A ligh dusting of snow at the top too.
Took an extended lunch and got out locally on the HT. Sun/cloud but pretty cold; back to February-like temperatures. Trails in decent nick, but we've showers due tomorrow and Thursday so wanted to get out before they greased up again!
Good day riding station to station right across the Dales. Sun and occasional snow; curlews, lapwings and skylarks all present and singing.
Great stuff @montgomery. Train assisted point to point rides are brilliant - feels like a proper journey rather than riding around in a circle all the time
My efforts from today. We're supposed to be back in the office more often nowadays.... luckily I have some brilliant commute routes (living in Leeds is just bloody ace for this) and when the trails are as good and prime as they are at the moment I can't help myself...
Ride in. 30 mins of trails, drops, jumps, a great view over the city, a few bits of road to string it together then some street/stair set lines right down to work's front door.
Ride home. 90 mins worth of of great trails, singletrack, tech, drops etc. very little road on the whole route back.
Everywhere running prime
Mint 👍
Absolutely prime conditions tonight. Even blinded by dust at times. No bracken either and a clarity of air that makes your lights 10 times more effective. Fantastic loop around Llangorse mountain with stunning sunset over the lake towards Penyfan.
24km extended SS commute this morning. Cold & grey, but dry (for now).
After getting more than 300mm of rain this week I didn't even want to risk the gravel yesterday. It's a sad state of affairs that gets me doing a road ride. Took Reeksy1 on a little lap. We did take a tentative dirt track which wasn't too bad.
This afternoon I went for a run through some rainforest partly to see how rideable it was. Amazed to see the water must have gone through so fast it's looking very good.
Here's a nice tree next to a fire trail. 
Bit of a spin round this morning trying to avoid the rain showers, which I mostly did until I was almost home.
Did feel like I had entered The Dutch Headwind Cycling Championship for most of the ride.🤣
Anyone know what film this bridge was in?
I still say that Lakeland rock is like riding on a swarm of vaseline coated ferrets! 
Quick pump track session (we're shit lol) with my mate today, followed by an easy ride in the woods. Stopped to help him learn to jump a bit. I'm not much of a jumper myself, but tried to offer a little advice! Can't beat being in the woods, it really is my happy place.
Hints of daylight left en route to tonights ride, longer days are nearly here! 
Daylight and dust on yesterdays after work ride.
Just home from a week in France. Came home to sunny skies and dry trails. Can’t say that’s happened too often!
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