W.R.P.T. The In Before The Storm Edition

Windy, wet, but warm ride. Thin waterproof coat was way too warm! Autumn is very much in flow, some lovely colours appearing.  

Trails are still running perfectly. 

Might wait til tomorrow :-/

Was supposed to be a morning in the hills, but settled for a bit of trails and tarmac around Kinross-shire. Managed to dodge the worst of the rain. Absolutely ming bags since I got home. Even the dog is done with going out. Fire on with some nice pizza tonight after family commitments.

Son#1 up from London, and Son#2 joined us for a Cut Gate out & back.

Original plan was to do some stuff on Win Hill, before dropping my eldest over Buxton way to meet some mates for a walking weekend. But, I've not done any of the Win Hill stuff before, and have heard it can be a bit sketchy when wet & greasy, so we settled on Cut Gate as a known quantity. Running well - but much wetter than I'd expected. Storm Amy started coming in on our climb back up from Slippery Stones.

We then headed down to Bank View Cafe on the A616 for a butty - I must have never been to the loo there before, as I'd never seen one of the toilet walls plastered in Mint Sauce cartoons!

Well I made harder work of a hard ride today. Rode from home at 5.35am. Realised I'd forgotten to pack extra food. Arrived at the only Cafe or shop on the 100km route at 6.05...closed. Even though they were supposed to be open. Decided I'd try and ration my muesli bars. Rode through the mist on the flats then followed a road up the 450m climb into the range. 2 hours in I reached the gravel, then the clay and sand... Endless ups and downs getting slower and slower across Bellthorpe and Middle Road to Sunday Creek Rd. Only saw a few motorbikes until I got there. 

After 2000m of climbing I was flagging. Pulled in at the environment education centre after 80km and asked to fill up water bottles and the legend offered me cordial. Lifesaver! Last 20km went much better.

  It's not the day to get your narrow boat out for a play around here this morning

Razz up the local tracks with the mutt. 

No riding for us this weekend.

Drove up to Geneva from Sestri Levante  yesterday. Mont Blanc tunnel closed for repair and an accident in the Frejus tunnel turned the drive into an 8 hour slog.

Bit of sight seeing today with a bit of retail therapy before we drive further north tomorrow 

In during the (hopefully) tail end this evening. 

Luckily, the same wind that made the bough break, cut it away soon after.  

Another ride, 1st one with a fellow single speeder, also on a beady!

Forgot to take a pic of the bikes together, but did come across a baby snake on the fire road.

The conflicted face of a man very much enjoying riding his bikes on still prime FoD trails, and dealing with a Magura brake that has attempted to disassemble itself on those trails! Bandaged it up and cracked on. All good. 

Also managed to nick my fork stantion. Possibly on the trailer. Ready the nail varnish 🙂

Otherwise an excellent ride and started to feel a bit more like my pre-splattered self. I mean that doesn't mean fast but it was certainly a lot more fun when you're not so worried about crashing!

First time trying the half shell Leatt helmet bought for a trip I couldn't do due to broken bones. It's a super comfy trail lid. Not sure what it's like as a full face but a great fit for general mucking about.

I wrote some stuff about pointless bike upgrades here: https://www.pickled-hedgehog.com/lets-just-pretend-we-know-what-were-doing/

Felt rebellious 

Sunny and 25 degrees where I am this weekend. Work trip, but getting some R&R and some elevation, almost exclusively on bike ways....

First time riding an e-bike today. I came home questioning everything I thought I knew.

Walk yesterday with Mrs Reeksy.

First time I've spotted a koala in our favourite riding and walking spot.

Public holiday here so went for an afternoon ride from home to a 11km green trail and back again. Nice and chill (in the shade).

No riding this weekend.

Did do this instead though......

Amy had covered the forest trails with approx 10 gazillion horse chestnuts, but other than that and some challenging headwinds, Saturday morning was very pleasant in Suffolk

EDIT: yes, my Garmin is a bit retro 😀