Perfect weather to fly

Wahey some sunny weather again, yesterday was pretty damn good for a work day, I rode in then after work I put my bike in the back of Si's car and we drove up to lee quarry, I've been meaning to get up there for a while and it was well worth it. I'd heard a few people say it was very technical, the 2 guys we saw in the car park agreed and for a trail centre it is! The red/black run at Llandegla is pretty tame compared to this. The red is good, some fast swoopy bits and a few jumps, the black sections are rocky and technical. There's a skills/practice area halfway round with a seesaw and some balance beams to have a go on. Then the black run splits and drops into the quarry with some sketchy off camber rock slabs with a fair drop off the side. More tricky rock slabs at the bottom then a climb back up to the red route. The end of the red is a great fast, swoopy, jumpy, bermed bit. Lots of fun. We got chatting to a local guy who's been digging some jumps up there and he showed us a few, I had a quick go but I'm lame at jumping. We did 2 laps and Si's GPS said it was just 7.5 miles but not bad for a quick after work session and plenty of smiles per mile. I did the black section on the second lap without much drama but it would take a bit of practice to do it smoothly and really pin it. If its your first time take care, apparently there have been a few bad falls with people riding it blind at full pelt. The skull and crossbones motif on the black route signs should give you a clue :)
Afterwards Si dropped me off in ramsbottom and I rode home via holcombe moor and the jumbles, a decent bit of riding. I'd definitley recommend Lee Quarry to locals for a quick blast or for a detour if your already riding round there.

Cast of thousands

Well STW ride number 2, lowey had mapped out a local ride and invited the STW massive to join him, I didn't think I was going to make it but I managed to get up and get out. Wow what a turn out, 28 of us all in all and the weather was fantastic, cold start but clear skies and it just got warmer as the day went on. Rivington, winter hill, darwen and great hill, the only thing missing from it was Jons 200 and I did that on the way over to the meet :) A group ride that big wasn't without it's problems, gates and singletrack sections involved a bit of qeueing, tockholes cafe were beseiged when we turned up en masse and the steep tricky bit on darwen hill was carnage but no bad crashes. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and there was lots of cake at the end. Brilliant day out and there are already plans for another one soon, great stuff.

Pics here and here

Pissing in the wind

Horrible nasty head wind on the way home lastnight but I got my head down and just carried on pushing the pedals, did an extended route via atherton and after the climb out I enjoyed the tailwind all the way into town.

Burk text me last night he's got himself a nice new orange 5 pro, sounds good, hopefully he'll be riding again soon then.

Nice weather for ducks

Blast, lots of rain means a road ride into work putting me in close proximity with all the cocks on the road again. Couple of 'incidents' this morning. Oh and you know those loops you get for your laces on footwear now instead of eyelets? First time I saw them I thought bad idea, surely the laces will cut through them over time, but they seem to have worked out ok cos years later they are still in use. Except for my northwaves which use laces with similar characteristics to cheese wire, snapped one of the loops last night and on inspection the other top loops aren't far behind, quite a bit of wear. The lower loops are fine, it just seems to be the top ones that take the strain when you try to get them tight. This, the heel going wonky and them not being as toasty warm as I expected means I doubt I'll buy these again, pity cos I really like the look of them and they are dead comfy.

One perfect sunrise

Clear blue sky - check
Shorts - check
Bike - check
Sun glinting off canal - check
Sinuous ribbon of singletrack wending its way through the woods - check
Properly powerful hot shower - check
Big bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes at my desk - check
Shaping up to be a bloody good day.

No ordinary morning

Bliss, offroad commute has finally dried out due to the dry weather and the trees doing their spring thing, getting a growth spurt on and sucking up all the water. This morning was brilliant, really windy day so would have been a horrible road ride but down in the Irwell valley twisting my way through the trees on a cracking bit of singletrack it was fantastic! Its so much faster in the dry cos I actually let go of the brakes, perfect morning. Of course it's now trying to rain with more forecast in the week, damn!

clean-ish, originally uploaded by D0NK.

Blowing hot and cold

Went out for a ride on saturday, I was supposed to be trying most of the route of next weeks STW ride but that didn't work out. Tho nice weather was promised it was really overcast and chilly so I went out dressed accordingly, shorts with knee warmers and softshell. Up the road drag out of town the sun came out and before I got to barrow bridge I was sweltering so had to stop. Lesson learned these lusso knee warmers a *really* hard to take off without taking your keks off first. More suitably dressed I carried on, up the climb to winterhill, once at the top a thick mist came over the wind started up and I froze, back on with the softshell no chance of getting the knee warmers on. I was suffering up the first climb, still not recovered from infection so decided to cut down the ride. Off the back off winterhill (front for you chorley-ites) steep downhill to belmont road and over to great hill, still boggy and I pushing at times. The downhill was great (haha) tho. Round the resers up rivi and home. Legs were sore sunday.