Backside Soloist

I ummed and ah-ed long enough about doing this ride but made it out eventually and decided on a route, of the myriad I had buzzing around my head. Parked up on the kentmere road, set off and crossed the river at ullthwaite bridge and started the climb up to high boranes. Forecast was ok but the clouds looked brooding. Just as I got to HB I felt spots of rain on my face, hang on, this wasn't part of the plan. Fortunately it didn't develop further, onto dubbs rd and meandered over to garburn rd, made ok time but now the climbing started proper, up we go, nice spinny gear, the resurfacing is starting to look a little worn but I managed to clean it all ok, no idea how I did coz strava threw a wobbler. I ignored the pass and kept heading up, it was a slog upto the yoke, by now the clouds over to the west had deepened and it looked very wet over there. There was a gentle bit of down before an ok ride up to ill bell, some more interesting descending then another push up to froswick, totally sheltered on the push up as I topped out I was hit by wind and rain, kentmere valley to my right was still bathed in sunlight with a few clouds but to my left was grey and miserable. The ridge seemed to be a weather front, sun on my right cheek the left wet with rain, hmm. The down almost immediately has some very hairy exposed sections, managed bits but was slightly disappointed with myself, mind you, it was still early days, plenty more to go. 

The push up to high street was steep grass and as that eased it turned to a nadgery exposed ribbon, contouring around the edge of the plateu, more pushing, some navigational fannying around to cut the corner then finally got across to mardale Ill bell, tbh next time I'll probably continue to the race course for a bit more down. The descent started straight into stone pitch, tech but not too bad, then some liberal dashings of big **** off rocks means a bit of lifting the bike, then back of for a mostly dab free second half down to nan bield shelter, woohoo. No time to stop as I rode straight on down the backside, never been down here before, sketchy as a sketchy thing. Way to thrutchy to ever conceivably be cleanable but lots of tech bits were dispatched (in some cases soon followed by heading off trail while hauling on the anchors. Had to stop for a rest before small water, my arms were killing me, very hard work, I may have had a winter of riding but 2min downhills haven't put much meat on my weedy arms and I struggle with these big Lakeland  runs. Bit of shoving around the lake then back on the pedals, a few dead end trails if you miss a turn off your left with a biiiiig drop to the trail below. Around this point I had my crash mentioned in another post, steep down with a step at the end, rock straight after it, tried to bounce the front wheel off the ground and over the rock but no, front tucked under. Ouch.

Picked myself up and carried on, shaken up and a little more cautious but made it down ok. Sat for a bit of cake at mardale head, Harter fell was towering above me, it looked a long way up. I got on and started pedalling up gatescarth but it didn't last long, I was soon pushing and then carrying then more pushing, I'll spare you the grim details but more of the same pushing and carrying until the top of Harter fell some time later. A bit of time inspecting the view, could see the ridge I had travelled up in the morning, looked awesome. I set off down again, still not massively confident, I was a bit below par but nothing too embarrassing, rode most refused a little earlier than I normally would on the really dodgy stuff, soon found myself at nan bield shelter again, this time the full month down to kentmere, off we go. Switchbacks went ok except johnnie's corner which seems to have gotten more eroded and dodgy, could have been mind games at work tho. Cleaned the steps at the bottom then contoured, I was on for a clean run til my front wheel again tucked under on a water bar I only slightly mis-timed. Didn't crash but did jam my ribs against my hands/bars as  the bike stopped dead. Hmm. Hallow bank quarter was as great as ever. I was pretty tired by now so the trail to kentmere felt a bit of a slog but I as the sun was coming out properly I rolled into kentmere then spun down the road to the car, happy knackered and a little sore. Good route but not for the faint hearted or nervous.

Oops

Oh.

So I'm crashing then....? 

yep up comes the back wheel and there goes my CoG over the front hub, here we go, everything slows down. Better look for a soft place to fall - as tho I have any choice in the matter - this grassy bit immediately in front of my handlebars looks about right. Let go of the bars, launch myself forward, no chance of stepping over the bars and running it out, crunch I hit the deck on my left hand, right shoulder and knees. Hmm that wasn't too bad actual-AAAARGH MY KNEE! I look down at a rock poking out of the grass under my left leg, whoops, that'll smart. Pick up my bike, looks ok, squeeze the back brake, ouch I've tweaked my left hand aswell. This isn't supposed to happen, I very rarely crash when I'm with mates and "giving it some beans" I never crash when I'm on my solo and being careful (tho it has to be said when I dial it down it's not much, kinda like down to 99% of my usual) I do not crash.

Except I just have. I very nearly did on helvellyn too, hmm hope this isn't a developing trend. Hardware, that'll be it, my 36s not quite tweaked to my preferences just yet.

Except I went OTB on my 29er this morning too....

Helvellyn B line - genuine 2015 ride!

Bank holiday weekend, half reasonable forecast lets do it. Me and Johnnie headed for glenridding, parked up and began our ascent of helvellyn. Clouds up ahead and neither of us feeling on top form (me possibly finally getting over lurgy, johnnie just starting with it) but we had high hope of the sun burning off the cloud. As we got to the keppel cove zig zags tho the rain started, ho hum. Shower proof shells on and we get pushing, and push and push disappearing into the fog. Got to the top of the zig zags and pedalled onto Whiteside bank to find 3 lads with bikes at the shelter, one with the gear and bike to suit the other 2 not so much, a soggy printout of their route (they had a full OS map aswell) they did have enough chocolate and choccy biscuits to last them several days tho. Planning on summiting the big H then back down keppel cove, we advised them to ignore the summit and head down sticks, dunno if they took it. We headed on, I wondered what that deep dark shadow above us was then realised it was Lower Man hiding in the mist, which is always a lot higher than I remember it being. Push up there, wondered what the 3 lads would make of riding down that(!) and rode on upto helvellyn, as visibility was down to <15feet we just kept on going and promptly missed our turning, realised our mistake when the path narrowed for striding edge, whoops. Quick cut across to the track and off we go speeding down to wythburn. Actually speed is rather optimistic, cold limbs, numb fingers and crap visibility meant it was slow going, I was pretty rusty too. STarted off gentle enough then got to some juicy stuff just as we met our first lot of ascending walkers, paused for a regroup, tried to get clipped in as I set off, failed hit a rock and endoed, very nearly went OTB on some evil rocks, yikes. Got back on and hit some even better stuff, whoop whoop. swish swoosh skid, clatter. rest, repeat. Some thrutchy stuff that I could maybe do on a good day then into some properly steep bits alongside comb crags, rode a fair section then started to get nervy and jibbed out of doing a corner, just ran straight off the side to stop and wait for johnnie. Oof, this was more technical than I thought it would be. Views were opening up now and the sun did seem to be putting in an effort. nice.

Some more steep stuff and onto stone pitch, looks like it was pitched ages ago and has been washed out a couple of times since. Tried a proper dodgy section and didn't quite crash but ended up clattering my thighs off rear wheel and frame and scaring myself. Long stone pitch section then with several very inconvenient water bars, not quite dollywaggon style but not far off. At one point I looked up and saw Johnnie ahead, he'd found a cheat route across the grass, the way I was getting battered but the cobbles it was looking like a reasonable option. Clattered down the last section to the woods and stopped for a snacks.

Part one done, I was on a time limit tho and we weren't making much progress so off we went. A quick stint up the road, bleurgh nasty, lots of cars, and then through a field to Raise beck and a short stint up to grisedale tarn, Well I say short, subjective term. Started pushing but soon turned to carrying and then scrambling up rocks with bikes on shoulders, nice. You gain height very quickly up here, wish I could say comfortably. Picturesque spot tho and it wasn't raining so shouldn't complain.



Bit of a grassy slog around the tarn, might take the anti clockwise route next time, then hooked up with the bottom of dollywaggon steps, it's all downhill from here!



Started out pretty good but halfway down hit trouble, couple of rear wheel slips and one front too had me nearly off a couple of times. Stalled at one point put my foot out onto a rock and my foot slipped straight over the top and down I went, lay there leaning against the rock still clipped in til Johnnie got there. "play it cool Trig play it cool" I managed to get unclipped let a bit of pressure out of both tyres and carried on. Fairly event free run into glenridding after that, sun was out now and everyone was in T shirts, bit annoying about our crappy start to the day but not a bad ride all in all. I've been running my bombers since the travel adjust on my 36s started acting up on the spain trip. 18months later I've finally got the 36s serviced and fitted, I need to do some adjustments to get them right, they're definitely stiffer/better steering but they aren't dialled in just yet, finger crossed I get it sorted soon, bruised thighs and aching wrists (or worse) are not something I want to get used to.

Tuesday I was wondering why I had a sore neck, jolted it? Bad driving position? Slept funny? Took me a while to remember that I had my bike slung across the back of it for 30mins or so, doh! I genuinely tend to remember the good bits and forget the bad ones - not that anyone believes me when I say "don't remember this climb being quite so bad" while out riding.

The big cheese

Strava made me do it, yep that pesky app again. It gives you virtual badges for riding your bike, I like riding my bike and I'm never one to turn down a badge so last april I decided to give the gran fondo a go, 130k in 24hours or 80 miles in real money, I figured road riding would be cheating and I'd just fitted this spangly new 1x10 gear setup to my cross bike so....


Lunch time start due to parental duties, started with my usual offroad commute it was nice and dry, a lovely day, singletrack through the trees, mmm. Picked up a puncture at salford crescent ho hum, not a great start but tbh that was the last bike problem I had. Briefly into manchester then took the bridgewater canal out, flat and a bit boring but pleasant enough and easy to clock up the miles i was after. Jumped onto route 55 at monton and took this through to hindley with some detours due to the bus expressway/debacle works. A brief period of navigational drift but I was soon back on track and rode up skirting wigan and through Haigh hall parks. 2.5hours and >30 miles in I necked a few fig rolls and kept on. Onto the canal until red rock then a nice detour down the old railway line (i think) back onto the canal at adlington right through to Chorley, rsisting the urge to call up to freds for ice cream. Saw a few booze cruise/party boats on the canal, nice day for it. Took the road upto to white coppice, there was a cricket match on and the cafe was open so called in for cake and a water refill. Few clouds about but nothing serious, still nice and warm.

Back offroad again as I rode through the woods to brinscall then over to roddlesworth and around the reservoirs there. Tow paths, dirt roads, NCN routes, tarmac and some of the less gnarly trails suit cross bikes down to the ground. Fast and not too bumpy. Climbed up to tockholes, no cafe stop this time, down the road a little then up the switchbacks, this bike really likes climbing, seated up steep hills your just in a perfect position, weight perfectly balanced on the back wheel. Around the moor top trail passed darwen tower screamed down the dirt road and along the ginnels to white hall, brilliant. Climbed up through the cemetary and eventually back onto the road to cadshaw then down the farm track to the Duck and that long long climb upto crowthorn res. The trasck round holcombe has to be taken a bit easier on skinny tyres but I coped with that and the steep drop down to the hare and hounds. Was flagging a bit now and needed a caffeine hit.

Found my way onto ncn 6 and blasted down through totty, a nice easy spin and fairly picturesque in parts, lots of walkers normally but it was getting on and was fairly quiet now. I used the quiet route to cut through bury, another navigational moment but just followed my nose around elton res, a nice bit of riding (that I'd probably struggle to find again) and I eventually popped back out onto the bolton bury canal. I spun along there for a while unsure of where to head next, I'd pretty much bagged the 80 miles I was after, hmm what about an offroad century....? I descended from the canal and headed back into radcliffe to pick up route 6 all the way to philips park eager to get some more fun miles in. Did some of the trails there then back up through giants seat and the canal heading towards home, thinking "is this 100 doable?" only one way to find out, unfortunately I tried, and failed, to find an old short cut, ended up pushing through unrideable grass/brambles. Back on track I went through seven acres and the golf course upto bradshaw, called at morrisons petrol station for another caffeine shot and water. Up through bradshaw and along the edge of the jumbles, upto turton tower. I was over 90 miles now and it was dark, my head torch and tiredness weren't going to cope very well so through the golf course, last drop, into dunscar, up to horrocks fold and figured I needed a little livener on the way home so up scout road and did the carpark->smithills descent, weeeee. It was all downhill from there.
9hours, 101 miles, I was quite happy with that - didn't fell too beat up next day either, cool!

2 lakeland cherries

Ryan had never ridden the lakes and his buddy Cox was up for a go too so me, Si, Nick (Jacqui came aswell but she went walking) met them at Dungeon Ghyll carpark. We set off the ride up Mickleden, as we got toward the head of the valley we heard comments along the lines of "oh it's big up here isn't it?". Rosset pike loomed ahead and yes it had a certain biggity.

Riding up the gradient and tech factor increased, I was thrutching around a tricky bit when I terminally over shot the traction properties of my rear tyre, cue spin out and collapsing on the bike, left hand grip buried into the turf, right hand grip almost buried into my groin. That smarted a bit. Visions of derekstarship-esque haematoma swam around my head for the next few days.

We soon ran out of fitness/skill and started to push and then carry, and then throw our bikes up the rocky bits and scramble up after them. It was not fun, in fact it was pretty bloody awful. Rossett gill has been on my todo list for a while now, not any more! Ryan and Cox began to fall behind a bit, this was not what they had expected. Happy smiling faces all round!



The pleasure of topping out at rossett and descending to angle tarn was short lived as it became obvious there was still a lot more climbing to go before, especially for Si who had a minor fall and an inconvenient rock lead to dot fluid pissing from his rear brake. Front brake only promised to make the downs interesting for him. A certain amount of bitching and moaning ensued. It was a right old slog up to the esk hause shelter but we eventually made it. Everyone was rather subdued and Ryan and Cox were muttering about the down better be worth it, I think I was the only one who had ridden this trail before. Helmets on, saddles down, pads for those of that persuasion, and off we went. I barrelled down the first section, for about a minute and a half, maybe two then paused to wait for everyone to catch up, Ryan and Cox were grinning from ear to ear, what a transformation, their first lakes downhill and after a tiny fraction of it I could see they were converts. Some more down and then another wait, I pointed out a line to those behind, unfortunately this distracted Nick who binned it and collected a right gash to his shin, apologies Nick.

Not that big but seemed pretty deep


Nick shows us his gnar face

Ryan throwing shapes
A pause for a punctures, and then another, some more down, a rest and bite to eat, some more down, then some more, then yet more. Eventually we made it to stockley bridge, about 45mins after we'd left the shelter. The weather had looked pretty moody on the way down but we got to stonethwaite with no rain - but a kamikaze sheep running out in front of me nearly caused another crash - and the sky seemed to be clearing up for the return leg. I've been up langstrath valley a couple of times and this route was probably the best route I've done so far, we stuck to the double track from stonethwaite on the western side of the valley. This was gravelly and quite draggy in parts but not too bad, then we crossed at the bridge right at the foot of the zig zags up stake pass.


Another long slog pushing up then some thrutchy riding across the top. The descent down langdale combe was OK, but a bit of a let down after esk hause, started off with rutted singletrack, got thrutchy again as it crossed stake gill then onto a long stone pitched section with some properly devious corners. Fun, tho not as funny as watching Cox fix a flat, a most unusual style of reinflation, sitting crosslegged with the wheel on his lap, holding the base of the mini pump vertically in his left hand and vigorously pumping the handle with his right, the rest of us watching from a littre further down the hill were pissing our sides. We took it easy pedalling back to the car park, everyone was pretty happy and the two lakeland virgins vowed to return asap.

Strava killed my blog

Aswell as the destruction of trails, causing KOM chasing riders to crash, the incessant segment dissection during post pub drinks and the general downfall of civilisation as we know it Strava also stopped me blogging. This blog has always been a ride diary first and foremost and now strava does that for me without having to fanny around with mapping software to work out mileages, populate spreadsheets and fire up calc.exe to do all that number crunching my inner geek loved to do. Record, upload and then I can pour over the stats at my leisure. Unfortunately what it doesn't do is keep pictures and a decent description. I miss writing about my adventures, in the dark wet winter months I miss being able to read about warmer days and long dusty rides. So I've done a password recovery, spruced up the site and started again. I've got a load of 2014 adventures that I may post, dunno, I'll see if I can keep this up, no promises mind.

STW to the rescue

Just found this in my drafts, wrote it last April, dunno why I didn't publish it. Here you go:

Si was up for a weekend ride, Ryan injured, Johnnie unavailable, we figured we hadn't done the peaks for a while, but we've done hayfield and Edale valley lots so fancied a change, google to the rescue and found a route around the Goyt valley. I thought I'd run it passed STW first, nbt said yeah that's ok, but you could change it here and here or, tell you what, just come with us instead, so we did. Met up in marple, nbt his better half, Ian and Steve (I think), we dropped down to roman lakes and started the first climb, Steve on a pretty sprightly looking canondale was off like a shot, speedy. Rode through the golf course and down a bit of dirt road where one of steves spokes went ping, fortunately he had another 27 so removed it and on we went. Up passed mellor hall, across a field, tarmac climb then down Gird lane, fun! Started unassuming rocky dirt road then went round a corner and turned a bit more slabby with extra rocks and ping went another of Steve's spokes, oops. Climb back up to the hall and some more tarmac and dirt road got us to broadhurst edge or "zigzags" Steve rocketed off again seemingly unconcerned about his below par spoke count, dunno if reality hit soon after but I passed him halfway down, he then left us and rode home before any more damage was done. Quick snack stop (fig rolls for me) then a bit of road and a short climb got us to the bottom half of the lantern pike descent, nbt obliged by going on ahead to open the gate and we all pinged down to sett valley, was busy on the valley trail but soon got on to the hard 23 trees climb up to middle moor, tough start which I only just cleaned (and thankfully got to rest on gate duty) it eased off after that, Si broke out the jelly babies halfway and we slowly winched our way to the top. Stunning views at the top as we girded our various loins for the descent ahead, heather edged rocky sandy moorland singletrack that flows just right. Different lines to choose from, following nbt but often taking a different line, great fun and I was told in no uncertain terms to do the water splash at the end and not the bridge, yes boss :-)

I regroup on the grass soaking up the weather and atmosphere then a tough pull up out of brookhouse farm, scooted around the other side of lantern pike then dropped into rowarth, another nice rocky slabby downhill I started out first but nbt took me on a flat pedally section, I've gotten lazy recently, pedal more dammit! Bunnyhop had a bit of trouble, one of those stall n fall spd moments and ended up tangled in her bike but unscathed. We then climbed up hollinsmoor and back onto the top road again, whilst saying au revoir to Ian nbt spotted a tube bulging out of a slash in Si's tyre, sit down for a faff, I then noticed a link on my chain very close to falling apart, oops, more faff. Next was a fantastic bit of trail, started with a choice of singletrack or rocky double track, me and nbt went for the former but Si came passed us on the rocks, as ever soaking up the fast big hits with aplomb - all that practice kicking my arse on the ICR. Still not finished we rolled onto the fox inn, reminded me of a uk version of back of bar in Spain, starting from a pub, a lovely bit of track, not as twisty steep or tech as the Spanish version but on the plus side not as dangerous and no razor wire vegetation hanging from the trees. Just a really good track wending its way down to the railway bridge, proper floated my boat that one. A couple of climbs and some more swoopy riverside tracks brought us back to the roman lakes, just a steepish climb between us and the car (and some pub based refreshments)

Not our usual peak ride in that it was all rideable (!), with slightly more civilised gradients than Edale offers, a different side of the Peak District. I like it.

63XC

For when singlespeed just isn't stupid enough! This lot are quite frankly mental. Took the long way home again, this time with more proper climbing. Took the outwood trail all the way to Radcliffe then jumped onto the bury canal, cobbletastic! Rattled my way out of town and then lo and behold more towpath upgrades, lovely. Spun up towards Elton, trail went a bit wonky there but got across Bury town centre without much trouble and joined the totty trail section of NCN route 6, some highly dubious signage sent me off course twice but eventually got on to some pristine tarmac that takes you from bury to greenmount traffic free, just the one ubiquitous busy road to cross with a pelican crossing that took an age to change. Through tatty tho it was lovely, lots of houses backing onto the trail and the majority of owners seem to take care of the scrubland between their house and the trail, was even a guy shovelling and sweeping winter run off and windfall from the trail. Nice! In greenmount, as so often happens, the dashed black lines on the map that looked like a straight route wasn't visible on the ground, road around to holcombe then i rode up the helmshore road, my legs grumbled, turned onto the bridleway too early up a silly steep cobble section, ouch went my legs, eurgh went the rest of my body as I rattled my way up. I ignored the bridleway straight up to the tower and back onto the road, not much further along I finally turned onto moor top. 63" is way too much for this stuff but I muscled and thrutched and swore my way up, finally got to the switchback and the gradient eased as I rode to the tower. Some nice views so decided I'd better stop and get some pics, got back on the bike and almost immediately found (and surpassed) the limits of the lateral/off camber grip of my tyres. A slick layer over a firm trail base meant my tyres slid for a hella long time before dumping me on the deck, covered in cold wet mud, nice.

 Down the steep hill road and off around the moor, tough going on my tired legs but doable, rode around to quarleton heights, had to push up the two stepped sections then ground my way up and around to the body farm. Fast downhill past crowthorne and down to entwistle, hit the tarmac climb from the res to The Duck with a lot of speed which disappeared very bloody quickly and I was using my whole body to eke out enough power to keep the pedals turning, around turton res, a carry up some steps at the far end, around the roller coaster (no chance of climbing the 2 steep sections) I hit greenmount road as a road club came passed so I jumped on my bike and rode the dirt track to turton tower with a notion of catching the club with my shortcut. Puddle infested section plus walkers meant I had to slow to a crawl at the tower so I got back onto the road just behind the club, the climb to the kings head got me pretty close behind (must be the club's easy paced group) got right up behind them in time for the downhill to turton school and drafted them down. Onto the chicken run at the bottom then home via the valley where more towpath works were in evidence, I'm liking this new push for upgrading traffic free paths, just wish they'd stick to urban stuff instead of also steamrollering sections of the lakes.

Had to hose down my burning legs when I got back, seems to have worked, just feeling a little tired this morning. Another long commute and i managed to ride more than I expected to, really would quite like some gears on this bike now tho please....

Long road home

Not been out on a nightride for a few weeks, or weekend ride either so decided I'd better get one in on my way home, Friday I warned the mrs I'd be very late, had a very rough idea of riding canals and old railway tracks and end up at the pike for sunset. Set off, bridgewater canal to start, round deansgate basin then on towards old Trafford, got kicked off the canal at united ground, not sure if its temporary or united or flexing their might and not letting ROWs under their ground.


Diversion was advertised but none existent once off the canal, managed to get back on not too much further down the line. Towpath got really muddy near the Trafford centre but not for long, works afoot, gravel surfacing, will be nice when bedded in but a bit loose now. Was nice to be riding down the quiet path, only the odd walker once out of the city, no doubt surrounded by thousands of commuters desperately trying to get home through the traffic while I spin along the serene canal. Upto Monton and onto route 55, the old train line through worsley golf club, spun up there for a while before getting kicked off, short road section then back on all the way upto Ellenbrook where I could see quite clearly the trail stopped there. The trail ahead was a right mess, torn up for the new busway some seriously easy machinery in there, ripping the trees down and tearing up the ground, costing a small fortune, hope it's gonna be worth it. (is doubtful)

So onto the road (becoming a common theme) through to tyldesley the final back onto the old line, through Howe bridge, onto the Wigan line, screwed up in Hindley, the main trail ended up under 6" of water and further on 6" of mud, done this ride once before years ago, seem to recall there was a longer route which avoided this bit, bit of navigation trouble at dangerous corner but got back on track and onto good surface around Lowe hall park and onto the Wigan cycle way, whoosh high speed all the way upto the canal and up to top lock and onto the Leeds Liverpool canal. Was pretty tired by now  but managed to keep up the speed, was getting late and rivi still looked a long way off. Surface was mixed but mainly ok, after red rock it got a bit slow going then some more surfacing work but some of the wonkiest I've ever ridden along, got battered. Rolled into adlington pretty whacked, took the road to get upto rivi, snack above adlington, seriously needed a refuel.

I struggled up sheep house lane to top car park, was still just ahead of the sun, whoop, but could I climb AICR? As it ruined out yes, somehow made it up to George's lane, no chance of getting to the pike tho, rode upto the switchbacks then this being a cx bike, picked it up and ran up the steps to the top - ok, ok you got me, I actually walked wearily up to the pike.



Couldn't believe I had lucked out and timed it perfectly (quite by accident) took in the view for a while, a few snaps then down off the drops, obviously rode the full on mince line and easy does it down the ruts but cleaned it, impressed. Shifted down George's, had planned to do wildes but light was fading and I was pretty tired so gave it a miss, did drop into Acron village tho, was a wild ride down then sprinted through the village, whoop, cx bikes are awesome. Finished off dropping into barrow bridge by the dim light of my joystick then spun into town for a hard earned kebab (chicken obviously, my body is a temple) 43 miles in 4.5 hours not very quick but less nav stops next time should be quicker, 13 miles in the morning gets me my longest ride this year I think, hopefully will do this route again soon.

Five oh oh

Hmm. Is it possible to do 500 proper mountain biking miles in a month? From a thread on STW, just been thinking it out, would need nice weather, understanding family and a shed load of will power, 2 big nightrides (35+ miles) and either 2 decent rides or one epic 50miler at the weekend. Would probably just pick a thirty day period not bother with 1-30th of a single month, sounds like a challenge...

Another quality forecast

....except for where I'm riding obviously. Weekend forecast seemed to be gloriously sunny all round, now maybe I wasn't paying attention or maybe they just messed up again but as we rolled into glenridding sunday morning it was overcast, cold and raining, grrrr. Me and Si togged up, the original plan was stakes pass followed by silver crag, ullswater, boredale loop but as the hillsw ere covered in cloud we figured we'd start with ullswater loop. Off we went, bit of a push upto the BW, forgot how tech/thrutchy the path was so a bit more pushing, finally got to the start of silver crag warned Si "it gets a bit tasty around this corner" about 20 meters later I had my heart in my mouth going down a rocky step section, gulp! Turned back and Si had just ridden straight at it and cleared it good going! More of similar and worse followed go tto the bottom shaking like a leaf, bit early in the day for rocky tech fests, hadn't got into my flow yet, took a good 5 mins to calm down, not helped by the hard work that is ullswater lakeshore, either direction it takes a lot of leg and upper body muscle to make progress. Puncture stop meant we could chill out for a while. Didn't meet another soul on this normally walker heavy path. As we rolled passed sandwick we could see the sun illuminating the northern shore, no such luck for us and as turned into boredale a headwind hit us and that was our pretty much constant companion till we got to boredale hause where we just got blown every which way. Decision time stakes or the other hartsop angle tarn loop, Raise was still covered in cloud and a fair few snow patches suggested it's be damn cold and I was worried about car suck so decided on hartsop. Fast downhill then, weeeeeeee!

I'm sure I've described the climb out of hartsop before, hard work, still not had my talas forks serviced so are running at full length only, couldn't keep the front end down so didn't even make the second gate.

We pushed and rode our way to Hayeswater and then pushed some more towards the knott untill we hit the turn off, a newly refurbed bit of trail, bit being the operative word, once it got to satura crag there were the usual mishmash of lines and the wind ratcheted up several notches meaning you couldn't actually pick a line and stay on it, more pushing. Finally the trail levelled and the wind eased and we rode down to angle tarn, nice easy gradient decent surface for the most part and a few stone pitched sections near the end to get you going.

A sit down by the tarn for choccy flapjacks, cheers Si then on to boredale hause again from the top this time. Starts with a narrow trail clinging to the side of the hill with a few dodgy rocky step downs. On one the trail was just over a foot wide, the drop to the left wasn't sheer but you'd be rolling a hell of a long way and probably hurt yourself a lot if you went over, the step down was steep and sent you to the left, pretty bloody hairy, I wasn't sure whether Si would be riding it but got the camera out anyway and sure enough he did ride it and the result?

Rubbish, proper dodgy bit of trail and in the pic it looks like a bloody garden path, pics never do trails justice. Anyway on we went, I really like the bit after stony rigg, had a few "not sure I'll make it" moments with some steep rock steps and broken up sections, lots of fun. After boredale hause Si took the slightly easier left track while I took the right, after managing to get down a well dodgy cut out overhang step section I thought I was on for a clean run so was whooping until I spotted the massive rock jump, "oh maybe not then, forgot about that". Still more fun to go tho with plenty of rock kickers to get some air off and finally rolling into patterdale knackered but buzzing off adrenaline, great stuff and oh look the sun has come out for our drive home, lovely.

What Winter?

Well that's it then, winter passes us by with nary a frost let alone a deep freeze or "winter wonderland" dump of snow. I love proper winter days, trails are frozen to practically summer dryness, wide open cloudless blue skies, wrap up warm and your set for good day out on the bike. Snow would have been nice, not had chance to get the sledges out with the kids this year. Boooo. I know there's still a chance for the weather to give a last minute kick, was nippy this morning but barely any frost, but I doubt it. Winter 13/14 just a load of wind and rain, bleurgh.


My cold is entering it's third week, hoping it'll abate now, we'll see, is March going to be my first proper month of riding? 371 in Feb is not exactly stellar performance and only 2 none commute rides ffs, taking me up to a grand total of 4 for the year, piss poor. Hoping 2014 will not turn into a year to forget riding wise.

Finally!

My first puncture free week of 2014, probably due to giving "Flat Friday" a miss, I've had a cold so only did 3 days commuting and no night ride. Sorry best I could do, not a lot happening riding wise at the moment, hopefully hitting the lakes at weekend, tho we shall see....

Illusions of winter

Got blasted by horizontal snow on the way home last night, thunder and lightening too, not very frightening but kinda started to put me off the nightride. Got home to find Si had family stuff so couldn't make it, everyone else seemed to be busy too, skies had cleared so it seemed a shame to waste an evening, grabbed the blinglespeed and set off to destroy myself. Up the usual route, been a while since I SSed up there, gold course was breathless but ok, edge lane started ok but as I was "dancing" on the pedals halfway up the rear tyres started spitting traction, ICE! At the corner a 4x4 came down the road passed me, I tried to warn the driver but he just gave me a funny look and didn't seem to listen.  Onto the tops, light smattering of snow everywhere and damn chilly but nice clear skies. Went down hole in the wall gingerly seat up, then the top half of wildes, cut across back up the Rake and did the rooty section of wildes (with my forks locked out duh!) then all the way to the bottom and up school climb, this is not a nice SS climb. Upto the pike the wind had picked up, not as bad as last week but still a bit of a wandering line around the switchbacks (where I was reminded how good light wheels are for mid climb acceleration) and a battle to the pike. Straight down the slabs, very cautious over the drops but the ruts were pretty firm so not too bad. Along georges constantly on the look out for ice, up the access road (gurn) and over to the shooting hut descent. Again, snow everywhere, clear skies, really cold above ground but below the snow the trail was still mushy, boo. Descent wasn't bad fluffed a stream crossing and when I dabbed ankle deep in water I was very thankful for my lakes keeping my feet warm and dry. Down coalpit road and home through smithills. Out for just 3 hours and I had toasted my legs, grrr rufty tufty singlespeeding.

Still not cracked it

Another commuting week, another failure, did ok with the slippery slopes, monday I had an explore and did the usual route then scouted out another which is steeper to begin but less slippery and then slackens out so I'm not right behind the saddle when trying to thread my way through/around ruts. 2 cleans on the first day, cool. Tues and thurs got me a clean so I'll take my 4 for the week, friday wasn't so great, argument with a dogwalker that turned into a discussion then ended up with me fixing a puncture and them offering sympathy for my bad luck. Took looplines to my mums and got lost, ended up on the leigh line after the detour, got back on track soon enough but found I had another slow puncture on the front, topped that up a couple of times then 2 blocks from my mums rear tyre started hissing too, 3 flats in one trip! Sat in my muddy gear patching tubes at my mums, lovely.

So still not managed a full week without a flat, grrrr.

Elementally tough.

Last tuesday we finally opened the 2014 nightriding account, met Si at the park was going to catch up with johnnie up top but he's managed to injure himself whilst riding with showing off* infront of the kids again, he text to say his knee was not having it. Set off up the hill, out of practice on the golf course climb so felt tough work. Up onto the tops and we skipped two lads and dropped down hole in the wall, slippy, a few moments with the back tyre sliding down a different rut than the front. Wildeswood next, wet going through the tree's and the backs of the houses. Up school climb and around the gardens to georges where the wind had picked up a lot we headed up to the pike, on the bumpy switchbacks we were wandering about all over the shop getting pushed off line and blowing a gale on the final climb. We didn't hang around and dropped down the slabs ASAP, wheels down, no popping wheelies off the slabs. Headed back down georges to climb back up hole in the wall, nightmare. Fluffed the narrow chute before the stream and dabbed but after that determination set in. WInd was so bad I was zig zagging across the trail, off one side and then the other, lumpy rather than knobbly back tyre was spinning and fishtailing aswell, near the top I was knackered but grimaced and kept on. Reckon I probably pedalled twice as far as the actual climb length. Looked behind to see Si's head torch bobbing, could tell whether he was digging deep or walking, the latter unfortunately. Over to the mast and down san marino, was a bit muddy, no need to brake on the first quarter due to strong headwind but after that we sped up and by the corner we were getting up to silly speeds. Legs and calves burning by the end. Si had a full body dab on the muddy ruts near the road oops. Skipped the quarry, straight up scout rd and down through smithills where we hit a load more mud. Hard ride for the meagre distance but we finally got a nightride in.

*possibly

Woeful...

...start to the year, 263 miles is pretty damn poor but with no guarded up commuter bike for half of it and bloody awful weather for pretty much all of it what can I say? There were one or two OK days but family stuff meant the days it wasn't appalling I was busy and the days I was free it was. Lurgy affected play too. Got in a few runs and a couple of games of 5aside at work so my muscled haven't completely atrophied. Will do better next month!

Oh yeah the new bike, that's going OK, feels very like the old one but a couple of pounds lighter and a bit stiffer, front doesn't feel too bad after setting the tyre pressure properly, there's some give in that carbon fork, rear, hmm we'll see, reckon my backside could take a beating when I try a long bumpy ride, we'll see. Finally got around to hopping the canal wall at the end of the first week commuting so I must be reasonably comfortable on it. Tensioner is holding the chain well, the chain is still wearing rapidly, I can see the tensioner is a lot lower than it was when I set it up, looks a bit clunky but no need to take up the slack and faff with disc/hub alignment once a week :-) Might post a pic or two soon but no I'm in no hurry, it's not really finished yet.

Denied!

Another week of commuting and sod all else, nevermind. Wasn't bad, hadn't punctured all week and had cleaned the slippery slope of CX gnarliness twice (third day I went a different route home) so friday was looking like I might get a clean sheet, nope, just as I was getting to the bottom of the slope the back end went, I unclipped to dab and my rear wheel caught again just before I put my foot down, wasted dab, no clean run. Also by friday night my front tyre was looking awfy soft, grrrr, try again next week. Atleast the weather is looking a bit better so fingers crossed we may get a night ride in and shhh, whisper it.....maybe a weekend ride (shock horror)

Week one

Sorry long post where not much happens.
Belatedly I finally managed my first proper week of 2014, that is commuting (yay) admittedly in bloody awful weather. Mixed week really, Monday was damp, very damp, moses gate is now a right mess, they are doing a load of treework and the machines are churning the place up. "Damned inconvenient of them doing it midwinter" then I figured they may well be shifting windfall/storm damage, duh, of course. Met a fella commuting on a panniered up 29er, caught up with him on the outwood trail which he had joined earlier than me got me wondering on his route, didn't get chance to ask him tho, brief chat, he told me he commuted from smithills to manchester, then he went unexpectedly left as I went right. Minor incident while overtaking a parked HGV, a bmw driver squeezed past me so he got the finger, he pulled up further on, expecting a load of abuse I merely road passed saying not very sensible passing there. Turns out he didn't just want to shout abuse he wanted an argument. He was an experienced driver I'll have you know, but bugger all experience at being a cyclist I'll wager. Anyway apparently it's my fault people hate cyclists so sorry about that. Ride home ended early, a flat in darcy lever which turned out to be 3 punctures all at once, was fun fixing them seeing as I oly spotted them one at a time, patch replace pump, damn , remove patch replace damn etc etc.

Tuesday was even damper, looked out the window to check the weather and saw mr 29er from monday riding passed my house, small world. Figured he may be using the bury canal so thought I'd give it a go, muddy, also when I got to the irwell sculpture trail bridge it was bloody closed, proper fenced off too, grrr. Detour into radcliffe then. Riding home I decided to look for a different route around moses gate, up the road at nob end, little lever appears to be ginnel tastic, prospective route for drier times. Absolutely lashed it down as I approached home so nightride was cancelled again.

Thursday was proper wet, I'd been scoping the maps and found a new cut through to little lever, bit of mud, a few horse stiles then a grassy (saturated at the time) path, again possible route in future but no better at the moment than my usual. Got to work pretty wet, one of those shoes on the radiator days. Ride home was marred by an audi driver, he pulled out of a side street right infront of me, I remained calm, dunno if he wondered where the hell that frowning cyclist in his rear view mirror had come from (assuming he did at some point check his mirror). Saw at the junction that he was on his mobile, grrr, but it's a nice night (so far) I'm on my bike, I shall remain calm. Next junction he went into right turn lane and subsequently bombed across the junction to jump the queue for straight ahead. I caught up at the next set of light, as I was right next to his window (me going right, him left) I decided to have a chat, suggested he put his phone down and concentrate on driving, didn't end well, got a bit shouty, ah well. Got to the outwood trail where the dire weather kicked in again, heavy rain and hail, there are times when I really miss having a peak on my helmet, hail bouncing off my nose can be added to that list. Shoes back on the radiator when I got home.

Friday started badly pulled on my trusty supa poohbahs and the right sole decided to part company with the rest of the shoe, oops, looks like radiators aren't kind to aged (15ish years) footwear. Rode in, got wet feet, had to dodge a lad on a bike with no light riding no handed down a road weaving all over the place (added for balance incase anyone thinks I'm too anti car :-). I've decided the extra 0.8 mile road route through little lever is probably a good bet for the moment for dodging the copious mud in moses gate. OK ride in, ride home was ok but again turning to heavy rain halfway home, spinning along the outwood trail I passed 3 guys on mtbs, said Hi then not long later peeled off down the steep muddy hill that CX bikes are seemingly made for, sliding ddonw the lads obviously saw me heading down and stopped to whoop and cheer, I did dab but was pleased with myself and the crowd appreciation made me grin, shouted thanks and rode home smiling, I love cycling.

Detritus

Yes that is a picture of one of my bikes at work, a very rare occurrence these days. Dry-ish roads meant I decided to risk a ride in without mudguards, got covered in road grit but made it in OK. Ride home was dry, put the power down and soon hit the limits of my fitness, so coast sprint coast sprint, thought I'd make good time as I didn't do too badly with the lights but checking the clock when I got home, no nowt special, ah well felt better for it anyway. Replacement commuter is nearly done, just a couple of parts to finish it off, hopefully back to fulltime commuting next week.