review

Just left a review on wiggle for a mech hanger (! What do they want me to say about it?), I'm guessing it won't get published but we'll see, I hope so I spent a bit of time on it :-) Apparently hell is too profanity-ous for wiggle but heck is fine.

The lunacy continues...or possibly not

Who's stupid idea was it to try to ride in offroad this morning? I set off with good intentions but after 15mins of slipping and sinking in the snow I turned back and picked up the road bike. Snow had been packed down a little by walkers but was very uneven so difficult to hold a line and I was still sinking into it making it very hard going. Road wasn't too bad, with snow/slush in the bike lanes I was being careful going a bit slower than usual in the middle of the lane, the snow along the centre meant very few chances for cars to overtake but most drivers were patient. Bit iffy in city centre again as it seems the council cannot keep the roads there clear. Must try harder!

Snow day

Work was cancelled today (Yay) so a lie in then a walk in the snow with the Mrs and Charlie (in one of these) to give sister in law her birthday present. Carrier is OK much better than pushing a pram around and charlie is comfy enough. Nice day and all the snow made a pretty mundane town walk a bit more challenging and a lot nicer looking.

Gonna try and ride into work offroad again tomorrow, I rode home on the road yesterday was knackered knees wrecked, quads were burning on the slightest incline, I wasn't going very fast with a 32x16 and enormous knobbly tyres either. I've stuck a 18t sprocket I had in the cupboard on the inbred, narrow tyres too it should help get through the snow and hopefully my knees wont explode this time. If i end up on the road again it'll take forever and rim brakes which will no doubt ice up but doubt I'll be going fast enough to require much braking besides the kinesis didn't have enough slack to fit 32x18.

Sublime to ridiculous

Last night I was planning to ride in xc this morning but with all the ice I was hoping for a good bit of snow to improve grip, bloody hell did it deliver, a l;ittle too much I think. Got up looked out the window and thought "wahey today is gonna be either a great laugh or an ordeal" The amount of pain coming from my legs as I walked downstairs should have been an indicator of which. Between 4 and 6 inches of snow overnight! Never had that before even on ski holidays. Looked like they'd had a snowplough out on our local streets so going was okay at first then I got off road. Under the trees was OK just a couple inches of powder but in the open it was horrible, like pedalling through glue. Singlespeeding doesn't break your knees but SS through deep snow definitley does. Halfway to work I was regretting it, I'd expected it to peter out as I got near manchester but no, after clifton and the last of the tree cover I switched to roads which were fairly empty but still that treacherous loosely packed down snow. City centre still had loads of snow and the main roads were in right a state, whoever is in charge of keeping them clear must be shitting themselves right now, they'll be on fish4jobs by the end of the week.

No-one in at work, wish I hadn't bothered, should have stayed at home. My legs are already making subtle suggestions that riding home would be a bad move. Still it should be good for shifting the christmas weight and the amount of 2 wheel drifts I've managed to save my mud riding technique should be ace by the time the snow melts. Hardest commute ever!

The Two Towers

When I eventually made it out yesterday I had stupid plans of a 3 towers ride but it was after 1 when I left so no chance. Lots of snow about as I rode up the jumbles, packed down but a sprinkling on top from the other day so grippy-ish. I still had no idea what route to do, halfway round Wayoh I decided to give peel tower a bash. Upto crowthorn was hard work, the option of deep snow or follow tyres tracks with minimal grip. Getting offroad at longshaw head the snow was very deep lots of keeping low and putting some serious power down just to keep moving. I was thinking I wouldn't be coming back this way but after the 1st stream crossing it was great, God bless ramblers, the snow was packed down just enough for fast riding but loads of grip and I made the best progress I managed all day. Climb to the tower was impossible so pushed the top half, some walker told me to man up and get back on cheeky bugger. Back the same way, going down crowthorn was interesting. Legs were feeling the strain as I got round entwistle res but I headed for darwen anyway. It was a push to the tower again and the sun was setting as I started the descent, brilliant views. Round roddlesworth I was already depending on my "get me home" light and at Abbey village I decided to go for the hat trick and headed for rivi. First ride of the year a mental 3 towers in snow on a singlespeed sounded cool. Wheelton was 'orrible quite icy but doable, the track from white coppice was snow free and I was just thinking it looked quite wet till the front wheel slid to the right, think I pulled something in my grioin stopping myself hitting the deck. Took it easy and slow after that, I could see flahing lights at the bottom of moor road, police and 2 flat bed recovery trucks, one car was severly embedded in the corner of the wall at the parking spot and another smashed into the wall at the other side of the road. Ouch. I couldn't even walk round the 1st car the road was so icy, I had to chuck my bike over the wall and walk in the field. All the way to the barn it was iced over, one short staining moment going downhill I realised I was going too fast, back wheel was just sliding, touching the front brake would be disasterous and dragging my foot did nowt, just had to stay loose and hang on, only just got away with that one. At the barn I realised rivi was a no go, it was getting late and very cold, legs were dying and the ice was lethal, I could have managed a push up to the pike but if georges lane was iced over too getting home would have been a nightmare so I took the blacktop home. Gutted! I'd done 90% of the donkey work but couldn't finish it.

Legs are screwed today, proper painful, they never get like this from riding, that snow really takes it's toll. 43 miles 5200ft climbing, good start to the riding year.

Nowty Knickers

I've been known to be a bit grumpy and I have a bad temper, when I do loose my rag 99.99% of the time it is with inanimate objects - like banks or internet providers. Anyway I've not been doing any riding since before christmas so yesterday I was trying to get out the door for a ride but things kept going wrong, camelbak leaked and while pulling out the bladder in a mood it pissed all over the only decent pair of cycling shorts I could find (I've got loads...somewhere) couldn't find other stuff, couldn't get bike out from between the rest under the stairs etc etc I had a bit of a strop swore a lot and was ready for giving it all up and vegging out on the sofa with the playstation instead when my fantastically insightful Mrs said "maybe your stressed cause you haven't been riding? Just an idea." Oh yeah! Doh. I chilled and went out asap and despite my cleats loosening (again) in the first half hour it didn't bother me, I just stopped and calmly fixed it and carried on. Lots of pent up energy is a bad thing.

That was 09

So how was it for you? Quite a good one for me, I hit nearly all my goals* and became a father too which was a bit of a bonus ;-) Charlies first christmas was fun despite him completely ignoring the HUUUGE pile of presents and toys everyone got him. This sociable riding lark is pretty good, average mph drops but more smiles per hour rises, hope to start getting to the STW rides again this year (if they continue) Guess I need to pin down some targets for next year, having my goals this year definitely helped to get me out riding this year.

Lets go for 3000 offroad miles this year, this is quite aspirational as mileages haven't been high since fatherhood and I only scraped 2.5k this time but lets see how I do, another 5200+ total would be nice too.

Coast to coast (road), Johnnie did this over 2 days with some non-bikey types so we should be fine doing it in a day that should also tick the 100mile ride I've been trying to achieve for ages.

SSEC** SSUK

Singletrack weekender - Good laugh this year, hoping for less punctures next time.

Kielder100, hmm, still not sure about signing up for this yet, don't wanna take up a place if I'm not fairly confident about finishing.

Other stuff, get charlie walking and get a bike seat so I can take him for a ride. Snowboarding holiday, fingers crossed, really missed it this year specially with all the snow we've had here.

That'll do for now.

Totals for this year
Road 2707
Offroad 2521
Total 5228


*only missed the 100 miler but who cares about road riding anyway?
** bitter? me?