Went to Mabie for around 11am, and I have to say it was absolutely amazing. Much of the trail was compact snow, but it wasn’t yet ice and as such it was surprisingly grippy and fast where other riders had ridden to create the line. I was worried about the cold, but with a cloudless and gloriously sunny day, with little wind this was one of those magical winter rides.

Just wondered if anyone else was out on the Western Stanes, as I have never ridden in exactly these types of conditions before. Fabulous!

December 5th by simon ralli, on Flickr

IMG_0018 by simon ralli, on Flickr

IMG_0014 by simon ralli, on Flickr

It was just a bit too cold though to be stopping and taking lots of photos, even though I wanted to every 5 minutes or so 🙂

Not made it out this weekend. Gym yesterday and this evening probably all I will manage, not about next weekend so hoping to get out the weekend after that. Looks nice in places not really a fan of ice and snow riding though.

Yes i did Mabie this morning. Must have just missed you as i was back to the car for 10.30. It was a cracking day, but not as cold as i was expecting.

Get some gloves on, yer fingers will drop off!

Paul – I may be able to manage a ride on the Saturday but wont be free on the Sunday. I am no fan of ice, but it was far less sketchy than I was expecting and all of it was pretty rideable. I made it up quite a few short and sharp steep climbs where I was expecting to lose traction, and yeah, it really was riding fast, although I was seriously cautious in places obviously.

Oh and this is the second photo thread of mine where people are moaning about me not wearing gloves. I can assure you that I was wearing the biggest and thickest O Neil snowboard gloves possible, but they are so thick and big you have to take them off to be able to operate a camera!

Supercyril – wow you must have been out early. It took me ages to get the ice from off both the inside and outside of my car, but I am sure your tracks helped me find the right line at times. Yeah – Mabie is well sheltered mostly so it made for a great ride. I had a coffee in the Shed afterwards, and they had their log fire burner going so I could toast my toes 😀

Si be week after next will drop you mail a let you know be a slow one mind 🙂

No probs – I had to do the little shortcut at the top of the Scorpion (which I walked) as my legs were just didn’t have much energy today. Made it round all the rest though amazingly 🙂

Good effort 🙂

hey Simon I must have just missed you today.. I was also at Mabie… I had a perfect days riding…

The snow was supper gripy, bright blue clear skys and the trail was riding really fast.. what a buzz.. probably one of the best ride outs Ive had at mabie to date… BTW not to mention the excellent lump of Carrot Cake i stuffed my face with at the end…. 😀

We were at Drumlanrig today and it was fantastic, first ride after a nasty chest infection, it was great to get out and breath again. Will be going for a night ride on Wednesday.

Craig – dang – sorry I missed you. I just saw three others out riding, but had a good chat and some coffee back in the cafe with a few others.

Glyn – top one. That was my second choice, but if I have my car back from the garage for next weekend I’ll probably ride up there again. I would have ridden at Kirroughtree, but I thought I may freeze up half way round, and I was worried about the conditions on the road, so didn’t want to risk it.

Sounds like I should have headed out the exercise bike while watching earthed 3 isn’t the same 🙂

Still way too much snow up the hill here in Innerleithen, so I went for a spin alongside the Tweed… glorious sunny day though, nice to be out on a bike and something felt great about barrelling along on the compacted snow of the walkers footpath by the river.


Tweedside pedal by StoooPotter, on Flickr

Thanks for the photo Stoo – way more snow than over here in the west!

Yep… really wanted to head west this morning, but couldn’t drag anyone else out and didn’t fancy the drive on me tod. Should have posted on here, could have met you over there mate. I’ll know next time 🙂

You live over that way then ? Gimmi a shout if you’re over inners way at any point

Yeah – am in Dumfries. I love Inners but to be honest you have to ride past all these signs that say “Skids are for Kids” and Cannon Bank is so darn steep you have to really brake otherwise you’ll get accidental air and then you end up skidding and it’s all very embarrassing really. I am more of an Ae Shredder man myself 😀

Missed this the other day. I was at Ae on Saturday night and although there was a bit more snow than at Mabie, it was definitely rideable. Only one other set of tracks in the snow up the first climb, but only my tracks after that (the other person must have gone back early on).

Before it got dark after Rab’s climb

At the end of Granny Green Luv.
It was one of those great rides that reminded why I like riding MTB- noone else on a cold but great night. Got a chance to properly test out the homebuild light built from this forum and discovered my batteries are not quite up to it!

Cheers for those photos. I would have thought that at least a good few people would have ridden Ae at the weekend. How cold was it in the dark? Mabie was awesome but it was definitely fun because of the sun pretty much all the way around. The low light in the woods created some amazing scenes.

I had thought about Ae but I thought it may be a bit too sketchy in places for me.

Photos only taken with a rubbish phone camera. Tried to take some video as well but can’t see muc of what was happening so havn’t bothered putting it online. It was cold at first but fine once moving. My gears didn’t work for the first few minutes (frozen) but had freed up by the time i got to the first climb. I was wearing shorts and a jumper as i had forgotten my riding jacket but was warm enough when i was moving. Car said -5 when i got back to the car park.
Snow was very grippy until you picked up some speed and then the front started to sway a bit. Was expecting the rocks underneath to be slippy but there was enough snow covering them to not be a problem. It was only when I hit one of the footpaths on the way back with all the roots that I started to slide around. I just couldn’t believe there was only one set of tracks at the start- might have been understandable at the start of the day, but I was out on the Saturday evening so either noone had been to Ae or there had been a dump of snow out in the forest duiring the day. Anyway, the lack of tracks added to my fun!

Looks like there might be more snow in Dumfries area tonight and/ or tomorrow so will need to check on snow levels after that as to whether a sledge might be more useable. At least we can still ride our bikes down here- Glentress area looks very unrideable at the moment.