This morning was a beautiful, crisp, snowy morning. One of my favourite times to ride a mountain bike. Deep snow is not good, and it you wait till the afternoon, the ground invariably turns back to mush. But this was one of those great rides where the conditions were excellent!
Yes, my favourite kind of weather.
Had to settle for a post-work ride in the dark. Bloody cold but bone dry and very little ice to worry about.
Cold but perfect ride in the Pentlands tonight. Not a hint of mud. On the drive home we found a body in a hedge by the road. Drunk old fella claimed the spiders were holding him down. Didnt want to leave him but he wouldn't get in my van so spent an hour slowly walking him home.
A glorious ride up the Long Mynd today, it was absolutely freezing, very snowy and ridiculously icy. It was like venturing into another country, with my toes voting for Alaska!
We spent most of the time giggling like young kids on our first ever sledge ride, especially on the long, snow covered, grassy downhills, point, hope and giggle 🤣 😆 AND I only fell off once, when trying to plough through a massive snowdrift 😆 superb day. And to add icing to the cake, the Glider Centre Cafe on the top was open, mainly because the girl serving lived up there and “wasn’t going anywhere else” 🙂
Not a particularly inspiring photo, but a great ride enduroing in North Yorkshire. No snow or ice, but frozen solid trails so lovely sandpapery grip for the most part.
A new track has gone in too, and it's absolutely mint. Also some.of the trails have had a good fettle - kudos to the trail builders
I always try to plan at least one 100km gravel/mtb ride at Xmas and managed to get one in today. First half was very cruisy and flat, ending at a cafe for a mid morning feed. Second half was a classic adventure, featuring 4x4 tracks, power line easements, singletrack of mtb and moto variety, breaking 2 teeth off a chainring in the middle of nowhere and managing to bend the chainring straight* plus trespassing across farms and getting threatened with the police by an absolutely irate farmer (Strava map said it was public land).
*mate had a tiny shifter that did the trick… it would have been a horrific walk without it.
Glorious frosty ride today. A touch of snow in places. No mud. Grateful to have options like this from the door. I’m still pleasantly suprised by what Bedfordshire has to offer
Stunning early ride this morning at Dalby. Fresh tracks, No one else about. Beautiful fluffy thick snow. I didn't go far, or fast, or get my wheels off the ground much but it was a fabulous couple of hours on the bike. Ebike is a brill tool in the snow too!
Another fantastic, snowy ride today on Cavehill, Belfast.
First ride of the year, absolutely stunning day for it.
27 mile, 3800 ft good old fashioned xc loop
Was shown some new to me trails/bridleways
Blowing out of my arse on my ebike keeping up with an xc racer on a normal bike
Got cramp, fell of on a patch of ice, had a good laugh
Only stopped for one photo op
Not really been on the bikes for a couple of months due to some heavy family stuff but today made up for it. No snow but trails were bone dry and running fast. Caught the sunset over the Humber estuary and ended the ride with moon rise on one side and afterglow on the other. Even got a little firework shown to finish off. Freezing though.
Solo dusk/night ride. Bitterly cold, but trails were running perfectly. Dusting of snow in places, but no loss of traction.
Startled a few deer, some foxes having a good time and an owl setting off for the night.
Jacket potato waiting for me when I got home, too!
Brilliant ride out to my local high point ... Techy XC singletrack / out from the edge of the city, then a few Enduro runs, and back again. With a mate for some of it, but he had to peel off early to get back.
Trails frozen solid, no snow or surface frost, but sandpaper grip everywhere! Sun was out, muggles were pleasant (or at least, not rude!). 44km / 950m climbing.
And then (I know it's not riding), but a beautiful clear, crisp, peaceful moonlit dog walk before tea!
Ilkley Moor for the first time in years for me, shown around by some locals - steeper and techier than I remember which made me want a longer dropper! 
Well below freezing for most of it, split some water on my frame and it froze solid.
Last day off work for me and took the eldest to Rotorua for a last go on a few trails before they're lost to felling . It's a working forest so all part of the cycle and new trails will get built but it always seems like a loss 
Not done one of these for a while. First visit to Golfie for a few months so gave feed the pony a shot. Great views down the valley. (Grrr to pasting images)
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Nice ride out early this morning.
I say nice. It took the first 40 minutes for my fingers to warm up by which time my toes had gone very cold. Good to be getting back out though.
Didn't make it to the trails I wanted to - turns out not riding for a while somewhat hampers fitness. Shame, when I did ride on Singletrack it was lovely and grippy. While I really don't enjoy pedalling it, having the Judge out back meant I still had grip on solid ice.
Absolutely outrageously good ride this morning. Best route I can do from my door. I only usually ride this route in summer to avoid damaging sensitive tracks but today everything was frozen rock hard and uber grippy (well apart from one corner with some black ice where I had a little lie down - no harm done 🙂
It goes like this:
Urban trail & singletrack /
Rural trail & singletrack /
Decentish Enduro bits /
Fantastic Moorland singletrack /
Brilliant Enduro bits
It's a superb ride and today it was just outstandingly brilliant, beautiful and ace! Felt like I was riding well too. Absolutely buzzing and a great end to a great xmas holidays.
Well good!!!!
Bridleway signs, not just for directions. Also excellent for tweeking brake calipers & gear adjustment.
And yes that is a @asssavers MTB Win-Wing clearing a 4" fat bike tyre 👌 
Wanted to go for a bigger ride today but my head's still feeling fuzzy from being ill over Christmas, so kept it local. Riding like shit because of the illness but was better than sitting around at home feeling sorry for myself. Nice grippy trails too, I was worried they'd be covered in the thin frost/ice like the footpath I stacked it on when walking the dog last night 🙂
A lovely 12 mile ride in the snow today. Decided against the MTB trails as snow was too deep and I was already asking too much of my Hans Dampfs. Fine on trodden paths but awful in the fresh stuff.
Possibly my last ride on this bike too.
Cold and crisp in Aberfoyle with a wee dusting of that oddly-grippy sort of snow. The odd light snow shower blowing through briefly turned it into a ride through the Upside Down. Partially frozen waterfall demanded further inspection.
No snow here, I'm afraid, although it was a nice morning to be out.
Hadn't managed much riding over the festive period - difficult when the kids are off school and Mrs a11y's working more - but remedied that yesterday. Glad I did, it was epic!
Rarity to enjoy daylight riding for me at this time of year. The Ochils: Colsnaur and Dumyat followed by a bit of woods trails across to BofA. 34km, 1350m elevation and a drained battery at the end as I used more high power mode than usual stupidly trying to chase down an earlier group on the same route. Sub-zero, frozen trails, light amount of snow. Brilliant.
Afterwards getting changed and this cheeky bugger decided to join me in the back of the van, bold as brass:
