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Welcome back @colournoise. Weirdly I just realised I hadn't seen any of your pictures for ages and then you appeared! Good luck with your recovery.
Showing a mate some new routes on Saturday...
Black Forest Germany
Bluebells are coming to an end in the Fod.
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In before the hordes. Home for breakfast.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPeD6LrraqA/
Road miles all weekend really, big day in Northumberland on Saturday and then a run down the coast today, no pics from the coastal run suffice to say everyone had gone to the beach and the roads were horrendous, virtually nose to tail from Sunderland to South Shields.
Comrie with the kids
Samuel's first proper ride on his new bike
He didn't need knee pads at the start of the ride. All the way down the red and he washes out on the gravel on the berms.
Glorious in the burn...
After the rain we had on Friday we got up Saturday morning to blue sky's and shorts and t shirt weather. In excess of 600 riders were expected for the PMBA at Graithwaite, practice on Saturday and the main event on Sunday.
Abigale managed to have an argument with a slippy rock and lost. It had sliced through her knee pad and gashed her knee. The impact also left her with a badly swollen knee.
Sunday was another sunny hot day and against advice decided to strap the knee up and give it ago.
Whist she was out on the course it gave us time to explore some of the hidden gems that the Graythwaite estate has to offer.
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Found some nice jumps near Wallowbarrow gorge.
After he landed there was a lonnnnggg buzzing noise like a back tyre skidding endlessly on grass, followed by a high pitch squeal.
Unfortunately I failed both dad points ( by taking a photo first) and photographer points ( by not taking the photo at the point that he was hanging over the barbed wire fence suspended by his stomach. Alas I was too late for the perfect picture.
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Thank god his mum was looking the other way..
More South Wales off piste today, Risca, Wyllie bike parking and Mynyddylan Black. OTB due to pedal strike and it’s a long way over the front of a Geometron on a 40% gradient, only damage bent saddle and broken sunglasses.
https://strava.app.link/Pi7IWASoIgb
As promised, rode King Afred’s Way this weekend.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPjUMoMHZBh/
Edit: didn’t Instagram links used to auto-embed?
Did the Gap route in try Brecon Beacons today, but with a twist: I started from Cardiff! 82 miles in total and it was HOT all day so got through over 9 litres of water! Oh and two ice creams from the cafe in Talybont.
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It may look cool under the trees but it was still toasty!
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The local Merthyr graffiti artists think it's all good fun though.
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Even did a good deed for the day, helping a lady get her chain back together after it snapped and the chain tool she'd borrowed from another rider had made a mess of it further. Got her on her way with a limited set of gears but that was 10x better than a mixture of scooting, rolling and walking for her to get home!
Downside though was a lot of the new E-bike warriors seem to have found the riding outside of the trail centres and have no idea of courtousy around other users, including other riders. I'm sure they'll be made to see the error of their ways soon enough but it was a bit if a dampener to see it so much.
davros
Welcome back @colournoise. Weirdly I just realised I hadn’t seen any of your pictures for ages and then you appeared! Good luck with your recovery.
Cheers!
Great to be back on two wheels (however slowly).
But...
Just seem to be getting over whatever the weird swelly, painful foot thing is and my knee on the same leg goes all stiff, puffy and weak today. My body hates me and my doctor doesn't seem to be that bothered...
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A couple of gentle rides as shoulder still sore from a few weeks back.
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Monty - nice to see my old office in your St Peter's Square pic.
Here's one from Borrowdale on Saturday...
Still no Insta embedding, I notice.
Did the Staveley three passes route yesterday.
The hike-a-bike up Nan Bield pass was fun in the heat 🥵
Took the eldest to Pines for a ride on the Saturday. The trails were about perfect, not too dry or wet.
Local on the Sunday morning and they we were similar. (No pics for that)
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some amazing photos on here. Unfortunately I can't add to it. I just fancied an XC pootle on sunday so thought I'd do a 30 mile loop round barden moor, Dales. I've never done a 5 hour loop before, over hilly terrain, with hardly any decent descending (welcome to the southern dales). The best bit was going east on barden moor and I missed the foresty descent into bolton abbey, ended up at the campsite.
then an absolute tonne of admittedly lovely road riding around appletreewick but not great MTB. The photo is taken at the top of Weets Top and I'd never done the Hetton BW before but that was good for a bit then managed to go more up hill.
It was like I was stuck in an Escher drawing, with tonnes of ascending to get to the foot of another ascent and then so on, then back to the start
PMBA Enduro at Graythwaite this weekend. Had a cracking time, my first enduro and definitely threw myself in at the deep-end!
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Mellow rambling round Surrey near Farnham (and some fun stuff last Thursday too).
Yes, don't know if its a smile because she's on her bike or a grimace from the pain of the knee injury 🤔
Cracking shot though
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Fine bank holiday run around some local woods.
@ready Coffee stop at Orford?
Tower W in your last photo is £2500 a week or more to hire. It's very nice inside and the patio area at the top is well engineered to keep the draft out.
Another beautiful day here in Aberdeen yesterday so after work I did 30 miles along the old Deeside railway line to Drumoak and back. Also discovered a forest I'd never been to before so did a quick loop.
@sandwich - didn't quite make it up that far, spent too long looking around the pillboxes and old radar buildings 🙂
That Martello tower is lovely, and pretty much fully booked for the next 2 years - at nearly £5k a week!! 😲
EDIT - £5k for Xmas week, only £3295 for other times....
£5k a week! Prices have risen somewhat since last year.
Don’t recall seeing you out there but we were on a very similar schedule to you. That weather on the Ridgeway came out of nowhere! Feel ok yesterday and even got a gentle recovery ride in but feel like I’ve been hit by a train this morning. Am thinking about doing it again on my SS later in the summer.
@curto80 - brave man to SS that :).
I bivvied next to a bench at up on the Ridgeway and woke up in a cloud at sunrise. Was hoping it would burn off quickly, but I think it was 11am before I took my jacket off.
I do fancy doing it with booked accommodation so I can travel a bit lighter - maybe take my Arkose instead of the 29er. Some of those hills were brutal with a full load.
Yeah have to say I wimped out and took the credit card option. I Recommend the Premier Inn in Marlborough. It’s a slight detour but it has a jet wash next door 🙂
We stayed in a pub in Churt for the second night.
Found it hard enough going just with overnight clothes so chapeau for carrying all the extra stuff. I need to go back and clear that evil climb up the Devil’s punch bowl next time.
Completely forgot it was a bank Holiday down in Englandshire on Monday and we headed south to the Lakes. Ended up with no dramas and a nice ride out.
Hi mate, shoulder getting stronger and confidence returning. Thanks for asking.
How's the collarbone ?
Slowly getting better.
Almost full mobility back in my shoulder and the pain is slowly getting less with each ride.
Rode 5 days last week and just got back from a ride at Inners this avo/evening.
Glad you're also on the mend.
Not being able to ride is pretty depressing.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51221023273_b5b03f8a6b_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51221023273_b5b03f8a6b_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2m3e8GV ]Angry Bird.[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51221886580_46be8362f8_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51221886580_46be8362f8_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2m3iykw ]Brown snake in the grass.[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr