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So here one is.
A couple of thousand feet of elevation at Puddletown this morning, prime conditions before the rain comes again, though I’m packing the bike up tonight and heading to Liguria for 3 weeks on Monday.
An urban-ish explore today in an attempt to find the dry patch of weather forecast.
Linlithgow to South Queensferry on the John Muir Way.
Classic Ladybower loop from Hope
Plenty of ice and some snow. Pretty dicey down the Beast - might post a video later if it isn't too boring 🤣
Yesterday morning I set off before dawn, from home, to take advantage of the frozen trails
We have 2 views, an attempt to warm my feet up during a stop and the ice out of the hose pipe
fall off on the still icy trails
Indeed we gave half a thought to a trail centre ride but decided ice patches would be an issue. Even on our ride alongside the Forth there were ice patches this morning.
I attempted one short section of offroad and a stretch of the Leeds Liverpool canal towpath both were very icy!
Beast looks good. Few chicken lines 🤔😉
Beast looks good. Few chicken lines
🤣 Ice avoidance
Last day of the summer holiday for the kids here so we braved the weather. It was 28 degrees when we set out at 8am and hyper humid in the forest.
One of the boys riding mates found it too much and bailed, but we managed a good lap anyway. 35 degrees and the bikes were filthy by the time we finished so ginger beer all round.
Golfie was ****ing minging yesterday.
Semi frozen in places greasy in others.
Wish it'd go back to proper frozen.
Another 1000 meters in the bag.
https://flic.kr/p/2ptskn6
https://flic.kr/p/2ptusGS
https://flic.kr/p/2ptsjuE
Recce on Friday for the staff monthly walk. Saturday was wet and horrible but we were out and folk chatted. Recce ride managed to get a couple of trails in by going off route slightly.
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Aaaargh, jealous. Currently sat on the sofa coughing and spluttering while my friends are out in their bikes. Missed a lot of rides this year or rather last year due to random illness. To add insult to injury the wife is watching Alan Tichmarsh on the telly. I migh go back to bed!
Saturday was spent muscling the Rail round the FoD, riding a few old favourites and a couple of new to me trails.
I’d forgotten how much difference there is between the Rail and the KSL; I couldn’t get it to hold the same lines on some of the descents so I decided to have a little lie down…
Took my new Sentier out for a quick local ride to get a feel for it. First 29er and I'm loving it, was previously a bit skeptical but really notice how quickly it picks up and holds speed and doesn't get hung up on roots/rutted bridleways like 26" did. May eventually swap out the frame though for something with shorter chainstays, but the price on this was so good that it's fine as a donor bike 🙂 will probably swap out the tyres for something faster too, these seem a bit excessive for me!
Hebden again, very wet and windy but glad I got out and back before the storm properly kicks off!
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Feeling small on the expanse that is Salisbury Plain. Puts things into perspective.
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Looking across the Rhein to Switzerland, Eiger, Jungfrau...
Three hours of Zone 2 on the turbo trainer on Friday as there was just too much snow up in Aberdeenshire.
Out at Drumtochty today and all of the snow has gone. It was cold, wet, muddy and windy, but still better than the turbo 😀
One of the prime aims this year is time outside every day. Today coincided with aim 2 - exercise every day, and aim 3 - doing something I love each day.
Out by 7:30, back by 10.
Saw loads of cool things, saw lots of nice people, loved it!
Followed up with my 4th aim of a cold shower each day, today hit the cold 🥶🥶 heights of 6 degrees and I feel GREAT!
Oh and I bumped into Jessica Ennis twice!!
Friday.
Sluggish ride up Dumyat after a superb Thursday night beers and curry. Frozen ground and breezy.
Saturday: Trails round Sherrifumuir and Dunblane. Good rain free fun.
Sunday: Yuk. Dog walk to retrieve the wildlife camera before the floods got it.
We have a family of four beavers ! 
There's video here if anyone is interested:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FFCsV17GhP7sskvD6
Slightly muddy local ride for me today as I was busy yesterday so missed the frozen ground. Also nice and blowy thanks to storm Isha, so a bit of a slog in sections.
Local has reverted to mud from ice, so today's spin out was deciding which bits to ride and which to leave well alone. Got it right most of the time...
It’s sorta still the weekend until you arrive at work… so time for an early ride.
Unfeasibly hot and humid again. The bike was almost carried away with evaporation.
Quick raz around some of Dalby on my own in Saturday afternoon. Some blue bits to get me away from the car park and miss the first shitty bit of the red, pick up the red further on, some 9ff piste to skip boring red bits etc. great to be out...
more top phots @colournoise 🙂
great to see folks' pics as always, hope I might get to Rostrevor this weekend if the weather is any good and my tendinopathy doesn't get in the way...
"A couple of thousand feet of elevation at Puddletown this morning"
My in-laws live up the road from Puddletown - I need to ride there next time I visit, it's been too long!
I did a load of this sort of stuff on a semi-urban-canal-airport MTB around the south side of Manchester on a 40mile Z2. Fun as it was pretty dry, and I watched the airplanes landing (which was cool in a nerdy way)