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Hope everyone has got a good easter lined up - with riding and cocoa-based recuperation in equal measure.
Mine kicked off this morning. My main riding buddy is in a moon boot and restricting herself to road rides only (!), so I joined a shop ride. Only two of us were on real bikes, which was a bit of a surprise. But the e-bikers were generously patient as we all slid around a greasy set of trails at 6am.
No photos from me, but one of the lads put a nice reel up on his instagram so you can watch that if you want.
I have a busy weekend planned with little time for riding. Wishing I'd booked today off as the weather was glorious here this morning on the dog walk.
So will live out the weekend vicariously through this thread.
Yep - stunning morning here in West Yorks - been for a swim - heading out on the XC bike later - breakin out the shorts - finally.
The forecast for tomorrow is dismal, with Storm Dave forecasted to arrive. So a last minute outing to Tollymore was hastily organised. Shockingly, the weather was really quite nice. Although the trails were predictably soaking. Back to the waterproof trousers for a day then.
when I arrived back home, the sun was shining, and it was a lovely afternoon. So I couldn’t resist another quick blast on my local trails. You can see the hills in the distance where I was riding in the morning!
We are in the Peak for the weekend. So far it's raining and strong winds.
One of us has ventured out to fetch some tea. I opted to stay in the warmth of the van
Got back from Italy last night,
I had a job to do in Nice but needed to collect parts and tooling from the Italy office, so flew into Pisa, rented a van, and drove to Nice, stopping to collect the stuff on the way.
It also ment driving past Finale Ligure, so it would have been rude not to take the bike, I travelled Sunday and today (Good Friday) doing my job Monday/Tuesday so swapped those for the Wednesday and Thursday that I rode, I justified the £100 to take the bike, by flying today which was £40, rather than £200 on the Thursday.
So other than my shuttle passes, all on the company $ which was a nice bonus, and what I did for about €2000 all in saved us about €27,000 in labour costs alone for a local dealer to swap the main component of the unit under warranty, and the owner doesn’t have to cut a hole in his deck, so everyone’s a winner.
Across the 2 days, 20,000’ descending and 3,500’ of climbing as my favourite run (Insallo ecstasy into Revenant) still has a 450’ climb from the drop of to the start of the run, then it’s 3,000’ 13 minute trail 3 mile black run down the pick up point, first run Thursday morning I came across a wolf on the trail and he hopped up into the woods as I rode past.
@Jimmy748: Wow!
Spent good Friday giving the rest of the UK Scottish style countryside access
Posting from the pub - 2 mile riverside singletrack home from here.
Woke up with a bad back and a 4 pint/bottle of wine haze, so had to force myself out. Obviously that calls for the ebike.
Local loop
Back to reality ride for us. First ride out from our NZ trip. Weather was better than forcast and the trails in the Peak were better than expected with all the rain that has been put down.
Today was my day on the bike, but we were catching the tail of storm David down here in Sussex, so it was a mizerable mizzly day on the tops and in the weald, and strong souwester to contend with. The new recipe banana bread was a bit of a hit, and the sourdough hot X buns along the way we're great, even if not much to photograph
Just a quick ride around the local parks today so my mate could test his new foldable ebike (ADO Air 20 Ultra with a fancy carbon belt drive). He had it delivered to my house so I could get it all set up for him. He seemed super chuffed with it.
Partially hidden by my bike, but he took the photo...
I was also testing out my knee for tomorrow's trip to Kirkhill. I crashed last weekend and it's been giving me grief all week, but should hopefully be ok.
Couple of family rides for me over the last few days. Towing son and daughter up hills has tired me out, even though it was only 5 miles both times. Dragged my old man out for one of them and he seemed to like it too, started rumbling about an e-bike which would be good for getting him out more. Enjoyed it but looking forward to a bit of biking without kids soon 🤣
Also called in at the Lakeland motor museum on the way back home from a week away for my car mad son, quite a few cool old bikes on display which I found interesting. 
Best ride for a week after spending 2 days with a nose running like a tap
@oldfart - you do know you can post pictures and words in the same post? 😉🤣
I'm not a well man 😁
Went out for a ride today, but I underestimated how Baltic it was, so had to retreat home sooner than anticipated.
I’m staying with my niece in Calfonia at the moment. Luckily her husband is a similar height to me so i have a access to a basic bike. Last weekend I tried a local loop which turned out to be quite technical, for me, on that bike, brakes the wrong way round, twangy fork and no dropper. So today i went for a scenic ride on bike paths snd cycle lanes
Easter Sunday ride with a mate. From the door and around four local singletrack/firetrail spots. Quite a lot of bog/slop some funny crashes and a chocolate milkshake. We’d have passed a million spiders, but here’s a Golden Orb Weaver that I snapped yesterday.
https://flic.kr/p/2s5Rnep
https://flic.kr/p/2s5QBje
Out over the Purbecks this morning, Storm Rodneys not been bad down here, but a horrible headwind out over the heath, was worth it for the tailwind up and along 9 barrow, Old Harry was Ballard were teeming with Grockles.
Forgot to take photos of the actual fun stuff on my ride but managed to get out for a couple of hours on Saturday. Felt good. Missed a lot of riding since bringing the hound home and he's still a bit of a shite when I go out anywhere.
Cracking day at Kirkhill today. The wind was brutal on the road ride from the train station to the forest but there was good shelter from the trees once there. Trails have held up reasonably well after the recent rain too, just a few puddles on the exposed sections.
Heading to explore some more new trails today up pitfichie which are awesome and hid away from the wind and hail in the forest.
Early start this morning.
Quick spin round the local trails this morning, sessioning some jumps and features before a sunny ride to the far away playpark with both MiniMonkeys and another family. 
Down to Hindhead and round the Punchbowl today. The trails were all amazingly dry for the time of year. I took a few pictures but they didn't come out too well. This is the best.
Glorious in Calderdale today, warm and that wind has gone. Back into town a bit too early to avoid the duck race carnage 
Me & a mate did a long (184km / 3400m climbing) gravel ride through the night last night. For me, it was part of my prep for the 500km "The Land Between" ride in August. For my mate, training for The Badger Divide which he's planning to do without stopping. The aim - to give both of us some experience in riding right throughout the night without stopping.
I'd planed what turned out to be quite a tough, chunky route ... Some quite heavy going off road sections, and even the tarmac bits had loads of spicy climbing. Possibly too many 1-in-4 climbs.
Conditions were ... 'OK' - beautiful sunset and sunrise, but a pretty strong headwind (remnants of Storm Dave) for the first half of the night, and temps down to 0°c (lower with wind-chill).
I'm absolutely done in today - not sure how I'm going to extend the riding by another 320km! It was good to get that experience under my belt. And despite the grind of it, it was pretty special seeing the sun set, and then rise 10 hours later, and also having the feeling of being the only ones up and about on the moors all night.
I’m tied just reading about it! Great effort.
my friends son took ill so didn't do our planned ride yesterday morning
Got out for a glorious ride with the family round Woburn today, im officially struggling to keep up with my 15 year old son now!
Only the one photo and quite a few more words.
Rocked up for a group ride with a regular, a not so regular, a few I know but haven't ridden with and a few new faces.
Late arrivals, AXS gears not working and forcing a bail, the joy of group rides.
Turned out to be a cracker - Houndkirk, Lady Cannings, Devils Elbow, Flowhouse, pub....
That's where it took a bit of a turn. June 2024 I had a TIA on a ride - was a very surreal experience.
Got to the Fox House pub today, a pub I've been to dozens of times. Stood at the bar whilst my mate got the beers in - didn't recognise where I was at all, couldn't get my bearings, I'd literally never been there before and felt really confused. Went outside and the fog started to lift but knew I wasn't right for a while.
Lads said I didn't look right, had a glazed look which passed with my return to sanity. Had a lot of familiarity about what I'd experienced last time - and was also followed up by an empty feeling inside, a lot of yawning and looking like I'd aged 10 years.
Fortunately what was an episode that lasted well over an hour last time, seemed to be a matter of 10-15 minutes this time. Feel fine now but I reckon I might have had another Tia. Not going to hospital, they found nothing visibly or medically wrong with me the first time and I'm on meds now anyway.
Happy Easter everyone 😊
Sounds like a scary one @TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR even if you've been there before.
Spent my Easter weekend doing plumbing jobs at home (all the women in the street are now pregnant, just though proximity to my sheer manliness).
Rewarded myself with an Easter Monday jaunt to Comrie Croft - it really is a perfect little trail centre, which is nice to see, given that so many others seem to be in decline. Jesus would have approved.
Great long weekend of bikes, and some fantastic pictures from some of you too!
On Good Friday I had my first visit to the Woburn offpiste, trails, where there is some short but very sweet trails, good fun!
On Sunday I had planned a nice ride in Surrey, but got an hour in to the drive when I realised I'd left my helmet at home - I might have sworn a bit. No option but to turn around and try not think about the high cost of wasted diesel..
Went back to Surrey Hills yesterday with Mrs Ready for a 37miler. Started with some lovely XC type riding in the beautiful countryside, then onto some classics in Peaslake and some new to me trails near Leith Hill - MEGA day out!
A quick evening spin up the hill behind the farm with bro and doggos
