Had a day off today and my new trailer axle arrived so took my youngest out for a ride around the 3 big city parks and the beach for ice cream, as is tradition.
How far to Stonehaven ? Definitely heading back there this year for an ice cream. 160 miles each way...
Grey and windy early chuck around local trails this morning. No photos of the fun stuff in the woods 'cos I was too busy riding - getting more confident on the off-camber and little jumps, though there was a tree down on the lower trail. Need to get down there with a saw when I have more time, or maybe build it into a wee jump.Â
Loving the new tyres on the Aether 9a too - gone from 2.4 Shorty MaxxTerra at both ends to 2.5 Assegai MaxxGrip on the front and 2.4 DHRII MaxxTerra on the back. Bit overkill for the trails in the pics, but nice on the steeper sketchier stuff in the woods.Â
Just a bit of a jaunt through the lanes to a village about 10 miles away. Every 10 years or so, a chap in Clun tries to map and count Shropshire's rookeries, to monitor fluctuations in the birds' population. Some got missed in 2025, so we're playing catchup a year later to tick their boxes, which seemed a good excuse for a ride. Of the three previously recorded sites I went to check on, only one is still an active rookery. And on the way home, the heavens opened.... April showers and rainbows are to be expected, I suppose.
Managed a super enjoyable ride out on Cavehill today - just before the rain swept in.
3 Lochs Way round Loch Lomond, Gare Loch, and Loch Long. Picture skew. 
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Decided last minute yesterday to bash out some miles. Lap of our local reservoir and into my usual riding trails after, making a nice 30 mile ride in the end. I even remembered to take a pic or two, which I've forgotten to do for the last few weeks!
Blustery, sunny, showery...very April 
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Friday morning coffee ride:
Solo Sunday saunter:
It rained most of the day today but managed to get a few laps around the local woods once it cleared.
Staying down in Dumfries and Galloway, so bunked off for a few hours to Kirroughtree. As a trail centre destination back in the mid-2000s, it always felt a bit special. It was ages away, so visits were rare, it had a very distinctive style compared to the other 7 Stanes and it had some pretty unique features, like McMoab.
Also have a lot of fond memories of 10 at Kirroughtree and SXC races down here.
These days, it definitely seems to contain a higher percentage of Type 2 Fun particularly on a modern, longer travel bike with big, sticky tyres (wasn't going to change them or futz with the geometry for a single trip). Would be much more fun on something a bit more XC, or, as I suspect many are doing, an e-bike.Â
Still, the rain stayed off and I had the whole place pretty much to myself.
