Friday - as usual - is the start of my weekend.
I usually head out early-ish, but thunderstorms rolling through knocked that on the head. Temperatures heating up by the time I got out at 10am, and the stillness and dampness in the woods made for a proper jungle feel!
Having some consideration for the various heatwave/riding in these temperature threads, and also having personally known someone who died of heatstroke whilst on a cycling tour in France on Sunday, I doubled down on my pre/mid ride hydration and took it very easy.
Unusually i was out before 8:00 this morning. Only felt really hot for the last 10 minutes when i was back in the sun. Managed a slight variation on some local trails. The best of which i didn’t photograph. 2 gates having been taken out and another 2 were open.
Woburn backwoods after work shut early today due to the heat! Lovely in the shade but horrid in the more open bits. Amazed at how quickly all the ferns have grown since I was last here a few weeks ago, most of the trails are really overgrown and hard to ride now.
Bike picked up a souvenir fern as well
One ride in about 5 weeks for me.
We've been very busy at home (plus an extended stay in hospital). Child 2 is at home and everyone is safe and happy.
Also we've been hiding in the house all week because the sun is brutal. It feels perverse after complaining about the rain all year but there's no way I'm riding in this. Even doing the school run on foot is savage.
Might pedal out somewhere this weekend but haven't planned anything.
Last day with our guide in and around Finale. We had a good idea that he had a big day planned and he didn't disappoint. 52 miles and 2500 mtrs of descent. The temp hit 39° at midday.
20 miles into the ride Kevin struck a rock on a techy climb and smashed a pedal off its spindle. Out in the hills with no way of sorting it he rode the rest of the ride on the spindle. Not sure how he managed to keep his foot on it but managed on everything
Had a few beers to chill out and may have a day off tomorrow 😴🤔
Back on the delivery bike after a brief (14 month!) hiatus. Just an hour today but great to be pedaling with a purpose again as well as pure fun! 
loads of suncream and sweat.....
Just some local trails, tech and a few jumps yesterday evening once it had cooled off a bit. Aside from brambles and nettles taking over in some spots, it was absolutely brilliant and ace to be out on just a lovely simple yet engaging ride from the door
Forgot to charge the e-pub-bike, so had to deploy backup e-pub-bike. Took the long way home because - well - why wouldn't you when it looks like this. 25km, 440m of climbing. Definitely worth it for a couple of cold ones 🙂
20 miles into the ride Kevin struck a rock on a techy climb and smashed a pedal off its spindle. Out in the hills with no way of sorting it he rode the rest of the ride on the spindle. Not sure how he managed to keep his foot on it but managed on everything
Yeah whatever
"Man up Kev, we are doing this ride, you ****'ed up, deal with it"
Was that really how it went Tracey, don't lie... 😉😂
Decided I was riding tonight instead of the usual sunny Friday rinse and repeat go to the pub for the same inane banter that has happened almost every day this week and usually happens every Friday.
Was horrifically sweaty when I set off and it was definitely ebike in turbo for a 6 mile just get out there and do something ride. Got into it though and did a nice loop (with a couple of different pub stops). 16 miles, relaxed ride, cooled down a bit during the ride - overgrown and nettles you say though 😭
Nice and early this morning before it got too hot - different local loop to my usual. Some grand views and fun trails, also some bramble whippage and the mother of all ruts that nearly sent me into orbit at about 20mph.
Found some sketchy jumps to play on in the woods too.
Not many pics cos I wanted to get a few miles in before I had to head home.
Not hot here’s but bright and sunny in … erm Bright, Victoria. There’s a great bike park and the Reeksy boys were in their element putting down 10 runs, 42km and 3,500m of descending. We also saw lots of paragliders and some wedge tail eagles.
Added a photo of the scene outside my tent earlier in the week.
As usual images are too big…so just a few here
We had a good laugh about it. There was no way he was going to miss the remainder of the ride. Zip tying his foot to the spindle wasnt an option and it helped on the downhills that it was his back foot. Just took it all in his stride. Or in this case his pedal
Glad I went with the 150 cranks as there were loads of rocks on the uphills.
Rode the long way to the trails, rode the trails - ace conditions bit loose in places tho, had a beer and then rode the long way home. A most excellent way to spend a chunk of Saturday. Out again tomorrow? I think probably yes 🙂
A ride of many chutes. And a big cow 🙂
A windy sunny Alnmouth bay this morning 🌞👍
I had planned a shorter day, since I’ve been riding every day. But when I saw the trail on the other side of the col, I couldnt resist. Not an easy climb back to the right side of the hill, but at least it was all pedalable, and no hikeabike this time.
I had a really nice ride across the Long Mynd today, I followed the route in this months magazine with some added singletrack goodness courtesy of a local I bumped into! I (delightedly)discovered there is a lot more to the Long Mynd than I originally thought, it’s like a gift. A hot, sweaty gift today, but still 😆 just in time too as a lot of singletrack is about to be buried by bracken until it starts to die back… the actual route should be fine for a little while at least! I should have spent more than 20 seconds taking pics, but I was having too much fun and time was a brief window in amongst parenting duties!
So after the past 10 years of only riding hard tails I went to the dark side and picked up a second hand Cotic Jeht. Took it for a spin today and feels like cheating compared to a hardtail. Carries speed through rough stuff and just handles anything I could point it at today.
Cracking ride today, Chatsworth, Beeley Edge, Curbar Edge, Longshaw, Fox House, Flow House, White Edge and more on the way back.
Three pub stops, pizza at the last one, 33 miles, 4200ft, 7% battery left. Got home about 7 hours after setting off
First trip to Revs for me yesterday, scaring myself on fast jumps (not the biggest ones!)
Was a bit cautious at first but got into it and was loving it by the end of the day. Wish I lived closer to somewhere that had this type of riding so I could progress more. As we only do this type of stuff maybe once every few months, I spend half the day remembering how to do the smaller (but still quite big!) stuff then don't get time to push it further
No I didn't do this drop either. Height was fine, horrible landing straight into a loose dusty berm was the issue
I haven't been to Revs for about 10 years. I'd happily do more jumpy, bikepark, DH stuff but my middle aged riding crew has faded away.
Breezy this morning and missed my usual Saturday road loop yesterday and the roadie club run this morning as I was tinkering with bike setup when I should have been leaving. I might have been alright if I'd not had to go home for my water bottles after 2km. 🙄
Sacked off the group rides and had a very pleasant solo 50 miles mostly out and back along the Solent and a quick stop at my favourite coffee van. Quick bit of mid ride bar adjustment after this morning's stem change and I think the new(ISH) to me road bike is getting the last wrinkles ironed out.
Would have been an excellent day to be keelboat racing too looking out there. 
Trying to avoid the fierce south westerly ‘breeze’….
Today brings this second part of our tour to a close.
Six days of riding in and around Finale Ligure. Rode some of our old favourites and some stunning new trails. Smiles for miles thanks to our local guide, Mario from Trails Adventure who as always, taken us on some epic awsome days in the hills.
The temperature has always been in the 30° + but today was the hottest at above 40°
Tomorrow we move across Italy to the Euganean Hills for a few days. Heard alot about the trails there. Always keen to explore new places
Pretty much the polar opposite to @tracey 🙂 Busy day outside but rather than toast my gardening efforts with a cold beer, I went "evening bridleway" hunting from home. I can never be bothered on the non E as I know most of them will be rubbish and they're all up a big hill.
The ones I tried were rubbish. I didn't care 🙂
Oh and you can (nearly) see my house from here!
All these pics including my own make me realise how lucky we are. We get to do this and see this, while some people just see suburbia, or even worse just urban wastelands every day.
Some people even go running for 'fun' 🤢. Biking is ace
Well it’s still the weekend in my mind…
We dropped Reeksy1 at Albury station to join his outward bound course and decided to flee the imminent bad weather and drove 6.5 hours to the east coast. Which meant today Reeksy2 and I rode at Narooma. A seriously good and huge trail centre with a Playground zone (much better than it sounds), Gravity zone and endless xc tracks. After 15km of jump trail sessions and a bit of tech Reeksy2 sessioned the black jump line while I did another 15km out to the gravity zone and back. Brilliant day!
And as usual the photos won’t upload FFS
Club ride to our "Cafe of the Year" who were proudly displaying their award. This was just my little sub group
Last ride of our 7 week trip to Spain (didn't spot any bears)
I always seem to be sharing photos of eMTB rides - just the way things work out, most of my riding is still non e-powered - honest!
A few hours free on Sunday afternoon. Not ideal as it was 22*C which is damn warm for me, but make use of riding time around family time. Headed further into the Ochils to ride Colnsaur Hill (553m), descended to sea level, then the steeper east, less-used ascent of Dumyat (418m) from Menstrie. Decided I had more left in the tank so played around in the woods behind Stirling and Bridge of Allan. Final tally: 37km and 1400m+ ascent/descent and 9% left in the battery. Me? I was spent! Combination of very windy conditions, the heat and soggy ground conditions after rain on Friday and again overnight into Sunday.
Great being out in the hills despite being so close to a city.
Edit - duplicate post
Back to work for me today after a 4 day weekend, but still wanted to go again tonight. I’ve been trying to improve my time on a local technical descent and have been trying to move up the leaderboard - got up to second tonight. Still got to find another 2 seconds if I want my first ever KOM. Fantastic evening in the woods, enjoyed watching some hares on the way back. 
Had the phone in my pocket the entire ride, and the only photo I took was "going for a ride with Biffa the Bin" 🙂
Was good tho. Tired legs. But I have a motor for that 🙂
Wasnt sure whether to put this in the Weekend thread or the Midweek Ride one, so as this was nearer the top of the forum, it goes here. Just had a short ride on a (comfortably cooler) Monday evening after eating, leaving 'erindoors watching shite on the box
Another great day at Narooma. First part of the day in the playground with Reeksy2 doing jump runs and some of the techy runs. Then I went out to the Wilderness zone for the first time. More excellent trails, great signage, a lyre bird and even snake bite kits at the start and end of each track. Once again not all the photos are uploading 🤦🏻
Bike at a trig. Last minute Sunday evening decision to pop to the not quite so local.
Gotta get some chunkier riding in ahead of ard rock so this is as good as anything.
