Here’s Chipps’ ride report, how did yours go?

Monday Morning Debrief 12

It was ace.

Heading up by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Still some snow by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Gates in the snow by Lee Collis, on Flickr

40th meal at The 3 Wise Monkeys by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Alnmouth to Warkworth by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Alnmouth to Warkworth by Lee Collis, on Flickr

Cabosse for High Tea by Lee Collis, on Flickr

With 2 nights in the pub too, perfect.

First ever ride at Llandegla on Saturday morning. Beautiful weather and a fantastic ride. Can’t believe that’s the first time I’ve been there, will definitely be heading back there at some point.

It was then topped off with a visit to a newly revamped pub some friends are now running. 14 different casks on, fantastic food and the rugby on a big screen!

Built this and took it for a quick 1 hr ride.

P1050024 by eastham_david, on Flickr

P1050034 by eastham_david, on Flickr

Saturday – lazy bacon butty style morning then tinkering with little lady’s new road bike, followed a quick spin with the lady herself for her to try it out. Then, a full afternoon of solid man cave bike cleaning, bike tinkering and wall anchor and security cable installing action. Homemade fish curry for tea, lovely.

Sunday – smashing ride on my billy no mates around the Cotswolds, including two stream crossings, the second of which isn’t usually two foot deep… Still, it cleaned the bike a treat.. Cheeky pint and bowl of chips after. Lazy afternoon, roast pigeon for tea. Lovely.

Two solid days on the Roadie in the Downs.
And another ride today..

Built this and took it for a quick 1 hr ride.

What frame is that? I likey 🙂

Ran 6 miles up to the Downs and back.

Thumb still not right enough riding 🙁

Legs not right enough for running it would seem, either, based on this morning’s discomfort…

Lovely ride out on my own on Saturday. Blessed as we were by that most shy and retiring of creatures… northern sunshine!!

Decided to get the OS map out and ride down the bits I hadn’t done before. Found some nice stuff too. You can be extra cheeky when you’re out on your own 😉
Untitled by binlidski, on Flickr

Untitled by binlidski, on Flickr

Topped off by meeting a few of the reprobates off here for beers in the Brewery. Poifect! 😀

Very cold & icy but sunny early road ride on Saturday morning round the Cheshire lanes, followed by the rugby and dinner at some fancy French restaurant that served my venison Wellington well done!!

Saturday morning driving shuttles for Tas State DH & Super D round, timing & spectating in the afternoon. Lazy Sunday with a tough turbo interval session in the afternoon. Rock and Roll!!

Physio cleared me for gentle road biking this morning though so getting better…..

Saturday was a pub crawl around Bristol dressed as video game characters, I was Agent 47 🙂 Sunday was recovery.

easy ride in the chilterns, on my new Mantle 20. loads of mud, and sun 😀

I got a Gopro and made a film with my son in the woods. Only one child jump, tree incident. Went for a proper ride on Friday as well as the snow and ice has gone for the moment.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiOrzy0cXkU&list=UU20gnGz_LiP1ZfMkJZSCfEg&index=1[/video]

Just my local 30 odd KM loop on Sunday early AM, the trails out of the woods were nice and frozen too!

Found a way to link a couple of existing trails, ripped my shins to bits on brambles and went over the bars, ideal!

First ’13 ride with the “works” crowd 🙂
Headed out to Ae on Saturday am

Couple of “oh flick” moments at this washed out bit by those who had not been for a while 😕

DSCN3502 by john_henry_mtb, on Flickr

DSCN3532 by john_henry_mtb, on Flickr

DSCN3518 by john_henry_mtb, on Flickr

Chef by john_henry_mtb, on Flickr

Finished ride with a. Chef Cochran fry up, a tradition which began when the Stanes were created. None of these guys had ever ridden off road before then 🙄
I had just finished a night shift and Chef Cochran had been working from 5am fitting lagging to a big vessel 😐

You know those rides when you just wish you hadn’t bothered… decided to add the Capel Curig Loop onto the Marin Trail and investigate some cheekiness. Started well enough but from Capel Curig onwards it was awful; gloom, wind & rain all the way and when it stopped the wind was picking up water off the surface of Llyn Cowlyd and throwing it at me in buckets. Had to walk in ankle deep water all the way up to and part way round Llyn Cowlyd; wheel bearings needed tightening up half way round; tried to follow bridal ways that don’t exist any more; cheeky route turned out to be un walkable let alone ridable (went down a slope on my arse); fell in a boggy mess up to my elbows; then forgot to restart my Garmmin after stopping for a Jelly Baby rest so it didn’t record the last 10 mins of what ended up being a 6.5 hour, 55k epic !!!

…then had to clean the bike in the dark !

Wind doom & gloom !

The sea of boggyness that had to be climbed !

The wind picking up the water. Looks good, feels sh1te !

Had to pull out of a mates ride on Saturday as my sons 11+ (or whatever it’s called now) results came in. The boy done good, so we celebrated with a trip to the Red Panda for an all you can eat binge. After 4 hours of top notch chinese food we rolled across the road to the cinema for a popcorn pudding. My son is a ******* bin 😀

A few hours out on the bike Sunday morn redressed the balance a bit. Especially as my seatclamp broke and I was old skool standy up pedally man for most of it.

Local 30 mile loop in the beautiful sunshine from Stockport.

Think I’ve finally found all the best ways up down and around Werneth Low and Etherow Park…maybe.

Am amazed at the riding from my door 🙂

Cheers
Paul

Local 30 mile loop in the beautiful sunshine from Stockport

This is what I wish I had have done !

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/so-whatve-you-been-upto-this-weekend-bikes-leaning-on-signpost-content

A supprisingly dusty Peaks ride on Saturday, followed by installing a towbar on Sunday, the instructions were a bit vague but we got there in the end with ahaynes manual. Still got the electrics to do, but that can be done in an evening sometime.

i did this on friday evening, and again on sunday afternoon.
and watched rugby all day saturday. 8)

03.02.13 test run 016 by 20ston, on Flickr

Had a nice climb up to the Tigers Head on Lantau, not so much pollution about so you could actually make out Victoria Harbour and the IFC and ICC buildings, absoute scorcher of a day as well.

Through various people dropping out or leave the ride early I then ended up with me and four 15 year olds, concerned that I would end up with hospital duties due to the number of rough hewn stairs leading down I was then promptly shown that the kids are allright and its me that needs to improve!
Poor video of the descent here (not sure about the GoPro handlebar mount):
TigersHead

Sunday ride on the South Downs – two punctures, more mud than I’ve ever seen, windy, wet, cold and zero adrenaline. But I loved it anyway.

Took the fatbike out for it’s first trial-by-snow. Headed out to the hills around Pitfichie on Saturday and found about 0.5m of snow away from the forest roads. The first 3 hours were great fun ploughing through the mix of powder, ice and drift. We could ride for about 20m or so before hitting something deep and getting ejected off the bikes into a tangled giggling heap.

Hours 3-4 were less fun as we started to get cold and extremely tired. Towards the end of the ride it was a head down slog to get back to the car. A giant bowl of pasta and a few glasses of red capped the day off nicely!

J

Went up Bennachie on Saturday. No pictures as it was getting late and to be honest, I’m getting a bit bored of the snow. It’s fun and all that but it would be nice to actually see the trail sometime and at least be able to make some guess as to when your front wheel is going to suddenly stop or wash out. Saw half a dozen other idiots on bikes though (who were making a much better fist of riding through the snow), which is unusual as I rarely see anybody.

First Munro ride of the year. Me and my mate Donald headed up onto the summits of Ben Ime and Ben Narnain in the Arrochar Alps. The combination of sunshine, snow and scenery made for a heady mix. I opted for the ice tyre and Katoola Microspike combo on my 29er. The ride up to the Bealach is really nice especially as a descent while the snow on the tops made for fast and fun riding. You know you’re a wee bit out there when a couple of Royal Marines suggest you’re a bit mental for taking the bikes up. Absolutely brilliant day out. 😀

Whisky tasting weekend in Snowdonia, ride up the quarry as a warm up.

Yes, that clock is a bit loud isn’t it?

Feeling very jealous of all that, pics look good drac nice journey along the coast to warkworth.
I spent the weekend lying on my back in the QE Hospital with a broken ankle, black ice at top of my drive on saturday morning has got me laid up for a few months, bit gutted, but will no doubt fill my time in on here!

Coedy on sat, mix up of favourite bits and cutting out the less fun bits (ie fire road out and back after cafe) sunshine the whole way round. Stayed at the vagabond in Betws y coed sat night with a nice meal out followed by few pints. Then rode penmachno yesterday for he first time, great trail, although the wind seemed to be constantly in our faces! great weekend in all though.

Out with the MOtley Crew for 3 hours icy ride around Oxenhope, Ogden reservoir etc in West yorks. They are a group of women mountain bikers who have been meeting up and riding out first Sunday of the month every month for 10 years. Good going. A tad breezy, a tad cold but magnificent views over to East we could see the Beverley towers and N York moors and to the west on the horizon was Pen Y Ghent and Inglebrough. Nice.

I went out yesterday for my first proper ride of my new Genesis Day One – single speed cross.

I loved it. Flat Essex with a 42 / 22. But pretty tough for a big man like me. The bike was great. Through the trees it was more capable than me.

Appx 20 miles, maybe 70% off road. Freezing cold, bleak, wind biting my face. Raced alongside a herd or deer just like Jurrasic Park. Loved every second.

Oh and saw a couple of other blokes out on their MTB’s; we all knew I was way cooler than them..

Anyone want to buy a couple of mountain bikes ??

Had a bit of a hangover so had a quick blast around the country lanes in the afternoon on the singlespeed.
Pic outside Terling Church…

Hangover Blast Ride by Yeti Tony, on Flickr

Some great pics of N Wales up there excitable1.. A good, proper bleak day up there now and again is good for your soul – thankfully I’ve not done it for a long time )

More road miles here, much more than I normally do. Trails are starting to dry a little after all the wind that’s been in my face for pretty much every one of those miles. It’ll be worth it )

Swaledale, Apedale and a touch of Wensleydale on Saturday

Apedale Road 2-2-13 by Dee P Jay, on Flickr

Hamsterley on Sunday 😀

Drinking to much saturday nite followed by a 6.30 sunday morning drive to mid wales.Rode the excellent Red Kite xc race with banging head.Topped off the weekend by getting myself a Dyfi enduro entry.Ace

Another top day in North Wales on Saturday

more pics here & a cracking video one of the lads put together on Page 2
http://northwalesmtb.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ridedays&action=display&thread=9758

I missed the good weather on Saturday as business is starting to pic up after the Christmas lull..

Sunday I made it out late afternoon for a few solid miles and some tough hills on East Dartmoor which has started to drain nicely with the strong winds..
Then back out again this morning at an easier pace for a good few miles more at Haldon..

😀