The planned 'group ride' kinda deteriorated into just the three of us. Two baled-out in the morning, one of us three baled-out en route to meet (allegedly) five others. Four of the other five were running v late, and the other one of the five who *did* show up had his freehub totally expire as he pulled it out of his car.

🙄

Nevertheless, a good ride was had by all. And rarely have I seen Longleat Forest so picture-skew. Amazing how a few inches of the white stuff can transform dull old familiar trails.

And yes, those REALLY are shorts that chap's wearing. Made of tough stuff is Young'Un. He didn't even complain after he rode through any icy ford in his summer-shoes (while we took the footbridge which he never noticed 😉 )

Oh, and I got to check out THESE bad boys:

Old 2.1 Panaracer Trailblasters. Officially a light-weight, dry-rides-only tyre from back-in-the-day, but they had ample chunks of rubber to hold c.130 screws in place. They worked astonishingly well… right up to the point where one pinch-flatted on a screw head (no amount of internal gaffer tape was going to prevent that from eventually happening). Thankfully, that was right near the end of the ride so no harm done.

Great stuff 🙂

You tease – apols i couldn't make it!

Shorts FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeh, Shorts – WTF!

That tyre also is mint!

wouldnt it be more sensible to have less of the screw showing???

take a look at the "proper" ice/snow tyres….

Wouldn't have looked as good 😉

apols i couldn't make it!

Next week mate! And pray for more snow!

wouldnt it be more sensible to have less of the screw showing???

Agreed. They were hastily made last night and I never had time to snip them down to a more 'regular' length. Seemed to work fine, though. At least for the first four hours…

so after I drove home and swapped for a bike with a working freehub the other (somewhat less organised) group of 5 managed a good ride too.. we even rode on the lake!
i'll see if i can get the pics..

we even rode on the lake!

Can't say as doing that was even remotely tempting 🙂 I remember seeing a Mini parked on Shear Water a few years ago…

Glad you all had a good ride too. Next week?

"trailblaster a light-weight, dry-rides-only tyre"

I got one of those! Extremely fast tyre with pinch protecton. Good on the back for summer XC racing, bludy scary on the front.

unfortunately can't do next week.. here's a pic on the lake, it's near the shore, and pretty shallow – wasn't tempted to try and cross..

seriously dude, you need to be careful on frozen lakes 😯

[/quote]seriously dude, you need to be careful on frozen lakes

Might seem like a fun thing to do but seriously not a good idea. You're putting all your (and the bike) weight onto an area about 25% of your two feet – plus, being ice you're more liekly to fall and then the chances of going through are much higher.
I've seen reports of too many people (old enough to know better) that have died in lakes over the last couple of weeks to even consider it. Must be getting old.

Great pic, Tom, but you're a braver man than I… I like to think I'm old enough to know better. Plus I simply don't have the 'cojones' 🙂 Tragedies have happened as recently as this.

Went out for more of the same today. Took the 5-Spot instead of the rigid SS. Longleat, then up over Cold Kitchen Hill. Proper cold up there, it was. And wind-swept. 😯 Bit warmer today, too, with temps hovering just above freezing. Not like yesterday.

(Apologies for loss of pictures, BTW. Apparently bandwith was exceeded and my account's been suspended).

was much warmer today.. better for snowballs. would have been good to do the bigger loop but walked round the lake with the boys – can't do two rides in a weekend 🙁

so, anyways before i walk away from this looking like a complete pillock 🙂 – the water below me is 1-2 feet deep – it's a good spot for paddling.. round where the tarmac turns into fireroad at the top end of the lake. I'm not one for risking my life for a photo 🙂

riding today was snowboard biased 😀
next week it's onto the twin tips if there's another dump 😀

tomwod

Thats a really excellent picture – worthy of a place on the mantelpiece.

Hi Tom, glad you got your bike going in the end. Just realised, don't you live on the High St, Frome? I'm no.25 – thought you looked familiar!
Los