Weekend rides: autumn gold arrives edition

Managed to sneak away in the van last night for a weekend and this morning met eldest at Tarland for some rides and deep conversations….

Royal Deeside is looking top notch autumnal —insert leaf emojis—

My weekend rides this week were Thursday and this morning.

Having a weekend away from the bikes as I’ve done 8 rides in the last 8 days and I’m ****.

Edinburgh Beer Festival tomorrow so fully on the lash.

A little too wet for hanging about taking photos so this is all I have.

A rock on yesterday ride.

Today’s ride.

A rock on yesterday ride.

TOTOROCK!

Three weeks until Peak Autumn here, I think.

Todays ride in La Chapelle D’Abondance, near Chatel:

Winter tyres back on the hardtail.

Trees and cliffs.

Streets of Sheffield today. Hamsterley on Sunday

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Peak spring here. Over 30 degrees this morning made it hard work… Slightly distracting when the Noosa hillclimb race is going on next to the tracks though.

No riding but I did go to the Shimano bike museum in Osaka, which is full of brilliant things, old and new.

Wet one this morning. Had fun trying to match my frame to the fallen leaves.

Lovely day out. Ebike as fitness has taken a battering, well breathing has.

No riding today. It was heavy rain up to 15 mins ago so to make the most of it went in the garage and stripped the S Works Stumpy down ready to sell on.

It’s not been ridden since Kevin’s accident last summer so it may as well go for someone else to enjoy it once we get round to advertising it all.

Only took an hour from start to finish and everything came off easy

Came back in for lunch and ended up ordering some new forks in the sale

Flooding by the Wye in Ross. Pub nearly underwater. Luckily new cafe that’s opened was fine and sausage sandwich was a fine way to enjoy the ‘view’. Went for a ride in the hills above but didn’t take any photos. Glad to be back on the HT tho, mud skills definitely rusty. As will my bike be if I don’t clean and dry it. Good fun tho, beautiful autumn day.

Notgrove in’t Cotswolds.

@kayak23 The foot fetish folks will appreciate your muddy leg pic!

A 4am drive to Manchester airport to drop my son off, a quick hours kip, then out riding pumpkin ET around the pumpkin festival for 5 hours in lovely sunshine. It all contributes to my slightly spaced expression, but I had a blast.

After last night’s downpour, my mate and I pushed back our planned gravel ride on the High Peak Trail till after lunch and were rewarded with beautiful autumn sunshine. And some rather splendid passion fruit cheesecake ice cream at the Tagg Lane Dairy.

As we got back towards Middleton Top we met a load of the roadies riding the Venetian Nights 200k audax. It’s actually 210km with 2700m of climbing. Given that they’d ridden up Cromford Hill then on up to Middleton Top before hitting the High Peak Trail on road bikes as dusk fell, much respect!

It really does look beautiful out there with all the autumnal leaves on the ground, even got to see the leaves up close thanks to their ability to cover those glassy roots.

even got to see the leaves up close thanks to their ability to cover those glassy roots.

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Lazy trees round this way. Couldn’t be bothered dropping the leaves individually so the whole tree fell over instead.

Today’s ride:

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Bit muddy on the gravel ride today

Managed a short spin out in the sun yesterday afternoon between family duties. Was gorgeous if a little muddy. Need to fit the mudhugger today as it’s forecast for rain all day.

Smashing morning today. Have wanted to take my eldest on a log chute* ride for a while. Problem is it is a 1000m climb from our door which he’s not keen on. This morning we had breakfast at a cafe on the range with the grandparents so a good excuse to just ride the down (still 500m climb over 26km).

We had a great time. He overtook me on the chute and missed some of the sneaky singletrack as a result…and dropped me on the hardest climb.

*timber getters in the 19th century slid trees down chutes to bullock teams. Now they’re sometimes rough tracks too steep to easily drive up.

Good pics from folks as always, I managed a sunny but breezy local potter this morning, found a new bridleway, there’s not many around where I am, so a bonus:

First ‘proper’ ride on the Druid today. I think I’m going to like it. The weather was the most outstanding feature though.

Bit of a cheat but I’m feeling grim post covid/flu booster grim, so cheered myself up by editing the last days vid from Molini back in September. Finishing on one of my fav trails out there. Fantasy into Love Tunnel. Including riding through the window and out the front door of a long abandoned house. Screen grab is from the last drop in the tunnel

If you want 30 minutes of that kind of thing, some bang average riding but some brilliant excuses for why I’m not going way faster, then https://youtu.be/BBhJacMaHMo 🙂

On’t steeps after the rain yesterday. Trails running really surprisingly well

Also had a beautiful early trail run with Mrs el_b on Friday morning. Trees all looking lovely and a super moon setting, too

Went to Macc forest yesterday to do my first gravel ride on my new bike. Got there and the freewheel had died on my Hunt gravel wheels. Awesome. Drove home, stuck the road wheels on and did 40km on the road instead. Didn’t take any pictures as I was a bit miffed about it!

Bannockburn up and around Carron Reservoir and back down again.

Down by t’river.

Might need another week for the colours to really come out but some of the trees were looking good.

This was yesterday on the gravel bike. The weather today has been far too minging to go riding, in fact I’d be surprised if there are any leaves left in some places because of the wind!

I too think we’re a couple of weeks from peak autumnal colours…

….however today’s storm seems to be removing a few too many.

Harumph

The Isle Of Avalon living up to it’s reputation.

Took my eldest for a wee shred on the cairngorm mountain trails. Absolutely perfect for young uns, and a beautiful drive there