Looks to be a mixed bag weatherwise over the weekend, bit ‘o rain and a bit ‘o sun with temps in the low to mid teens, not too bad.
I’m planning a dawn 30 mile bridleway and sustrans track bash for tomorrow and getting the train back.

Good luck to all doing the jenn lakes 100/200 ride. I’m sure you’ll all have a belter, looking forward to loads of nice pics from the best rural corner of England.

Feeling so drained today I might give it a miss this weekend.

But similarly, I’ve still not made my mind up on which pedals I’m taking to scotland and I’m running out of time quick. Might have to have a little blat on the flats again tomorrow. Or the clips 😡

The Four Towers! Followed by a RAKE of ale on the way home 😀

Heading out for an evening spin with my as soon as I get home today. And got a pass to go a ride down some steep rocky mountains on Sunday as “training” for the Mega so will pop over to the Lakes. Route TBD.

Fractured elbow, so no plans…

planned a trip out to Wiltshire on the gravel bike… but my nose has started dripping. So long as no other symptoms, I’ll make a start and see how far I get

Well today is new bike day ,but brains telling me I cant use it until its been wrapped .
Health and safety course at 7:30 tomorrow so might get out for 3pm then Sunday is Chess dad , taking my lad to play for Lancashire so tablet and classroom all weekend .

Soo want to take my new stead for a dam good thrashing

French Enduro Rd2, Raon L’Etape. Sat in our hotel room prepping the bikes atm. Interesting format, no practise, but a “sighting” lap at your alloted time, no stopping. So pretty much blind for us! 400entries, including a few biggies like Clementz, Trabac, Absalon. I hope I dont come last!

Road ride in the Peak with a mate tomorrow out of Chatsworth. Sunday I’m leading my second FLAB Social ride for an easy café ride round the lanes of south Derbyshire.

Training plan has me down for a 9hr ride, but feeling a bit gubbed at the end of 3 week block and ready for an easy week, so may ‘just’ be the 6hrs.

Planning a day in the hills from Glenshee to Tomintoul and back. Supposed to be with NC500 group, but they seem to be training for 120mile days by drinking beer. Roll on August 😈

Done 30mile singlespeed ride tonight around Clumber and Sherwood.

Doing Peak District pioneer on Sunday

Waiting for mate to arrive, Afan today!

I’m planning on 75km of HOTS, plus an additional 30 miles of road to get there and back. Prep work for SDW in July. Picked up the family lurgee 2 days ago though so will just have to see how my day pans out….

Bloody lovely over the Chase this morning. Not as wet as I was expecting after yesterday’s rain, just a bit skitty on the pebbbles.

Spent 5 minutes just sitting on a bench.

lots of this

bit of this

and some of that.

bashed out 37 miles in the part sunshine and it just started to drizzle as I finished. So much light and space crammed into one ride, it was great to be out alone in the countryside.

Had a nice short road ride with the wife this morning, the proper fun starts tomorrow.

The plans are roughly as follows, drive to Lakes for late morning, walk up Scafell Pike from Seathwaite, meet friends in the George for cow pie. Monday ride at Whinlatter, Borrowdale Bash Tuesday and then a route around Coniston on Wednesday that takes in Parkamoor.

Was going to do a local muddy loop this afternoon but just didn’t feel like it so did a bit of housework instead 😕

Might go for a quick road blast tomorrow if I get up early enough, otherwise it’s my first weekend off the bikes this year!

Cannock for me this morning, just a few puddles and lots of cheery folks.

Ace!

33 lumpy road miles from Chatsworth this morning, got back before the heavy showers started. Pretty much bloody perfect ride given today’s forecast!

Went to see the old man in Lytham do took the road bike and went to Fleetwood and back. I felt like a riding god on the way up, then realised why on the way back as the tailwind quickly became a headwind.

Quite enjoyed it.

Another one for the Peak District pioneer on Sunday, just chilling today after a few days riding in the lakes, ‘recovering’ from ST7 last weekend.

FOD today. I took the bouncy bike as I’ve not ridden it in about 3 months as I’ve been living on the hardtail. Weird… Fun though.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/TKBT3Z]Forest of Dean. Shutcastle May 2017[/url] by Kayak23, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/TKBURi]Forest of Dean. Shutcastle May 2017[/url] by Kayak23, on Flickr

Top day at Afan today, doing W2. That’s the Wall, the over to Whites descent, then cafe for lunch and then up Whites and back over to do the Wall descent.

It comes in at 44km of riding with 950m of climbing…. which is a decent workout for sure. My climb times were not particularly wonderful as me and Crust were riding together on the way up, but my times on the downs were certainly a fair bit quicker than i’ve ridden previously, so i’m more than happy with that 🙂 i took a chunk of times off all of them coming down. I was certainly having a decent try on some/all of them and trying my best to stay off the brakes as much as possible.

Climbing wise, i felt happy and had a few pedally sections where i felt it was fine to crack on, again the times were happy there.

Overall, it was a brilliant brilliant day out. The rain stayed away, the sun came out once or twice too and we had lots of fun.

There were no crashes, plenty of cake and plenty of sausages !

Just had a cracking ride on the Tripster in ‘gravel mode’. 🙄

Those Schwalbe G-Ones are quite a revelation. Fast on road and really confidence inspiring on dirt.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ULqLvC]Untitled[/url] by eastham_david, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/TJidyh]Untitled[/url] by eastham_david, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/V1MS3M]Untitled[/url] by eastham_david, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UP3LhB]Untitled[/url] by eastham_david, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ULqCSm]Untitled[/url] by eastham_david, on Flickr

Now to mow the lawn 🙁

Spent a couple of days camping and riding the Church Stretton Bikepark.

😆

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UNZsRk]Church Stretton Bikepark was a bit extreme.[/url] by multispeedstu, on Flickr

Four people turned out for my FLAB Social ride this morning in the lovely warm sunshine – range of ages, bikes and experience. Very pleasant 26 miles pootling around south of Derby and watching one of them fail to complete the most enormous slice of Chocolate Rolo cake you could imagine at Mercia Marina!

Managed to sneak a quick ride around Whinlatter before family duties this morning.

Shake down ride for the Kona Unit with a Chronicle up front. Started with 13.5 psi and tried 12.5 psi, I think I can drop lower but I’ll try little by little.

Rides surprisingly well rigid with the plus tyre up front.

Just back from the PD pioneer. Would have been faster if I’d taken a road bike and picked my way through the off road on foot… 😕

Cross bikes were overkill, never mind the fs mtb I took…

Drumlanrig this morning, was super slippy……

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UKeC8d]As per usual the mighty Travers was faultless today, 83 miles, the longest ride I’ve done for ages

The Ridgeway was nice and muddy in places and some BIG puddles the dust never lasted to long the sun was out and the wind was blowing well very quiet around Avebury etc should drive out this week going to get some warm weather 😀

Up with the birds, 05:30 start, ride from Fife up into the Cairngorms.
135mi, 11500ft climbing.
Felt like winter most of ride with single digit temps and occasional drizzle – brrr.
Set some decent segment times on Cairnwell and the Lecht without actually setting out to do so.
Quite pleased overall, although bit gubbed after 120mi – not really cut out for this endurance stuff.

Was having a chores and family weekend so no riding plans, but managed to get away from the family early Sunday afternoon. Seeing as it was stunning weather out I grabbed the bike and went for a quick spin round the short loop of Cwmcarn’s Cafall trail 😀

Lovely having the trail to myself and the evening light dappling through the trees as I flew along (excuse crappy phone pic…)

[/url]20170521_183704_Richtone(HDR) by Da_Milky_Bar_Kid, on Flickr[/img]

Loaded up the Croix de Fer and enjoyed riding at a sedate pace along quiet roads and bridleways.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UNadkJ]image[/url] by Mikey Scott, on Flickr

Loving the flexibility of the ‘gravel’ bike.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UN9y7Q]Croix de Fer[/url] by Mikey Scott, on Flickr

Stopped in the pub for lunch, and then the rain arrived… two hours later I had no inclination to ride up any incline so jumped on the train.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/TP1qy2]Croix de Fer[/url] by Mikey Scott, on Flickr

Lessons learned :
1/ 50/34 compact with 36T cassette is good, but still want lower gears.
2/ mudguards would be nice
3/ limit the beer during stops until you’re done climbing

I was playing with the free trial of the OS Maps software and sketched out a 25mile loop taking in the Ladder road, which I’ve not ridden before. OS thought it would involve 4,400 foot (1,340m) of climbing, which was a bit of a worry! But I swapped the Surly ICT for a Canyon Dude at least in part because it would be lighter to carry and my diddy little 26T chainring arrived on Saturday morning, so I had no excuses 🙂

Bluebells, lots of Bluebells 🙂

Drove up to Cwmcarn and did a lap of the Twrch. Had to use the Stache as my 5010 is at the LBS having the reverb swapped. Regretted not swapping back onto the Chupacabras as the Vee Bulldozers seem to grip everything except the Cwmcarn rocks and dragged like hell on the climbs. Good ride though until first the back brake decided to stop working (leaked most of the fluid out over the pads and disk) shortly followed by the front deciding it too was not going to play on the final descent which made life erm, interesting!

Opening gates taking photos and riding part of a route I put together for the #jennride only had 1 moan from one rider out of 168 riders 🙂
[url=https://flic.kr/p/UQTXk4]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/UZ6fB3]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Recovering from bad cat aids but did get to take our new to us Burley trailer out. I foresee much more fun to come;
[/url]Burley trailer by Phil Dalton, on Flickr[/img]