Whitwick / Coalville / NW Leicestershire Riders

It is on Main St. I assume you’ll be coming from Coalville down from Beacon Hill towards the Bull’s Head?

If so, turn right at the Bull’s Head onto main street. Drive about 300 yards and it is on your left opposite the doctor’s surgery. It’s not tricky to find, so you’ll be OK.

Cheers Danny, I’ll be coming from Loughborough as I work in long eaton and will be coming straight from work. I’ll see if i can get there in time.

I’m still working in Dorchester so can’t make it again.

No worries Jez.

It looks like being a ‘type two fun’ ride, but hey there you go.

If you’ll have a new, old MTBer, no gear and no idea, I’d like to join you.

Roll call for tonight, then.

At present I think it is me, danrandon and timba.

Meeting 7pm village car park woodhouse eaves.

Danrandon and timba, if you are not going to make it for whatever reason, please post up here before 5-30pm. If I don’t hear otherwise I will be there at 7pm.

Anyone else interested in a ride that you can tell future generations about? You know, the time when we rode into rain and sleet so hard it made your face bleed?

Again, post up before 5-30pm if you are coming, please – I’d like to keep hanging around in a freezing car park to a minimum if poss.

Danny – major problems at home what with this bloody wind, i’ve got to go and batten down the hatches on several items which are now no longer attached to the house 🙁

was so looking forward to it as well. Barsteward weather

Last night’s ride was just the two of us (timba and I).

Weather-wise it was one of those rides that errs more towards an ‘experience’ than a ‘ride’ as such, but it was still great to be out in the great outdoors for a couple of hours. Great to be breathing fresh air (granted, that fresh air was mostly barrelling past at about 70mph).

We only decided against one bit, where it didn’t look all that much fun to be pedalling on what is normally a nice flowy descent.

Rounded off with a pint in the Curzon.

See you (hopefully) next week – Scandal, give me a shout about the Peaks ride on the 23rd if you want to come and we can sort out some travel arrangements.

Hats off to you Daniel – you a one hardy individual!

I think I have become a bit of a fair-weather rider – that would explain my lack of biking activity over the last few pathetic months. I will be much more up for a crisp, crunchy-ground type of ride – sorting the bike and all the shit that goes with it is not appealing at the mo.
Will be trying out Blaengarw this weekend as in S Wales anyway – hopefully go some way to getting my mojo back! 😳

Thanks for putting up with me Danny

At least the wind noise covered the sounds made by the big cat/axe murderer that lurk in dark woods.

Some statistics: 18.4 miles, a good evening and a pint

Really glad you boys made it out, great effort to keep it going chaps.

Apologies for the absence, I have been working away for the last 3 days.

Danny, Peaks all depends on me getting some miles under my belt before hand, obviously not been riding on a consistent basis recently and don’t want to be holding things up on an organised ride.

timba – no ‘putting up with’ required – always good to get out and about on the bike with some company rather than shitting myself every time a branch moves in the woods on my own.

18.4 miles – are you sure about that? I think that may have been km or you might have left the satnav on for part of the drive home(!)

I suspect it was more in the region of 10-12 miles, but good fun nonetheless.

Scandal – you really don’t need to worry too much about fitness. The bloke who guides the rides does two ‘levels’ of ride – ‘Social’ and ‘Big’. The ride next Sunday is a ‘social’ – meaning that group solidarity and a social element is paramount.

The ‘big’ rides are ones where cracking on to get it all done is more prominent, but I’ve managed some of those OK. Mind you I did nearly die on one climbing up onto the Long Mynd ride five times.

You’ve got enough fitness to be fine on a social ride – so don’t worry.

Excellent work on keeping this going fellas. Hopefully I’ll get out again in the near future.

might have left the satnav on

😳

Some statistics: 10 miles, a good evening and a decent pint

18.4 miles with my back wheel slippage, no grippage, (maybe) 😀

Right Dan, Im In

Just purchased some army surplus waterproof trousers as I am quite sure they will be needed on the day the way things are going.

I text you t’other week but not sure If I have the correct number, have you received anything from me? would be good to get a plan of action sorted.

Scandal.

Good man. I’ll text you early in the week and well sort it. The ride starts in hayfield (which is a little further than Ladybower). We’ll need to be on t’road by 8am latest, whatever permutation of driver / car we choose.

It’s a great route we’ll be riding. A lot of it is slightly off the well beaten track (some people think the dark peak is only Ladybower or Edale). There’s a couple of really fun descents that not many people know much about.

OK then folks – Wednesday is approaching rapidly (at a rate of about one hour per hour in case anyone was wondering).

Against my temptation to set the meet for 600 yards from my house, shall we set the meet as:

7pm Man Within Compass car park Whitwick.

Look forward to seeing you there & then.

Roll call tomorrow lunch/afternoon please as I don’t want to have to load the car up if no one else is bothering!

I’ll let you know now, I am 100% out.

Belated Valentines meal with the missus 😐

Still on for Sunday though Dan

Hello all. After a weekend test ride I seem to have an almost fully functioning knee again so I will be out tomorrow.

Nice one Bob. See you there.

Scandal. I’ll let Col know that you’re coming on Sunday as well.

I haven’t got any texts from you, and I don’t have your number. If you put your house number on here, I know the street you live on! If I don’t speak to you before then, I’ll see you at your house at 7-45am on Sunday morning. If we’re on the road by five to eight we should be there in plenty of time. The ride starts at 10am, but we don’t want to be rushing.

Have a look at theedgecycleworks.com and click on shop rides, the details are there. You can also link to the route guide and photos from there.

Hopefully see some others tomorrow evening as well……

Still in Dorchester. Only 8 days left. Yippie.

I’ll hopefully be there. Picked up a silly injury so I’ll see how the commute goes, I’ll confirm later

Without trawling though all your messages (sorry), what day & time do you guys usually ride?

Hi Frankers

Our weekly meet is 7pm every Wednesday, we alternate between Whitwick and Woodhouse Eves.

We also have the odd ‘away day’ or local ride at the weekend.

Scandal, I’m in for tonight bike is prepped and ready to go, getting the missus to drop me off.

any idea of the route we are taking?

I am not sure of the exact route Dan has in mind,

It may include the likes of the quarry / Bardon Hill / Blackbrook / Warren Hills etc.

I can’t make tonight unfortunately.

I am not sure of the exact route Dan has in mind,

It may include the likes of the quarry / Bardon Hill / Blackbrook / Warren Hills etc.

Me neither! Actually that’s a bit of a lie – I have a pretty good idea where I’d like to go this evening – and it’s not exactly Dartmoor, so no danger of getting too lost(!) It’ll be the usual haunts, but I’m going to start with Cademan Wood as it has the best trails and I’d prefer to ride those whilst still fresh.

Scandal – sorry if you haven’t read back up the page – stick you house number on here and I’ll see you there at 7-45am on Sunday (assuming we don’t communicate in any other way before then).

Oh yea 🙂

45

Just remember guys i’m old, fat, unfit and dragging a buggered knee and ankle but i’ll do my best not to slow you down too much.

Definite for tonight. See you at 7

Well done to Bob, Dan, Timba (and me) for ‘keeping the ride alive’ (registered trademark) this evening.

A fun-filled couple of hours slipping and sliding around the riding hotspots of Whitwick. Rounded off with a really decent pint of hobgoblin in the Rag n Mop (at least for Bob and I). The trails were actually not quite as bad as I thought they might be, some water has soaked in (god knows how). I thought we might be in for some bits like where the Martin Sheen character in Apocalypse Now comes out of the water to kill Colonel Kurtz, but actually I’d say they were holding up pretty well. For now at least.

And just to reiterate, there are no worries about being at the back of the ride at all. I have been on plenty of rides where I have been that person who feels like they’re holding things up. When I’ve then ridden with the same people again and mentioned it, they don’t know what I’m on about. Riding is riding, it’s better than sitting on the sofa and (as far as I am concerned anyway) we aren’t some kind of ‘devil take the hindmost’ roadie chain gang who leave other riders to their own devices miles behind.

Roll on next week. Although things might conspire against me. But I will do my level best to make it on Wednesday evening.

Watch this space.

Good work lads.
Will try and get my lazy arse out next week – Swithland area?

Rascal.

Good to hear from you.

Yes, more than likely Swithy area. If you could guarantee your attendance then that will set the meet for there (if I get stitched up at work, you could then do the ‘knowledge’).

Danny, thanks for the ride last night (while it lasted for me), gutted i couldn’t finish as I was really looking forward to it. The major stomach pain finished at around 3am this morning and finally managed to get a few hours sleep.

The woods were not as bad as i had thought they would be, they can get pretty darned boggy at times.

Hope to see you all next week without any pain. 😀

I should probably turn out for one of these rides at some point…

Maybe when it dries out a bit, as I can’t be arsed dealing with 2 filthy rides a week.

Hey Gents, I would be interested in an early evening ride. I haven’t ridden for a while. I have been suffering from lower back pain which is easing nicely, I’m itching to get back in the saddle.
Give me a nod when you decide a week day ride, I’ll see if I can join you.
Cheers

Right – for this week I am going to get all complicated on you lot 🙁

Basically I cannot guarantee being able to make it out on Wednesday night. I would say I’m about 60:40 to be able to make it at the moment. Work is not my friend this week.

The best scenario (for me) is that we set the meet as 7pm in the Woodhouse Eaves village car park, but that someone else who knows the area well enough will be coming in case I can’t make it – they could then lead. Rascal – I’m thinking of you here(!)

Can someone please post up if they would be willing to lead a ride from Woodhouse Eaves if I can’t make it? If someone does, then we can set the meet as above.

Danny – I’ll charge the lights up tonight for the first time in months.
I will be there providing A) I can get the stops sorted on new rear mech, and B) It’s not pissing down.
I fore warn you I am badly unfit at the mo – I will be panting at the rear 😉
Seem to be a few newbies on the thread lately – the more the merrier though hopefully someone else knows the area too – if I get too destroyed early on I might shorten it or even bail – hopefully not though.

See you there.

Is there any chance of an earlier start? I work in Swad and live in Leicester, it would be good for me to go straight from work.

Lights? oh! Not sure if I can get anything for this week. I’ll see if I can borrow some. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Cheers

Hi asbrooks.

We originally started with a 6-30pm meet, but this was too tight time-wise for most people, so 7pm was a far better option to accommodate the majority.

Hope you can still make it along at some point……….