It’s about 65 miles.

I really don’t think any part of my body could handle that! Maybe do it in two parts – do the juicy singletrack first and then take a rain check and see if I want to return, which I obviously can do quite easily living up here right now.

Well I keep looking at weather reports for Friday and one is saying mainly cloudy and another is saying rain. Fingers crossed ay! I wish I had gone out to Kielder today as I have discovered it really is not all that far away from me.

Oh I can’t be dealing with rocks beating me up, nor a route that is too long. I am more an XC rider than anything that involves air between my wheels and terra firma 😀

I’m actually quite happy pootling around on fireroad you know – and as I am not in gainful employment right now I can pretty much pick the day for the ride.

Luked2 – cheers – but which trails were the K100 on? Do you know? (Or anyone else?)

Ah right – so maybe I should do Whinlatter as planned, and then Kielder the week after if I am just in the mood for a shorter but sharper ride if its a little colder!

Hellllloooooooo! 😆

That top one isn’t too cute for words – it looks like it has a scheme more cunning than Peter Mandleson on crack

Does your magazine tell you what crisps Cheryl Cole likes best?

Well with ST mag at least you get Chipps with everything 😀

IGMC etc…….

Oh and as for the jeans, I was living in Gibraltar and bought them in Spain where all jeans seem to be way too long for me, so I just turned them up!

I went to London and I bought Singletrack and I took a photo as evidence so you can all believe me as opposed to the OP 🙂

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26th March[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Maybe it’s time for another singletons STW ride I feel 🙂

Dave

This book will be your friend and will give you material for hours and hours of conversation.

I found the second half of the book hard work, as the author goes way beyond the evidence in furthering his thesis, the first half is everything you need to know about neuroscience in an easy to read format.

Well as someone who has flown it I can confirm that it is possible to ask the waiter for more champagne, but that was a more horizontal direction of voice as opposed to front to back 😀

Dumfries 😀

The OP makes a good point. I feel Ramsay has so many issues, and I just wouldn’t want to eat food that has been made with so much anger. I like my food to be made with a lot of love 🙂

Now that really is devilish!! Lisa FTW

You have a vote!!

(bugger that aint working.

Closure of parenthesis fail!

F++K ME! Did you follow him down to see if he survived or were you too scared of what you might find?!?

Heh – he made it down in one piece. Even I made it down and if I ever go back to Ae on a quiet day I may even attempt one or two of the jumps myself. It’s a downer as you always think the jumps are going to have huge gaps, but you get up to them and stop only to find you probably could have attempted one or two of them!

Just had this email from Andy Hopkins who is the manager for the Western Stanes (I think that is his job title).

We will continue to improve Ae in the next Financial year starting April 2011.The main areas we intend to Improve  are;Granny Green Luv(from the newly finished section down to the Road and then down to the bridge) Bran Burn Bash(the later section),The Omega Man(mainly the finish as this has become very rough).

So that’s good news then.

PPft – those Eastern types are so soft. Over here on the Western Stanes, we like to ride the DH at Ae on 25 year old bikes, no sus, jeans, no helmet!!!!

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IMG_0031[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Write it up in word or wordpad etc then post – you know you want to 😀

Aw sorry Stu – I’ve already voted for Lisa’s self portrait of her all wet in the shower. Do you have anything that is better than that??

Food fight!!!

While we are at it, would it be rude of me to ask everyone here not to put OT in the chat forum before topic headings? The whole point of having a chat forum is where off topic topics go, so putting OT is now superfluous. Thanks you.

Coogan – not sure if your comment was aimed at me but I only meant what I said as a very gentle piece of humour. Sorry if that cheesed you off, sincerely. Am not out to cheese anyone off here!

Come to Kirroughtree where there is a more refined class of rider, or Ae where still there are hardly any people and you can mash it up in a sik stylee 😀

Well I’ll just say a little hi before the floodgates open 😀

Well Thursday is looking the least iffiest day this coming week so I may have to give it a whirl – thanks for the info. 😀

I always have a coffee at the very end of my rides as if I have coffee and a cake I’ll never feel like getting back out again!

Ah right – Keswick is around an hour and a half from me. As it is getting colder, a shorter route may not be so bad 🙂 I am no xc whippet, so sounds about right for me. I just fancied something a little different and it looked pretty good fun from the photos I have seen. I had thought about joining the boggies on a few rides but they seem to be organising rides fairly far from me (Dumfries) in the coming weeks (well the shorter ones anyway).

Dogsby – was that your first time at Ae? Did you like the new bits and the refurbishments on the trail and did you ride down The Shredder?

Folks

I am thinking of riding Whinlatter but was thinking of riding both reds and then the blue. Is this a sensible plan? Each route does not seem too long in itself – I have enough fitness to ride Kirroughtree red and black in around 4 hours – I take it I should manage this?

Thanks for any help

Si

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IMG_0016[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Are you guys really saying this is rubbish?? 🙂

I rode Kirroughtree today but was wondering how it was riding. If we have half decent weather I think I’ll have to have a ride some time this week. Great photos.

Looks the perfect bike for Llangollen – are you far from there to give it a spin?

Well today I very much enjoyed Kirroughtree and tonight enjoyed Cher’s performance which dare I say it was probably the best of the evening! 😀

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October 25th[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

What’s happened to those one eyed monsters who are the mascots? Are they still going or have they been dumped?

Ah right got ya.

Seeing this thread give me a chance to mention Kirroughtree, where I rode today.

Very different ride to Ae, and I didn’t take many photos. I was really trying to get some kind of “flow” going, although didn’t really have the legs to clear a number of the rocky trail sections, but I did clear a few pieces that I normally walk or have to stop to look at.

My legs normally go just before Heartbreak Hill, and to be honest I walked up that and quite a bit of the subsequent Craggy thingy bit (forgotten the name). But the descent, it just goes on forever it seems, and is just one of the best bits of flowy singletrack around, first being quite rocky, and then lush and woody when into the trees and you are still descending.

There were a few bits I guess I could have cleared but wasn’t really in the mood for a stop start ride. The thing about Kirroughtree is that as I don’t ride it too often, you forget just how much lovely singletrack there is, right from the start. One and a half hours on the first part of the red and you are only just 1/4 around! Great weather too today, and although a tad slippy, finished with a big grin 😀

M&S pie, not from Iceland!