Had a quick 10 miles after work today with a monumental 40m of ascent! the joys of living in hull.

Saturday night was a bit more fun, biked out of town to the Wolds near South Cave and had my first wild camp of the year.

20 odd km on the way and nearly the same home from work. Starting to draw out my commutes a bit now the days are getting longer.

techno mail

How do you get on with the butterfly bars?

M

Mariner wrote:techno mail

How do you get on with the butterfly bars?

M

Hey Mariner,
I'm getting on with them great thanks, i increasingly suffer with numb fingers when riding flats so these were bought as a cheap alternative to Jones loops to give me more options.
So far it's good news for me, i rode out for 3ish hours on Saturday and similar on the way home on Sunday with no sign of numbness.
But i have decided i need some grippier bar tape!

Two thing to note:
1 you'll probably need a shorter stem to achieve correct posture
2 the packaging of your controls might be a bit tight on the bottom/end section of the bars. (will post a pic at some point to illustrate).

https://youtu.be/dVBPxdUHefM

1st go with the Gopro 5 this morning and home before the rain came in

JohnClimber wrote:https://youtu.be/dVBPxdUHefM

1st go with the Gopro 5 this morning and home before the rain came in

nice... but did you have to destroy the daffodils?

barney wrote:

JohnClimber wrote:https://youtu.be/dVBPxdUHefM

1st go with the Gopro 5 this morning and home before the rain came in

nice... but did you have to destroy the daffodils?

Yeh, there were bloody millions of them

No Daff's were killed in the making of last nights filming

https://vimeo.com/208888419

Time for a decent length ride on the MTB. The plan was to head up the dale and up on to Buckden Pike and then grab some VeloViewer squares in the dale south of West Burton and then the odd square or two I'm missing that lie just off the bridleways over the tops. The weather had different ideas.

By the time I got on to the tops above Hetton it was obvious that the wind was strong and getting stronger. Mind you it made balancing along the ridges between ruts in the track a good test of skill that I didn't think I'd got Moor Lane and Boss were very damp and muddy - I completely lost traction on the climb up Moor Lane and had to walk/slither as best I could in Five Ten flat soled shoes. I checked out an old barn as a possible bivy site - no good: the ground floor is half a metre deep in cow muck and the loft floor is rotten. Oh well. At Malham Moor Lane a decision.

Carry on with the original plan, go straight on and drop down to Kilnsey and explore the head of the Dale or turn left and head over to Settle and get the battle with the wind over and done with. I went for the latter.

The struggle began immediately. Having to pedal down a 20% tarmac road that normally has me braking showed how strong the wind was. The stretch along Mastiles Lane was made harder by the sodden ground. A bite to eat at Mastiles Gate and then press on. Except. There's now spots of rain in the air so on with the waterproof. The downs needed pedalling, the flats were hard and the ups needed effort. Again, where usually a touch of brakes was needed now I had to pedal. Eventually I began to drop down towards Langcliffe and the traverse on the Pennine Bridleway around to Settle. This was a bit tricky: keeping upright while traversing a wet limestone hillside covered in mud and slippy grass took a lot of concentration.

The cafe in Settle was welcome, hopefully I didn't make too much of a mess though looking at my mud covered face I probably gave a few other customers a bit of a fright



I now had the wind on my back but the climb up out of Settle is never easy, it's soon over and there's a rolling track across the top before the drop down to Long Preston. I couldn't really face the muddy fields that are part of the Pennine Bridleway as it crosses the Craven Fault towards the southern Pennines so I picked my way along lanes and rocky bridleways eastwards towards Gargrave then along the canal bank until a few lanes led to the final climb back home.

77Km done with 1500m of ascent.

80KM around the lanes of Cheshire, taking in some old hills forts, hike a bike (only out of politeness as it was a Sunday and the footpaths were busy - you could see people wanted to complain I had a bike with me but couldn't say anything as I was pushing), Roman bridges and lost lanes. Great to ride in the day time, been an awfully long time since I cycled at a civilised time of day

Another visit to Mrs Perrin's folks ( to see the hippopotamus ) in Welwyn Garden City who take a bit of caring for these days. Took the bike cos you never know. Sure enough, 'you may as well disappear until lunchtime' so I did. Quick spin along the Ayot Green Way to Wheathampstead - or Wh'm'st'd as it used to say on a road sign I saw as a kid. The place name with the record number of apostrophes in it? That sign was probably the reason I started The Campaign for Real Apostrophes many years ago. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Wheathampstead. First time I've had cake (apple and cinnamon since you ask) with a display of fruit on the plate. Something to think about for WRT perhaps Dee? Do they have fruit in Wales? (I'M JOKING!!! I was thinking of Scotland ). The obligatory cappucino too. Anybody else annoyed by latte mispronounced 'lar-tay' by the way? No? Just tedious nitpicker me then . Check out the specifically-requested pink flowery cup...twee me??....

Blasted Photobucket...

40mile round trip to Paramart's .... only for him to be out riding

121km with a 40km headwind with no shelter heading home


Lego of my bike

East Lancs near Wardley/Swinton....been reccying golf courses ?

Fat tyre kicker wrote:East Lancs near Wardley/Swinton....been reccying golf courses ?

Good spot, and gonna give it a miss, too dodgy in the area, I'll just have to get up earlier and save my bivi for the weekend afterwards

That's a great picture John.

30 wet and windy kilometres today (perfect training for WRT!) Ride cut short by a poorly toddler at home :(
Anyway, spotted this moored up with the canal boats on the river Hull.

One from today, one from midweek :)

Me in uncharacteristic trail centre action

Is that a parachute on your back?

Ian wrote:Is that a parachute on your back?

Someone suggested it was an airbag
(It's actually the cover for my backpack)

I'm promoting the parachute idea though as a way of explaining my (lack of) pace.

So glad I went round Laggan last week. Perfect preparation for the descent to the Lairig Ghru path today.

P1030782 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

P1030775 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Today I gave a little back by marshalling Hit The North 2017.
There are a few off here at the "race"

I marshalled the best spot as you can tell from this little video

https://vimeo.com/210069193

My 6 best crash photos from today

Hee hee some good moves there!
Todays ride was dry. As was yesterdays and Fridays - its a miracle!