Todays ride

[voodoo_simon]

Another 50+km ride on the singlespeed, now off to Chester Zoo with the family. One day my replacement chain will arrive from Madison to fix my fat bike

Was hoping for some snow as Llandegla is shut, but looks like it was very local snow

[HUX]

2hrs mud pluggin on the SS for me. Now sat in front of the wood burner defrosting with a cuppa and some ginger nuts. Heaven!!

[ScotRoutes]

My hub is in for a service tomorrow, I am taking a caribou out for a few hours and was thinking about doing that loop. It's usually drifted just north of the bothy for a few hundred metres after westerlies! Good for "portage"practice though

Grrr! I waited until almost lunchtime to set off on the assumption you'd clear a trail for me. Imagine my disappointment



Icy on the climb to the bothy and drifted (ball-deep in places) until the forest edge. Tough but good. I had the Action Camera with me so might manage a wee upload later.

[Scattamah]

I'd much rather be in the snow than the gloop that I attempted to get through tonight...30 Kms...several of which left my Lois in a right state.

clogged.jpg

Lois is a filthy grrl

(142.39 KiB) Downloaded 8998 times

Greetz

S.

[Gari]

"Grrr! I waited until almost lunchtime to set off on the assumption you'd clear a trail for me. Imagine my disappointment "
Not as disappointed as I was that the guy in the shop had forgotten to book the bike in for the service

Went into Glen Einich late morning, windy and some massive drifts, good light though

[HUX]

50km of fatty fun. Mostly frozen solid and got back just before the rain!

[Gari]

had a good half day yesterday riding into Glen Einich, the wind was blowing a little and increasing as the day went on. The snow is still very soft where it has drifted in, making for amusing riding. I met a couple of friends half way up, on nordic skis, and they were faring far better than I on the softer parts, so much so I think they may be on to something
The light was really nice so the trip was as much about getting some images as the riding itself. The forecast is for it to go cold again tomorrow, here's hoping, and with a little less wind higher up would be nice as I want to get some backcountry skiing done(apologies for going of topic). I hope to ride out to Bynack Mhor tomorrow so should get around to clearing some trails for you Scotroutes
What's the cover like out there?

[Richpips]

14 miles on the MTBs today.

Went to a mates for coffee, then the bike shop for a hot chocolate.

Snow all but gone here now.

[voodoo_simon]

Managed 85km on the singlespeed
-mix of road/mud/pushing
-4.5 hours ride time, 5 hours in total
-2x punctures
-1x nice lady opened a gate for me

Got home and took the little one out on my back for an hour's walk in the local woods (#secret training)

[gairym]

Managed 25km up on the plateau whilst visiting our old house yesterday.

Here's a little video I put together:

https://vimeo.com/117681515

It's mostly me experimenting with camera angles with my shiny new (cheap, old and used) gopro.

Am currently in Vilard de Lans where there's apparently 100km+ of fatbike trails - going to explore in the morning (it's snowing right now so might be a tad soft).

Should be fun!!!

[Ian]

I went to the beach today for a change of scene. When you ride mountains and endless forest all the time, it does get a bit tedious...

Anyway, went to the Gower and did a reverse of the ride I did for the Lighthouse video, plus a bit extra: While at the mainland bit of Worm's Head, I thought "I wonder if you can ride across the causeway and onto the other bit..?". Turns out you can, or at least half of it plus a bit or portege. Didn't go all the way to the very very end, but far enough to snap these pics:


Gower Ride and Worms Head explore by ianbarrington, on Flickr


Gower Ride and Worms Head explore by ianbarrington, on Flickr

I still marvel at how good these bikes are at riding over insanely rocky ground. In the last pic, the bike was ridden from the grass in the distance to where you see it now.

[Scattamah]

A leisurely 88kms from town to Long Mynd and back with Composite for the first round of BAM for this year. Very icy descent on #9 this morning with more than enough sideways tail action to keep me on my toes.

Greetz

S.

[summittoppler]

Ha a good session at Manchester Velodrome from 8-9am this morning. Wasn't much fun leaving home at 6am though

[voodoo_simon]

I still marvel at how good these bikes are at riding over insanely rocky ground. In the last pic, the bike was ridden from the grass in the distance to where you see it now.

Snap! I often think that fat bikes (in a 1x10 setup) would make excellent beginner bikes as they're very stable, will ride over most things and no suspension to go wrong or confuse them

[atk]

200km audax yesterday, first ride since early November and 6 months since my last audax. Pleasant route from Cheadle to Ellesmere (Shropshire) and back. Almost perfect weather apart from the headwind on the way out. Stopped for food at the Raven Cafe in Prees Heath, a good helping of egg, chips and beans and a healthy tailwind on the way back had me finished and back home before it started to rain.

Knees are a little achey today and some untested handlebar adjustments have left me my little fingers a but numb today, hoping that'll clear up through the week though.

[voodoo_simon]

Had a free day today as my Mum was looking after my daughter, but spent it in bed completely exhausted with an upset stomach

Still, at least it's now and not in 4 weeks time...

[Dave Barter]

Back on the bike after a week off to rest a knee niggle. So I rode gears and did a smashing 30 odd miles of tracks and gravel. Getting bored of owls now so tonight's treat was a flock of very guilty looking sheep eating the nice grass on the gallops. They knew damn well they were not supposed to be there.

[ianfitz]

Just back from a few days very lovely riding in wales, which probably deserves its own report...

arrived at dusk and rode from Mach to nant sydion bothy via Ians wc2c route, which seemed quite hilly! especially in what i would describe as heavy drizzle and a brisk head wind. at one stage I had all of my clothing on and was only just warm enough :-/ had a good blaze in the stove at the bothy and a good night with a fairy leasurely start on monday morning.

headed up the valley and skirted round to the right on a forest track not on my 50k OS map (but definitely on the ground!) then up the steep 'n straight BW up to cefn croes wind farm. gains a lot of hight pretty quickly, over shot the right turn on the forest tracks and decended the main route so went along the A44 for a few miles then up the track from pont rhydgaled - hadn't been on this except for the BB2013, took me a while to recognise it as it wasn't dark. and I wasn't nearly out of my mind with 20 hours of riding! took the direct route through the forest and staylittle to call into bearbones towers. officially to collect a carbon pole which Stu had kindly sorted after some ham fisted over excited 'testing' on my part. now with carbon inserts!! truly a thing of beauty...

Tea, sarnies and chatting - thanks for the hospitality guys and a very welcome break, although I do still have blond lurcher hair on my gloves. which is my own fault for patting the dogs too much (although i think we all enjoyed it)

up through the woods and a quick run down the mountain road back to Mach. bit of a drive up to the hut at nant peris which i had to my self. massive fire, dinner, beer, sleep. another 'gentlemans start' and an out and back from conwy valley to great orm via the Wc2c route. drive back to Sheffield, shower, out to a friends 50th birthday party, and thats the last few days...

not massive miles, but a great few days away and a sensibly amount of riding each day which has left me feeling refreshed rather than coming home totally done in! weather was, well, fairly weathery. glad I took water proofs and warm layer any how.

Still didn't take any photos, I sort of intend to but its just too much like what work used to be! Always enjoy seeing other peoples photos and video though, just not my own...

[Ian]

Just back from a few days very lovely riding in wales, which probably deserves its own report...

Nice one Ian

--

Tonight I thought I'd go for a ride up in the Beacons. Was about 4 degrees down in town, but up at 800m it was -4 degrees. Still a bit of snow and some ice, which made things interesting.
Wind was something else too! Couldn't ride at times it was so strong. Put my spare hat on, but still had ice cream head at one point. No idea what the windchill temp would be, but for Matt's benefit, lets say it was minus 10

[ianfitz]

Just about survived this evenings group ride without too much mental scaring.

Wind driven snow, howling cross wind made for challenging conditions.

Hope dave and Ione got home ok as the roads were pretty skippy on places.

[Zippy]

Essex is so boring. Had a bit of wind on the way home and was 3.5degrees, bout as extreme as it gets.... Had 2 days of ice this year.

[Mike]

What/where is the hut at nant peris? Bothy or paid affair? Interested hmmm

[ianfitz]

What/where is the hut at nant peris? Bothy or paid affair? Interested hmmm

It's one of the rucksack clubs huts. The others are high moss in duddon valley and Craigallen at south balahulish. £5 per night to members ;-) also can access most other 'kindred club huts by prior arrangement. Which is most of them in the uk really.

I'm contemplation putting on the lakes 200 as a 'meet' so we can use the hut there as a base.

The RC are looking for new members as a few years ago they realised that the average age of the members was 58! There's details on their website if interested.

[ianfitz]

Just back from a few days very lovely riding in wales, which probably deserves its own report...

Nice one Ian

--

It was great to spend a few relaxed days riding in Wales. I've never really done much actual bike ride there with the exception of the bb200's. Have spent many happy days in Wales in the last 20 years either climbing, pretending to be on climbing trips whilst being pissed off with rain and some magic days surfing on the west coast. I also passed through in a week marshalling the 'midday check point' on the dragons back race a few years ago. I got to drive a very big minibus all over the place between Conwy and careg cennen over a week while helping some utterly destroyed runners.

Anyhow, am keen to turn the pedals plenty more in those hills

[SlowRide]

Well, it's been temperate here the last few days so I've hung up my skis and made it back to the bike for a couple rides. Todays ride was 21.9 miles on the MTB, mostly pavement, it was great to be out on the bike, gorgeous day out. Two days ago I did a similar ride but went past where the pavement ends and tried out my Ardent 2.4 front tyre on some snowmobile track, ghetto fat biking. I had a ton of fun with it, was surprisingly successful for the 5 or so miles on snow, and in the process I think I sold myself on getting a fat bike some day when I can afford it. Great to be on the bike in late January.

Ghetto fat biking the other day:


Today's ride(Zirkels in the distance, looking out at the Continental Divide from Steamboat Lake State Park):


Today's ride(Hahn's Peak from Steamboat Lake State Park):