Todays ride

[smartay]

Inspired by Stus post on n-1, I took my Ragley for a wee spin round the woods for the first time in ages. My reckoning is that it's no longer required now I have my Orbea Occam



But it was lovely!!! Feels really snappy and direct, masses of grip from the XR4s. I think I might have to keep it after all

Yes I have a 2011 Blue Pig (shock horror 26" wheels) really cofident inspiring bike on the downs, but a touch wandery and light on the front on the ups

[Pete-G]

Slowly racking up the miles on the Stooge. Rode home this evening making the most of the weather
Commute home by PeteG55, on Flickr
Commute home by PeteG55, on Flickr

[frogatthefarriers]

All around the purple heather. Sunday.

This is on my regular round-the-mountain ride above Llangollen. You can see the heather, but the photo can't give you the scent of the heather blossom that filled the gentle breeze with the smell of honey.

But before I got there, I found these:-


Parasol mushrooms. My favourite mushrooms. There were dozens, but I had no way to take them home so had to ride away. But! Yesterday, unable to leave them there, I walked up with my daughter and between us we picked 2 1/2 kilos of these and horse mushrooms (also very tasty)


Back at her house we fried in butter and ate one mushroom - a big one, nearly a foot across the cap and not a maggot in sight.


We shared the rest and today my half became a yummy cream of mushroom soup.


Maaan, this is livin'

[smartay]

Difference in two days, couldn't even see the masts above the Ponderosa in the mizzile

[macinblack]

Mapped a route up to Goole, around to Selby and down through Doncaster home.
Looked good on paper but ultimately very dull riding until after Donny.
203K all told.

Some tree surgery was required (or risk the dyke.) :



Times change - Thats the top of part of Drax in the distance.



Nice and tranquil but canals mean constant pedalling.

[atk]

It's a long way to Wales...

[summittoppler]

After replying to Steve's post the other day, my reply jogged my mind. So I went for a pootle/explore around one of my suggestions, Cwmorthin. Not big mileage but big views...

20170826_130224 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20170826_123558 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20170826_125741 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[RIP]

Cwmorthin's dead spooky and scary inside. Nearly as trouser-filling as Croesor-Rhosydd, which I'm pleased to say I haven't suffered (yet). Not called "The Caverns Of Doom" for nothing. I rather like the idea that it's a one-way trip, and one's successful exit, and indeed continuing life, depends upon whether the previous sufferers remembered to leave the inflatable dinghy for you to abseil into:



Top drawer madness. ANYWAY.... Perrin Junior forced me to take her to Rutherford Appleton Lab today so she could fiddle about with their synchrotrontronronron thingy... it belts electrons round a big doughnut at silly speeds (yes, even faster than ScottOfTheWoods down that mental fire-road from Mynydd Bychan to Hengwm) so you can do things like investigate new surface treatments for jet engine fan blades, or in her case to draw 3D images of cells. Apparently. I've probably got the wrong end of the stick as usual. The main thing is it goes PING and is very expensive. I find it particularly gratifying that one beamline is being used to study the microstructure of ice-cream to try and improve its quality, which I think is a capital use for one of the most advanced capabilities in the world.

So, far more importantly, before she had time to turn the planet into green quivering jelly, or magic us into a black hole, I wandered off for a potter round on me bike. Just up the hill is the Ridgeway, and being the rank amateur that I am I've never done any of it despite it starting almost from my front doorstep. There seem to be some surprisingly remote looking areas just south of West Ilsley, with lots of byways and things down towards Peasemore. So I managed a little 15-mile toddle. The pictures are nothing special but maybe that's the whole point.

Crap view of the Diamond Light Source. Probably not supposed to have this pic and am expecting the black Range Rover with persuasive gentlemen inside at any moment:



Obviously this place appealed to my lavatorial sense of humour, Scutchames Knob, or "Scotchman's Knob", an Iron Age barrow. I couldn't find it, presumably someone was off doing some gardening with it (the barrow not the knob):



Rubbish shot of a red kite, of which there were more than you could shake a stick at. Probably an inadvisable thing to do unless you want your limbs ripped off like the Black Knight in Holy Grail:



An unassuming pic of loads of rolling Berkshire downland with not much going on. Again, that's probably the point:



From this location you can see as far as Egypt. I hadn't realised the Berkshire Downs were that high to be honest:



Lots of lovely byways through oak woodlands. I know this is James O's stamping ground, so he'll probably agree that it's very similar to that area behind Stevenage. I'm very partial to a nice byway now and then:



And some particularly attractive sunken green lanes. With, as I recall, particularly attractive horse riders (ohhh, those jodhpurs...sigh...) using them to test out those local thoroughbred race horses:



And like all good news reports we finish with something cuddly. In this case a remarkably friendly vole, chilling out smack in the middle of the Ridgeway, which came much closer than it realised to perishing under my 2.4 Mountain Kings poor thing:



Well we don't seem to have turned to green jelly while all that was going on, so that's a bit of a relief all round really.

'Reg'

[Roobell7]

Went with the Baines Racing Silverstone Cycles MTB gang to the Hope round of the Scott MTB Marathon series. 1st I've ridden since John Lloyd handed over to the new team and boy have they made a good thing better

Went to support our team mate Don Szmidt taking on the 1/2 marathon on the Sunday. Saturday though was chance to give the Mukluk a good test on the Exposure Maxx D Night ride

Left the gearing at 30 x 17 (oval) and took my chances on the up hills. Started mid pack and enjoyed the spin through Hope and up the Edale road. Was passed by and repast Team JMC (Rich & Tom Seipp). My comment about a 4,000 km warm-up got the excellent and apt repost about the joy of a bag free bike Managed to get into the 1st single track in a good position and started one of my best rides in years. Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11651 ... 1504388555 my average and max HR were about 10 bpm up
I was back in plenty of time for some social beers around the barbie with the necessary banter thrown in

Saturday night was apparently quite chilly. I didn't notice as I tried out my new Sea-to-summit winter bag

Sunday started with a hearty breakfast before joining the back of the crowd for the ride. We took it steady at Don's pace. We spent the day passing and being passed by the same great crowd of riders. I rode with Don almost the whole route. Riding the hills at his pace on an over geared single speed proved an interesting challenge

We finished the 50 km ride in 5:20 as a group of six https://www.strava.com/activities/11663 ... 1504450009
During the ride I saw Tom manning one of the marshal points. Shortly after he came into the nearby feed station accompaning a rider who'd taken a tumble on the rocky decent. I was impressed by his calmness and maturity

The marshals were a great bunch. Cow bells and all on the best climbs I heard that some were students from the Hope collage where the event was hosted

[NorwayCalling]

Just my commute home after 13 hour nightshift...

IMG_20170908_080954148_HDR by Norway Calling, on Flickr

[summittoppler]

Due to teaching timetable this year it looks like my Friday afternoons will be like this from now on...
20170908_141156 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[frogatthefarriers]

A little ride out from home took me close to Bickerton, Cheshire to look for some caves I'd heard about.

This is "Mad Allens Hole" on Bickerton Hill


It's not accessible by bike; I had to scramble through some undergrowth along and up some slippy paths to get there. Say hello to the bike I found at the skip, by the way.
Someone has left a handy ladder...


This is the "Queens Parlour",

A lovely dry cave, obviously used for parties - every flat surface carried a spent tea light and a pile of rubbish was strewn down the path. No wonder there's this..


But.... it's a definite spot for a bivvy in the depths of winter, methinks.
There's another cave called "Bloody Bones" somewhere close by, but I didn't have time to look for it.

[Zippy]

Cycle to work day today - well that didn't go to plan.

I had planned to do 90ish miles before work, and 35ish after. 35 miles into the ride this morning I have a blowout (tubeless tyres and less than 100 miles old!). I'm 10 miles from work at this point, so I put in a tube, this lasts about 5 miles - I had another spare tube with me that was a dud (brand new too!) - so walked/rolled on a flat tyre the last 5 miles to the office. So total today 45 miles cycled/walked. Now I need a new tyre and some more sealant.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1181618879

[smartay]

Frog
If your loking for caves locally, have you been to the wedding caves at Nant y Frith, original access is in poor condition but is easier from lower besides the pleasure garden waterfalls

[summittoppler]

Friday afternoon was spent on a very quiet Newborough beach, bloody loved it

20170915_161904 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20170915_153641 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[MuddyPete]

18-miles of Sunday-morning pootling along the canal; up the big hill; over the golf course, then stopped here for a cup of coffee.
Bedfordshire's very own mini-Grizedale forest; with carvings...


...cafe views...


...& knobbly tyres...


...lurking around corners.


Cafe service is still entertaining (see Today's ride passim): how "coffee" can be misheard as "flapjack" escapes me ; but the child in charge of the kettle had a late night, so I didn't give him too much grief (but just enough ).

[RIP]

Not seen that carving before - must scare the sh1t out of the tots wandering round there (never mind MTBers like us). I think the Edvard Munch-style silent scream is a comment on the price of their coffee......

[hoppy58]

Saturday...went from Home, down over the Ceiriog up to McDonalds, Halton, then along the canal to Fron, up the steep hairpins onto the ridge between the Dee and Ceiriog Valleys before dropping down the 3 trees and back up the track to the masts...then bridleways down to Dol y wern..the last bit of which is now really hairy partly thanks to our mx chums; back up to Ponfadog and up to Starlings castle, then fast descent via Selattyn, down to the canal again at Rhosweil...and home again...about 30 miles and not as wet as I thought it would be. Lovely ride with sunshine bonus in the afternoon and loads of hang gliders out above Llan. New bike is ace.

IMG_20170916_151323 (1) by hop58, on Flickr

IMG_20170916_153650 by hop58, on Flickr

[summittoppler]

Finally persuaded one of my lads to come out with me on the bikes yesterday. so a little spin down the coastal path from home to Llandudno with the last bit of summer in the air.

20170917_130131 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20170917_131757 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[summittoppler]

Back at Newborough this morning, the tide was coming in so it didn't leave much beach left. Also a pic from yesterday's commute....

20170923_112524 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20170923_113935 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20170922_163635_467 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[summittoppler]

A tad misty!
IMG_20170924_170452_903 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[pistonbroke]

https://youtu.be/FQjbijicdPU
https://youtu.be/Y5IwsR4SCYA
Did this local race on Sunday,40km and none of the course was more than 10km from our house. Lots of singletrack and some bits I'd never ridden before.

[MuddyPete]

...well, the weekend's really.
Finally managed to get away.
76 miles of hilly, pub-related bimbling around Stroud with 6 blokes from work. It's steep!
Camped Friday & Saturday at Thistledown campsite, near Nymphsfield, probably the poshest campsite you'll visit. Brought enough fire wood for the weekend - but burnt it all Friday night .
Broke the bike (rear spoke, front shifter, bottle cage). I really must learn to trust the weather forecast and TLS.

[RIP]

Good to hear you've been able to get out there Pete. "(rear spoke, front shifter, bottle cage)" - interesting combo of damage there. Sounds like some sort of freak cycle melt-down .

[w00dster]

Very jealous of some of your commutes, living in Milton Keynes and working in London, I have a 5 mile flat cycle path commute followed by 40 minute train and 25 minute tube ride, its as monotonous as it sounds!
Got to convince Mrs W that we need to move to North Wales!