When will it end....

[johnnystorm]

Nearly didn't go out yesterday but basically told to MTFU so out I went. Didn't rain the whole time but my Dakota batteries went flat. Bit of guesswork on the way back!


http://instagram.com/p/kc4gAPMQic/

Out again today if the inbred hasn't seized up!

[FLV]

That's a bigger job than mine was zippy.
I havnt bothered with plastic bikes for a while but boredom got the best of me

[FLV]

Yes yes yes. That's more like it weather. More of the same please

[Zippy]

Yes it was lovely today. So I washed my car as it was a bit overdue and wildlife was starting to sprout out of it

[Ian]

Lovely day in the Beacons today. Did the classic Gap loop plus a bit extra. Didn't see another soul on a bike. On the one hand, weird - where is everyone. On the other; sweet - I had the trails to myself

Normal service resumes tomorrow I think, unfortunately.

[FLV]

trails were busyish up hear but everyone was in great spirits and glad to be out.

Also had a nice chat with a guy riding one of these

http://www.handcycleracing.com/Off-Road.htm

jolly nice chap doing hill reps in the broken road / winnats area training to attempt the 3 peaks!

[ericrobo]

Drove to Newquay just before Christmas, M62... 3 lanes full of traffic, M6... 3 lanes fuller of traffic, M5... even fuller... + driving rain, horrendous winds, incidents, accidents... very unpleasant...
driving back Boxing Day expected the roads to be quiet..(er) BUT no ! bad, crowded, full... M5 worse, M6.. worse still... M62... full...
Got home and the day after was wheezing, which I blame on being stuck in traffic for such a long time... that developed into a chest infection which put me down for 16 days...
Bear with, I'm building up to the main theme !
I did a good ride sometime last summer from Piethorne Reservoir (nr Milnrow) over to Stoodley Pike and back. The ride crosses the M62 - somewhat mindblowing standing on the bridge and watching all those trucks and cars whizzing past in both directions... then onward on good tracks and good riding. Coming back (a few hours later) as I got nearer to the M62, I could hear this steady drone... getting louder until wham ! there's the bridge and 3 lanes of it in each direction whizzing along like there's no tomorrow ! And this is happening 60 seconds for every hour for several hours a day...
And you realise this is happening on many many roads all over the country

That's an awful lot of exhaust fumes going up into the atmosphere...

And as the population increases there will be more of it... as Fraser says "We're doomed, doomed"

In the meantime happy riding and let's hope for some dusty rides....

[Ray Young]

And you realise this is happening on many many roads all over the country

That's an awful lot of exhaust fumes going up into the atmosphere...

Make that the whole of the developed world and then throw in the developing countries who don't care about what crap vehicles throw into the atmosphere.
Problem is people have come to now expect, and believe it is their right to be able to travel anywhere, at anytime and as often as they like and also have access to limitless supplies of energy in order to run all the stuff we think we need in order to make our lives easier/better.
Your right, we are doomed.

[FLV]

so we've decided then. the apocalypse is on its way

[Bearbonesnorm]

Make that the whole of the developed world and then throw in the developing countries who don't care about what crap vehicles throw into the atmosphere.
Problem is people have come to now expect, and believe it is their right to be able to travel anywhere, at anytime and as often as they like and also have access to limitless supplies of energy in order to run all the stuff we think we need in order to make our lives easier/better.
Your right, we are doomed.

Very true Ray ... I was at a public enquiry meeting at the end of last year. It was about one of the many proposed windfarms, obviously there was lots of talk for and against but no one made the point that if a (relatively) small sum of money was spent educating people about how to conserve energy and teaching them how to turn a light off or put another bloody jumper on, then we wouldn't have the stupidly high demand that we've got which inturn leads to destruction of the last few remaining 'wild' places in the country.

Rant over ... sorry.

[Nick]

Direct domestic consumption is "only" 29% of all energy consumed in this country. So industrial demand needs to be managed downwards too.

The problem is that we don't see the cost of energy in the products and services we consume. Industry pays about half what domestic customers pay for energy, so increases have less of an impact there, if the costs went up it would raise prices "on the high street" and this might encourage more efficient manufacturing etc, but this would make the UK even more uncompetitive and damage the economy.

There's lots of TV about where food comes from, it would be good if someone did something similar about energy usage and how as consumers we really use it.

[JohnClimber]

Weather update (sorry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXd6ZRp0hN0#t=57

[FLV]

[mountainbaker]

Went for a nice long ride yesterday. Generally trail surfaces were good, but I must have climbed or gone around 2-300 trees down. And the general main annoyance was twigs getting jammed in wheels, a few in the rear mech, some in the disc rotors, several whipping my calves. Was still a lovely day though

PS The apocalypse is already here, we're all just too busy buying crap to realise it.

[Nick]

Yeah I've lost most of my enthusiasm for riding locally, most of the trails have trees across them, one spot that was really quite good fun is now almost totally impassable. So Slacker and I went to the Long Mynd on Saturday and had a lot of fun, only Minton Batch was wet (as usual), most of everything else was in really good nick, the sun shone for most of the four hours and we even had a tailwind for the final run back down to the car.

[composite]

Yeah I've lost most of my enthusiasm for riding locally, most of the trails have trees across them, one spot that was really quite good fun is now almost totally impassable. So Slacker and I went to the Long Mynd on Saturday and had a lot of fun, only Minton Batch was wet (as usual), most of everything else was in really good nick, the sun shone for most of the four hours and we even had a tailwind for the final run back down to the car.

Me too tbh. Not that there are loads of trees down but the places I can go are very limited at the moment due to un-rideable mud/bogs. In an effort to get enough distance and climbing I have to ride everything else every time I go out and it's just getting so boring. I'm struggling to get the motivation to go out at all locally.
Might just go do some road riding on the mountain bike this weekend... a new low.

[Cheeky Monkey]

There's a whole host of tools here to help with fallen tree related issues:

http://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/products ... ing-saws1/

E.g.



Probably worth a little care carrying it (they usually come with scabbards) but many will fit in a camelbak. If you wait for someone else to do it all it might be a long time by the sounds of it Usual provisos apply of not doing something where you don't know what might happen e.g. steer clear of "hanging" trees.

[Nick]

I'm not cutting through 20 scotch pines with that thing!

Needs some blokes, some ropes and big chainsaw, could probably rustle up all that, but the land is private and might not actually have any bridleways on it...

What we need is one of these:

[composite]

I'm not cutting through 20 scotch pines with that thing!

Needs some blokes, some ropes and big chainsaw, could probably rustle up all that, but the land is private and might not actually have any bridleways on it...

What we need is one of these:

I encountered one of those last week in Hafren. It was clearing this.





That was about 45mins bushwacking with a loaded bike to go about 50 yards.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Other cutting tools are available

[Chicken Legs]

Dragging your loaded bike through that little lot looks like seriously hard work

[Gari]

Ironic then that here in Scotland, the home of "it always bloody rains there", the trails are pretty dry and tree free....... I did the Spey way to Grantown and back last week and apart from a couple of gates, didn't need to get off the bike once.*












* coffee/cake shop exemption

[numplumz]

Similarly need some encouragement to do a trip recently. Can't man up to face the UK trails just yet and a train ticket to Dover was temptingly only £17.
Belgium beer and canals tour coming up, so hope at least the wind eases off.