Todays ride

[RobMac]

Me heading back to the tent.

[Mariner]

(Yesterday) 52kms from Dunster up over Dunkery towards Lynmouth. 1100m climbing with lots of pushing up washed out Bridleways with bedrock and loose shale one side and sticky mud the other. Very dry up on top of the moor with trails rock hard and still large standing pools of water in places. Beyond Dunkery some nice trails which suddenly end in tussocky nonsense only to return to good trail after the next gate. Lots of horsh and sheepsh - car doesn’t smell too fresh this morning.
Met for Dunkery gave 0º for midday with a freshening breeze and temp down to -3º by evening. Had to stop and change to long fingered gloves on the way back as the brake levers were getting too cold to hold.
A singularly uninspiring route with nothing to recommend it other than the skylarks singing so back to Dartmoor next Wednesday.
Breakfast at Foxtor café. BB circuit one way. Lunch at the Plume. BB circuit the other way. Maybe fit in afternoon tea at FT if time with the added bonus of only £1.20 to park all day. Its £4.90 in Dunster and who has that sort of change about them?

[Nevis]

£4.90, that's nearly East Devon prices!

Nice run off the top of Dunkery on the eastern side but I agree, other than that a bit something and nothing. On that side I much prefer the Quantocks, some lovely pixie trails up there.

[benp1]

Had a lovely sunny ride straight from my front door. 33.5 miles of mainly off road fun, including a few cheeky footpaths

[summittoppler]

Went for a mooch around the old copper mine at Parys mountain, Anglesey yesterday. Been wanting to get there for a while but I've been waiting for a nice sunny one as the colours there are vaguely exciting.





I also visited an old brickworks





And as per normal I made a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vg2htwBVFI

[JohnClimber]

A 78 mile local mainly off road loop out of my front door today.
The weather was poor show but the Mother in Law was stopping over so I chose to get wet and fight the wind.
60 miles in I turn left to head south and towards home into the Mother of all head winds.
Aero bars on an mtb are bloody stupid but they came into their own today, it felt like an 18 mile hill training session as I couldn't get above 12 mph.

[Dr Nick]

a gloopy 5 miles along the Ridgeway and Icknield way nr Chinnor - I wimped out and went back to the car after I 'highsided' after getting the front wheel stuck whilst riding through some deep mud, and ended up in a 3ft deep ditch full of water and brambles. I just lay there gently bleeding and giggling for a few minutes before extracting myself. A few minor cuts to my hands - annoying as I'd just taken my gloves off - and very wet! still a nice, albeit short, ride overall...

good job I had a (non bivvy) tarp in the car for bike transporting! (new to me car and haven't got a roof rack sorted yet..)

[Zippy]

new to me car

I do approve

[atk]

Rode the Goyt Peak Super Grimpeur yesterday, 109km, somewhere around 3000m of climbing.

A very scenic route, taking in lot of classic climbs on that edge of the Peak, linked up in a way that avoids any main roads until the very end of the ride. The first half featured some longer climbs up Windgather, Goyt Valley-Axe Edge and Hollinsclough Rake. The second half seemed a lot steeper (Meg Lane, Charity Lane, Pym Chair from Jenkins Chapel, Maynestone Rd, Briargrove Road, Gorsey Brow), a lot of 20% signs and several comments along the lines of "we use this for annual hill climb"...

Climbing generally felt ok through the day until Gorsey Brow where there may have been a "feck this" and a few meters pushing... Didn't have a great time on the descents throughout the day, despite knowing a number of them and having dry, quiet roads. Need to work on that as it was noticeable how much ground I was losing on riders around me.

Overall a good day out, hope to get round it again as a perm before the Mille Pennines...

[summittoppler]

A good day out yesterday for me from home and into the wilds of Snowdonia. A tough 68 miler with over 7000ft of climbing. Some A roads, lots of minor lanes (with some very steep climbs) and some rough tracks too. Very impressed with the CdF, a very adaptable bike and the front dynamo hub kept the phone charged
A top day :)

[padonbike]

Just got back from 3 day raid to the Northern Highlands. 12 hrs driving and twice that in riding. On Monday I got to Contin by 1400 and road the 73km on the HT route to the Schoolhouse. I stayed here the night and was actually up at 0345 before my 0400 alarm. Riding with a 80 lumen Petzl by 0440 through lovely Rosehall and on up over the Power Station climb. The light was now up but it was still very cold and I later learned that temp was -2C in the glens. Powered on to Gobledegook Lodge and finally looked at my watch to see it was 0900 and that it was warm enough to take off the heavy gloves and waterproofs that had been preserving my body heat. I assumed the vicious slopes looming head of me were those of Bealach Horn, but this was just the warm up. Push up that and then across the bog land to see the real trail up to Bealach Horn. Push up that then quickly down the descent to complete 100km in 8 hrs just before Kylesku, with two scotch pies consumed since breakfast. Didn't stop at the restaurant, but carried on along the up and down road to Drumbeg, where I finally stopped at the store to get some food and drink and sit down chatting to the owner for about 10 mins. Continue along the road and then take the Achmelvich detour, admiring the lovely YH there. Finally roll in Lochinver after another off-road bit and can't find this much-touted pie shop, only the butcher, where I promptly buy two more scotch pies, plus a sandwich and some ginger beer from the Spar. In retrospect, something warm and filling to eat here wouldnae have gone amiss! Carry on past my 150km stop option of Suileag bothy, passing just after 4pm, which was the time I was looking for to still get me back to Schoolhouse (50km away) with not too much night riding involved. I had heard rumours of this part being tough but I'd got a couple of km past the bothy and all was looking fine. Then it started to rain. Then it hailstormed violently. Then it continued to rain. Then the path virtually disappeared and 11km of difficult pushing followed. At one point as I headed South looking to Cam Loch, all I could see was water and I became convinced that I was lost and my gps was playing up. I was wet, just about maintaining body heat and feeling miserable. I switched the gps off and on, convincing myself that the gpx line was in fact correct. I took the path south east by the side of the loch and finally the end of the loch DID come into sight and I wasn't actually trapped by a massive expanse of water stretching out in front of me and I had though in my earlier black moment. There was actually a few rideable stretches along here and finally I arrived at the road. It was getting colder now and I could feel the light was starting to die, but it had stopped raining. I kept going well along the road, which I was pleased with as I was now out there for about 14hrs. I stopped to change my lighter gloves for my Aldi claw gloves that have never let me down and sure enough wearing these brought back the heat to cold hands. I came upong Oykel Bridge quicker than I expected and it was now nearly dark, although I was riding on night vision, not head torch. The bar of the pub looked nice and friendly as I flashed past, a bedraggled freak in the dark. Just 4km along the same track that I had ridden out on this morning, praying there was no-one else in the bothy as my conversation would be a bit limited that night. Finally stopped riding at 2040 and got my water and dug my hole in ground for the morning as I had heard it was going to be another frozen night of -2C. Had a scotch pie and a really horrible rehydrated food meal. The calories (650) and the weight of the packet (160g) are good but this particular brand really is quite traumatic to eat, even with my state of hunger. Even though I didn't bed down until nearly 2200, I still elected to stick with my 0400 alarm again for day3 and it would give me more Petzl practice and would also get me back to Contin quicker and ready to get down the road to Newcastle and my loved ones. It was cold out of the bothy, but the track rose uphill quite quickly and I really tanked it to generate some heat and after about half an hour no part of me was cold, even though I was wearing wet sealskinz socks inside wet shoes. By the time the light broke I had covered 20km out of the 73 to get back. However, I had started to blow up a bit due to accumulated hunger from the day before and also from starting too fast in an effort to generate heat. Then strange things started happening to the bike: the brakes were either on or off, no modulation and the front mech wouldn't drop down. The rear mech was only working on the lower half of the block. This happened yesterday morning too! Finally, I went for a drink out my camelbak and realised the tube was frozen, then I realised my gears and brakes were frozen. This had happened to me once before, years ago in Glentress. As the front mech was the worse, that was the one that I directed my urine at and, sure enough, once the frozen mud was washed off it, it started working perfectly! I continued on, back along the long, lonely glens and finally came out on the Ullapool road to do the last off-road stretch down the back of the loch at Garve to Contin. 340km done in three rides of 4 1/2hrs, 16hrs and 4 3/4hrs. Apart from the food, all equipment held up pretty well with the star kit being: Maxxis Crossmark tubeless tyres (expertly fitted by Michael at Vieri Velo just a few days before), Altura 360 heavy duty jacket, Aldi gloves, dhb waterproof over trousers. The dhb bib shorts were good as was the SDG Belair saddle - no major problems at that contact point. The biggest downer was the evening meals, although at least my breakfast was good and the 6 scotch pies consumed in the course of the trip were great too.

[whitestone]

You've the same model of CdF as I have. A decent and, as you say, adaptable bike for the money.

[Mariner]

Decided to miss out the accumulated 3hrs driving that going up onto Dartmoor entails and do the boring Starcross route from my house.
Added two new loops one from the swingbridge in Exeter up the river to behind St Davids station and back then usual route down to Starcross.
Was not feeling any effects of the dreaded snot lung virus so decided to tackle Mamhead. This was unplanned and got lost by following sign to Mamhead village so didn't climb the notorious climb.
All in all not a bad day 109 Kms my first over 100 kms and should have been more if I repeated the loop into Exeter on the way back.
Was feeling hungry by then and heading to Topsham for lunch.
Glorious day in warm sunshine.
Needed distance and hours to try and salvage training schedule so all in all a success.

[mat_swan]

Nothing special today really, but it felt sufficiently spring-ly on the way home from work that I added a few extra miles to get some good views in.


2016-03-31_08-44-54 by MatGoesSomewhere, on Flickr

It was wonderfully clear, from my patch of the north downs ridge I could clearly see the line up of Reigate Hill, Leith Hill and the Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead heading west and then the South Downs coming back east on the horizon. Sadly my phone camera is not up to the job.

[JohnClimber]

5 Fat bikes out tonight up here in Merseyside
35 miles for me, the best photo is this one

[ctznsmith]

I got paid to ride a (very small) portion of the South Downs Way, can't complain.

[summittoppler]

A local spin out last night making the most of a lovely sunset with a low tide

[FLV]

new to me car

I do approve

ooo. 540.

Painful everytime you fill it fuel, but so worth it,

[Zippy]

new to me car

I do approve

ooo. 540.

Painful everytime you fill it fuel, but so worth it,

It must be on over 200k miles now. But in a world of 4 pot (and even 3) turbocharged ecoboxes, a v8 is a thing of beauty to behold

(I also miss the sound of the boxer burble on the roads these days too, that's becoming rare too).

[Mariner]

34 kms 1039 meters all before breakfast and all within 2 miles of home.

[Dr Nick]

nice to see the love for the old V8 barge...

I commute by train and folding bike, I don't drive it round town, and it won't depreciate (apparently it was about £55k new in 2001 and I paid £1,450, 202K miles, last owner for 8 years and has clearly cared for it), On a run being sensible the mpg isn't too bad, and the smiles per mile is off the scale, and the noise is a subtle but a glorious burble...

And keeping this vaguely on topic - the rear seats fold almost completely flat, and being short I can car-bivvy in it when the need arises

new to me car

I do approve

ooo. 540.

Painful everytime you fill it fuel, but so worth it,

It must be on over 200k miles now. But in a world of 4 pot (and even 3) turbocharged ecoboxes, a v8 is a thing of beauty to behold

(I also miss the sound of the boxer burble on the roads these days too, that's becoming rare too).

[Fat tyre kicker]

Love here for your v8 barge too....cliche but they don't make
Cars like they used too, unfortunately at the mo I've got the
Run of the mill family carrier, (early one so I can sort of work
On it), no interest in much of the modern boxes....characterless

[Pete-G]

More like yesterdays ride now, but with the looming Reiver 200 coming up, theres nothing like some last minute practice! So me and a friend headed off to do the ton of gravel route. Weather and timing was against us in the end, but still clocked up 80 miles and 3100m of climbing.
DSC_0018 by PeteG55, on Flickr
DSC_0024 by PeteG55, on Flickr
DSC_0026 by PeteG55, on Flickr

[Trail-rat]

More of a week

Just back from 300 odd km round skye and the west coast.

Will do a pic post later once i find the computer - we had the whole house bar the office and kitchen plastered while we were away so life is chaos atm.

All ill say is the drivers of skye are cunts of the highest order. - worst ive seen in a long time.

The bus, the library and the bank all tried to run us down overtaking in stupid places( blind corners despite plenty of long straights) at least 5 cars nearly hAd headon colissions passing us and a blue van from a dornie based removal company actually force a car to skid off the road while passing us on a bad corner - but none of us managed to get the reg number as we were all trying to stay upright while riding the verge and the car trying to regain control.

[Dave Barter]

I'm sat here in that kit Pete-G ;-)