Todays ride

[fatbikephil]

...was somewhat damp....
Just a leisurely pedal west then back east along the Fife coast. The weather was varying between slightly damp, very damp and actual rain (that dense dreich which soaks through all known waterproofs)



Not been down to 'The Bridge' for a while. Actually dried up here.
Thereafter (after a Greggs lunch at Inverkeithing) it seemed to dry up considerably, only to clag back in again on the last miles, ending up with a full on downpour. The water was pouring out me pants!

[Verena]

I had a real treat this weekend, popped down to Pembrokeshire on Friday lunchtime, to catch up with the lady who deserves a mention here, as it was with her that I did my first ever bivvy with - we were riding route 8 together, had prebooked campsites every night, but confessed to each other that we both really fancied bivvying... after discussing all that was holding us back, we looked at each other, smiled, said something along the line of "what the hell - if not now, then when?!?!), and had a wonderful night perched on some cliffs on the edge of Porthmadog.

Anyway, Ali has recently moved to near Solva, so we finally managed to get some dates together, and Friday we went for a little coast walk, swam in the sea, had tea and cake, and went to the pub.

Saturday morning we said our farewells, I drove down to Solva to charge up my car, and went for a nice leisurely ride (well as leisurely as the strong gusty winds allowed, not to mention the climb back up from Newgale....) to make room for some of the famous Mamgu's welsh cakes I had heard so much about...

Gorgeous, in a bleak and bustery kind of way. Newgale is always impressive I think.

IMG_20231118_130938 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

IMG_20231118_130911 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

IMG_20231118_131148 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

Oh, and bike wise, I had my "old faithful" Marin with me, that I rode Route 8 with back then all those five (?) years ago....

[voodoo_simon]

GFBD 2023? Completed it mate…

[PaulE]

Looks great Verena, and those Welshcakes are amazing! Did you try the savoury ones?

[fatbikephil]

Bonus ride today!
Woke up to a completely unforecasted 4" of snow (no weather warnings no nothing - panic!) plus a rather large hangover from last nights work night out. So no way was I driving anywhere and then my conservation meet was cancelled in any case. So got out for GFBD at long last!

Although the temps were on the rise the snow fell on solidly frozen ground so it wasn't melting and stayed fairly dry. So I hauled out my shamefully neglected fat bike and headed out on an oft used circuit.



I do like a nice bit of woodland. I like a nice bit of snowy woodland even more. This is Devilla forest and whilst the main tracks and paths were well trodden a few weren't so I scored some freshies as well

First time out for the Whisky Klunker bars (cheers ATK!) and I finally have the riding position I want on the ICT (9 years old this week...) plus a pair of Revelate pogies I got cheapish off ebay. So hands were toasty but as usual my toes were like ice blocks.



Frozen lochs covered in snow are quite a rarity round here.
Thereafter the darkness fell and made it even better! So chuffed to get that one in ahead of the inevitable thaw. Off on Monday and hopefully hit the hills for more snow

[summittoppler]

As per the norm, a few of us get together for the Global Fat Bike day thing and generally drink beer and chat gobbledigoo.
I made it a solo effort on the Friday night as the weather was bang on. I warmed the cottage up for when the others arrived through Saturday afternoon.
Some pics...

[Bearlegged]

I feel like I need to get a fat bike, if only for the cheese boards.

[fatbikephil]

Aye you have to be proper posh to go on Jeff's rides. I hope you accompanied that lot with an appropriate lager Jeff

GFBD ride part two for me. There had been a half decent forecast for today up until yesterday. Waking up to the sound of sleety rain battering against the window did not inspire me to get into the hills... Yesterday I'd had the usual faff getting the Buds on the rims thinking today would be snow-tastic and this now seemed a waste of time.

However I got my stuff together and threw the bike in the car for a change as the back roads between me and the hills are like skating rings. The rain / sleet / wet snow was coming and going but undeterred headed uphill in the vain hope it would be snowy and not too damp.



Well what do you know, it was! It could have gone either way - slush world or knee deep windslab and another hideous death march trying to push through it. Instead it was pretty much goldilocks snow and although a bit damp, plenty grippy.



Top of Ben Cleuch was wild, I took this pic and got out of there sharpish. In the lee of a rock formation on the neighbouring hill I got out of the wind for a snack but it was still pretty chilly so off again back east over a few more bumps and lots of slithery and slidey descending (one face plant)



Rime ice on the fence up top

[summittoppler]

Aye you have to be proper posh to go on Jeff's rides. I hope you accompanied that lot with an appropriate lager Jeff

Nothing posh about my rides, although it is nice to eat decent food and Stella when out

[fatbikephil]

Classy Jeff, Classy!

[ledburner]

... The water was pouring out me pants!

Water tablets are a bugger...

[Verena]

Just to reassure everyone that I haven't gone completely over to the dark side....

This was last weekend, a very pleasant bimble around the track on the top right hand side above Talybont reservoir, just felt great to be getting out there again after what was about three weeks on and off of having a stupid cold.

IMG_20231216_130051 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

IMG_20231216_130142 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

IMG_20231216_130232 by Verena Zimmer, on Flickr

[PaulE]

Went to pick up some bargain bits from bearlegged of this forum this afternoon... My online meeting was done, laundry and housework too so thought I'd take the scenic route.

From home, over stanage edge, down stanage causeway and into hathersage, grindleford, fox house, dore and then back to his house in Sheffield. 36km and lots of hill to get there, 6.5km and a fair bit more hill to get home the direct (and freezing!) way. Found a pack of pigs in blankets crisps that the kids had missed, so started the post ride re-fuel in a healthy manner! Forgot to take any photos, but the peaks was looking good today, if rather waterlogged after weeks of heavy rain.

[summittoppler]

A pic from yesterday. I went out looking for a future bivvy spot after seeing a tasty pic on Geograph.
This tree was growing in a spot marked as a cairn on the OS map. There were a few boulders in a ring around the tree and it looked pretty good....for a tree.

[fatbikephil]

I'm trying to make the most of the cold, clear weather before we descend back into clag world at the weekend so did a scenic commute home - 4 and a half hours at -6 in a dusting of fluffy snow.
All good fun, but my feet were like ice blocks when I got back and took a long time to thaw out... 10 degrees next week, hey ho.

[redefined_cycles]

A pic from yesterday. I went out looking for a future bivvy spot after seeing a tasty pic on Geograph.
This tree was growing in a spot marked as a cairn on the OS map. There were a few boulders in a ring around the tree and it looked pretty good....for a tree.

You've just gone and won the next photo comp haven't ya

[summittoppler]

You've just gone and won the next photo comp haven't ya

Thanks!

[Bearlegged]

What a way to start the day. A couple of hours showing some MTB advocacy folk around some of Sheffield's finest trails. A light dusting of snow out there, just enough to be grippy. Pogies are ace.

[fatbikephil]

Weather looked decidedly murky this morning but headed out undeterred as I was confident it would be plenty snowy on high. As it happened the weather cleared somewhat on the way to the hills but naturally clagged in as I climbed.


It's a lovely view from this rock! I stopped for lunch here, as I was feeling a bit weary. As I'd climbed past 300m the snow had appeared but was sodden until the magic 500m where it did dry up somewhat. But it was hard going as the depth had increased to about 5 or 6" with drifting and some windslab here and there. Tyres down to 2psi and progress was made...


Actually one of my Winter Event GR'safter a very long climb.... I'm glad I decided not to do the route this weekend and as I was now completely broken. Downhill involved a lot of slithering about and lower down a narrow off camber trail (usually a fave) was hellish as every touch of the pedals had the back wheel out. Much peg legging and I fell off twice....

Anyway, now in the house about to eat curry and drink beer. A fine ride on my birthday - 34 miles but nearly 6 hours

[gecko76]

Went out this afternoon with a fourfold plan:
1 check out the old hospital at Rosslynlee
2 test the 22g stove in the wild
3 see if the newly installed fork storage for tools and the like was up to the job
4 find out if said storage included puncture patches

That last one wasn't part of the original plan now I come to think of it, but three out of four ain't bad.

Went well to start with. There were snowbells, or bluedrops, or possibly daffodils.

But then the hospital was behind high fences and almost certainly out of the question for bivi-ing.


Stove was good though, and coffee was enjoyed.


Tool bottles on the forks seem happy too, thanks to a couple of these off Ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394216324808 ... media=COPY
with some decent double-sided tape backed up with Gorilla tape, and a pair of monkii cages from the classifieds.

Unfortunately, five minutes further down the road the front tyre went squidgy and, despite carefully checking for thorns, the spare instantly went flat too. It was at this point the mysterious absence of patches became apparent. I've actually got some tubeless tyres ready to go, but they're tanwall and I've been saving them for the summer... In the meantime, with my family not answering calls, it was a walk/push to the nearest Tesco where they didn't sell repair kits. Yes, some Tescos do. No this one doesn't.

I came out to find someone examining the bamboo bike. After a bit of careful chat it became clear that he was not a panda feeling peckish (can't be too careful) but was called Peter and was from Penicuik (which was handy being as that's where we were) and was a cyclist himself. In fact he lived but two blocks away and was happy to give me a tube. He asked where I'd been and, feeling he could be trusted, told him. Apparently the developers massively underpaid the NHS for the land and the local council waved it through under decidedly dodgy circumstances.

Anyway Peter from Penicuik I salute you. Now to find those damn patches.

[gecko76]

Actually one of my Winter Event GR'safter a very long climb....

Nice one Phil. Feeling slightly guilty now.

[fatbikephil]

Actually one of my Winter Event GR'safter a very long climb....

Nice one Phil. Feeling slightly guilty now.

Don't, Lazarus had me up there last year and the person who gave me my GR's for the '21 edition did likewise - that year it was eyeball deep! Snow is consolidating / melting so should be good for two weekends time, which is my next chance.... last minute again....

[gecko76]

Maybe you should look at maintaining some kind of semi-permanent shelter up there, a la summittoppler.

[fatbikephil]

Maybe you should look at maintaining some kind of semi-permanent shelter up there, a la summittoppler.

It's crossed my mind... not much stone up there though (apart from the shelter round the trig point, which is a bit drafty...) There is scope for a shelter off the north side but I'd need a spade...

[fatbikephil]

Cheeky day off today and given there is still a lack of snow oop north, I went with a bike ride instead - an oft used century circuit taking in the Trossachs and of little interest other than nice scenery. Of more interest was the hour long 'shower' of hard horizontal rain, driving into my face on the back of a stiff breeze, over the most exposed bit of the route, at 3 degrees. I ensured maximum discomfort by kidding myself it was a brief shower (there was sun all around me) so I didn't don waterproofs until I was distinctly damp....

Still, the sun came out soon after so managed to dry off