Good Ride / Bad Ride

stumpyjon

Well I had a mixed old ride tonight. Started off OK, weather was fine and I left fairly soon after getting home.

Bad Ride - within half a mile of the house it became apparant my forks weren't locking out (that's now both pairs busted).
Good Ride - I unlocked them, bounced them a few times, locked them and they were solid, don't know what all that was about.
Bad Ride - got off the road to find puddles, rather hoped I'd seen the last of them :evil: .
Good Ride - the bits in between the puddles were bone dry.
Bad Ride - halfway around I got cramp in my right calf, thought I was going to have to call the wife to pick me up .
Good Ride - managed walk it off and got some air over a couple of water bars.
Bad Ride - the kids have set fire to the grass again and it's taken a few young trees with it, happens every year at this time.
Good Ride - realised despite not trying hard I was actually making really good time.
Bad Ride - got back to the tarmac, glanced at the bike computer, it's not on my stem :x , turn around and retraced my route.
Good Ride - found it after a mile sat right in the middle of the trail, if it had bounced either way I'd never have found it.
Bad Ride - calf is still aching from the cramp.
Good Ride - despite not trying too hard, I beat my personal best for my local loop so on balance I think it was a good ride.

Funny how each ride, even around the same route can feel so different, don't usually have that many highs and lows though.

Anonymous

im always dead jealous of anyone with decent riding on their doorstep, sounds like this was overall a good one. i cant wait to get a posting so i can move somewhere else and hopefully find some local riding

The Northern Monkey

sheepsteeth wrote:

im always dead jealous of anyone with decent riding on their doorstep, sounds like this was overall a good one. i cant wait to get a posting so i can move somewhere else and hopefully find some local riding

I'm in the exact same boat. Can't wait to get home,

Hopefully i'll have a thread every weekend about rides :P (sorry in advance lol)

Anyways, stumpyjohn.... sounds like it went well in the end at least you got out there!!!

Anonymous

im very much limited by where i can be posted but if i could get ripon in north yorks i would be chuffed to bits!!

stev68

Felt the need to burn off me dinner,so chucked the bike in the motor with about an hour an 15 of light left,down to hughenden park.

Not so good bit- bit of a slog to the top of park,been off bike for three weeks.

good bit- tight section of singletrack round the back of the manor.

moany twat bit-jogger informing me i am on a footpath,ah well.

Trundled around the common then back into woods on a bridle path(happy now pc jogger!)

good bit- found a fab 8ft deep bombhole with a sweet transistion in an out,played there for a bit.

rode back to the park on a nice rooty steppy singletrack away from joggers.

Best bad but funny bit-came out onto the dirtpath thought id have a go at pumpin up a 5ft high bank into the park,looped out tried to grab an ivy covered tree,ivy let go slo moed backwards into nettles lol,legs are still pricklin!

overall good fun

stumpyjon

Yeah, I am a bit lucky, forget sometimes really, 5 mins from the front door to the trails (on open moorland), Lee Quarry 12 mins by bike, Mary Townley loop 15 mins and probably several hundred miles of rocky, hilly bridleways within 20 miles of home running in every direction (and did I mention the inlaws live very close to Cwmcarn and Afan). I grew up in Northamptionshire so I really should be more grateful for East Lancashires charms.

Benj, at least you'll be back at the right end of the country in a few weeks. Sheeps, there's plenty of suspicious sewage pipes in the North West that need investigating, do you want me to call one in . Ripon would be good though even if it is over the otherside.

Anonymous

if you do call one in, do it on a mondy and not on a friday afternoon.

most shouts seem to happen on a friday even if the ordnance was found earlier in the week as the building site in question dont want to stop work whilst we deal with whats been found.

the real giveaway is when the bomb is in pristine, washed off condition but in the bottom of a hole as it was left in the corner of the site being rained on all week!!

hellsteeth54

stev68

I'm intrigued about your route!

I went walking with the missus a little while ago around there, yep, one of them walks where you spend the whole time scoping out bikeable bits ;-). I saw a bit of potential, but where is this good singletrack? Sounds fun!

Found a great pub near there though, the Le Devere Arms I think.

Prowlus

Well had a Good and bad ride today .around Alban Way in Hertfordshire . The good ride was that I managed to do a very good time along the route (30 minutes from one end to the other) and i also amazed a couple of riders (students and residents on cheapo/hybrids) there who thought how come I could run so fast on such knobbly trails (using my modded carrera hellcat) . The bad part was that I had scrub/hose the entire bike down after it ran over 2 horse pats and 4 doggie doodoos . Only noticed it after someone complained about a smell on the trainride back to london :oops:

stev68

hellsteeth54 wrote:

stev68

I'm intrigued about your route!

I went walking with the missus a little while ago around there, yep, one of them walks where you spend the whole time scoping out bikeable bits ;-). I saw a bit of potential, but where is this good singletrack? Sounds fun!

Found a great pub near there though, the Le Devere Arms I think.

The easiest way too find it,would be too come from the sheep ridge part that over looks the sheep field,ie from bradenham end.Then you go into the woods then there is a bridle way with wooden fences either side,top trail to the left oops footpath lol,so you go straight over onto the bridle path then about 5oyds or so ,you will see it dive off to the right,which makes it the bottom trail nearest to the field.its nice an twisty and skinny plenty of roots quite off camber in places,with some nice steps too launch off at the end lol,it finishes at the hughy park end.

have fun

rolf_f

stumpyjon wrote:

I grew up in Northamptionshire so I really should be more grateful for East Lancashires charms.

But on the downside, it rains every day in East Lancashire

stumpyjon

It's raining tonight

The Northern Monkey

stumpyjon wrote:

It's raining tonight

Not here its not

Gonna go out in a bit, go down the new bit of "trail" I found! only takes about 1min to get along it, but its fun. roots to pop off, very fast and twisty with a jump over a path

good: no people
bad: low branches
good: its fast
bad: dog sh*t
good: you can ride full pelt through it all
bad: I'm shattered by the end
good: easy cycle path to get back to the start

Chaz.Harding

sheepsteeth,

Where abouts you posted ATM?

Think N. Wales would be good too - try and get an **extremely limited** posting up in Capel Curig TC.

Be awesome riding round there..!