Great ride in the borders!
Seeing as there are a couple of other ride reports, i thought i would share my day...
met two mates then into the van and down to a third mates in galashiels for bacon rolls this morning...
the weather looked good...dry and cold with thick frost on the ground!
Drove to to a little village called bowden near the foot of the eildons. the eildons are basically 3 volcanic structures that stick up from the ground...quite steep on all sides, stupid steep on at least one side...
rode as far as we could up the first one, then shoulderd the bikes for the stupid steep climb to the top.
descent 1 was good. basically back down the way we had climbed, so mega steep with an interesting rocky feature...with a few line choices including high side on the heather, near high through a gully in the rocks before a drop back onto the trail, low side over the worst of the rocks, or a big boost over the lot having to clear about 20feet horizontally and 8 feet down....opted for near high through gully and wee drop!
so short sharp descents were to be the order of the day...straight p the next and over the other side...fast, steep slidey skree descent and no-one able to hold the same line for long, but luckily loads of options...some scarier than others.
a bit of less steep trails through the surrounding woods and back to the far side of the first one...then over all three again (in the opposite direction this time) and back to the van...
then back to gala for some homemade soup and then home.
a couple of funny falls (one really funny otb by one mate) and no *unctures or mechanicals for anyone.
great day.
so basically...if you ar anywhere near the Eildons, they dont look much and the climbs always end up in carrying because fo the steepness, but they are well worth a look.
met two mates then into the van and down to a third mates in galashiels for bacon rolls this morning...
the weather looked good...dry and cold with thick frost on the ground!
Drove to to a little village called bowden near the foot of the eildons. the eildons are basically 3 volcanic structures that stick up from the ground...quite steep on all sides, stupid steep on at least one side...
rode as far as we could up the first one, then shoulderd the bikes for the stupid steep climb to the top.
descent 1 was good. basically back down the way we had climbed, so mega steep with an interesting rocky feature...with a few line choices including high side on the heather, near high through a gully in the rocks before a drop back onto the trail, low side over the worst of the rocks, or a big boost over the lot having to clear about 20feet horizontally and 8 feet down....opted for near high through gully and wee drop!
so short sharp descents were to be the order of the day...straight p the next and over the other side...fast, steep slidey skree descent and no-one able to hold the same line for long, but luckily loads of options...some scarier than others.
a bit of less steep trails through the surrounding woods and back to the far side of the first one...then over all three again (in the opposite direction this time) and back to the van...
then back to gala for some homemade soup and then home.
a couple of funny falls (one really funny otb by one mate) and no *unctures or mechanicals for anyone.
great day.
so basically...if you ar anywhere near the Eildons, they dont look much and the climbs always end up in carrying because fo the steepness, but they are well worth a look.
Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.
H.G. Wells.
H.G. Wells.
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