jackosbournesnr":cibb4dvq said:
bhill22":cibb4dvq said:
Brilliant, really good day out
Thats a relief! Was beginning to wonder if there'd been some sort of disaster!
There may have been a touch of both!
Pretty epic day in the end, with everyone except Martin (who was at work crack of dawn Sunday) taking the A line and opting for the extra mileage that came with starting from our gaff in Stockport, this turned into quite the full day out!
As the turn out was a highly capable looking line up of machinery we opted for the full off-road experience at almost every juncture, giving wrists, brake pads and granny gears a complete physical and metaphorical shake-down.
As always - and I make no apology for banging this drum regularly - the day was made special by the riders:
Martin was epically over-geared, under-braked and over-worked
Carl epically whiskey-fuelled
Colin epically rode an extra fifteen(?) mile round trip from home
Gav was epically underprepared with work stealing all his riding time this year, but still epically unstoppable
and Kiran was epically late, arriving at the end for ice-cream and the razz home through our local woodsy bits
Despite the rocky abuse of relatively road-friendly equipment we survived the day with no mechanicals, not even a pinch flat, a few close calls and just the one *cough* minor tumble...
The bike was fine.
Exhausted, sun-kissed, fed on homemade pies, tarts, cake & ice-cream, plastered in dust and sweat; I'm happy to call that a success! From a personal perspective I really enjoy showing off what I think of as my local trails, with a bit of luck no one got too bored with the excited blatherings about various views and landmarks...
So with that in the bag, I'd like to suggest that we do two or three more of these style rides before the year is out, I know Martin has a route in mind further east into the Peaks, Gav has one taking shape along the North coast of Wales and Dan mentioned the possibility of lanes and canals around Stoke - to my mind that's the makings of a cracking mini-series. If anyone can add to that list I know I'd love to head over and check out some new views and cafes, sure a few others would too
Photos to follow, but undisputed Bike of the Ride winner has to be Martin's glorious Hardisty
Looking forward to doing it all again soon!