Today's Ride
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2manyoranges
Old School Grand Master
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RAMPAGE !!!!! In the UK......!!! Go boy go....
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I only just got back before August comes.Love these shots.
Picture you running back before a gust comes
2manyoranges
Old School Grand Master
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Today's ride ... Thetford Red fast. Flow, stomp, coffee, talk, home.
Lunch with friends then sit inside listening to rain pound the roof.
But yesterday's ride ...
After a so-called 'warm up ride' on Friday, wake early in Brighton to sun and wind.
Croissants and coffee.
Ant has done a great job on constructing a 30mile loop across the Downs above Arundel which we have never done before. With no sections of the South Downs Way in it. Good stuff.
Load car and drive 30min West to windmill above A24. Many campers in the car park.
Ant cursing Garmin for 20 mins in the car park. Then ... We Ride.....
Up the hill, past the dog poo in a black bag, lying on the trail.
After a while we bump in to six guys from 'Findon's Gentleman's Cycling - two aged 71. On FS non-E bikes. Excellent.
Ask about why 'men's only'. Get stern answer. Well, there we are then.
Turn right by the blue bag with dog poo in it.
Whoopy down and then up, through golden field of grain. Gorgeous.
MUD!!! into woodland where timber extraction is underway. Watch guy using massive Swedish specialist timber truck with even more massive hydraulic arm which is being manipulated swiftly and expertly, like an extension of the operator's body. Impressive.
Down into Arundel for ... coffee and Croation filo pastry loveliness. Yum. And more Yum.
More Garmin fiddling. More Garmin cursing.
Turn left at the brown bag with dog poo in it.
Long ups and alongs. And after two hours into ancient woodland.
More Garmin wrangling at an ancient, remote crossroads - yews at each corner to keep the Devil away. It works. We do not see the Devil.
Then, like thirty ghosts, a huge herd of Roe Deer silently crosses our path, running fast just metres away. Fabulous.
Garmin says 'unpaved ascent' about five times. Each time we are actually climbing on metalled surfaces - we are eating into time through all the 'off course' from the Garmin only for it to decide two mins later and 100m up a different bridleway that the first one was right after all. Sigh.
Back we go.
Many times.
Down to main road, crossing on sharp fast corner where a driver has read the section of the Highway Code which says 'if you are approaching a blind corner above the speed limit and suddenly a bike is crossing even though they couldn't see you when they started across then the thing to do is stand on your horn and not brake in any way at all....and if you are in a Merc you are even allowed to accelerate'. Super.
After the utter tranquility of the woods only 5km before, we are glad to pull up and away from the madness and noise of the road.
Stop at the top of the long haul and shout at the Garmin again.
Turn right where the green bag of poo is lying on the ground.
Homeward leg, great group of female riders on top end bikes coursing down the hill. Then 10km of up and down and up and down.
Past the field of purple, insect-enhancing FiddleNeck which matches Ant's helmet.
Back past the weird corrugated iron church near the windmill.
30 miles. 705m - 2300 feet of climbing.
And yes, we did 54kph on a hectic, rutted and very flinty chalk descent - but 29 inch wheels are an asset on things like that...
Lunch with friends then sit inside listening to rain pound the roof.
But yesterday's ride ...
After a so-called 'warm up ride' on Friday, wake early in Brighton to sun and wind.
Croissants and coffee.
Ant has done a great job on constructing a 30mile loop across the Downs above Arundel which we have never done before. With no sections of the South Downs Way in it. Good stuff.
Load car and drive 30min West to windmill above A24. Many campers in the car park.
Ant cursing Garmin for 20 mins in the car park. Then ... We Ride.....
Up the hill, past the dog poo in a black bag, lying on the trail.
After a while we bump in to six guys from 'Findon's Gentleman's Cycling - two aged 71. On FS non-E bikes. Excellent.
Ask about why 'men's only'. Get stern answer. Well, there we are then.
Turn right by the blue bag with dog poo in it.
Whoopy down and then up, through golden field of grain. Gorgeous.
MUD!!! into woodland where timber extraction is underway. Watch guy using massive Swedish specialist timber truck with even more massive hydraulic arm which is being manipulated swiftly and expertly, like an extension of the operator's body. Impressive.
Down into Arundel for ... coffee and Croation filo pastry loveliness. Yum. And more Yum.
More Garmin fiddling. More Garmin cursing.
Turn left at the brown bag with dog poo in it.
Long ups and alongs. And after two hours into ancient woodland.
More Garmin wrangling at an ancient, remote crossroads - yews at each corner to keep the Devil away. It works. We do not see the Devil.
Then, like thirty ghosts, a huge herd of Roe Deer silently crosses our path, running fast just metres away. Fabulous.
Garmin says 'unpaved ascent' about five times. Each time we are actually climbing on metalled surfaces - we are eating into time through all the 'off course' from the Garmin only for it to decide two mins later and 100m up a different bridleway that the first one was right after all. Sigh.
Back we go.
Many times.
Down to main road, crossing on sharp fast corner where a driver has read the section of the Highway Code which says 'if you are approaching a blind corner above the speed limit and suddenly a bike is crossing even though they couldn't see you when they started across then the thing to do is stand on your horn and not brake in any way at all....and if you are in a Merc you are even allowed to accelerate'. Super.
After the utter tranquility of the woods only 5km before, we are glad to pull up and away from the madness and noise of the road.
Stop at the top of the long haul and shout at the Garmin again.
Turn right where the green bag of poo is lying on the ground.
Homeward leg, great group of female riders on top end bikes coursing down the hill. Then 10km of up and down and up and down.
Past the field of purple, insect-enhancing FiddleNeck which matches Ant's helmet.
Back past the weird corrugated iron church near the windmill.
30 miles. 705m - 2300 feet of climbing.
And yes, we did 54kph on a hectic, rutted and very flinty chalk descent - but 29 inch wheels are an asset on things like that...
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very nice weather.
...where is this nice weather you speak of? Absolutely shite down here.
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You didn’t get the memo? Here now. Sat with coffee.
Been peeing it down round here for the last few days. Went away last week though: please be upstanding for...Mokomoko's Adventures in Anglesey Some lovely short rides with much hilliness and deep mud in places. Beach shots of lighthouse/Puffin Island just off Penmon Point. No Puffins in evidence but plenty of Cormorants and rock-pools and some dodgy looking blokes unloading stuff from a white van!? Last photo is Mokomoko enjoying the view after a hose-down back at the ranch (not my ranch- the one we were staying at!)
Some lovely short rides with much hilliness and deep mud in places. Beach shots of lighthouse/Puffin Island just off Penmon Point. No Puffins in evidence but plenty of Cormorants and rock-pools and some dodgy looking blokes unloading stuff from a white van!? Last photo is Mokomoko enjoying the view after a hose-down back at the ranch (not my ranch- the one we were staying at!)
moonlite
Kona Fan
Seems to be getting a bit warmer here but there's no point concluding winter is over -- we will have a few more cold fronts sweeping through, I'm sure.
Took advantage of a work hiatus (the benefits of working from home) to get out on the dirt roads on the hills outside town. There are a couple of climbs which make good testers of fitness, so that seemed not a bad idea. The first -- and worst -- was a disappointment. I had to stop halfway up to catch my breath which is annoying as it signals that the heart and lungs aren't as robust as I'd hoped.
The subsequent slopes were less challenging and having warmed up early, I found them easier. And just past the usual turnaround point I found a decent downhill section which enabled a few moments of air time, in a suitably middle-aged kind of style. On getting home I found that the fancy Garmin the missus gave me for Christmas actually records and rates time spent off the ground! A datapoint too far? Put it this way, MTBing has never seemed incomplete without these insights!
Took advantage of a work hiatus (the benefits of working from home) to get out on the dirt roads on the hills outside town. There are a couple of climbs which make good testers of fitness, so that seemed not a bad idea. The first -- and worst -- was a disappointment. I had to stop halfway up to catch my breath which is annoying as it signals that the heart and lungs aren't as robust as I'd hoped.
The subsequent slopes were less challenging and having warmed up early, I found them easier. And just past the usual turnaround point I found a decent downhill section which enabled a few moments of air time, in a suitably middle-aged kind of style. On getting home I found that the fancy Garmin the missus gave me for Christmas actually records and rates time spent off the ground! A datapoint too far? Put it this way, MTBing has never seemed incomplete without these insights!
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