the dreaded...

...'man-flu' has struck at a pain in the arse time of the year. Not rode my bike, or the been on the turbo trainer for that matter, since Monday, its now Friday and I am feeling anxious to get back on the bike. I just know that if I do any training at all then it may make the symptoms even worse and when you are talking 'man-flu' that could end up very serious indeed!!

So a day of bed, coughing and spluttering, fresh orange juice, loads of water and a heavy dose of the latest mountain biking magazines it will have to be for me.

it's happening!

the santa cruz will be in on Thursday this week, Anodized Blue, superb!! So, hopefully up and running with it by early next week....

19 days to go...

my first Merida is nearly upon me. Builth Wells April 13th and I can't wait.

The training is going well, I'm noticing a definate increase of speed and stamina which has to be good. I am getting in a good mix of on the bike time and turbo trainer sessions (and family time of course!!). The bike itself is another matter...

I have had my eye on a Santa Cruz Superlight frame for some time now and last week I finally took the plunge and ordered one (via Stif bikes in Leeds). I never realised how weak I was at choosing colours, been a designer I thought it would have helped, but not in this case! After many a minute of deliberation I opted for the Anodized Slate, then after many more minutes of filling in details for my order and a phone call from Stif to Jungle (UK importer of Santa Cruz bikes) it was confirmed the chosen colour is out of stock....noooooooooooooooooooooo!.....3 weeks lead time at least......! I left it on order with the other bits I needed (XT front mech, Syncros seat post) and came away very unhappy at the thought I may not have my new bike built up ready for the 1st Merida.

After a restless night of 'what on earth can I do' thoughts I woke with the positive attitude of changing my order to the Anodized blue option, after all they told me they had all othere colour options other than the one i chose. I would of course have to order a new Hope headset in Black as my current headset in red would look a tad odd on a blue bike!?

So, 9.30am came around and I put a call in to Stif, "no problem sir, we can change that over for you sir", "I will just check with my colleague that we can price match your headset", can I give you a call back sir?"

The call back confirmed to me that the Anodized blue is also not in stock! Flippin hec, how hard can it be??! I mentioned to this 'new to me' sales person that they did confirm on Thursday they had every colour other than anodized slate...."can you double check?"...and so that is the call I am now waiting for tomorrow.

Anyway, I gave the Trek a quick wash down this morning to wash away last Tuesday's Pootle remnants so I didnt have to carry all that unwanted ballast, so a quick wash later and with my camelback reservoir filled I was off on a Monday morning mainly road blast. The reason for the 'mainly road' outing is because the Trek is desperatley in need of new bushes. I do hope the Superlight turns up next week so I don't have to have these replaced just now.

The ride out this morning was good, it took in the views of Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Featherstone, Heath Common, Walton, Haw Park Wood and back home - 18.2 miles, 1hr 30mins constant cycling, 12 mph avg speed. I was happy with that.

Had a good wash of the bike once home ready to swap all bits and pieces over to the Superlight next week........hopefully.....fingers crossed.....

4 hours of ups and downs

the Peak District, that was the chosen playground for this weekends riding. I had arranged to meet up with Pete and Tom (Bad Brains recruits) for a ready to ride start time of 8.30am at Heatherdene car park near Ladybower Reservoir. Waking to wind and a little rain was not going to curb my motivation for yet another day in the saddle. After a detoured journey through Sheffield I finally found my way back onto a road which I had some recognition of and evetually found myself at Heatherdene. The other two had hit the same problem as me in Sheffield and rolled up a little while later. Our ready to ride time shifted to just before 9.00am.

So off we set, taking a right out of the car park and heading towards the A57 and with a short section of Peak District tarmac we found ourselves heading off left on to a bridleway just next to the Ladybower Inn. This is a steep and rocky ascent which warmed the legs up in no time. The track eventually turns left and still headed skywards we were finding ourselves battling the wind more and more. Good news though...the rain had stopped.

A fairly long climb and it brings you to a superb viewpoint overlooking Ladybower Reservoir and the surrounding beauty of the Peak District. The next section contours for a bit then takes a sharp left for some downhill fun. A steep descent, albeit, through a number of annoying gates lands you right next to Ladybower. Its amazing how quick you can lose your hard earned height.

Our path (or as it happens 'our tarmac track') brought us round to Fairholmes car park just infront of the dam wall. The dam, it must be said, was looking very impressive today with the amount of water it had dropping of its top lip.

We made our way up the West side of Derwent Water and never been far away from very steep hills to climb, we decided to do just that. More or less doubling back on ourselves we took a bridleway UP through Gores Plantation with our sights set on getting to our 'summit point' from where we would take a right turn to lead us to Rowlee Farm and its grintastic downhill. Full of switchbacks and natural berms and near on ear popping descending this can only be described as awesome.

The pleasure is all too soon followed by the pain and that said we were now facing another long rocky climb. The legs were certainly getting some use today. We were now on a track which if followed further than we chose to go would bing you to Hope Cross. We took a right turn, signposted Edale, before you get to the stone cross in the middle of nowhere, a track I have done many a time and a track I love more the more I ride it. Its downhill, its long, its fast. There is an uphill section about midway down, not a rocky one this time which comes as a bit of a treat at this stage of the ride. Then more downhilling as fast as you dare (or as fast as your bike wants to go with hardly any brake pads left!!) right down to a B road near to Nether Booth.

Turning left onto the B road and following it until we got to Townhead Bridge where a left turn brought us to the start of our last major climb of the day. Another rocky climb but the legs were still turning. A switchback eventually took us even higher with the thought in mind that this must be leading to yet another fantastic downhill section, and that it did. We were finally spat out onto tarmac near a place called Aston which left us with a few miles of road work to finish with.

Back at the car, thouroughly pleased with our pace today and a mouthful of fruit gums kindly donated by Tom, I felt a very happy man. What started as a rainy and windy day turned into a dry (ish!) day with even a bit of sun. And whats more, I am feeling fast on the bike...the training is paying off...

a muddy Wharncliffe...

...and that it was, a complete mudfest, but good fun and good training all the same.

The red route it was to be today, the first time I have ridden in Wharncliffe for a while and those trial builders certainly have been busy. The first 3 sections (all singletrack) of the red have potential to be very good, the first section today was all rideable, the second section which is nice and rocky was a nightmare in the wet/mud.

Once through the singletrack introduction it brings you to one of the many fire roads which cut through the woods in every direction. From this point the views were excellent, especially for a forcasted wet and windy day! I know I should never trust www.havn'tgotaclueaboutheweather.com !!

The whole of the red route is very well signposted throughout. I never saw much evidence of the black route, even some sections which I knew to be the black route were not marked. The red route is good, if a little short, but for a route which keeps you in the woods the whole time it is excellent...and besides...you can go round as many times as you want you know!! I did 2 loops today which totalled around 14 miles, with an average speed of just over 7mph. That just proves what some of the terrain is like.

The uphills are still as good as I remember, nice and long with good rewards at the end! Some of the fire roads have been laid with aggregate which is a bit loose in places.

All in all a good ride, nice and quick (in places!) but I think I will leave it for a while and try again in the less muddy conditions...I'll be back!

sunday rider

well...its Sunday...its very early...06.30am...I'm up and the weather is looking good, contrary to weather websites belief. Plenty of time for some breakfast and a pack up of the car with all things mountain bike.

I am off to ride some of the new trails which have been built in Wharncliffe Woods, nr Sheffield. Hoping to get plenty of miles in for a good training run, perhaps even a double loop of the woods. I will report back more later when I have been........

pootle once again...

...the weather was good (considering it was snowing on Monday!), the tracks were a mix of dry and muddy, there was a good collection of pootlers and off we went for another edition of a Tuesday Bad Brains Pootle.

Leading this ride from The Plough at Warmfield was the great Uncle Chip himself. There must have been around 10 of us out last night, good turnout for a mid winter ride. Only 5 minutes into the ride and it was hard on the brakes trying to avoid bumper to bumper collisions as we all involuntarily regrouped right on top of the remains of a burnt out car...unfortunatley Chip had sustained a shrapnel injury from the once smouldering vehicle. An injury that the slime in his tubeless tryes could not save. After a short while, and with new tube firmly in place we were back on our way.

We took in the delights of some places which were familiar to me (Haw Park Wood, Wintersett) and some which were not.

Not too much of an eventful ride other than Phil managing to complete an arse over handlebars moment which for us viewers was hilarious, perhaps not so for Phil who subsequntly had to detangle his plumbs from his handle bar and cable combination.

All in all a great ride out (apart from the cramp in both sets of toes at the same time in the ride!) and a top pint of Theakstons to finish with.

just stay in and ride

have turbo trainer...have bike with strange looking skinny slick tyre (looks the business!)...have a room with plenty of space...have my mp3 player with a cool levellers album...and...have done my first session on it and loved it.

I can see perhaps why people say they can be boring but to be honest I quite enjoyed it. I think I will keep my mp3 player up to date with fresh music and I'll be fine. Looking forward to the next training session and of course getting back out onto the proper trails. I think I will leave it till next tuesday (pootle ride with Bad Brains) which is nearly a full week since I went to the Osteopath, it'll be right.

new toy...

its turned up, my new turbo trainer. Well, turned up is perhaps not the phrase to use as I had to go to Leeds to collect from the delivery depot as they had tried delivering it twice over the last 2 days...and i was away. Anyway, its here, its built up and..........i now need a slick tyre to run on my mountain bike....