Greatrock goes on tour....

If you haven't seen this one yet then do yourself a favour, grab a hot mug of fuel, take a seat and watch, just a really nicely executed video starring Ed from Greatrock

the only snow ride?

Posing the question because this winter's dump is more akin to that of a constipated 80 year old Grandma.

On this rainy rock where I exist I feel that suffering approximately 361 days of rain and wind a year is enough mental torture so we deserve a small reward from mama nature....not happening this winter....so far the only ride in anything approaching nice crunchy snow was a hypothermia inducing snotfest which featured a snowstorm alongside gale force winds that slowly turned to rain and soaked us through to the bone...cue several frozen shaking mountain bikers, huddled around car heaters desperately trying to coax some feeling back into our bones.

Winter you ain't playing nice this year and I am about to throw my rattle out of the proverbial pram, so please I ask on bended knee, wise the hell up and give us just one week of snow and frozen trails to play on, well can we have it?

Life is getting in the way....

I vowed this year that I would cycle more and in fact with each year that passes I would up the ante and get more time on the mountain bike than the previous year.

I sit here at the end of November and can count on ONE hand the amount of times I have abused my mountain bike in the past 2 months, it's getting to the point where it's embarrassing to call myself a mountain biker, it's part lack of mojo as riding buddies have fallen by the wayside and it's a bigger part life. The past 3 months has seen two job changes (and associated stress), kids exams (still on-going), hospital visits, funerals, illness, excuses and more excuses, it's now at the tipping point.

I crave a life amongst the trees, I crave time in the saddle, I see the weeks ahead of me crammed with work, weekends filled with kids activities, but somewhere out of this I must find saddle time, it is after all the glue that bonds me together, not tarmac time, I need must have singletrack.

Next weekend it will start again, next Sunday morning come hail or shine I will have my saddle time, and this week I will sort lights so come December the balance can be restored and I can once again become a mountain biker!

Saturday's fun...

In the mud, rain, wind, mist and sunshine - crazy weather, great morning's riding...

Some nice mountain bike videos

I came across some really lovely mountain bike videos whilst scanning around Vimeo by a user called Filme von Draussen, I've posted a couple below, but there are lots more to see here

Matt Hunter - Lone Wolf

I can't stop watching this great video by Matt Hunter, it just appeals on so many levels but the main thing it shouts is the word ESCAPE....

Escape...

We recently spent a week in Scotland on a family holiday, based in Innerleithen this was pure torture as I had no bike with me....roll on some tense negotiations and a not too small amount of grovelling and I was able to book a day out on a hire bike in Glentress as my ladies spent the day shopping.

I was going to be boring and just book a stock Orange 5 like my own bike, but then thought when the opportunity presents itself why not try something slightly different so I went for an Orange Alpine 160, the appetite was well and truly wetted.

As Irish luck would have it the morning presented itself with dark clouds and rain, luckily it was warm anyway and sure when you're wet you're not going to get much wetter! Glentress car park was fairly empty and on the ride up to the Buzzard car park I didn't come across another rider, it was going to be a quiet day. The bike certainly climbed well for the additional weight and bounce over my 5, perhaps a bit harder but no deal breaker, I had formed a plan to ride the full red route, then head down to The Hub for lunch then back up and do the Blue and then mess about on the Freeride park, it was going to be a tough day but I knew it would be worth it.

After 5.5 hours riding and having done all I wanted including 3 rides down Spooky Wood and countless times down Berm Baby Berm I had had enough of getting wet so headed back to the shop and awaited my pick up - it was a great day - and worth all the bags of shopping that awaited me in the back of the car.

So what of the Alpine 160....I would say it truly was a great bike to ride and these trails were great to ride on it, if I had the same network at home a 160 would be on the shopping list but for now the 5 covers all the check boxes, although never say never....