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....