I haven’t been able to ride for 4 days due to the weather and not wanting to upset my wife. I’m sure she thought we had important things to do at the weekend in the run up to Christmas and would have seen no reason for me to ride in very wet conditions. For the first time in a long time, going back to last winter in fact, the trails are now properly wet and covered with puddles.
I met a rider of a similar age to myself on the way up the hill. He said he was doing quite a long ride so was going a bit slower than me. I did 10.8 miles. Here is my Strava file………………https://www.strava.com/activities/2010055115.
I did 3 climbs so 3 downhills and my aim was really just to test the new, much wetter conditions and make sure I maintained my confidence. It’s too easy when it’s slippery to allow your weight to hang back as you fear a front wheel slide. So it’s necessary to keep pushing down on those handlebars to weight them and hang on to front wheel grip. I must have done OK because I didn’t fall off no matter how much the trail worked against me. In fact I had a bit of oversteer where a sudden back wheel slide turned me too far into a corner. I couldn’t react quickly enough by steering out of the corner and I was heading for a sizeable rock. No drama. I just lifted the front end up and rode over it getting myself back on the track.
The picture above is at the summit of Healey Nab, my most common ride. It’s at 680 feet and on a clear day you can see down into north Wales and up to the Lake District. Both locations with fantastic MTBing.
I thought after my last ride that my SRAM 11 speed gears weren’t working perfectly. It turned out to be a loose rear wheel axle. Good job I found it before the wheel fell off. I’m hoping it will be a bit drier for my next ride in 2 days time.
Mountainbiker 