Actually, for me, it’s more like “it’s no fun”, rather than snow fun. I’ve never enjoyed riding in snowy conditions and we’ve had snow lying on the ground for the last week.
Instead of riding, to help my fitness, I’ve done some long walks with my dog, Freddie. I walked up Great Hill on Sunday with him and what is a fabulous downhill on a bike was seriously difficult to even stay on my feet. In places the trail was covered in ice sheets so, for once, I didn’t regret not being on the bike. Freddie seemed to enjoy it.
Last night a little rain washed most of the snow away so I got a ride in. I rode over to Birkacre where I took some pictures of the trails. I then rode to Ellerbeck which was formerly a coal mine and has some good riding. The Boardman bike seems like hard work on the roads. I have a 27.5″X2.4″ rear tyre fitted and it seems to drag far more than my 26″ tyres. I’m thinking that modern tyres are going the wrong way. Always looking for more grip but not being as fast over the whole ride where we, lets be honest, spend far longer on the flat and climbing than we do descending. I’ll be doing plenty of comparative testing of my bikes when the weather improves.
The picture on the left is from the middle of the first right hander in a 3 corner section which you can enter from the downhill left hander in the picture on the right. After the first corner is a right, a 30 mph downhill straight and a terrifying fast left. 6 great corners and a fast straight in around 40 seconds with you on the limit of grip for a lot of the distance. This is great mountain biking for me. I’d rather ride on trails like this than the repeated berms of a trail centre.
Mountainbiker 