I was rather tired yesterday so didn’t ride the mountain bike. I’d ridden 164 miles on my scooter on Sunday to Kirkby Stephen in the Yorkshire dales with a group of friends and was surprised how much it exhausted me. Today I started by replacing the bottom shock absorber bush and mount, which had developed some play. With a recent new transmission the Boardman FS Pro has nothing left to fix!
I’d walked an interesting trail into Duxbury Woods with Freddie my dog, yesterday and thought I could make it into a good trail ride by climbing Healey Nab later. We had thunder storms yesterday so I knew that the ground would be wetter than recently but fortunately it was just the surface which was wet. I wasn’t faced with significant mud. The downhill trail into the woods is quite good with plenty of twists and turns. The exposed, wet tree roots were challenging but I’d certainly like to ride it again in dry weather. I used an off road route which crosses the canal and continues towards the hill. After a short road section and the climb to the top of the hill I’d been riding for 48 minutes and took some photos at the cairn at 680 feet.
I rode to the nearby trail head and start of the downhill and was anxious to compare the Boardman to the older, 26” wheel Whyte which I used last time. My downhill time was very similar, despite the wetter ground. The longer travel suspension definitely makes fast riding easier but not necessarily quicker. It’s probably because the bike is longer that I seem to have to lean further forwards on the Boardman to balance front and rear wheel grip than I do on my older Whyte. After the woodland descent is a very fast, open drop towards town. I’d climbed 800 feet in 8.7 miles, taking just over an hour. I’ll have to keep an eye on the weather forecast before my next ride.
Mountainbiker 