Today has been a beautiful autumn day. The colours are amazing, the weather was calm and mainly sunny. I was keen to ride the new love of my life, my son's Trek Fuel EX8 29" wheel full suspension bike, and take it on my favourite downhill from the top of Great Hill. Of course I … Continue reading A lovely autumn ride.
After the driest spring on record in England we’ve had a very wet period. The temperatures have dropped from nearly 30 Celsius a couple of weeks ago to only 13 Celcius (55 Fahrenheit) for this morning’s ride. It is also windy now but the good news is that this will help to dry the soaking … Continue reading Changing trails.
Looking on the bright side rain in summer gives us some different ground conditions to try! We’ve had rather a lot of rain since my last ride so I expected that it would be muddy today and this was confirmed when I walked the dog. At first I thought that I could ride to Birkacre … Continue reading Summer rain.
On my last ride I became concerned that I might exhaust myself at an early stage if I put too much effort in on a big climb. It seems to be too tough a gradient for me to have a chance of riding the whole of without stopping at my current age, though 25 years … Continue reading Exhaustion and recovery.
In England we don't often suffer from heat. Today it's likely to reach 27 celcius or 81 farenheit which is hot by our standards, particularly in the north of England where I live. I had no special plan for a ride today until I saw the picture which appears when I access the app. Strava. … Continue reading Riding on a hot day.
I’ve been giving my riding technique a lot of thought recently. I’ve tried to get my weight distribution just right to get the perfect balance of front and rear wheel grip. The problem that’s occurred to me is that on downhill banked corners I’ve felt uncomfortably far forwards on the bike, with my head above … Continue reading Don’t over think it!
I've been giving the handling of my mountain bike a lot of thought recently and made some changes to try to improve things. Bikes have changed a lot over the last 7 years or so. Wheels have generally become bigger and tyres wider. Bikes are longer, throwing off their road bike geometry which persisted for … Continue reading How it used to be.
I've ridden a few times recently where I've concentrated on my riding technique. I've also looked at my bike setup to see if I could benefit from any changes. I've lowered my tyre pressures because I found that I could improve the grip on corners yet after a fair test found the bike not to … Continue reading Technique.
This has been the claim after Storm Ciara passed over us this weekend. Plenty of places have suffered flooding but in Chorley it didn't seem as severe. In fact yesterday the sun came out in the afternoon and it hasn't rained since. The breeze has continued to blow which has dried the surface especially in … Continue reading 6 weeks of rain in one day!
I'll admit that I'm seriously addicted to mountain biking. The physical exertion, slight sense of danger and my love of mechanical things make it the perfect sport for me. I spend some time thinking about mountain biking even when I'm not riding and today, whilst walking my dog, Freddie, I had the chance to plan … Continue reading Getting high.
