This snow is becoming BORING!!!!!!

Nearly another 6 inches of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning meant any meaningful off road ride was out of the question over the weekend. We decided on a Saturday night ride and quickly discovered that anything off the tarred road was at the least very difficult and at the worst well nigh impossible. We just reached Roslin when my chain somehow or other wrapped itself TWICE round my bike's bottom bracket, cunningly concealing the joining link to make separation of said chain just that bit more difficult. However a combination of foul language (mostly from me!) and expert advice (?!) from Clive and Baz, and we eventually freed it off and rejoined it in the correct orientation! We stuck to the roads after that and managed a creditable 20 miles but the need to get off road is beginning to annoy. Somebody somewhere tell me when global warming is going to recommence, I'm looking forward to it!

Scenic Sunday in the Pentland Hills

Taken early this morning just before sunrise as we cycled up past the reservoirs from Flotterstone. There was ice and a little snow lying on it here and there, but not enough for any Olympic events!

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35 miler at well below zero!

Still too icy for Glentress so we opted for a Pentlands ride again today. We set off not long after 5.30am at about minus 6 degrees Celsius and my freewheel hub was soon playing up. Unless I kept a continuous pedalling motion the palls just would not grip, something we've experienced before at low temperatures. However it eventually started to behave, probably due to some rather strong language being hurled its way. We rode up from Flotterstone past the reservoirs and then up the track that brings you out above Balerno. From there it was downhill for quite some time until we caught the track alongside the Water of Leith, eventually leaving that at Colinton. From there it was along past Redford Barracks to Swanston, turning right to cross the Edinburgh Bypass and up past the golf course to finally nearly arrive back where we'd set off. We then discovered we were going to be back too early so we added on another 7 mile or so to make the mileage up to 35. I did another 5 miles in the afternoon to bring my mileage up for the week to 150 which ain't bad considering the weather! I've now taken the cassette off the back wheel and I've got the freewheel hub soaking in oil. Will it cure it? Who knows, but its worth a try.

A tale of two chains

Out on Friday night with Clive on a trip along the cycleway to Penicuik, a round trip of nearly 20 miles, we were experiencing all sorts of chain/drive train problems. We had just started the return journey when my chain came apart and finding it again on a muddy cycle track was no mean feat! We did have spare links however and managed to effect a repair though Clive's chain continued to jump about his cassette all the way home. On inspection in daylight on Saturday he discovered one of the links half broken, how it managed to hang together is a mystery.
We went out on Saturday night , Baz, Clive and myself, as Sunday morning for various reasons was not on. As Glentress was still a bit dodgy Baz suggested the Pentlands instead. We went along to Penicuik, up over to Flotterstone and then went up by the various reservoirs to the track that eventually leads over to Balerno. This is more or less non stop climbing for 13 miles so the descent was well worth waiting for! The return journey was by a slightly different route and took us up to the 30 mile mark with a calorie burn of over the 2225 mark. One mishap, on the descent to Auchindinny as we shot down a steep hill with speed bumps my foot came out the clips going over one of them and I came down rather heavily on the front of the seat with my undercarriage! Painful doesn't even begin to describe it! However after taking it easy for a bit I recovered and we made it home in relatively one piece.

Glentress :- the first time for about 6 weeks.

Down to Glentress for the first time for ages this morning due to the adverse weather. The tracks still had the odd bit of ice lower down and there was no way the black route would be open today. This also proved to be true the higher we went up the red route as the snow became unrideable so it was back down and across some of the other tracks we've discovered through time on the lower reaches of the forest. We managed 16 and 1/2 miles with a bit of repeat riding, the highlight being overtaking some riders who were on their way up when we were still descending!

These two pictures were taken from a video I took of Baz and Clive on the way back down.

They're going so fast they're just a blur!