You've no fear when you're young!

8 yearold Dunc crosses the fallen tree in style.

5 year old Logan does likewise.

Dunc does the "Steps of Terror" at speed! 

A great week doing the local trails and making up names for some of the parts of them with 8 year old Dunc and 5 year old Logan (and their father as well!). In all they covered over 70 miles on their mountain bikes. I've convinced Dunc that he's in training for the 2024 Olympics, and to be honest if he keeps on improving I don't see why not!

5 year old conquers the "Descent of Doom"!!!

Logan at 5 years old comes down the steep little hill his brother and him call "the descent of doom"!
He did have a look of abject terror at one point but recovered his composure to announce it was a piece of cake! The family tradition of complete disregard for personal safety lives on!!

I'm beginning to believe in the "Curse of Baz"

This is usually easy to cycle through, nobody risked it today.

Another flooded section but we all made it through.

Clive's rear derailleur looks slightly knackered but he limped home the last 5 miles with it.

The dreaded "Curse of Baz" which means that nearly every time he turns up for a ride, the heavens open up big time, struck again today. We'd only gone less than 2 miles when the rain started but rather than give up we kept on going, Clive going for 250 miles for the week and me after 150 miles. The normally quiet stream up from Flotterstone had turned into a raging torrent after the thunderstorm of last night and the downpour again today. Baz confidently announced he would ford it and be photographed doing so but had a change of mind when he saw the depth and strength  of the water!
The mishaps today were my rear brake spring that separates the pads breaking up, but at least the brakes kept working and, more expensively, Clive's rear derailleur main spring either breaking or coming undone somehow. Luckily we were not too far from home and we made it back with only the odd push up the steeper bits.
After fixing my rear brake at night, Clive and I decided another short ride wouldn't hurt so we did another 10 plus miles to take our totals for the week to 260 and 160 miles respectively.
It's fun cycling in the wet but "Hells Teeth" it's supposed to be the height of summer, so what's winter going to be like?!!

Thunderstorm stops play!

The curse of Baz struck again this week as he arrived at my house for a trip into the Pentlands just as a thunderstorm started. "It's OK" he declared , "it's going away from us", alas his hopes were unfounded and the storm circled overhead. We did a short loop but decided to take the safe option and live to cycle another (hopefully drier) day. This is the second Saturday running this has happened, I'm beginning to think somebody's got it in for us!

26 miler round by West Kip

Time for refreshments

Another one bites the dust

A bit of blood (admittedly not very much) means the ride was good

Much to Clive's surprise the trip round the West Kip loop proved to be a mile longer than the previous night's ride. The presence of a few dribbles of blood at the end of the ride meant it had been a good one!

The trails are drying out (a bit!)

A view from the Pentland Hills over Edinburgh with Arthurs Seat on the right and Edinburgh Castle in the distance on the left.

The sheep track as we call it is starting to dry out.

After the torrential rain of last week when my mountain biking was practically non existent it's been good to get out the last two nights. Some of the tracks are showing the results of the heavy rain with a fair bit of rutting here and there but on the whole it's beginning to dry out........until the next downpour!

Baz's bike gets a face lift! (and Clive goes all roadie!)

While Baz was on holiday he got his forks serviced and I cleaned up his bike after I refitted them. For a 5 year old bike that's seen a fair bit of service it looks in quite good nick!

Clive cycles to his work, a round trip of 20 miles, most days and alternates between an old Giant XTC and his Bianchi road bike (but we wont hold that against him!)

Saturday night/Sunday morning....65 miles in the hills!

Clive successfully fords the burn!

The start of the descent down to Bonaly reservoir.

My bike taking a breather at the Font Stone high in the Pentlands.

You don't get many days like this in Scotland!

Saturday night Clive and I were out and did a 24.5 miler in the Pentlands with the descent down to the Howe from West Kip being the highlight as usual. Sunday morning and we each had a free pass for the day so it was off at 9.30am for a biggy! Clive's gears started playing up and to be honest the whole drive chain is just on its last legs! However we percevered and did a double West Kip loop to rack up the miles and finished with the fast descent to Nine Mile Burn and the return home via Penicuik Estate and the Penicuik/Dalkeith cycle path . We managed our target of over 40 miles, with the Garmin showing an average temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit (virtually unheard of in Scotland!!). Highlight of the days ride was seeing a small green lizard high in the hills, how he survived the winter, goodness only knows. The little blighter was too shy to hang around and get his photo taken and scampered off into the long grass! 
My total mileage for the week off road :-  123 miles.