The younger branch of the family keep up the biking!

Down to Cardiff for a family visit and what better way to spend an hour or so than a bike ride with some of the younger members of the clan riding along whats known as the Taff Trail. This goes along the side of the River Taff in Cardiff with some interesting little tracks here and there and the odd bomb hole which with the recent weather turned out to be quite muddy in the bottom. 

Two of the young members of the family here with a friend were undecided until their father took the plunge and emerged unscathed from the mud........they all had a go then! 

The youngest here with his dad was beginning to complain near the end of our 8.5 mile trip but its hardly surprising as his bike was probably nearly twice the weight of ours, why do they put these ridiculous heavy springs on kids bikes, they provide sod all suspension!

Saw the sun today....makes a change!

They say the sun shines on the righteous, well it made a mistake today and shone on us instead. Its been a week or so since it last graced us with a visit so we made the most of its appearance today with a 27 miler up the Pentlands on a slightly varied route from normal.

Dougie and Baz attempt to tighten Baz's rear mud-guard, the sun might have been shining but after last weeks rain there was a lot of mud about.

An unusual combination of gloves, apparently he has another pair the very same back home.....

We used to be able to cycle through this bit but after all the rain its turned into a river.

Its all downhill, (more or less), from here till we get back home.

A good afternoons biking with a change of route going down by Bonaly reservoir taking in some rooty sections and some minor back roads till we got back along to Harlaw. No mishaps today but the weeks mileage is going to be down a bit I fear due to the weather, c,mon it has been pretty hellish lately!!!!!

That's the rain on again!

And chucking it down at that! After about a week of reasonably settled weather, i.e. no wind, no rain and a bit of sunshine, we're back to heavy rain through the day followed by clearing up late afternoon and a touch of frost at night. This hasn't really held my mileage back too much but the washing machine's been going non stop separating the riding clothes from the muck. An addition to my riding gear has been a merino wool base layer, it has a polo neck with a zip, handy for climbs and descents, long sleeves, also handy for going up and down, and best of all doesn't need washing too often, at least nobody's complained of the smell yet......
The lights are now fitted for every ride and before too long every ride will be in total darkness, only the brave (or is it the nutters) venture out now! Last night three of us were out and saw no-one else in 23 miles of riding, mind you at one point I rode through 18 inches of water where the river had burst its banks!

First real frost since last winter

Baz demonstrating how you should concentrate the whole time, he even managed to land in some sheep dung!

The sun had just appeared to give a great view across Threapmuir Reservoir.

After all the climbing the descent down past Eastside Farm is worth waiting for

An old bridge that I particularly like in the grounds of Penicuik House.

Frosty but calm at 6 am this morning when Baz and me set off to do a repeat of a route I did solo through the day last Friday. We added a couple of extra miles on today for good measure and ended up with just over 32 miles all in. Tremendous views today when we were well up in the hills, we even encountered a young guy who'd been camping on his own all night, "Great fun" he said though I failed to see what was great fun huddled in a one man tent on your own with temperature below freezing.Ah well it takes all kinds to make the world go round, some folk even go out on their bikes in pitch darkness in the frost. 

Autumn in the Pentlands (it's not any different from summer actually)

This photo taken this afternoon is as good as its got all year beside us. Apart from the (very) odd day its been a pretty poor summer and I noticed today on my travels that there's still a bit of wheat and barley to combine yet with evidence in the shape of deep tracks that the ground is just too wet at bits. Next years main event we've decided is to be the Isle of Man "End to End Race" which is just what it says on the tin in that it's a race from one end of the island to the other! Just so I'm prepared I've started my training already (the race isn't till next September!) you never know something else might come up before then. Today's Friday route covered just over 30 miles with over 2500 feet of climbing and I arrived home with a fairish amount of Pentland mud attached to my bike!