Round the Forth......again!!

En-route to South Queensferry by the track along the south side of the Forth

Halfway over the Forth Road Bridge with the iconic Forth Railway Bridge in the background.

With snow ruling out the Pentlands and the need for some miles to reach the weekly target, Baz and me did the Two Bridges round the River Forth. This actually included a fairish bit of off road riding as well as road riding and into the bargain we crossed the new Clackmannan Bridge instead of the old Kincardine Bridge. Slight mishap in that I discovered a rip in the wall of my front tyre halfway round and spent the remainder of the trip expecting it to split asunder! It held out though and we managed just over 40 miles to boost the weekly total!

About as many offs as ons!!

The snowy slippery climb up to West Kip, I must have come off about 10 times!

Baz will never be nearer going over the bars and getting away with it.

Why he nearly went over....the front wheel went into a drifted over hole!

The view back down the reservoirs today, absolutely stunning (and cold!)

We set off at 6 this morning with about 4 inches of snow on the ground and no idea how far we'd get and as it happened we managed right up and round the side of West Kip because the snow wasn't really British snow, i.e. not wet and soft but dry and fluffy which made it relatively easy to cycle through. The only drawback was it concealed lots of hidden frozen ruts and the odd sheet of ice which meant there were even more offs than normal, particularly in my case! In the end we managed 25 miles with fingers that needed defrosted as the temperature was about -5 c most of the time!

Trying to get these miles in before the snow hits us.

Dougie descending at a fair rate of knots down the snowy ice bound steps!

Out with Dougie this afternoon to try to boost my weekly mileage total before the whiteout we've been promised hits us. A bit different today from last nights' Pentlands ride in that there wasn't the same amount of climbing involved but still we managed to include one or two little technical bits in the journey to Penicuik and back. The temperature never even got near to rising above zero but at least it was dry with next to no wind. Only 9 miles to do by Sunday to reach my weekly 100 miles minimum now!

Winter Wonderland......featuring....Kathy!!!

Kathy adding a fair bit of glamour to a snowy trail ride!

Out for a ride today with Kathy who's an ultra distance runner that I'm determined to turn into a top female mountain biker, she's got the stamina, all she needs is the experience and she's getting plenty of snow and ice experience just now!

Frost and snow return

This was taken today (Sunday) and there's a dusting of snow as Clive blows his tyre up at the Howe, though by the time I post this it's snowing heavily.

Saturday night at the top of Castlelaw and already the daylight's starting to stretch out a bit.

Allermuir Hill, where we're heading, and boy was it cold up the top of there, -4c with a strong wind!

Out on Saturday night with Baz for a 27.5 miler in temperatures below zero all of the time and nothing but trouble with my Bontrager freehub  which continually freezes up when the temperature goes below -3c resulting in Baz and me peeing on it  several times to thaw it out. This is OK once or twice but becomes quite difficult after a while!

Sunday morning out with Clive needing 15 miles for my 100 for the week and we managed a healthy 20 even though it snowed the whole time we were out.

The dropper post gets a good test out.

A bit blurry (I put it down to the sheer speed I was travelling at!!) 

Down to Glentress with Dougie this afternoon to give the Rock Shock Reverb its first real tryout on the drops etc. of the black route and it came through with flying colours, in fact I would have been over the bars when I hit a stone in the heather at one point if I hadn't had the post down! It still takes a bit of getting used to, I was hitting the gear changer instead of the dropper button occasionally but I suppose time should improve that. A good 15.5 mile workout with over 2500 feet of climbing into the bargain.