A bit of fun.....

The first attempt at a photo when I badly under-estimated how high Clive would get! 

Managed to catch him a bit better this time!

 My own rather pathetic tiddly little jump!

Boys will be boys and when I suggested to Baz and Clive that there was a jump that I fancied taking some pictures they were keen as mustard.

Baz wasn't a great deal better!

Clive took everybody, including himself, by surprise with his first jump when he whizzed past my shoulder when I expected him to pooter past my knees. We've discovered its better having the camera on multiple photo mode to capture the best shots, though the downside to that is you spend about an hour deleting all the rubbish! This has become the latest craze which will last until somebody overcooks it and comes a cropper! 

Typical April weather, thunder, lightning, hail, rain and a bit of sun thrown in for good measure

Went out for a ride after a heavy shower of hail thinking that was it for the day.......how wrong can you be! Managed to avoid the worst of it by sheltering under a tree but the temperature fell to zero in minutes. Earlier on the thunder was rumbling away and at one point there was a spectacular flash of lightning which seemed to me to home in on Rosslyn Chapel, could this be a mysterious sign?!! One of the reasons for the ride today was the fact that last Saturday I'd had a puncture and after changing the tube I forgot to pick up my favourite metal tyre lever, but what do know, there it was still lying in the same place, either nobody had seen it or if someone had, they hadn't a clue what it was! It was lucky I'd taken a light jacket with me as at least the upper half of me was reasonably dry when I got home.

It's a dogs life.........

C'mon man, stop talking to these bikers, there's work to be done!

Halfway up Castlelaw there's a farm which at this time of the year is busy lambing Blackface sheep. Just as we reached it on Saturday morning the farmer was crossing the road with his quad and two sheepdogs. We stopped to talk for a minute or two to ask how the lambing was going considering the bad weather lately and the two dogs hopped onto the quad and looked over with an impatient look at him as if to say"get a move on"!

Think I preferred the cold, wind free weather to what we're getting now.

Has the wind made Mark think about ending it all!!

This climb up the 7 steps was into a ferocious wind!

Last night only mark and me out and though the temperatures have risen quite a bit the wind's returned as well, and with a vengeance at that! Every time we had a climb to do the wind seemed to be in our faces, but on the plus side it's good training, in the words of an old Scottish saying "it wiz a sair fecht"!

Marks spectacular somersault!

Crash of the year goes to.......Mark (aka Madmax)

Baz made it through the snow, was it due to his bike being a 29er though?

Dougie didn't make it right through....

Mark managed the tricky rooty part onto the bridge although the camera reveals a helping hand from Dougie!

A night of hilarity as Mark did an ostrich act but used snow instead of sand, going straight over the bars to go head first into deep snow, no sympathy was shown and to be honest I don't think he expected any! He did manage the tricky technical bit through between the trees and onto the bridge though the jury's out on whether he received a help from Dougie on the way down from the roots. I managed to take KOM on a Strava segment from Mark who's vowed to regain it, or die in the attempt, probably the latter. Great nights riding for what must surely be the end of the cold weather.......we hope!

The snow's gradually disappearing.

Halfway up Allermuir and into the snow.

Looking back down from Allermuir with the "Skyline" in the background.

Barrie came off on a snowy descent, admittedly the photo was posed but that's compulsory!

Just Baz and me out this morning for a 32 miler that took in the 7 Steps and Maidens Cleugh twice just to make things interesting. Still a fair bit of snowy sections higher up with a few, or in my case a lot, of mishaps caused by the frozen snow! Highlight of the ride has to go to Baz making the first successful crossing of a very technical little rooty drop, with a small wooden bridge included  right after it,for good measure, I'm sure he'll be dreaming about that bit tonight!

Testing, testing....

The new North Wave Artics passed the the test with flying colours.

Clives rear end before we went out on the test run for the Butt Fender.

Clives rear end after the test run in wet muddy conditions, a definite fail for the Butt Fender.

A test ride for a few changes and accessories to the bikes was done at the weekend. For myself there were the new North Wave Artic shoes, a 5 star pass, the new, to my bike, full length outer gear cables, also 5 star and the new tyres, Schwalbe Rocket Rons, which also passed with full marks.

Clives testers were a Butt Fender which failed miserably, though to be fair was probably designed for a 26er rather than a 29er, his new tyres Maxxis Nobby Nics which gained full marks and his new Fuji 29er  which he gave full marks to as well