That's been a week and a half for weather!

Wednesday night with Mark, -1.6C and we got pelted with a hail storm!

Friday night with Clive and Glencorse reservoir was flat calm

Still Friday and Clive's front tyre, or tractor tyre as it's fondly known, lets him down badly as he discovers his knee's not meant to bend sideways!

We went as far as the new bridge on Friday night, it was just too much of a slog in the soft snow to go any further up the valley.

Saturday afternoon and although some of the snow had melted there were still bits here and there to make biking difficult. 

A clear bit of track and Clive goes for it!

Baz remounts after pushing through a snowdrift 

A rest and Clive treated us each to a bit of tablet he'd bought at a charity sale in the morning.......we wish he'd bought some more it was that good!

I'm glad to see the back of this week, the weather turned back to winter with the wind coming straight from the North and frequent showers of hail and snow. We still managed a few rides though, and some of the photos look good with the snow. Hopefully next week should warm up a bit (I've been saying that for about a month now!) and we can get back to less winter weather clothes. One advantage of the snow.......it doesn't hurt as much when you come off, well maybe it did in Clive's case!!

Clive gets up personal with a dog and I have a double burp

The end result of Clive and a dog not really looking where they were going......you decide who was most to blame!

Wednesday night and Mark crosses the wall in what was the best night ride of the year so far

The view from the top of Allermuir on Friday, another cracking ride.

Saturday and Baz does the rocky drop, first time for him in over a year

And he's safely down

Would you believe it?? A double burp!!!

An eventful week, which on the whole has been a little warmer and a great deal drier than of late, so much so that the trails are now more or less brick hard! Clive had an altercation with a dog at the start of the week and the dog came off best, with Clive ending up looking as though he'd spread strawberry jam over his kneecap.Mark and I had a terrific ride on Wednesday night with Mark nearly on his knees at times but refusing to give up! Friday and I did a 31 miler with loads of climbing and on Saturday Baz and I did some stuff he hadn't done since his injury and the most climbing for him in a year. I also suffered a double burp on both front a back tubeless tyres at the same time while attempting to cross a ditch and badly mistiming it! Luckily both tyres re-inflated with the hand pump but Baz continued to laugh for about the next hour, probably because I went over the bars at the same time. A good week mile-age wise though with 148 off road miles to up the average a bit.

It's been a cold wet week, Spring hasn't sprung in Scotland yet!

At least the water level had fallen enough today to let Baz and me use the stepping stones and keep our feet dry, unlike midweek when it was about 6 inches over the top of them.

Went round the side of West Kip today and here's the view I can never get tired of, though Baz appears to have lost interest in it!!

Kathy, looking as cute as ever at the top of Maidens Cleugh, though if truth be told she was shivering with the cold!

How I managed 130 off road miles this week I'm not really sure because it's been an absolute bitch of a week weather wise. An north east wind that blew in icy rain, sleet and occasionally snow threatened to destroy my weekly target of over 100 miles but a pair of new biking shoes helped to keep the feet a bit warmer and drier and I reverted back to the heavy duty winter gloves I'd very nearly laid away.The forecast is for the weather to heat up (a bit) but return to colder weather again by next weekend!!! 

More than one way to skin a cat......

Baz opted for the "calm and dignified" approach to crossing the river using the stepping stones which today were actually above, though only just, the water level!

Clive went for the "gung ho" approach, which can sometimes prove disastrous if you hit a boulder in the deepest bit!

The slog up round Harbour Hill which was even more of a slog than usual today after the heavy rain we've had this week.

A group selfie before Harbour Hill, and Clive contradicts his Southern England childhood by wearing only a T-shirt (he did put a jacket on later!)

A Saturday afternoon ride this weekend for a change and the weather smiled on us though by the time we'd finished it was decidedly chillier. The going was greasy and wet but we still managed 27 miles to bring my weeks total to 130 miles, if only the weather would dry up and get just a bit warmer I'm sure |I could increase this a bit.

Biting the bullet and spending some money on one of the bikes

After over 3250 miles I suppose I cant grumble about having to change all the drive train, but I did moan about the freehub giving up the ghost, what's more I ordered one with cup and cone instead of the sealed bearing type which was original. However it's not often I admit defeat and after the inevitable cursing I managed to swap a bit from the old freehub and fit it into the new one to change it into a sealed bearing one. (there was a lot of foul language involved)!

  

I met this dog (and its owners) when I was out today, absolutely beautiful. Apparently it's a Romanian sheepdog or to give it its correct name a Carpathian Shepherd Dog........they must have sheep the size of horses in Romania.

My neighbour, Norman, took this picture of me when I met him and his wife through the week. This photo was taken from about 50 yards distance with a lens that looked like an anti aircraft gun. He's a keen bird watcher and photographer and this seems to be required gear for this hobby.

Wednesday night and we met this man and his dog running up the Pentlands. He said the the dog was a cross between a collie and a greyhound but I suspect there was a bit of racehorse in it as well given the speed the two of them went up Allermuir. 

This picture was taken exactly 3 years ago when the winter just went on and on, this year doesn't seem so bad now!

And finally......Mark and his phone...where would he be without it?

The tracks are drying even though there's always the odd rain shower, at least now we're into British Summer Time and the daylight goes on longer each week, wish it would warm up a bit though.