When mud turned to dust....

The tell tale signs of better weather were beginning to appear last Monday, horses without winter jackets on!

By Wednesday night even the river crossing had gone down, though Bruce took no chances and kept his feet high and dry.

Slight disaster on Thursday when I got tangled up in a hidden length of wire, came off and managed to cause some damage to my elbow (a good bike ride should always involve some blood)

Saturday morning and the hottest day of the year so far, a pleasure to bike in after the winter we've had.

The river crossing was a piece of cake...though Clive did manage to put a foot down!

The forecast is back to average weather again, which means in Scotland, pretty rubbish, but we're used to it and just keep plodding on, at least the rain's getting slightly warmer now!

Water and mud make biking interesting

This is what greeted us today at the water crossing, a raging torrent that would have been impossible to bike through, not only by the force of the water but also by any hidden boulders that had been washed down by the melting snow.

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Up round the side it was with the bikes made all the more hazardous with the slippy rocks threatening to give us an early and cold bath

Made it in one piece and we live to pedal a few more miles!

The clothes line frozen solid on Thursday morning!

The snowfall on Wednesday that started off as rain in the morning and gradually turned into heavy snow will surely be the last of a long cold winter.

Going from 2 x 10 to 1 x 10..... the problems and trying to solve them, and the last snow of winter (maybe)

After Barrie converted to 1 x 11 I've been toying with the idea myself when it suddenly became apparent that going 1 x 10 was going to be considerably cheaper and I was only losing one gear somewhere in the middle of the range. After a go on Barrie's bike I decided I needed a lower gear at the bottom end so plumped for a Suntour 11-46 cassette and also an oval 32 tooth wide/narrow at the front. The first short trial run proved to be nearly terminal for the rear derailleur as I hadn't adjusted the B tension screw enough and ended up with it twisted round but still in one piece. After some major surgery it went back to its rightful position and with a few adjustments it survived a 25 miler in the hills on Sunday morning. I'm still not satisfied that my gearing is low enough for the really steep stuff so I've ordered a 30 tooth front ring to try and solve that problem. (naturally it's oval and wide/narrow!) 

Testing the set up on Sunday what must surely be the last snow(?) of this long cold winter, strangely the advocates of global warming have been noticeably quiet lately!

Wet snow at this time of year is hard to pedal through and there were a few skids and slides on Sunday morning!