Coronavirus stops the mtb fun

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed life as we knew it and for some of us mountain biking in particular, we’ve been advised from on high that we must only exercise once a day and do it “limited locally “! My Bosch motor has been showing the dreaded Error 500 code lately so it seems as good a time as any to get it seen to and hopefully replaced under warranty which Bosch are actually very good at doing so this morning it was taken into a local bike shop for analysis, I’m still waiting on the result.

The last ride before lockdown and it was damp and misty in the Pentland Hills 

The watch your speed sign only applies going downhill, however it’s a damn sight easier coming up on an ebike than an acoustic one!

The final 10 mile ride home from here was mainly non e assisted, thankfully mainly downhill and made me decide the time had come to get the problem fixed so for the next few weeks it’ll be limited local rides on the old Giant Anthem!

Dust rising from our tyres, first time for months!

If you look very very carefully you can just about see a puff of dust rising at the back of Barries rear tyre, admittedly not much but when you’ve seen nothing but mud for months it’s quite reassuring!

Three of us did a Pentlands ride this morning in almost perfect weather, a bit chilly to start with but a light wind and a drying surface made for good riding with over 30 miles and 3250 feet of climbing. The beauty of the ebike is the enjoyment in the climbs as well as the descending.

Barrie and I did Glentress on Saturday morning and even though we had to cut it a bit short when Barries bike started to suffer chain suck we still got in about 17 enjoyable miles

I’m now doing stuff I never chanced before, I think the heavier bike with burlier tyres have given me more confidence.

A good weekends biking, let’s hope this corona virus settles down and lets us all get back to normality!

Clive discovers that ebikes are a lot heavier to lift over gates!

The first gate we reached saw Clive discover one of the downsides to ebike ownership, they’re bloody heavy things to lift over gates and fences compared to an ordinary bike!

The upside is you can cycle to the summit of Castlelaw without suffering a heart attack 

Another good days biking in a horrendous gale force wind which would have been almost impossible had we not all been on ebikes 

Clive’s new Trek Rail makes its debut g

Barrie gives Clive’s new bike the once over before declaring it fit to  accompany us into the hills!

The two rivals posing with their respective bikes, they made my ebike look positively old fashioned,

First to come to grief was Barrie as he skidded and ended up in a mud hole, refusing to lie in it until I had photographed him!

Next was Clive who did a neat 180degree as he came off, he went on to win the competition for most offs with a total of five!..

A great mornings bike ride with much banter and laughs as we slithered about on the greasy surface and  Clive’s bike proved to be first class, in fact we’re going out tomorrow to skid about all over again!

At last a half decent week for mountain biking!

It’s been far from perfect but at last a week when it didn’t rain or blow a gale every day so I was able to get some decent rides in.

Out with Clive last Monday and there was still a fair bit of water lying about and Clive was becoming more and more convinced he needed an ebike (with a little encouragement from me!)

On Wednesday I was out on a solo in the best weather for more than a month and made it to the summit of Allermuir where there’s a great view down over Edinburgh 

There was still some snow on the north facing slopes but nothing drastic 

On Thursday it was Barries turn to accompany me up the Pentlands and he took a bit of convincing that the icy track to the top of Scald Law was just too dodgy to attempt!

I’d been having problems with chain suck especially when cycling through muddy parts and did a few tweeks to the drive chain to try and cure it and it wasn’t until I tightened the derailleur clutch that I finally seem to have cured it (fingers crossed)!

To round of a good week Clive and I did a shortish ride this morning with no chain suck problems and to add icing to the cake, Scotland gave France a good beating in the rugby in the afternoon!

It actually stayed dry today, well nearly all day.....

The weather has been really bad lately, I’ve only been out on average once a week this past month so when Clive phoned to say he had a day off work and would I accompany him on a trip up the Pentlands to talk about the ebike he’s planning to buy it was too good to turn down. We’d spent yesterday afternoon going round a few bike shops in Edinburgh and he’d more or less decided on the bike he wanted. It was also a good excuse to get out the house which is upside down with workmen renewing the bathroom!

Clive hadn’t done much biking recently either and found the going tough in the mud on his non ebike 

There’s always a pool of water to wash the bike in at least!

We decided the bridge was far enough in case the rain gods had heard we were out today 

A final pool of water to wash the wheels and we were homeward bound with a sky that looked as benign as it could possibly be!