A few press ups to keep things fresh

Barrie started it all off when he was challenged to do the 25 a day 25 press up challenge in aid of some charity I cant remember! Here he is doing a 25er on the picturesque bridge over the River Esk on the trail along to Penicuik.

Clive was duly challenged and joined in the fun and yesterday copied Barrie with some on the very same bridge!

After the recent hot dry weather it was a bit of a disappointment to be out in the rain yesterday but at least the wet weather jackets got an outing!

Yesterday wasn't the best day I've had on the ebike with first of all my back tyre refusing to stay inflated, I discovered later there was no sealant in it, and then a serious case of chain suck which cut my ride short by a few miles.....ah well some days you've just got to accept things aren't going your way, yesterday was one of those days!! 

More like November than June

Out with Mark this morning 22nd of June and it felt more like the 22nd of December, as we went down a descent from Harbour Hill I swear our faces were being pelted by hailstones, needless to say we cut the ride short and headed home with a still credible 18 miles!

Saturday was a better biking day and Barrie, Clive and I did a monster Pentlands ride which ended up with Barrie and me fully draining our batteries!

Clive’s bike developed a problem midweek in that the chain ring came loose due to the fixing device unscrewing, this would appear to be a design fault as it has a left hand thread to secure it and the bike is propelled by the pedals turning in the opposite direction. However a combination of foul language, some thread lock and a hammer and small punch appears to have solved the problem meantime.

Hopefully there’s some warmer weather on the way or I’ll be digging out the winter long johns!

I just had to share this photo, it doesn’t happen often!

I’ve never been renowned for skill on a bike and when I noticed Clive aiming the camera at me as I came up a short climb I felt obliged to try for a wheelie and hells teeth I managed to pull one off, so much so that I ended up jumping off the back of the bike! Anyways here is proof that I’ve managed at least one in my life!

A great night’s biking with a once (probably) in a lifetime achievement!

Where's the sun gone, not seen it for about a week

Thick fog up in the hills, or was it low clouds? Whatever it was it made for pretty boring mountain biking with no views to enjoy and temperatures that were no great shakes either!

Out with Clive and Barrie on Sunday in the murk and mud and to make matteres worse the Garmin started playing up as well.....what next?

A good mornings riding none the less finished off with the singletrack climb up Black Hill and arriving home with a nearly empty battery on the ebike, what more can you ask for??

Back to normal Scottish weather."..

Baz and me at the top of Castlelaw today with twice the amount of clothes we had on a week ago, but that’s Scotland for your, never two days the same!

But a great mornings biking, doing in reverse the ride we had done midweek 

We finished off with a ride we haven’t done for over a year down to Lasswade  and along the side of the River Esk mainly so Baz could reach 1k metres of elevation for the ride!

An amazing sweltering hot sunny day exploring the Pentlands with Kathy

Kathy is the Scottish equivalent of the former television favourite "Wonder Woman" played by Lynda Carter, a top tv show in the 1970s. Her and I have done a few bike rides in the Pentland Hills before but very rarely in as high a temperature as it was yesterday.

Eventually we reached the bottom of West Kip to pose for the obligatory pictures with the sharp point of the hill behind us

Here's Kathy improving the view 100% and always managing to look cool regardless of how hot it was!

A joint selfie at the best view in the Pentland Hills overlooking Loganlea Reservoir and it was more or less all downhill from here on back home (thank goodness said I!)

This is a picture I'll always remember as it sums up a perfect days bike ride!

Kathy pictured at the same spot, hopefully there'll be more days like yesterday to enjoy in the hills and a huge thanks to Kathy for making it so much fun as well, where she gets the energy from God only knows!