No accidents this week (well not serious ones)

Today’s ride on Strava, no wind, no rain, what’s happened? 

That view that never fails to make me excited and more so just now with the ground so greasy 

A solo ride through the week when the sun was shining 

We pass this pond once or twice a week and I hadn’t noticed till the other day just how big the two cygnets had grown 

This next week we move officially into winter, so far we’ve had very little frost and no snow whatsoever though there is a chance of some later in the week, whatever comes our way we’ll just have to accept it and keep the wheels turning!

 

Should have payed more attention to the trail......

 

The result of not paying attention on an easy bit of trail when the front wheel washed out and I ended up head butting the ground, the glasses cutting into the bridge of my nose 

Apart from that otb it was a great bike ride, just short of 4K feet of climbing and nearly 30 miles distance

 

Midweek Barrie and I had a good night ride 

A week while it wasn’t great weather wise I managed to fit in a fair bit of mileage to keep my hopes up of managing to reach 5k off road miles for 2020

Ernie the ebike's back on his wheels again!

The old wheel stripped of its useful parts and the new wheel with them built on and ready to be fitted back on the bike again, all that remained to be done was a short test ride to make sure everything was in perfect working order, which it was!

Friday arrived bright and dry so off I went on a solo ride doing the Eastside Farm loop to get back in the saddle again after what seemed an age, it was actually 7 days since the wheel and derailleur were damaged but it felt longer!

Everything went like clockwork and now the race was on, weather permitting to reach the end of year target of 5000 off road miles!

Out this morning, Sunday, and there had been a lot of rain overnight, first casualty was Clive going down the 7 steps when his front wheel disappeared into a deep muddy hole and he did a spectacular over the bars! Luckily neither Clive nor the bike were damaged!

The conditions on bits of the track were about as bad as we've seen them and without the power of the ebike motor it would have been well nigh impossible to cycle through them

Eventually we reached firmer tracks and made it home with 28 miles covered and the satisfaction of knowing we were still in one piece after surviving some pretty hairy conditions, a good test for both riders and bikes!

 

 

Great days biking ruined by wrecked rear wheel and rear derailleur

The hole left in the rim when the spoke was ripped out by the broken derailleur!

The culprit behind all the damage!

The catastrophe happened just after this photo was taken, I can only assume the derailleur became entangled in heather on the descent down the narrow track resulting in the damage 

Before the carnage we’d enjoyed some of the best weather and views of the year 

A great mornings biking with Clive which was spoiled by the event when we were only a few miles from finishing, anyway a new wheel and derailleur have been ordered so hopefully the bike will be back out sooner rather than later!

 

The weather is just crazy presently but things are looking up this coming week

Mark was up from down south for a few days so we went out for a ride on Monday and timed it to avoid the rain! Here he is doing the river crossing....

And here he is nearly falling in at the river crossing after a not really successful crossing!

However, as determined as ever even though he hadn't been on his bike for some time, he made it round the winter loop and still had a smile on his face!

Wednesday night and out in the rain with Barrie and Clive, not really the best nights riding I've ever done but we got some miles in at least!

The weather has been so bad this weekend that I haven't been riding at all but at least I got a bit of bike maintenance done, here's hoping for better weather next week!