Another good off road week of biking!

Clive doing the jump on Maidens Cleugh

Matt doing the water crossing

Kathy, looking good as usual, but pushing up Castlelaw!

Me looking as though I've sprung a leak!

Another week of pretty good weather which has meant a lot of off road biking up the Pentlands, a lot of it done with Kathy and her son Matt. The difference in the last 2 weeks in them both is tremendous and I think with Matt in particular I'll have to fill his bike tyres with sand to slow him down a bit! Over 140 miles last week and over 150 miles this week, all off road, but will it continue and.....will the weather continue to hold?

An additional highlight of the week was the fact that I passed 22000 miles on the Garmin since I bought it just over 4 years ago.

What's happened........the weather's perked up!

Five of us out this forenoon, with Kathy and Graeme primarily going for some open water swimming practice at Threipmuir and Kathy's son Matt out for his first ride in the Pentlands aboard one of my bikes.

Matt gets pictured on the throne after riding up the seven steps for the first time to the top of Maidens Cleugh.

Kathy and Graeme going up the valley from the Howe.

The weather's improved, but don't get too carried away it'll probably not last very long! However we've taken advantage of this change to do a bit of Pentland biking today with Kathy, Graeme and Kathy's son Matt who's a top Scottish swimmer for his age but who was keen to try a bit of mountain biking. The most he'd done before was just over 5 miles in one go so today Clive and I extended that to 27.5 miles! The last news I had from Kathy was that he'd arrived home and fallen asleep! Hopefully he'll waken up in time for his next early morning swim training session!! 

This must be the worst Scottish summer since..........last year....

There have been the odd good days.....unfortunately few and far between!

Mark doing the water crossing which is slowly day by day getting deeper

Kathy, who continues her training for her first triathlon was out with Clive and me last night

A selfie type pose at the top of Maidens Cleugh, it came on rain just after that!

It's been a rotten summer in Scotland, the blame being heaped on the jet stream which is almost permanently lodged over northern France instead of the north of Scotland. Never the less I've managed to somehow or other keep biking over 100 miles off road every week, surviving a hail storm up the Pentlands today with the Garmin showing the temperature at 6 Celsius, I managed to find a little cranny to shelter in while the worst of it passed over. I still got soaked though! Clive has just come back from holidaying in Grand Canaria where temperatures were consistently in the high 30s Celsius, he must really be feeling it!

How to go up through Black Springs gate....... courtesy of Dougie!

The approach to the gate is all important!

Front wheel up, now to change weight to get the back up!

Successfully done! Now for the tricky little climb!

Last nights ride wasn't the warmest this year but at least it was dry.

Dougie was a bit miffed that I hadn't put the pictures on the blog of him doing , the first for us anyway, the climb up through Black Springs gate which he duly acclomplished last week! To be fair it's a tricky ride into it coming along the side of the reservoir but do it he did! What's really annoying is the fact that last night Neil did it as well and more or less in slow motion into the bargain!

A good 25 miler last night with the weather reasonable for a change!

Kathy in training for her first off road triathlon

Out with Kathy a couple of weeks back, it had been a week or two since she last did some off road stuff.

Up the Pentlands today for some tougher trails and we met up with two other girls out on their bikes.

Kathy who stays near me is an endurance runner who fancies a go at triathlons now. She's entered a race at Oban in September which has an open water sea swim (brave girl) and a mountain bike stage. She's a good roadie but lacks a bit of courage on the rougher stuff so I've be going out with her up the Pentlands and slowly but surely we're doing slightly more difficult terrain. She's obviously following in my footsteps (or should it be pedals?) as she fell off twice today but no damage was done! I'm sure by September she'll be ready for anything!

Every cloud (or mishap) has a silver lining!

Me and Baz's 29er

Me and Baz's 29er yet again!

Baz, Rebus his faithful pooch and his moon boots which he'll be wearing for about the next 2 months!

As a result of trying to relive his youth and show a workmate how he was once one of the best young badminton players in Britain, Baz managed to rupture not one but both achilles tendons at the same time. This is virtually unheard of but Baz being Baz managed to do both! The upshot of this is he'll not be on a mountain bike for 6 months at least maybe longer so he's kindly given me his Giant Anthem 29er to ride on until he's recovered. I'm already a convert to the 29er wheels and this morning had a PR down a descent I've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years. Already I'm wondering how I'm going to manage back on a 26er once he's recovered, Watch this space........  

Back in Bonny Wee Scotland! And a bit of rear end bother.....

Testing out the camera before Clive and I set off at 6.30am ish!

Looking for inspiration (we didn't find any)

A view to die for, looking down to the Howe.

Back home and back to the Pentland Hills. Unknown to me my shorts had a tear in the backside and I managed to cycle 27.5 miles with the tear gradually increasing until my whole rear end was nearly out the shorts. Thank goodness for chamois pads!

A bit o' biking in Wales

Dave and me have arrived at the Bikepark Wales car park and discovered the cars quite high and getting the bikes down is no laughing matter (and they've still to be put back up after the ride!)

The trail centre, an impressive shop and cafe.

Dave found some of the climb to the trailhead quite hard!

The track along to the trailhead, perfect weather and some cracking views.

A stop for a quick drink on the descent first time round

Second time back up the climb and time for a photo as I waited on Dave

The start of "Vicious Valley" a red graded descent.

A weeks visit to family in Cardiff accompanied by one of my bikes! I did a couple of local slightly uninspiring rides on my own but on Friday Dave took me to Wales's newest bike trail centre, Bikepark Wales for a few hours riding. It's a highly impressive set up and well worth a visit with a terrific variety of trails ranging from beginner to professional only tracks. The weather obliged as well to make it a good day out.