Bloody fog's the problem now! When's Spring going to arrive?

Friday, and even though there was a strong south easterly wind at least the air was clear and things were dry.

Still some snow from a mid week snowfall was lingering on the |northern slope of the Pentland Hills 

Did a practice wheelie at the summit of Capelaw Hill and took myself by surprise at the height |I managed to get the front wheel off the ground, especially with the ebike, usually 6 inches is good for me!

The river crossing looked a bit hazardous with the water level well up from usual due to melting snow and some heavy rain, it was a case of go for it and hope for the best, luckily it came off and the electric motor continued to function!

Saturday, and what a difference a day makes! Thick fog and a temperature hovering around zero made it not the best Pentlands ride we ever done!

In contrast, the river crossing was back down to almost normal making biking through it not such a lottery!

The blame for this disastrous weather is all down to me removing the back mudhugger, well it's not going back on so a mucky backside is going to be my lot for a week or two yet!

More time to ebike at night now the clock has gone forward an hour

Out for a quickie last night and a selfie endo which looks like it could be something to work on!

On the trip last night I thought at first I was seeing things and the guy coming towards me had a pet bear with him.... on closer inspection it turned out to be an extremely hairy Newfoundland dog!

This could be a bit of over confidence, the removal of the back mudhugger, is the mucky backside season really over?

Saturday morning and it was a battery tester for the ebike with a ride from Peebles to Glentress, up to the mast then the fast descent down to Innerleithen, out to Traquir then over the hills to Gypsy Glen and the old drove road with the descent back down to Peebles again. Over 3700 feet of climbing , which was relatively easy on the ebike  but Barrie toughed it out on his acoustic, mainly in what we now refer to as "nana gear"!

Most of the really tough climbing was done by now so it seemed like a good place for a joint photo.

The usual photo has to be taken here before the fast descent back down to Peebles

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Down Gypsy Glen and only about a mile and a half to go, with a bit of careful battery management I still had 2 bars left on the display. 

A good week weather wise, everything drying up , not so sure about the week ahead, there's even the threat of snow, who knows, the mudhugger may be back on before the week's out!

The snow's gone but it's hardly warm enough for shorts yet

The red flag flying at the top of Castlelaw means not that the Communists have taken control but that the army firing range lower down is being used! Fifty yards from the top I had to dismount a push through a deepish snowdrift!

Wednesday night and Barrie made a rare mid week appearance to bike with Dougie and me and the nights are definitely getting clearer, this was the approach to the dam at Torduff reservoir

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The road back down the side of Loganlea reservoir was covered in frogs and some of them weren't shy to engage in a bit of frog porn, we resisted the urge to intervene in their moment of pleasure.....

Saturday and its time to get Barrie up to full fitness again as Dougie has talked him into accompanying him on a 100 mile+ bike ride in June so we got a bit of serious climbing in starting with the Eastside Farm climb into a strong headwind.

Sunday morning and I went out for a solo ebike ride on high mode up in the Pentland Hills and bumped into one of |Barrie's old university buddies, I took him down a trail he never done before and surprised my self by twice having to wait and let him catch up, the question is, is it the ebike effect or am I faster than I give myself credit for?!!

E-bikes cope with snow and ice pretty well

The ride this morning which I did solo, I don't think it would have been very enjoyable on a non e-bike down to the conditions which consisted of ice and frozen snow. The e-bike gives you the power on climbs to attack icy sections with a bit of speed and lay off the power when you hit the sketchy bits.

I had to stick the bike back up about four times to take the photo as the strong wind kept blowing it over!

With the camera positioned on a convenient post I managed to take a reasonable selfie to display my new bright green helmet, handy in case I fall into deep snow, it should show up quite well!

This clumsy looking bit of kit is my homemade stand for keeping the e-bike upright while I was the mud off it. No marks for style but hey it does the job and cost nothing!

A rubbish week of weather again ending with snow on Saturday which turned to ice on Saturday night, but at least I did get some miles in on Sunday morning. On the plus side its to improve this coming week so hopefully a bit more e-biking to be had!

Using the ebike to tow an acoustic up a hill

The towing in operation using the “patent pending” tow rope of two inner tubes tied together to give a bit of elasticity during the operation! Mark achieved a PB on one of the climbs with me towing him! (Saves waiting at the top of a climb for your fellow biker)

The weather at the start of the week was a complete contrast to how it ended, this weekend has been the first for a very long time with no biking and the bad news is that the forecast for the coming week is no better! Can’t wait for Spring to get into gear....

A quick short taste of Spring..... but that's about it...

If Summer this year is like this I'll be out every day on the e-bike, this was Monday when temperatures reached a record high for Scotland in February ( it'll never last!)

Wednesday and the heat must have gone to my head because I went out on the acoustic bike.... jeeez was it hard going after the e-bike, I was almost home before I got used to the lack of oomph!

Even the snowdrops out in the woods were wilting!

Friday and things were cooling down a bit and I was back on the e-bike and making it to the top of Allermuir at that, the best thing about solo e-biking is you don't have to wait around for your fellow riders to catch up at the top of the climbs....unless they're on an e-bike as well of course!

Saturday and it's back to normality again, some rain through the night to enable us to slip and slide here and there but the short spell of good weather has certainly whetted the appetite for summer time.

Nearly drained the e-bike battery twice now

Out last Friday with Dougie who's fitness is at a peak these days, he suggested a route that was going to be a hard one on a normal day let alone a day like last Friday when it was blowing a gale! Well at least I was electrically assisted!

The last lung bursting climb for Dougie up the aptly named "Puke Hill" though he did manage to avoid the indignity of puking when he made to the top, where I was smugly awaiting him having the assistance of the e-bike to combat both the hill and the gale force head wind, which incidentally seemed to be a head wind most of the way round!

On arrival back home I was down to the final bar on the battery display, I reckon I probably had about 5 miles in eco mode still left but it was still a relief to get back with e-power!

Sunday morning and we were off again with a 7am  start from Innerleithen bound for first of all the summit of Minch Moor and then along the Southern Upland Way to the Three Brethren which stand high above the Tweed valley. This time Barrie joined Dougie and 

me and most of the first 10 miles was in thick mist.

As if on cue the sun broke through the mist as we arrived at the 3 Brethren and after the obligatory photos we set off down the tracks to Yair

One of the highlights was filming Dougie crossing the partially finished bridge over a stream, he was subjected to loud shouts of encouragement to fall off complete with bike but annoyingly made it over unscathed!

The finale to the climb up the notorious zig zags was Dougie celebrating a clear victory over Barrie who claimed a bad chest cold as an excuse (he'll never live this picture down!)

We arrived back at the cars at Innerleithen with me down once again to the final bar on the e-bike display and this time |I doubt if there was much more than a couple of miles left in the battery, I like to think of it as a well judged ride!!

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The ebike takes on the Kirk Road climb

None of us has ever managed the Kirk Road climb without a bit of hike a bike at some point in the climb so I was interested to see how the ebike (and myself) would get on. The track from the main road is an easy peddle to begin with but ramps up quite steep further on.

This section was still pretty easy going but the real challenge wasn't far away!

This was where the ebike came into its own, climbing up here was relatively easy and Barrie and Clive were forced to get off and push,

Barrie was the first to appear over the final tricky little climb and had to admit that when it comes to climbing an ebike takes a bit of beating. Another interesting discovery today was that the battery seemed to have a lot more reserve in it with the higher temperatures we experienced today compared to the sub zero temperatures of the last few weeks, we covered 28.5 miles today with a fair bit of climbing and I reckon with careful management I could have coaxed at least another 20 miles out of it.....roll on the summer!