First Ride of Spring - local Darlington loop

I have a pile of marking to be doing, but couldn't let today's weather pass so went out for a local spin. Mix of cheeky singletrack, kid-built jumps, council-built 4x and pump tracks, gravel farm tracks and bike tracks. Dappled sunlight and crunchy leaves.

• Under a caged sky


• The four cross track was closed


• #ahem


• Past the motorway


• Under a fallen tree


• Past the pumping station


• A (reasonably) clean bike

Distance: 28km (map on Strava)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 2:00
Weather: Sunny and dry and spring-like
Bike: On-One Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres, 32:17)

Darlington to Swaledale to Hamsterley to Darlington

Sometimes I ride up to Swaledale for a ride. Sometime to Hamsterley. I've been thinking "why not both?" for a while now. Last Wednesday, I finally got around to doing it. It turns out, it's quite far and, if you've not been on a bike for three weeks, it hurts a bit. But it was still fun.

In numbers: 150km with 2200m of climbing; 10 1/4 hours; 1 gear; 7 mini pork pies; 1 punnet of cherries; 2 oat bars; 3l apple juice; 4l water.

Usual route up to Swaledale, then down Fremington Edge, over Surrender Moor and up to Great Pinseat. Down again and up to (almost) Tan Hill before following the Sustrans route via Bowes to Barnard Castle. Up to Woodland from Barney, down the end of the 'new' Hamsterley red route before returning to Woodland and riding home.

My legs felt fine throughout, but my "contact points" suffered. The stitching going around the pad in my shorts probably didn't help this... So, new shorts needed and probably going to get some chamois cream too. My gloves have had it too, so I'm going to invest in a new pair. Also thinking of swapping the oversize bars and stem on my bike for the identical but non-OS set for a bit more vibration reduction. Pondering whether a 29er front wheel with a 2.1" tyre gives more comfort than a 26" wheel with a 2.4" tyre. Long-term, I need a more forgiving fork than the steel On-One.

After 7 mini pork pies you don't want to eat number 8, so I need to find something else for a bit of variety on long rides. The cherries I bought in the Barnard Castle Coop worked, but I need something more robust for rides like Kielder 100.

Annoyingly close to 100 miles.

Distance: 151km (69km Darlington to Tan Hill via bits of Swaledale, 21.9km from Tan Hill to Barnard Castle, 12.7km from Barnard Castle to Woodland, 16.2km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 31.2km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 10:15
Weather: Hot and sunny!
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres on 32:17)

Back to Hamsterley

Back up to Hamsterley again on Tuesday. Legs were feeling tired after Monday's ride so I just did three laps of Section 13 and then headed home. Pretty pleased with knocking 12 seconds of my previous best for Section 13, but all the climbs on the way out were slower and overall time on the ride out was much longer

But, despite the forecast, it didn't rain.

Taken Wednesday off to rest, eat and watch Le Tour. Back out again on Thursday...

Distance: 75km (31km Darlington to Woodland, 13km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 31km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 4:20 (1:54 + 0:54+ 1:30)
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres on 32:17)

Ellie's contest-winning writing

Ellie, 8, is very excited about being one of the six stories chosen, from hundreds of entries, to be published in Weevil Weekly magazine. A 200 word story about the Enchanted Forest items:

"Down in the hollows of the willow pond, Hamley the elf, sat down on the red toadstool. I wonder what is inside that secret tree, he wondered. Just then he had an idea, he would wait until the dead of night. Then he would clearly see the creature that lived in this secret tree! So he waited until the dead of night that night, then he checked, there was nobody in. So he waited until the next morning,there was STILL nobody there! So he waited until the dead of, well, you get the idea! But there was still nobody there! So the next day he went for a walk. Then, at about 6 'o' clock he came back. Next he noticed something strange going on. The lights in the secret tree were on! Whilst he had been on his walk, whoever lived there had come back!!! So he never found out who lived in the tree!"

Long overdue site update

I'm going to attempt to update the Wordpress install. Wish me luck...

Update: it seems to have worked! #phew

Darlington - 'new' Hamsterley trails - Darlington

I found them by following the Red; I think that might have been the long way round. They're ace.

Rode up there and followed the Red from the DH Cabin to the Grove. Then rode home. I'd have proof on Strava of just how amazingly fast I was, but the app crashed and died and wouldn't come back. I was awesome though. Watch the above video, but imagine it slower. 5 hours and a bit home-to-home.

Tweets:
"Made it to Woodland. Head wind. Slooooow." @11:47
"At Woodland again, on the way home. Ace fun ride!" (pic) @13:39
"Home!" @15:18

Distance: Between 40 and 52 miles (20 miles to Hamsterley, ?ish miles round Hamsterley (the full Red is about 12 miles) and 20 miles home
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 5 hours 30 minutes
Weather: Warm and dry, occasional spits of rain. Windy - badass headwind on the way up
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres, 32:17)

Darlington - Hamsterley Red/Blue/Black - Darlington

Unlike the last ride, I didn't feel crap. Usual route up to Woodland in the usual time, then dropped into Hamsterley using the tail end of the Black route. Rode the Red for the first time every, including the lovely new trails toward the end, followed by a sausage sarnie and a coffee. Then razzed around the Blue and the remainder of the Black before riding home again.

I'd post a link to the GPS of the route, but my phone battery died and then I left it on a bench in Woodland, because I'm an idiot.

Felt soooo much better than last time, though had a niggle in my right knee again part way round that went away after a bit of stretching. Felt fine when I got home, though stiffened up a lot sitting in a car back to Woodland to try (and fail) to retrieve my phone.

Bike worked fine, apart from almost losing the front brake again (I may have cocked up shortening the hose) and the rear wheel moving under braking and then pedalling (need to file down the axle a bit more, I think).

Distance: 68 miles (20 miles to Hamsterley, 28ish miles round Hamsterley (the Red, Blue and Black routes are about 12, 9 and 7 miles) and 20 miles home (phone battery died, so no GPS))
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 8 hours (1:40, 5:00, 1:30)
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres, 32:17)

Darlington - Swaledale - Darlington

Rode to Dales Bike Centre on the (mostly) road. Knee hurt, headache. Rode up to and over Reeth Low Moor. Knee hurt more, felt crap. Rode/grovelled home.

Not great.

Distance:65 miles
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: can't remember
Weather: Warmish and sunny
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres, 32:17)

Darlington - Hamsterley Black Loop - Darlington

First proper ride on my new bike, though it's essentially the same as my old bike so no great surprises.

Got properly soaked riding up to Woodland; giggling because you're so soaked and thinking it can't possibly get any wetter, then it does. It shouldn't be that dark at midday in July. Really impressed with how the 2.4" Racing Ralph tyres roll. Did a lap of the Black loop, which was interesting in the wet when my front brake decided to fail.

Probably the fastest I've ever done the ride there and back, but slow on the off-road due to lack of braking.

I'm sure I could do this in 4 1/2 hours, which would make it a great ride to stick in with an early start on a Saturday morning.

Distance: 80km (30km to Woodland, 20km round Hamsterley and 30km home (phone battery died, so no GPS))
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 5 hour (1:40, 1:52, 1:15)
Weather: Torrential
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres, 32:17)

Another Darlington Loop

A loop round the town, using bike paths and bits of off-road and taking in a few laps of the pump and 4xtracks. Alternating laps of the 4X track and West Park in the middle was fast and fun. Faster than the last one and a bit further.

Distance: 34 km (map)
Surface: Some off-road, bike paths, bits of road
Time: 1 hour 46 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres, 32:17)

Darlington Loop

A loop round the town, using bike paths and bits of off-road and taking in a few laps of the pump and 4xtracks.

Distance: 31 km (map)
Surface: Some off-road, bike paths, bits of road
Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres, 32:17)

Fixing Teesdale and Swaledale

I needed to get out on a decent bike ride and I needed to pick up my tickets for Dales Bike Centre's Ride the Divide cinema night. Getting them by the shortest and easiest route would be a bit silly, right?

So, with only four non-commute rides in my legs in the last 7 months, riding fixed gear via the highest pub in Britain was the obvious choice.

Home to Barnard Castle to Bowes to Tan Hill to Reeth and then home again. 73 miles, with some off-road built in. Hills. And no freewheeling.

It was a lovely day so I had an espresso and a pastry in Barnard Castle.

The climb from Bowes to Tan Hill pub is long and bumpy.

But there's beer at the end of it.

The road home has its share of bumps too, in places.

Ace day out. My longest fixed ride ever, off the back of very little riding.

I hurt now.

Distance: 73 miles (map)
Surface: Road and easy off-road
Time: 9 hour 30 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Darlington - another short local ride

Another quickie.



Distance: 21km (map)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 1 hour 18 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

Fixing Darlington - short local ride

Quick post-work spin.

Distance: 12km (map)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 45 minutes
Weather: Nice and warm, sunny
Bike: Solitude fixie (with 28c tyres, 34:16)

The Inbred is no more

After only two rides as Project Gnarr, the Inbred got nicked from my garage last weekend.

Project Budget Endurance Machine is go...

Project Gnarr’s second outing - Swaledale with gears and boinginess

Another lovely ride from dales Bike Centre with Simon. Swaledale is still ace. My second ride on the Inbred with suspension and gears proved that they're quite good fun, really. It still feels like cheating to get to/from a ride in a car, but bad things can be good, right?



Distance: 31km?
Time: 4 hours?
Surface: off-road
Weather: Very windy, misty, drizzly
Bike: Geared Inbred (1x9, with suspension fork and 2.4″ tyres)

Project Gnarr's first outing - Swaledale with gears and boinginess

I had my first ride on Project Gnarr (my SS Inbred, rebuilt with 1x9 gearing and suspension forks) on Friday. About 30km in Swaledale: along the valley bottom from Dales Bike Centre, up the valley side from somewhere between Gunnerside and Low Row onto Great Pinseat, then down Surrender Moor and over Low Moor. Swaledale is still awesome.



This was my first ever ride with both gears and suspension (only my second ever ride with suspension and first with gears in a couple of years). What I learned: gears make it easier to ride up hills; suspension makes it easier to ride down hills. So, they really are strength compensators and skill compensators

32:32 is plenty low enough as a bottom gear. It's the same ratio I rode round there as a beginning MTBer 18 years ago (28:28 in them days), and that was on on a heavier bike with weaker legs. 32:12 is plenty tall enough for a top gear. 1x9 is definitely the way forward.

The fork isn't set up properly yet, but I quite liked it not doing too much until I hit something bigger/harder and it doesn't bob about too much when climbing. It'd be interesting to have a go on a modern fork with clever lockout things as a comparison.

I think I like it. But, it's heavier and complicated, so I think I'll be sticking with rigid forks and non-variable gears for proper rides and save boing and variable gears for shorter/group rides.

I think I might even have done a little bit of a jump. Stoked, dude!

Distance: 31km?
Time: 4 hours?
Surface: off-road
Weather: Warm and dry for the time of year - so, a bit drizzly and very windy
Bike: Geared Inbred (1x9, with suspension fork and 2.4" tyres)

Kielder 100 2010

Results

Distance: 103 miles
Time: 13 hours
Surface: off-road
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Ragley TD-1 SS (32:18 and 2.1" 29er tyres)

Darlington - Hamsterley - Darlington

Spin up to Hamsterley, picnic and walk with family, spin back. Lost GPS thingummy, but remember it being my fastest ever trip each way.

Distance: 47.5 miles
Time: sub-4 hours ish
Surface: on-road
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Ragley TD-1 SS (32:18 and 2.1" 29er tyres)

Darlington - Swaledale - Darlington

Another ride in Swaledale - big hills and big views.



Road to Hurst. Fremington Edge, Low Moor, Surrender to Great Pinseat, Gunnerside. Dales Bike Centre. Road home.

It were reet hot.



My bike sounded like the bag of spanners that it is.



Distance: 105km (maps: to Dales Bike Centre and from Dales Bike Centre)
Time: 9 hours 45 minutes
Surface: road - off-road - road
Weather: Warm, dry
Bike: SS Inbred (32:17, with 2.4″ tyres)