A weekend at Dales Bike Centre

Had a weekend at Dales Bike Centre in Swaledale. A great place to stay, or stop off for a coffee, between Grinton and Reeth. Highly recommended.

Friday: rode up to Swaledale on the road, via Scotch Corner, Richmond and Marske.

Distance: 26 miles (map)
Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Surface: On-road
Weather: Warm with showers
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

Saturday: off-road ride round Swaledale in strong winds and rain. Got blown to a standstill on the tops a few times, and got a little lost on the top of Gunnerside, which meant some creative carrying down the fairly steep valley side. Had planned on a slightly longer loop, and following it up with a road loop, but the slow going and carrying put paid to that.

Distance: 28 miles (map)
Time: 5 hours
Surface: Off-road
Weather: Wet and very windy, but fairly warm
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

Sunday: rode home via Hurst and Newsham on mainly road with some off-road. This route will be my new way to/from Swaledale from now on. Really quick coming home (Newsham to Darlington town centre in exactly one hour!) GPS lost satellite after a few km, so no map or GPS data.

Distance: 28 miles
Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Surface: On-road (with one short off-road section)
Weather: Windy, but fairly warm
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

Darlington - Hamsterley Group Ride - Darlington

Rode out to Hamsterley to "lead" this month's club ride.

Felt a bit grotty before setting off, but managed D'Ton centre to Woodland in 1:20, which is ten minutes faster than usual - probably helped by riding alongside and chatting to a roadie on the road into Ingleton. Use Section 13 and some fireroad to get to the Bedburn end of the forest rather than riding along the forest drive which was much more fun.

There was only six in the main group this month (lots of holidays). We used the Skills Loop climb and some fireroad and new-to-me linky bits to get to the DH car park, then rode the still brilliant Section 13, Special K and Brain Freeze combo, then climbed up to ride Golden Owl, which is still one of my favourite bits of the forest. I'd originally planned to then follow the black to the Grove and to finish with Section 13, Special K and Brain Freeze again, but it was getting on a bit and almost everyone was either bleeding or knackered, so we headed back to the visitor centre for tea and cake.

The ride back was uneventful. I'm always amazed at how quickly I get back to Ingleton, and then how long it takes to get back to Darlington from there. Low-geared SS MTBs are not really built for long, slightly descending road riding, so the last bit always feels like a bit of a chore.

Felt fine all day, and no aches or pains today, apart from the big scratch on my arm.

Distance: 60 miles (39km, 19km, 39km)
Time: 9 hours door-to-door but lots of waiting too (2+3+2 =7 hours riding)
Surface: On-road, off-road, on-road
Weather: Hot and sunny
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

monthly total roundup

January: 120 miles
February: 90 miles
March: 132 miles
April: 87 miles
May: 153 miles
June: 238 miles
July: 216 miles

Finally got around to adding up my ride totals for this year. Rubbish first few months because of illness and then Too Much Work, but perking up a bit. I caught my 2007 self at the end of June and am now hunting down last year me - 229 miles behind.



Still rubbish and still not enough though.

Teesdale/Weardale loop

Took the Inbred on the road up Weardale and then over the top to Teesdale and home again. Pretty slow average speed, but it's hard to go much faster on 32:17 and plased that I kept the 20kmh speed on the flatter bits both there and back. Biggest ride of the year so far and felt much better than previous century (or close to) rides, with very few aches the following day too.

The road over from Westgate to Newbiggin is brilliant:



Good practice for the Kielder 100 in September.

Distance: 92 miles (map)
Time: 9 hours
Surface: On-road
Weather: Mostly warm and dry
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

HTB/STW group ride at Hamsterley

'Led' the HTB group ride at Hamsterley, on which a few STW people also came along.

Felt really strange to ride at Hamsterley without riding up there (it's cheating really) and took a climb or two to get warmed up, not helped by running on just the dregs of my inhalor.

Distance: 16 miles (map)
Time: 4 hours
Surface: Off-road
Weather: Mainly dry and warm, but wet under tyre
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)

Darlington Cycle Routes Tour

Went on the Council tour of Darlington cycle routes.

Distance: 18 miles (map)
Time: 2.25 hours
Surface: On-road
Weather: Dry
Bike: Yuba Mundo

Darlington - Hamsterley Black - Darlington

Rode up to Hamsterley and did the black route, with a few other bits too.

Met Matt and Gary at the bottom of Root 666, and rode with them to the Grover, taking in the line of a new trail that's going to be put in.

Then rode on my own up the the almost-finished Section 13, which runs from the 4X car park. What a great trail! Really swoopy, with rock drops every so often. There's a massive bowl which the trail runs round on a big berm, and a brilliant gully part toward the bottom.

The continuation of the black from there has also had a lot of work done, and is also brill.

Felt really good on the ride, which is good as I seem to be thinking of entering a 100 mile MTB race...

I used my new phone to track the route on GPS, but it crashed part way round. I'll upload the routes and try to figure out the actual distance soon.

Distance: 60 miles (ish)
Time: 7 hours
Surface: On and Off-road
Weather: Wet, but dry under tyre
Bike: Inbred Singlespeed (32:17, with 2.2″ tyres)