It doesn’t seem to have rained in weeks, though, due to global warming, it hasn’t been all that warm until the last couple of days. The ground was baked hard on my ride 2 days ago, which I have my excuses for not writing about until now, and the trails were running fast. I rode my Whyte JW4 again. Not only because, despite its 19 years on the trails, it’s a great general purpose mountain bike, but in addition I need to replace the rear wheel bearings in my much newer Boardman FS Pro. The Whyte has the advantage of considerably lighter weight than the vast majority of modern full suspension bikes and its speed has got me reconsidering my next bike purchase. Yes, it would be good to have at least 150 mm of suspension travel at each end but if this comes with a significant weight penalty will it be any quicker overall? Time will tell.
I rode to Brinscall Woods to ride the amazing downhill twice. In June, 2 years ago I’d ridden 10 laps of this circuit on the Boardman, climbing 270 feet in 1.07 miles each time around. That, to me, looks like a hilly route. Amazingly I was slightly slower on my laps this time than I’d been on that occasion, except towards the end of the 10 laps when I would have already ascended around 3,000 feet. The downhills, however, were just as fast. On my second descent I set my second fastest time ever, which I’ve only ever beaten on the 10 lap ride. I really must do a multi lap ride whilst the conditions remain so good.
My 2 laps were very consistent at 13 minutes 35, then 1 second quicker on lap 2. I wasn’t pushing myself too hard but it does seem that I’m not as fit or as fast as I was 2 or 3 years ago. It was a fabulous ride and I completed it with a ride over Healey Nab. Here I noticed that without trying my time down the red graded route was quite fast. More justification to buy the lightest bike I can find, probably next year. I’m sure that it’s on a short ascent mid way down the descent that the Whyte gains its advantage, though the fairly narrow 26″ tyres do you no favours on the dusty surface at this time of year.
My next exercise won’t be a ride at all. I’ve finished my new pedal powered boat today, which explains the tardy write up of my last ride. I’ve been putting some time in and am feeling quite confident about the boat. On my first sail I wasn’t getting the power into the water, with a different type of pedal mechanism than I’d used successfully on my first boat. I looked initially at trying to improve the new system but thought that I was unlikely to meet with success. Instead I’ve completely re-engineered the boat which has taken around 6 weeks. I enjoy the work, which engages the head at least as much as the hands. I’ve even done some mathematical calculations which suggest that my paddle wheel with chain drive will work well. I’ll get out early tomorrow, before it gets too warm, and give an honest account of my progress on the local canal. Call me Ishmael.
Mountainbiker 