After May being the sunniest month ever in England, June was not so good. 2 days into July and things haven’t improved. At least I’ve got mountain biking to cheer me up! I have to take weather conditions into account to plan a ride. Even if it had been sunny earlier today the ground isContinue reading “High and dry.”
Tag Archives: strava
Summer rain.
Looking on the bright side rain in summer gives us some different ground conditions to try! We’ve had rather a lot of rain since my last ride so I expected that it would be muddy today and this was confirmed when I walked the dog. At first I thought that I could ride to BirkacreContinue reading “Summer rain.”
Riding on a hot day.
In England we don’t often suffer from heat. Today it’s likely to reach 27 celcius or 81 farenheit which is hot by our standards, particularly in the north of England where I live. I had no special plan for a ride today until I saw the picture which appears when I access the app. Strava.Continue reading “Riding on a hot day.”
How it used to be.
I’ve been giving the handling of my mountain bike a lot of thought recently and made some changes to try to improve things. Bikes have changed a lot over the last 7 years or so. Wheels have generally become bigger and tyres wider. Bikes are longer, throwing off their road bike geometry which persisted forContinue reading “How it used to be.”
Tyre pressures and speed.
I have always believed that higher tyre pressures offer less rolling resistance so make bikes quicker. The counter argument to this is that lower pressures give you more grip on corners so allow you to maintain more speed on a twisty trail. As usual I’m only thinking of tyre pressures of mountain bikes, here. IContinue reading “Tyre pressures and speed.”
Trail skills.
My last ride has left a big impression on me. I only rode locally but instead of timing my ride or parts of my ride I just concentrated on how the bike felt. I’ve ridden for so long that I don’t really expect to develop any new trail skills. I ride in the same wayContinue reading “Trail skills.”
The mountain bike press.
I bought my first mountain bike magazines in 1992 and found that the US mag. Mountain Bike Action was the best at the time. The UK mags. seemed to be too orientated towards the youths, not the adults but were in other ways more relevant to the developing UK MTB scene. Cross country racing eventsContinue reading “The mountain bike press.”
A recovery ride, or not?
My last ride involved a fully committed section of trail which took over 15 minutes. OK, so it was a mainly downhill piece of trail but if you want to do it quickly you should still be maximising your effort when the trail turns down. Not only that but I had to get to theContinue reading “A recovery ride, or not?”
For the ride. For the ultimate ride!
I’ve quoted from the movie “Point Break” in my writing in the past, as in the title of this account. The movie centres around surfing but it could perhaps have been written about mountain biking instead. Surfers and mountain bikers often seek that ultimate ride. Just as a lack of the right waves may hamperContinue reading “For the ride. For the ultimate ride!”
Things are improving at Healey Nab.
Every time I’ve ridden up my local hill, Healey Nab recently, the mountain bike trails have improved. After 2,500 diseased larch trees were felled in March it looked as if we’d never get our man made trail system back but amazing progress has been made. The Coronavirus has prevented any calls for volunteers, so whoeverContinue reading “Things are improving at Healey Nab.”
Mountainbiker 