Another cold start this morning but thankfully no frost. Headed into the wind going towards Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch, then into Stepps and back through Mollinsburn and Cumbernauld with the wind to Falkirk. 47 miles clocked and back in time for lunch.
Well it was another frosty start to the day and I didn’t have anywhere in mind to ride so I headed south up to Shieldhill and let the bike take me where ever it wanted. In the end I did a kind of figure 8 through Linlithgow following the quieter country roads with a few more hills thrown in for good measure, in total clocking up 45 miles.
Well it was a cold frosty start to this mornings ride but now that I have my road bike back I wanted to test the new groupset on the hills. It was along to Longcroft and up the first hill of the day a 25% shot sharp shock to the system thank god it’s a small hill and I had very low gear ratios, on my original groupset I wouldn’t have got up it. It was then onto the Ochil hills and up to Sheriffmuir a bigger hill but not quite as mental steep as the first but there are still some 15% sections in it. Then it was all down hill to Bridge of Allan and back home again clocking up 42 miles.
Ride 29/10/2017 Carron Valley Trails part 2
So it’s back to Carron Valley to find the rest of the trails I missed last week and this time I was able to find them all It’s basically a figure 8 spread over a 5 mile course. There are stretches of dirt track and then some off road cross country sections cycling through the woodland all specifically designed for MTB. It’s classed as RED level which means there are some tricky sections and jumps but nothing too technical. There are 2 levels above this BLACK and ORANGE where black is extreme and Orange is for experts but there are none of these types of trails around here. Anyway I did four laps clocking up just shy of 20 miles and it was a reasonable workout
Ride 22/10/2018 Carron Valley Trails
With my road bike in for it’s service and modifications for the next 2 weeks I’m left with my mountain bike so I decided to hit the trails today. I’ve never been up the Carron Valley trails so this was new and as par usual I got a little lost going around. On my first attempt I ended up on the track that goes around the reservoir so had to take the road back to the site and on the second attempt I only manages to find about half of the trails with a few wrong turns here and there. So 15 miles clocked up and I’ll probably be back next weekend, weather depending, to see if I can find the rest
It was a pleasant day so I decided to ride to Kirkcaldy it was even sunny by the time I got there. Not a particularly long ride but its the last ride I’m going to get before heading out to Veitnam. Of course by the time I got back to Falkirk it was cloudy and overcast but still warm. Anyway 66 miles clocked up and thats it until I get back from my Charity ride in Vietnam and Cambodia
Another reasonable day, at least this time it didn’t rain, so decided to ride the A91 to Milnathort. First down to Stirling pick up the A91 and ride it all the way to Milnathort, turn round and ride back the way I came. Changed up the return route by going to Falin and hugging the Forth until I got near home. A far better speed this week none of this 14 mph crap back up to the 16 mph by now I’m knackered.
Ride 09/09/2017 Pentlands loop
Well the weather forecast said it would be a “dry” day so I decided to do a loop around the Pentland hills. Its a more hilly route than most but a reasonable ride around the Scottish countryside, at least until you hit Edinburgh where the roads get busy. Unfortunately for me the weather forecast was wrong and 5 miles from home it chucked it down and of course me with not wet gear got soaked to the bone anyway 82 miles knocked out.
Well it was a reasonably nice day so decided to ride to Faslane Naval Base and back via Loch Lomond. It’s been a while since I’ve done the ride and I went a slightly different way from Faslane to Loch Lomond which is actually better than riding on the A817 which was the way I went last time. So 101 miles clocked up today in 7 hours and I’m quick tired now.
Bit of a wet start to the day but it turned out nice in the end. I was going to do a loop around Aberfoyle but my garmin decided to turn itself off twice much to my anger >:-( so I lost my cycling data twice. So the ride data from Falkirk to Stirling was lost so the ride distance should have been 72 miles and not 59.
Ride 13/07/2017 Falkirk to Perth and back
Well this didn’t go well 10 mins into my ride and I get run over by a fucking retarded taxi driver at a cross roads >:-( I had the right of way he was supposed to stop but no did he not just pull out in front of me. Now I get this all the time people think “oh i can get out before the cyclist gets to me” or “oh I’m turning right so I’ll pull out anyway and just drive on the right side of the road a bit into oncoming traffic”. I expect morons to do this and most of the time I can avoid them but this dickhead taxi drive decided to drive right across the cross roads perpendicular to me. I assumed he would just turn right but nope, so whack into the side of the taxi cab I went. After some choice words to him I asked what the fuck he was doing, his only response was sorry mate I didn’t see you! OMFG are you shitting me! I wear a bright dayglo green jacket how the fuck can you not see me. No sir you were being a dickhead and didn’t bother looking left when pulling out, he’s lucky I wasn’t driving otherwise he and his passenger would be in a word of pain. The funny part was his passenger just looked straight ahead like nothing was happening amongst the calamity. Thankfully the bike wasn’t damaged otherwise I would have gotten violent with the guy, I suffered a few bumps and scratches but not enough to cancel the ride so I continued. So rant over I decided to ride to Perth, it’s been a while since I’ve been there and today was going to be a nice day with some scattered showers but nothing to worry about. It would be a tough ride since I would be cycling over the Ochils twice but I’ve done this ride before so I new what to expect. Stopped In Perth for lunch, it was sunny there and then returned home through some sporadic rain showers. Good ride apart from the wanker taxi driver.
A rather dull wet slightly windy day, so I decided to ride to Dalgety Bay, had to take shelter for little while whilst the rain came down monsoon style but overall an ok ride, but I did manager to take a quick photo of Dalgety bay whilst the sun was out, briefly.