A nice little ride today...

Spur of the moment one ....as the sun was shining this morning
went over to west grinsted and headed north up the Downs link to Bramley, and was going to reward my self with a large cappachino
and slice of cake ....but the cafe was shut ...bugger :cry: so had to make do with something not so nice from the garage :roll: then headed back, some bits were very sloppy and some were realy dry,
total distance 40.63 miles and just over 1000ft of climbing :?:
who said old railway lines were flat !!
Mick

I had a nice bike ride today but had to sign a confidentiality agreement as to where, what and when it was.

Seems all will be revealed shortly. I wasn't allowed to take pictures nor nuffin.

But, it was good!

Sometimes some of the nicest things are right under your nose

D

edit: Plus its soo secret I have on Private on Strava

oooh, was this with a Rabbit of a ceratin unusual shade?

We could tell you but then we would have to . . . .

Had a few days off work and what with the Jubilee weekend (or, rather, avoiding it by hiding in woods) I have been on the bike a few times.

Not many pics to bore you with but I did spent a nice afternoon with my youngest on Worthing seafront giving him a refresher course on riding his bike.

I took the Mountain Goat to prove that it does get ridden* (very rarely, only in the dry, on flat surfaces with no dust or spit on them).


* Actually, the reason its not really ridden much is that I am trying to find a replacement headset and don't want to knacker the threads on the fork in the meantime, but that makes for a more boring story.

Picture of junior not enclosed, that one is for the family album. We had chips and did 11km on the seafront, and yes, I GPS'd it

I rode over to the old Reigate road, at the bottom of Boxhill and then up and along what it say on the map is the north downs way, followed tracks we used to walk along when we were young and walking from Dorking to Betchworth or Boxhill. I used to spend a lot of time when I was a kid riding old motorbikes around the old quarries, so I should really know it pretty well.
Then I went across the road at Buckland on to a bridleway that takes you over to the skimmington castle, more or less where the pic below was taken. At this stage the bike was clean, I had stopped going on bridleways last month as I was clearly going to be cleaning it every day. After this point it got muddy, very muddy and so did I;-) I went on one bridleway from Leigh village out to where I live and it was several miles of mud, didn't help that at one point I lost all forward momentum and fell over;-)

Croydon Cross Country

I went for a late afternoon / early evening cross country spin. All around Croydon Airport, through Mitcham Common, Morden Hall and down as far as South Wimbledon station.
Mitcham Common and Morden Hall were the highlights. Lots of trails and for the most part bone dry. Mitcham isn't a big area but if you criss-cross it, then it goes on for a while. It even has hillocks with great views of the surrounding area.
It took about 3 1/2 hours and my legs feel like I was out all day. Plenty of riding on the pegs and through the tall grass.

Momentous day topday - I took my lad to Wendover woods for his first jaunt out on a mountain bike. He's ridden his BMX for some time and has been asking for something with gears. I reckon he's got the hang of it and he's badgering me for a trip back up there next weekend

A lovely day out yesterday around the usual Patching loop, lots of sunshine, friendly trail users, and feeling good after a few days of snively crap and random dry cough from travelling on the London underground, let alone a few weeks without a ride.... Lovely!

Only downside was some horseriders have smashed a small part of one of the trails making it impossible to ride up, nevermind....

Shooters Hill, Oxleas Wood and Falconwood

A change of plan last week meant that I took my godson on an epic ride (he's 11, so such things are relative) around the Shooters Hill area today (South East London).

The surprisingly good sections were through Oxleas Wood see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxleas_Wood. A bit muddy in places, some rooty climbs, lots of squelchy leaves, but other sections very quick and dry.
Lots of tracks ranging from wide avenues right down to narrow fox runs through the brambles. Technically these are probably footpaths, but no one seemed to object and there were plenty of other wheel tracks dotted about.

The little tyke positively threw himself along the downhill section with huge tail slides.

What a lovely 3 hour escape from the real world.