Today's Ride

Been off the bike for two weeks -- the Mrs got Covid and apart from nursing duties and trying not to catch it as well, it seemed a bit selfish to take off for a ride.

As she's pretty much recovered and I appear not to have contracted it, it was time to get out again. It was sunny and bright with a freezing West wind which sucked all the warmth out of my feet, but it was great to be tooling along. Did about 30km on tarmac and gravel.


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Love the sky.
 
Been off the bike for two weeks -- the Mrs got Covid and apart from nursing duties and trying not to catch it as well, it seemed a bit selfish to take off for a ride.

As she's pretty much recovered and I appear not to have contracted it, it was time to get out again. It was sunny and bright with a freezing West wind which sucked all the warmth out of my feet, but it was great to be tooling along. Did about 30km on tarmac and gravel.


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Indeed, clouds look amazing.
 
We've been blessed with some great weather the past 5 days, even with the persistent northerly wind taking off at least 5 degrees. Clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine means my face and arms are peeling. The two tone "dirt" look is very much in.

Lots of running last week given I was all over the place including Salisbury and Truro, so managed to get on two wheels Sunday morning for a solid 35 mile loop. Early doors with no-one around was about as good as it gets on the black stuff.

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Seems like nearly every ride at the moment is a test ride for some change I've made to one bike or another. Today it was my Soma Groove, which was initially fitted with a 140mm-travel fork -- way too much for someone who grew up with 80mm. I recently changed it to a 120mm version which should make the geometry feel much less wallowy.

Today I took it up the usual hill I use for lunchtime rides, and enjoyed it so much I extended the ride way down the other side, which took us into country that was devastated by the 2019/20 summer fires in this area. The bush is recovering, but there's a long way to go. And the track, while not of the single variety, has been so churned and rutted by logging trucks and the like that the mud has set in some deep ruts -- a good proving ground for the new forks.

Nice and sunny, about 10 degrees C. And the bike rides much better now too.

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