…as the ten of us headed out last night for what proved to be an excellent ride out on the frozen trails round Loch Ardinning. You know you’re onto a cold one when mud is freezing to your frame, your jockey wheels start growing in size and you contemplate peeing on your hub. Despite the temperature hovering around minus 4, the still night air only felt cold when we stopped to wait for folk to catch up.
There is now a supply of Club’s finest biscuits (sorry but we ate most of the Orange ones) in the cupboard for next week though whoever bought the bourbons and the plain milk biscuits, what were you thinking!?!!!?!? They’re always the last to go out of the biscuit tin and even then only out of desperation. Does anyone actually like Bourbons? Yeuch!
If you’re planning on heading out tonight, the trails will still be pretty hard packed and running fast. There’s very little ice to speak of so should make for a fast blast out. Heck, even the top trail of the Whangie might be fun!
On Tuesday night I was wondering why the mud wasn’t coming off the bike back at the jet wash – coz it was frozen!
Sam and I rode up and did the Whangie during the day on Wednesday (before heading back and defrosting in Bullands with some tasty grub!). If you do the ascent that takes you behind the phone mast be aware there’s now a huge deer fence running all the way up the hill. The descent would’ve been great with ice tyres. Generally it was bone dry, frozen solid and grippy apart from the occasional stretch of very smooth sheet ice which induced a few “oh, sh!t” moments.
View from near the top.
a cracking ride indeed last night, and nicely finished off with a scoff of choccy biscuits.
first time I have had to stop mid ride and chip frozen mud off my bottom jockey wheel to get it moving….a weird combination of very cold temperatures but trails that still broke through to soggy mud in places up at Loch Ardinning, leading to lumps and splatters of mud which were solid ice within 5 minutes. We could do with more rides like that – it was the driest I’ve seen some of the trails since last April…..