Birch Vale, Sat 24 March 11am

A few of us are doing a short ride (90 mins to 2 hours) in the Peaks this Saturday. Meeting at 11am in Birch Vale. Pace will be slow, but terrain will be the usual Peak District grind! The trails are in good condition at the moment. slightly tacky, dry-ish. Lots of deep ruts have developed over winter though, so some lines have changed.

Hopefully I'll have my new bike top by then - custom printed with my business logo www.frenchlawconsultancy.com across it! I'll have to ride "sensibly"...!
Please email johnkitching@hotmail.com if you wish to attend.

Llandegla write up

We had a great trip to Coed Llandegla on Saturday 10^th March 2012, which started off with a coffee and a bacon sandwich, of course! We then decided to do the new Red route as a group. The new route has, happily, taken out the old knobbly log raised path where sawn off tree stumps were lying in wait like crocodiles, ready to snap your ankles if you fell off. The red currently has a diversion in it, but the trail flows nicely. There is still a bit of very easy “north-shore” consisting of wide flat slats covered in mesh, which flow and bank gently from side to side, which sweeps along very naturally. Much less intimidating than before. The Red has also introduced a lot more swooping mini hills and rises – basically a series of short steep smooth drop where your downhill momentum carries you up and over the approaching mini hill which usually has a flat top. A bit like towards the end of the Marin trail. There is also a long sustained zig-zag climb through the forest about two thirds of the way round the route; certainly tests your legs and lungs. All riders enjoyed the trail, from relative beginner to very experienced. Simon Racle was out on his stupidly light full carbon Starley hardtail – a very quick bit of kit. Can’t wait to see the 29er version of it though.

If anyone wants to organise a ride, please just email me the details and I’ll upload them to the website, or alternatively, simply post them the linkedin biking networking group page.

John Kitching

johnkitching@hotmail.com

www.frenchlawconsultancy.com

Llandegla - Sat 10 March, meet at 11am

First ride of 2012 - Meet at the café at Llandegla Bike centre at 11 am on Saturday 10 March.

All levels of riding are available from beginner through to advanced.

http://www.coedllandegla.com/Mountain_Bike_Trails

Coed Llandegla Postal Address:
Ruthin Road, Llandegla, Wrexham, LL11 3AA. North Wales

If you wish to attend please reply to the discussion forum on LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2447772&behavior=discussion&trk=anet_ug_newp&goback=%2Egmp_2447772

more Dales Bike Centre Photos 2010

Dales Bike Centre Photos 2010

Dales Bike Centre write-up

We had another fantastic trip to the Dales Bike Centre, with glorious autumnal sunshine. On the Saturday we took the road through Reeth and up over the hill before descending through the ford in the road, made famous by the title sequence to James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. From here we rose over the hill and turned along the riverside past the smelting works ruins, before riding over Great Pinseat. WE then looped back along a gradual easy descent back the road. Baz spent 20 minutes fixing a puncture and repeatedly re-puncturing his inner tube with a tyre lever. In the meantime Jo-Anne, Lyn and Marie-Claude performed a surreal dance routine on a road in the middle of nowhere. Reality returned, and we splashed back across the ford and followed the rutted descent back into Healaugh, where we congregated with the smell of burning disc brakes after descending the steep village road, Baz taking an overshot line around the wrong side of a Grit bin.


On the Sunday, we were greeted by a crisp frost and low sunshine. We set off on the route we had attempted last year, the day the Dales flooded. The road ascent last year was under a constant stream of an inch of water; this year we had the sun on our backs. We progressed to the stream crossing where we turned back last year. Last year the stream was a raging torrent 4 metres across, 1 metre deep and rising. This year, we barely noticed it, as we rose up the hill to panoramic views of the Dales. The descents were long and gradual landrover tracks with open views sweeping across the dales. We then descended a couple of steep grassy sections past ruined limestone barns, carrying the bikes over a short collapsed section of track, and then picking up the flat grassy riverside bridleway back to Fremington. James, on his bright orange "Orange" was happily cycling along the flat innocuous grassy track home. He then tried to wheelie a rabbit hole...his back wheel sank into it, and his front wheel stopped dead in another burrow catapulting him over the bars! The only "off" of the day!
Back at the dales bike centre, we cleaned up, had coffee and cake, and headed home - not a flood warning in sight.

Venue: www.dalesbikecentre.co.uk
Sponsor: John Kitchng, French Law Consultancy www.frenchlawconsultancy.co.uk

15, 16, 17 October, Dales Bike Centre in Fremington

We are heading up to the Dales Bike Centre on Friday 15th, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th October. Please email John Kitching on johnkitching@hotmail.com if you wish to attend on any of the days. Venue details available at www.dalesbikecentre.co.uk

The riding is intermediate, with long ascents.