Scotland... Snow... Smiles!

Sat cruising at 70 on the M74 heading home after two days riding hardtails at Glentress for an article in Issue 12. 3 riders, 3 hardcore steel long travel hardtails, and surprisingly 3 very different bikes! Throw in 4 in of snow and some sketchy singletrack and a photographer and you've the making of a classic Wideopen article. Good times. No bike snaps, they can wait until Dunc downloads them. See you all out on the trails.

Oh and special mention to the mechanic at the Hub bike shop, Glentress who let me have some gear cable outer and saved a weekend. Legend.

James
Producer - Wideopenmag.co.uk

Sent from my Three mobile

Like something out of the Arctic!

Macclesfield 7/2/10

The first ride of 2010 and it turns out to be a cold one!

Kev and I headed up this morning for a stretch of the legs pre-Scotland at the end of the month. Despite having 4 bikes in the garage only one was serviceable (the Genesis needs a shock pump to set up the forks) so out came the Chameleon for a play. Climbing was hard work in the cold and with all the pies and over-indulgence of Christmas hanging around my waist - but no longer than usual so yet again bike fitness seems to carry over Christmas.

We got to the foot of Charity Lane fully expecting snow patches and a lot of ice. What we didn't imagine was it FULL of ice and snow. Those who know the lane will understand how deep it was when I say it was level with the base of the stone walls at the side - that put it at over a 1m deep. Luckily fairly compact so easy to push up walking on it. Thinking it might ease over the top we pushed up... but it didn't. So for the steep section we jumped a fence and took the safer snow free farmers field which was wicked fast. After a short section of back on Charity Lane I jumped the fence again for a short section before Kev and I headed down the last section ski-style. Lots of sliding and a good laugh.

Back via the singletrack as we predicted there would be more snow on the biker descent the other side of the forest and then stopping by Kev's parents for a nice warm brew in Sutton.

A good ride - and I can't wait for the hardtail weekend in Scotland now... one thing is for sure - these new fangled steel long travel hardtails have a hard job of beating my aging Chameleon - awesome fun today, totally planted - light and sure footed. A brilliant bike.