I had a fantastic ride today, except for one little thing.

I was out on the Stiffee, blasting up and down the hills of Gloucestershire. I’d climbed the fireroads, descended on some ace singletrack, blatted down roads, got chased by dogs, moo-ed at some cows, got absolutely caked in mud and generally enjoyed myself. There was huge puddles, thick mud and even patches of snow here and then. I was informed by a walker that it was complete insanity to be out there in shorts, but I was fine all the time I was moving.

I was about two thirds of the way up the final climb when I started to notice the roots and rocks a lot more through the back of the bike. That can mean only one thing. Flat back tyre. Arse. This meant stopping in the biting wind to change it.

Typical. I got the old tube out and inflated it, only to find that there was no sign of a puncture. What’s more, there’s no sign of a thorn in the tyre – I’ll just have to risk putting the new tube straight in then. I just love punctures like that. I got one last week, and I pumped up the old tube when I got home to see if I could find the puncture. Its still up now.

By the time I was done I couldn’t feel my fingers and I was shivering like a good’un. I soon warmed up once I got going again though, and the new inner tube is a gert big DH one – so hopefully it’ll be a lot harder to puncture.

I really don’t get out and ride cross-country often enough. Its great – like a little adventure every time I go out. I always forget just how much fun it is going out in horrible conditions, so when I get up in the morning (or more likely, the afternoon) I can’t bring myself to get out there unless its sunny. But going out today in the wind and rain was ace! What’s more it seemed like I was the only rider out there. I descended a trail, and then rode back up it a couple of hours later – and the only tyre marks I saw were my own.

I got back and got in the shower and got that mad “I-was-cold-just-now-and-now-i’m-boiling” tingly itching thing all over. Bweeeuurrrh.

I’m sat here in front of my PC, drinking a gert big glass of Robinsons Summer Fruits Squash. Its really cold, and tastes like those cheap freeze-it-yourself ice pops, the red ones. I approve.

I’ve got Chain Reaction Cycles open in one tab and Merlin Cycles in another, weighing up my options. I want to put gears on the Stiffee, or perhaps get some disc wheels for it.

You see, I like it as a singlespeed, but its a complete beeeyatch to get it up the hills. I seem to remember that Dave H had trouble getting gears to work on the front of it though — the mad chainline led to chainsuck galore at the first sign of mud (the chainstay is testament to that). I can probably afford to nine-speed it though.

Once I’m up the hills though, the completely useless brakes do little or nowt to give me any confidence in the thing. Fairly non-technical descents are fine, but as soon as it gets tricky I get scared silly (no change there then). So getting a set of disc-brake compabible wheels with nice wide rims would be a nice upgrade. I’ve already got a pair of Hope E4 brakes – they need a seal kit and service but that’s not exactly an expensive process.

The thing is though, a decent set of hubs is quite expensive. I can get a set of wheels based on Shimano Deore disc hubs for under £100 – but I’ve had a set of those before and they weren’t the most reliable hub. Spec some nice Hope XC hubs and suddenly the price goes up to about £170. Expensive, but they’re nice bits of kit.

Oh what to do, what to do… oh now look – I’ve gone and procrastinated the whole evening away. Winner!

So, there was Friday night. There was much drinking and dancing. Good night all in all.

Then there was Saturday. There was getting up in the morning, feeling like crap, eating a fry-up and heading over to the Forest of Dean for a bit of DH biking. Pedalabikeaway has been transformed with the addition of a new toilet block with showers!

Alex was going particularly big, launching some very hefty step-downs and gap jumps. Nick wasn’t, largely because his brakes are completely shagged (much like the rest of his bike). We really ought to club together and get him some new ones. Met James from Stopadoodledoo and got free stickers, which was cool.

We watched The Ladykillers in the evening. Pretty good film. All in all a very good day.

Sunday came a few hours later (need more sleep!). Got up, ate three of your finest boiled eggs and headed out to play on bikes again — only up Leckhampton Hill this time. I rode the newest track first, and we really weren’t getting along at all. I struggled to get down from the path to the trail, which is never a good sign, then ended up wearing the trail on one of the off-camber bits.

The second run saw me ride the old chute instead, which was a marked improvement. I nearly lost it big stylee a bit further down, when I grounded a pedal at speed and it kicked me right up in the air, so my hands were the only thing left connected to the bike. It was a symptom of my rear-shock playing silly buggers – it was bottoming out very very easily. Time to send it off for a service and get a heavier spring methinks. Pity I can’t afford it right now…

The final run was much better though – down the old Ridge/slalom track. I was right on Gary’s wheel until I span out in a muddy berm. I ended up running down the trail! After that I could feel the confidence coming back – I don’t like steep drops at the best of times, but I flowed down these quite nicely.

Then somewhere near the bottom, Gary had the idea of tramping straight on through the woods, instead of groung around the 180 berm, so we could meet up with the bottom third of the other tracks. So off we go up a bit, then whoop down the drop and clatter crunch skshhhhh through loads of undergrowth. There’s definitely potential for a traverse through all that though – its almost as if there already was one once upon a time.

I cleaned both of my bikes when I got back. That’s pretty much unheard of.

So that was my weekend. Pretty damn good all in all. I need an early night tonight though. Can someone remind me to go and get a new seatpin-collar for the Stiffee tomorrow? Cheers.

Who would have thought it? Thick snow on the top of Cleeve Hill.

After a nice XC ride through the snow up there, I caught up with Brett and Gary who were boarding in the stuff! I spent the afternoon racing them down the “piste”. Its amazing the grip you can get in the snow! Was it bad of me to go jumping down the tee-off points on the golf course? I don’t think it counts when they’re covered in powder :)

There’s a bunch more pictures in The Gallery.

It was going really well. I’d had a great ride, was absolutely caked in mud and was still singing the Chemical Brothers track I’d heard earlier. I was generally a very happy bunny who was riding his bike home.

I’d ridden up the Sandy Lane side of Leckhampton, down the other side, up over the Woodland trust land, down past the cows and sheep, back up Lecky, through 1/20th Utah and Proflex Alley, down the old slalom track (EEEEK!), up towards Sandy Lane again, across the top to The Viewpoint, down via Dog Poo Alley and Fast Tony (ah, them were the days), before coming down the old tramway and heading for home.

I’d discovered that the Stiffee’s new tyres aren’t very good in thick claggy mud, but are pretty good everywhere else. I’d remembered just how bad v-brakes can be, and just how quickly you can get through pads. I’d also remembered why I used to use SPD pedals for cross-country rides. Might have to get me some new bike shoes.

And then the chain came off. “No bother” I thought. I stopped, got off and went to put it back on.

Huh? OH [loud expletive]!

It would appear that the jockey wheel and side-plates are no longer attached to the Singleator that I fitted yesterday. I wandered back up the road a bit and find the missing bits lying on the road, now somewhat mangled after a succession of cars has driven over them.

Its taken me all of one ride to kill it. As you can imagine, I’m really happy about that. Back to the old mech for now then…

Trueing a bicycle wheel has something of a “black arts” stigma attached to it. But it really isn’t very difficult at all. It requires only a few things:

• The patience of a saint.
• A spoke-key.
• Some blu-tac and a little allen key.
• A little knowledge of how a wheel works.

I can’t be bothered to explain the process here. It’d take longer to do that than to true a wheel. But let me put it this way:

Earlier on, I upturned my Cove Stiffee, and went to work on the back wheel. It was so far out of true it was funny — so wibbly that it was almost impossible to work out which bits were true and which weren’t. Adam left me in the garage with the comment “You’re going to be there for hours mate!” Not so – half an hour or so later I was done. Winner!

I then fitted the new tyres (which seem very narrow for 2.3″ers) and singleator and the bike was all ready to be ridden! Just a pity it was getting dark by then…

Just like yesterday, the highlight of today’s ride came right at the end.

This time I followed Alex down the old tramway. He was on his cross-country bike (a nice little Cove Handjob XC), whereas I was on my gert big full-susser.

He set off ahead of me, absolutely powering through the tight, flat singletrack. I was stuggling to keep up through there — it was all I could do to stay in contention with him. Then the trail heads downhill, over a series of rooty steps – and he’s not slowing up at all. I’d best let off the brakes then. Jaysus! He’s quick through the s-bend, I’ll have to try that line next time. Ahh, it gets really bumpy now! HA! Now look who’s the fastest!

The scary thing was that he wasn’t holding me up at all, until it got really rough and my rear suspension came into play. Even then I wouldn’t have gone a great deal faster.

Its always fun chasing a good rider down through the singletrack like that. The competitiveness kicks in along with the adrenalin: you just can’t let them get away. It really forces you to push your riding envelope and go for it. Its slightly galling when they’re on less suitable equipment and they still force you to push the envelope, but it doesn’t make it any less fun trying to keep up.

It also means you can see where they make the time up on you. In Alex’s case he simply brakes less than I do — he only uses them where he really needs them. He also takes slightly different lines through some sections: only slightly different, but enough to make him that little bit faster. Its probably the most fun way to learn how to go faster.

It was windy as hell last night. You know when you’re tucked up in bed, nice and warm, and you can hear the wind and rain howling outside? That’s ace that is.

So anyway, I dragged myself out of bed this morning after a nice long lie-in, wandered over to my window and dragged back the curtains.

“Wow. It looks lovely out there. I shall be riding my bike this afternoon.”

After a bit of pottering about, doing nowt in particular, I got myself together and went out. It was horrible – I felt like I was riding through treacle. I rode slowly up through town, towards Leckhampton, dragging myself up as far as Undercliff Avenue before walking the rest of the way up. My head felt cloudy and I was struggling for any sort of energy at all.

I pushed the bike all the way up to the ruins and stopped for a rest. I was seriously tempted to just turn around and head for home. Instead I decided to ride Dog Poo Alley – which thankfully was free of the stuff – and head up the hill that way. I really felt like crap until I got out of the trees and up onto the top of the hill. It was bright, it was sunny and the view out over Cheltenham was fantastic. Its amazing how quickly my mood brightened there.

I carried on riding right on up to the viewpoint and my word was it windy up there, rendering it sunny, bright and bloody freezing. I elected to carry on as quickly as possible, riding across the top of the hill, dropping through the big dip and lifting the front wheel over the monster puddle. I love that bit of trail – just a pity I didn’t seem to have the energy to power through it today.

I carried on over to the top of the old slalom course and headed off down there. I rounded the first few corners, dropped into the tricky bit and then slammed on the anchors – three families with small children were walking up the trail.

Still, the rest of the run down went OK. I wasn’t really flowing but it was fun nonetheless. I had every intention of heading home after that but I spotted that Gary and Alex’s vans were parked up in the car park – so I thought I’d head up the hill and see if I could see either of them.

I met Alex about halfway up the tramway, and then Gary turned up in the quarry shortly afterwards. We stood around and chatted for ages, pondering the possibility of snow boarding holidays and perhaps taking the bikes out to Whistler for the summer, before wandering up and doing a couple of runs of the newest DH course. I took some interesting routes down, bypassing the bits I’m really not confident on at the moment. I ought to just bite the bullet and ride them again, but today was not the day.

With the light fading fast, I ended the day with a run down the old tramway – which was ace fun. I didn’t faceplant this time for a start. There’s one point where there used to be two distinct steps – they’re still there, I just hit them fast enough for them to appear as one these days. I wish I had that much confidence on some of the other trails.

Update: There’s now a gallery of the pictures I took on this ride.