With Vicky away I arranged for a long weekend of mountain biking up in bonnie Scotland. Ben had been keeping me up to date on his bike build in the week running up to the trip, but even with maticulous planning we still ended up building a complete bike in my garage on Friday morning.
This late start meant that Kirroughtree would have to be a left for another time and the weekend would be spent at Glentress Mountain Bike park near Peebles.
I had been fortunate enough to have been lent a very impressive Commençal MiniDH bike by Madison ( the UK importers ) as my current XC bike is really not up to being ragged around boulder fields and hucked off anything with a slight lip.
With the two very expensive bikes loaded into the back of the Vic-Tim wagon, we rocked up to Glentress Freeride park for an evening of remembering how to huck the meat properly. The Mini DH has a bit of weight behind it, but it just takes everything you can throw at it. I was cleaning lines I would have run away from and cried about a couple of weeks ago. The low bottom bracket height was a bit cheeky, but it did mean that the bike was really well balanced ( which came in very useful on the skinnies! )
Saturday came with a heavy head ( got to love that Single Malt ) and a lot of rain. We rode from the campsite in Peebles up to the trails and up the hill on the red route. After flying on the classic Spooky Wood section from the top we met some locals who showed us the shortcuts to link up the red and black sections on the way down. It was wet, it was messy, but it was also fast, flowing and lots of fun. The day ended with more silly park action trying to nail jump after jump. Sunday morning was wetter still and drinking "Jaeger Bombs" on Saturday night ( Red bull and Vodka with a depth charge of Jaegermeister ) didnt help with the focus, but egg on toast and a cup of tea from the Hub in the Forest sorted us out. With the wet weather we bailed on going down the road to Innerlieithen ( the locals said it would be pish ), so with a new addition of our mate Cam, we followed the same route again but mixed it up with different parts of the trails. Now back at work with sore legs and not looking forward to unpacking lots of wet, stinky kit when I get home.
More shots in my Flickr album here
House Update:
Vicky has been silly busy painting with Capuccino Candy 4 and Maplewood 6 in the conservatory and kitchen. I've ripped out the fitted wardrobes and stripped the wallpaper back and we have the pros in fitting a new bathroom as a type this.
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